#the other is World Building involving a TON of characters and I may have to intro it very slowly lol

[professorjirt]

I am SO MAD that fics don’t just pop out ready made. I have fanart of my own shit BEFORE I even finish writing……. guys I’m about to invent the wordalizer and it’s about to revolutionize the tri-state area

[pookie-mulder]

Feb. 2025 fic roundup

To my surprise, I read a ton this month!

❓🤰 By the Wind Grieved by Karen Rasch

This AU version of Mulder’s return is what we should have had in canon. Watching these two idiots fall back in love and navigate Mulder’s amnesia while trying to figure out what happened to him was absolutely delicious. The author absolutely nailed the characterizations, and M&S acted exactly like I feel like they would in the show!

🧚‍♂️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Tam Lin by Pequod

M&S uncover magic, mythology, and folklore as they travel to Scotland to solve the case of three missing boys.

This fic explores a fascinating question: Can Scully make herself believe if it’s the only thing that can save Mulder? Despite this, it’s relatively lighthearted. I loved the memorable OCs, the sickening (affectionate) UST, and the fact that our agents got the chance to ogle each other in formalwear.

🔮😵‍💫 Way Through the Woods by Pellinor & Rebecca Rusnak

Mulder has been missing for three months, and Scully must follow the clues to find out what happened to him.

I went into this fic expecting more of a survival story, but it’s much more of an angsty psychological thriller. The nonlinear plot and constant flashbacks were confusing at times, but I read this one while sick with a cold, so that could be the reason why I had a hard time with it. I loved it nonetheless and recommend it to anyone who wants to be taken on an existential ride.

⌚️💥 SN 1573 by prufrockslove

(Thanks to @fine-nephrit for reminding me I wanted to read this one lol)

Officially starting a conspiracy that PFL is secretly a wildly successful published author. There’s simply no way this kind of talent goes unrewarded by the universe. PFL, if you’re out there, just know I’m onto you 👀

Anyway, this post-colonization fic HURTS in the best way. What do you do when the world ends, but you’re still here? How do you go on? I love seeing characters pushed to the absolute brink. I love watching them bend until they break. I love watching them put themselves (and each other) back together in the face of abject despair. And BOY HOWDY does this fic deliver.

As always, the world-building and characterization are out of this world. Every detail is so meticulously written that I found myself believing this is exactly what would happen to humanity when there’s almost nobody left. And the flashbacks to Before — UGHHH the contrast between the happy, flirty, sappy beginning of their relationship to the absolute depression of After fills me with shrimp emotions.

💍💒 Proposal by @slippinmickeys

This little fic is one of my favorite MSR proposals ever!! I love an unconventional proposal, and this one definitely delivers. Mulder’s love for his little family gives me yet more shrimp emotions.

“I’m irredeemably in love with the both of you,” his voice cracks. “And I want to bind you to me in every way I possibly can.”

👆 that’s the good stuff right there!

🕯️👻 Beacon by @cecilysass

Lovelorn M&S are caught in a ghost’s curse and must admit their feelings before time runs out.

I love when our two favorite idiots are forced by outside influences to figure out their relationship (this one is along the lines of HTGSC, but with a Hanahaki disease-esque twist). It may take some meddling from a ghost or ghoul, but they get there in the end! This fic is perfect for warming your heart on a cold winter night.

🇺🇸👯‍♀️ An Alluring Indiscretion by beduini and M. Taylor Harrison

This intriguing casefic involves a senator, prostitutes, and doppelgängers. While it’s not the most polished fic I’ve ever read, it’s still very enjoyable, and there’s plenty of MSR to be had.

😷🔥 if the truth forgets about us by @leiascully

Angsty cancer arc smut my beloved!! Somehow, the angst makes the smut that much more intense. I’m in love!

🤕🫂 always in sickness, never in health by @mulderfrl

More cancer arc angst!!! Scully muses on her relationship with Mulder and how she wishes they had more time. It’s heartbreaking in the best way!

👿🛌 No More Demons by Penny Daza

During season 4, M&S decide to (platonically) sleep together — literally. Just for comfort.

I’m not gonna lie to you. This fic is messy as heck. You just have to let go of your adult brain and pretend you’re a 13-year-old again, reading fic on wattpad late into the night. Embrace the mess and just enjoy the ride.

💌💝 My Funny Valentine by @libbytxf

M&S celebrate Valentine’s Day throughout the years. I looove to see the evolution of their relationship from coworkers to friends to “it’s complicated” to lovers. Those USTy years are my favorite!

⛈️🤞 Lucky Stars by @thursdayinspace

Post-Syzygy, M&S want some space apart. Their plans are foiled, and they end up getting closer than ever.

This fic made me all warm and tingly! So precious!

😴🌲 The Dreaming Tree by @slippinmickeys

This fic has become one of my favorite casefics of all time! The premise had me hooked right from the start. It felt like an episode of the show, but better (and sexier).

I love the way it incorporates Native American history (in a much more tactful way than the show did). It’s respectful and informative while still being fantastical and entertaining. Genius!

🧚‍♂️🌳 The Unseelie Court by @slippinmickeys

Another banger of a casefic from slippinmickeys that deals with folklore and fairies. I love how sweeping and cinematic this one feels, especially the more magical scenes. It was so fun to put together the pieces and figure out what’s happening as I read!

❄️🚁 Falling Snow by Snark

Finally, a true wilderness survival fic I haven’t read already!

I would’ve liked some of the threads introduced the beginning to be woven together more. Certain things happen that have little to no impact on the overarching story. Still, once the big things start happening, I enjoyed this fic immensely! The OCs were surprisingly intriguing, and the tension had me reading late into the night.

🌳🦌 Old Growth Forest by Andrea

I very much enjoyed this time travel fic! It’s like a mixture between The Mastodon Diaries and a Wild West AU with plenty of survival elements.

However, I found myself wishing that it covered a longer period of time. There are certain things I was hoping to see, but the book ended before we got there. There were also some missed opportunities for added drama/characterization/internal conflict, but all in all, it was still a great read!

[herebecritters]

BIG UPDATE FOLKS!

So I’ve been meaning to say something about this for a while now, but due to time restraints and me trying to get stuff more established, I just haven’t been able to. Some of you may have noticed that I haven’t been posting up here much for a while now. Those of you who follow my other socials have probably also noticed that I have not been tagging anything as Htf within the last month or so and that my art there has had small design tweaks taking away some of the more iconic features that are standard for Htf (piecut eyes and pink heart noses for example). So I will be completely transparent with you all here.

Essentially, thanks to encouragement from outside friends and for the sake of my own mental health, I’m ripping my ocs and story out of Htf completely. By this point it has completely become its own thing. The concept of Death loops and anthropomorphic animals are not exclusive to Htf and even then, so much has deviated from the original formula that I hardly recognize it as that anymore. I haven’t had much desire or interest in drawing canon stuff for a while now, and it’s not a matter of me disliking it. I just have been feeling so fulfilled by this original story that we’ve been building for a few years now and I really want to dive into it and make it a real thing outside of the confines of a fandom. Being able to share this story to others on the outside of the fandom without needing that specific context has been really good for me and I feel like the art and writing I’ve been pouring my heart and soul into now has a future.

What does this mean? Well the story for the most part is the same. There’s been some redesigns such as Nergals temple, the idols, Dumuzis brother (which luckily cro-marmot did not *really* have an established character in show and my characterization of him is my own anyways), but the overall plot and world building and the way the curse works was already my own original idea so that stays the same. I will not ignore that this story is very inspired by Htf, but it’s grown so much that I think it’s time that it walked on its own. Canon Htf characters are no longer a part of the world, there is no “Happy Tree Town” ect. Certain ocs, however, are still a part of it; such as Icky, Hopps, Screwball, Kyle, ect. This is still a collaborative effort with @ickyguts and @technicoloranimalviolence since they have been a part of it for a while now and have both inspired me and have helped me a ton with writing. Their ocs are still their ocs of course and what they do with them will always be ultimately up to them so nothing will be made involving their ocs without their consent. They are part of the team for as long as they wish to be <3 And I am so proud and honored to be working with them on this project.

Now I want to make it clear that while I’m cutting this story completely out of Htf that does not mean I hate Htf or the fandom or anything. It’s done a lot for me and people for the most part have been very kind and supportive of me. I may still even draw fanart of canon characters in the future if I ever get the itch to again. I just really wanna be able to do more with this story outside of that. I haven’t felt so fired up by a project like this in so long and since I’ve made the decision to do this I have been feeling really excited and happy about creating again. There’s something really fun about working on a project that’s your own that I can’t explain. I’m still establishing and setting up a lot for it but it’s very much in motion and I have a lot of cool folks cheering me on inside and outside of this little fandom. I know I’m definitely going to be taking a hit as far as followers go now that I’m going full original content, I may even lose a lot of you here because of it, but there’s something really exciting about building from the ground up. I want to make it clear though that there is absolutely no pressure for you to stick around if me drawing Htf was what you were here for and if this news makes you lose interest in this blog. I want people to follow me because they like my work overall.

That brings me to the fate of this blog. I will still keep it up and keep up my old posts. Like I said I do not wish to try and bury the roots of this story. I’ve joked with some friends that I’m “pulling a 50 Shades of Grey with this shit”. Old art will remain, but here on out the trio and my other ocs are not a part of Htf. Be Brave is no more.

Now, they are part of a project we call Fossilized.

ALSO I’m on bluesky now!

You can follow me on Bluesky HERE

And Official pages and content for Fossilized will be hosted HERE (site very much still a WIP though)

So much love and thanks to those of you who have stuck with me up until this point. And for those of you who continue to stick with me, buckle up, cus it’s going to be a wild ride! 💖💖💖

[yuurivoice]

It is very hard not to scream about book things. And other things. And things that are yet to come sprouting out of my mind.

But highest of keys, I wrote what is essentially the pitch for Red Tape. Kind of what a query letter would be but lacking comps and whatnot. And there are a few placeholder names and titles that need to be dealt with but it's just......so good? Like I might be tweaking, but it feels so right.

Also blew the fucking top off of the plot today all because I was thinking of last names (still hate that btw) and somehow I figured out the whole plot. I've had like...not even enough bones for the skeleton of it and then suddenly the rest just burst right up outta the grave.

It's great.

Hear me out.

The plot involves dueling conspiracies undermining each other while being forced to play nice publicly because politics. When finally the shit is hitting the fan and our protagonists are set to address the Big Problem, what unfolds is like...not a heist in the sense we've told a heist story, but it is a heist style mission.

Rather than focusing entirely on the team building part of the Heist, it's more like a theme park (not literal) that contains fun ways to expand on the deeper world building and reveal more about various characters along the way.

Example: Oceans 11 but instead of a casino, it's like...a Hell Vault. And there's a ton of big scary secret stuff. So instead of "oh, this team member uses there ability here and that's the point" the emphasis is a little more on what the challenge is and what it means for the broader world and plot etc. but with the character's specialty not being so pivotal. (I may be able to have my cake and eat it too, tbd).

Anywho, i was content with what the MacGuffin was. Just a "it's the thing they need to steal" and it can have some arbitrary plot purpose, whatever. It's a D&D Romantasy in Hell, it's not exactly groundbreaking.

But then. I figured out what they were stealing back. And it's a plot twist, but essentially turns this thing that we just kinda hand wavy "yeah we really need this thing because bad guys have it" into "oh, it's the whole point".

Which is crazy and probably sounds really simple but this is the type of shit authors typically refine on 2nd and 3rd drafts and not while they're at the fucking table writing a vague summary. Lmfaoooooooo

Anywho. You're either really confused or vaguely amused. I am so motivated to make this thing a reality.

Also, Howell Oakmourn is his name. 🥲

[theresattrpgforthat]

How about any TTRPGs set underwater that aren't horror themed?

THEME: Underwater Games.

Hello friend! I am so sorry that your asks got eaten - I'm glad to have them back! (It looks like Tabletop Trick or Treat unearthed a few gems.)

Now, let's see what kind of underwater games I can fish up for you!

Deepwater Enclaves, by kiryas.

Just plain old air pollution? A failed weather control experiment? Or more sinister forces? Nobody will know for sure why earth cooled below a dark mantle of clouds in the 1980s. Agriculture could not adapt fast enough and when conventional battles for the few remaining natural resources close to the equatorial line erupted into full-scale nuclear war, humanity was on the brink of extinction. Less than five hundred thousand mostly malnourished, freezing humans were left, when the year 2000 began.

This game is about venturing from a safe Community into the unknown. At the core are taking risks for your loved ones; sometimes this is at odds with your individual motives.

Deepwater Enclaves is a Rooted in Trophy game that contains a number of roll tables with evocative choices, and a community creation that involves the entire table. As players, you play both your character and a member of the community who is important to someone else. You play through a series of scenes, structured in a similar way to the way you might set up a scene in a tv show.

To participate in a scene, if you are not one of the original characters set to play a role, other players must spend a token. These tokens are also used to affect outcomes from when you roll, as well as reduce risks that may pop up as you play. You need two different colours or shades of d6’s for this: one colour will represent regular dice, while the other will represent “dark” dice, which raise the stakes whenever you roll with them.

Overall, I think this game is about exploration and survival. I think it has the potential to be a horror game if you want it to be, but you can also alter the tone to redirect the story towards something more dramatic, perhaps centring the game more on your community, and awarding the players with enough tokens to give them the ability to pull themselves out of danger.

Carcinauts!, by Hessan Yongdi.

Carcinauts! is inspired by a famous British children's animated TV show that takes place in and around the sea. You play animal explorers, scientists, and rescuers. Joined by your many friends and helpers, you seek to learn more about our fascinating oceans. Make the world a better place for the animals who live in and around the Great Blue Sea!

Based on the prolific Dominus system created by members of the Brazilian RPG community, Carcinauts! is designed to allow for quick play without a game master. This makes it idea for a solo session in the Sea or a team adventure, using the tables to build out your story. Its simple rules based around d6s and largely non-violent topic materials also make this game child-friendly.

Carcinauts is a two-page game that feels a little bit like a kid’s show; you are all underwater animal explorers, going on missions and solving problems. The resolution of the game is called the Dilemma oracle, and is fairly simple. You must determine two possible outcomes or answers, and then roll 1d6. On a 1-3 the first option is true, on a 4-6 a second option is true. These outcomes need not necessarily be “success” and “failure” either. They could be “left” and :right”, “up” and “down”, or “true” and “false”. This resolution system also makes the game friendly to solo gamers or GM-less tables.

If you want a light-hearted game about underwater explorers, which generates a lot of story ideas for you, maybe check out Carcinauts.

Deep Love, by Bully Pulpit Games.

You’ve come to this paradise to drop a two-and-a-half ton iron ball off the side of a ship and lower it almost a kilometer into the abyss. 

You’ve come to crawl inside that iron ball and go down with it, to see what there is to see down there. 

You’ve come with three other brilliant adventurers, friends, and lovers, and you’ll all get a chance to descend and risk your lives in exchange for seeing things no human being has ever seen.  And maybe, in the inky darkness and cold silence, you’ll find a measure of happiness and fulfillment.

Deep Love has a fond appreciation for old naturalist drawings of various fish, and uses those drawings as the art for the game. You play four characters, possibly pre-generated, on an expedition to the deep waters of an island for a geographic expedition. You all have feelings for each-other, and you’ll have to spend some extended time in a bathysphere to sort this out.

This game looks like it’s equal parts emotional conversation & role play, and, on the other hand, discovering the wonder of the ocean. According to the designer, it looks like you can modify how much you want to experience the former, and how much you want to experience the latter. If you want a game that gives you the tools to explore both your character’s internal emotional landscape as well as the strange underwater world around them, you might like Deep Love.

Submerged, by Arcane Atlas Games.

SUBMERGED is a solo journalling game of undersea exploration.

In this game, you take on the role of a daring explorer aboard a submersible. You have been charged with venturing into the depths of the ocean, to find something wondrous and undiscovered, hidden deep below the waves.

This one is for the solo gamers! It’s based on Carta, which uses a deck of cards to explore a map or series of locations. The player draws a number of cards and lays them face-down in a grid. Each turn, you move to a new card, flip it over, and come up with a journal entry based on the prompt the card gives you. The four suits represent four elements of the game: the Lost City, The Creature, the Wreckage, and the Signal. All of these elements play into the themes of mystery and exploration that this game seems to be about, but I don’t think any of it is necessarily horror-focused.

24XX The Deep, by Chaosmeister.

ONE DAY THE OCEANS DROWNED THE WORLD. Humanity survived below the waves. The sea birthed leviathans. Your crew owns a dingy old sub. Odd jobs, salvage, leviathan hunting and a few merc gigs keep you afloat and breathing.

24XX The Deep is a game about underwater survival and it’s also a drama. As a 24XX game, it’s only a few pages, but those pages distill the necessary parts of the game into a few things: customization for your submarine (aesthetic and mechanic), character options, and roll tables for pieces of the world, such as the factions that your crew might have to work with or work against.

The designer for this game says that 24XX The Deep isn’t necessarily meant to be a horror game, but it can still be a little creepy in tone when you consider the ways the natural underwater environment can raise the stakes for your players.

Aqua Squad, by Em.

A Tunnel Goons hack of aquatic and aquatic-adjacent adventure, created for the Saturday Morning Cartoon Jam. 

I think this might be a fairly safe bet considering it was submitted to something called the Saturday Morning Cartoon Jam! As a Tunnel Goons hack, this game is fairly simple. You follow the Submarine crew of the Cuttlefish, as they go for adventures underwater. Players pick character types, which kind of act like characters on a tv show, and fill in a few pieces of information to make those characters fit their play style.

The resolution mechanic involves rolling 2d6 and adding a relevant ability, and adding +1 for any relevant item you might have with you. You must meet or beat the difficulty score to succeed. You start with 3 items, and 10 HP. There isn’t much in terms of GM tools for adventure generation however, other than what appears to be episode title names. These titles can be evocative: you roll two words and put them together, so the GM may have an interesting time designing a “ghostly volcano” for the squad to investigate, or trying to figure out what the title “Vacation Megalodon” might mean.

Signals From The Deep, by Aaron Goss.

SIGNALS FROM THE DEEP is a tense, ocean-floor setting and scenario made using a no dice, no masters roleplaying game system Tiny Tokens.

This scenario takes you and the rest of your old, sentient, deep sea research robot team SEA-4 on a shared voyage, exploring deep sea wonders as you seek out the source of a anomalous signal detected way down at the bottom of the ocean. What awaits you in the depths?

Signals in the Deep is a mystery game, but it’s not necessarily a horror one. The game is small, meant to fit on two double-sized poker-card-sized cards. It’s easy to pick up and carry, and doesn’t have too many rules. Your core goal is to figure out the source of the signal; but what exactly that source is will be up to the GM, at least from what I can see.

Also Check Out…

Octopus Shipwreck Explorer, by SassWrites.

Bones Deep, by Technical Grimoire Games.

Odyssey Aquatica, by Old Dog Games.

My Mermaids TTRPG Recommendations.

The Sea Calls Recommendation Post.

My Coral Recommendation Post from last week.

[whatcha-reading-today]

Great reads of 2024

Bye 2024, while you were a long and grueling year but at least there were some great reads to pass the time. In total, I read 333 books according to goodreads. I read a ton of horror, sci-fi, romance, and horror romances and will list some of my favorites and surprises by genre.

Favorite horror stories:

For being creeped and disgusted. Most of these stories deal with some real world nastiness like homophobia, transphobia, and racism.

Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle: Misha is a screenwriter being forced to kill his popular gay characters but what's that? His monsters are coming to life? Such a fucking blast.

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due: our MC is sent to a 'reformatory' where boys behaviors are 'corrected'. This is pretty horrific and forces the reader to confront the horrors of racism.

Compound Fracture & The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White: I recommend all three of AJW's books, CF is more thriller while TSBIT is full on body horror and violence.

Fluids by May Leitz: The most disgusting book I've read this year! Want to read about lesbians doing absolutely awful things to themselves and others due to desperation? This is for you!

The Library on Mount Char by Scott Hawkins: God has a bunch of children stuck in a library and bad shit is happening. Think a speedrun of Gideon and Harrow. Wild and fun.

The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo: This novella focuses on our nurse MC forced to help an Appalachian town in the 1920's. There's racism, transphobia, and some horrific transformation sequences. This has one of the most memorable sex scenes I've read this year.

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters: A classic haunted house story. The creeping and building dread is so wonderful.

Favorite Romances:

These are sweet and fun romances. I enjoyed the audiobooks for each of these stories.

The Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sara Raasch: this is such a cute story that involves the princes of Christmas and Halloween. I'm not over that every time our Halloween prince curses silly plastic decorations appear.

Swift and Swaddled by Lyla Sage: Super sweet western romance with our golden retriever MMC and black cat FMC. Cute!

Favorite Horror Romances:

Come for the gorgeous covers, stay for the body horror, the rot, and violence that may end in romance.

Tenderly, I am Devoured by Lyndall Clipstone (ARC-TBR July 2025): gothic romance that I found so engrossingly written. Highly recommend if you're looking for an incredible gothic romance.

My Throat an Open Grave by Tori Bovalino: Leah wishes her brother away, at which point he's kidnapped by the Lord of the Wood and has to reclaim her brother. Beautiful and sad, more horror than romance.

Together We Rot by Skyla Arndt: This is cult horror, our MMC is a sacrifice slated for his father's cult and our FMC just wants to help.

Favorite Romantasies:

More fantasy than romance, these fantastical stories are both book 1 in a series and do a great job of setting the stage for some elaborate fantasy and eventual romances.

Spark of the Everflame by Penn Cole: super fun, our FMC is a healer and the MMC is the prince and also a sort of demigod.

Nightstrider by Sophia Slade: This is a great start to a fantasy with two worlds--ours and a dream world. Little romance here but a really fantastical set up.

Favorite General Fiction:

Foster by Claire Keegan: this book is like 80 pages and is so good. We follow a girl sent to live with some older foster parents because her family are about to have another kid (I believe they already have like 9?). This was just so beautiful.

Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg: An exploration of queerness, gender, and power in the 1990s. This is a tough read but such an important part of queer history.

Blackouts by Justin Torres: A conversation between an old and a young man who explore and examine what it means to be queer interspersed with blackout poetry.

Horse by Geraldine Brooks: This explores the life of a horse through multiple perspectives. I'm not a horse girlie and I can't stop thinking about this freaking horse.

Favorite Nonfiction:

Truman by David McCullough: this behemoth covers ALL of Truman's life from birth to death and between. I found it enlightening especially before visiting Hiroshima.

Who Would Believe a Prisoner?: Indiana's Women's Carceral Institutions, 1848-1920 by The Indiana Women's Prison History Project: This is a collection of published articles by inmates at Indiana Women's Prison on the history of Indiana's Women Prison. The abuse and the ugliness surrounding the history of the prison is well explored.

Who's Afraid of Gender? by Judith Butler: I loved that Butler isn't fucking around this book. They postulate and describe where hatred and fear of gender come from and smashes every logical fallacy you can think of.

American Predator by Maureen Callahan: A detailed account of the murders and manhunt of Israel Keyes. Fast paced and quick true crime read.

Favorite Surprises:

These are all new authors for me. For all of these, I picked these up on a whim and was blown away.

The Theseus Duology by Mary Renault: a lovingly memoir-esque story of Theseus.

Death in the Spires by KJ Charles: this is a dark academia murder mystery. Think 'I know what you did last summer' but in old timely London. I've only read Charles' romances and oh boy was this a delight!

The Borrowed Hills by Scott Preston: this is about sheep farmers who plan a heist and things just go horribly wrong. So artfully written, such wonderful creeping dread.

Miracle Creek by Angie Kim: this is a courtroom thriller told from the perspective of several characters. Sort of slow moving in parts but I found this to be a breathtaking read.

[haydenigmatic]

I searched for it and only got one answer from a few years ago- will we ever have the option to explore gender at all? Even with restrictions or remarks of struggle involved, I love being able to be more true to myself and characters I use for IF self-inserts. I'd hate to think the only thing stopping you is, as you implied before, that you'd feel beholden to include negativity because that's historically been the response to intersex and trans people. In a fantasy work, I have seen a lot of people handwave it away for a more utopian world, or simply have a few flavor texts mention phobic remarks- but I for one would love seeing more representation, particularly if there is struggle being portrayed, because that can be quite cathartic.

I am sorry if this feels pushy or rude, I just was curious if your thoughts had changed, and wanted to plead a case for the option to choose different pronouns as we age. I understand that it is your work that you choose to share at the end of the day, and I cannot make you change the story if transness does not fit within the framework, but I wanted to say some people would appreciate the option, imperfect as it might feel from your end. Thank you a ton for reading, even if you don't reply, since this got very long (my apologies)

Hey, thank you. Truly.

First off—no need to apologise. Your message wasn’t pushy or out of place in the slightest. It was thoughtful, honest, and it touched on something I’ve been quietly sitting with for a long time.

How do you explore gender in a world that doesn’t care to understand it? One that’s rigid, brutal, and punishes deviation not with awkward silences but with real, lasting consequences? That tension—the friction between identity and expectation—is something I find incredibly important to explore, even if it’s messy. Maybe especially because it’s messy.

That said, this world I’m building—rooted in medieval cruelty and archaic norms—isn’t one where modern language like “trans” or “nonbinary” exists. But the experience of not fitting, of living in a skin that the world insists you wear a certain way? That’s very much there. You’ll be able to choose a path where MC doesn't feel at home in the role forced upon them. And that won’t be swept aside. It’ll be in the quiet discomfort. The internal tension. The way others look at you like they know who you are—and they don’t.

Pronouns may not change in the text itself, but identity? That’s something that bleeds through more than words. Titles, roles, narrative introspection—those will reflect that inner divide. And yes, the world will push back. Harshly, even cruelly. But it won’t be tragedy for the sake of pain. It’ll be a mirror. It’ll be raw and flawed and honest.

So yes, there will be space to explore gender. It won’t be easy. It won’t be labelled or neat. But it’ll be real. Because stories like this are where it matters most.

Thank you again for the message. It meant a lot.

[cepetriwrites]

Behind the Chapter (Into the Eye Ch 32)

This chapter was a doozy and involved a lot of research wormholes. Let's get cracking.

Language

Trying to depict a different language using italics or valyrian for every foreign language Helaena might encounter was driving me crazy. Also Helaena may or may not be going to other places in Essos and I was having a difficult time conceptualizing how easy it would be for Helaena to understand the languages so I got my anthropologist sister to assign languages to the different places of Essos, on the basis High Valyrian would be latin. Behold her wonderful language map:

(in case you can't read it:

Braavos – Quebecois

Lorath – Dutch

Norvos – German

Pentos – swiss german  

Myr – Italian

Tyrosh – Spanish

Lys – Portugeuse  

Volantis – French

Qohor – Polish

Sarnor – Czech

Mantarys – Hungarian

Dothraki – Russian

Lhazar – Monogolian

Meereen – Slovaki

Yunkai – Yemeni

Omber – Ukrainian

Rhoynish - Gaul

Common/Westeros - English

First Men Language - Welsh

So the Lyseni will be written in Portuguese, if you see Latin that's high Valyrian. I plan to still use High Valyrian words, but this method was helpful with writing. Plus I get to use different languages :)

Mendigo Inspiration

One of Mendigo's inspiration (can't reveal the other due to potential spoilers ;) ) was the character Mary Faber from the Bloody Jack series by L.A. Meyer. Another is the Artful Dodger from Oliver Twist.

Her name was originally going to be Urchin but after Portuguese became the language of Lys I changed it to the translation "mendigo"

Helaena’s Hair

Reference for Helaena's new hair cut

Pearl Diving

I cannot begin to describe the amount of time I spent researching pearl diving and free diving. Details like the fact that only certain families were allowed to pearl dive where inspired from this article. Along with the tools pearl divers would use.

I also learned about a terrifying thing called "surface blackout" where your blood becomes too hypoxic and you can pass out at the surface and potentially die. I used this article to write about the proper recovery breath holds that help prevent surface blackout.

Also I learned there are different types of pearls based on the location you harvest them from.

Festival of Love

This is a piece of world building I made up. The Festival of Love is a seven day festival that is dedicated to the different types of love based off of the Greek forms of loves. These are the seven different types celebrated in Lys:

Eros (sexy time)

Philia (friendship)

Agape (god worship and charity)

Storage (family)

Philautia (self love)

Ludus (playful love)

Sacrificing goats, making a goat-date marinade dish, and the practice of men running around naked and whipping women with goat hides is all inspired off of the real life Ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia. This video provided the recipe and interesting facts about the ancient festival.

Pillowhouse Wine

"It was a tart, almost bitter flavor, it lacked sweetness like other wines Mendigo had stolen before. Mendigo tried another swig, it did not improve, only making her face feel warm."

This sentence is a little personal easter egg inspired from a different fanfic. Alicent Reverses the Hourglass by Reddish on AO3. If you my blog you probably know I'm obsessed with it as I've made a ton of memes about it. Non spoiler. One chapter mentions a wine called Lover's Lips.

“This wine was known for one thing. Men in Lys would drink a copious amount of it the night before they were to spend with their paramour as it would keep a man ‘at his peak’ for longer during the act.

One would only need about half a cup before being able to sustain himself for at least a few hours. Any more than that and the man would experience a fever-pitch of ravenous desire that would confound the senses completely. Too much of Lover’s Lips could make a man impossible to satiate for sometimes an entire day long.” - Alicent Reverses the Hourglass

It's basically Viagra wine, which is basically vasodilator (opens up your blood vessels) which is why it makes Mendigo's face feel warm, because her blood vessels are dilating.

Oyster Bake

This was the recipe that inspired Mendigo and Helaena's oyster bake:

Ironically I spent a lot of time researching seafood recipes despite not being the biggest fan of seafood.

Mendigo's Fracture

The "crushing syndrome" complication Mendigo experienced is called Acute Compartment Syndrome in the medical field. It is when there is increased pressure within a muscle compartment and is a medical emergency. The pressure will deprive muscles and nerves of blood flow and will cause permanent muscle damage, paralysis or death if not treated.

Symptoms include:

Pain - unrelieved by pain medicine (which is why Mendigo complains the milk of poppy does nothing)

Pallor

Paralysis - early sign that starts with numbness and tingling

Pulseness (late sign)

Poikilothermia

Edema

Treatment is a fasciotomy, where they cut through strong connective tissue to relieve pressure.

I had to study fractures and their complications for one of my nursing finals and it's 100% the reason why it was included in the chapter.

This was the video of a fasciotomy I watched to write the scene (don’t watch if you’re squeamish)

Mendigo's Illness

Mendigo contracted mono. Her description of her condition is based off of my mom's quote when she caught mono: "it feels like you got hit by a mac truck, it backed up, hit you again, and then the driver got out and beat you up."

I wanted a disease that would make you feel awful but not kill you because antibiotics don't exist.

Menina uses Kudzu root - a plant from Asia - to treat her fever and mallow root for sore throat.

Philia Bond

I already knew I would have the philia bond, but there is some similarities between it and matelotage. A type of civil union used between European sailors, particularly pirates. There is debate about whether it was platonic or romantic. In Mendigo and Helaena's case it is platonic.

Painting Inspo of Mendigo & Helaena

John William Waterhouse - The Rescue (1890)

[by-glass-and-waves]

Intro post time :o

Hi I'm Glass, 30F (she/her). I spend way too much time with worldbuilding or story ideas or exploring themes SIGH. I'd enjoy building/upgrading my computers if I had the money and space for it >:( I also find driving (without traffic or a ton of stoplights) while listening to music super relaxing (eg my story playlists)

Bluesky

AO3

Dragon's Dogma 2 screenshottery

I really like to draw/write about Narinder/The One Who Waits 🙃

I've got four Cult of the Lamb AUs/storylines on a sliding scale of dark to lighthearted:

Depression Quest (fic, cw: abuse, self harm, depression)

The Courtship of the God of Death (fic, cw: unhealthy/toxic relationship, obsession, jealousy, manipulation, violence, gore, emotional/psychological abuse)

Restart (cw: violence, gore)

19th Century AU

More on the AUs below the cut

Interests: Dragon's Dogma, Cult of the Lamb, Star Wars Outlaws, Final Fantasy IX, Neon Genesis Evangelion, No Man's Sky, Rune Factory 4/5, Skyrim, Fallout New Vegas/4, Nier Replicant/Automata, pre-Destiny Bungie lore + Destiny's Book of Sorrows and a few other bits + Halo's Forerunner Trilogy

My name comes from something I wrote for my oc worldbuilding project:

He pressed against the glass of time, feeling it crack beneath his fingers. He stepped into the tides of space, seeing the water part for his feet. … He broke through the glass, looked down at them again. … He swam through the rising tides to a new world.

Depression Quest:

My very First Idea™ for Cult of the Lamb. It follows the canon ending of Lamb conquering The One Who Waits. Essentially, the Lamb turns Narinder into a trophy husband, and Narinder does not have a good time.

This is my darkest au and includes things such as abuse, self harm, depression, etc. My favorite thing is the fact that Ratoo and Narinder eventually become friends. I've written a chapter but the fic won't be updated often. Tag: #cotl depression quest

The Courtship of the God of Death:

This is the fic I've published on AO3. Follows the alternate ending of The One Who Waits regaining the Red Crown and his freedom, but instead of sacrificing the Lamb, he accepts their proposal to become his Consort and rule over the Cult by his side. He enjoys his victory, deals with the Lamb's affection for him, and processes what happened between he and his siblings.

It starts out lighthearted, then becomes a descent into darker themes such as obsession, jealousy, manipulation, emotional/psychological abuse, and the toxic relationship between the Lamb and Narinder. It also includes some violence and gore. It borrows some stuff from Depression Quest, and involves the majority of my headcanons/worldbuilding. Tags: #cotl courtship, #cotl the courtship of the god of death, #the courtship of the god of death, #cult of the lamb the courtship of the god of death

Restart:

Follows the alternate ending of The One Who Waits sacrificing the Lamb and regaining the Red Crown. He gets bored and decides to time/worldjump to another version of The Lands of the Old Faith, replacing Ratau/the Lamb as the crusader against the Bishops. Too bad he's a thousand years out of practice.

This is more slice of life and includes Narinder and Lamb arguing like a married couple but there's some drama in there. It does include violence and gore since Narinder does have to go on his Crusades and fight his siblings. This one does not have a fic written, it's more ideas I've doodled. Well, I did have a chapter written, but it may be posted as a separate piece instead.

tl;dr Narinder goes New Game+ and becomes the player character (but he really sucks at it). Tag: #cotl restart

19th Century AU:

Created after watching of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma. It follows Prince Narinder of the Kingdom of the Old Faith Amenthes, investor of Ratau and Ratoo Trading Company, who has just moved into Acheron Estate. He bumps into the Lamb by chance while meeting with Ratau, and hires her as his servant after being intrigued by her fiery personality.

It's a slice of life and is a silly, self-indulgent AU written as if it was a screenplay. Maybe I'll post the scenes on AO3 even though they're out of order. Tag: #cotl 19th century AU

Also made a concept playlist (ask box post with song list, WIP) on the AUs because I'm absolutely nuts

I've also written mad ideas and wrote a few bits on an OC worldbuilding thing I've had since like 2010 or something no idea if people might be interested in it and it's as convoluted as the Kingdom Hearts series soooo Tag: #three kids and their pet ghost

[kataraslove]

Do you think Kataang will ever get retconned for Zutara? I can see Bryke/Avatar Studios/Paramount/whoever tf is in charge now for the upcoming movie being like, “To drive up sales we should reintroduce Kataang vs Zutara discourse. Let’s make it so that Katara never actually loved Aang and only settled for him because she couldn’t have Zuko.”

short answer: highly doubt it

long answer: bryke had the chance to give in to fanon and make zutara canon at the end of atla; they didn’t. bryke again had the chance to make zutara canon in the legend of korra; they instead gave confirmation that katara and aang got married and had three children. bryke could have made zuko and katara end up together in old age; we have not seen one instance in which they even interact. bryke could have had them date in the comics, especially now that zuko is currently single. instead, katara spends her time helping rebuild the world with aang. any supplementary material from avatar studios could have indicated that they were spending time together - but the only thing i’ve really seen is stuff like legacy of the fire nation reiterating their friendship during the series. so if bryke never made it canon all these times, they’re probably not going to reverse their decision now. especially not when it’s been 15 years and the canon ships have a lot more support now.

in fact, one of the writers who had wanted zutara even said, “they’re definitely together in an another universe.” and offered no follow up as to whether they canonically had feelings for each other in the current atla one.

i mean, mike dimartino doubled down on braving the elements by stating that the moment in which katara offered to heal his scar wasn’t intended to be romantic. for context, when zach tyler eisen stated that the scene of katara bringing aang back to life was more romantic than the zutara moment, mike offered no denial. mike even confirmed one of my fave kataang parallels in that episode. so, the chances of kataang being retconned for zutara happening with avatar studios content are very slim. and isn’t that the whole point of avatar studios; so that bryke could tell their stories in the ways that they want to?

while kataang is probably going to be retconned for zutara in the live action adaptation, I highly doubt it will in any animated content (not going to say no because if the past lives can be completely removed in avatar lore, anything is possible. but it just wouldn’t be consistent with the canon that they’ve spent establishing over the last 15 years).

finally, the whole “katara secretly wants zuko while being married to aang and maybe could cheat with zuko behind aang’s back” is an insult to katara’s character in general, but it is especially insulting for the version of her character that’s a married adult women with a political career and a baby. even if for some reason she hated being married to aang and/or secretly wanted zuko, I’m pretty sure the version of adult katara that we’re going to see will be way too busy with her own affairs to even contemplate cheating. quite frankly, i should hope that there’s a ton of plot lines that bryke plans on doing with adult katara that isn’t “having a secret affair with her husband’s best friend.”

now here’s what i think will happen (and you can revisit this in two years time if i’m right): i think the marketing of the movie might have zuko and katara stand beside each other. y’know, hype it up for the loudest portion of the fandom who is relying on content from 2008. emphasize on the Fire and Water and red and blue and whatever.

the actual movie content will consist of aang and katara - as lead characters - being politically involved while navigating early parenthood. i think zuko will get a little bit of screen time, enough to build-up events for the rumoured zuko movie (which will likely be a sequel to the adult gaang movie). i think the adult gaang movie will confirm zuko’s relationship with mai. zuko and katara might talk with each other, could even share a nice platonic moment - but that’s about it (and that would be enough to stir up zutara shippers).

meanwhile, for kataang, I think the movie’s plan is to break popular misconceptions that:

aang is a horrible father and husband

katara is a SAHM (not that there’s anything wrong with that)

and i’m not saying that as, like, things that i want to desperately see. i’m saying that based on all the comics that have come out in recent years and all the content from avatar legends. of the two, the second misconception is the one that i’m most confident about that. we will definitely, no doubt in mind, get to see katara’s career and legacy (which I’m super fucking excited about!!!). and the movie will 100% contain a plot surrounding katara. this i can guarantee you, based on everything that I’ve read behind the scenes. remind me to one day finish writing out all the evidence i have surrounding this.

but anyway, anon, I hope this helps give you hope and anticipation? long story short, you’ve got nothing to worry about. look at how beautiful the happy couple looks.

[halichor]

14, 17, 19, 23, 43, 45

hope that's not too many!

Hooo boy this is gonna be really long, so I'll just hide everything under the cut 🥹

14. Introduce an OC with a tragic backstory.

Kastor(ias), also known as one of Driadis' parents! I'm not sure how to summarize their backstory without typing up a whole ass essay with footnotes pointing to the world building, but here goes! I'll literally just type up their backstory to keep things short.

Kastorias, the youngest child of King Kainesdaer and Queen Iodra of Kannar, grew up alongside Malagdaer, an orphaned Danaeira child the royal family had taken in during a visit to Laeces. They were more than just siblings; they were companions, their bond forged over shared lessons, quiet conversations, and unspoken understandings. As they grew, Kastor’s affection for Malagdaer deepened, shifting from a sibling's love to something more complicated, something Kastor kept hidden. But when war broke out between Kannar and Laeces, everything changed. Kastor lost their older brother, Malthior, and then their parents in quick succession, leaving them to shoulder the kingdom's future alone. Their grief was overwhelming, but the weight of leadership didn’t allow for the luxury of mourning.

Amidst the chaos of war, Malagdaer fought bravely alongside Kastor, yet tragedy struck when Malagdaer was killed in battle by the crown princess of Laeces. Kastor, already broken by the loss of their family, spiraled into an uncontrollable rage. Their grief, raw and all-consuming, spilled over into the battlefield, and for a moment, Kastor lost themselves in the violence. Though the war eventually ended, the price was steep, and victory felt like nothing more than a hollow echo of what had been. Kastor, now king, was left with nothing but the crushing weight of the lives they had lost.

17. Any OC OTPs?

I'm a multishipper, so I guess not? I like coming up with 4389123 AUs and shipping them with my own or friends' OCs, so I don't really have any OTPs hahaha

19. Introduce an OC that means a lot to you (and explain why)

All of them tbh Vyonna! I haven't talked/posted about her anywhere yet, but I did post about her partner (Haelenne)... Once. Anyway, I wrote her as a way to explore certain negative aspects of myself (while also facing the consequences of her actions haha) and amping them up to eleven. Gloomy, pessimistic, and morally grey-leaning-to-black as she is, Vyonna was made not to be likable, but relatable in a messed up way for me. The only difference, maybe, is that she has no filter and evolves from being a people-pleaser to someone who gives no fucks about what others think anymore. She may come off as edgy from the way I summarized her character here, but y'all would just have to trust me when I say that they're definitely more to her than just being awful.

43. Do you have any certain type when you create your OCs? Do you tend to favour some certain traits or looks? It’s time to confess

This question held me up at gunpoint hsdfjksf

Long hair? Wavy sometimes? WHITE hair? Darker skin tones? I also like them tall, since I'm not hahaha. Those are the only things I could recall at the top of my head, but maybe y'all noticed more stuff I didn't realize 🙈

45. A character you no longer use?

Oh, a lot to be honest? My Novus Dei OCs up to the present are the only ones I actively draw/write about, but I got a whole universe worth of OCs that existed back then that were more on sci-fi stuff, though my earliest OCs were Victorian-era based and involved a ton of demons from the Ars Goetia. Guess what series I was obsessed with during that time?

[co-mixed]

Daredevil by Ann Nocenti

I was planning on a short review but the more I read, the more details and elements kept popping up and I knew I would be wrong to not point them out. So here it is, a fully detailed review.

Take Your Time

Nocenti took over the title after Frank Miller (and if memory serves me right, several guest writers). It was not going to be easy, especially after the massive Born Again arc, in which after having his life completely shattered by Kingpin (and Miller), Matt returns to Hell's Kitchen to live happily ever after with Karen and opens a legal clinic/addiction hotline. He can't legally practice law, she is definitely not qualified for any psychological help, what could go wrong? Oh well, he's also still Daredevil and Karen still hates it, so there is that. Nocenti had a pretty tough task to rebuild everything and at the same time deliver good stories.

At this point, I notice when a new writer on a title is struggling for the first few months, while they try to establish their own take and find their footing. Once that's out of the way, everything goes smoothly (for most, anyway).

Nocenti's run gets a little chaotic in the beginning, while she starts to set the rules and draw the neighborhood around Daredevil and Karen. And if you expected her to go easy on the characters, you can rest easy knowing that she's put DD through hell. Literally.

Building Hell's Kitchen

Right away she involves some neighborhood kids and gives them all slow-burn arcs. In fact, she includes children in a lot of stories, and they provide a reflection of the dark and complex adult world. They react, they mirror the grown-ups and the things happening around them affect them in an unpredictable way. The arc of the kid who slowly, in the span of several issues, discovered his darker side and ended up being killed by a mob member, is something you barely notice happening at first. And then he keeps coming back, making a small but ultimately wrong choice, which eventually brings him to his demise. All that adds a sense of responsibility and urgency to Daredevil. Something he may have always experienced but didn't necessarily watch happen. Not to imply that no one has suffered from his misguided actions before (RIP, Heather). And not to say that he was responsible for the kid's choices, but said kid came to Matt repeatedly and Matt missed all the signs. If you want to direct the issue back to the kid's parents, I have to point out that most of them were ill-attended. The other kid story is Bullet's son Lance. He doesn't have much to do with DD but he's a reflection of how an impressionable child due to lack of attention can develop a full-on phobia. That's not something that I've seen in superhero comics that often. This darkness is fully developed by Nocenty and if you look closely, has its roots in Miller's stories.

The Origins of Evil

There is a series of one/two-issue arcs with guest stars and seriously messed up villains. And I don't use messed up lightly, I didn't necessarily expect this much darkness from the 80s (which is funny, since I've seen it before). In each story, there's a social issue mixed into the arc and exaggerated to the extreme. Nocenti doesn't just throw a bunch of villains at the hero. Even her minor [evil] characters usually have a rich backstory, which she isn't afraid to share. They can be victims of injustice, bad parenting, or circumstances. And then she gives them a voice and in some cases, it starts to sound reasonable before you actually see where they went off the rails (Not sure if Neya can be called a villain though).

The Main Event(s)

But all these additional stories more or less revive around two main arcs - Typhoid Mary and Mephisto. Mary's arc is very impressive, and not just because it gives tons and tons of drama. Okay, mostly because of that. The worst way for a hero to lose everything is when they get hurt by someone they trusted. But also, Matt walked into this nonsense all on his own (with a little help from heightened senses, sure, we buy that). I've seen Mary before but never really got familiar with her backstory, aside from encountering her in the latest X-men runs when she married Kingpin. But here it's introduction time and literally the best possible way to know all there is to know about Mary. Her two personalities are interesting in her relationships with other characters (she mostly interacts with DD/Matt and Kingpin but only as Typhoid). But arguably the most definitive element is her parts trying to coexist or rather push each other out. Typhoid is a wild, unpredictable, manipulative, and murderous woman, while Mary is a wallflower, sort of like early Karen. They despise each other, obviously. One's qualities are incompatible with the other's. Typhoid manages to almost kill Matt, but ironically, Mary accidentally delivers the final blow. At this point, Matt's mental stability is shaken to the point from which he can't return on his own, so in true DD fashion, he skips town, reviving the Lone Stranger arc from Miller's run. It doesn't help that before he leaves, beaten and humiliated (rightfully, I might say), there's Inferno going on in New York, as in a literal Limbo opening. It takes an encounter with Mephisto and Inhumans to force him to find himself again and go back to New York. But overall, both stories are some of the greatest examples of how to properly torture a character.

I liked Ann Nocenti's take, it was brutal and harsh with the world showing its ugliest colors. She doesn't shy away from a righteous message and she delivers it in a way that resonates. Nocenti also doesn't reduce her female characters to mindless damsels in need of saving. She even outlines it in the arc of Number Nine. In fact, she didn't paint one or the other as the ideal, both Nine and Brandy learned something from each other.

The Big Picture

In my short review of Born Again on Instagram, I mentioned scaling, specifically Miller inviting the Avengers to deal with one of the villains Daredevil couldn't necessarily handle. Nocenti does a similar thing but again, brings it a step further - she lets Human Torch walk a day in Daredevil's shoes. While at first, he believes it's easier than his job in the Fantastic Four, since they deal with Galactus and other massive dangers on a daily basis. But quickly, he finds out that things aren't that simple. What Daredevil deals with, the famous "street level" is different from saving the world, but that doesn't mean it's easier. Saving one neighborhood with limited resources is something he can't handle. This is bringing value to a character that could easily be considered second-tier. Something that's both necessary and impressive.

Other Pictures

But if I get into this, I might end up rehashing everything that happened in the run. That is if I haven't done it already. I want to sum it up, and of course, it wouldn't be even acceptable without pointing out John Romita Jr's art, he was the main artist for the majority of the run and stood out too. It was dynamic and added the perfect amount of emotion to every character and the interiors that surround them.

All in All

See, when I read the first few issues by Ann Nocenti, I was sure I wasn't going to like it. I thought I was missing something so many people saw. But I kept reading and when it ended, I saw exactly what was there and what made it so unique. It's a perfect follow-up to Born Again, in every sense, and it manages to destroy the seemingly indestructible life the characters created for themselves. The best stories are all like that.

[shadowshrike]

for the ask meme, 30, 7, and 39

30. Have you ever written something that was out of your comfort zone? If so, what was it, and how did it affect your approach to writing fic thereafter?

I pretty regularly write outside my comfort zone if for no other reason than writing is extremely uncomfortable to me. To answer less literally - almost anything I've written for Ace of Diamond is outside my comfort zone due to the setting. I'm a very casual baseball fan, have never had the opportunity to go to Japan, and very rarely write anything set in non-fantasy settings.

Probably the furthest I've reached outside my comfort zone was Unspoken, which is a fic with no dialogue. Do I love it? Not really, but I'm glad I tried it. As someone who hears and sees the characters in my head first, anything spoken is a huge crutch for me while writing. I regularly write entire fics of just conversations and then have to build prose around it, trying to get the rhythm of words to evoke the mood I'm going for while still carrying enough information to tell what's going on. Also, Endless Song was a huge departure. It is both the only thing I've ever written in 1st person, and is inspired by Xianxia; a truly crazy combination for a fic about baseball kids.

As far as how this writing has impacted me - it's made me more okay with following inspiration rather than factual nuance when writing. I'm a detailed world builder, so playing in a place where I'm not 100% confident I know what things are 'really like' has been freeing. I still research to anchor the space, of course. I just spend less time freaking out about leaning on the occasional literary shorthand of stereotypes to keep things moving in casual, small fics where the world is not the focus.

7. Any worldbuilding you’re particularly proud of?

Veridian Sky is no doubt the king of this for me. I had so much fun researching to piece together an Almyran culture, and I still think about it (and the final two missing chapters...) regularly.

Honorable mentions for other fandoms to: Endless Song (Ace of Diamond) - unfortunately not very visible in the fic due to it being unfinished and in 1st person, but I have a crazy amount of notes for it since it's completely fantasy and therefore needed an entire world built. Asylum Obscura (Fire Emblem: Fates) - also unfinished, and being years old it's something where I don't love all the writing. However, deeply exploring the commoner cultures of a world you barely see in game, especially how it clashes across national and class borders, was really fun. Life, Loss, and Bearfaced Lies (Baldur's Gate 3) - just finished this, so it's fresh in my mind. The worldbuilding is so insanely complex for this one, and it makes me a little sad that it's tied to a premise which almost no one but me would find interesting in that fandom. I may end up writing some other things that are more accessible to play with this world some more.

39. Is any aspect of your writing process inspired by other writers or people? If so, who?

I honestly am not involved enough in the writing community to get a ton of inspiration from others' processes. That said, I do borrow quite a lot from fic writers I admire stylistically. Ones like you (mareza) or now OAKtoONT in the Daiya space have me re-reading what you write from time to time and trying to identify what feels so good about the words or stories you've chosen. It has me often adjusting my own flow or trying to come at a fic idea from an angle I hadn't considered before.

[pidayforpi]

Confession Time

[...about the "settings" in my Ducktales/Duckverse fan fics]

(If you have been following my "headcanon-heavy" Ducktales stories (such as this, this or this), or my random thoughts/infodump from time to time, you may see that I often refer to something as "my settings". Or, in case of characters, "my Donald"/"my José"/"my Scrooge" etc.

You may also notice various cringy outlandish additional details in some of my Ducktales works (such as the fact that Donald is absolutely mentally unstable, and can and will commit murder; or the fact that Donald (among others) has literal magic for some reason).

So, uh...here's the thing...

[Super embarrassing self-indulgent infodump below]

Before I even started writing fan fics, I have actually already thought out an entire plot and settings for my Ducktales story.

This is something that I...sometimes do (especially in the past). Whenever I get invested in a new production, my brain may automatically generate a "fan" plot and settings using that production as a background, which may get developed more as I got to know the production better (as well as a possibility of adding crossovers).

(Yes DT is not the only one subjected to my cringy mind, but I'm still too embarrassed to share the others at the moment. If you must know, another example is Skyrim)

Now that I realise it, that Undertale story idea is actually an example of that. Personally, I call these ideas "Projects".

These Projects:

→ Are developed to different extents. "Developments" include a complete plot (e.g. an ending?), a comprehensive world-building/settings, and possible messages and themes of the story

[Ducktales has been rather developed]

→ Are of different lengths (Long, Medium, Short)

[Ducktales is a Long Project]

→ Are thought out automatically in my mind. A plot will just pop up, and I will use it, with only adjustments and add-ons. (In other words, once a plot is generated, it stays. I may make modifications as I am thinking it out, but the plot direction largely stays the same)

→ Are thought out in an...anime episode fashion (instead of words). I visualise the scenes in my mind, with music, visual effects and such things that I can't possibly portray in a written story

→ Are...also very anime-y (most of them are Fantasy/Adventure, with power systems and yes, skill names)

[Like Ducktales has its own "Magic" power system, with different categories of magic]

→ May involve "crossovers". Crossovers are usually other productions that are canonly or non-canonly related to the base productions

[For example, my Ducktales Project uses DT17 as the base, but has crossovers from LotTC, Paperinik and Kingdom Hearts. There is also a bit of Goof Troop (or the Goof-verse in general), because Max/Goofy/Pete/PJ are in the story]

[For the Skyrim example, the "other productions" are actually Skyrim mods]

[They may also involve other fanworks/personnel but obviously I can't share them publicly. Not any for Ducktales though]

→ Are 80% non-lore-friendly (I redefine what is lore-friendly lol)

[In my Ducktales Project, the entire event of Season 3 is non-existent, because when I thought of the plot Season 3 had not been aired yet logically it cannot happen under my story]

→ Are something I never thought I could ever share with absolutely any other human being. I have a ton of ideas in my mind that, from the moment of creation, I have prepared to die without anyone knowing it (Because they are just...so crazy or I legally cannot share them due to copyright. It's like your sketchbook of OCs you've created when you are like 12)

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So. What am I trying to say?

When I started legit writing stories, sometimes, I used some of the settings in my Ducktales Project. At that time, I called those settings "headcanons", rather than the entire story being set in an AU.

This is due to me wanting to actually create something for my very much self-indulgent Ducktales Project, as well as share my (very crazy) ideas with someone else. Therefore, I have integrated bits and pieces of my settings into my published works.

...but then here's the problem. I was (is) too embarrassed to fully reveal my AU. As a result, there are now weird, half-canon (to my Ducktales Project) stories that I have written. (which is worse than completely non-canon, to be honest)

For example...

→ That "Wish" story linked above, which is supposed to be an alternate scenario of the Season 3 "Quack Pack!" episode? Is not canon. Simply because anything from Season 3 does not exist in my AU. Goofy also does not inform Donald of the war this way, nor is the war "a war between Light and Darkness" this actually sounds so forced and cringy. It is not even a "conventional war" in technical terms (not a two-sided war, at least), more like an insurgency.

(The entire Kingdom Hearts plot and concept has been basically taken apart and reshaped into something else. Sora isn't even in the picture, for example. It's a completely different story. Another AU, if you may.)

What is canon are the involvement of Goofy, Mickey and Donald in the war (both past and present), as well as everything in the headcanon page in that story.

→ Another example is the "Power of Berserk" story. That is 100% not canon (sorry shippers, donro isn't a thing in my AU). This is extremely embarrassing, because there is a chapter/scene in my Ducktales Project that is called "Power of Berserk", with a somewhat similar but also very different plot.

What is canon are Donald's violent tendencies, and the idea of an Evronian apocalypse. Otherwise that story is super non-canon.

→ The most "canon" story I have written is probably "Ice on Fire" (yes Donald canonly beats up Lunaris in my universe). The only things not that accurate is Panchito's reaction/personality (I made him too dumb/distant from Donald. He's supposed to be rational but sympathetic), and some points in the headcanon page afterwards (e.g. Scrooge and the kids do know that Donald has magic (because magic is very common in my universe; also why would Scrooge need Donald on their adventures otherwise?). They just don't know what Donald is doing with his magic).

Also there's more to that scene, because that is actually an ending of the first part of my Ducktales Project.

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I...cannot rewrite/delete those stories. I may add a label about what is canon or not.

But the most important thing I am going to do is to make an info sheet about my Ducktales Project. This is getting confusing that even I have to write one, if only for myself to read.

It is going to be super long...and super self-indulgent. But I have become less embarrassed to share my ideas, after seeing others share theirs (such as Cursegirl's Furious Revenge AU I mentioned in the last infodump). I feel like, even if it's only my Ducktales AU, I can share it.

I just have to write it out...which may take a while. (But this is like the "2023 Summer of Infodump", where I keep writing these passages instead of actual stories. So the momentum is here...for now)

If I have the time, I will also produce a character sheet besides the info sheet. The info sheet is going to be about world-building, settings and the plot, while the character sheet will focus on...character information.

Yea. Let's see how it goes.)

(7-8-2023)

[katsukiizmoon]

Fanfiction Writing / Reading

Hi everyone, I wanted to make a little post on general fanfiction writing and reading etiquette etc for everyone. For reference I've been writing fanfiction since I was 12, I'm now nearing 23 and I've been on tumblr since 2013. There's links to resources for those that would like them.

-> GENERAL ADVICE

Color Coding Dialogue On Tumblr: While using color can create visual contrast in things like titles or description, using it to color code dialogue can cause problems for those who are neurodivergent or vision impaired. For instance, I have trouble reading things where the dialogue for one character is bright in color. This means I miss out and can't read and support many new writers.

Showing support for your writers: I don't think demanding reblogs is an appropriate response. However, as someone who has been here for a long time, it's important. You can show your support by commenting, liking, reblogging (and reblogging with tags gives brownie points). Generally : liking will be lost in a sea of likes over time making it harder for you to find that fic again but shows you thought it was good, reblogging shows you enjoyed the fic enough to share it with those on your blog (you can even have a side blog dedicated to fics) and would like to find it again, reblogging with tags or comments says that you enjoyed it enough to share it, push it higher in the tags and that you had thoughts. This helps motivate writers ! Feel free to send them an anonymous ask if you're shy, expressing that you really enjoyed their work.

Use of italics and bold in works: Italics and bold should be used to indicate stressing or importance of certain words. EX: "no you did it!" vs "no you did it" ! You don't need to italic entire dialogue unless it's in certain situations (flashbacks, memories, whispers, etc)

Plotting & Timing: Plot and timing can be a really useful tool! Understanding what your characters are doing and having the plot move smoothly is important when writing. It prevents gaps and promotes interest. Even some of my works move a little too fast, and it can sometimes cause confusion.

READ, READ, READ: Reading is probably the fastest way to increase and broaden your horizons as an author. It allows you to gain a larger vocabularic range and new metaphors. And it helps you find what could be plot holes and more.

SMUT ; Cum Timing: I've written this before, it can happen but it's unlikely. I'll make a whole post dedicated to.. smut. But for now. Here's some other scenarios and miscellaneous notes: -> bottom cums really early on, then the top cums later -> top cums extremely early on, proceeds with oral on bottom -> top can't get it up (this happens a bit with drugs involved) for a while and gives pleasure to bottom, then stops and gives up on an orgasm

Those are a few of my main, overall tips but I'm going to link you to a bunch of resources, too. I understand more than anyone what it's like being new to this. But one of the biggest pieces advice I'm going to give you is:

Allow your writing to be objectively "bad" at first. It always comes with practice. My first fanfictions I used "~" like it was a goddamn period. It's okay.

-> RESOURCES

"writing resources : words are hard"

"describing feelings, emotions, and tone"

"au prompt list"

"how to write medieval smut"

"starting a new paragraph"

"writing resources: world building"

"writing fight scenes"

"ways to further develop main characters"

There are tons of writing blogs on tumblr. You can send them an ask anonymously if you have any questions and they may respond with some good resources. Being a little more on the accurate side, even if you accidentally fuck up a bit, gives you brownie points a LOT.

Have a nice day OwO !