#wip: thistledown

[owlish-creations]

Look at him!

[sonata-in-ink]

Hello, hello! Pistol, spear, and bow and arrow, please! 😁

Why, hello and thank you!

Pistol: which character has your favorite introduction?

Hands down, Theo from a currently untitled WIP. At the time of his introduction (which is also the introduction of the story), he's cold, he's mightily confused by what's happening, and golly, he just realized he hasn't even ate breakfast today. Definitely not a good time to find yourself mixed up in some odd business with fae creatures! It's been incredibly fun to write.

spear: what is at the heart of the story? Hmm, in general or mine? I would say for in general, the answer varies depending on the one who writes it. For the one I'm working on mentioned above, it's extremely undeveloped so I've got an inkling of the underlying message(s) my brain is trying to go with it, but i'm not sure it's entirely coherent yet.

bow and arrow: which of your settings would you most like to visit?

Oh, the little town I created in Thistledown for sure! And if someone offered me the chance for a short visit to Bree's Hollow in Torches They Carry, I'd take it.

[buriedbybooks]

WIP Folder Files

Rules: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

I was tagged by both @eirenical and thought that this might be a good way to get me to start engaging with fandom again. Please do ask me about them; some are even completely written and are just sitting there on my computer!

Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty (which I've never written for but am very tempted by): 1) I Believe

Guardian: 1) Thistledown ficlets a) Acknowledgement b) Control c) Ferocity d) Intrigue e) Light f) Memory g) Resourcefulness h) Shelter 2) Crack Twins fic 3) Meanings of Touch 4) Mind Reading 5) Ye Zun and Lin Jing 6) Guardian/Fairyland Lovers Crossover

Leverage: 1) 5+1 drunk proposals 2) I dare you 3) practice Leverage/Warehouse 13 Crossover 1) Girls night out redux

I've been pretty disconnected from fandom for a bit, so please consider yourself tagged if this shows up on your dash and you've read this far!!

[too-many-blorbos]

Malady for Wip Wednesday :)

...Supposedly evil, anyway. The drow had done nothing more sinister than hurl on the floor. He was asleep half the time, and the other half he was lively as a slug in winter. He huddled under the blankets and hugged his panther and mumbled odd words whenever the Thistledowns brought him something. Polite, Connor called him. Bartholomew had seen worse behavior from ailing folk, but he was still suspicious. 

[vvillowvvwriter]

quick worldbuilding notes on Thistledown

i feel bad since i haven’t posted anything on Thistledown since the introduction post, so here are some quick notes on the world that i wrote! soon enough, i’ll post a map and some notes on the different towns, but for now, take this i suppose.

the realm of the gods is basically the mortal realm, but a little to the left. essentially, it’s the mortal realm but you can see more things. people on the mortal realm can’t see the things on the divine realm

there is one Devotee for each god

there are no countries. instead, each town exists on its on and is self-governed

each town has its own naming scheme. this is used to identify people since last names aren’t really a thing

the only mythical creature (by our standards) that exists here is the jackalope

for same-sex couples, the gods help them have children. mlm couples get a seed that they plant in the ground, and once the nine months are up, they dig the baby out of the ground. wlw couples are just impregnated via magic. the babies resulting from these two methods will look like both of the parents and are usually treated like normal people

the gods will often help dysphoric people by adjusting their bodies, once the gods are made aware of it

first generation refers to anyone who was spawned by the gods, regardless of what age they were or when they were spawned. the gods aren’t spawning anybody else in now, though.

the world has existed for 100 years, and has been inhabited for only 50

[fluentisonus]

for the ask game, 6, 7, & 17 <3

6. warm colors or cold colors

warm colors every time!!! probably I have too much of this in my drawings actually haha

7. show us a WIP

here's three!

^ a piece of my gimli & durin comic

^ very rough one of the gentleman with the thistledown hair giving lady pole her finger back for the night

^ this one of feanor threatening fingolfin that I'd totally abandoned til I found it just now but I'm now tempted to finish

I have lots more but none of them are digital & my sketchbook is buried under all sorts of stuff so I can't get to it agjfshjds

17. what do you love getting compliments about

already answered this one but I'll add that I'm always so happy when people say they got a strong feeling from my drawing or that it feels expressive, because I'm always trying to work away from a certain staged woodenness

[owlish-creations]

Fellas it is going

Only the back of the waistcoat, the high neck thing, the actual coat, shoes and nails left 🙃

[owlish-creations]

He got pants!

[owlish-creations]

Censored by tumblr for female presenting nipples

[owlish-creations]

Thistle is still in the works, don't you worry

[owlish-creations]

Little blorbo man

[owlish-creations]

Hair: thistled

[buriedbybooks]

I have. Questions about the thistledown Guardian wips you have. Mainly. What is thistledown/how are they all linked? 👀

Awww, thanks for the question Anon!! I've been having pretty bad writer's block (or, writing for work taking up all the words?). I saw a deck of oracle cards called Thistledown, created by Stephanie Burrows and illustrated by Adam Oehlers and the illustrations just started sparking all of these ideas. I've been pulling random cards and writing short fics based on the the word/feel.

Most of them are Ye Zun centric, and so far, most of them are closer to the "Find Our Way Back" fics than either Mao Didi or In His Shoes. I call the the Thistledown Ficlets after the deck and each one word title is the name of a card.

[vvillowvvwriter]

THISTLEDOWN (working title)

The towns are disappearing. Everything is disappearing. Following a large flood that leaves the town of Sapling with few resources, Thistle and Nettle decide to go to the next town over for aid, only to find that it's gone. There's no trace that there was ever civilization there, save for a single shrine to an unknown god. With nothing else to do, they leave Sapling and discover similar cases, where homes and businesses vanish into nothing. Where do you go when home simply doesn't exist anymore?

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genre - fantasy adventure

status - concept

pov - third person

features - polyam love story, queer characters, poc characters, fantasy pantheon, some actual worldbuilding??? nice

themes - loss, religion, an old sort of love, an old sort of god, jackrabbits

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Thistle - he/him - transman - ace pan - nineteen - character on the right

coddiwomple - anecdoche - resplendence

Restless, Thistle longs for something new. The flood was exciting enough, but the neighboring towns disappearance? Even better. He convinces Nettle to join him in the adventure he’s waited for his entire life.

Nettle - he/him - cis man - demi bi - eighteen - character on top

halcyon - sirimiri - acosmist

Nettle has never been sure what he wants to do with his life, but he knows one thing: it wasn’t this. However, his pining for Thistle had him agreeing to come with him to investigate the towns. He’s anything but ready.

Validity - she/her - transwoman - straight - nineteen - character on bottom

nemophilist - habromania - cryptoscopophilia

Validity has always been an outsider. This, however, proved to be a virtue, as she was away when her town disappeared. She decided to join Thistle and Nettle as they investigated it, if only because the people of her town would have wanted her to.

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alright y’all, my first wip intro! i just kind of threw this together last minute so the summary sucks and whatnot, but hey, it’s here!

let me know if you want to be added to the tag list!

tag list - n/a

[sonata-in-ink]

Began on some concept drawings for something I'm working on and

It's going somewhere at least??

[vvillowvvwriter]

Runes In Thistledown

alright, here are all of my notes on runes, completely unedited. just tossing them out there right now since i feel like i need to post more original content. i probably won’t post directly from my notes again, though, since tumblr doesn’t save the formatting.

kind of a mix between sigils and tarot cards, with maybe some actual runes thrown in there? time to research!

there are 32 runes, each with a positive meaning, a negative meaning, a neutral meaning, and a domain. they can be placed in different patterns and then flipped over to give a new meaning.

they’re usually used for divination and to bring a certain effect to a place. they’re also carved on wooden discs where readings are done as a form of currency.

every rune has a dot above it. if the dot is above the rune, then the meaning is positive. if it’s below, then the meaning is negative. if it’s to either side, it’s a neutral meaning.

the domain is the overall theme.

there’s a lot of debate over whether they can be called the positive meaning, the neutral meaning, or the negative meaning. some say that they should be called the beginning, middle, and end. some say they should be the left, the middle, and the right. future, present, and past are also debated. most people have one they interpret it as, but some switch between interpretations.

in my notes, for the most part, they’ll be called the first slot, the second slot, and the third slot.

bone and breath, for one reason or another, are rarely pulled. they’re seen as the most powerful runes, and it’s customary to pull a second one out if you pull either of them. if you pull both, then no matter which meaning you get, it’s said that the gods are watching you and are waiting for what you do next.

runes in order, with bonus commentary on why i chose everything.

Number - Name - Positive Meaning - Neutral Meaning - Negative Meaning - Domain

1 - Bone - Stability - Centre Of Structure - Instability - Structure

Bones kind of hold you up and support you, people refer to the core of something as its bones… That was kind of my thought process.Stability is always a good thing, so that went to slot one. Slot two is kind of like the heart of a tree trunk, or the centre of the bone, or something like that. I’m not quite sure how to explain it.

2 - Silver - Wealth - Financial Support - Greed - Economy

3 - Dusk - Welcome End - Neutral End - Unwelcome End - Endings

4 - Dawn - Welcome Beginning - Neutral Beginning - Unwelcome Beginning - Beginnings

5 - Death - Positive Change - Neutral Change - Negative Change - Change

I haven’t done too much research on tarot cards, but from what I do know, the death card has more to do with change than actual death, and I figured that it was a nice change from other things.

6 - Treasure - Nonmaterial Gifts - Material Gifts - Loss Of Belongings - Belongings

This one and ‘Silver’ were kind of similar, but I figured that coins are used more to represent wealth and the economy, and treasure chests and treasuries were more associated with material belongings.

Loss Of Belongings obviously went into the third slot, as people don’t generally take well to losing their stuff and would consider it to be negative. 

Gifts are a more positive thing, so I decided to put that into the first and second slots. 

Now, people in our society generally see nonmaterial things like hope, friendship, and happiness to be more important than nonmaterial things, so nonmaterial gifts went into the first slot. In universe, people probably have a more open interpretation of ‘Nonmaterial Gifts’ and may interpret it as things like favours or general affection as well. The God Of Runes, however, meant things more like the aforementioned hope, friendship, and happiness.

The second slot went to ‘Material Gifts’. It’s more of a neutral thing. People typically appreciate nonmaterial gifts, people typically don’t appreciate losing their belongings, but material gifts are more of a case by case basis. You like some, you don’t like others. This gave it the second/neutral slot.

7 - Candle - New Things Through Chaos - Chaos As A Concept - Loss Through Chaos - Chaos

Candles were chosen for chaos due to the uncertain nature of their flames. How long they will burn for, how high they will burn, how brightly they will burn. This is all hard, if not impossible, to predict. Chaos, by nature, is impossible to predict.

Some people find it hard to find good things through chaos, some people find it hard to find bad things through chaos. This is more of a YMMV, so I went with typically positive and typically negative things. Gain and loss. Chaos itself, with people’s divided opinion on it, went into the second slot.

8 - Twine - A Deep Friendship - Brief Interactions With Strangers - Broken Bonds - What Ties You To Others

No deep meaning here, I just thought of how twine connects things or wraps things together, and I figured that I could use it as a metaphor for what binds people to each other.

Deep, long lasting friendships full of trust? Usually seen as good things. So bam, slot one done.

The loss of said deep, long lasting friendship that was previously full of trust? Usually seen as a bad thing. Bam, third slot done.

Truth be told, the second slot is kinda ‘eh’ for me. Nothing really ties you to strangers other than brief interactions or familiarity with them. But hey, a bond’s a bond, so it earned second slot.

9 - Rag - Extreme Trust In Others - Awkwardness Between People - Isolation And Distrust - Touch And Trust

I thought of ‘Rag’ as a rune name first, and later, I thought of ‘Touch And Trust’ as a domain. I didn’t have many names without domains, and I didn’t want to add any more, so I figured out a way to connect rags to trust. This caused me to think of the rag exchange tradition. A few towns have a tradition where people will exchange rags or pieces of cloth to show extreme trust in each other. This is because the person is willing to ruin something of their own just to show affection for the other person.

Touch and Trust go well together since you don’t really want a stranger touching you, and you, or at least I, prefer to have people ask before touching.

Coming up with slots for this was easy enough.

10 - Face - First Impressions - A Stranger’s Point Of View - Perception Based On Rumours - How Others Perceive You

People tend to judge each other based on their cover, or rather, on their appearance. It seemed perfect to me that the ‘Face’ rune would have a domain based on perception and first impressions.

11 - Belonging - New Community - Current Community - Old Community - Community

I got ‘Belonging’ from a generator, and my thought process went from belonging to belonging in a community. This works for the towns too, and I figure that people could use the Belonging rune for advice on moving homes or towns. Something like that.

12 - Voice - Justice - Being Of Equal Footing - Abuse Of Power - The Power Exchange Between People

13 - Wind - Travel On Land - Travel Somewhere New - Travel Through Water - Travel

14 - North - Preparation Towards The Future - Eagerness Towards The Present - Fear Of The Future - The Future

15 - East - Providing Aid Via Technology - Spread Of Technology - Loss Of Technology - Technological Advancement

Towns like Iron and Lake are more east, and they tend to have more advanced technology than the towns in the west, though everyone’s at about the same level. I feel like there’s a plot hole here, but I’m not gonna push it too much.

16 - South - Growth From The Past - Ambivalence Towards The Present - Focus On The Past - The Past

17 - West - Discovery Of Magic - Divination - Disbelief In Magic - Magical Advancement

18 - Grow - Plant Growth - Water Levels - Landform Movement - Change In The Natural World

19 - Crowd - Admiration From Others - Individuality In A Crowd - Holding Others On A Pedestal - Self Compared To Others

20 - Partner - Unconditional Love And Support - Support And Partnership - Romantic Abuse - Romantic Relationships

21 - Bead - Taking Care Of Yourself - Apathy Towards Appearance - Focus Solely On Appearance - Vanity

I chose the name ‘Bead’ first, and then I figured vanity since beads are usually on fancy clothing and jewellery and stuff. So nothing too deep here.

22 - Smoke - Simple Illusions - Distractions - Lies - Distraction and Illusion

This comes from the phrase ‘Smoke and Mirrors’. At the least, I think it’s a phrase. I don’t have Internet at the moment to check. It’s also a minor reference to the God Of Smoke And Beauty. Their appearance is different to everyone, which is sort of an illusion, so it fits, somewhat. 

23 - Mask - Great Ambition - Things You Will Become - Unreachable Goals - Goals For Self

This was originally similar to ‘Face’, and I realized that too late. Stubborn as I am, I didn’t want to change the rune name, so I came up with another domain. Maybe it should have been something about lying to yourself, but I thought more along the lines of “the mask is the face you want to have, and what you want to be, so it can represent that.”

24 - Scratch - New Information - Rediscovered Information - Lost Information - Information

25 - Laughter - A Simple But Relaxing Happiness - An Unremarkable Happiness - Finding Joy In Suffering - Finding Joy In Life

26 - Dance - Individuality Via Appearance And Personality - A Mix Of Individuality And Conformity - Conformity Via Appearance And Personality - Self Expression

27 - Shout - Personal Strength - A Definite Result - Cowardice - Confidence

28 - Oil - Creation Of Masterpiece - Creation Of Art - Disappointment In Creation - Creation

I don’t have a lot to say on this other than a generator and cooking oil.

29 - Game - Joy Through Play - Balance Of Time - Procrastination - Joy And Play

30 - Cross - Experimentation - Overlap - Distinction - Objects Interaction With Others

31 - Selfhood - Elation In Self - Self Reflection - Loneliness - Self Identity

32 - Breath - A Sense Of Being Exactly Where You Need To Be - Being Suddenly Aware Of Everything And Everyone Around You - Knowledge Of All Things And All People - The World As A Whole

This originally had another name and domain that I’ve completely forgotten at this point. Point is, it didn’t have the completion and conclusion that I wanted for the runes. I decided that the domain, ‘The World As A Whole’, was a good theme to play around with, and it somewhat connects to the ‘Structure’ theme from the first rune, if you squint a bit. You kind of have to reach for it, but it’s there.

So I played around with a lot of different names. Crown, Gilded, and Prism were a few that I remember.

I wanted to tie it in with ‘Bone’ a bit more, though, and for some reason, ‘Breath’ just seemed to fit. Everything needs structure and bones, if that makes sense, and everything breathes somehow, if that makes sense.

Anyways, the slots for this don’t really follow the positive-neutral-negative thing. They just kind of are.