#this was a really cool story idea in my mind

[papaya-twinks]

a kids’ fairytale - l.n - p.2

Warnings: single!father, single!mother, swearing, mentions of pregnancy, mentions of sex, anxiety, picking nails/skin

Pairing: Lando Norris x fem!reader

Summary: Having a child so young hadn’t exactly been Lando’s idea of a fairytale, but what happened next, well, more suited to his kind of story ✨

other parts

Why? 

Why, why, why had Lando given you the wrong name? 

He could have just told you who he was, dealt with the “oh my god, you’re Lando Norris?!” for a bit, and then maybe had a friendship. 

But no, he’d lied. And now here he was, staring at your message, dread lining his sculpted features. 

“Heyy! You can bring Honey round ours today, we should make it a weekend thing! As soon as your renovations are finished, we’ll switch it up x”

God, what was he supposed to do on race weekends? 

And even more so, the occasional times when the camera would pan to his daughter, how could he possibly even fathom trying to explain that. 

What if you hated him and made Alec stop being friends with Honey - the amount she’d gone on about him clearly showed she’d be distraught if that would happen. 

Was he overthinking this? Probably. Was he panicking? Absolutely. 

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“Daddy,” Honey said, sitting on the bed beside Lando as he braided her hair, carefully intertwining her brunette curls. 

She had insisted on matching with Lando, both of them in black joggers and a black hoodie, along with some white trainers. 

“Honey,” Lando said, pushing his stresses to the back of his mind.

“I’m gonna take some of my toys,” she said, as Lando nodded absentmindedly. He wasn’t really listening, nor paying attention as she stuffed toys into her bag - one of them being her little McLaren car.

“C’mon, Y/N said 11, we have to leave now,” Lando said, tying her laces and leading her out the door. 

“Who’s Y/N?” Honey said, letting Lando take her rucksack. 

“Alec’s mum,” Lando said, shoving his phone into the back of his pocket and walking beside his daughter. 

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You had a humble home. Not big, nor small, not fancy, nor plain. Comfy and cozy. 

Yet, still a big contrast to his place, big and fancy and typical of a multi-millionaire. Sometimes, he definitely regretted choosing this life style. 

“Hi,” you smiled, opening the door and giving Honey a wave. 

“Hey,” Lando said, clearing his throat and trying to act cool as he took in your outfit, a pretty black dress and some heels. Cute. 

“Come on in,” you said brightly, leading Lando into the living room as Alec and Honey went to speak and play. 

Your house was cozy - with candles, and plants, and some of Alec’s toys on the sofa.

“Sorry about that,” you said, moving the toys out of his way as he sat down, accepting the cup of tea from your hand.

Well, at least now he felt like a proper parent, sitting with another and drinking tea. 

“…Oscar?!” you snapped your fingers in front of Lando’s face. 

You’d clearly called that name multiple times, to no avail. Shit, Lando needed to get used to that name now.

“Uh, sorry, zoned out,” he lied, sipping on his tea as you nodded, that pretty smile still on your face. 

“So, uh, Alec and Honey get on well,” you said, “but tell me about yourself, then, what d’you do?”.

Ah shit. “I’m an…engineer, fix cars and stuff,” Lando said, lying through his damn teeth, but you bought it. He almost felt bad. 

“Nice,” you smiled, “I’m boring,” you laughed, “still in Uni,”. 

“Uni? What are you studying?” he asked, leaning forwards, clearly more happy to know about you then he was to talk about himself. 

“Art History,” you said, “boring old Renaissance,”. 

“No, it’s cool,” Lando said honestly, “it’s unique but in a good way,”.

“That’s what my mum said when I got accepted for that subject,” you said as Lando snorted. 

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Surprisingly, Lando wasn’t hit with a ton more questions, and you two got on quite well. 

The tension had broken and it seemed like it was now Lando’s life mission to see how many times he could pull out that damn gorgeous laugh.

Just when he was about to crack another joke, he felt Alec tapping on his leg. 

“This is cool,” he held up a McLaren model car, Lando’s face paling. Fuck.

Honey was beside him, blissfully unaware of her father’s nervousness as she nodded.

“Look mama,” Alec handed you the car. 

Double fuck. 

“This is cool,” you said, admiring the little orange car, and looking closer. 

“Where’d you get it?” you smiled, looking down to Honey as she looked proudly at the car. “My daddy bought it for me,” she said triumphantly. 

“Mama, can I get one too? Then me and Honey can match!” Alec smiled. 

“Maybe, maybe, I’ll look into it,” you said as Honey grinned. “Did you know, it’s actually dad’s-?” she started. 

“Yeah, it’s my friends,” Lando lied, slowly nudging Honey to go back to play with Alec. 

She frowned but said nothing, as Lando shoved the car back into her bag. 

You were awfully confused the whole time - it was just a car, yet Lando seemed so…defensive. Weird. 

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“C’mon Honey, time to go,” Lando said, beckoning his daughter down the stairs as Alec peeked shyly from behind your leg. 

Your son always did seem to go rather shy when he was around Lando.

“Me and Alec baked these,” you held out a little box of cookies as Lando gave you a smile. 

Shit, this meant he’d definitely have to come back. 

“See you Monday,” you said as Lando waved to Alec, giving you a one-armed hug as he led his daughter from the house. 

“Daddy, Alec really liked my car,” Honey said proudly, “can we bring your helmet or your Miami trophy next time to show them? You show everyone!”. 

That made Lando freeze. 

“Darling, we can’t…we can’t just show her,” Lando tried to explain, “she doesn’t know who we are, and we can’t go around showing normal people these things,”.

Honey frowned, digesting the words. 

“So…So I’m not normal?” she asked, her eyes glazing over as Lando froze. 

“What? No, darling, you are normal, of course you are, I didn’t mean it like that…” he groaned silently as he watched her eyes fill with tears.

Great. 

He’d upset his daughter, dug his hole of lies 10x deeper and almost fucked up a decent friendship with another parent. 

And all in one day too, surely must have been a record for him.

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And so, Monday begrudgingly rolled on by, the little ‘being normal’ debate long forgotten as Honey excitedly rushed down the stairs. 

If she’d been excited the first day for school, she was definitely something else today. 

“C’mon daddy! I wanna tell Alec all about the racing!”. 

Lando groaned. “Sweetie, look,” he said, kneeling down in front of her, “we can’t tell people about my racing,”. 

“What? Why, you literally have it filmed on TV-,” she started. 

Why the hell did she inherit his attitude? God.

“Listen,” he said, putting on his stern voice. He really did hate using his ‘stern’ voice, but desperate times called for desperate measures. 

“You are not to tell Alec about the racing, because we don’t want people to go all over us and start harassing us, okay?”.

“Fine,” she mumbled, crossing her arms. 

He hated this. He hated being angry at his daughter for his own mistakes, and telling her off. 

But he had no choice

He hated to admit it, he hated that it had been, what, barely a week? And he already liked you. 

A lot more than he, as another parent should, but he couldn’t help it. 

You were so pretty and nice and kind and you’d clearly raised your son well. 

Whether he could say the same, he didn’t know. Honey wasn’t spoilt or unkind or anything Alec wasn’t, but sometimes he felt may he could’ve done things differently. 

Or, should have done things differently, that is.

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“Hey,” Lando smiled, wearing one of his hoodie and joggers sets again, the hood pulled over his head. 

“Hi,” you smiled, watching as your son and his daughter went to talk together, or, well, Honey talking and Alec listening. 

Just as Lando opened his mouth to speak, he was interrupted by a rather excited woman standing behind him. 

“Hi, uh, can I get your signature please?” she held out a little notebook as Lando swallowed the lump in hid throat, catching the confused look om your pretty face.

“Sure,” Lando said monotonously, signing it before turning back to you with a forced laugh.

“Sorry. One of those faces,” he said. 

The same excuse he’d given last time. For goodness sake, this wasn’t going to plan. 

You didn’t question it, just moving on your conversation.

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“Hello?” Lando asked, answering the phone, an unknown phone number on the screen. 

“Hello, Mr Norris? I’m calling from your daughter’s school,” the voice said. 

What the fuck? What had she done? 

Sweat was starting to form on the back of his neck as he cleared his throat, nodding his head and waiting for the voice to continue. 

“We’ve taken her to the office, she’d been holding and showing other students a sort of…trophy?” the woman stuttered. 

Trophy…? Trophy. 

Shit. How had he not noticed the damn trophy missing from the cabinet?!

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“This goddamn girl,” Lando grumbled to himself as he rushed into the office, seeing a very grumpy Honey standing with her bag and the damn Miami trophy beside her. 

“Darling!” Lando hissed, “what are you doing?”. 

He didn’t have time to hear her answer as the teacher tapped him on the shoulder, a concerned look on her face. 

“Sir, she’s not allowed to bring items such as…this to school,” the woman said, looking entirely bemused as to the trophy and its importance. 

“I’m aware, I’m aware,” Lando said, “I didn’t know she’d bring it, honestly,”.

“We highly recommend you check your daughter’s bag before she leaves,” the woman said. 

And Lando hated that. Hated how he she looked at him like he didn’t know what he was doing. 

And in all honesty, he didn’t!

He had no clue, but he didn’t like people hinting that he didn’t.

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“Daddy! Are you mad?” Honey whined as he held his hand, his grip tight round her small hand.

“Yes!” Lando said through gritted teeth. 

How she’d managed to stuff the trophy into her bag, he didn’t know. That, and the fact half of it was sticking out her bag too.

“Daddy, I just wanted to show Alec and I might have showed a little more-,” Honey started. 

“Honey,” Lando snapped, “just..don’t, okay?”.

And to make matters worse, he’d heard your voice behind him, calling out his name. Or rather, ‘Oscar’s’ name.

“Just keep walking,” Lando told himself, his free hand balled. 

But you’d caught up. “Hey,” Lando said, putting a fake smile onto his face.

“What happened? Alec mentioned Honey and some trophy- is that it?” you looked at the metal trophy dangling from his hand. 

“Uh yeah,” Lando said, swallowing the lump in his throat again. 

“Can we…speak?” you asked, letting go of Alec’s hand. Shit, Lando was fucked.

“Cool trophy,” you nodded, stepping away from the kids, “so, um, is there…anything I need to know?”.

“About?” Lando said, his voice unnaturally high. 

“Anything,” you said, sighing, “maybe, you know…where the hell you got that trophy from?”.

“I used to do football as a kid,” Lando said, turning the trophy in his hand so you couldn’t see the ‘1’ embezzled on the front. 

“Oh, right,” you nodded, seemingly buying his lies. And he felt so fucking horrible.

“Well, text me when the renovations are done, and we can come round,”.

[modmad]

hey so, was SKIP! ever on American TV? and if so, how?????? cuz I am 100% sure that I watched SKIP! on the TV when I was younger, like, an actual child kinda younger. it was like PBS or something showing student animations I guess?? and I was so enamored with it, I was desperately upset that I had no idea where I'd be able to find it again because I didn't know what it was called. and then later on I just happened to read tpoh (cuz i love webcomics) and there it was. right beside everything else. do you have any idea how crazy that is. It was like finding a long lost friend! Anyway that was years ago but I just wanted you to know that, since I don't think I've told you before but I've been following you for years.

Also your doodleduck comics are REALLY GOOD and are my single entry point into that kind of older-ducktales stuff. (also this is kind of random but I think your comic about gladstone and white guilt is one of the better works of art I've seen on that subject matter which I find very impressive)(source: I am black lol) OH AND HOW COULD I FORGET!! The princess and the jester is, like, phenomenally well made both visually and with its writing. It literally gives me CHILLS to read it. Frankly everything you make is so gorgeous, I kind of want to be like you. In the back of my mind when I'm like "what kind of artist do I wanna be?" your little checkered blog icon always pops up eventually haha. ok bye!!

;A;

damn this whole message means a lot to me, and yes! for a short time VFS was airing on a tv channel, I forget which but that was very cool and they gave me 500 dollar bucks which was a huge windfall for impoverished student mod :D :D :D it means so much to me that you like my work and found me again, and that particular duck comic was so scary for me to make but I've had so many wonderfully supportive messages from people like yourself that I'm really glad I stuck to my guns and listened to it. that was another 'seized from beyond by something bigger than myself' story moment... I'm glad it paid off and I hope I can continue to make things that scare me shitless but do some good in the world.

[meraki-sunset]

so your crow strider au gave me inspiration for my own au, but i've built up the idea in my brain so much that now im scared to try to put it to paper (oops) did you ever deal with this while making crow strider? (and if you did, how you got over it would be much appreciated thanks fhdjks) also your art is cool :]

Hi, sure, i encountered a few blocks when writing CSAU and other projects. I think my method comes down to a couple rules

You need to know how the story ends from the start, so everything in the story leads to the end. Things can change about the contents of the story as you write it and you change your mind about the events that will transpire in it, but you need an end goal you can build your story towards. Most importantly, this is what allows you to add foreshadowing for said ending and structure the narrative in a clear direction. Otherwise, you might come up with a cool ending too late and regret some choices from past chapters that now don’t help this new ending you want

On that same note (and i’ll proceed to copy and paste from an old post) You need to have a Word document with a rough timeline of the events from start to finish. You need to know how it ends from the beginning and how they get there. It can be really, really vague, but it has to be there. It can go like

. They start the game, the trolls bother them.

.both games go to hell

.scratch

.trip, develop relationships

.new set of kids/teen drama

.old kids they get there

.to hell again

.John retcons everything

.new timeline

.they win

And that's homestuck simplified, Those are your Acts. With them, you will know where you're going and if you need to change something earlier. Everything will be constantly up to change of course, but you will be going from point A to point Z more easily.

From there, you go to every point in that list and create a Word document for all of them. I have them in different folders to have every act separated and in order.

A folder for each Doc for every Act, Numbered, and in each one make more lists like that one telling what happens, for example

WordDoc1 - ACT 1 "They start the game, the trolls bother them"=

.John needs to get his game

.introduce Rose

.introduce the trolls on pester chats

. John gets the game

.introduce Dave

.etc

And those are your chapters. Now you can know the extent of what you want to do and if it makes any sense.

I addition to that, every Folder can contain not only the Word document for the Act but also relevant texts and art that are connected to the Act, so evey folder is all about that specific act and any inspiration for it.

Another piece of advice I can give you is to hint at anything important. That's a rule of comedy; actually, the comedian usually closes the show with something related to the first things they said.

That works for everything, and makes people go, "Oh the thing! The meaningless thing they said earlier, it was a clue all along!"

Interconnect it like a web, and that web will stop the story from falling

Homestuck is so ridiculously interconnected that you lose track of the stuff and objects that repeat that have no way to be where they got to be, songs and people and events that are too similar to not be connected but nobody addresses, things like that make it feel like you're dealing with a universe and not just a line of events.

3. Yet another thing, it's something I'm still trying to assimilate, and is that less is more, sometimes things don't need to be said, specialy not bluntly, and an expression, a gesture, a flinch can summarize them. Backgrounds can be reduced, and ideas can be conveyed.

one example is, In homestuck, it's never said that Dave was raised with lack of food. He never sais it, but it's shown in how happy he was to find a warm bottle of juice in his closet, how there is only weapons on the kitchen and no sign of food, how he later sais he never learned what the purpose of a fridge was until he saw it on tv. If someone is lacking something, don't have them say, "i grew up without X thing" show what filled that space in the absence of X thing.

Instead of some character saying, "My dad was never there for christmas" have them say how they thrited for presents at the local goodwill, payed with their lawn mowing money and put the presents under the tree themselves for their siblings and mom.

4. Something that I always have in mind when writing the dialogs and sketching the scenes, is

"I have an idea; what's the easiest way for someone to get the idea, to get the feelings i want to transmit from the idea?" I made the art something I could handle drawing hundreds of times, simplified the coloring, the aspect symbols, the way I draw backgrounds, the way I write dialogs, etc.

That will save you time and work and could prevent you from getting stuck with a project too big to handle

5. This is the most important one: The first draft’s only purpose is to exist.

Writing is like playing darts sometimes; you only get closer to hitting the center by missing it and learning what not to do. That’s an actual rule on animation and a motto on the Disney office. “Get it wrong as quick as you can,” because when you learn what you’re doing wrong is when you start learnign what doing it right means.

If it helps, title your first draft “the dumb version,” because that’s what it is—the version to get the idea out of your head, and then you built over it.

On the same note, once you write "the dumb version" don’t correct it. Rewrite it. It’s annoying, I know, i know, but fixing and fixing a text only carries the mistakes from the first draft, and everything looks kind of disconnected, because it ends up being a Frankenstein text of all the versions of the story mixed together.

This also applies to art; that’s how I handle both writing and drawing; if it’s not working, hold onto the core idea, new page, restart.

Rewriting it puts it in perspective; it feels like a text of its own, with a clear intent in mind.

I think that’s all I have. Making a story is mostly about managing your strengths and weaknesses, organizing and not being scared of it not being perfect.

Hope this helps.

[strayheartless]

Zakkura Ideas from the games:

While playing through Remake and Rebirth there’s been a couple of scenes that I’ve thought about that have potential for sweet Zack lives Zakkura moments. So since I’m a lazy critter who’s currently knee deep in GenGeal week writing, have some ideas I may or may never use:

1. The first being the walk around sector seven. Tifa is showing them around, chatting animatedly with Zack who’s willing to be Clouds voice when he blanks a question. Then the weapons shop owner yells at Cloud, and Zack just watches the internal shutters slam down behind the blondes eyes. He’s about to snap back in Clouds defence but Cloud mutters “leave it” and walks out.

Again, when they go up to stargazer to see marle she insults Cloud. Zack can’t help the string of pure Rhapsodos grade poison that drip off of his tongue when Cloud defensivly says he’s doing his best. Zack snaps at Marle,

“and what would you know about his skills? No offence ma’am but you don’t know the first thing about Cloud and I’d ask you to watch your mouth when making sweeping statements about his abilities. I ain’t got no quarrel with a woman who knows her mind, but I do when that mind thinks it can belittle people on the virtue of their looks. Clouds got skill in buckets and just cause you ain’t got the time or inclination to learn, that ain’t his problem.”

Tifa’s speachless, Marles impressed, Clouds a little turned on by the thick Gongaga accent that snuck through in the middle there.

2. After Cloud falls into the church Zack goes looking for him. It takes hours but they finally bump into each other by the gates to sector seven. Zack is all at once relieved and mortified that Aerith saved him and hilarity ensues as Cloud mentions Aerith had some excellent stories to tell about dates gone wrong. “How come you never built me a cart for all the flowers you apparently bought from your secret girlfriend?”

“She wasn’t secret! You and I hadn’t met! Aerith and I only broke up after modeoheim!”

“Ah yes ‘sorry Aer, Angeal really messed me up, I gotta get my head straight before I can treat you right’ At least it wasn’t over the phone,” Aerith giggles.

“No fair no fair! It wasn’t like that! Cloud and I didn’t date for a year after Angeal died! I’m serious!”

Cloud and Aerith share a mischievous look. “Should we forgive him?”

“Na, make his suffer some more, maybe he’ll cry.”

Zack spends the rest of the evening at the mercy of their teasing.

3. The calm date, except it’s not Aerith and Cloud it’s Zack and Cloud. Clouds not got the issue of thinking he’s Zack in this AU so he remembers nibelhiem the way it was. Everyone in the group knows he wasn’t a soldier like Zack, but Cloud keeps getting these moments where he’ll forget any time has passed and ask what time their due back at the tower.

So they have a little debrief as they stare out at the town, and Cloud leans on Zack unexpectedly saying “thank you for taking care of me. I know I’m not what you signed up for,”. Zack immediately makes him turn to face him and is all like “sweetheart, no. Okay? We’re not doing that. We both went through hell, and just cause your brains taking a longer route to recovery doesn’t mean your not who I fell in love with, got it?”

Cloud gets all flustered and knocks his hands away, turning, but then whispers “you love me?” And Zack just grins, cause good he’d hoped Cloud picked that bit up.

4. Costa Del Sol, Zack lets Cloud wander on his own, cause he’s not as worried here. He himself goes wandering for some beams to patch the holes in their hotel rooms. When he’s done Jonny lends him some beach wear and he heads down to go cool off in the sea, only to find Cloud crouched over looking for sea glass.

“I’m putting my foot down at no more than three small pocket rocks Cloudy skies. We ain’t got the space for friends.”

Cloud stands and pushes a big bit of deep blue sea glass into Zack’s hands. “Here….” It’s all he gets before Clouds trying to escape but Zack catches him.

“You giving me pretty rocks is literally my favourite thing ever. You’re like a baby chocobo.” He gets kicked in the shin for that but he’ll take it. “Can I start calling you piko?” He gets punched in the stomach.

5. Corel mako reactor. The second Cloud nearly goes over Barret still catches him but Zack’s dictating what to do. He’s getting Cloud lane on his side, checking his pulse and eyes. When the others go to get the cart, Zack stays with Cloud, Aerith and Nanaki.

“Is he gonna be okay?”

“He’s fine. As scary as it sounds this has happened before, I’ll carry him if he’s still sick.”

“When did it happen before?”

“After the lab… told you we were there five years.”

“You never said what happened.”

“Bit o’ this, bit o’ that.”

“But what?”

“Torture Aerith. They tortured him.”

“You mean ‘us’?”

“Whatever… Cloud seemed to take the brunt of it. Never did find out why.”

6. Golden saucer. Zack comes to check on Cloud and finds him sleepy and a little vulnerable.

“You feeling better enough to go win me a chocobo, chocobo?”

“I’m better enough to kick you off the bed for the name.”

They go round holding hands and taking it slow. They’re not hurrying, just having a date. They find Tifa and Aerith hiding together and give eachother knowing looks. Then just before Cait Sith appears to ruin everyone’s day, Cloud asks if they can just sit for a bit and just be together. It’s a sweet moment.

7. Zack head butting a guard to try and get to Cloud in Corel Prison. Cloud telling him to just trust him. Zack still having a bit of PTSD induced rage as they’re taken.

[bonefall]

Hey, what makes a character a 'plot device but not a character'? And how do you not do that? I'm trying to do it on purpose but also I need to still make them interesting because it's on purpose, yknow?

A good skill to pick up is to learn to criticise criticism itself. A "plot device" is simply a thing that moves the plot along, it's a neutral literary analysis term! Usually, when people are angry that "a character has been used as a plot device," it doesn't mean they hate plot devices. It means they're gesturing at something deeper.

Runningwind and Bumble are equally plot devices in their deaths. They are both killed by the antagonist to escalate political tension. Runningwind is rarely "accused" of just being a plot device, and yet, we're talking about Bumble for the same thing.

So, why?

Well, Runningwind is just a background character, but in life, he was a part of the community. He was characterized as impatient but responsible. Yet, he wasn't SO important that he died with a bunch of unresolved plot threads.

He is mostly an extension of the entity of ThunderClan. His killing by Tigerstar, and the fear and paranoia that settles on the group after this, feel like a progression of the story insteas of something forced.

Bumble, on the other hand...

Is hated immediately by Gray Wing, when she's established as Turtle Tail's friend. Bumble's abuse at Tom the Wifebeater's hands invites even MORE investment. The rejection is shocking and upsetting. There's a story there about our main characters being imperfect; jealous, bigoted, and judgemental.

But, she is simply killed off. Everything they set up for this character is gone with little personalized fanfare. It's not a tragedy with a lesson about cruelty, or something anyone regrets.

It's just... plot. Gray Wing whinging that no one will like his shitty brother now that his body count is 2.

More than that, in the discussion of women in particular, "Fridging" was coined to give a name to the way women characters often don't get their stories told at all. There is a CULTURAL trend of female characters facing disproportionate violence, for the sake of advancing male plots.

Bumble has a lot going for her. Petal had a lot going for her. Turtle Tail had a lot going for her. Bright Stream had a lot going for her. When they died, they took their potential with them.

It's not always wrong to kill off a character of high potential, mind you. In Gurren Lagann, Kamina's death is sudden and shocking, leaving a massive hole in the hearts of the cast that never heals. Grappling with that loss, but also letting his memory fuel them, is a major theme of that story.

All that to say... there's no formula for avoiding it. You've gotta identify what the deeper issue is, in your specific narrative.

I can't say for certain what that will look like for your story, but here's some things I keep in mind;

When you make characters who exist to die, make sure they're people before you axe them.

Ask yourself; what about them does the cast miss?

If they just miss them because they were (pre-existing relationship), go back to the drawing board.

Fluttering Bird as an example. Who was she? Dead sister. Why do they miss her? Dead sister. No traits until after her death.

Runningwind was short-tempered and helpful. Kamina was a valuable leader who made people believe in a brighter future. Swiftpaw was fiesty and desperate to prove himself. The better characterized, the more profound the loss usually is.

If this is a female character who is dying just to serve the plot, be aware of cultural bias and tropes. How is the gender ratio looking in your cast? Is this happening disproportionately with your girls?

Note how Quiet Rain's litter had both a boy and a girl, but the girl was chosen to be "weaker" and wither away.

And how most of the time in DOTC, whenever a man had to be upset, a girl would get killed for it.

If you ever feel like the character on the chopping block is NOT a full character, ask yourself why it needs to be a character at all. You don't need to spend narrative time building out someone when a literal object of high value might suffice.

"My sister died when I swore to protect her and I can't face my family" = Old. Tired. Ive seen this.

"I lost my heirloom sword when I swore to protect it and I can't face my family." = Fascinating. Why was the sword so valuable? Will they really not take you back? How did you lose it?

When you do kill off "high value" characters, try to make sure you're not leaving too many plot threads hanging. Or at least make a point of how they will never get closure.

[playingwithyourjigglypuff]

alright this has been sitting in captivity (my wips folder) for far too long it's time to release it into the wild (tumblr.com)

[starlyte-writes]

Okay, I have a theoretical dsmp story idea in my head but idk if it's too far out there/confusing/complicated so I'm curious what do y'all think:

Basic concept (which it's hard to explain but hear me out) is that all of the characters of the dsmp are transported to a massive arena by XD. Each of them wakes up in a separate room, and when they do, they find they're not alone but are accompanied by a stranger who seems to vaguely/strongly recognize them. It's revealed that XD has selected one person from Earth that closest matches the personality of each dsmp member to become a team that will compete in a series of challenges broadcasted to the whole world.

To put it even more simply: each character is paired with a dsmp nerd that matches their energy whether they like it or not and I have an excuse to make a crazy Hunger Games-esque competition while simultaneously analyzing what makes every dsmp character unique.

Does this sound cool or do I sound absolutely insane (pls feel free to ask me questions or throw out suggestions this is a very rough idea as of rn)

[moeblob]

Look, I just think it's VERY funny and on brand that I thought of an entire premise of colorful characters for half the cast and immediately drew the only one void of color.

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

If there is at least one thing I can credit FE for doing better than Tales in localization, it's not trying to actively go out of their way for an entire game to avoid subtext or direct text between two men that is romantic or implied romantic. Funny when it's so present that the attempt doesn't even work; infuriating that it was attempted to begin with.

So as much as I often have issues with some of FE's localizations, at least they have a leg up on loc Tales for that.

[askamnesiamoonjumper]

So ummm a!au inspired madoka magica au??

[elizaisdunn]

been super busy lately and haven't been able to create anything of substance. but here's a sketchy thing I made of one of my OCs! her name is Meg and I love her very much :)

[verisimilar-entropy]

Wistfully thinks of Spellwind, I should make a headcanons up to ep 31 list its just my equivalent of like Skyrim or lotr where theres so much going on and so dense but god damn one of my favorite episodes was when two of my favorite characters became trees and the entire experience was like...they were tripping on shrooms but also one with the shrooms? Its like episode 8

and I love the dms orc captain that hates going on land and is there for the in between transportation from sea to sea land to land ferryman (not really I feel like its mostly hard to narrate and have a character at the same time) I just love captain buttocks' (yeah I'm pretty sure thats his name) humor and how him and djett ('jet') were closer in the beginning

I love ty and varsha together but I also ship smith with them as time went on, I can't tell who I want to joke as the third smith and varsha are friends to lovers, ty and varsha are irritated assholes to lovers, smith is just a jaded old fuck that loves his morons (he respects varsha a lot and thinks ty is an entertaining idiot)

Varsha and Djett are siblings they love each other like family and share different spells and potions and knowledge of interest notes

I feel like the only person really thinking too deeply about this tabletop story and wanted to drop a few lines of appreciation, I like listening to it to go to sleep since its so slow paced and gently spoken and the music and sound efx is so sweet

[puppppppppy]

Xin Ya is so cute and well designed! more a question than a comment but I just love your style

thank u!! im currently redoing bits of their backstory and design so hopefully ill get some more art of them up soon

[yuriyuruandyuraart]

i hope yer happy with yourself YURI CAUSE CROSS HERE MUSTVE HAD HER SPEAR AND STABBED MY HEART AND THEN PULLED IT OUT TO KEEP IN HER TROPHY ROOM OF HEARTS SHE HAD STOLEN /LHJ

overall, tiddies rating 10/10

DAMN ten outta ten??? she wouldn't know what to do with all this flattery dude cmoon HHGFSHGF fr fr waaa thank youuuu >:'D <333333

[termagax]

having a comic idea in my brain but i dont wanna get up and sketch it but i cant write it in the way i want to because i am cursed to think in pictures but i cant. draw it rn.

[ranger-kellyn]

finished the scarlet dlc epilogue :)

it was. without exaggeration. Horrible :)