#to tear it all apart

[darkseed-two]

me.withnmikes period blood

[aethersea]

another thing fantasy writers should keep track of is how much of their worldbuilding is aesthetic-based. it's not unlike the sci-fi hardness scale, which measures how closely a story holds to known, real principles of science. The Martian is extremely hard sci-fi, with nearly every detail being grounded in realistic fact as we know it; Star Trek is extremely soft sci-fi, with a vaguely plausible "space travel and no resource scarcity" premise used as a foundation for the wildest ideas the writers' room could come up with. and much as Star Trek fuckin rules, there's nothing wrong with aesthetic-based fantasy worldbuilding!

(sidenote we're not calling this 'soft fantasy' bc there's already a hard/soft divide in fantasy: hard magic follows consistent rules, like "earthbenders can always and only bend earth", and soft magic follows vague rules that often just ~feel right~, like the Force. this frankly kinda maps, but I'm not talking about just the magic, I'm talking about the worldbuilding as a whole.

actually for the purposes of this post we're calling it grounded vs airy fantasy, bc that's succinct and sounds cool.)

a great example of grounded fantasy is Dungeon Meshi: the dungeon ecosystem is meticulously thought out, the plot is driven by the very realistic need to eat well while adventuring, the story touches on both social and psychological effects of the whole 'no one dies forever down here' situation, the list goes on. the worldbuilding wants to be engaged with on a mechanical level and it rewards that engagement.

deliberately airy fantasy is less common, because in a funny way it's much harder to do. people tend to like explanations. it takes skill to pull off "the world is this way because I said so." Narnia manages: these kids fall into a magic world through the back of a wardrobe, befriend talking beavers who drink tea, get weapons from Santa Claus, dance with Bacchus and his maenads, and sail to the edge of the world, without ever breaking suspension of disbelief. it works because every new thing that happens fits the vibes. it's all just vibes! engaging with the worldbuilding on a mechanical level wouldn't just be futile, it'd be missing the point entirely.

the reason I started off calling this aesthetic-based is that an airy story will usually lean hard on an existing aesthetic, ideally one that's widely known by the target audience. Lewis was drawing on fables, fairy tales, myths, children's stories, and the vague idea of ~medieval europe~ that is to this day our most generic fantasy setting. when a prince falls in love with a fallen star, when there are giants who welcome lost children warmly and fatten them up for the feast, it all fits because these are things we'd expect to find in this story. none of this jars against what we've already seen.

and the point of it is to be wondrous and whimsical, to set the tone for the story Lewis wants to tell. and it does a great job! the airy worldbuilding serves the purposes of the story, and it's no less elegant than Ryōko Kui's elaborately grounded dungeon. neither kind of worldbuilding is better than the other.

however.

you do have to know which one you're doing.

the whole reason I'm writing this is that I saw yet another long, entertaining post dragging GRRM for absolute filth. asoiaf is a fun one because on some axes it's pretty grounded (political fuck-around-and-find-out, rumors spread farther than fact, fastest way to lose a war is to let your people starve, etc), but on others it's entirely airy (some people have magic Just Cause, the various peoples are each based on an aesthetic/stereotype/cliché with no real thought to how they influence each other as neighbors, the super-long seasons have no effect on ecology, etc).

and again! none of this is actually bad! (well ok some of those stereotypes are quite bigoted. but other than that this isn't bad.) there's nothing wrong with the season thing being there to highlight how the nobles are focused on short-sighted wars for power instead of storing up resources for the extremely dangerous and inevitable winter, that's a nice allegory, and the looming threat of many harsh years set the narrative tone. and you can always mix and match airy and grounded worldbuilding – everyone does it, frankly it's a necessity, because sooner or later the answer to every worldbuilding question is "because the author wanted it to be that way." the only completely grounded writing is nonfiction.

the problem is when you pretend that your entirely airy worldbuilding is actually super duper grounded. like, for instance, claiming that your vibes-based depiction of Medieval Europe (Gritty Edition) is completely historical, and then never even showing anyone spinning. or sniffing dismissively at Tolkien for not detailing Aragorn's tax policy, and then never addressing how a pre-industrial grain-based agricultural society is going years without harvesting any crops. (stored grain goes bad! you can't even mouse-proof your silos, how are you going to deal with mold?) and the list goes on.

the man went up on national television and invited us to engage with his worldbuilding mechanically, and then if you actually do that, it shatters like spun sugar under the pressure. doesn't he realize that's not the part of the story that's load-bearing! he should've directed our focus to the political machinations and extensive trope deconstruction, not the handwavey bit.

point is, as a fantasy writer there will always be some amount of your worldbuilding that boils down to 'because I said so,' and there's nothing wrong with that. nor is there anything wrong with making that your whole thing – airy worldbuilding can be beautiful and inspiring. but you have to be aware of what you're doing, because if you ask your readers to engage with the worldbuilding in gritty mechanical detail, you had better have some actual mechanics to show them.

[parasiticstars]

Friendly reminder that sexualizing/blorbofying Luigi Mangione and your support for him being a quirky little trending meme is exactly why 1. he's been almost forgotten about when any other time his actions would've had far more rippling consequences, 2. why nothing will ever get done in this fucking ass country, much less the positive-- if violent-- change we need, and 3. goes to show the sheer imbecility of the "lol be gay do crimes" demographic.

Where was your support for Briana Boston, who was falsely arrested just for quoting him? Oh, right, she's not a conventionally attractive white man for you to turn into your next Tumblr sexyman.

[lotus-pear]

i love you royal trio (minus akechi)

[starry-bi-sky]

on a completely separate note; shizun luo binghe with a disciple shen yuan who fell into the abyss??? *thinks about LBH canonically stealing SQQ's corpse for 5 years* he'd hallucinate i think. like, like visual and audial hallucinations.

Keeps thinking he's seeing SQQ in the corner of his eyes, or wandering between the trees, amongst a group of disciples. Thinks he hears him calling for him, but its just the wind or another disciple.

Gets Xiu Ya reforged but patently fucking refuses to make a sword mound. Because his disciple Is Not Dead :))) There was No Body. He's Not Dead. And If You keep Insisting That He Is, He's Gonna Skewer You :). He's holding onto Xiu Ya so he can return his most favored disciple's sword when he returns. It's on his hip right next to Zheng Yang where it's supposed to be.

Also this motherfucker?? does not sleep btw. He has the image of SQQ, wide eyed and hysterical and standing at the mouth of the abyss burned into his fucking eyelids. Can't use the dreamscape to escape it either because he keeps trying to save him and either he does and it's an incredibly cruel trick to wake up to, or he doesn't and he gets his heart broken in several different pieces again.

There is no convincing this man that Shen Qingqiu is dead. Absolutely nothing at all. He is buried so deep in denial that moles would be jealous of how deep he is. He keeps making tea for two in the bamboo house only to remember that it's just him. SQQ's fans are hiding everywhere, little reminders of his presence. He goes to wake up SQQ on the mornings he sleeps in-- only to find the room empty.

[blackkatdraws2]

Grown men giggling and kicking their feet.... [Blank Scripts AU]

[desire-mona]

the time jumps in i saw the tv glow make me so fucking insane and i can never let it go. 2 years, 8 years, then 20, each jump taking more and more out of owen as we watch him decay into a painstakingly unvariable excuse of a protagonist. no matter how big of a jump in time, we never really feel like we've missed out on anything at all. the only real change we experience is what monotonous, yet colourfully and visually overstimulating job he's trudging through, all to live the unfulfilling life he feels is the most safe. no known ambitions, no known lasting relationships, even the family he says he loves more than anything feels less like a feat, and more like a giant step back in the journey we know he needs to go on.

3 decades pass in the span of an hour and 40 minutes, a speed that would seem overwhelmingly fast, yet we stay tuned into the comfortability of that perpetual survival. we know what's going on, and we dont need to play catch up if there's nothing to catch up on. yet despite that comfortability of knowing where and when owen's stuck, it is killing us to know that the potential of what he could be and experience goes unacknowledged through the painstaking amount of years. and it's made all that much worse when we're forced to remember that the slow death we're watching is all the more real, both literally and figuratively, to owen.

[lnfours]

mclaren | 2024 constructors’ champions

papaya on top 🧡

[eggcats]

I really love the idea of Alastor slowly getting more and more comfortable with the main crew at the Hazbin Hotel. Like, he THRIVES off of being mysterious and shit, but it's hard to keep that persona up 24/7 - especially when everyone starts slowly getting more comfortable around him. (EVEN when he does the Big Scary Demon thing! What???)

Like, for instance in Ep5, Charlie isn't alarmed by what he's doing, and tbh neither is anyone at the hotel. The only person who comments that what he's doing is alarming is LUCIFER, who doesn't live there. No one else even seems to bat an eye, and Vaggie isn't upset that he takes the fight from her to do his big scary demon shit.

They like him! Hell, the only 2 people less than pleased when he shows back up in Ep8 is Husk (who he owns) and Lucifer. Even Vaggie is smiling and pleased he survived. (And even Husk and Lucifer don't look that upset, just not appreciating his dramatics.)

And so, slowly Alastor just begins to drop his Radio Demon persona. He's still touch averse, but as long as it's not forced, he allows people to touch him for small instances at a time. He begins letting the others see him when he's tired or less put together. He plays music when he's doing something around the hotel, and if someone catches him dancing, he might just invite them to dance WITH him. He dresses down if he's not going anywhere, and drapes his jacket places to not wear it all the time. He lets them SEE HIS TAIL. (No one is still allowed to touch it, nor his ears, but it's the principle of the thing.)

The main crew even stop being alarmed or scared when he DOES do his ominous shit, like they don't even react when his eyes turn into radio dials and he threatens them over something stupid. They're just like "uh huh, sure, pal." And mime patting his shoulder (they know he doesn't like being touched when he's already in this state).

He defends someone at the hotel by ripping them to shreds with his tentacles and eating them, and the person he defends just looks so thankful (even with him having blood all over him, his eyes black, and tar-like drool dripping from his mouth) and he's so caught off guard that when they ask if they can hug him, he LETS THEM.

(The entire hotel loses their shit when he drops both the radio voice AND talks with his Louisiana Creole accent one night as they're drinking.)

[fluffylord]

Look how far I went, for fear of losing you.

[beedreamscape]

I know I've mentioned Bolo being cake in Portuguese (and the mispronounced Bola being Ball) but Idk if people know Porco, from Patia's surname, means Pig in Portuguese (and other romantic languages that use it as an alternative word for it) and I wish Marisha had talked more about it, if it was intentional or not.

[cod-indulgences]

Gaz x female!reader, oral, squirting, overstimulation

Kyle "Gaz" Garrick

Man of the hour. Smoking hot. Badass with a dumb hat and a beautiful smile. Knows he can make you weak in the knees with a wink and a nudge, leaning in, the smell of warm skin and cologne and sensuality. A man who would gladly spend hours on his knees for you teasing and sucking and licking up every drop of slick leaking out of your hole, his tongue leaving wet streaks on your thighs, suckling on your clit with little fluttering pulses that make you quiver and moan.

Bringing you up to the edge over and over again, sweet as sugar, until you're so limp and exhausted that his fingers slide inside you with no resistance, barely even a flutter-

and then he latches onto your clit and sucks, his fingers deep and curling into your g-spot, your weak thrashing and shrieks only encouraging him as you are flung into orgasm, another right on its heels, the pressure building and snapping in your belly as you squirt down Kyle's face, drenching his chin and throat, not even your moaning enough to cover up the wet slapping gulping as the man who'd wooed you into his bed breaks you apart again, and again, and again-

sweet stupid thing, cum-drunk and sobbing, he's never letting you get away now that he's had a feast of you.

[s1ck-pupp3t]

I love, Ms Paint. CHEERS!

OK real art dump over. Click MORE for Real dumb stuff

something something They faces killing me why nobody gaf. Its a Transparent .PNg! You can put them any where to Not Care About.

[baphometsss]

what is it with bioware and putting the inquisitor in pyjamas

[starry-bi-sky]

my martha knight au in a nutshell:

Danny/Martha: see up here?

Danny/Martha: *taps skull*

Danny/Martha: intense psychological damage

-----------

Danny/Martha: *upon finding out she's pregnant*

Danny/Martha: oh my god i cant be a mom, I'm fifteen and homeless--

Danny/Martha: im going to be a terrible mother--

Danny/Martha: i live in a cAR--

Danny/Martha: what if the baby inherits my powers? Oh no--

-------------

Danny/Martha post giving birth: i've only had Bruce for a minute and a half but if anything were to happen to him i won't even need to fuse with Vlad, I'm razing this goddamn planet to the ground myself

Danny, to Baby Bruce: you are the last remaining thread of my sanity. I'm going to give you the world :)

---------------

Danny/Martha prior to getting pregnant: Fuck it, if everything in my life has led to this moment, i'm allowed to make one stupid decision. I'm getting drunk and getting laid

---------------

Danny/Martha while Bruce was a toddler: i swear to fucking god i am going to kill the next person who talks to me--

Bruce: hi mommy!! i brought you something!!!

Danny/Martha, immediately flipping on a dime: hi baby!! what do you have?

Bruce, a weird child like his mother: a spider :)

---------------

Danny/Martha, talking to Falcone after he made an unsavory comment at her and Bruce: If you ever come near me or my son again, I will dig up your shithead father's corpse and make you eat his skin.

Danny/Martha: do you understand me

Falcone:... crystal, ma'am

---------------

Danny/Martha new in Gotham: *getting mugged*

Danny/Martha: *grabs man's arm*

Danny/Martha: I AM GOING TO BREAK YOU IN HALF LIKE A TWIG, FUCK BOY, DO YOU HEAR THE WORDS COMING OUT OF MY MOUTH--

(she then proceeds to terrorize Gotham's night life for the next extended period of time, mostly unintentionally)

---------------

Danny/Martha: Danny Fenton?? No. you must be mistaken, my name is Martha Knight.

Danny/Martha: this here is my littlest knight, Bruce.

Danny/Martha: I made him all by myself :]

[tanglepelt]

Dc x dp idea 55

When Dani leaves amity after being stabilized she starts running into hero’s.

She doesn’t think it’s odd. After all Danny is a hero. So she starts bugging them never staying around too long. She did want to be a hero on her own.

One day a battle happens. One that keeps taking out hero after hero. None of there attacks are hitting it. Just phasing through.

Obviously for plot convenience no member of the JLD are here.

Dani of course forces her way into the fray. Unlike the others her stuff actually hits it. Now they don’t do much but does stall the threat. Managing to freeze bits and pieces for short periods of time.

Dani has a moment of realization. The being has to be from the infinite realm. Mid-fight she calls Danny. The trio made her take a phone when she left.

Danny shows up in a portal. He just soups the ghost up. No issues no sweat. Danny then starts questioning her on how she is. What’s she’s been up to. Why she didn’t bother to take any ghost hunting equipment with her.

When he notices the other people. The hero’s who he didn’t know existed. Danny begins to realize that the world was nothing like Amity.