#that fit together to create my own ultimate canon

[howdoidecidethjs]

Fanfic is not enough anymore, I will now be writing 8 tv seasons with 24 episodes each for my favourite fandoms now thank you

[alltheboysandgirlsiloved]

I'm gonna say what we're all thinking.

If dinostar doesn't end up getting together there was absolutely no reason to create the Darius-has-a-crush-on-Brooklynn plotline.

Like genuinely. It's not coming from the shippers' point of view either! I've been thinking about it for a while. When I was watching jwct S1 for the first time Darius' confession actually caught me completely off guard. I did not see that coming (like, canon-wise). It's just... I keep tossing the idea of "dinostar not ending up together" around in my head, and every time I come to the conclusion that this plotline would be completely pointless if we didn't get a proper pay-off.

Someone could argue that Darius having a crush on Brooklynn is what ultimately leads him to show up late That Night but... the truth is that it could be any other reason. Like, for real.

Back then Darius still worked for DPW, right? He could get caught up with work (perhaps doing something that would actually eventually trace them back to Soyona), or Kenji could call him, asking if he could come to him (remember that Kenji was dealing with a breakup too, and back then they were still on speaking terms with Darius; so imagine that Kenji calls Darius, and Darius decides to go to Kenji instead of seeing Brooklynn, and boom! both Kenji and Darius end up feeling guilty. Kenji can still be mad at Darius, voila) - they could have come up with countless excuses. And later too – Darius' crush doesn't really have a massive impact on the plot either. Like they could be completely platonic and the plot wouldn't change nearly at all.

Coming from someone who doubles in writing: this is a useless plotline, that doesn't add up much, unless:

dinostar end up together (giving the audience a classic happy ending)

Brooklynn ends up deciding that she's better on her own for now (bittersweet and realistic but seeing this is still a show for children... I'd say it doesn't really fit the vibe?)

idk, I know that this sounds kind of harsh but I thought someone should finally say that.

[dao-the-starlight]

It’s Touchstarved MC time baby >:)))

…kinda, sorta, they don’t have a design yet, so don’t count this as a proper intro!!! I just want to make their existence known and spit out some ideas I had for them

First things first! Their name is Mykhail, Mykhail what? I don’t know! They don’t really have a last name. Their pronouns are They/He, though they ultimately don’t mind any

Their backstory is The Unnamed since that’s my favourite one of the three (*slap* I can fit so much religious trauma into this baby), though I do think I’m sort of gonna be loosey goosey with the backstory and add/take away some details that may not line up perfectly with the canon backstory

As for their romance route I’m probably going to stick them with Kuras, since he’s the first li I had interest in and also the reason I first played the game, bro is majestic and captivating what can I say

Anyways onto the fun stuff!! So, because Mykhail has The Unnamed backstory they have the add on ability that they get intense supernatural premonitions here and there. Now whether the premonitions are whole prophetic visions or are just Mykhail getting the supernatural heebie-jeebies I don’t know. But regardless! I thought it would be a really neat visual that whenever they get one of these premonitions it violently spills out of them, literally.

I don’t know how to describe it but a really good example of what I mean is Hikaru’s “insides” from the manga The Summer Hikaru Died (which you should go read btw if you haven’t)

So like this:

The more intense the premonition, the more spills out. It’s a very painful process

Lastly!! Because I couldn’t help myself I added just one more supernatural bit of lore to Mykhail. One motif of his character that I think would be fun to mess around with is that of Mirrors/Reflections! This is because as an extra bit of the Mykhail lore they have an entity stuck to them, that entity being their very own reflection. So Mykhail’s reflection is essentially its own sentient being that resides in any reflective surface Mykhail comes across. It doesn’t have a proper name yet, right now I just call it id because that’s essentially what it is to Mykhail (it’s a psychology thing, id is essentially meant to be a human’s “base instincts/desires”). The mirror entity is also a being created by Mykhail themselves, to summarize it quickly Mykhail basically manifested the entity on accident through their own belief in its existence (so it’s basically a Tulpa)

And that’s basically it! I’m still piecing certain parts of Mykhail’s story together which is a little tricky considering I don’t know any of the Touchstarved world lore cause of how late I joined the fandom, but this is what I have so far!! Again this post was mostly just to jot down the details I already had for Mykhail and make him publicly known, thanks for reading and have an enchanted day!!

[ostrichmonkey-games]

Thinking out loud about Riverlands projects:

The Zines

Three (??) hexcrawl zines, each with a different environmental focus and set of hex-regions and procedural tools for filling things out even more. The first one is the most "general", and focuses on the rivers/waterways by introducing a set of different "hex-regions", plus some "river-crawl" procedures.

Aside: Calling these "hex-regions" because I ultimately want to preserve the anti-canon nature of the Riverlands by not creating a singular large, hex-map. These smaller regions could be strung together into a larger map, but there's no specific or correct way to do so, and the extra tools would also help someone further flesh out their version of the Riverlands.

The other two zines would focus on the Barrier Forest and various settlements/city-crawl tech. What exactly is going into the Forest zine is still up in the air, but I know for the Settlements zine is that it would feature the City of Bridges, which is a central location within the Riverlands setting.

The Game

The more I've been thinking about it, the more I want it to be easy to start playing in the Riverlands. The original setting zine is fine for that purpose, but especially when it comes to the more unique elements of the setting (some magic etc), then it becomes a lot more work to get it going in whatever system you choose to use. It's not impossible, but it is another barrier to play.

So, to that end, I have two ideas. First, a "total conversion" of the Ostrichmonkey Hack that makes it immediately Riverlands compatible. This is a fun idea to support my own game, and wouldn't be thaaaaat much extra work to come up with some extra classes/archetypes and some fun magical subsystems that fit with the Riverlands. The second idea is to do a set of "class packs" for various OSR/NSR systems (maybe more in the future? but those engines align with the play goals of the Riverlands right now).

I've already gotten a bit of a head start with this, since I'm working on an otterfolk OSE class (with plans to do Trickster-Poet, and some of the other more unique Riverlands options).

The Release

The end goal of this is to release the three hexcrawl zines in print. That won't be for a while still (gotta write the dang things first), but I'm also considering what avenues of digital releases to do.

The first and most straightforward is just, drop them when they're done. Bam, easy.

The second could be to follow something similar to Wolves Upon the Coast, where an initial digital version is released for a lower price, and with each iteration and update, the price goes up. This is something I'm sort of experimenting with with the Ostrichmonkey Hack anyways.

The third idea is to develop the hexes "live" via something like patreon.

The second two options are kind of stuck in my brain, because I think there is something interesting about the "live design" element of, which could be a great way to get people more interested in the process and results. The tricky part is you know, getting people interested in the first place.

Still much to consider! But in the meantime, there's still plenty of writing to do.

[i-heart-hxh]

Hi! 😅 What is your least favorite stereotype or generalization about Killugon/Leopika that you see often in the Hunter x Hunter fandom? It doesn’t have to be the most common ones, you can say some that you just personally don’t agree with!

Hello! I've seen other peoples' answers floating around, it's interesting to read different takes on this topic!

I want to preface this by saying I think one of the great things about fandom is that everyone is able to explore their own ideas freely and create the kind of content they want to see in the world, so while I have my own personal tastes I don't want to discourage anyone from creating what makes them happy, even if it's not my thing.

I'm quite picky about characterization personally, though I don't think my tastes/opinions are too unpopular.

With KilluGon especially, a lot of what bothers me boils down to making their relationship/dynamic way more uneven than it is in canon. One of the things I value about their relationship is that they're the same age, similarly value and care about each other, they have around the same strength/level of talent, etc. It's so special that they managed to find someone who matches them so well, someone they can truly consider an equal.

So, I find it off-putting when people drastically change the balance between them so one is much bigger/stronger/older looking or acting/has more power in the relationship/etc. (or vice versa of course). It just doesn't feel like their dynamic any more at that point. Of course they have different personalities so they'll have different ways of interacting with each other, and I'm also not talking about normal height variation (though I personally prefer them to end up around the same height, give or take a few inches on either side), but when there's a strong focus on some form of inequality between them in the dynamic, it's very unappealing to me. A lot of times this comes from trying to force them into stereotypes they don't fit.

I've talked about this extensively in meta form, but the common belief that Killua's feelings are much stronger and heavier than Gon's really bothers me, too. While I agree that Killua clearly seems to have a better understanding of his feelings and what they mean (I think he's ahead of Gon in this because of his introspective personality/higher awareness on the topic), that doesn't mean Gon's feelings towards Killua have less weight or meaning.

His mental health deteriorating in Chimera Ant Arc and him lashing out that one time doesn't erase all of the tons of kindness and affection he gave Killua prior to that, and it's clear that Killua is incredibly special to Gon. He even states that out loud multiple times to Killua! The ways they show it are different, but in my eyes they adore each other equally, and I do see that extending into a romantic sense as well--even if Gon still has to "catch up" in terms of understanding the nature of his feelings.

I also think some people don't know how to portray Gon in contrast to Killua, and he can come off as bland and generic instead of his amazing complicated self, or he gets treated like he's not intelligent in his own right.

Also, I totally get why people make this kind of thing (because I love tragedies in other stories), but I personally can't deal with endings where Gon and Killua don't ultimately get to be happy together. They've just been through so much already, they clearly want to be together, plz don't separate them ultimately... 😭 I know people gotta explore the angst, and to be fair I definitely like the angst in the context of what they've been through/what they might still have to go through to be back together again, but I just can't deal with unhappy endings for them. I also don't like seeing them in relationships with or even romantically interested in anyone else even temporarily, but that's just me being extra picky, LOL.

I don't engage with LeoPika works to quite the same degree even though I like the ship, but I get irritated when people try to push heteronormativity on them too much because of Kurapika's appearance. People acting like it's just a regular ol het ship or putting Kurapika in effeminate roles his personality doesn't fit at all are confusing to me.

I hope that's helpful! I'm sure I have plenty more pet peeves saved up from all the years I've spent in the fandom, but those are the major fandom trends I don't care for.

[destiny-in-the-universe]

Mystery Kids AU [Unlocked Doors Verse] - A Project in WIP

This is your captain speaking! Okay, so-

I wanted to touch base on my Mystery Kids AU ft. Danny Phantom, Coraline, Paranorman, and Gravity Falls. This is hardly a new idea, as I've attempted to write this before in the past, and of course- other creators have written for Mystery Kids!

Now, some background information;

The characters are aged-up in this because I felt it fit the storyline easier, which means Mabel and Dipper are sixteen years old- and have been visiting Gravity Falls for a couple years now but of course, they also do have their own lives outside of the town as well. Returning for the summer, the duo are going to be meeting the rest of the cast- albeit not everyone because that is too much for me to handle lol.

Currently, my idea is that characters from the other medias - Danny Phantom, Coraline, and Paranorman - will be part of a summer camp program, inherently leading to meeting Mabel and Dipper. Their relationships originally are a bit rocky, and tense due to differences in personalities; or so it would seem until strange happenings begin going down within Gravity Falls, and subsequently - it brings them closer together. Whether this means old foes (or new), well, we'll just have to find out later~

Eventually, they form a sort of club together- and this leads to uncovering new mysteries until it all unravels, ultimately revealing the Big Bad of the AU.

[Under-the-Cut Details]

~ The Mystery Kids will originally be Danny Fenton, Coraline Jones, Wybie Lovat, Norman Babcock, Dipper Pines, and Mabel Pines. [If the au begins to expand, I'll consider adding other characters to join their little club!]

~ As of right now, Mabel, Dipper, and likely Danny will be the older members, with Coraline being the youngest of the group.

~ This does take place outside of their respective canons- meaning after the shows have finished, with the exception being Danny Phantom.

~ I personally see Norman and Danny being really close with one another- not necessarily romantically but still!

~ Most of these characters are neurodivergent! [and likely added trauma to boot lol]

~ Danny and Dipper are sort of the de facto leaders of the group, but this is unofficial- and all members of the club have equal standing for the most part within different strengths.

~ This will have more mature, serious themes - especially when it involves medias that could've easily gotten darker if the writers went down that route; also because, what they went through was intense lol

More will come soon, but for now- I'll leave it like this! I will more than likely be creating a server- and likely, I'll have a blog dedicated to the AU instead of using my main lol

✧ Creator Danny

[agent-cupcake]

what's your process on writing dialogue, and do you have any tips? i feel that no matter what i do, what i write is cringey and robotic.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, you're going to be your own harshest critic. People reading fanfiction are familiar with the characters, and their imagination can fill in a lot of what you might think are weak points. Also, practice is basically the biggest factor here, no amount of advice from a hack fraud like myself will matter if you're not out there on the grind.

BUT I'm an egomaniac and love talking about myself so here is my process and advice.

I watch/listen to their scenes a million times and pay attention to intonation, physical movements, vocal quirks or way of speaking. Emet-Selch, for example, uses archaic English words and is very formal VS OPLA Buggy who is a snappy, crass boy.

I write the scene so I know what their dialogue has to convey and get a general idea of mood and tone. Sometimes I do dialogue only, sometimes I just skip dialogue and leave a note about what they need to say. The point is that I've got material to work with.

Reread the bullshit I have just spewed out onto the document and have a minor breakdown about how terrible of a writer I am.

Remind myself that I am God and everything I type is gold.

Work and rework the lines while referencing canon material, reading them out loud (which helps to check the cringe factor too), and making sure the conversation and dialogue work together to have the scene do what I need it to do. I am garbage at technical editing but almost every piece of dialogue in my stories has probably seen at least some revision to fit it to the scene and character. The most important thing for me, ultimately, is that I can imagine exactly how the character would deliver the line. I've mentioned it before and I will again that getting Buggy's "voice" right was hard for me.

As for advice, tagging dialogue is your friend. In my opinion, it is the best way to make the dialogue flow more naturally. People very rarely speak in unbroken monologues. They're gonna be gesturing and moving and pulling faces and all that sort of stuff. You'd be surprised how much of a difference adding something as simple as a 'he said' can make when it comes to the way the dialogue is read. Words aren't entirely static, there's power in creating visual space between things on the page itself.

Since you're asking me specifically I'll use an example from my own writing for what I mean. I think there's a valuable difference between-

“Hey. What’s with the attitude?” Buggy asked.

and

“Hey,” Buggy said irritably, reaching out to tug on one of your twintails to force you towards him. You yelped, grabbing his hand. “What’s with the attitude?”

[annes-andromeda]

I know this is probably gonna age horribly since the Duffers will more than likely do something different, but I’ve been having some thoughts about the Upside Down.

I think Wills painting may serve another purpose besides being used for the Byler storyline. This isn’t necessarily a theory but more or less like an alternate storyline thing cause I don’t believe this might happen in the show, but it’s fun to think about.

Now this has been talked about a little bit about how the painting may be foreshadowing for S5. Some have said that the three-headed dragon is the Mind Flayers final form, others have said that it’s the Thessalhydra. I personally believe it’s the latter since Nancy described the creature in her vision as having “a gaping mouth”. And she’s definitely not describing the Demogorgon or Demodogs or Demobats because if that’s the case, then she would’ve just said it.

This is the only picture I could find that depicts the Thessalhydra with wings, but it definitely fits both Nancy’s description and the painting. And it’s not like the show hasn’t made changes to creatures from DnD.

But back to the painting, I believe that it is foreshadowing the Party comic together and defeating a common enemy. Now in the show this may very well be the Thessalhydra, but I have this sort of headcanon that I’ve been concocting:

What if just like Byler in S4, the painting ends up being a miscommunication. Like it is correct in the Party stopping a great foe, but it’s wrong in who the enemy ends up being.

If was just revealed that Vecna was the big bad this whole time despite focusing on the Mind Flayer for three seasons, then imo it would feel cheap. It would feel like when the Star Wars sequel trilogy clearly set up Snoke to be the big bad… only to kill him off in the second film and then suddenly revive Palpatine because reasons I guess🤷‍♀️

In terms of canon, I’d like for it to be revealed that Vecna only thinks that he’s in control of the Upside Down and the Mind Flayer, only for the MF to do a 180 and show him who’s really running things.

Since I believe the MF to be an Eldritch demon of some kind, I think he is the only being who’s mind Henry cannot read. So if he were, let’s say, using Henry as a way to regain power or merge the UD with Hawkins, then Henry wouldn’t know because the MD could simply block his own thoughts.

I do not believe that Henry created the Mind Flayer, but more so gave it its form. Similarly to how Will didn’t necessarily make the Upside Down (because we saw it existing even before his time), but he most likely gave it the form of Hawkins because he was afraid and home was the first thing on his mind (It’s also why I believe transmutation to be one of Wills abilities)

So essentially, Vecna is the Darth Vader to the Mind Flayer’s Palpatine. However, while the Mind Flayer can be referred to as the ruler of the Upside Down, I wouldn’t necessarily make him the creator of it.

This is where the Thessalhydra and the painting’s miscommunication comes in (Once again this is all just a headcanon)

What if it ends up being wrong that the Thessalhydra is the final boss. It could start off that the characters think this giant dragon-like kaiju with multiple heads and a gaping mouth is the ultimate villain to defeat or whatever.

But what if it ends up being revealed that the Thessalhydra is not only the original ruler of the Upside Down, but the creator? And that after the portals begin opening up, it is finally allowed to break free of whatever prison it’s been held in. This means the Thessalhydra can finally reclaim its throne and defeat it enemy, the Mind Flayer.

Now how would all of this be revealed? Well, I don’t know about canon but here’s my vision for an alternate story:

In S4, it’s revealed that Will has powers like El. However, it is subtly hinted that his powers may very well be generational, mainly on his mothers side.

Now this is something that actually was hinted at way back in the very first season. We see in S1 that after Jonathan, Steve, and Nancy defeat the Demogorgon, the lights begin to flicker in the Byers house.

Nancy and Steve think it’s the Demogorgon again, but Jonathan is the only one who senses Joyce walking around in the Upside Down. Not Joyce and Hopper, just Joyce. And the crazy thing is, Joyce senses him back.

(GIFs are not mine)

The fact that both Jonathan and Joyce can sense each other’s presence despite being in different dimensions is insane to me and I hate the fact that this is never brought up again after S1.

So this would fuel my little headcanon (or theory whatever) that Joyce’s side has some sort of generational abilities. Joyce and Jonathan’s abilities would be more mentally focused, whereas El and Will’s abilities would be more physically focused. Yes, I know El isn’t a biological Byers, but we see in S2 that her bio mother Terry has powers of her own, so her powers may also be generational.

It’s also the same for Henry. I also theorize his powers to be generational, once again, on his mothers side. It would explain why his mother was the only one who caught on to what Henry was doing in their house, and his father and sister were oblivious.

So let’s say that while the characters are fighting against some monsters of the UD or Vecna, Jonathan gets taken. Since Vecna has already held Will and El hostage, why not give Joyce even more trauma and stress and take her eldest son/first child🙃

While the group is trying to find Jonathan, he gets taken to an unknown location. There, he meets the Thessalhydra face to face. This could parallel to how Will is the first one to see the Mind Flayer in person.

Obviously in the beginning, Jonathan thinks this is just another monster trying to kill him like all the other ones. But unlike the Demogorgon or the other creatures, the Thessalhydra is much more intelligent and can sense that this boy is not a threat.

Since the Thessalhydra is the creator of the UD, the creatures living there actually were originally impervious to fire. However, once the Mind Flayer took over, the UD became a cold, barren wasteland. Creatures like the Demogorgon and others had to adapt, which is why fire can now hurt them.

Along with figuring out the UD’s history, Jonathan finds out that like his brother and sister, he too has powers of his own. He can actually control the monsters of the UD and sense their thoughts and emotions, which is why the Thessalhydra knows he isn’t a threat. He can also link his mind with the people closest to him, which he uses to communicate to his mother and siblings, as a parallel to S1. Joyce also this same mind link power.

Jonathan shows the rest of the group that the Thessalhydra isn’t their enemy, and boom! Cue epic face off against the Mind Flayer and Vecna (or just the MD if he decided to kill Vecna idk)

Will all of this happen in the actual season? Highly doubt it. But I’d definitely like to learn more about the Upside Down and the Mind Flayer and how it all came to be. And it is the last season, so you gotta go out with a bang.

[my-mt-heart]

I think I mentioned before that the love triangle is my least favorite trope. It just feels very YA to me, less mature, which definitely doesn’t fit a relationship like Daryl’s and Carol’s, nor their individual characters who are so careful with their hearts. Creating foils for them on the other hand has been very illuminating in some instances. 

Even though I don’t like Carol and Ezekiel together at all, I do like seeing Daryl’s jealous side. It’s not a typical jealousy because nothing about Daryl’s character is typical, but it causes him to turn inward and weigh his worth against Ezekiel’s. He knows he’s no king, he isn’t charming, he isn’t a leader, so in his mind, he can’t possibly be good enough for Carol. 

But we as an audience learn through the different interactions between all three characters that he could not be more wrong. Daryl understands Carol in ways Ezekiel never could, always putting her needs before his own, respecting her boundaries and her independence. He’s the one who has Carol’s heart, the one who immediately makes her smile when he gives her a gift, the one she’ll say “I love you” to. 

The “triangle” if you can really call it that, only takes a wrong turn for me in S11. Carol and Ezekiel do not need to get closure from each other ten times over. They don’t need a long shared arc with far more screentime than the relationship we’re actually invested in, and we don’t need the question of will they/won’t they [get back together] hanging over our heads so close to wrapping the series. Knowing how to use foils also means knowing when they’ve stopped being useful all together. 

The same can be said about Carol’s foils. On one hand, Daryl’s and Connie’s dynamic shows us how much Carol is struggling to love herself for who she is. She thinks she’s a bad person, unworthy of Daryl’s love, despite loving him so much she’s ready to sacrifice her own chance of happiness so he can be happy with someone she perceives as “good.” 

The romance she keeps pushing for never actually happens though, which in itself reminds us Daryl isn’t an alpha male. He can’t pursue every woman who happens to interact with him. He can’t test the waters with someone he likes or respects. He needs to fall in love first, he needs time, he needs depth, he needs Carol. And that’s all really sweet, but the longer the “Connie” arc drags out, the more superficial it becomes, accomplishing nothing for any of the characters and leaving every viewer unhappy. 

Speaking of which, adding Leah to that mix is probably one of TWD’s most controversial writing decisions that everyone (rightfully) resents. It didn’t have to end on such a bitter note though. Unlike killing off Glenn and Carl, which there is absolutely no walking back from, risking Daryl’s character integrity for a random relationship could have at least been the catalyst for Daryl and Carol to finally go canon. The set up is there. We get the parallels between Carol and Leah to tell us who Daryl really chooses and why, but it ultimately goes nowhere. Carol and Leah don’t even get to interact. [Insert long, angry rant about that here]. 

I’m not looking for a do-over on any of these arcs or for any new ship to take their place (for the love of god, stop with the ship baiting). The more love interests Daryl and Carol garner, the less they feel like themselves and we’re already teetering on the brink of unrecognizable with this ridiculous France premise. But, if there’s more to come for Caryl, some acknowledgement would be good. It only takes a few lines of dialogue to explain to the characters and to the audience why Carol didn’t return Zeke’s feelings, why it wasn’t like that with Connie, why Daryl really got together with Leah. And if handled with care, it could be very impactful 

[victorianpining]

Oh, but if I may be so bold, I'd love to get some proper book recommendations by you, even without a tag game going on or anything. So if you feel like sharing.... I am always on the hunt for recs 👀🖤

I'd be happy to! Here are 8 books I really love:

The Valley of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

If you're following me there's a good chance you've already read this, but just in case you haven't, if I could recommend you read one story out of the Holmes canon, it would be this one. It is genuinely so clever and so well written with multiple gut-punch reveals, and the ending scene is genuinely haunting. I am devastated that there's never been a film adaptation (well not since the silent film era anyway), but that's all the more reason to give this one a read!

The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley

This book was a birthday gift from @teledild0nix and it instantly became one of my all time favorites. I'd recommend going into the story knowing as little about it as possible so I can't give you a good summary, but if you like mysteries, time travel, or pirate stories with a touch of romance, I think you'll enjoy this one!

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

I think I mentioned in the retrospective that reading this book in high school was one of the first books I actually analyzed for myself. Since then, my appreciation for this book has only grown. It's exactly everything that appeals to me most: it's set in the Victorian era, it's got clever dialogue, it plays with the contrast between appearances and reality, and most importantly, it's ultimately a clever commentary on what it means to create something, how much of yourself (and your audience, and the expectations of society, and the views of critics, and and and) gets put into and influences the work, and the disastrous effects all of that can have. That theme being the center point of the story makes it even more tragic that this book ended up playing into Wilde's own downfall.

Also, no I will not stop trying to make BBC Dorian happen (and by that I mean mentioning how good a fit it would be for a Mofftiss adaptation at every chance I get)

The Tale of Despereax by Kate Dicamillo

A childhood favorite that has continued to have a tremendous influence on my approach to storytelling. The Tale of Despereax is the story of a mouse who wishes he was a knight, of a rat caught between a life in the darkness when he yearns for the light, and a little girl who is seen as more inconvenience than person because of the abuse she's suffered. Ultimately, it's about navigating the world when you want things you're told you shouldn't and the consequences rigid roles can have on all of us. The way the stories are woven together blew my mind when I was eight, and to this day I'm still so drawn to the comforting narration and the brilliant way Dicamillo made those complicated issues accessible for children.

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

Full disclosure I haven’t actually made it all the way through this book, but whenever I come back to it and read the poetry it resonates with me in such a profound way. If you need something that will help you feel like life is beautiful and worth living, pick this one up and flip to a random poem.

Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer

Okay, listen. This book has all the same flaws as the rest of Stephenie Meyer's writing (in some cases far more egregious than other entries, I'm thinking specifically about the way she writes the Quileute Tribe here). If you can't get into it for those reasons, I totally get it. But as someone who spent my adolescence hoping this book would come out someday, it's better than I could have ever hoped for. There's a degree of self-awareness in this book, really leaning into the oddness of Edward Cullen's behavior and in light of the ways his decisions in this book really come around to bite him in later entries in the series, it kind of acts as a scalding critique of his worldview. Full disclosure part of the reason this one resonates with me so much is because I saw a lot of myself in Edward's constant and insufferable catastrophizing, and realizing that gave myself the ultimate tool to stop those thoughts in their tracks: "Rebekah, you're Edward Cullening again." Works like a charm.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Speaking of problematic favorites... This book was written in the 1950s about the 1910s and it completely shows in the way Smith writes about people who aren't christian or white (it's not outwardly hateful, in fact I think Smith thinks she's being very accepting, but some of the choices are very, very stereotyped and the more I revisit it as an adult the more uncomfortable these sections make me). So if someone can't get around that, I get it, I find it harder and harder to get around that myself.

What keeps drawing me back to this one is how vibrant and nostalgic and bittersweet and genuine the narration of Francie's life is. The story is told as a series of vignettes, beginning one Saturday afternoon when Francie is 12 years old, jumping back to the day her parents met, and then continuing forward chronologically until Francie is reaching adulthood. There's a wistfulness to everything that makes it clear a lot of this is based on Smith's own upbringing, but it's clearly a romanticized version of it, I think she described it as "the way it ought to have been," which given how grim parts of the novel are is saying something. I read this book every few years and if you go through it yourself, you'll probably notice how big of an influence it's had on my own worldview and writing.

And finally the big one:

How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas. C. Foster

The book that literally changed my life, if you've ever felt unsure of how or where to begin understanding literary symbolism, this is the book I would recommend to get you started. The way Foster pulls from examples you'll already be familiar with, makes the conclusions seem logical rather than nebulous, and especially the way he describes the interconnectedness of storytelling all make literary analysis both accessible and even captivating. Like with A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, I think if you read this one, the influence it's had on me is going to be immediately obvious.

[dedalvs]

Hi David, I've been reading your book recently to help with extrapolating on a conlang in Star Wars, it's been really great! I know that with your work on Dothraki and High Valyrian you also had a few words as a starting point, but I'm wondering if you can offer any advice for working on a language that has less than ideal consistency from source to source (writer to writer), like Huttese or Twi'leki or Ubese (per the example from the beginning of your book)

My honest wish would be to say to drop it and either (a) create a language of your own, or (b) become a fan of a language that was actually constructed. There is an entire Klingon language. It was created, it has a dictionary that is in print, there's a Duolingo course, its creator is a friend of mine, and yet it's like, "I want to learn this language from Star Wars that we all know is not a language, that sounds like gibberish because it is gibberish, and that someone gave a name to as a joke when they were asked about it in an interview once. It's spoken for four seconds on screen in one movie". The more fans get excited about these non-languages, the more the Star Wars folks feel justified in maintaining the status quo. I was actually interviewed for a Star Wars show once. They passed, and decided to keep on truckin'. The whole point of that example in The Art of Language Invention was to show, "This is how to do it wrong."

But, anyway, the real answer is that if the best you can do with inconsistent data is come up with a million exceptions that you can barely shoestring together, or just say, "They speak a rare dialect that, oddly enough, looks nothing like the rest of the language!", you should instead take what you want from it and leave the rest. In effect, this is what Disney did with the extended Star Wars universe, and I think they made the right decision. They sat down with all of it, decided what was going to be canon and what wasn't, and they moved on from there. As a fan, you may disagree, but I as a fan find that more satisfying than piling exception upon exception to try to retcon something that is just as easily set aside.

If you instead set your canon hat aside and ask yourself, "What is it I like about this?" you may find that you can actually identify certain words or phrases or ideas from the original material that are your favorite bits. Start with those! Work out something to make those parts fits. If the rest don't fit, throw them away. Start with the good stuff and move on from there and make something new—something that supports the stuff you want to keep and ignores the stuff you don't.

After you get a fair ways down the line, you may find there's actually a way you can rescue some of that original material rejected, now that you actually have a full language built up, and have a better understanding of, for example, how words can be clipped, when certain words can be dropped in a sentence (e.g. pro-drop), how synonyms work, how tone/stress plays into it, etc. So maybe you'll be able to rescue a bit more. But truly, what you have to ask yourself is, when there is an irreconcilable conflict, am I trying to create something that completely explains all the extant material, or am I trying to create something I like? If you ask me, I will always encourage you to do the latter rather than the former. I personally find it more satisfying, and ultimately, I think you will, too.

Thanks for the ask!

[polysyndetonaddictsupportgroup]

okay but what are the three nhthcth songs tho

So it’s important to note that Songs for me don’t always have a perfect correlation or fit with lyrics matching the story and is more based on the overall Vibe somehow clicking with what I want the story to be.

1. Bad Habits by The Federal Empire

This was the original Song and it was the background for the vast majority of plot creation. I listened to it so many times that skewed my Spotify wrapped to a ridiculous degree. It specifically became the Song because of Daisy and Jon’s relationship in nhthcth.

Like, when I build a plot, there’s a lot of jumping around and figuring out how it all fits together. It’s always a fun, pleasant surprise when my brain knits together the very separate parts and tells me how we get there. Which gives me a very distorted perspective of the story, because the order I get information in tends to be very different than the order y’all get information in.

nhthcth loosely went: initial Tommy bradstaff confrontation-> daisy and Jon buddy cop adventures-> horrible devastatingly sad backstory that got us there-> ohmygodisthatDannystoker-> rest of it

Bad Habits really had sort of off the cuff, mildly ill-advised and self-destructive, chaotic dynamic I wanted between Daisy and Jon. Like, I knew I wanted them to be really messy in this, because they were supposed to live in this sort of in-between in canon characterisations for them. They’d never had the buried, but they had to be past the point of “Daisy is hunt mad and wants to kill Jon in the woods.” They had to exist in this space where neither of them had progressed to the same point as they did in season 4 to stop feeding entirely and were in this sort of half-measure where they were trying to ignore the reality of their situation and make it work as best they can—and, you know, save the world while they went.

Like, I loved them so much. They committed so many crimes. Pov you’re spooky and you get brutalised in the woods by woman who looks like she kills people for the mob and man in cardigan who looks like he died last week. They were morally ambiguous and fucking hilarious. They weren’t allowed in France anymore. Dream team buddy cop between deeply violent woman and utterly exhausted man. I was obsessed. It was so fun and zany in my head.

Then I came up with the devastatingly sad parts and devastatingly sad ended up being the tone y’all got instead of fun and zany but it was too late the Song was set. Yes, Jon’s horrible traumatic past was created while listening to this fairly upbeat song. We get One Song per story it’s the rules of my brain.

But then it became so convoluted that it ended up getting more Songs, which was unprecedented.

2. Two Birds by Regina Spektor

The second song nhthcth, and I can’t say what part of the story it belongs to because we haven’t gotten to that part yet. I will say that it is a Song that belongs to Jon & Gerry.

3. Never Forget You by Noisettes

This is actually young Jon & Gerry’s Song. I really liked the fit for them because it sounds so upbeat and energetic with lyrics that are a little bittersweet.

Like, I can’t emphasize enough that Jon and Gerry were happy together. When they ran, they were genuinely happy kids who were glad to be alive for the first time in their own memories. They loved each other, they loved each and every adventure they went on, and even though they were in a completely shit situation, it was the happiest they had ever been. And even when they lost it, that period of their lives was always a sort of light they never let go of—and never stopped trying to get back.

This Song really had the jaunty, fun vibe that I wanted Gerry and Jon to have when they ran together, and there’s this overarching yearning and bittersweet reflection that I thought echoed how it ultimately would end in them being dragged back in the most painful way possible. It sort of acknowledged that it didn’t work out the way they hoped but it doesn’t diminish the joy and love that they had before it was lost.

[vintage-bentley]

I've been a fan of GO since I was 12 (I'm now 28) and read the book so many times it fell apart as a teen - but for some reason, I never connected with the TV version. Just never vibed with it, can't explain why. Maybe because it was Terry Pratchett I always loved and his magic felt like it was missing from it, leaving mostly NG's influence (who I don't like but that's a long story). So I feel no excitement for series 2, and that kind of bums me out because 12 year old me loved it so much.

Are there many reasons to be excited for s2? Are you?

I’m unfortunately one of the people who saw the TV series first, then read the book, so I didn’t experience the sort of hesitance about the series somebody who came from the book might. I personally love the series, and also love the book! But I can see why you weren’t the biggest fan of the series. It definitely feels like it lost a bit of Terry’s touch. I’ve said before that this worries me for season 2, because at least with season 1 Neil was working with a complete book he’d written with Terry. Now he’s on his own. I mean, it sounds like they’ve had conversations about what a second book or season would entail…but that’s very different from actually writing it together.

Personally, I feel a whole lot of things about season 2. I feel excited, because I love the story and characters and want more. But I’m also very nervous, because it could easily go wrong. Sometimes things are best left alone…and season 1 ended on such a lovely note and had so much closure, that I’m not sure how a season 2 would fit into it. I do worry that this will be one of those cases of the sequel not being as good as the original, just because the original was so good.

And of course, I’m worried that the fandom’s homophobia that Neil has eagerly endorsed will seep its way into the show. But I’m hoping it won’t, because as much as I don’t like Neil, he seems to know how to draw a line between canon and headcanons. What it looks like to me, is he’s had his ideas set in stone for years, and is just agreeing with fandom to get clout. But his ideas are still his ideas and he won’t let them get changed by the fandom…both for creative reasons and legal reasons. So I hardly think he’ll be like “you know what, I didn’t even know what ‘asexual demiromantic genderfluid nonbinary’ meant until yesterday, but I’m going to have my characters come out as it in season 2! It’ll be great!”.

The fandom has been an issue for me for a while. They’re comically sexist and homophobic, and being a lesbian that means it’s just not the place for me. So I stay away from larger fandom as much as possible, because I have no interest in seeing “progressive” takes about why actually it’s bad for the two male characters to be in love, and why actually Crowley’s a woman if he has long hair.

But I wouldn’t let the fandom ruin your enjoyment of the show. Ultimately, it’s just the fandom. There’s so many things that are great but have insufferable fandoms…and it’s not a reflection on the work, but rather just a reflection of the people who are the loudest fans (which are always going to be young people since that’s who fandom is mainly populated by, and young people right now are caught up in gender ideology). Watching the show, then seeing what these fans think of it, really just shows you that they’re hardly fans of the show, and are more accurately fans of the story they’ve created in their heads that’s loosely inspired by the show. So try to disconnect the fandom from the show, because they’re entirely different.

The fact is, fandom’s always been insanely homophobic because it’s populated by straight women who fetishise gay men. It’s just now they’ve found a new way to be homophobic (gender ideology) and they’ve found a way to play with it (a show with non-human characters and a magic system). The fandom doesn’t say as much about GO as it does about fans eagerly waiting for the first opportunity to be homophobic.

I’d encourage you to hang around the gender critical corner of the fandom. It makes the experience so much more enjoyable when you know you’re safe from homophobia and sexism and general clownery.

I’m very excited to be able to watch the new season and be able to talk about it with people who I know won’t shun me for calling Crowley a “he” in a scene where he has long hair, and who I can trust to not be homophobic and not shut down my concerns about baiting because “it’s still queer!!! Shut up cis gay!!! Not everything’s about you!!!”.

In short, yes, I’m excited about season 2. More accurately, I’m cautiously optimistic. Because I know that whatever happens, it’s still more of something I love dearly, and that I’ll have people to gush about it to who I don’t have to be wary around.

[sugurushimura]

I know it's not technically ONE ship, but - best and worst Shimura ship in your opinion?

(For the brutally honest ship opinion ask thig)

Send me a ship and I’ll give you my (brutally) honest opinion on it

oh man. ok, i have never actually seen a shimura ship floating around that i don't find somewhat interesting or didn't have a hand in creating. in total, there's shimuchi (shimura/higuchi), namura (shimura/namikawa), ooimura (ooi/shimura), midomura (shimura/mido), takamura (takahashi/shimura), and hatomura (hatori/shimura). so... every yotsuba member except kida. i've yet to see any shimura ships that involve anyone outside the other yotsubas.

for the best, i've gotta say hatomura, considering it's probably my otp? it's partially a sentimental thing; my boyfriend and i have been shipping them since we were in middle school. but i think there's a lot of interesting stuff going on there, including stuff i haven't really thought about until this past year, so we really keep developing this one!

the entire premise in canon is basically "shimura and hatori love each other but never express this to each other or realize it's requited, hatori dies, shimura is guilty and traumatized forever." it's the tragedy of having a hand in killing the person you love and being too cowardly to do more to stop it -- and, worse, the tragedy of killing someone who loves you and being too cowardly to do more to stop it.

there's more to it than just hatori's death, though. i also think they have something interesting in common, in that neither of them is really right at yotsuba. shimura was raised poor, and that alone makes him different from the other executives. hatori is the president's bastard son, so he's not very well-respected. shimura was a sports star; hatori was a literature major with a ceramics hobby. they just don't fit in. i think shimura went into business to try to raise himself above his birth status, and i think hatori went into business to attain the normalcy he never had as a child, which he never would've achieved as an author or an artist. ultimately, it gets them both killed, but maybe they could've found something better together. they also have a nice contrast in personalities and in design.

as for the worst ship, that's hard to say because i really enjoy each of them in their own way, be it unrequited or unhealthy or what have you. canonically speaking, i guess the answer is shimuchi. shimuchi does not work in canon, period. higuchi treats shimura like shit, and shimura thinks higuchi is a bad person. they don't like being around each other.

i do headcanon higuchi is attracted to shimura deep down and externalizes this by being a dick to him, which is similar to how i interpret higuchi -> namikawa, but it's not at all requited or even realized on higuchi's part. shimura just wants nothing to do with the guy. i only ship them in no-kira AUs where they have some reason to interact in a more positive way because i do think their personalities could mesh and they could even cause some positive growth in each other, if things were different. but the shimuchi manifesto is a post for another day

thanks for the ask!

[arti-cat]

incinerator au info!

i think i'll edit this as i think of more stuff or just like. reblog but i wanna write down what i have for it so far ! before i forget ( update 31/07: renamed the arsonist to bunsen burner! since i've seen a few named the same and i wanted to avoid any confusion :] there's so many fire-based scugs i love them all ) the incinerator au essentially focuses on the story of a fiery slugcat called bunsen burner, who was created by [golden ochre, longing desires] (aka gold) to assist him in his work. though he didn't care for her much at all, so she left to create her own family, one which she eventually lost due to the rot.

bunsen burner decided that she'd make it her life mission to destroy every last piece of rot. to spare herself and other creatures from that same fate, at a hefty cost. much of the rot came from iterators, so they ultimately ended up as her main target (out of an apathetic malice rather than hatred towards iterators in particular, though she heavily dislikes gold and destroys any overseers' of his that she finds)

i think it would tie together a few smaller plotlines rather than follow one massive plotline? so for example, gold is trying to locate an unknown iterator that sent out a distress signal. around this time, [five pebbles'] structure is heavily damaged and so he *needs* help (whether he likes it or not). and when gold eventually realises that the iterator he's searching for is in a rot-infested region, he needs to figure out how to get to the iterator before bunsen burner does? something like that!

i think another pretty big difference to the standard rain world formula is that. one of the oc iterators, known as for a [dream true, on cloud nine] (nine), is an engineer! a highly skilled individual that knows how to repurpose iterators' puppets in order to let them leave their structures. with high-risk but high-reward stakes; i don't think every semi-local iterator went through with their experiment, such five pebbles, but i like the idea of some of them being able to walk around :] and i think nine helping moon out after her collapse would be sweet.

time-wise i think it takes starts off just a little after the survivor-monk timeline? before rivulets, so the rot within five pebbles' structure isn't as severe, but still a massive threat to his well-being. bunsen burner is an older slugcat, she was small when gold first started his search but left for a long time shortly afterwards

i'm not sure who i entirely want to add but im sure i'll figure it out! i think having my own au versions of the favourite iterators would be cool since i love them so much. + NSH i could easily fit in if i give him some form of rot, given it's already a known and researched topic, and he *was* the one that made hunter. i just want moon to be happy and to be able to gaze at the shoreline properly this time too i think she deserves it

the main canon iterators are probably in one local group while the oc iterators are in their own local group, nearby their region. then there's also the wastelands rather than the shoreline for the oc iterators, where a lot of residue, rot, and general dangerous waste ends up dumped in.

this is a. ramble! but i wanted to get that out there anyway plus. writing it out helps me figure out what i wanna do for the au in my head. reading all of five pebbles and moons' lines and all the broadcasts makes me appreciate the iterators so much more than i already did so i'd love to make use of their communication styles ...

extra information / drabbles:

a bit about upgrades and rivulet

bunsen burner design?

golden ochre, longing desires drawing

[jurijurijurious]

For the ask meme! A8 and B6!

Thanks for the ask @buginateacup!

A8. What was your first fandom? Are you still in that fandom now?

I don't really know how to answer this, tbh. I was born in the mid 80s so I've been a fan of so many things, but I'm not sure which constitutes as my first fandom since I don't think fandom was the same in my childhood when the internet wasn't much of a thing. If it was what do I first remember being a fan of, dinosaurs then Jurassic Park would do it. But I also loved Sonic the Hedgehog, Bucky O' Hare, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Biker Mice from Mars, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, ReBoot... etc etc.

If we're talking being part of a collective fandom with other fans, then it'd either be Star Wars pre-internet where I was in the UK "fan club" and had pen pals (those crazy days!) or if we're talking internet fandoms, I think I first resided in the Power Rangers fandom in the early 2000s when we first got the internet at home. I kinda miss those early internet days, it was a fun, crazy time. I still have an email from Robert Axelrod, who was the actor who voiced Lord Zedd in Power Rangers, after he came across my (now non-existent) Lord Zedd fan website online. Robert's sadly passed away now but I love that he emailed me. It made my year. It still touches my heart.

And am I still in the Power Rangers fandom? Not really. I swing by from time to time, throw out weird fan art, think about going back to my fanfic project, but meh... I haven't watched any recent series and I haven't the time or money to keep up with the rebooted comics, which I have a sinking feeling I wouldn't enjoy, being a fan from the old days and having invested so much of my imagination making up my own backstories of and reboots for the characters.

Anyway, there's a non-answer.

B6. What is your favourite story trope? Why?

I nearly said Enemies to Lovers because I do enjoy a good bad guy/good guy romance, but when I look at my fics and the ships I enjoy, canon or otherwise, it's not so much Enemies to Lovers as Forbidden Romance - within which Enemies to Lovers often conveniently fits. I just lurve people getting together who absolutely should not be together, either because of their moral disparity or societal barriers or whatever, it fills me with joy. So much friction and drama and inconvenience. And it usualy creates sex that isn't cosy, it's a battleground, it's a fight for dominance.

Within the Forbidden Romance trope, I usually have sub-tropes that I certainly write in every one of my fics - and I love it if I find them in other fics, or even canon. This tends to include the Age Gap trope - in my case the older man-younger woman dynamic, nothing original; a bit of the ol' Forced Proximity trope (this was the only way I could make "Dodge and Burn" even slightly feasible), plus an Unplanned Pregnancy trope for ultimate angst - and sometimes even needed levity. Nothing beats the image of a ravaged hard man with a baby.