#this took a bit but now i can tackle drafts

[xamag-draws]

BBR thoughts 2024

Since I mentioned that I finally dusted off an old project of mine and was ruminating on how I'd remake it, I thought I'd elaborate a little, now that I've solidified some concepts. For funsies

This is gonna be a bit of a long and unfocused one, but I don't share my personal thoughts here often, especially the stuff about my projects I always marinate in. And for once it's something that people have existing context for, so hey why not

So for anyone who hasn't been following me for a gajillion years, The Black Brick Road of OZ was a webcomic that I posted around 2013-2015, back when I was in highschool going on college (which is kinda crazy to think about). It was sort of a darker twist on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, although I definitely leaned a lot more into dark humor more than anything in those first few chapters

I don't think it's available to read anywhere anymore, and I know people have been asking me about it. So here's the full proper archive of BBR, as full as it can be with deceased Flash

I totally used it as an excuse to shamelessly and self-indulgently experiment. It had interactive pages and GIFs and was wayyy too overproduced for what I could handle or what was necessary, but I did have great fun making it while it lasted

Unfortunately, that excess and the fact that I've changed too much as a person by the time I was in college is what ultimately killed it. The direction I wanted to go in was practically unrecognizable from the original idea started back in 2011, so there were many old hold-ups that I felt ruined it

At the time I kinda wished I could start/rewrite it all over, but considering that I pretty much had the entire script done at that point, it felt like a pointless sisyphean task. So I just put it on a shelf and didn't look back for about 8 years, because I didn't know what else to do

Now to be fair, the nature of my art has always been iterative and cyclical; when I feel like my creative juices have run dry I prefer to leave a project to marinate and move on to something else; cycle through other old things and bring in new skills and perspectives into the mix when I'm ready again. Not very productive, but it is what makes me happy to work on my OCs; I'm doomed to hit a wall with them eventually and I need some time to be able to find a new direction

So that said, I'm glad that BBR was left to marinate for that long. I don't think I was prepared, emotionally or intellectually, to tackle it again until now. The Wizard of Oz book (and the entire series of them, really) has always been near and dear to my heart, but there's a lot of context around it that I'm only unpacking now that I'm older

I think I always inherently feel negatively about the stuff I've made in the past, like its faults always jump out to me more than the positives, especially the more time passes. I've never liked that, and I do really appreciate the kind things people have to say about BBR to this day. The fact that it still can be recognized and remembered is very sweet

When I left it, I already found it "kinda cringe", and that feeling only deepened with years. When I took my first look back at it, asking the question "how would I rewrite it now?", at first I took a very cynical approach, as in "everything would have to be torn down"

But the more I sat on it, the more I found that I still see some merit and charm in the ideas I was putting out; I just didn't know how to execute them at the time (not to pretend that I know what I'm doing now, but I certainly know more at least). Turns out a lot of my old concepts could be changed substantially with just a few small tweaks. So I'd say that's a nicer way to think about my previous work

If you haven't seen yet, I posted a first draft of my new designs for some of the characters (the main group, the Goods and the Wickeds). Definitely subject to change, but more or less how I see them now

I'm just playing with these concepts; by no means would I attempt to remake BBR right this moment. Call it a pipe dream among my other ones. But just for fun, this is the direction I'd like to take:

Nowadays I'd probably make it a visual novel, with more emphasis on the visual part than the novel because I'm no English prose writer by any means. It'd still let me play a little with the interactivity while helping cut some corners on the drawing part (only some, I imagine I'd go hog wild anyway)

I've always intended for some events inspired by the sequel books to take place in BBR's past. Stuff like Jinjur's revolt or Ozma's rule preceeds the main events here. So I think it would be fun to follow the past of a few key characters alongside the main story. One chapter focusing on the present quest to see the Wizard, then one focusing on the past events (that are maybe reflective thematically); rinse and repeat

I'm also sticking a little closer to the original text in some regards. Not everything that I enjoy from the books would be translated here, it's still just a very loose fantasy on the material; but I'd like to be closer in spirit at least

I like mature, wise and powerful Glinda, I like kind and vulnerable Tin Man, I like the Wizard being a pathetic yet loveable liar, so I'm sprinkling in more of that for example

I'd like to keep some whimsy, but make it more grounded and a bit more serious to be coherent in tone. I think the original TWWOOZ book was a more realistic fantasy in some ways, even for the standards of the time; I like its simple but vivid tactile descriptions and details like bringing attention that Dorothy needed to eat and sleep

I find it funny that Baum specifically was averse to making his books scary or unpleasant, finding that unnecessary for telling a compelling kids story, but they still can get pretty dark and disturbing, at least for our modern sensibilities. Let's just say that I intend to use the Evoldo and Chopfyt storylines for my purposes. In that way, I feel like a "darker" Wizard of Oz retelling can still mostly be tonally in line with the original and balance it with enough heart and occasional humor

I slowly grew to appreciate the quaint old-timey quality of the original series, as well. The first book is both timeless and very much a product of the 1900s. Originally I tried to give it a little modern or at least anachronistic spin, but it was moreso because it's what I knew best, so these days I'd rather intentionally lean into the time period. Still not fully historically accurate by any means, but at least directly acknowledging the influence

The events of the story span across 40 years of these characters' lives, so I'm drawing inspiration from the entire so-called La Belle Epoque: the time period around 1880s-1920s. Basically I'm cooking, and my soup is old Victorian fashion morphing into Edwardian fashion and slowly inching towards flappers

Some new Dolly outfits

Lots of crazy things, political changes and innovations were happening at the turn of the century, which I think is noted and reflected by Baum in the books as well; the character of Tik-Tok might not blow any minds now, but he was one of the first robot characters in literature at that point; and don't even get me started on Jinjur, etc. Plenty of really interesting stuff one could lightly ponder in an Oz adaptation these days

Aesthetically, art nouveau has always been a big artistic influence for me, and it'd definitely be its time to shine here. John R. Neill's illustrations of the Oz books often keep me company as well. Nouveau architecture in particular fits that fairytale whimsy extremely well imo

I'd allow myself a little bit of art deco here and there, but ultimately its intimidating geometrical splendor is an antithetical to the flowery nature of nouveau and I associate it with a completely different era. Definitely fitting some characters like my Wicked Witch of the West, but shouldn't be overused

One of my main problems with the original BBR was that eventually I lost track of what it was even about; and the original ending felt too mean and unfulfilling to be worth it. Now I'd like to stick to the theme of home and family as my main theme, but in a different, more bittersweet way than in the book

An interesting connection I made is that a lot of my aforementioned older key characters (the Witches, Jinjur, the Nome King, etc) all came from the same reformatory as kids, that's how they know each other. In my recent research I learned that in those reformatories it was usually frowned upon to release the children back to the families, which were seen as the original corrupting influence regardless of the circumstance. The reformatory did everything in its power to cut that connection and make itself the only family those wayward kids were supposed to know and love. That's an unexpected tie into the theme of home that I'd like to explore as well

So yeah that's the current state of it. I have a bunch of outfit concepts I'm slowly cooking, although I'm now sure whether I'd post them... But I do miss these funny guys, and I'm glad some people still do as well :)

[goldenshrikecomic]

Hello, this is the anon with the loaded question on how to start my comic. I figured it would take a while to answer that one, but let me tell you I am so, so thankful that you did. I took up some of your time with that one for sure and just know, that I appreciate it deeply that you gifted it to me. Thank you so so much. My mind is still processing what you gave me and I will reread this probably a couple of times but it is very helpful! Like.. I cannot express how much. And I am aware of that tip with "start a small story" but .. that just is not for me (mostly because when I write anything and even when I try to hold myself to "small" the characters will explode to life and the stories grow on their own, I just add some water, the garden will grow wild either way and while I love that, it certainly does not lend itself well for staying "small" (lord knows I tried)) that's why I came to you too, because you have this behemoth on your hands and I figured, man, if anyone can tell me how to get over that what I consider my biggest hurdle for now, it would hopefully be you. And you did. You very much did. The beginning has been sitting in my head vividly like a movie intro for mh.. a year now. I just could not.. start. But the tip with just.. messing about with the first page and drop it for a bit and just go on from there. Brilliant. I will do just that. Like I said, i will reread your answer a couple of times and also thank you for the link, I will check out the tag for a bit too. Again, i cannot thank you enough for the time and consideration, it is very appreciated.

I'm glad you got something out of my reply! I'm pretty bad at explaining anything in-depth so it's always a gamble if I'm making any sense. After my longwinged reply about first drafts I came across this post which sums up perfectly what I was trying to say:

So go tackle that beast! This is also a nudge to everyone who's wondering if today's the day you start your story. IT IS. Go bullet point! Go doodle! Go put things from your brain on a canvas or a document.

[loveisfriendship]

The worst Valentines day… maybe?

Author’s Note: Hey everyone.

I watched Hawaii 5-0 a while back apparantly and it was the episode with the Valentines day stories and came up with this. Found this in my drafts.

Enjoy.

Love,

Lis

You were sitting in the car with Lou as everyone was trying to find out, how Steve got the shiner and what your part was in it.

“You’re a Seal. I mean come on. How do you get a shiner like that?” Danny argues, making Lou laugh hysterically.

They argued back and forth and soon enough Lou, then Chin and lastly Danny explain why their Valentines day was miserable.

“You know what Danny?” you ask.

“What?” he asked annoyed.

“For someone who always makes fun of Steve and me, about how unromantic we are and how we are not able to show our feelings, your stunt with Melissa is really telling a lot about you.”

Lou was suppressing a smile and looked out the window.

“Yeah, of course.” Danny grumbled and you could hear a faint laugh from Steve.

“At least I don’t have a shiner.” Danny retorts, making Steve shut up.

“Come on now, guys. We have all told our stories. Now you need to tell us all what happened.” Kono interjects. You hear Steve sigh and then hear him mumble something.

“What was that?” Danny asks, before you can.

“I said, fine. Go ahead babe.” Steve answers, giving you permission to share the story. You also sigh, knowing where this is going to go.

“Fine, we had a wonderful evening. Steve took me out in the evening, we had a really awesome dinner. We went for a wonderful and super romantic walk on the beach…” you emphasize the word romantic, for Danny to hear, making everyone chuckle over the in-ears.

“And then we got home, and Steve led me in with my eyes closed. I didn’t know what was coming next, but he positioned me and told me to keep my eyes closed.” You explain, earning curious looks from Lou.

“I hope this is a family friendly version.” Danny remarks and followed by a quiet “Ow”, when Steve hits him.

“Anyway..” you move on. Well when I was allowed to open my eyes, Steve had hid and in front of me was a nerfgun.” And as you say the word nerfgun, everyone groans.

“You’re not serious?” Lou asks and you nod your head at him.

“You two are freaks.” Danny says and Kono and Chin agree. Lou also nodding his head along.

“Moving on!” you interrupt them all “We have a nerfgun hunt around the house. It was fun and a bit childish. And as soon as Steve was out of munition, which always happens to him first, he tackles me to the couch. I head him coming though but miscalculated my shot and…. Well….” You trail off and everyone erupts in laughter.

“Wait with the munition or with the gun?” Lou asks while laughing.

“Kinda both…” you say with a high pitched voice, raising your shoulders and mustering an guilty smile.

Everybody keeps laughing and Danny just concludes with a typical: “That’s why you don’t play with guns in the house.” Which makes them all laugh harder.

But before you can continue, your suspects move and you all get back to the case. But Steve and you are sure that this topic will come up again in the evening.

Taglist: @geeksareunique @fandomoniumflurry @rahma29417 @letsstarsfalling @fairchild21 @fungk17 @woodworthti666 @honestlyoriginalthing @evyiione @everygoodusernameistaken16 @littlewhiterose @reincarnated-ghost @princess76179 @damedoctoroftardis-blog @make-yourownmemories

[alovelyburn]

WIP! WIP! WIP!

Usually when these festivals come around I try to get something together and contribute to the cause. This time I was unable to finish... because I found out about it rather late, and also had a lot going on in my real life.

But I did start something. So I'm dropping the first part of the WIP on you guys; no idea if it really qualifies for inclusion in @griffgutsweekend but I'm cool either way.

All the thanks to @zombiesgohome for basically being my cowriter on the beginning of this - she's my Guts expert. Also bear in mind this is a first draft, ok, be kind.

Quick Background: many many years ago, by which I mean in like 2014, someone told me they'd like to see me try to tackle a romance between current canon Guts and Griffith. It took a while but here we are.

It's called Thirst Drove Me to the Water.

1.

The room has already been thoroughly trashed by the time Griffith opens the door. Before him like broken furniture and upturned chairs. All the vases have been  emptied of their white flowers – their water soaked through the plush rug and dripping down white marble walls. An overturned table has been split in two, and gashes mar the walls where that oversized sword bit through the marble.

It’s unsurprising and yet somehow disappointing. Still, Griffith’s expression remains, as always, stubbornly impartial. Around him, the room ripples and shifts – an invisible wave that runs over the room and leaves all as it was, before. Immaculate. Untouched.

His guest seems less than impressed by this.

Guts stares at Griffith from his place on the floor, his one eye smoldering with black fire, his famous sword resting across his knees.

“You sure took your sweet time showing your face,” he says. There’s a sharp edge to his tone, and a growl deep in his throat. “Finally remembered I was here?” He looks like a caged animal. It’s appropriate.

Griffith tips his head just slightly. “I didn’t forget,” he says, “You’ve been pounding against my barriers all day. I thought I would give you a moment to collect yourself.” Griffith glances over the room to where a small table stands, off to the side, away from the center of the now corrected chaos. He’d had a basket of fruit and bread brought to Guts’ rooms as soon as Guts himself was sent there, unconscious, and still bleeding. Griffith hadn’t tended the wounds himself. He wouldn’t have trusted himself to. He looks at Guts. “Have you eaten?” It’s a question of propriety. From here, he can see the half-eaten bread and apple cores.

“What the hell do you care?” Guts snaps. Despite his words, Griffith catches sight of Guts’ gaze as it moves to the table.

Griffith untips his head. “Hm.” He moves to the table quietly, his fingers dragging over the polished wood, the white lace cloth that protects it.

Typically, when one stays silent during an exchange long enough, the other person eventually feels the need to fill that gap. Guts is a man of few words, yes, but unless he’s changed considerably more than he seems to have done, he is also a man without much impulse control. Griffith, being far more curious about what Guts might say than interested in talking, himself, remains silent.

A moment later, Guts pulls himself to his feet. His sword plants itself in the carpeting and the floor beneath it as easily as it would plant itself into soft ground and grass. The sound of steel splitting marble rumbles, swallowed by the thickness of the carpet. “So, what is this?” he asks. His expression hardened as his gaze. “Some kind of game? Is being King too boring for you? If you’re gonna kill me just do it.”

“Impatient as always,” Griffith says.  It occurs to him that Guts is still in his armor. “And always so demanding for a mad dog.”

“You got some nerve calling me mad.” Guts’ muscles clench. Griffith can see every emotion running over his face, settling in his neck – the tension in his shoulders, the clenching of his jaw. “I ain’t the one who—”

“You can list my sins until morning and I won’t be any more enlightened than I am now.” Griffith’s voice cuts the air – sharp and soft as it is. “You invaded my home and tried to kill me, yet I have been nothing but cordial.” With some minor exceptions. Even now, he can remember the rush of battle, Guts’ steel against his. He had played along, but in the end only one outcome could have come about... and it did.

“Now that we’re here,” Griffith says softly. “Feel free to swing your sword as much as you like. It will do you no more good than it did the last time... or the time before that.”

The weight of that massive sword hits the ground with a crash that jolts the floor... and just that quickly, Guts is rushing at Griffith, his armored fist swinging. Griffith stands motionless for a moment, watching the light catch on the edges of that so-sharp black armor. Watching the barely burning fire in Guts’ eye turn to an inferno. And then, just when Guts is there – only a few short feet away, Griffith reaches up and grabs that fist in the bare palm of his hand... and holds it.

They are close – close enough for Griffith to feel the feather-light stirring of Guts’ breath. That one eye widens in—fear? Panic? It isn’t rage, not this time. There’s something savage inside Griffith that smiles at that reaction. His fingers curl down, and he feels the metal creak, just at the edge of bending, or snapping. One never knows with cursed items.

It's enough to make his point, at least, in that second before he lets go.

“You really never change,” Griffith says, voice quiet but not quite soft. “I would have thought you’d learn to control yourself between the Hill and today.” He flexes his fingers. “You should have tried a slap.”

Guts snaps his armored fist back, pressed to his chest. “What the hell is this? If you ain’t gonna kill me, if you won’t fight... what is this, just some kind of cage? I’m just your prisoner, now?”

“If I release, you’ll just keep coming after me.” Griffith runs his tongue along the inside of his lips. He can almost taste the bitterness on his tongue. “So, yes, I suppose you are.” He looks away from Guts, toward the floor length windows. From here, inside  an obscure corner of one of the palace’s towers, Outside, he can see Falconia spread out before them like a painting – the view from the sky. “Well,” he says, “If you say you will leave here and move on with your life – give up your vendetta and leave me be – then perhaps I will let you go.”

“Like hell I will.” The answer comes too quickly. Griffith almost laughs; Guts says, “You know damn well I won’t.”

He does know. Or, rather, he suspected.

“That being the case,” Griffith says. “Here we are.”

“Yeah, here we are.” Guts raises his head, his back straightening to his full height. It must be terribly intimidating to anyone who isn’t Griffith. “So now what? You can’t just shove me in a box and come by when you wanna be smug for a while.”

“That’s a presumptuous accusation. I don’t recall saying I would be coming back.”

Griffith hears his own voice – hard as marble and just as cold. Guts hasn’t moved. His hand remains pressed to his chest, and outside, the sun is growing crimson with the coming night. Griffith watches the red light dye the white buildings; somehow his gaze refuses to land on the man in front of him, no matter how close he stands. And he’s never had a difficult time finding things to say – it was only ever a matter of whether he had anything that needed saying. Now, nothing that comes to mind will make its way past his lips.

Best to leave. Griffith sighs. “I don't suppose there's much purpose to my staying here any longer. I thought I should explain the situation. But I'll have servants set aside to attend to your needs. There's no need to disturb your... equilibrium any farther.”

“You send your servants in here, you ain’t getting them back.”

Griffith glances at Guts. Lines of tension run up his neck.

“Would you kill them for bringing you breakfast? Not all of them are demons.”

“Fine by me. I don't just kill demons.” Guts shrugs his heavy shoulders... but the casualty of it is affected.

Guts’ face is just as tense, just as angry. ...it’s frightened, too... though it isn’t immediately clear what it is he’s frightened of. Griffith himself, perhaps? That would make sense... though it seems somewhat incongruent with Guts’ personality to show it in this kind of situation.  

No. It’s something else.

Griffith is quiet for a time, assessing Guts’ body language, the way his eye burns. Anger, frustration and fear. If he thinks about it, it shouldn’t be surprising. After all, who knows abandonment and imprisonment better than Griffith?

 “I see,” He says. “I wouldn’t have thought you would want me to come back.”

Something flashes in Guts’ eye – surprise, yes, and then a wall of stone to block out Griffith’s sight... or maybe Guts’ perception of himself. For a moment, Guts is just. Silent. Motionless. He opens his mouth... even so, it takes a moment for him to find his voice.

“I didn’t say—” Three words, and then his voice fails quiet again.

Griffith looks to the table not so far away – the apple core and half-eaten bread.

“Very well,” he says, quietly. “I'll bring you your meals personally. At least for now.” He takes a deep breath and turns toward the door. It’s only a few steps off; he takes hold of the latch – silver and engraved with feathery markings, like most things in Falconia.

“Heh.” It isn’t an actual laugh. Feet away, Guts’ weight shifts. Griffith can hear the clanging metal; it shifts, but doesn’t approach. “Never thought this was gonna end with a damn God Hand offering to bring me dinner.”

“We are not one body, Guts.” Griffith looks at his hand – long fingers wrapped around the silver latch while the metal warms. “Each of us has our own goals, our own priorities, and our own experiences. I am what I am... but I am still Griffith.”

The armor shifts behind him again, and it’s so quiet. Griffith doesn’t look back. “Whatever has become of what we were... you were once the most important thing in this world, to me.” It’s surprisingly easy to say. Perhaps because it’s no longer true. “I will honor that.”

And then, without waiting for a response, he opens the door and steps into the hallway beyond.

* * *

Guts stares at the door long past its closing, his heart pounding violently in his chest. In that moment, hot rage and cold sorrow rushing through him, he doesn’t know whether to scream or cry.

[jessicas-pi]

is it possible for the ask game, if you could do either starbirds and wolves or a guide to the mythical and mysterious (the sabezra mythical creatures au) with directors commentary?

OOOOOH MYTHICAL & MYSTERIOUS DIRECTOR'S CUT ok buckle up I think you've unleashed a ramble monster because this AU has SO MUCH WORLDBUILDING that I haven't got to yet, and I might go off on some tangents. I'll try to restrain myself but I make no promises.

Soooo, I'm just gonna kinda read through it and talk about things as I come to them!

Okay, right off the bat, there's the framing of the fic. It's basically one long scene of Sabine & Ezra hanging out and reading each other's diaries for fun, with a ton of flashbacks. But in the first draft, the framing of the story was completely different! Instead of Sabine & Ezra reading the diaries, it was Rune (their adopted daughter) and Jacen who stole the diaries and were reading them! It had a lot of funny lines, so when I changed it, I saved all the old scenes to be reworked/rewritten into a companion fic.

Oh, another thing! So, Hera is a siren in this AU. Something I learned while researching mythical creatures is that there's basically two types of siren in mythology: the ones that are the same as mermaids, and then there's bird-women with singing powers. She's the bird-woman kind of siren because she flies! (Also, I made her a siren because the first thing Kanan noticed about her was her voice. In the very first draft, she was a selkie, and she and kanan had a meet cute where he very innocently picked up her coat that she'd dropped to return it to her and she thought he was stealing it and tackled him.)

And on the topic of selkies, Zeb's a selkie! He's purple because of a prank gone wrong. (Sabine thought the dye would wash right out of his coat! Honest!)

OOH, so, I just got to the part where Sabine's diary entry is about Ezra joining the crew, and that reminded me! One flashback scene that I wrote and ended up cutting was how Sabine and Ezra met. It was very little-mermaid-esque, but with a lot more confused screaming.

Hmmm, not much I can think of in the next few sections...

AH WAIT OK SO THERE'S THIS BIT!!

It had been rough at the beginning, but ever since he got rid of that red crystal pendant he brought up from the trenches of Malachor, he’d been much easier to get along with.

So, in case context doesn't give it away, the crystal he took from the trenches of Malachor is basically the Sith holocron. Dark side planets/places in general (Malachor, Dathomir, etc.) are various trenches and such in this---the deeper in the sea, the Darker the place. And Malachor itself...

Well, lets just say, I may have been slightly (incredibly) obsessed by the deep sea as a kid, so Malachor is my JAM.

Instead of a Sith temple, that giant pyramidal structure is replaced by an underwater volcano. The various pillars and columns scattered across the surface of Malachor are now hydrothermal vents (my beloveds). There's also a lot of bleached bones---whale falls, and (more creepily) merfolk skeletons.

OHH AND THAT BRINGS ME TO VARIOUS DARKSIDERS.

So, Force-sensitives are all merfolk in this AU (but not all merfolk are force-sensitive). But Dark-side merfolk look much different than regular mer. I'm drawing a lot of inspiration from creepy deep sea animals (also my beloveds). All merfolk have bioluminescent patterns that shift colors, but Dark-siders have theirs permanently turned red. partly because of the red lightsaber thing, but also because no red light reaches the deep sea, so a lot of animals are red because they're essentially invisible, UNLESS they're seen by an animal that emits red light and can therefore see/hunt/kill the red animals, so emitting red light symbolizes how the Dark mer have become exclusively predatory and destructive.

uhhh I got kinda distracted there. ANYWAY,

Oh, there's that line about how Ezra has a habit of curling his tailfin around people's legs so he doesn't float away mid-conversation! So, there's lore to that. Basically, it's a mer-child thing. Little Mer don't have enough control of their body in the water to stay in one place. Kanan doesn't do it, because he grew up with the merfolk and in this AU he was an adult by the time they were wiped out, so he learned to adjust himself in the water with little movements. Ezra was a child when the merfolk were killed, so he never learned that and the habit of holding onto people with his tail has carried over, which is why he still does it as an older teenager.

Pff oh yeah also. that "this is... detailed" thing. I know the details. I know all the details. I will not be elaborating. Some things must remain unknown.

Oh! And the scene where they're talking up in the crow's nest of the ship and it's mentioned that Sabine spends time up there! That was a reference to Krownest! Get it? Crow's nest? Krownest? hehehe i'm so funny

OH OH OH SABINE'S BACKSTORY!! This wasn't elaborated much in the first draft but with the rewrite it got more attention. Although the circumstances are different than in canon, I tried to keep a lot of it the same---Sabine goes into a situation willingly trusting someone who doesn't have her best interests at heart and gets blindsided by their betrayal. ALSO ANOTHER FUN FACT!! In the original version she was an Amazon and not a Valkyrie!! But then I changed it up so she only joined the Amazons for a time after leaving her old life behind. She was determined to join their ranks and fit in, despite all the culture clashes, but when her Amazonian battle-sister left her for dead after she was injured in a skirmish, Sabine cut all her ties with them and left.

Ahh yeah this bit never fails to make me giggle.

“All right, all right,” she laughed. “Maybe I was a little slow in admitting my feelings for you.” “Aha! So you do have feelings for me!” He pointed a victorious finger at her.

At first glance, it's cute banter that hints that their friendship has started developing into a romance. Gains a new level of comedy when you reread it knowing that by this point, they're married.

Heheh the boat ride to krownest scene. Kanan's blind and he still knows they're silently flirting with each other.

OOH! JET! K I'm gonna probably go on a ramble now, anyway: Jet was Sabine's pegasus since she was a child. She left Jet behind when she ran away. During this AU's version of "Imperial Supercommandoes," they're confronted by Gar Saxon and his cronies on pegasi. He tells Sabine that after her mother became the leader of the Valkyries, she "generously gave us access to her stables." In reality, Ursa's hand was forced and the pegasi were taken from her. Sabine recognizes one of the horses there as Jet, and he recognized her. During the fight that followed, Jet's rider was shot, and Sabine grabbed his reins and she and Ezra made their getaway with him.

(In Heroes of Mandalore, instead of being bad at flying a jetpack, Ezra got stuck with a pegasus who hated him and kept trying to buck him off in midair lol)

Hmmm going on...

Oh! Ezra is an ocean Merfolk, and like saltwater (ocean) fish, he can't survive (shapeshifted into his mer-form) in freshwater. That's why it was so dangerous for him to jump in after Sabine fell through the ice---it was a freshwater lake.

Also, the scene where he deliriously asks her to take him to Valhalla if he dies, because "merfolk don't have anywhere to go," is a reference to the original fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, where mermaids turn to seafoam when they die.

Ahhhh yes, the necklace! I think I said this before in the tags of one of my merfolk art posts, but, so, for merfolk, giving handmade shell-jewelry is usually a marriage proposal, but it's not, like, automatically legally binding or anything. So basically, when 15-year-old Ezra gave Sabine her shell necklace, it was the equivalent of if you jokingly got down on one knee and offered your unrequited crush a cheap plastic ring from a cereal box or something, expecting her to roll her eyes, but instead she's like "Aw thanks! A ring!" and she starts unironically wearing the cheap plastic ring all the time and now you realize that she doesn't know it was a joke proposal because apparently rings don't go with proposals in her culture and you can't explain the joke now, it's way too late, and you want to die of embarrassment.

Oh yeah also Ezra found a pair of elaborate jewel-encrusted daggers in a shipwreck and gave them to Sabine. This is a reverse necklace situation--to reuse the metaphor, it's like if your best friend got down on one knee, pulled out a gorgeous diamond ring, and said "I found this in a gravel pit! It's for you cause I know you like cool rings bestiegirl!! :D" and you're like "...uh... thanks!" and you take the ring because it is a cool ring and you do love cool rings and you don't tell him that he basically proposed because apparently rings don't go with proposals in his culture.

mmmm yeah the love's lights scene. ahhh so much I could say. I guess, it was really fun in this part (and throughout the whole fic) to explore how Ezra wasn't entirely human, and how his merfolk instincts would affect him, especially regarding the way merfolk fall in love and the once-a-year merfolk festival. I actually have an outlined idea for a fic in the series that's about weird merfolk quirks and different traditions they have, so I might explore things more in that one.

ah man I am never gonna get tired of writing Sabine deciding to do random impromptu flirting and Ezra bluescreening over it.

oh yeah shoutout to Robert Louis Stevenson by the way, I stole a plot device from him (character hides in an apple barrel and overhears Important Things)

And then Rune and Jacen come in at the end! This was an adaptation of one of the original scenes of the fic that I mentioned at the beginning of this.

One other thing, I guess--the character named Koti is an orphaned mermaid girl that Kanan and Hera took in, so she's Jacen's little sister. the "guppies," as Rune calls them, are her three merfolk siblings--two of them are adopted and one is a sabezra kid. (said adopted children may or may not be rey and finn.) (Oh, and the guy Rune has a crush on? Poe Dameron. Obviously.)

Hmmm I think that's about it for this director's cut! Which is probably good considering I just dumped slightly under 2k words of ramble on ya

Thank you for the ask!! :D

[thesonicpunk]

I just wanted to tell you that I Have Never Loved a Darker Blue is an incredible piece of fanfiction. I adore how you characterize the Konoha 11 and Team 7.

I also LOVE how you integrate modern things so naturally by sticking with the 80s sort of vibe of the modern bits. You breathed more dynamicism and life into the culture of Konoha. I LOVE how you do this so naturally by exploring the theme of lost youth with Sasuke, it makes so much sense that youth would be a novel worthy exploration for his character.

Another massive shoutout I want to give you is for your romance pacing and writing, it feels so authentic, both to the characters themselves and to the experience of slowly unfurling love and the uncertainty in dynamics like that between Naruto and Sasuke.

This brings me to my final fuck yes for now, I love how you write queer love and I hope this piece continues to be explored, how it mingles with their characters identity, and roles within society. I’d love for you to broach this idea in Naruto and Sasuke’s relationship when he becomes Hokage (also would love love love an engagement/wedding plot from you since you’re so gifted with writing their bond, but that’s me being greedy for your incredible talent in this realm)

I love your pacing, everything you’re doing is dope and I admire you for your work. I’m so excited to see such an incredible writer active in the SNS world. I am so inspired by their bond and you give it so much it deserved. I have actually laughed out loud and felt tears in my eyes from being truly caught off guard and authentically connected to the moments you write. So much gratitude and goodness to YOU!

HIIII <3

omg sorry it took me so long to get to this ive been crazy busy... i love characterisation compliments..... keep 'em coming ehe to be fair, the 80s thing is kind of kishimoto's doing!! he really went for it, especially at the begining of the manga, then i think it would create some plot wholes and he abandoned the technology vibes a bit more. but i LOVE including that aspect in :) lost youth.... so sad.... yet so real..... yay! im so so glad you like the romance pacing. i think i took my time exactly because it feels truer to their characters and i'm always happy to know that comes across and resonates with the readers. QUEER LOVE. *big sigh* I hope to tackle this side of things more too when Naruto (potentially 👀) becomes hokage, or how his sexuality/relationship w sasuke will become a challenge in this regard. My idea rn is to do a second part of the fic (making it into a series) which will focus more on Naruto's struggle of becoming (or not, im not sure myself) hokage, and their lives as older adults (so yes! marriage and.... kids 👀). I have LOTS of plans actually, and so many little scenes roughly drafted in my notes, but honestly i'll have to see if/when i can dig up time for them! But it makes me happy that you'd read that if i wrote it, so thank you <3 AAAAAA ITS CRAZY THAT IVE MADE YOU LAUGH AND TEAR UP. that's such a powerful thing T_T thank you so much for taking the time to write me such a lovely message - all the gratitude right back at you and I wish you all that's good in the world. See u around the comments of the fic!!!

[nerdnag]

The time has come for me to finish my philosophy bachelor's.

...Lots of ramble below. I mostly just need to get my thoughts out, but there is a plan by the end!

For those of you who were around in May, you may recall that I struggled a lot to get a sort-of-presentable draft ready for my supervisor, hoping to be able to hand the thing in before the end of the semester, and was then completely slammed down into the dirt by said supervisor when he returned the draft a few days later with... pretty strong words about it. Few of which were positive. I couldn't bring myself to read the comments he'd left in the actual document at the time, because the email was enough to bring me to tears.

Yeah.

I mean, he wasn't wrong, it was just a bit shocking to have him go from "hey, how's it going for you, the thesis treating you well? oh and here's a link to a fun video i found on the internet" one day to almost-kinda-petty critique the next. And also, I am wholly unused to disappointing teachers, supervisors, mentors or superiors of any kind. That may sound strange considering my ADHD, which should in theory have gotten me in lots of situations like that, but my entire life, I've usually managed to make use of three things that have helped immensely to get things done well and on time: 1) special interests/obsessions/hyperfocus, 2) perfectionism and performance anxiety, and 3) high IQ. Number one has helped with motivation and creative flow; number 2 has helped motivate me through shame; and number 3 has helped me "bullshit" my way through assignments/relatively easily create a coherent and acceptable final product without doing all of the actual work I should have done (...and also making the actual work I do put in a pretty good quality).

But for some reason, these tactics didn't quite work out this time. I could come up with many different ideas about why this was, but one really important part of it was probably the fact that I've been heavily overloaded with work at my job and still haven't fully recovered from the immense stress I was under from March 2022-June 2023. I might not be able to recover from that period of my life without doing some pretty extreme changes in how I live my life, and although I've been working on trying to make some of those changes over the course of the first half of this year, it hasn't been impactful enough yet.

And so in the middle of this, of trying to recover from a backlog of both work and stress, while still being under quite a lot of stress at work (although not even remotely compared to how it was a year ago), I was also trying to write a bachelor's thesis in my spare time.

Oh, and did I mention I also took on a volunteer position in my spare time from April onwards that has demanded quite a lot of time?

(Jfc why do I do this to myself. ...Because it's fun and I am bad at saying no. That's why.)

Anyway, enough rambling about what's happened and the reasons for it - long story short, I realised I wouldn't be able to finish the thesis in time, and so I told my supervisor I'd hand it in by the end of the summer instead. And wouldn't you know it, the end of summer is closing in. :)

So with the help of my partner, I managed to finally open the document containing my supervisor's comments, and rather than lose myself in complete and utter anxiety and horror over the words, we could sort of laugh over how unnecessarily harsh he was being. (I guess my supervisor actually was a bit disappointed, since he'd seen before that I was more capable than that. I don't blame him.) I also realised that it wasn't quite as bad as I had imagined, and that my life isn't actually over and done for. So yeah. (He even had a couple of positive comments for me, actually.)

Then we made a plan for how to tackle this thing. I'm going away on the 22nd of July, so the goal right now is to have a finished draft to send to my supervisor on the 21st. Then he can read it, give comments, tell me whether he gives his approval or not, and after I've made any necessary adjustments, I can hand in an opposition version by the middle of August. Since I am currently on vacation, and I do need to actually try to wind down from work as well, I've settled on working on my thesis for 3 hours each day, starting tomorrow (the 13th), and my deadline each day is noon. If I realise after this Sunday that I need more time, I'll increase it to 4 hours every day.

It should work. I know what I need to do, and my supervisor's comments are clear. I enjoy writing and doing research and I will finish this in a way that I'm proud and happy about.

So there. That's my promise to myself. I'll climb out of this hole, fill it in with new dirt, and then start building the collapsed tower of blocks up again.

[thunderin-brainstorm]

Oh I’m SUPER curious now. What would RB’s actual quotes be for the battle stuff that goes on in Legends Arceus? Things like their quotes for how they’d react to seeing an Alpha for the first time, getting hit by a wild Pokémon’s attack, fall damage, being spotted while sneaking up on a mon, low HP, battling a Noble Mon and stuff like that!

ooo you mean like if she had NPC stock dialogue type of quotes? 🤔hmm. honestly the lack of general dialogue options for the player character in PLA kind of makes this easier, but the way i took the story and developed it far beyond the simplified game plot makes it a bit harder lol. actually let me just lift a few bits from what i've drafted already!

her first time seeing an Alpha (or at least the first time she knows it's an Alpha) is actually when helping out Mai with the Kricketune. she's not paying attention to the explanation of Alphas so much as she's just staring at it like :/ "i don't mind bugs, i even like them, but this one is as tall as i am and i don't know how to feel about it"

getting hit by an attack is just a lot of cursing tbh. the first time a Zubat nips her she just starts praying that Poké-rabies doesn't exist please please please plea-- but honestly she starts giving back as good as she gets? she throws rocks at territorial Buizel that try hosing her from a distance, she dropkicks Paras before sprinting away, she gets very good ducking away from diving Staraptors and tossing one of her partners to nail them in the back. after months of being constantly annoyed by Drifloon pursuing her whenever she sets foot outside after sunset, she actually spins around and grabs one dogging her footsteps and literally POPS it with her bare hands! it's this kind of irritated pushback at local wildlife that earns her a dangerous reputation in Jubilife

her reactions to the Nobles vary wildly. battling Kleavor is mostly just. sad. this is an old creature being pushed to his limit by an outside force and she pities him despite the fact he's already managed to cut open her shoulder. Lilligant is more of a whirlwind she doesn't have time to think coherent thoughts about when she's just trying not to get hit, trying to breathe through the smoke, trying not to twist her ankle again, trying not to slip in the mud-- ouch being tackled by a plant ballerina SUCKS. dealing with Arcanine is... terrifying. RB isn't in there alone at least, she's got Iscan backing her up, but that's one more person to worry about and the active lava should be boiling them alive and it's raining so she can barely see through the steam and oh my god i'm going to die. Electrode is the worst one by far, being so fast and so dangerous and probably the most stressful event she's ever had to survive. with Avalugg by comparison she's almost willing to die, simply because the Noble is so huge that she feels like she's trying to fight a force of nature and honestly if she fails she's not going to blame herself for losing against a mountain.

sorry i don't have any specific dialogue, i've drafted 150k words worth of outline but haven't actually gotten to the prose part yet!

[shakespeareaddict]

Fix Your Writer’s Block (without using AI)

I’ve been posting a lot of AI hate here lately (almost like...it’s becoming my brand....) and one of the things that gets my goat is the propaganda belief that AI can help writers who are struggling with a story in some way, shape or form come up with the next line or fix their plot or what have you. This advice is misguided at best and destructive at worst.* 

Still, complaining about something without actionable advice for how to fix it is not really my vibe. So for those of you thinking: “But I really need help!/But what am I supposed to do if I get writer’s block?” I have good news for you: Writers have been tackling writer’s block since...probably the invention of storytelling. There are ways to get around it if you are stuck! 

So, here’s a non-exhaustive list of tips and tricks to deal with your writer’s block, no computers necessary:

Put down something mediocre and come back to edit it later. It’s easy to get caught up searching for the “perfect” word or sentence, and waste a lot of time staring at a blinking cursor. But that’s not what a draft is for! Your goal is to get as much of the story out of your head and onto the page as possible; you can always edit it later, once you’ve had some time to think. (Though you might find that when you come back, the “mediocre” bit is actually better than you thought!)

Use a placeholder and continue writing. This is another tactic meant to keep you writing when it’s a small block, instead of falling down a research rabbit hole for an afternoon or otherwise being distracted. If I need to name a minor character who appears for two lines, I will often just ID them by their function in the story and circle back to it. Eg: “Officer <<COP>> took their statements very professionally and gave them his card.” When I edit, the all-caps and the brackets are a big reminder that, wait, I need to name this guy!

This tactic also works for research! If you need to know if bees have teeth or who said a cool quote, don’t spend an hour researching that when you should be writing! That is a problem for editing!

This goes triple for fanfiction writing, especially for a fandom with a lot of convoluted canon. I write a lot of Star Wars stuff and I like to reference “canon” planets and events in my fics; but if I try to research those references while I’m writing, my writing session becomes an endless Wookiepedia Delve. I just put “<<ICE PLANET HERE>>” or “<<CHECK SPELLING>>” as reminders.

I also cheat sometimes and write “<<end scene>>” if I’m not sure how to end a scene.

Take a break. Get up, stretch your muscles, and go do something else for 20-30 minutes. This tactic is perfect for when you realize you don’t know where a scene is going, or you’re stopping and starting a lot with your work. I recommend either light physical exercise or light household chores - something that engages your body without engaging your mind too much, so your subconscious can continue working on the problem.

This is also a great way of sneaking in self-care while writing. Hydrate yourself, go to the restroom, eat if you haven’t eaten yet. This kind of physical stuff has a huge impact on your mood and brain function; your writer’s block might be a symptom of your body needing something!

Go back to the drawing board. I have a bad habit of never outlining before I start writing - I know what the first three scenes are going to be, so I don’t need an outline! Then, about halfway through the story, I realize I have very little if any idea of what happens later. Taking a step back and typing out a quick outline (simple bullet points, like “Conan calls his sister for advice”) helps me keep on focus for the rest of the story, even if I decide to go off-outline.

Rubber-duck the problem. This tactic is for when you notice a larger problem with your work - you realize there’s a plothole, or you’ve written yourself into a corner, or you know how your story ends but you have no idea how to get to there from where you are now. “Rubber-duck debugging” is a programming technique where you explain a problem you’re having with a computer to an inanimate object (such as a rubber duck). Simply explaining a problem can often be enough to help you realize what went wrong.

No rubber duck is required! You can try this technique on dogs, mugs of tea, or family members who don’t know what you’re talking about but who make listening noises at the right time.

Finally, seek help from other writers. There are loads of ways to do this and all that you need is a community of fellow writers - or even just one writing friend! - to reap the benefits. Plus, it works on just about every kind of problem you can imagine having. Asking for help can look like:

Posting a question in a Discord server or other large group chat (eg: “Which of these two sentences sound better?” or “Do you guys have tips for writing betrayal?”)

Bringing your work to a writer’s workshop of some kind (I did a lot of this in high school/college and highly recommend joining a group where constructive criticism is offered, even for just a few months! Not only do you get feedback on your work, but learning to give other people feedback vastly improves your editing skills)

Discussing your problem with a writer friend

Finding a beta-reader (either a friend or otherwise)

*Besides the fact that you are feeding your work to a program that can and will keep it forever and might easily recreate parts of it later without your permission or knowledge, and besides the fact that most AI-generated “writing” isn’t actually that entertaining or good on a technical level so the value of whatever output you get is not actually that high, the best way to learn how to do anything is to practice doing the thing. If you turn to an AI every time you hit a stumbling block in your creative process, you are going to continue hitting stumbling blocks and your skill will not improve long-term.

[monsterfactoryfanfic]

Thanks for the tag @sohkrates! I fear my Work in Progress list is significantly shorter than yours, mostly because my tabletop work is limited to the occasional game/supplement and videos. The rest of the time I'm writing book(s)!

In Progress

Next video: ??? I spent a lot of energy on Spire and now I'm just searching for an angle. I think it might end up just being about my system-neutral supplement "Finley: A Midwest Fantasy" and how it's something of a goodbye to Indiana for me.

Next game: Not working on any tabletop writing right now!

Book: The pitch for working title Ravenous is "What if countries exploited during America's Cold War coups tried to assassinate Henry Kissinger, and also he was the pope, and also the Church created Kaiju for the US military?" Basically doing a full rewrite because the first draft was not working, but hope to have around 70k of that by November!

Trunked/Maybe Will Return To

Games: I was collaborating with Dani Belonia on a Resistance game last year, and we just never got around to finishing it, but I think a lot of the setting stuff from that was really neat. The hydraheron from Finley actually originated there. Hopefully I can continue to recycle some of those ideas in future work!

Books: I've written about a book and a half that very few people have seen. The first, The Chains Nothing Can Break was my first novel and still is the creative work I'm most proud of. Marathis colonize Britain with steampunk mechas, a satire of both steampunk and adventure stories set in the Raj. Maybe one day we'll find a publisher. The other book, which I never titled, was about paleontologist necromancers who used magic crystals to do archeological digs, selling the bones of dinosaurs to be used in a war against sexy moth aliens. It was GREAT concept with TERRIBLE execution, ended up in some not great narrative territory, so I canned it. Will try to pull some stuff from it in the future, but yeah, sometimes you gotta take the L.

Would Like to Be In Progress

Games: Would still like to work on something with the resistance system, just because I think that's such a fun way to manage damage and consequences in a narrative-first format. But yeah, unfortunately I'm just better at setting/fluff than mechanics! Been writing for 6 years at this point, and only designing games for 2 (not counting D&D homebrewing lol). Anyway, if you're looking for a setting/fluff writer, I love that shit.

Videos: I definitely want to do something with Heart, just because Howitt and Taylor do a great job of building evocative worlds, but it'll be a while yet before I'm ready for another long one. I thought I might tackle Gubat Banwa, but it seems like DragonKid11 has that covered. Plus tactical games are a bit harder for me to get into, but who knows, maybe someday! I also posited the idea of doing a Tabletop 101 series last year, where I took a look at games that were considered foundational to the indie scene as it currently stands and why they were important. I think that might be a cool project, but like, how many more dives into Apocalypse World do we need at this point?

Books/short stories: Just off the top of my head- prophesied chosen one who is Dual Eligible for Medicare and Medicaid comes to slay private health insurance; fantasy retelling of the 2nd Punic War; examination of Lord of the Rings from the Orc/Haradrim pov largely based off of Charles W. Mills The Wretched of Middle Earth

Anyway, I'd love to see what folks like @titanomachyrpg, @goblinmixtape, @cassimothwin /@chasetheghost, and @kidnickgames are working on! No pressure if you don't care for these tagging games!

[vgilantee]

SORRY LOL

it basically starts with a mission, just reader and price, the typical trope going to take out some manufacturing site/base, someone gets a face full of Mystery Chemical before they’re chased off.

price gets blasted with something actually not that bad but has an uncommon side effect of triggering an artificial rut—not real but sure feels like it. he tries to tell you to go to the extract without him but of course can’t convince you (you fight briefly because i want price to yell at me 😌) and he ends up banishing himself to the corner of the room to ride it out and suffer

you’re checking the perimeter, gear trying to distract themself because price is putting out every single fuck-me pheromone in the air and it’s getting very hard to ignore but price is the picture of self control for now (head tipped back, neck straining trying so hard not to breath too deep because he can smell you and it’s driving him insane but he is a gentleman and will absolutely NOT jerk himself off in the middle of ths mission drugs be damned)

well eventually you notice he’s a liar and he’s touching himself, right in front of you just going to town, he’s just so messy leaking everywhere and even if you look away you can hear it

and he still doesn’t let you help him (trying to convince himself more than you at this point), but he breaks a bit and begs orders you for a shirt, pair of socks—literally anything in your pack that smells like you (“just to take the edge off”)—or maybe he’d asked for one of his own and snapped after you took too long with the zipper “just give me one of yours”

and both of you getting increasingly frustrated with each other because that’s literally your underwear he’s got wrapped around his cock and he’s still being a total dick about being your captain how you’re his subordinate. and he just starts rambling about how he can smell you and how good he’d treat you—but only after he punishes you for staying here and teasing him, because maybe you wanted this—to watch him fall apart at your feet and finally breed you well and good

you don’t mean to moan that loud, burning and shaking and biting the inside of your cheek raw, but that’s literally all it takes for him to snap, off the ground and pressing you into the wall. the whole time he’s fucking you he’s got his face in your neck, trying to mark and claim you and promises he’ll keep trying until it takes and boy do you let him

that’s all i got so far lol there’s another draft that’s the same thing but very dead dove dark. this is the happy ending 🤗

price doing his best not to just tackle and mount you but he’s so needy?!??? RORORORORORORO

[ciaossu-imagines]

Hey did you get my pms? Hope you're well today

Hey there! So…I've been told by several of you lovely readers that you really appreciate how I'm always really kind to all of you and really understanding. And I try really hard to be kind, to make this a happy, peaceful, fun blog for you guys. And I'm really sorry for anyone I'm going to disappoint here because I'm not going to be as nice as I normally am.

I have received your direct messages. I was sleeping because it was late at night when they came in Thursday night. So I wasn't able to read them until Friday morning before work. I then worked a full shift, as I do have a job that takes up quite a bit of my time, so I wasn't able to answer right away and honestly, I needed to take some time and think about how I wanted to reply to them because of things I'll cover later on. This came into my account around the time I was eating an early-ish supper on Saturday, so the messages hadn't even been sitting unanswered for very long, to be honest. As said, I work a job, volunteer with Mental Health, have to sleep and eat, have regular therapy appointments, have friends in real life I try to see in person or reply to their texts with some regularity (even though sometimes it can take me days or even a week to even answer friends texts) so I don't have as much online time available and what time I have online is largely spent lately writing the actual requests and posts for the blog (mostly in advance, and then finding the time to proof and then post them), clearing my inbox and draft folders. I've been honest and upfront always on this blog that I'm very much trash on replying to private messages and that it does take me a while to find the extra time, and social battery as I am an introvert and sometimes just can't find it in me to want to talk to people directly, to want to message back. On top of that, I had five other people waiting for replies to their direct messages to me that I hadn't replied to either at that point, now four of them, and some of their messages have honestly been sitting there for over a week. I am working on answering people back, but please respect the fact that it can take time and, maybe because of my neurodivergence, but reminders that the direct messages are there and hey, answer them because someone is waiting make me feel really pressured and stressed and definitely not eager to reply or talk to a person.

Now, since you brought this into a publicly answerable space by coming into the inbox, and because honestly, I've been really struggling with how to respond to your messages, I'm going to respond publicly, because most of it I would like to share with everyone who reads this blog. I mean no active disrespect to you by doing so, and will apologize in advance if you take it that way. Below is the private messages sent to me.

First, I do want to say, I do see the compliments in the message. I really appreciate them, they're very kind words, I appreciate the time you took to write them and the fact that reading my posts inspires you to write as well. Thank you very much for every compliment written.

Now, we'll tackle the answers, and things I did want to say, not only to this person but to everyone, step by step. I'm really glad that this person, and many of the others who read my stuff, do see the amount of effort I put into each and every one of my posts. Especially with the AU's, for most of them I really do take at least a day or two, sometimes longer, to really think them out, build up the worlds, figure out how the characters would really translate to this newly built up world, how they'd interact with each other in it, how their relationships in canon can be translated over. For some AU's, I do go and do research to build the actual world…going to use the most recently posted AU here, the mall AU with Eyeshield 21. As mentioned in that post, I went and actually pulled up maps of a mall to consider all the potential stores and since Deimon was really the focus and I set them working at a Cabela's like store, I was like…I know I've been in a Cabela's but how are the stores laid out again, what are all the different sections in a Cabela's and not only did I go look on their website but I phoned a friend I'd been meaning to hang out with anyway and was like 'shopping date? Only thing I ask for stores is that we stop by a Cabela's and you don't make fun of the fact that I'm not going to buy anything, just want to walk the store haha'. With the AU's, the match-up's, the headcanon requests, I'll sometimes even get stuck on whether an idea in my head really matches up with the character and does truly feel right, so I either go watch clips of the character or research, see what trivia I can dig up to either double-check what I already know, or see if I missed anything. So you are right in that, yeah, there is a lot of effort put into my posts and my writing. And I am so, so, SO happy and not at all bothered by putting in that amount of effort. Writing these posts, coming up with the ideas, spinning everything out, it is fun for me, it is something I enjoy, so please don't think that I am complaining about that, just wanting to explain why I'm going to go the direction I am in this reply.

Plain out blanket rule on this blog - if you see something on here you love and you come up with story ideas, with additional headcanons, with something you want to write, draw, do anything creative with? Please, please feel free to do so and to share those things publicly if you are comfortable. I do ask that you give me or my post credit for inspiration, because that would be the polite thing to do and tagging me in it so I can see what you did and geek out and love up on it would make me very happy, but I will be able to shrug it off if you don't, with the only exception to this being The Ever Young, where I do demand credit at the very least because that is at least a year, if not more, of solid world building and character building on my side.

Honestly, even though the AU's and even some of the headcanon posts have given me serious story ideas and I would love to, and plan on, finding the time and creative energy to properly write them out, the fact of the matter is that as writers, based on that one idea, both me and someone else can write it as a story and our stories are honestly probably going to be drastically different, because we'll have different ideas, different views of characters and relationships, different styles and tones to our writing. And I get being inspired by others - I've never made it a secret that the delinquent!Shouhei fic I write and post on here is inspired by some absolutely brilliant and inspiring headcanons shoheiakagi (if you're a fan of K and not following them, please click the link and check them out because they are wonderful and I personally really love their blog and how they help keep the K fandom so alive and active) wrote on their blog and that without those, the fic wouldn't exist.

This particular person though? I'm not sure I love the idea of you taking my ideas and running with them for one very important reason, and maybe it's really mean and petty of me, but it's the reason text on that screengrab of the messages is highlighted. Please make no mistake - what I do on this blog, the headcanons, the AU's, the match-up…everything, really. This is all very, very VERY much writing, just as much so as writing fic. I've written, in my storied fandom career (which started on Quizilla, way back in 2002 guys, yes I am the cryptkeeper), short fic, long fic, roleplaying posts - both as an original character and as canon characters, comfort letters to people from their favourite characters, quizzes, choose your own adventure stories, and what you see posted on this blog and my former one polycanons. And I can absolutely guarantee you that they are all forms of writing, that they all can be extremely time-consuming and hard to write in their own ways, that they all take effort and creativity. To reduce what I do on this blog into 'not exactly writing'…to be honest, I struggled with whether to even answer the messages and how to do so because I do accept my neurodivergence means I might overreact to things at times and I wanted to give my brain time and space to really think on what you sent to see if I was potentially overreacting. But honestly, it's now Sunday, three days after the messages were sent and while I would have liked a little more time to process and think about this, this person seems to want a more immediate answer so… I might be overreacting and I might be being petty, but I am also stating my truth when I say that the way that was worded came off to me as so incredibly dismissive of my hard work on my posts and a little disrespectful of me as an actual writer, to the point where it really invalidated any compliments you did give.

Honestly, while I love each and every single one of you, my constant, lovely readers, and will terribly miss you (my heart will, honestly, ache a little over the loss and I will carry you lovelies in my heart and wish you well) I will ask, as I'm asking this person, that if you really honestly and truly hold the opinion that what I do here on the blog is 'not exactly writing', if you can't even give me that baseline of respect, then please unfollow me and please do not use the ideas that I, as a writer, come up with.

[gwyns]

I keep seeing e/riel’s say how Gwyn wouldn’t make a good spy because she couldn’t even keep Nesta’s secret, but I’m confused, because what secret are they talking about? I can’t genuinely can’t remember.

I know e/riel’s love to say how Elain would make a good spy/her story is being set up for that. They said in Wings & Ruin she stepped out of a shadow and Nesta was surprised at Elain being behind her (in Silver Flames) that she wondered if she was taking lessons from Azriel or the twins. If Elain was a spy we would’ve gotten something about that in his bonus chapter, but we didn’t. And I don’t think her story is being set up as a spy. It doesn’t fit canon Elain. She wants to be desperately seen and, I don’t mean this in a bad way at all, but no one is really seeing her. Not even Azriel, but e/riel’s will obviously say otherwise. At the same time thought they change the plot of her journey/story. It goes in a circle: she’s a spy, she and Azriel spying on the mortal queens, or looking for dread troves, or it’s the prison/dusk court, or she’ll become High Lady or High Queen of Dusk (but I thought Elain belonged in the NC?🤡), or she’ll wield Gwydion since it’s the twin to Truth Teller, or she’s connected to the Illyria plot/Ramiel. They keep backpedaling her arc so it can fit Azriel’s. They want her to have a choice only if it’s with Azriel.

Elain does have multiple choices, and what if Elain chooses to be with Lucien, or chooses to leave the NC and travel, or chooses to be a courtier, or to be happily single? They claim to love Elain, but they keep tying Elain to her love life. I’ve seen a lot of Elucien’s and Gwynriel’s actually take the time to theorize about Elain’s arc without it being tied to a love interest. Small little bits sure, but they think what will be best suited for Elain and her needs instead of just tying her to needing romance.

And Gwyn actually did show spy qualities during the Blood Rite, even though e/riel’s don’t acknowledge that and instead choose to mock Gwyn over the fact she had to be carried/couldn’t even climb a mountain, however, Rhys also had to be carried. And before Gwyn had to be carried, wasn’t she spying on that beast and got it to attack the Illyrians and took their food? She was also crying and didn’t want to leave Nesta alone. Sounds like a good friend to me. I’ve noticed that e/riel’s have been a lot more aggressive ever since that bonus chapter from HOFAS with Az dropped.

yeah no they're definitely projecting because nesta didn't have a secret? gwyn didn't blab anyone's secrets?? i genuinely have no idea what they're even referring to

yes exactly, if az were giving elain lessons in anything, he would've mentioned it in his chapter. i never saw nesta's comment as "foreshadowing" or anything like that, it's just her making a silly comment on how elain snuck up on her. nuala and cerridwen are very good at being sneaky, duh, so it wouldn't surprise me if elain did pick up some of their mannerisms. they are the closest things she has to friends currently (even tho they're being paid to watch her lol) and friends pick up things from each other, even speech patterns so it's not unusual in my opinion

ahhh i remember the days when e/riels vehemently denied there even being an illyrian/ramiel plot. gwynriels and az fans in general have been saying this since acosf. everyone thought nessian would deal with the growing illyrian problem, since it was teased in the original draft for acosf, but sjm pushed it back and only reinforced that they'll be a problem soon. meaning she decided to have someone else tackle that issue, someone like azriel. they always contradict themselves, how am i supposed to take any theories or analysis they present seriously when it'll just be thrown out the window in 2-3 business days?

i love thinking about what elain's arc could be, it's true we don't have much on her now but it's not going to stay that way forever. i know she'll be tied up with koschei in some form (and unintentionally free him maybe?) and that she'll likely visit different courts before going to the continent to finish the koschei plot. i have ideas for things that could be included in her book, like traveling with jurian and vassa, them picking up briar somewhere along the way and maybe even some forced proximity with tamlin since his court is in the toilet at the moment but those are more so headcanons than possible sjm crumbs lol

point is, elain as a character doesn't give us a whole lot to go off of on surface level but tbh if people actually cared enough to dig a little deeper and use some critical thinking, it's not hard to get a good, general idea of her personality. some people just refuse to put in the effort and reduce her to whiny or flower girl or some other thing

yup! they love to try and diminish gwyn's (and the other valkyries tbh) abilities. sjm showed us how they won the rite, it was through their strong love of each other. that was the whole fucking point of the blood rite in acosf. we knew they were best friends before but i feel the rite only proved that they're sisters, that they'd do anything for each other. minus the constant threats, it was a very beautiful thing. they just hate that sjm had gwyn spy and do it well, because we had az around the same time telling cassian that spying suits him. they know that was an intentional parallel and it upsets them because gwyn got a lot of development they wanted, and expected, for elain

totally lol. everytime we get new information that seems to stray further from their e/riel vision, they go full bully mode and yell at us for our lack of reading comprehension when, honey, i didn't do anything. if you're so angry over what's going on, over what is being set up for these characters, take it up with sjm!! damn, it's not our fault you got so attached to a ship that was seemingly never intended to be more than fuel for the elucien tension fire

[owlsinathens]

Good morning on the last day of this first ever Greysnow week! Today is an extra day that we pay the iron price for, so I'm continuing that theme by shamelessly reccing OUR fics today.

Near Mint (surface marks do not affect play) by MymbleHowl @st-clements-steps

Rating: E

Summary: All Time Top 5 Break-ups (in chronological order)

1. Robb

2. Jeyne Poole

3. Renly Baratheon

4. Kyra and Patrek

5. Gilly

Jon Snow is not getting into the Top 5.

Dany says: Where do I start with this gem? It's the High Fidelty AU I had no idea I needed until @st-clements-steps came up with it and then I was already gone, hook, line and sinker. The title in itself is already genius, but then when you read further that pales in comparison to how fucking brilliant this is. The AU is perfectly translated and all our beloved characters and their stories drafted for the fic fit seamlessly. All the Top 5s are hilarious and relatable and/or discussable, and inside all of that you have two sad boys who need to find their way back to each other ♥️ Please do yourself a favour and go read it, and then go and read all of the author's works, because Greysnow or not, her way with words is one of the most unique and fascinating things I've ever encountered.

Mirror at the Wall by @selkiewife

Rating: M

Summary: Theon is reunited with a resurrected Jon at Castle Black. Jon has suffered significant memory disturbances and Theon must help him remember who he is.

Dany says: This. Fic. Is. SPECTACULAR. Two men, broken beyond recognition, but still there, still alive and now reunited after being through the wars - and they do recognize each other (sobs galore!!) The attention to both Jon and Theon's characters is stunning, the descriptions gritty and evocative, the whole AU idea so so SO good. Special mention to Satin, the true MVP. 2 more chapters of this masterpiece are coming, and I couldn't be more thrilled! Go and read and subscribe and bookmark, you won't regret it one bit.

Law of the North by theonsfavouritetoy, aka @owlsinathens, aka – well, me

Rating: E

Summary: Balon Greyjoy has once again declared himself king, sealing his son's fate in the North. Jon doesn't like Theon, never has – but he also cannot stand aside and watch an innocent man being put to death. So he decides to do something that'll change everything.

Dany says: I had a really hard time trying to choose one out of my 100+ Greysnow works (I have either too much time or too little self-control, or both), but in the end I decided to go with my longest fic (so far, I'm pretty sure 1x1 will be double that in the end). I can't objectively say anything about the quality, but I can tell you it was a blast to write and I still love everything about this fic.

....you know what? Since I'm paying the iron price, I'll be even more shameless and rec another of my fics.

Tighter by theonsfavouritetoy aka me

Rating: E

Summary: Theon carefully exhales, feeling his ribs expand against the fabric enclosing his torso, safe and comforting, and yet…

“Tighter.”

Dany says: So, there's this corset in a world where corsets don't exist, and from there everything snowballed and took on a life of its own, resulting in a massive project of a post-GoT Theon lives AU that I'm still in the process of tackling (Using this chance to say that the next ch of 1x1 is in the works). And it all started with Tighter. Which is a fantastic ficlet, and I'm only cringing a little saying that out loud. Please go read it 😏

[greyias]

Fic writers' end-of-year roundup: 2022 edition!

Tagged by @elveny -- thank you for the tag! Tagging @queen-scribbles, @keldae, @storyknitter, and anyone who wants to grab it!

I would say 2022 was a mixed year as far as productivity goes! I was actually actively writing most of the year (with pockets of "too tired" draining me every now and then), but a lot of it was on a longfic that I waited until I had finished the first draft to start posting. But I think it was successful overall, as I was able to

Words written (published or not, WIPs included!): I'm probably just going to count published, as I have been working on some WIPs in the background, but that requires more math and thinking than I have in me right now, so we'll go with a little over 43k published, although it's a bit higher with some WIPs and other behind the scenes stuff.

Smut scenes: None published this year

New things I tried: Chance Encounters, which was my big experiment in a different method outlining/prewriting for long form fic. It took me a long time to get it into finished form, but considering the massiveness of the fic and the fact that it's complete, I think is a success in itself.

Fic I spent the most time on:  Without a doubt, Chance Encounters, my little 36k novella (that for some reason I thought would only be 10k 🤷‍♀️)

Fic I spent the least time on: I think this little ficlet, that was basically me bashing out a musing/headcanon in like maybe an afternoon.

Favourite thing I wrote: Once again, almost by default of taking up most of my year Chance Encounters, although I did have a lot of fun writing it. It's rather self-indulgent, and a fun, mostly lighthearted adventure. I think runner up is the Outlander!Theron fic I've picked back up on in the past week or so, considering I keep having to tell myself "No, you can't start posting yet. You haven't proofread anything beyond maybe the first chapter. You don't even have a title"

Favourite thing I read: @storyknitter's Medieval AU, which I have adored every little entry into. So much so, I slid into her DMs to see if she could get me a compiled version to load on my Kindle for a day at jury duty that got rescheduled for 2023. I wound up re-reading the whole thing in a couple of days.

Writing goals for next year: Finish the Outlander!Theron fic, and finally exorcise that beast from my mind. I've also got some other long, lingering WIPs that I'd like to try and tackle. I'm having enough fun with this pre-writing/writing I'm doing on the Outlander!Theron fic, that I'm hoping I can bottle that energy up and use it on some of my other unfinished babies. I also really want to write more in the Chancesverse, because I love that little AU so much. Also, I want to try to find a way to write more consistently, which is more driven by my energy levels. I also have this crazy urge to try and write on some original stuff, but we'll see where that lands. If I can get a good enough handle on fic progress, maybe I can bottle a genie and spread that magic to something I can get published.

[nikolaraftis]

Another question that comes to mind - how did you come to title the book and series? Do you have thoughts on how it has evolved?

When I first sat down to seriously consider this series and my characters and world, the first idea I had at the core of it was "these are people who have gone through things people should not, and there are characters very different to each other that by the end of the series, probably have little in common, except for one thing: they are made from clay, as all living things are." I took inspiration from Greek myth and how humans were built from clay and given fire. Hence, I started off wanting to name my series Bones of Clay. Didn't really like it so much, neither did my friends when I posed it to them, and so I settled for a while on Hearts of Clay, which seemed more fitting to the themes and the romance sub-plot that's always running underneath it all. Because the whole mix of this series' aesthetic, I guess, is a bit of a strange one. It's the 1920s of another universe, where dragons are real and almost every magical thing you can think of, but there's also a fantasy mafia of werewolves, but also a royalty plot, but also there's a cult, but also also there's romance and saving the world from great evil and prophecies. This is kind of why it has to be a series with shifting focus. And because the books follow Zena Moralis' journey through all that, I named each book, in order: The Return, The Rise, The Tragedy, and The Fall. With each book's purpose quite clearly, explicitly set out for both her and some other characters, including Geronimo.

Nearly a month ago, I decided I had to rewrite the draft I had because nothing was going the direction I wanted and since the months I had left it abandoned my style had changed and so had a lot of my ideas and direction. By then, I had quit things with my writing partner, and it helped spur on this idea that I wanted to make my series anew. It needed a new name. I actually recruited my sisters to help me when I was outlining in my notebook. I sat down on a bean bag and said I needed them to give feedback on some book title ideas I'd jotted down. From there, we narrowed the list and the themes and direction -- they insisted on knowing what the series is about, basically, and all the key events of each book -- and we came up with a new titles: Bones Of A God, Skin Of A Jewel Snake, Blood Of A Moon, and Heart Of A Clay Hourglass. From there we went: these are all ingredients to something, but what? And in the end, it was unanimous that this was what made a Moralis. Specifically, Zena Moralis. It's the weirdest, kind of hair-brained, out-there things considering I have not written out this entire series yet, but it made me decide that this would have to be the Moralis series. Because, Moralis: bones of a god, skin of a jewel snake, blood of a moon, and heart of a clay hourglass. Geronimo is indeed the other main character, but this is still Zena's story.

A lot of the original ideas have carried over, as you can see. If we played word association with how I think of the series, it'd look something like: hourglass, immortality, time, love, betrayal, politics, blood, forests, myths, gods, siblings, patricide, loyalty, swords, sun, compass, stars, void, war, grief, death. The very earliest draft I ever wrote of this was when I was about 13, and even back then there was political drama and looming war, but also love and, well, dragons and strange fantasy plants and pink bees that drink fruit juice that I called "berry blies". I have to say, 13-year-old me was on another level. And until now, I was planning to write this series as Young Adult and then let marketing put it into YA Fantasy or Sci-Fi or Supernatural or wherever it wanted the books to go. But with all the stuff I want to do, the topics and themes I want to tackle, it just makes more sense for it to be an adult series. I feel we have a lot of (possibly questionable at times) YA fiction books, and some trashy adult ones that are either too stuffy or full of toxic contemporary romance or just fairy porn. I know some that aren't (Leigh Bardugo's Ninth House and Hell Bent comes to mind) but I wanted to add to the area in my own way. Folks always say to write what you'd want to read, and I'd want to read adult fantasy, because I've grown past the teenager stage and, honestly, have been finding it harder to relate to some of those YA books even now when I've barely hit 20. Roundabout way of doing it, but this genre sort of change also influenced the titles.

Admittedly, the titles of the books feel like they border on too fantastical at times, but they fit better than the old ones did. It seemed too boring to have such plain titles.

All in all, my thoughts on how this has evolved is... it's kind of incredible. And I'm a little scared that the longer I leave this world and these characters (it's already been about 7 years), the more it will change still, and then I will never be done with it. I'm kind of at a point where I want these books done and out to the world so that I can have new ideas for new worlds and stop expanding this one, otherwise it feels like too big a beast for me to write, period. The way the titles have evolved reflect too how much more this series is coming into itself though. I build this story, of course, but at the same time the naming process and the writing feels kind of like an excavation where the more I write and alter things just a bit, the closer we get to the true image I see in my mind.

Anyway, sorry for a bonkers long response, whoops. Hope it answered your question! <3 (As you can see, I love rambling about my work)