#but for some reason put it in novel form and i can't get past my suspension of disbelief

[fictionadventurer]

Books I Should Have Loved But Hated

Girl of the Limberlost

The Enchanted April

Books I Should Have Hated But Loved

Julius Caesar

Daisy Miller

#random thought of the day #books #i'm sure there's more this is just what first came to mind #there's a midcategory of 'wanted to love it but just found it sort of eh' #(or at least just not to my taste) #redwall's in that category because after trying to start a couple of the books a few times #i've come to the conclusion that i just can't get invested in books about animals #animated movies are fine #but for some reason put it in novel form and i can't get past my suspension of disbelief #you say the animals act like that but i *know* animals don't act like that so what's the point? #(this is also the reason i wasn't able to get more than a page into my attempt to give 'watership down' another chance)

[the--highlanders]

I hope you don't mind me asking but what are your favourite Jamie EU stories?

oh my god not at all, I never mind being asked about my favourite little guy <33

I'm gonna break this down by media type, but there's some parts of the eu like comics that I'm not super familiar with, so if anyone wants to add some of those on (or any other eu stories) then go ahead!!

putting this under a cut because it got LONG rip

big finish

the jigsaw war

jamie is trapped inside a puzzle, experiencing events out of order, and has to figure out how to escape. this is THE audio for me in terms of like. recognising that jamie isn't stupid just because he comes from the eighteenth century. he really gets to shine on his own rather than being relegated to 'dumb exposition prompter' (which I feel like some audios can be kinda guilty of.....) also the fact that two and jamie canonically have a strong enough connection to form a psychic link over long distances makes me chew through glass. this audio GETS it in a way some others just don't.

the glorious revolution

two, jamie, and zoe travel back to the time of the glorious revolution, the event that set the jacobite cause in motion, and jamie grapples with not being able to change the past. if you saw that audio snippet going around a couple days ago you'll have an idea of why I'm reccing this one. it has been a while since I've listened to it & I do really want to relisten and check it out for historical accuracy. but regardless it's another one that gives jamie some of the depth he deserves, this time in terms of emotional depth and his feelings about his backstory.

the selachian gambit

two, jamie, ben, and polly get caught in the middle of an alien bank heist. this one is pretty focused on ben, polly, and jamie as a trio - they're largely taking on the action while two keeps the detective work of the plot chugging along. jamie doesn't hugely stand out here in terms of the audio really adding something to his character, but it does show his dynamic with ben and polly pretty well. in particular there's some great scenes with him and ben working together, and I love their friendship a lot so that's always a good time.

honourable mentions: helicon prime (I do feel this one underutilises jamie a bit and undersells him in some weird ways, but if you're looking for two/jamie content you can't get much gayer than this. plus it's the origin of the whole 'jamie and kirsty get married' thing which I hate on principle & am obsessed with in practice), the phantom piper (it's got so much more potential than it gives imo but the tidbits that we get are so good. jamie's relationship with his grandparents.... his best friend taking a bullet for him and dying in his arms...... I just wish I could explain to the author that there's no such thing as a bedroom door in a blackhouse)

novels

the roundheads

two, jamie, ben, and polly travel back to the 1600s, and get largely split up by events unfolding around them. this is a pure historical and it delights in that. if you're after ben and polly content, the roundheads delivers on that too - but it really is some great early twojamie content. (whatever way you choose to read them - it's definitely a shippable book if you're into that). they spend the majority of the book together, both for plot reasons and just hanging out (they go to a frost fair!! two buys jamie treats and then makes himself a flower crown!!) and you get a great sense of jamie figuring two out early into his travels, and how he's far more interested in the doctor as a person than some other companions - he's the only one to show interest in susan when the doctor namedrops her, for instance. this is the best two-era book to me.

the wheel of ice

two, jamie, and zoe visit a space station built a little before zoe's time, and find that not everything is as it seems. again, this is a great one for zoe content as well as anything else, and for some very sweet moments with zoe and two. I don't necessarily feel this one always nails two and jamie's dynamic, but they don't spend a massive amount of time together here, so it's not too jarring. really I'm reccing this because of the scenes where jamie falls in with a bunch of teenagers from the space station, and finds himself kind of responsible for them. it's just nicely done and gives a good sense of jamie as a caretaker character and someone who feels a drive to be responsible for other people.

honourable mention: the episode novelisations (these are a lot of fun, especially if you have particular episodes you enjoy. they often add in extra details, background for side characters, or just little things from the episodes that were cut from the script. I really like them for adding a bit more depth and life to existing stories, and just little things that make you go 'yeah I'll add that to my belief system').

short stories

the time eater/across silent seas

two and jamie give a massive time-eating creature a funeral, and save a space whale from being turned into a weapon. both from the compilation destination prague. literally nobody gets me like the destination prague stories get me I'm not even kidding. these are THE eu two stories to me. both of these are arguably 6b, and they really work in that position - both in showing two and jamie with a very settled, devoted dynamic and in their themes and subject matter. the time eater is a story with no villain, and even the incidental threat of the dying creature causing havoc in time is secondary to the emotional keystone of jamie helping two accept death rather than running away. across silent seas has jamie nearly being aged to death and two absolutely losing it. they're both really about age and death and loss, which hits hard for 6b, with jamie's determination to stay with two forever and two's growing realisation that even if jamie doesn't choose to leave or survives their adventures, his lifespan is still going to be far shorter.

the age of ambition

two, jamie, and victoria land at the house of one of victoria's father's friends, only to find he has been trying to reanimate the dead. from the compilation life sciences. this is really a victoria story, probably the defining victoria story for me. it's got backstory, it's got gothic horror/victorian scientific ambition vibes in a similar way to evil of the daleks, it's got victoria character moments. but it's also a really crucial story for jamie, to me. as a character, I don't think jamie never quite forms into the brawny action man stereotype he was originally drafted as - and that's one of the things I love most about him. again he's too much of a caretaker, he's a piper rather than a soldier. he's rarely truly angry, even when he fights he never seems out to cause much actual harm, and you get the sense his protectiveness over his friends wars with this almost inability to do harm. the age of ambition GETS that and pushes it to the extreme, with jamie being unable to fire a killing shot to save his friends, to the point where victoria has to do it herself. it's such a compelling character moment for both of them and their dynamic.

on a pedestal

two, jamie, and victoria travel back to meet william wallace, who jamie idolises. from the compilation the quality of leadership. this is another one that really gets and hones in on a particular nuance of jamie's character - in this case, the strength and rigidity of his morals and sense of responsibility, and his dislike of people who fall short of that. he's faced with the fact that someone he admires was once careless, lax about taking responsibility for their actions even when other people are at risk, and just a bit childish. it shakes him, and he spends much of the story grappling with that. it's such a good look into the qualities that jamie admires versus the ones that he can't stand. but that's balanced out with some very sweet moments (the whole scene with two, jamie, and william wallace going fishing is very fun and again gives a nice little snapshot of two and jamie having this very settled, secure dynamic). AND jamie gets recognised as a basically supernaturally gifted piper which. love to see jamie actually getting to be a musician, love to see him piping without it being the butt of a 'bagpipes suck and everyone hates them' joke.

honourable mentions: that which went away (this is the 'jamie turns into a bear' story I'm always talking about. I do think it has some major issues in terms of weird primitivism, both in terms of the side characters and how it treats jamie, but also. jamie turns into a bear. and two begging him to come back to him is just *chefs kiss*), undercurrents (two vanishes from the tardis and another man mysteriously appears. jamie believes this newcomer has done something to harm two, and very nearly kills him for it. this is one of the few moments where jamie gets really, properly angry and is willing to actually cause harm and I LOVE to see him pushed past the breaking point of his usual moral code), the slave war (two, jamie, ben, and polly in the roman empire. also really good for ben and polly content, but there's some interesting stuff with jamie grappling with the idea of becoming involved in another rebellion, but ending up getting involved anyway)

#replies #anonymous #the tl;dr of this is that there's a lot out there! #but not all of it uses jamie's character well or understands that he's nuanced and not just stupid/the brawn of the team/etc etc etc #anything that DOES understand he's an interesting character in his own right is probably going to pique my interest #& as you can tell the short stories are my favourite bit of eu media gkjfd. probably because they're so character-focused #and many of them do give jamie the interest and dimension he deserves

[inkovert]

haven't been on here in any capacity in months and can't guarantee I won't disappear again but just wanted to hop on to dump some feelings that have cropped up lately into a post.

First, let me say that I love my story. it means the world to me. Additionally, I am fairly confident in my abilities as a writer (not saying that I don't occasionally get insecure like everyone else, but I'm past the early stages of my writing journey where I look at everything I put into words and think it's a flaming pile of garbage. I am confident that I am a competent writer and am generally good at what I do). But I'm starting to realize those two ingredients aren't enough to keep me going.

We're always bombarded with posts that say "write for yourself!" and "don't seek validation from others!" and "write what you want to write!". And, trust me, I am doing all those things. But that doesn't mean it's enough or that it solves everything. As much as I love my story/characters, and as passionate as I am about one day turning this WIP into a novel, it's SO easy to just...stop writing, despite all that. Because without some form of a reminder as to why I'm doing this or who I'm doing it for (outside of myself), it makes me question like...why bother putting words on paper for no one to see them? If I'm truly just creating for myself and myself alone, why not just leave my ideas and characters and plots in my head and day dream about them indefinitely to my hearts content? Some may immediately read that and think: it's to improve your writing skills, that's why! But after writing for years and years on end, it's pretty hard to expect to continue to linearly or exponentially improve in isolation. At the end of the day, some form of feedback is necessary for you to continue to improve - which brings us right back to square 1.

Anyway, all that is to say, I'm finding it hard to find a reason to keep writing lately. And even if I dangle the nebulous goal of publication in front of me....I'm a student living off of a stipend, and it's going to take several years for me to have the financial means to achieve that goal. So once again I find myself wondering...what's the point?

#inkoverted thoughts #didn't realize that I felt this way until a recent convo with an irl friend #I've had so much free time lately and have been wondering why it's been so hard for me to bring myself to write #it's not for lack of ideas for sure #it's funny bc just a few months ago I was so committed to the idea that like - I'm gonna publish this story!!! argh!! #and now I find myself questioning it all

[wildflowers-of-trolberg]

I know you don't like the idea of Hilda's father actually appearing, but would you at least be interested in finding out who he is and some other information?

No.

The fundamental reason I'm opposed to anything involving Hilda's dad is because he doesn't add anything to the narrative, and in my eyes, can only harm it. "Who is Hilda's father" is a question that the series doesn't need to resolve, and should never have tried to answer.

For starters, one of the biggest things I like about this show is that Johanna is a single mum and that's okay - it's not entirely swept under the rug, it's acknowledged and she gets judged for it by Frida's parents (because some people are judgemental about non-traditional families) - but it's made clear repeatedly in episodes like The Troll Rock and The Yule Lads that Johanna is the only parent Hilda needs and that there's nothing wrong with her being a single mum; Frida's mum is explicitly a bad person for trying to call Johanna out on it.

But that's not to say Johanna is the only family Hilda has or the only person she needs; on top of her friends she has Alfur, Tontu, and Twig, all of whom are important to her and vice-versa and all of who form part of a really well-done family dynamic. It's important to me, in light of that, that Hilda's dad doesn't matter - he's not in her life and that's all that needs to be said because she already has all the family she needs (this isn't something specific to Hilda, but it's something it does very well - for another example, see Phineas and Ferb. They're brothers and have an older sister and a mom and dad, and the fact that they're actually step-siblings doesn't change that; you don't see people asking who Ferb's bio mom is because it doesn't matter Linda is the parent who's in his life).

On top of that, I think that nothing the show can realistically do would be better than leaving the question open. Hilda is aimed at kids 12-and-under; it doesn't play down to its audience, but by its very nature it can't get into some heavier topics. There's a very loose implication in the graphic novels, and to an extent in the show, that Johanna has some kind of rough past, and that's enough.

Maybe Hilda's father was a horrible person, or abandoned the family; maybe he died and Johanna doesn't like talking about it; maybe Hilda was even adopted or something. Those are all far, far more interesting possibilities than the route canon has chosen to take, but they're also the kind of things I want to see explored in fanworks, not in the show itself. Because it's central to the family dynamic in this show that he isn't in Hilda's life, and that he has no place in her life, and that's okay; Hilda has all the family she needs already.

I have my own headcanons, and I'm choosing those headcanons over Season 3; I hope this puts any questions about why to bed. I'm sorry if this is harsh or negative, but it's how I feel. Please don't ask me anything else about Hilda's father - if you want to be excited about Season 3, that's fine, but it's just not Hilda to me.

#ask pika #pikas detailed thoughts #hilda the series #hilda netflix #hilda (hilda) #johanna hilda #anders hilda #hilda season 3 #negative

[kerubimcrepin]

Live-read: Trying to understand the Aux Tresors novels without actually reading the novels in question.

This is the last, and the most borderline-experimental and cringe-flop part of the reading break #1, because in this post, I will be discussing the five novels based on the show.

Without actually reading them.

Nobody has seemingly ever scanned or copied them, and I don't have the ability to buy them. If you're French, or a rich person, perhaps you could get your hands on them and tell me how wrong I am, but until then, let's speculate.

You can find the... (sighs deep as fuck) Plot Summaries on Otakia. Everything I will discuss here comes from Otakia. You can find the books somewhere else. Perhaps Amazon, probably some other site too... Because as far as I remember, Ankama's literal official shop only has one of the five.

Roman Kerubim (Dofus) Tome 1 : Le ciel sur la tête

>Read about it here

To regurgitate a bit of info from Otakia: just like the Wakfu novels, which apparently also exist, these five novels are kind of like... a bonus episode in a written form, following the structure of the show.

When grabbing quotes from Otakia I will be putting them into a translator and then screenshotting, so that you can quickly read them, and so that I don't have to copy things.

But I won't be copying the descriptions or summaries of the books, just the bits I'd like to elaborate on. You can read them yourself there.

To reference that one meme: Why didn't he start thinking about his dead parents? Is he stupid?

OKAY, I really didn't expect this post to go anywhere, but it's funny that even in Dofus times, Porkass people were known to eat Twelvians.

You will never fucking guess with what nation Bonta of the Waven era, is involved in a seemingly mutually cannibalistic war with.

Roman Kerubim (Dofus) Tome 2 : Une étoile pour le shérif

>Read about it here

I want to thank whoever runs Otakia for uploading this image specifically. Thank you Monsieur/Madame Otakia.

You may notice that, I will be upscaling all the images I bring here from the Otakia articles. The reason for this is that I am a normal and sane person, and need to look at it in a crispier way.

As you may remember, Kerubim already said that he used to be a sheriff in episode 16, West of Astrub.

The writer of this article will literally be like "the book gives you candy, sucks your dick clean and dry, cleans up your home, and then it gives you a hundred dollars, so I didn't like it."

I wish Kerubim would be a fucking loser and a menace more often.

In the Judgement of The Twelve episode, Kerubim and Bashi had already mentioned meething each other many times as young adults, and having stories about it, so it's nice to see this factoid utilized for more than 2 episodes, if only in a book.

Also, yet again, Kerubim literally doing his job and Bashi being fucking insane and hating him for it, despite doing far worse things.

Roman Kerubim (Dofus) Tome 3 : Panique à Astrub

>Read about it here

Indie is insane for this btw.

Joris canonically eats burgers and YES reading this article a while back is the reason I put burgers into my Joris fanart.

You can see full art on my general artblog @atcham-crepin. Yeah, my blog naming scheme is very creative, I know.

I just think his refined ass eating burgers is funny, even though in canon he is only depicted doing this as a kid.

Roman Kerubim (Dofus) Tome 4 : Le décapiteur de soiffard

>Read about it here

Including the cover art because it is very nice, and to draw your attention to THE best novel none of us will ever get to fucking read.

My dream Joris & Simone story, and I can't even read it. Smh.

List of things I love about this:

Joris stealing stuff.

Joris stealing stuff.

Joris stealing stuff.

Simone being a leader.

Kerubim, as we had seen in the past episodes, literally the type to text something like "I am not long for this world.... tell my family I love them." over a tummy ache. I hate this man so much it's unreal.

Of Course he sent them on a wild goose chase over some random bullshit.

Simone and Joris @ Kerubim at the end of this book:

Roman Kerubim (Dofus) Tome 5 : Tous en piste

>Read about it here

I will be real, I don't think any living being can tame that fucking beast.

These books are just treating us with characters in outfits we hadn't seen them in, in the show. It would be... a better world, if these books were episodes instead.

Also, want to yet again remind you that I am upscaling the shit out of these images. Because I'm normal. But at times the results can be wonky.

The World of Twelve has never seen, and will never see again, a couple more toxic than them. Sad!

Unlike the Simone & Joris book, I yet again don't have much to say, but, I'm sure I would, had the books been available to me.

This brings me to a close with the first reading break. After this post, I will resume liveblogging about the show. But I do have ideas of what the next reading break entail, and I think they're rather fun! Like "trying to read Dofus manga without reading Dofus manga" or "reviewing Dofus Aux Tresors merch without buying Dofus Aux Tresors Merch", or, perhaps, "scrying on a crystal ball to read Tot Ankama's thoughts."

...Yeah. Only the last one is a joke.

#novels #ro liveblogs dofus #dofus #wakfu #krosmoz #tagging because I want a broader circle of fans to know about the existence of the novels #so that maybe a kind pro-p*racy frenchman will someday upload them to l*brary g*nisis. i don't know.

[ddarker-dreams]

for some reason nexus, by far, is the story where i felt most 'trapped'. honestly, i loved the way you wrote nexus, it feels a lot like a movie wtfff....

i often get a sense that most of your works are a lot reminiscent to classic novels to me, but this one felt like a movie! its actually amazing how flexible u are lol

mommy issues aside, that will be in another ask- lear. that hurt me.

i have to admit, i didnt really care for lear so much until ch 3 or 4, because i finally realized wow this guy is actually.............. genuinely nice. hes cute. in irl id maybe have heart eyes for a guy like him.

the sequence where reader has flashbacks of lear and lear probably being the first and only person to know her intimately (IN AN EMOTIONAL SENSE NOT THAT WAY) absolutely hit me harder because i eventually thought "WHY didnt i pay attention to lear in the first place?!" i initially didnt care for him because my mind was all BLADEE BLADEEEE, but now... fuck, lear, i shouldve been with you since day 1.

another interesting thing id like to think about is how reader's regrets, are definitely feelings that nona and lear are experiencing as well. all three are most likely, simutaneously although perhaps now lightyears away instead of mere walls parting them, thinking about their regrets over a loss thats almost like death. where will lear ever put his love now that n darling isnt around anymore? he can only look back to his memories and pray that it's enough to soothe him. would nona regret ever being mean to n darling, skipping her studies, and perhaps later on she would viewed herself as a burden to n darling in the past?

so much to think about, and so little emotional capacity i have to hold the overflowing emotions...

i love nexus and especially YOU LOCK !!!!!

omg i think it's cool that you found nexus' style similar to a movie... the scenes i imagined in my head felt cinematic-ish, especially n darling recalls previous dialogue at certain moments for emotional amplification™. i didn't think about it reflecting in the writing much, but i see what you mean now 😌 there's a lot of emphasis on visuals for prose and metaphors.

A LEAR TRUTHER !!! i wanted him to serve as a foil to blade, so i think once blade started pulling more shenanigans, lear's care for n darling stands out more. lear could've fallen in that possessive pitfall but he's simply built different.

aaa regrets and "i should've x" feel like some of the most effective forms of horror, since it's a universal experience. maybe not the exact scenarios themselves, but everyone's had that moment when they realized how they should've done things differently. when the news comes to light, lear will undoubtedly be emotionally devastated. nona will be as well, though her pain would manifest in anger more than depression. she'd be mad at n darling first, then mad at herself for not being able to do anything to help.

i can't leave them in suffering limbo though 😭 the astral express crew will be who take care of the stellaron crisis on eris. inevitably, they'll meet with lear and nona. the grief won't go away entirely, but the express crew will do/say things that help.

THANK YOU SO MUCH !!! i loved reading your thoughts 🥺 thank you thank you!!!!

#sweet asks #nexus #answered #Anonymous

[fereldanwench]

Questions for Writers

I was tagged by @corpocyborg! Thank you, bb!! ♡

Last book I read: I still haven't finished There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job Kikuko Tsumura I started back in January, lmao. Not for any reason other than I just haven't been in the right headspace to sit down and read for the past few months--What I have read of it is great, so hopefully, I can make the time to pick it up again.

Greatest literary inspirations: I like the female protags in Karin Slaughter novels, and I love Tanya Huff's Torin Kerr from her Confederation series--I'm sure they've inspired me on some level. Oh, and Phedre from Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel books, too, although it's been ages since I read those. But I think most of my inspiration actually comes from other forms of media. I love the action babes of the late 90s/early 00s: Lara Croft is the number one inspo here, and pretty much all of Michael Turner's comic girls but especially Sara from Witchblade. And I think Better Call Saul is easily one of the best-written shows ever made--That's one I always go back to when I feel like I need to refill the inspo well.

Things in my current fandoms I want to read but I don't want to write: I have a confession: I usually only read a ton of fic when I first get into a fandom and I can't get enough and I just want to soak it all up, but after a certain point, I just don't have a lot of headspace for other people's stories. 😬 I feel bad about it sometimes, and it's not like I never read anything after that point, but 90% of the time, what I wanna write is what I wanna read. It's kind of a closed loop, I guess.

Things in my current fandoms I want to write but I think nobody would be interested in them but me: Well, I'm not at all deterred by being the only person interested in something I write, haha. One of my favorite one-shots I've ever written is between my Cousland and Hawke meeting briefly at Ostagar, and it's probably my least popular fic on AO3 by a big margin. But I do like deep-diving into my own OCs, and it generally is harder to get an audience for fic that doesn't have canon characters. Ain't gonna stop me, though!

You can recognize my writing by: Lots of pining and banter; obvious thesaurus abuse

My most controversial take (current fandom): Yeah, no, not gonna be sharing my actual most controversial takes, lmao.

But I do also love the Devil ending! I don't think there's one objectively "best" ending--What's good for one V isn't necessarily good for another--But for my Valerie, it suited her story the best. I love the poetry of her going back to Arasaka after getting fired by them, I love storming Arasaka Tower with Goro, I love the conflict with Johnny, I love making Goro confront how fucked up the Arasakas are, I love the possibilities of Mikoshi--The only way it would have been better for me is if this nixed idea had actually been put into action.

And I wish we could roleplay a V that is actually more "pro"-corpo in the game, especially if we had the corpo lifepath. Sticking it to the man is sexy and all, but I just love delving into characters that align themselves with shitty institutions and exploring different motivations (I personally like cynical pragmatism/self-preservation and delusional idealism) that lead a person there.

Top three favorite tropes: 1) Rivals to friends to lovers 2) Mutual pining 3) Forced proximity

What’s your current writing mood (10 – super motivated and churning out words like crazy, 0 – in a complete rut): Like, 0.5, lmao. I've been rereading and organizing my WIPS, so there's some effort being put in there, but I'm very much in one of my "ummmm, how do I even write fiction?" phases.

Share a random frustration: I have ZERO discipline when it comes to writing. I need to be in a fully feral, totally isolated from distractions place or I just can't get shit done. When I'm in the zone, I'm in the fuckin' zone, but I get like 3 months of that every 5 years, lmao.

Tagging (with no pressure, as always) @ur-friendly-nbhd-cardassian, @dread-red-queen, @vorchagirl, and @aceghosts <333

#t: wench.txt #tumblr: dash games

[linddzz]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

@gretchensinister tagged me, and I realized I can't mope about lack of interaction if I don't interact! This ended up being a really fun sort of retrospective :)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

44. tbh I think that's an inflated number since for some reason I posted every single chapter of the Evil Boyfriends Series as a separate ficlet??? and there's like 30 of those.

2. What’s your total word count?

349,680 if my math is right (it rarely is)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Rise of the Guardians, The Hobbit (movies), Fantastic Beasts (first movie only and wrote is in bold past tense there lmao), and now getting back into it (arguably returning to my roots of dramatic hot mess Nightmare/Dream King Sandmen) with The Sandman (Netflix)

4. Top 5 fics by kudos

Safe and Distant (Thorin/Bilbo, The Hobbit)

Mahrâna (The Hobbit, Thorin POV companion to S&D)

A Study on the Habits of the Adult Obscurial (Fantastic Beasts movie 1, Newt/Credence) ((ngl I was surprised this was so high in the ranking))

The Blizzard of '68 (Pitch Black/Jack Frost, Rise of the Guardians)

The Intervention (same as above lol, man that Evil Boyfriends Series was fun)

The Device Has Been Modified (Kozmotis Pitchner/Jack Frost. Rise of the Guardians movie/novels/a wild fuckin "Jack is a sci-fi AI" AU. holy shit I forgot about this one it was a wild blast)

5. Do you respond to comments?

Rarely and not as often as I'd like. I'm also bad at responding to texts from friends tho, so it's a Thing. I love and read every comment repeatedly though!

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Shiver/Tremble for the Rise of the Guardians. No question. They're also the darkest things I've written. First thing I ever wrote seemed to purge all my darkest impulses out right at the jump.

(I ain't linking those lmao. I don't regret writing dark noncon fic, or even taking on writing it from the predator POV. They're just my very first published works and shit is ROUGH.)

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

The Cultural Misunderstanding series of Safe and Distant and Mahrâna. Based on the fact that they actually ARE finished and I always held that the Evil Boyfriends Series isn't exactly a "good" ending for Jack, even if it isn't a bad one.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Mahrâna had a commenter who was mad that all the dwarves said fuck because "Tolkien wouldn't have them say that."

This was on the sequel to a fic where Thorin and Bilbo explicitly touched their dicks, and thus it remains the funniest comment I've ever received.

(They also thought Thorin was too obviously Mentally Ill and since there were no therapists in Middle Earth they didn't see why anyone would put up with him. So. Y'know. Fuck that commenter in general.)

9. Do you write smut?

YUP

10. Do you write crossovers?

Nah

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Safe and Distant has been translated to Chinese, German, and Russian!

Steady Hands has been translated to Russian

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Tremble, the equally fucked up sequel to Shiver, was done with a co-author where we went back and forth on chapters!

Currently, Audacity in Human Form has @amahhi as my co-author, as it's written based off of our RP where I wrote Dream and she wrote Hob, and she's who I bounce ideas on for adapting it all into fic form while she also acts as my beta editor.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

This is like asking for a favorite food why. Hell some of my favorite ships are ones I haven't written fic for (Newt/Hermann, Jayce/Viktor, William Laurence/Tenzing Tharkay to name a few).

(Tbh I wouldn't even say whether or not I write fic depends on how much I like the characters. Amahhi and I also have many rp storylines that are basically full fics of all of the above ships (shout out to the Newmann Star Trek AU that remains one of my favorites ever, along with the Willzing with Werewolf!Laurence). It just depends on if my brain figures out how they'd be written as a fic.)

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you will?

A Study on the Habits of the Adult Obscurial. In my heart I still love my version of Credence, who is pretty much an OC of mine with how far I went "oh fuck that" at canon after the first movie. But between the terrible sequels, Rowling going full terf, and the fact that I had not actually plotted out a good outline and was hitting a wall.....yeah that thing's never getting finished. I recently put a note on there letting any new readers know it's officially abandoned.

Things That Were also ran into the problem of me taking on a big fic idea without the big fic planning. I had specific future scenes in my head but didn't have a strict guide on what happened when or how characters would get from A to B. That one I'm more sad about needing to give up on though.

16. What are your writing strengths?

According to friends and comments: dialogue, particularly capturing a characters voice in the dialogue and POV prose, and getting a solid characterization overall.

I'm also told I'm good at making a ship into a convincing couple and how they work as a couple.

Which is good for me, because those are my favorite things to write! Most of my fics are built on scenes of dialogue that popped into my head and the dialogue is what I have the most fun writing (hence why most of my Tumblr posts are goofy dialogue bits).

And I just like taking the characters as they are at a point in their story and going "ok, if these two get together, how does that happen?" and exploring it from there. Tbh I consider most of my successful fics to be character studies hiding in a full fleshed fanfic.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

What the fuck is a story plot????

Is a plot not just "two people take 50k words to figure their shit out with almost no other characters coming in?" What the fuck is actually planning out a storyline with beats to it and an outline? (Trying to get better on the last one, Audacity actually has an outline that includes what specific RP scenes to flesh out or what gets subtracted/added!) (As far as plot goes I've now accepted that I'm not actually A Writer. I just wanna do my drawn out character studies and that's what I'm gonna do damnit.)

Besides that: laying out scenes beyond just the dialogue. Using repetitive descriptive language or getting rambly with it. I legit don't know if my occasional super short sentence lines for character reactions come across as punchy or if it's just choppy and disjointed, which ties in with a general struggle to keep small scenes flowing into each other without getting bogged down in details that fuck pacing up.

According to my various betas: punctuation is my mortal enemy, and I don't know how to make a sentence that isn't a fragment or an eternal run-on. I will sometimes fight them on my sentences and they put up with a lot.

Also, writing discipline in general. I'm uh, very bad at making myself sit down to write even when I want to, and my job tends to burn up the executive functioning points that my ADHD meds give me.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language?

Did it a little bit for Mahrâna with Thorin speaking Khuzdul, but not more than short sentences and it took a stupid amount of looking things up for a couple sentences of dwarvish dirty talk lmao.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

If we count what was actually posted: Rise of the Guardians.

But there's some notebooks rotting away somewhere with a classic early 2000s isekai LOTR fic in it with an OC that was so much like Tauriel that my old buddy and I joked that "Peter Jackson fuckin stole my OC!!" This isn't a dig at Tauriel bc my OC was rad.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

Safe and Distant/Mahrâna are my magnum opus, with Safe and Distant as my personal favorite even though there are bits I'd change (mostly in the smut scene).

I think finishing Mahrâna was a bigger accomplishment and it was overall a bigger challenge to write Thorin's pathos and the mental journey he had to go through, but Safe and Distant was just FUN to write. It was the last time I was young and dumb enough to do things like stay up until 7AM writing nonstop. I think I did a good job of managing to take my strength of chronologically disjointed, shorter character driven scenes and stringing them together into something cohesive. I still like the back and forth flashbacks I did and think I did a good job making the flashback scenes related to the current storyline, even with the flashbacks being out of order.

(Ironic that Bilbo was more fun to write, when Thorin was who I fixated on more ferally and thought about more as a character. I'm having the same thing now with Hob and Morpheus lmao. I love rotating those dark, dramatic, brooding king types in my head, but actually writing the internal brooding out makes me want to chew glass and bully their dramatic asses.)

((still don't know why tf I thought Bilbo would be the virgin of the two of them, or why I have that bit in there with a fucking hobbit being a little insecure about pudge. God I was off base with that lmao))

Tagging @alienfuckeronmain, @avelera, @spicedrobot, @insufferablearchanist

#question game #fanfic #my fic #MAN I FORGOT ABOUT THE SCIFI GOLDENFROST FIC

[rinnysega]

Apologies if this is too personal, please just disregard this if so. But I'm just curious: What are your thoughts on Asleep in a Blizzard these days, especially after writing The Precipice and your own original novel? (congrats on that btw, as someone who's also working on an original book I'm wishing you the best of luck!) It's still one of those fics I think about on occasion and for good reason, but how do you feel about it and Evelyn after so long?

You know, it's funny because aside from the few asks I've gotten about it over the past year, I hadn't thought much about it. But earlier this year, I ran into @koko-raccoon when Ilona and I met up with some friends in town. I didn't realize they'd been following me since the AiaB days, and we got to talking about it. Between them and the users who've sent very kind messages about it, it sort of made me realize that I made something that resonated with people, that they remembered fondly over a decade later, after it had finished. Something that seems to be across the board is the notion that while they can't remember plot, details, or specific scenes, they remember how they felt reading it, and that's been sticking with me.

A lot of Precipice readers have sent the same type of messages, that the story moves them to feel something they can relate to in their own lives. I've been thinking a lot about it while working on my book, and it got me hoping that whatever that secret ingredient is, I hope I'm able to keep having it show up in all my works. Whether its Evelyn and Benson or Gustavo and Bruno, or something original now moving forward, no matter what the plot or specifics entail, I want to keep touching people in that way - through their emotions. Especially if they're emotions where they feel seen, heard, and understood.

Looking back on Evelyn specifically, I wrote her at a time when I was going through a depression lull, which now I believe to be an autistic burnout. I think she did what I wanted her to do at the time, which was to let out feelings I couldn't explain through a fictional character, and when I felt what I needed to feel, I was ready to move on from her. I'm sure if my life stayed the course, I could say the same for Gus in the Precipice. He did what I needed him to do at the time, and it was a way for me to heal something inside me I couldn't put my finger on. These days, I'm realizing he was a part of me that longed for closure for things I couldn't understand, when life felt unfair and confusing, like the suicide of a loved one, or other heavy emotions that I couldn't explain. They'd built up over the course of ten years, so by the time I wrote it in 2022, I had a lot of feelings to work with in creating Bruno's prequel.

After a year in therapy, and per a post I wrote a few days ago, realizing now as an adult that I have autism and c-ptsd, I can see how those feelings and fears translated into how I developed those characters. I won't get into specifics, but I think the parts of Evelyn specifically where I sprinkled in bits of myself were what made that secret ingredient be something special, although I'm saying this as the writer and not the reader. It was a long time ago, so I don't know what parts remained stuck to readers and their emotions, but for Precipice, it's a lot more recent and I'm able to pinpoint exactly what feelings I was tapping into with both Gus and Bruno.

I'm glad I got my start with them in writing big, personal themes in long form prose, and they gave me some incredible friendships over the past decade. I have Ollie who's a little sister to me, both my Best Man and Maid of Honor were people I met through my story too. I had a whole table at our wedding reserved for people I met because of Evelyn and AiaB! And two of them live nearby and we get to see each other often! Precipice too gave me lifelong friends, which I'm incredibly grateful for considering the tail end of the story is when I was struggling pretty hard with emotional trauma. I think both fanfics did their jobs in letting me get out feelings of how I see and live in the world, and they gave me some real ones that I can't wait to grow old with.

Now that I finished my book, it's been great to be able to see the patterns of my work throughout the years. To know myself and what stories I like to tell. I'm probably never going to write fanfics again, mostly because I'm ready to expand to original characters and stories, and not to mention my themes aren't exactly best suited for family programming and animation that I tend to hyperfixate over lol

But I'm glad I'm doing it now, and I'm glad I'm taking Gustavo along for the ride!

GOOOSH hold on, let me tell you, when I went to the writers conference in April, and I was pitching the book, the SWELLING OF MY HEART when the agent smiled and looked at me when I talked about Gus! After the pitch she told me to always lead with him in any future pitches as he was the best, most compelling character. This isn't to say the others aren't compelling, but Gustavo has a very specific role in this story that acts like a backbone throughout the novel. To hear A PROFESSIONAL AGENT say that about him??? I was floored I so happy!!!

I can't wait until I get to share this book with you guys, especially those of you that have been around since AiaB (I'm pretty sure I made my Tumblr around that time in order to post about it. Wow, the time flies). Thank you so much for always being so supportive, and I wish you the best of luck on your book as well!!

#this is so long RIP I'm sorry #Erin writes a book

[leiflitter]

Got my arse in gear for this + fun lil blurbs under the cut for REASONS. I haven't used the best friends because Els' general baseline friendship is pretty intense anyways so they'd all be best friends if she had her way. This may get long but hey! That's life!

Gale - Els has no idea who he is when she hauls him out of that portal. Literally. Word of his wizarding skill has not reached her particular demographic, and so she just assumes he's some sort of minor noble or possibly an elected official- because who introduces themselves as So-and-so of Such-a-place if they aren't?

However, this is probably a good thing. If Els had known about his past, she'd probably have been a little more deferential- not necessarily out of respect, but because that's what she's learned that people of that station want.

Gale, of course, has spent his entire formative years in the company of people who see him as Gale the Wizard, not Gale the Person- and although he's been to a few rough taverns in his time, that's very different from actual prolonged exposure to someone who comes from such a different background. Els' forthright attitude and general lack of simpering about magic are both a novel experience and a breath of fresh air.

He's also intrigued by her, but initially assumes that she has some hitherto-unknown power that makes her so persuasive and compelling. Because he is oblivious and probably hasn't ever had a normal crush on someone, so it's absolutely mysterious as fuck.

Els, on the other hand, has just honed her observation skills through necessity- but on her part, she thought there was something about him the moment he got to his feet and started rambling about ceremorphosis. Their forays into friendship cemented that, yes, she is going to be absolutely heartsick over him- and life is short! They have tadpoles in their heads! Life has put them on a level playing field, and if she's going to turn into a mindflayer she may as well go for it.

Despite their differences, they share a love for knowledge. Els is illiterate, but is a bard in the most archaic sense- she knows so many stories that may have never been put to paper. Gale's knowledge comes from hours of study, but he's in sore need of practical knowledge and someone to give him a nudge when he gets in too deep.

Gale teaches Els to read, and Els teaches Gale to put down the books from time to time and go outside. The perfect Autism/ADHD combo, honestly.

Halsin - why is it complicated? Well, mostly because they have a few crossed wires.

Halsin's... well. He's used to being an authority figure, and he's been through it. Due to this he defaults to what he finds comfortable- assuming that his and Els' connection is due to physical attraction. Yes, he can see that she's making eyes at Gale, but in the grand scheme of things that doesn't mean much.

Els, on the other hand, looks at Halsin and sees her father. A stoic man, connected to nature and put in a position of responsibility that he must bear alone. She can't help but treat him with the affection she holds for her father, and that leads to a... fairly awkward conversation at a later date.

Still, despite the initial disappointment, it helps Halsin move on a little- and, with hindsight, it would not have worked in any way, shape or form. For one, Halsin's too old for Els- he knows himself too well for them to develop as a pair. Also, he's absolutely huge and she's short and scrawny. She would die.

After it's over, she will absolutely be dropping in on him regularly with new wood for him to whittle into ducks, and maybe he'll have a spot in whatever enclave for an old woodcutter who can't cut down any more trees. I think Halsin and Els' dad would be great friends, honestly. I can imagine them watching her set out on her way home, both with that quiet nod of "that's my girl."

Astarion - Els has played for his type more times than she can count, and he doesn't scare her. Honestly, she mostly finds him hilarious- his ascerbic wit and general sarcasm are a great foil for her blunt nature.

He's also one of the few folk in camp who can read people the way she does- and he has valuable insights into the way the upper crust live. She absolutely turns to him for advice about Gale before she fully decides to go for it- "is there some etiquette for telling someone that you're up for it if they are?"

Gale also goes to him for advice, which honestly tickles Astarion to no end.

Els is valuable to Astarion because she sees through his posturing and absolutely will call him out on his shit. She's the conscience that he never really wanted, so it does help that he can make snarky comments about how she needs to brush her hair from time to time. He feels protective over her, but wouldn't admit it- if someone was to hurt her, he would absolutely hunt them down, but he'd be pretending it was all pure coincidence the entire time.

Karlach - these two are trouble. They cannot be left alone because that is how shenanigans begin, and shenanigans lead to their stock of healing portions being sorely depleted.

They easily fall into a sibling-type bond nearly as soon as they meet- and while it's fun, it can also lead to some very childish squabbles- although, it must be said, even the squabbles are undertaken in puppyish glee. It's far calmer for everyone when they can play-fight- although it's a little alarming the first time Karlach has Els in a headlock, they're fairly evenly matched. Karlach is strong, but Els is agile.

They have deep 3am conversations, keep each other's little secrets, and absolutely annoy everyone else at bedtime when one of them goes, "imagine if we were all frogs right now."

Shadowheart - Shadowheart would like to think that she's the 'sensible one'. Els would absolutely disagree with that. Shadowheart is just better at hiding how silly she actually is, and Els delights in luring her a little more out of her shell each time.

Els likes Shadowheart aggressively. She can sense that there's something in her that's at odds with all of her Cool Collected Shar Worship, and Els cannot leave it alone. To her, Shadowheart is like a wobbly tooth- she knows she shouldn't touch it, but she can't help it!

Shadowheart initally is being pragmatic. Els has the people skills that she lacks, and if she's to get back to Baldur's Gate she needs help. Unfortunately, she keeps bonding with the help, and it's inconvenient, and now she's half-heartedly complaining about Els and Karlach splashing when she's trying to wash her hair, can you two please stop acting like children? But she's smiling when she says it.

Wyll - now, Els has heard of The Blade of Frontiers. She's sung a fair few ballads about him, and absolutely has weaponised that against him. It's also probably why she doesn't consider him a romantic prospect- she wants to carve her own legend, not turn into an accessory to another. Wyll, for his part, isn't immune to Els' natural rizz, but I think it'd be a momentary wobble. He probably considered it for an instant, then was immediately hit with the realisation that nope, he doesn't like her like that. Like when you have a romantic dream about a friend, and wake up going "... what???? No????"

Els and Wyll aren't quite at the sibling tier that Karlach and Els are at- they're more like the two kids who compete to be top of the class, but would be at a loss without each other. If they're in the party together, there will inevitably be a discussion of who did the most impressive feat once they're back in camp.

Els normally wins, because she's a bard and as such can brag at an Olympic level, but it's all in good fun- and she's secretly putting together a new epic poem about The Blade's Adventures with The Bard.

He's a good egg, and Els absolutely sneaks him unflattering doodles of Mizora.

Lae'Zel - They butt heads constantly. Especially early on- Els may be blunt, but Lae'Zel takes it to an entirely different level- while Els is plain spoken to her friends, she also knows how to turn on her negotiator skills for the world at large. Lae'Zel's idea of negotiation is that she won't immediately kill whoever she's speaking to.

It initially annoys Lae'Zel that Els just... takes charge of the party, as if there isn't a highly trained warrior and tactician right here who would be a far better option! Then, when she realises that Els is surprisingly capable, her next thought is to see if she can best her in the bedroom- and Els politely turns her down? Inconceivable.

On Els' part, Lae'Zel is like a big, growling dog- initially intimidating, but upon a second glance she can see that the growling isn't mere hostility. It's fear. The true turning point from Els' perspective is when Lae'Zel says teethling- she talks a big game, but she's mostly bark, and Els can talk her down from biting easily.

Jaheira - Els never knew her mother, but if she could choose a replacement, it'd be Jaheira. She's an aspirational figure to Els- it stops them getting close, as Els isn't used to being starstruck, but there's a kind of yearning on Els' side for an older female role model, and although Jaheira doesn't openly take that position on, perhaps she tells Els she's doing well a little more than she might otherwise.

If Jaheira had been around since day 1, they'd probably be closer, but as she isn't... it's more like having a really cool coworker who you want to befriend but have to muster up the courage to approach.

#bg3 #bg3 relationship chart #leiflitter ocs #els woodsley #gale of waterdeep #halsin #shadowheart #wyll ravengard #lae'zel #jaheira #karlach #gaels of woodsdeep #baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate relationships #leiflitter rambles #orange cat tav

[sasusakusatellite]

title: Sand into Silver summary: "You know, I didn't mind at all. Not having a ring." Sasuke didn't either. Not until now. SasuSaku. Set in Sasuke Retsuden (light novel spin-off). Oneshot.  notes:   Contains spoilers for Sasuke Retsuden. Reading this light novel in Japanese (been studying the language for the past 6 years), so I have to do rough translations of the relevant dialogues (there's 4 of them in italics). Also, I lost access to my main account viasatellite (still waiting for tumblr support to get back to me). :/

and HAPPY SASUSAKU MONTH!! for ssmonth22 prompt “Confession"

_____________

Uchiha Sasuke has never been a man of words. He does things the way he knows how, his reasoning very much personal, and even when questioned, finds it a waste of time to explain himself.

He doesn't need to, he reasons. Not when his actions speak for themselves. And they don't lie; he doesn't hide. Over the years of being married to Sakura, he has learned how not to. She deserves nothing less than the real him, after all.

.

.

Sakura is his wife, his family, and all the missions, the distance, and absence in their wake won't ever change that.

"Yeah, but still, you're married so you should always be together."

He stares ahead, recalling Jiji's words. He thought of explaining, of dwelling on the subject for a little longer and presenting his counter-argument. Sakura is his wife, and will always be his family, and under the same sky, they're together.

He didn't.

But as if to contradict himself more than Jiji, he gives in to the feeling that has been boiling inside ever since that conversation. He has yet to put a name to it.

So he takes Sakura's hand, touches her bare finger, and with chakra, forms sand into silver.

"There. Now you have a ring," he says tersely before letting go.

It's his response, albeit late, to Jiji and his insistence on the importance of proximity and proof of bond.

"Don't you wear wedding rings in your country?"

But they're Sasuke and Sakura, and what they share is beyond those. It has never been about being visible.

Sasuke starts walking ahead, not wanting to linger on how his wife is now admiring her hand with the silver band and a beautiful ruby on top of it, glinting in the moonlight.

They are, after all, together here for a mission, and that comes first as their priority. Not him wanting to prove anything to anyone, not him feeling —

"Are you jealous?" Sakura asks, and even without turning to look at her face, he knows that tone.

"No," he answers, continuing ahead.

"What if someone like me took her away from you?"

Sakura has had thousands of patients, and Jiji is just one of them. It can't be the first time that someone has admired her for her kindness and dedication to her work. Jiji probably only admires her a bit…differently.

But Sakura will never be taken away. Sasuke knows that and trusts that to be true. There's no reason to be jealous. He can't be.

Sakura catches up to him.

"Sasuke-kun…!" she hums as she stops by his side, looking at him, a twinkle in her eyes.

Sasuke pauses and faces her. "I'm not jealous."

She smiles some more. Then, it occurs to him. Sakura never hides anything. Between the two of them, it's he who has more reasons to hide.

She stretches her hand out against the moonlight once more, her eyes sparkling with adoration.

"You know, I didn't mind at all. Not having a ring."

"I didn't think we'd need —"

"But this is so beautiful! Thank you…I'm so happy," she sighs, resting her head lightly against his shoulder.

He smiles to himself. "I should've gotten you one before."

"I didn't think it was important. And I like it more this way," she responds happily, still admiring her ring.

It's the little things that he misses the most when he's away from her for long periods of time. Like the scent of her hair: a reminder that someone awaits his return, that he is dearly loved, and most of all, a reminder of everything he needs to protect.

"Sakura."

She looks up.

"I'm sorry," he mutters.

Alarmed, she steps away to get a better look on his face. "What for?"

Sakura is his wife, and nothing will change that. But he now wonders if it's okay, if she views physical distance with the same nonchalance that he does, a logical necessity for their line of work. And if she's okay.

A part of him wants to ask if she ever gets tired of welcoming him home only to let him go so soon again.

"For having to leave you each time, for all those years."

She heaves a sigh, and he detects a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"You are my husband," she starts, stepping closer to Sasuke.

She holds out the hand with the ring he made for her and touches his cheek.

"And nothing will change that," she continues, smiling ever so warmly, her thumb caressing his skin.

He leans into her touch, closing his eyes briefly, the gentle contrast between the warmth of her skin and the metal coldness of the ring reminding him of their bond. He is married to this wonderful woman, to his Sakura.

He turns his face, pressing a soft kiss into her palm. He opens his eyes and smirks when he sees her blushing furiously. She pulls her hand back and turns the other way, folding her arms as if to hide the hand now in heat.

In a huff she complains, "Doesn't mean I don't miss you every time though!"

And in one motion, he's there behind her, his arms around her waist, his face next to her ear. He feels her tensed up for a moment before slowly relaxing into his embrace.

He relishes the softness of her hair, breathing her in.

"I'm glad you're here, Sakura."

She hums in response.

And all thoughts of the mission forgotten for a moment, he slides down to her neck.

"You're right. I was jealous," he rasps.

He feels her shiver. "And I can give you more than a ring…"

He places a firm kiss on the side of her neck, his lips tracing up to the back of her ear, down her jawline, never getting enough.

"Sasuke-ku —"

"…to show just how much."

He spins her, claiming her lips, intent on showing and making his actions speak for themselves.

His hands all over her.

It's been a while.

…

Fin.

(almost went from fluff to smut real quick. O.O)

#sasusaku #ss fic #ssmonth2022 #sasusaku fic #sasuke retsuden #my writing

[woodswolf]

Oh!!!! 9, 29, & 38 please!

fic writer ask game

9. Tell us your favorite thing to drink when you write

I'm gonna be real with you anon, I drink diet Mountain Dew like it's water. Something something self medicating for ADHD (NOT THAT IT FUCKING WORKS)

29. Which fic would you most like to have fan art done for?

TITLE DROP TIME: catch/cradle. This is the first entry in one of the "sequel" lines from DLD, but I might end up putting it in both series on AO3 because (1) they're all the same chronology, just with different contexts (let you think over that one for a little while with the riddle), and (2) some of its contents are specifically relevant to the main series between callbacks to DLD and calls forward to... WELL. We'll just leave it at that :)

I had intended to do this title drop in the upcoming spoiler post, but I still have to respond to comments and write chapter 5 and FUCK man I have had no fucking time for anything these past few weeks. Anyway.

There's a lot of really fun stuff that could have fanart in this one. A lot of Images. If the true form of the Pikmin's side of DLD is a wordless graphic novel and the true form of Olimar's side of DLD is a stream-of-consciousness As It Is, the true form of several specific scenes of catch/cradle would be a film, because there are a lot of framing tricks you can pull off in film that don't really work the same way in text mediums.

(Mostly that you can show-don't-tell without specifically "showing" and thereby "telling". There is one specific location where if I could avoid describing it in detail and leaving noticing specific elements as a purely visual thing — or, to put it another way, to leave the POV character on the level of context they would be on and allowing the audience to pick up the very specific references to previous events and how another character has chosen to contextualize them — would be better than having to say "okay so this thing is in the doorway and this thing is on the wall in a central position and this thing is over here and etc. etc." because there is SO much little reasoning behind some of these things and I would want viewers to react to it organically rather than for it to have ANY attention called to it.)

The dev title for this line of sequels would be the brave and sacred earth for a lot of reasons. As I broke it down to my partner in DMs:

"Sacred earth" as in a play on "sacred turf", because I don't intend to touch the primary topic of this sequel line in ANY fashion ANYWHERE else EVER again - it's too wholly holy to be messed with so trivially. There can be any number of stories set in this chronology, and I do in fact have some very low priority ideas that I would probably only get to years down the line if ever, but the way I see it, there's simply no point for me to ever touch this "kind" version of the base concept without treating the events of DLD chapter 4 as part of its canon. I will leave it as an exercise to the reader to determine why — but if you can't quite figure it out now, the tags that I'll be adding to chapter 5 will make it obvious. Probably. Technically this is a me thing because I have BEEF with another story for not handling a similar subject exactly how I would have.

"Brave" as in:

38. Pick three of your fics and share a song to go with each

I have a 3 hour long playlist of DLD series songs. So!

catch/cradle: The Weight of Us by Sanders Bohlke.

The time has come, let us be brave The time has come, let us be brave Shake off all of your shame The time has come, let us be brave The time has come, let us be brave Let us be brave Let us be brave

This just really sums up the emotional arc in a way? Sometimes things are a change for the better, but recognizing that they are better introduces impossible amounts of guilt that these things that are better are not what was before. I could elaborate further, but really that's what it comes down to.

Other contenders: The Trap by Tally Hall, On A Good Day (cover) by Spencer Pugh, Our Love Remains by rei brown

[TITLE REDACTED] (codename: DLDP3): Body to Flame by Lucy Dacus.

Believe me, I'm speaking plainly and painfully Trying to stay elegant, eloquent and delicate to you I see you holding your breath with your arms outstretched Waiting for someone to come rip open your chest

Lamellamar song of ALL TIME. There's an entire scene (not written, just an outline) that I posted in a more artsy Discord server like eight months ago that unfortunately got ignored. But! Holy shit this one is so real you have no idea.

Other contenders: The Calling by The Amazing Devil, Two Ravens by Hawthorn

dogs leading dogs: By My Side by Uzo Aduba and the Godspell ensemble cast.

It's a really hard choice, because I can't even say that there is a single song that encapsulates all of base DLD for me, but By My Side comes really, really close. I can't even pull out specific lyrics because it's just. All of it. Our two dogs are each all three of the follower and the pebble and the betrayed, and it keeps the same tender-yet-tragic tone of everything except chapter 6 (which is kind of its own thing, you'll see when we get there).

Other contenders are mostly songs that are INSANE fits for specific scenes without being Encapsulating, so here we go:

I'm Your Man by Mitski is a second overall pick for "THE DLD song". It's not quite the right tone, or at least not anymore, but it came out right when I was starting the initial drafts of this project so I can't not mention it.

Gravedigger (Acoustic version) by Dave Matthews. This one was actually intentionally referenced in-text but we haven't seen that yet (it's in chapter 5).

New Normal by Jack Stauber is a good summation of where we're going to be left off on one of our timelines.

Wanderer's Lullaby by Adriana Figueroa is one that I've regularly come back to for some of the more emotionally difficult scenes. The last ~300ish words of vi. love (as an absence) were written to it, as were a few portions of the Pikmin parts of chapter 5.

The Woods by San Fermin is more of a general chapter 1 song, but as a result it carries relevance with the entire rest of the fic.

How Did I Die? by Einstürzende Neubauten is also a more general song but it doesn't match as well as I'd like in some ways. It does, however, mirror the structure very nicely — there's a clear change between the "body" and "epilogue" of the song.

Thanks for the ask! :D

#fic writer ask game #dogs leading dogs #my posts

[goblinselfshippr]

2/2 of me projecting onto a game and character that really isnt that deep (it is to ME) i think this is way longer than the first sorry. (Part 1 here)

PS- if it isn't clear at this point I'm saying that wizard training causes c-ptsd because that cannot be good for your health. So "Delusion" being a prerequisite to Conjuring (I have no idea if this is a "correct" term, I personally take no offense to it, but lmk if you do, I guess). Some evidence: you can summon minions to help fight with you if you choose- which was the main reason I kept Myth when I took the personality quiz instead of switching to Ice (previously my fave school). Now these minions are common enemies in the game like haunted dolls, trolls, and Cyclops (does that have a plural?? Idk) with one main difference: the ones you summon look different from the actual enemies. Most notable is that the minions aren't as big as the actual enemies. There are slight color differences too, but their height is way more noticeable. Cyclops are usually like 2 players tall, but Cyclops Minions are maybe 1.3 players tall.

And yeah yeah yeah its to differentiate between the spells. Shut up. We are choosing to ignore reality. ANYWAY.

Conjuration is described as "where shadowy forms of thought become real" and "when imagination becomes too fanciful and whimsical these dreams take on life and run loose." SO LIKE. All the Myth bosses and allies must've been somebody's imaginary friends at one time. It would explain why there are bosses or characters with familiar names but don't quite fit their tales- for example, Apollo is a rooster who fucks your shit UP.

Yes I swear we are coming back around to Cyrus, I can't control how my brain categorizes things. There's not a lot said about his family other than they aren't really there. He's left alone from presumably a young age because his father is some big name battlemage, there's zero mention of a mother figure, and his brother would rather play in a graveyard (also convinced Cyrus was afraid of his own shadow as a kid bc I wouldn't put it past Mal to actually summon a demon under his bed). He hides in his room and either paints his daydreams or reads fantasy novels.

Omg he just like me fr except instead of painting I write fanfic that no one ever reads. It’s for my eyes only

From my own experience, you get lonely and bored, and you want friends, but never learn. And his father doesn't sound like the most supportive guy in the world- he seems kind of salty that neither of his kids want to practice Pyromancy like him. So poor Cy was probably just dismissed and ignored and had to go back to his sanctuary.

Cyrus doesn't actually become interested in any sort of spell casting until he's like 18-19, and Mal gets his ass kicked by a Conjurer. Bro really said "damn I can make my daydreams fight for me?" And just did that for the rest of his life, LOL. Wish that were me.

Cyrus is (admittedly) not the best teacher. Like, yeah, he's a dick but most people can think of at least one teacher in their life that everyone called an asshole that they eventually grew to appreciate even if it wasn't personally true. Cyrus, on the other hand, straight up begs you to leave him alone (same). Like the only time he speaks to you is when you irritate him enough or he suddenly remembers you exist. And I'm pretty sure at one point he even tells you he forgot you were in his class. -1000/10 teacher. Problematic fave. I would either hate him or only like him because he leaves me the hell alone. So what is he doing if not dutifully teaching his students?

According to his about page, enjoying the quiet or researching. Doubt. But then, daydreaming until you summon something could likely count as research for Myth. So yeah I think the reason why he's a massive douchebag is because he found a way to profit off his maladaptive daydreaming, and the only downside is he has to tell a couple of kids to scram every now and then. I guess I could have just lead with that. Rip.

#💚[Spillways]

[pinkmoonlily]

Atomic Anna

Author: Rachel Barenbaum Page count: 449 Rating: 4 / 5

My rating: 5 / 5

'' Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should ,,

This book. Was. So. Freaking. Good. Oh my god.

I started it about two weeks ago, but had to take a break because EW's Encyclopaedia of Faeries came in, and that one had a sooner return date. Also, when I first started Atomic Anna, I wasn't that into it. I didn't really vibe with the writing style; there's nothing wrong with it, it's just not a style that I usually prefer. However, after taking a break for a few days to read EW's EOF and coming back, I got SO. HOOKED. I was at about 35% completion on Friday morning, and I read all the way until 90% completion by the end of the day. I so badly wanted to finish it, but I was so tired I couldn't keep my eyes open. I finished it Saturday morning, and immediately told everyone I know how fan-fucking-tastic it was, and recommended it to all my bookworm friends.

It took some time for me to really appreciate the way the story was being told; I think I had trouble getting through the beginning because I found Molly to be absolutely insufferable as a child. I can sympethize with her in some ways, in her desire to be treated as an adult and make her own decisions as she grows up. The difference, however, is that my parents never held on too tightly like hers did. Mine never questioned my choices or tried to steer me onto a different path like hers did. And as a result, I never felt the need to act out or grasp freedom in anyway possible. Molly did. It really was such an interesting and heartfelt experience watching her move through life, making many, many, poor decisions in a desperate attempt to control her own life. And then seeing Raisa grow up, how different she is from Molly and how similar she is to Anna. One of the key elements of this story is each character's interaction with her mother; how Anna held on to so much anger and resentment for what she percieved as her mother leaving her for something more, how Molly idolized Anna and fought so much against Yulia as a maternal figure in her life, how Raisa resents her mother for the decisions she's made, but can't help but love and want to help her despite it all. These feelings built the plot-behind-the-plot of this story, and form the cornerstone for the decisions made throughout the novel.

Also, just in general, historical fiction is awesome. This novel takes us back and forth between Germany in the 40's, the Soviet Union in the 50's and 60's, and the USA in the 70's, 80's, and 90's. We see the Nazi occupation in Berlin, and the affects of WWII on the USSR, the meltdown at Chernobyl, the fear of nuclear war in the USA in the 50's; all intertwined with time travel. Another reason I loved this book so much: I'm a huge sci-fi nerd. I'm admitting it. I loved all the science and math in this book, the discussions and theories on gravity and light and energy and how it all connects. All of this, told through the lens of three generations of women's lives; it's a fucking masterpiece. I love the way that time travel allows us to bounce back and forth between what Anna is doing in the future, to seeing how Molly's life is developing, to moments of Anna's past in Berlin, to Raisa back in the future. Each time Anna jumps, we see how things developed in the new timeline she's created; we get glimpses of what was and what is and what will be. And in the end, we see that time is cyclical (which is one of my absolute favorite theories when it comes to time travel), and that everything that will happen, already has. If you see an event happen in the future, you think that every decision you make is putting you on a course to either realize or avoid that event. But in the end, it was you seeing that event and making those decisions that led you to that moment in the first place. There's no way to avoid it, because time is a circle.

Anyway, enough theories. As amazing as it was, I'm not sure this is a book I'll read again for a long while, just because it was long and emotional and chock full of heavy science. But it has definitely earned a spot on my Favorite Books list.

#mybookreviews

[bettsfic]

I stopped writing for a long time, and I'm once again at that "my ambitions NOTICEABLY exceed my skills" stage I hate. I know I have to write through it, but it kind of feels like I'm 'wasting' my good ideas on all this practice, and yet I know I can't just store what I want to write for when I'm good enough, cause who knows if I'll just keep moving the finish line? But do you have any advice on how to work past the feeling you're not a good enough writer for what you want to write?

i definitely know the feeling, anon, and i know it really sucks. but my advice is not to save your ideas for later. always work on them while you're vibing with them. you may not finish them, and they may not be up to your self-standards, but you can't improve if you don't keep pushing yourself to do your best work. and sometimes that means tackling ideas that are a step above what you're capable of.

sometimes you have to meet your ideas in the middle. if you have an idea for an epic fantasy but you only really write 20k AUs of your favorite characters falling in love, it means you're going to have to figure out how to make an epic fantasy into a 20k AU of your favorite characters falling in love.

so you take a piece of your big idea and you put it into something you know how to do. then you take another piece and put it into something a little bigger. then you take yet another piece and you put it into something that you realize is actually pretty close to your original idea, but you've built up to it so gradually you didn't even notice.

here's an example:

in 2017, i had an idea to write a novella in the form of therapy handouts. if you've never gotten a therapy handout, imagine a tacky xeroxed copy of some activity you would have gotten in first grade but it says like MINDFULNESS in comic sans. now imagine trying to write a narrative using only those handouts, rather than prose.

the thing is, i'm kind of a traditionalist. i tend toward mostly chronological narratives with the goal for reader immersion. i don't experiment with form that often. and so i knew when i had this idea it was far, far outside of my reach.

the first draft was called The Liminalist, and it was a traditional narrative that i still to this day value, but it wasn't really working and hasn't really gone anywhere. through that draft, i discovered that i was drawn to the experimental form for the wrong reasons. i didn't *need* the experimental form to complete what i set out to do. i was in fact interested in working through certain themes: recovery post-breakdown, a flimsy relationship with reality, lowkey magic posed as psychosis, a beloved invisible character that only the main character could see.

instead of going back to The Liminalist, i ended up writing a lot of those themes in The Art of Scraping Through. then for a long time, i thought about somehow merging the latter into the former, but it was still out of my reach.

now, by sheer accident, i've managed to make a wholly separate narrative with these themes and then some into a novel called Vandal, which i feel like is a capstone of all the work i've done so far. it's the end of a much greater project than just one story (i wrote about my definition of a "project" here. i recommend reading it to get a better sense of what i'm talking about). when i look back on all my work, all of it fed into other work which fed into other work. it's all part of a greater lexicon, of trying and failing and succeeding a little, just enough to make me want to try again.

try to break down what's motivating you to write what you want to write. what are the themes, concepts, or styles you're interested in exploring? then try to fit those into projects that are closer to your current form wheelhouse. maybe write a one-shot fic version. then a multi-chap fic version. then a short story version. then a novel version.

i know that may seem like a lot, but you have to practice telling the story you want to tell. if it's a story worth telling, it's worth writing in multiple ways across many forms until you can turn it into the thing you want it to be, and you can truly move on to your next project.

#writing advice

[apompkwrites]

reader impact || first meetings: liyue boys

series masterlist characters: chongyun, xingqiu genre: fluff summary: a game has been released entitled genshin impact, consisting of otherworldly abilities relying on the basic elements of nature. the game follows the story of an interdimensional traveling twin in search of their other half. along this journey, they meet different characters that live in this world. including you. notes: ahhh my boys <333 they're on my team rn and i love how well they work together. also, chongyun was kinda hard to write a meeting for because you don't really meet him??? we just recently got the hangout events so,,,

chongyun's playthrough -

chongyun tries to keep his love for supernatural things lowkey.

he does a terrible job at it, though.

his overlay is spirit themed so-- :)

his streams are very laid back.

when he first started, he didn't talk so much.

but then he started getting used to it and his viewers love how dorky he is.

he's very talkative once he's comfortable streaming :D

i'm not basing this on beau bridgland on zach's stream what are you talking about?

his chat makes fun of him sometimes because he can't stand the heat.

(they love his popsicle breaks during streams though--)

they've definitely tried to make him eat hot peppers, each one increasing in scoville units.

he fell for it once and is now very cautious about what his chat asks of him.

^^ what happened was they told him eating it with something else would make it less hot. it didn't.

the only requests he'll take now are game requests ://

anyway, a lot of people request for him to play genshin impact simply because of one character they want him to roll for.

unfortunately, he isn't able to find any trailers of this mystery character :((

he does see some things about your friend that likes to read, though!!

since he can't find anything about this character his chat is excited about without spoilers, he throws caution to the wind and uses all of his free rolls.

his luck must be god-tier at this point because he manages to get you in his first ten roll.

he will definitely pause everything he's doing just to look at your splash art.

you're so calm and poised but so forceful at the same time like?!?!??!

hOW?!?!?!?!?

you have all these floating charms around you and you're just so?!??! cool?!?!?

he hasn't even gotten to a fourth of this game and you're already one of his best characters.

he'll give the best weapons and artifacts, replacing them with better ones the more he plays.

during his popsicle breaks, he'd normally watch some videos or something while talking to chat.

until you came into his life :D

now all of his popsicle breaks include you in some way.

playing genshin? man he'll put you on his screen and just play some of your voicelines or let your idle animations play.

he's doing literally anything else??? too bad, you're right there in the form of fanart he's seen or videos of you.

if you have the same issue with heat that he has, he won't be using large scale pyro users.

characters similar to diluc or klee? nope. only small pyro users thank you very much.

and when that happens, he probably has them built up for physical damage instead of elemental.

his chat will beg him to build up the other pyro characters better please they're so good at elemental damage--

"no."

dang.

he knows for sure that it won't techinically affect you game wise.

but does he care? no.

at least 90% of the time you're paired up with a character that pairs up well with you, in both game mechanics and story.

(kinda like chongyun and xingqiu, you feel me?)

he just can't let you two part :((

he's one of the players that desperately want a story quest for you.

please he just wants to learn more about his favorite comfort character :((

xingqiu's playthrough -

xingqiu does a lot of reading streams.

he'll just sit there for hours and read books to his viewers.

they can span from children's books to full on novels.

he does requests too!!

like, if enough people request a book, he'll read it to them.

mainly streams at night so that people who need something to listen to while they sleep can listen.

(of course that only works if they're in similar time zones).

but he's a smart boy so he'll sometimes do streams in the middle of the day for people who are in different time zones.

sometimes he'll do analysis streams where everyone can discuss the book he read in the past stream.

he's another person who likes games with stories because, obviously, he likes reading.

when he's recommended to play genshin, he's a bit hesitant on it.

there isn't a whole lot of reading involved since it's voiced but then he learns about all of the books you can collect.

that's pretty much the main reason he plays the game.

he spends a lot of time in the mondstadt library.

he takes a while to actually get to liyue because he's reading all of the stories from mondstadt.

his chat is practically begging him to continue the story because... you know.

he finally gets to liyue after months of playing.

of course, he doesn't actually meet you in the main story.

he's very confused when his chat tells him to unlock one of the story quests.

honestly, he just wants to get back to reading the books in genshin.

but he unlocks it anyway.

of course, he's very excited to see that this quest takes him to liyue's bookhouse.

"did somebody say out-of-print books?"

softvoicesoftvoicesoftvoicesoftvoicesoftvoice

aND THEN THE PAN UP THAT HIDES YOUR FACE.

"is there a chance that volume six of legend of the shattered halberd is also in his collection?"

"who are they...?"

"apologies, my liege."

and he's down.

you're so soft and calm and adorable.

please you've snatched his heart in an instant.

he's on board once you invite him to qingce village.

and then you take the book and run.

when he finds you reading, he takes a hot minute before he actually talks to you.

the way you're standing is adorable please--

if you stand similar to how he does in the game, he's smitten.

you're so graceful and poised and just so,,, ADORABLE PLEASE

#genshin impact #genshin impact x reader #genshin x reader #genshin impact headcanons #genshin impact imagines #genshin impact scenarios #genshin impact fluff #genshin impact chongyun #zhongli imagines #genshin chongyun #genshin chongyun x reader #chongyun x reader #genshin impact xingqiu #genshin impact xingqiu x reader #genshin xingqiu #genshin xingqiu x reader #xingqiu x reader #reader impact