#trying 2 flesh out the details in words so its not all just in my head

[gayanimebitches]

working on further developing the characters for my sao fic and the way they r all just yearning for connection with others........what does this say abt me.............

#i already know what it says abt me dont tell me #ive also concluded that 4/6 of my main characters r just mlp characters but a little different #oops ig #sao #trying 2 flesh out the details in words so its not all just in my head

[astupidweeb69]

Unrequited (Yandere! Ticci Toby x Reader) Part 9

Links to Previous Chapters: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8

Author’s Note: I've been rereading this chapter for about a week trying to edit it, but decided I'd just go ahead and post it. Happy holidays everybody!

Cross-posted on my Ao3 account, which I update more frequently.

Warnings: Swearing. Descriptions of Gore. Some threats of violence. (2,070 words)

____________________________________________________________

Leaves crunched underneath heavy boots, ragged and irritated breaths came out in clouds against the cold. 

Toby was not pleased.

Not pleased with how things were going with you.

And not pleased with being texted by Tim.

Apparently there was some work to do and he had to ‘get his lazy ass over there’. The young proxy didn’t even know the details of what needed to be done. A supply run? Some more random campers in the area? Either way Toby was itching for a fight. 

He could feel anger in his system bubbling and ready to boil over. Just imagining Tim’s smug face waiting for him, probably ready to spat some nonsense about how ‘he’s late’ or make a snide comment on his appearance. His face twitched furiously at the idea, and if anyone was unfortunate enough to see the way he walked through the woods now, they’d surely run in the other direction. There was murder in the man’s eyes. 

It wouldn’t take long for Toby to find his teammate. That’s how things always worked though, they had a connection to find each other when they were supposed to, all he needed to do was walk mindlessly in a direction and let the forest guide him.

“Someone’s in a pissy mood.”

The smell of smoke let him know he found who he was looking for. Tim leaned on a tree, a wry smile on his face, a lit cigarette burning away at his fingertips. It was practically an extension of his hand at this point, the fucking chainsmoker. Toby learned to hate the scent of tobacco.

“Where’s Brian?” Toby frowned, ignoring Tim’s comment.

“Had something he needed to do.”

Tim looked disinterested in the conversation. Getting him to actually tell Toby what was going on was like pulling teeth. And Toby knew first hand how hard that could be.

“Suh-so? Why’d you cuh-call me out here?” The younger proxy fidgeted with the ends of his gloves.

Tim sighed, letting the last part of his cigarette drop to the ground, putting it out with his boot. “There’s been some weird things happening out here. Brian said you should come with me to investigate.” 

Toby made note of how he said ‘Hoodie’. Tim’s way of hinting that he didn’t want him there. Typical.

“Wuh-what do you mean weird things?”

Tim motioned with his head for him to follow, walking away into some bushes, Toby raised one of his eyebrows before complying. There was a rancid stench in the air when he started following him, like something died. Not uncommon in the forest, but it was hard to stomach even for the most experienced woodsman. 

They followed the smell of rotting flesh, down a small embankment. The dead leaves on the ground made it hard not to slip and fall, and Toby snickered when Tim lost his footing a couple times, making the older proxy shoot him a dirty look. 

“There up ahead.” After walking a few paces, Tim pointed to a mangled pile of fur splayed out against a group of pine trees. 

Toby’s eyes narrowed at the bloody mess in front of him, turning to the other man in irritation. 

“You dragged me out here for a duh-dead deer?”

“Take a closer look, Rogers.”

Toby shoved past Tim, making a point to bump into his shoulder for using the nickname he hated. He pulled up the mouthguard hanging from his neck to cover his nose, but it didn’t block out the smell nearly as much as he’d hoped. It took a lot of willpower not to gag.

He scanned over the remains noting different sized bite marks and scratches that tore through the animal's belly, viscera pooling out and its black lifeless eyes staring up at the sky. A swarm of maggots had already started the process of decay. 

Toby could see the red of Tim’s flannel out the corner of his eye.

“Well?”

“Okay, it’s a luh-little strange. I’ll give you that. The bite muh-marks look like they came from a  human.”

“Anything else, detective?” Tim mused, clearly noticing something else but liked toying with the kid.

“Just fucking spit it out.”

The older man kneeled down, motioning to two different spots on the deer's hind legs. “They’re all different sizes, meaning more than one person did this.”

“Cuh-cool.” Toby deadpanned. “So what does that mean for us?” 

“It means we need to keep an eye out for groups of ravin’ lunatics.”

“Don’t we already duh-do that?”

Tim rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean. This is the second animal we’ve found like this in a week.”

“And yuh-you only thought to tell me now?”

“I was busy.” Tim shrugged, the corner of his lip curling up slightly. The man did not give two shits about warning Toby sooner. Probably didn’t even want to tell him now. If anything, Brian most likely had to convince him to.

The younger proxy scowled at him, tempted to escalate things, to cause another one of their fights ending with the two trying to claw the others' eyes out. Not that it would hurt him, and Toby always got some sick amusement seeing Tim in pain. But it would be dark soon, and he was itching to get back home. The thought of you back there tied up on his bed was making him scratch at his scar. 

He needed to spend more time with you. The look in your eyes as he paced around the cabin…. The look of fear and hatred. It wasn’t unexpected, but it still bugged him. You were… a bit more of a firecracker than he’d hoped. And level-headed unfortunately. You were catching on a little too quickly, to just how…. Temperamental he could be. The memory of you staring at his hatchets came back to him. He needed you to see his softer side, needed you to warm up to him before the truth, the real truth, about what he was came out. Maybe if he stole an old TV and got some of those movies you liked….

“Rogers!”

A finger snapped inches from his face. Toby blinked.

“Wuh-What?” 

“I told you we need to get goin’” Tim pushed Toby forward impatiently. “It’s almost night time. Come on.”

He could hear Tim muttering “Fuckin’ useless kid.” under his breath as he led the way.

Toby’s stomach twisted. That phrase got to him. Was something he’d heard a lot, from somewhere before, something in his past. Something familiar. Tim taunted him in ways that sparked a deep resentment, like an itch he could never fully scratch. A scab that wouldn’t heal.

They walked back the way they came in, up the hill and through the thick bushes, without saying a word. One thing they could agree on was the less they talked, the better.

Luckily Toby’s cabin wasn’t too far. Fiddling with the ends of his jacket, combing his hair, absentmindedly, he was glad to be rid of the old fucker finally and get back to what was important.

But things never worked out the way he wanted.

Toby felt a hand on his arm. Tim lit up another cigarette, his eyes narrowed at Toby, before taking a long, deep, drag into his lungs. .

Smoke billowed from the man’s mouth, surrounding him in a thick cloud as he spoke.

“Before you go, I need somethin’ from your cabin.”

Fuck.

Toby stared at him for a moment. His mind went blank, before finally speaking up.

“Wuh-what do you need?” 

He’d just act normal. It wouldn’t be a big deal. He could figure something out.

“Hoods and I are running low on some supplies. We know Kate keeps some of her stuff in your basement. Figured we’d borrow some things.” 

The boy twitched and fidgeted under the pressure, trying to come up with ways to get out of it. If Tim saw you… Toby didn’t even want to think about what he’d do. He honestly didn’t know.

“What… kuh-kind of things-sss?” Shit. His stutter was getting worse.

Tim raised a brow. Likely annoyed by how standoffish the other proxy was being at something simple.

“Like food n’ ammo. We’ve been too busy to go into town.” Tim paused, and looked almost accusingly at him. “And I know you’ve been leaving the forest a lot recently.”

Toby chewed on the side of his cheek. Of course the other proxies sensed his disappearance. He’d been too preoccupied with you to even think about that being a possibility. That didn’t mean they cared when he was gone, they weren’t his babysitter. But now Tim had him over a barrel. There was no way he could deny him supplies now, without admitting the reason he went into town was for… something out of the ordinary.

“Fuh-fine.” He sighed, trying to collect his thoughts. “Just duh-don’t touch any of my stuff.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

______________________________________________________________

The cabin was just up ahead. Toby kept glancing back at Tim who seemed too preoccupied in his own thoughts to notice.

“Whuh-wait outside for a second. There’s suh-something I need to take care of first.” 

Tim eyed him carefully. They both stood on the porch, tension rising, Tim’s body stiffening and his hands balling into fists for a brief moment. Toby fully expecting him to lash out. 

Tim always thought the boy was weird. Fucked up in the head. Overly-emotional, unstable, obnoxious, and he’s seen the worst of Toby’s manic episodes. He was almost certain the kid engaged in some light cannibalism, from the way he mumbled to himself in his delusional states. He was so fucking glad they didn’t live under the same roof anymore.

Finally, after a few moments of staring the other down, Tim relaxed. “Whatever, just don’t take too long.”  The older man decided he’d do whatever it took to get the fuck outta there, even if that meant having to obey. Despite how much that bruised his ego, he just wanted to go home and sleep.

Toby quickly went inside, slamming the door behind him, and Tim sat on the steps of the porch with a reluctant grunt.

Twitching anxiously, he ran into the room where you were tied to the bed. You jumped, obviously startled, by the door aggressively being opened. Normally he’d mock you, wanting to give a fake ‘awwww’ at how freaked out you were by his presence. He was still mad about how you've been treating him. But he didn’t have the time for that right now.

He opened the drawer to his nightstand, getting out an old t-shirt.

“Wha-” You started to question, but he cut you off by shoving the cloth in your mouth painfully. He tied it around your head, a little too tight, but he needed to make sure you were properly gagged and wouldn’t be heard.

Toby leaned down to your ear, speaking in a low hiss. “You nuh-need to be fucking quiet. I have a guest. He’s dangerous, so don’t get any ideas. No one’s coming to save you.”

He gripped your jawline tightly. “Do you uh-understand?” You stared back at him. Toby narrowed his eyes, tightening his hold on your face even more, until you finally nodded your head.

He released his hand and exited the room, mentally preparing himself to interact with Tim again, and with a deep breath, opened the front door.

“Okay, you can cuh-come in now.”

Tim groaned as he got up to follow him inside. 

Toby couldn’t help letting his eyes dart to his bedroom door when they walked past. He led Tim down the hall where the basement stairs were, which he started keeping locked the day he captured you. He didn’t need you to see what was down there. Hopefully not ever.

After Toby unlocked the door and showed him the various backpacks stolen from victims, Tim rummaged through a couple before collecting the items he needed. Mostly food, a couple old boxes of ammo. Nothing special.

His heart was pounding when they climbed the stairs again, so close to getting this over with. Wanting nothing more than to have him out of the house. Away from you.

But without warning, Tim stopped in the hallway, 

It was so sudden Toby almost bumped into his back.

“Whuh-what is it?”

There was a dangerously long pause, before Tim’s head turned to look behind his shoulder. Toby's eyes widened in fear.

“Did you hear that?”

#ticci toby #creepypasta #ticci toby x reader #toby rogers #yandere creepypasta x reader #yandere ticci toby x reader #unrequited #yandere #fanfiction #my writing #masky creepypasta #ticci toby creepypasta #ticci toby x you #yandere creepypasta

[krugkorien]

Happy New Year everyone! Today I want to show you my main setting: the Divine World. It’s a dark fantasy world that combines both epic (gods, monsters, magic, saving the world) and mundane (death, decay, bigotry, oppression) aspects of the genre. Worldbuilding and lore is a very important part of DW, to a point where if I could write everything I want about DW it would be one of the biggest books in the history of mankind. But this is an introductory post, so I’ll try to keep it brief!

1. While I’m not going to get into any unpleasant details here let’s still get some trigger warnings out of the way first. As I said DW is dark fantasy, and it’s so dark that Marena came up with the name Macabre Fantasy in order to emphasize how dark DW is and how the aforementioned themes of death and decay play a huge role in it, as well as many other sensitive topics. Aside from what has been already mentioned there's also a lot of cruelty & violence (both interpersonal & socio-political) and also topical problems: sexism, nazism, colonialism, etc. All of this, of course, is not for the sake of being edgy, but to make a lot of important points.

2. The inhabitants of the Divine World are appropriately called Divine Humans [1], aka Homo Mirandum. While they look a lot like regular humans, there are a lot of differences between us and them! They have horns, claws, different hair textures and skin tones, three spinal cords instead of one and are also bigger than us: it depends on a lot of factors and the shortest men are actually not that big, being only 166 cm tall, but the tallest women can go up to 350 cm! And yes, you’ve read it correctly, women are taller! Divine sexual dimorphism is somewhat flipped compared to ours and Divine women are tall, muscular and hairy, while men are short, thin and mostly hairless. Meanwhile their voices are pretty similar and androgynous, and also have a metal (as in material not music) vibe to them.

Physically Divine humans are, for the lack of better word, monumental: they are strong, capable of surviving wounds that would kill a regular human ten times over, have a great memory, but are also stiff and slow, both physically & mentally, for physiological reasons as well simply because they can afford to be — their lifespans can be measured in multiple Earth centuries. However Divine humans rarely enjoy their longevity to its full extent. Outside dangers aside, their illnesses and disabilities are just as monumental as they are. For example, Divine albinism means fully transparent flesh which in turn means complete blindness and high vulnerability towards radiation (levels of which are very high on Mirabilis).

Divine souls are just as physical as anything else. They are also Aetheric in nature, and are another example of Divine sexual dimorphism: white souls belong to men and black to women (with rare exceptions). This plays a huge role in Divine society and became one of the reasons why most Divine societies are patriarchal: men, despite being physically weak, can literally mind-control women when needed. It doesn’t help that too much contact with an aether opposite to your soul can lead to death.

While Divine humans are technically the only race of Mirabilis, thanks to magic they can turn into many various creatures: Demons, Angels, Chorts (lesser Demons, roughly speaking), Bieses (lesser Chorts), Beatas, Vampires, Turnskins (Divine equivalent of werewolves), Beasts, Chimeras, Nocturnals, Urials, Cadavredaxes and so on, many of them having sub-types (for example vampires being living and undead).

4. Technology & society-wise Divine civilization can be compared to 19th century Earth: imperialism and nationalism are at their peak, proto-industrial society, recently invented trains & electricity. However Divine civilization also possesses traits more associated with our Middle Ages: religion being the most important social institute, no concept of humanism, plate armor & melee weapons still being main tools of war.

5. Like Divine humans themselves Mirabilis looks somewhat Earth-ish but is actually very different. For starters, when I say that DW is a dark and oppressive world I mean it a bit literally! Mirabilis has high atmospheric pressure (~8 higher than Earth), it’s a much colder and wetter planet, and most noticeably — it has no sun. Despite this, Mirabilis still has light and heat, even if not as much as we do, all that thanks to the White Aether (a very important magic substance) that fills the space around the planet. A Sun’s fire isn’t the only kind Mirabilis lacks — due to the low oxygen level of 15% fire simply cannot exist in normal conditions on Mirabilis.

If the word “normal” can even be used towards Mirabilis — all of the planet’s flora are technically mushrooms and much closer to the meat-side of things, so stuff like bleeding human-eating trees isn’t exactly shocking to Divine humans. Animals are technically the same as on Earth but with a huge caveat — their appearance is based on the medieval depictions of them which means animals like hyperagressive fishes with limbs, talking horses with human teeth, owls with human faces, giant non-arthropodic insects and so on.

While Mirabilis is bigger than Earth, it has only one continent that is sliced in half by the so-called Black Wall —an  impassable wall of Black Aether. The stories I write take place on the western half of the continent, and its inhabitants can’t just cross the ocean to explore the East because of the atrament — a deadly substance that fills the sea and is so dangerous only two western races out of twelve have any level of resistance to it.

The explorers of Mirabilis would be very upset about this if not for the Remnants, mysterious ruins that are both more ancient than anything they have ever seen yet more advanced than anything they could dream of. Exploring Remnants is an incredibly dangerous, often illegal job, but what’s that compared to a chance to learn more about the world? More materialistic folks are attracted by the artifacts that are capable of granting incredible miracles and, of course, even more incredible horrors.

And I think that’s pretty much it for the introductory post! From now on I’m going to repost the stuff I’ve previously posted on my Twitter before but now with all kinds of lore tidbits. There’s other projects we’ll talk about, especially Neon-23, Marena’s cyberpunk setting (that has a crossover with DW we made for fun!) but that’s it for now. Thank you for reading all this! And thanks to @goldporces & ippoteq @ Twitter for beta-reading this text!

[1] — In Russian I call them Дивнолюди, based on an archaic Russian word for “miracle” — диво. “Divine” is a very lucky translation because it sounds similar to the original word and also points at the, well, divine nature of the Divine Humans.

#worldbuilding #dark fantasy #divine world

[mirabai0821]

Blood and Honey WIP excerpt #(-b+-√b^2-4ac) / 2a

Pairings: Tav x Astarion Warnings: none Words: I actually have no idea, sorry. Summary: Astarion has found he's lost the battle for Tav's heart, but, somehow, has won the war anyway.

Astarion hunched over an uncorked but unsampled bottle of wine, overthinking, as Halsin cautioned him not to do, which, of course, made him want to do it more despite all the grief it gave him.

“Some things can be easy if you want them to be,” he groused to himself in his best impression of the druid. “What a load of bullshit.”

Bullshit that consumed him for the better part of a day. Just long enough for him to see Halsin walk out of Tav’s room wearing an unmistakable grin, like the bear that ate the beehive. 

He fell for it. He fell for that load of "we don't have to be enemies" crap and Halsin used it to make his move. The overwhelming feeling of loss scoured his insides to the bone though it was a wholly inappropriate emotion to feel. He wasn’t entitled to loss. Not for what his true designs were, and yet grief sank into flesh heavy as lead. He was surprised to find he could move, could speak.

“I’m too late aren’t I?” He said aloud, having somehow crossed the threshold of Tav’s door.

She startled from her papers. “Oh! Was I supposed to meet you somewhere? I’m sorry, Halsin was here and I lost track of time.”

Astarion chewed the inside of his lip to bleeding. I bet you did. 

“Don’t worry about it darling,” he answered blithely, strangely satisfied to make her feel bad for no reason. Another shining example why he had no claim to sadness. “I’m here now. All’s well.”

“Are you sure?”

“Naturally.”

Feeling a bit of his old, indifferent self return, he strode into her room, shutting the door and perched himself over her shoulder, hovering as close as a moth to lamplight.

“So…Halsin, I take it you two have patched things up?” He could smell the warmth of the druid on her. But try as he might to muster disgust, all he felt was contentment to be so near her again.

“He asked if he could join us, actually,” she said.

“Oh?” He feigned interest. “And what did you say?”

“I told him no at first.”

Astarion almost choked but recovered, smothering the gurgling sound with a giggle. “Why would you ever do that? Every group needs a strong back and a pretty face. It’s good for morale.”

Tav turned to glare at the vampire. “Really? I figured you’d be pleased. You two seem to always pick at each other.”

“Oh darling, that was only sport. Besides, that man would walk through the hells for you at the asking.”

He watched her nose, excited to see it wrinkle in blushing embarrassment but Tav looked almost pained to hear what anyone would want to hear about a lover.

Maybe…

“When did you last eat?” Tav asked, hoping to distract the vampire with food.

Astarion, sensing weakness, pounced. “Oh no you don’t missy, don’t change the subject. Besides, I’m not hungry.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“Darling, I’ll have you know I spent a year locked in a coffin and turned out fine more or less,” he answered casually. “Now, just what did happen between you and that bear? Dish girl. Dish.”

“A year?” She asked quietly.

Astarion rolled his eyes, irritated both by the question and the fact he had no one to blame for its asking but himself.

“Yes. Sealed me starving inside a dusty tomb all on my own for an entire year.” He waved his hand to wave away the memory as if it were no great thing. “So half a tenday here or there really isn’t gonna do me in. Besides, I’ve barely noticed.”

“You’re lying. Your eyes are a duller red when you’re hungry.”

In 200 years, Astarion had never seen himself in a mirror –  one of the perks of being a member of the hungering undead. But he knew he possessed certain features. On more than one occasion bards had sang him sonnets of how beautiful he was in excruciating detail. So he knew about his silver hair, pouty lips, and sharp, hawkish features. One singer, apparently not one for exaggeration or self-preservation, had once put his crow’s feet in a verse.

But his eyes as a gauge for how full his belly was? That was new. He laughed genuinely, giddy with the knowledge.

“Are they now?” he said, voice still bubbling with laughter. After 200 years, someone had taught him something new. “Well, I suppose I shall have a drink then. After all, I can’t be seen with such dull red eyes. That won’t do. They must be glittering rubies at all times!”

He sang the last words, imitating those terrible, fawning bards. 

Tav shook her head, a small smile cracking on her face. “Glittering rubies?”

“But of course. The bards used to sing of them all the time. Why? What would you call them?”

Tav thought on this as she rolled up her sleeve offering him her wrist. “I don’t see a gemstone. Too cliche. I’d call them something of real value.”

Astarion casually inspected her wrist for a good place to bite, finding every bit of skin close to the vein littered with poorly or unhealed bite marks. He thumbed the wounds, suddenly ashamed.

“Let’s give your wrist a rest. Besides, I haven’t taken a draught from that delicious neck of yours in a while. Indulge me?”

Tav nodded and began fiddling with her stiff and fussy leather overshirt with a collar that stopped under her chin. She took her time, annoying him. The prospect of drinking from her neck made Astarion impatient.

“Let me,” He pushed her fingers aside to undo the laces himself. “Now go on, what could be more valuable than jewels?”

“Food. You can’t eat rubies. Your eyes are something cool and bitter but tasty. I dunno cranberries maybe? Though, I guess that wouldn’t sound so good in a song, huh?”

“It sounds beautiful to me,” he answered and said no more.

“I’d like to meet this Cazador of yours someday,” Tav said after a few moments of silence.

“Why in great gurgling Chionthar would you want to do that?”

“So I can kill him.”

Astarion’s fingers stilled, the last two laces still done up. “Really?”

“I think he’s more than earned it, don’t you?”

“Oh, very much so,” he croaked, forcing words out of his emotion-thickened throat. Whether or not he was “too late” didn’t matter anymore. She offered him the one thing he wanted. Freely. Without promise or payment. 

It was that easy.

And if that was so easy, as the druid had said, what else could be?

#baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate 3 fanfiction #astarion #OFC Tav #someone fucking cooked here idc idc

[char-lie-spirals]

So, since @gristlebloom-orchid asked, I DO have a Flesh!Graham AU and I finally sat down to put my thoughts about it into something comprehensive, and then into words! So, I figured I might as well make a post about it! Actually this is my 2nd attempt at making it because apparently version 1 was like 2 times too long for a Tumblr post or something?? Messed up :/

Warning for Flesh-typical content, mostly of the dysmorphic kind, along with some Drastic measures to "fix" that

So, the entire AU starts with one simple change - the NotThem doesn't manage to kill Graham when it attacks him. He survives by pure chance, and doesn't come out of the encounter unscathed, but no matter how much blood it spilled, at least he made it out alive!

Except, the whole thing really messes with the way he sees himself. He can barely recognize his own reflection, so many little things about it seem wrong, things he doesn't even know words/names for, but they're all just wrong wrong wrong that's not him!!

The NotThem gets a good meal out of him just... feeling like a Stranger in his own skin, so instead of finishing the job, it hangs around, sometimes pretend-attacks him just so that he locks himself in the bathroom and has nothing to do but stare in the mirror, and it's enjoying this "arrangement" very much!

It doesn't take Graham too long to pick up on the pattern. A few weeks in, he locks himself in the bathroom with nothing but a notebook on him, and ends up trying to write down what exactly bothers him in the reflection.

No matter how hard he tries, the descriptions aren't detailed enough. His face isn't "wrong", it's his eyes and nose and mouth and skin and- no, no, that's still too broad. His eye color seems too dark, and his eyelids are folded differently, and they seem too far apart, and-

The NotThem leaves him alone, satisfied enough, much faster than usual. This is the point where a realization strikes him, and all of his previous thought process gets off-track for a Stranger victim. Because you see, from his perspective, all what he knows is:

There is something herding him around, and he keeps falling for it's tricks. It torments him, and then leaves, seemingly content enough with his fear. Seemingly... fed by it. On top of that, he's barely himself through his own eyes, so to anyone else he's surely unrecognizable, just one slip up away from losing his self entirely, and is he still a person at that point? Is he a person at this point??

He doesn't feel that far off from an animal serving its purpose up until it will get slaughtered. With this one simple trick (overthinking), he has managed to change his fear of the Stranger into a fear of the Flesh! The NotThem hates him!

Does he react impulsively to this realization? Yeah, probably, since his response is to up and leave his flat instantly, only grabbing a few necessities along the way and with not intentions of coming back

He wanders for a while, feeling horrible and shuddering at each reflective surface he passes by because there is something wrong with his body, and it makes his skin crawl. Before he knows it, he's already desperate enough that he'd do just about anything to fix it

He feels he can't really trust anyone to try and fix all those little things without messing them up further, so that's off the table. He'll have to fix them on his own, with his bare hands if he has to. Then again, there's no telling if he won't mess himself up more by trying to fix things!

He decides he needs to get some practice. And some tools. And sure, he's been walking around for a while now, but it doesn't take him all that long to come across the nearest butcher store, and it's open! Just... strangely quiet. Up until,,, oh oops! uh oh!

Yeah, he kind of. Happened to walk into Jared Hopworth's Butcher Store? While the man is in the middle of disposing of a guy for the mafia? And those people were quite clear, no witnesses are allowed to leave, so... he's just stuck here now.

He's scared at first, as one would be upon walking in on a Huge guy torturing some other guy, but then... then he sees the way Jared pulls bones from the man, how he re-shapes them...

If he's going to die here, he might as well ask for help with a few of his own issues. For a start, he's pretty sure his right forearm doesn't look quite right because the bone should be a bit more squashed, and at a different angle, but that's apparently fixable???

Jared's not used to people wanting to be reshaped (this is like early-mid 2006, 6 years before the gym statement takes place, give him time), but he complies and is even more surprised by the honest positive reaction.

He asks if Graham needs help with anything else in his body, and Graham just pulls out his notebook. He knows that much fixing won't be free, but now at least one of his limbs looks his own again, he can't possibly stop now?? Not to mention, some of the bits are easier to replace or add to rather than re-shape, so... if he ends up having to lead a few people to their doom... well. So be it.

With every little change, he becomes more himself, but at the same time, strays further and further from who he used to be. And when he's finally satisfied with his results? He might just keep trying to bring more people to the butcher shop out of habit. :]

That's about it for the story I have properly planned. I do, however, have the idea that once Jared moves on to owning that gym of his, Graham will be Very helpful in finding future customers! All he has to do is approach people and kindly point out the few things he can just see are wrong about them, and then tell them he knows a place where they can fix those!

I'm not sure how/if he'll get involved with the main archives crew - maybe when Jane Prentiss traps Martin in his own home, he reaches a few similar conclusions that Graham did and that draws him in? Maybe he's been looking for the NotThem in case it slips up and can't finish the job properly again, which leads him to the institute? Maybe he happens to be one of the people Jon contacts all the way in season 3, since he managed to escape the Stranger's grasp and that might be useful? Who knows! I certainly don't, not yet!

Also I'm open to feedback on this AU since I don't cover Flesh much in my AUs and writing, so I feel a bit out of my depth? But I figured the body dysmorphia aspect of it could fit the mess I like to make of -selfs and identities when the NotThem is involved and I'm feeling a bit silly :] but I tried not to abandon the more animistic aspects of it? But again if that just Doesn't Work as well as I was hoping it would, like I said I am open to feedback!

#text.char #graham folger #However about that feedback: #1) be nice about it please #2) I will respond tomorrow #I spent 4 hours on a plane today and my eyes are closing on their own already #oh and yea lastly if this reminds you of the 2nd episode of tmagp - fair! I had this in the works for ages and I was very happy to hear- #-something similar in the podcast! at least similar in some aspects of course!! But regardless! #Cool things can will and should be invented time and time again #it just means its super cool!

[the-giggling-guava]

been rereading the invasion arc (season 4 part 2) and find many of your comments that fair and not jumping in conclusion about Blaine "heel-turns" like at episode of Infiltration and Lorena's project. Now, Blaine character flesh out imho kinda done (with him vs Prez part 2, I've read the fp so feel free if want to take canon detail as long as give spoiler warning beforehand)

My question is very simple, but take time to answer because it's hard.. With everything so far - with how Blaine reacts and his relationship with everyone (espc Maria and Frederick, two blondes that basically try to stops him with word but no avail), could he still had chance to get redeemed???

For me, personally, he absolutely does. Why? Because of this:

He was ripped away from his mother, and then conditioned by his father to be the way that he is now. How well-adjusted do people think they would become if they were basically severed from their mother's influence, to be raised at the hands of somebody like Leland? Let's ruminate on the tragedy of the entire situation, which becomes clear if you zoom out and look at the bigger picture: he's the oldest brother of the three, but at not even in the middle of his twenties, he's still basically a kid, a kid who's been abused the longest by the sperm donor. All of this time, he's been worked like a puppet in the interest of Leland's plans.

Let's recall for a second that this hardline, resolved stance and demeanor that he seems to have adopted came only after Leland put him through abuse for the purpose of reinforcing what he has been instilling in him, breaking him so that Leland could rebuild him in the way that he wants. Let's recall this particular scene:

Let's take note of how Blaine offers pushback to Leland's request, and let's also remember that this took place before the torture session in the dungeon. He looks like a scared, conflicted kid, who knows what he is being asked is wrong, but also scared of the consequence of not doing it. Now, I know that it sounds like I'm pulling something out of a hat in saying that, and someone could just tell me, "How do you know he was scared? You're reaching." Well, just look at the expression on his face, and the sweat running down it. If he wasn't frightened, he could just simply say, "Oh no, father, I couldn't possibly do that," with a calm, unperturbed continence, but that isn't what happened.

He's having a moment of fighting within himself, reckoning between what he knows what is right morally, and what he knows would be in the interest of his own health. And Leland is clever, because what does he do?

The way he's managed to work this is actually very smart; he doesn't threaten Blaine, but he dangles the carrot of being happy with Maria, in the interest of feigning an "It's all in your best interest approach," bypassing the advent of abuse to make it a final option to ensure complete compliance.

My ultimate reasoning, as asinine as it may sound, is that "Cursed Princess Club" is a story, one that borrows heavily and contains themes from and nods to fairytales often, in that way, it's not supposed to mirror real life, where tragedies do take place, and often do not go rectified. What's happened to Blaine - what's happened to that whole family - is a tragedy. A kid was alienated from his mother, conditioned by the father, perhaps with the occasional reinforcement of physical abuse, and then had the promise of a happy life teased by his abuser, only for it to get ripped away.

If that little boy doesn't have an opportunity, a chance, to redeem himself, and just remain lost, to become hurt, or worse, I would consider that a great tragedy, one that would not fit with the entire state of themes that the story has espoused as those at its core up until now.

[vacantgodling]

Hey hey! Okay so youre my newest followed writeblr, and i absolutely followed because of a post where you were talking about a WIP, i think you called it teardrops? Anyways, it tore my damn heart out and i DESPERATELY wanna hear more if you wanna talk about it?

FIRSTLY that makes me very very soft thank you so much for following cuz of that story its v special to me (despite talking about a thing i hate personally—the ocean LMAO)

but in this i also realized that i never actually talked about what the plot of teardrops is.... so this is as good an excuse as any.

SO, the full title of this wip is called teardrops of the gods.

it takes place in my big ol shared wip world in this country (doesn't have a name yet tho) & in the western sea <- that way lol

and the plot is as follows:

Ancient Sea Glass or Teardrops of the Gods are relics believed to have been shed by The Great Kraken, essentially the creator of the world in this island's mythos. Its body was split apart to create the land that people stand on and the sea glass is rumored to be the last remnants left of its ancient power. Pirates and adventurers have searched for the sea glass for ages because of its supernatural properties:

(1) If you take out your eye and replace it with sea glass, it allows you to control the whims of other's minds and bodies like puppets.

(2) If you wear as a ring on your hand you can control water and the ocean around you. Cities will crumble under your might.

(3) If you collect 5 and leave them under the light of The Wolf Moon, they will light the way to an underwater city which holds The Kraken's Heart and those who consume it gain immortality.

The location of teardrops themselves is a mystery. Few have solved the legendary riddle that conceals their location:

In the nail of the ocean under the sea Guided by the moon's light Beneath its flesh this bounty lies For those whose eyes are bright Should you manage to sneak beneath And its plunder yours in sight Beware your temples, oh brave sailor Lest you fall down and die

However... there has been one man and his crew that have managed it; the crew of the nefarious and bloodthirsty Captain Ghost Eye; and the key to how he did it lay within his son and our main character QUILL, who he abandoned at 14 to die amid the desert regions of a foreign land unknown. And unbeknownst to Ghost Eye, Quill survived, making it to (insert country here) and laying low, mingling with locals such as Cinnamon (Cinn) and Mz.

.... But the call of the sea is strong. And as Ghost Eye begins plundering down the coast, looking for him, Quill knows that he has to face his destiny.

so as a shorter summary with more details about Quill beloved (with a bit of spoilers):

Quill is a half-merman son of a Daughter of the Sea (a mermaid goddess and daughter of The Great Kraken) and the most fearsome pirate lord on the sea, Ghost Eye. the young goddess was captured and brutalized until she finally produced a child and perished giving birth to him. Quill was then raised by the pirate lord in squalor until at 14 they finally discovered the answer to the sea glass riddle and he was thrown overboard to retrieve the sea glass, or die. The fact that he's part merman is actually integral as to how he was able to snag just One sea glass, however, he had to return to the surface before he could regain more.

At the time, Ghost Eye only desired one sea glass to put in his eye, so he then marooned Quill to die in a desert (no access to water would kill him faster than a normal human) but he was saved when he was found by a caravan and he managed to make his way all the way up to coast where the story starts. unfortunately i haven't named the town or country yet Rip BUT we move. his nature makes him long for the call of the sea but he knows if his father learns that he is alive, he’ll either capture him again or try to kill him, so he ignores his nature for years… at least until finally word of his father's tearing down towns reaches his ears and quill realizes he can't hide anymore.

#s: teardrops #spoilers ig

[dendrosys]

this post is extremely long. its an analysis of every hydro character and what hydro visions could possibly signify.  mentioning some of my genshin analysis friends because i worked for 7 hours on this thing and im not letting it go unseen ! @eujean

@ka1etale3owboy

@asleep-and-afraid @jesterjangles enjoy :)

hydro visions are quite the mystery, so far we don't have a clear answer for what drives celestia to give a hydro vision to someone. anemo visions center around freedom, pyro visions center around passion, but what do hydro visions stand for ?

i'm of the firm belief that visions can have multiple meanings, as people have suggested many logical traits for the same element before.

so the 4 traits im going to be focusing on with hydro visions are 

Justice, stemming from the hydro archons title [J]

Caring deeply for the people around them, coming from the fact that that seems to be a very core trait in most hydro users [C]

Feeling like they aren't good enough. this one came from a short video i saw of someone giving their thoughts about what visions could mean, and i want to try it out. [I]

and lastly, hard work [H] ! this also seems to be a very strong trait in hydro users so yeah 

i am going to make it clear that by Justice i mean a strong sense of what's right and taking action to make that happen. no matter what.

This post is going to have a lot less of my own input and is more of a compilation of information from character stories, and every time that these 4 traits are mentioned.

im also going to note that justice and care for others will often come together but im going to keep them seperate 

Character Details :

“In fact, Barbara can do much more than just /put people in a better mood/: Her /healing powers/ extend to flesh wounds and other physical ailments.” [C]

“Barbara herself knows that /hard work/ is the most miraculous magic of all.” [H]

Character Story 2

“However, an idol is also expected to /spread joy and relieve people's spiritual fatigue/... Has she really accomplished that?

She sang for blind Glory, encouraging her to believe that her lover would one day return. She sang, too, for sick Anna, promising her that her illness would one day be cured.

Yet, the smiles on their faces never last long after the songs end.

This has led Barbara to become somewhat /disillusioned and doubtful/.” [C] [I]

Character Story 3 

“Unlike Barbara, her sister has always been the very definition of success in all aspects.

Initially, all /Barbara had ever wanted was to surpass her sister in at least one thing/, even if only once.

However, be it swordplay, her grades, or anything else, she was never able to compare.

Even for someone as optimistic as her, she found herself to be /upset and down./

"/Hard work is the most miraculous magic/. But when even that doesn't work... what then?"” [H] [I]

Character Story 4

"I'm not so good in combat, so I'll be sure to /support/ those who are." [C]

“Her desire to be recognized gradually transformed into /a simple desire to help others./” [C] [J]

(this quote is interesting, because on the surface its just about helping others, but if you really think about it it shows a sense of justice. over time her values changed because she realized whats right is to help others.)

Character Story 5 

“Therefore, whenever she is /massaging her swollen calves or drinking tea to care for her sore throat/, Barbara recalls all those who have been kind to her.” [C] [J] [H]

Vision Story

"Never having sung before is no reason to abandon a child in their /time of need/," [C] [J]

(this is another interesting line, which represents care and also justice. doing something that you believe to be right despite not being completely sure of yourself)

“After quickly realizing that she barely knew any of the words, /she had to resort to humming the tune instead/.

Nevertheless, her voice began to soothe the child, and so she kept singing. She sang the same song, over and over again, /until her throat was dry and her voice was hoarse./“ [H] [J] [C]

Mentions of Justice : 4

Mentions of Care : 7

Mentions of Insufficiency : 2

Mentions of Hard Work : 4

this checks out for Barbara ! she is extremely caring, values hard work and tries her best to do whats right. and shes working very hard to move past her insufficiencies. all the love to this girl :)

looking through her voice lines, there's a few places where hard work is mentioned as well. 

 if i had to give her an x/10 score for each trait and how prevalent it is to her character, it’d be

7/10 justice

10/10 care

9/10 hard work

and 5/10 for insufficiency 

even in his quick character description, he is already leaning HARD into those themes of justice ! 

“A young man carrying a longsword who is frequently seen at book booths. He has a chivalrous heart and yearns for justice and fairness for all.” [J] [C]

(i mark this as care as well as justice because of the “fairness for all” part. sometimes justice means not everyone wins !)

Character Details

“little did he know that Xingqiu, after finishing the dauntingly thick volumes on commerce and philosophy” 

(i dont think im going to give this a justice point but i DO want to point out the obvious that commerce and philosophy are pretty intertwined with law, which in itself is intertwined with justice)

Character Story 1

“Sometimes, it means that he is off to fight for justice in the name of chivalry.” [J] [C]

“Defeating bandits on the road, driving away monsters, helping distressed children by fetching their kites from the tree tops... there are all manner of responsibilities that fall into the category of chivalry.” [J] [C]

(this is a nice refresher for me because the instances of justice and caring are actually separate in this ! defeating bandits being more justice leaning as not everyone in the situation wins and helping children with kites is a low stakes situation just out of the kindness of Xingqiu’s heart <3)

Character Story 3

“He reasoned that they would be useful to have in his repertoire during his future exploits as a chivalrous hero.” [J]

(heroism and justice are like so close to each other that theyre kissing cmon now)

Character Story 5

“Chivalry means listening to your conscience calling you to action when you see an injustice, right? Or is chivalry simply about knowing right from wrong? No, that's not enough — it must have something to do with being a righteous person...

To Xingqiu, chivalry simply means: Be good, and do good.” [J]x2 

(Im giving this two justice points because uh yeah.)

Mentions of Justice : 6

Mentions of Care : 3

Mentions of Insufficiency : NONE ! 😳

Mentions of Hard Work : there is alot of this in his character story but i didnt want to like copy paste all of it lmao

prevalence scores :

8/10 for justice (would be 10/10 but justice for poor chongyun)

6/10 for care

0/10 for insufficiency this guy is ON TOP of it 

10/10 for hard work, this guy is on top of it !

Mona’s story and details have a lot less clear cut instances of these things, so this will be a lot more of my own typing. 

 justice has a lot of instances, so instead of copy pasting them all im going to summarize them. Mona values knowing and spreading the truth, even if it causes despair to the receiver. that is what is right to her as an astrologist. i’m gonna give her a score of 7 for this because astrology is what she spends most of her time on, and a lot of that is spent telling people the truth of their futures. 

“The cold, hard truth is laid bare before people' eyes, complete with all the grisly details that they would rather remained buried.

Mona will make no exceptions to this, and as such she can seem completely lacking in human emotion.”

another voiceline of here states that she doesnt want to use the power of divination and hydromancy to earn mora. seems pretty “doing whats right” to me 

Mona is a very hard worker ! always busy with watching the stars or filling out her columns, anything astrology related really. her life's work is her life, basically

in terms of feelings of insufficiency, mona doesn't seem to have many ! shes pretty confident in herself.. maybe money struggles add something there

8/10 for justice

6/10 for care

2/10 for insufficiency 

9/10 for hard work

i feel like mona does care about the people around her but alot of the time justice through truth takes precedence over caring for peoples feelings 

a quote of interest in mona’s vision story : “The gods, too, are bound by the rules of this world.”

this reminds me of the quote in the varunada lazurite description "My ideals have no stains."

I must correct you. People here bear no sins in the eyes of the gods... Only laws and the Tribunal can judge someone."

They can judge even me. So praise my magnificence and purity."

For someone as fearsome as the 11th fatui harbinger, you wouldnt expect him to have traits as soft as care and as seemingly good leaning as justice, but they are definitely there

Character Details

“As a fighter first and foremost, he is quite at odds with this organization of deceit and treachery.” [J]

(though his devotion to the tsaritsa is still strong and tied to his sense of justice, i believe maybe he thinks the way that the rest of the harbingers go about things arent very truthful, but neither is he tbh)

Character Story 1

“Even if the promise he makes is absurd, he will never break it.” [J] [C]

basically the entire “letters to home” section is getting a care mention because yeah.

Tartaglia doesnt seem to show many signs of feelings of insufficiency. maybe telling the truth to his siblings is a point of anxiety for him but as far as i can tell he is a proud man. 

ok. heres something that i kinda had to think about for a while but uh

“Her Royal Highness the Tsaritsa is actually a gentle soul. Too gentle, in fact, and that's why she had to harden herself. Likewise, she declared war against the whole world only because she dreams of peace. And because she made an enemy of the world, I had the chance to become acquainted with you.”

this one is kind of hard to get justice from but when you look into it i think it gives us some insight that no matter how he views his fellow fatui harbingers he believes that the tsaritsas will is the true “right”, and his sense of justice is to serve her and carry out her will so the future can be better. no matter what type of awful things that takes. 

Tartaglia is definitely a hard worker, doing dirty work for the fatui and also literally fighting his way through the abyss as a teenager, even with the help of a mentor that is absolutely a sign of hard work. also to make your way to the fucking most feared 11 people in the world. that takes work.

prevalence score :

7/10 justice

7/10 for care

1/10 for insufficiency . maybe even 0.5.

9/10 for hard work

Character Details

“Yet its desire to protect Watatsumi Island never faded. This will lives on in the bloodline of the Sangonomiya Clan,” [C]

“to inherit the will of a god in a mortal's body, and to defend this land and its people in that god's stead.” [C]

Character Story 1

“She was fair in distributing rewards and punishments alike,” [J]

Character Story 3

“Whether on the battlefield or off it, Kokomi tries to "know thy enemy" as much as possible.”

(im not giving this one any points but i think its worth the time to note that this phrase contributes to her having an oddly relaxed relationship with kujou sara even when meeting during war. this also shows with her relations to yae miko despite her connections to the shogun. not giving care points for this but it shows that she cares alot and can see past the fog of war even when its her main focus..)

Character Story 5

“Kokomi lacks skill in social interaction. She does not know when it started, but interacting with people eventually became tiresome to her.” [I]

Secret Notes

“She treats all things with an egalitarian manner, and holds "fairness of judgment" and "justice in dispensing rewards and punishment" to be her” [J]

“A leader with a strong will can lead those around them in a clear direction.

However, Kokomi lacks such strong ideals. Instead, she respects the will of the people and wishes that they can each find their own way.” [J]

(this one isnt as apparent but i believe kokomis sense of justice lies within “power to the people”, but sometimes people need a leader. justice in the form of individuality, as opposed to the shogun’s “peace in the form of conformity”) 

"I wish to protect all of Watatsumi Island and allow its people to lead happy lives." [J] [C]

Mentions of Justice : 4

Mentions of Care : 3

Mentions of Insufficiency : 1

Mentions of Hard Work : its mentioned alot of times ! shes a very hard working woman

prevalence score time !

7/10 justice

9/10 care

5/10 insufficiency

10/10 hard work

Character Details

“But others also say "ah, but there is much to politics that should never see the light of day. And how could he have kept such a lofty position without a few tricks up his sleeve, hmm?"

Ayato himself is unfazed by such comments.

"Well, I consider myself merely a serious, dutiful public servant who owes his allegiance to the Almighty Shogun."” [J]

(despite how much i hate politics and such the job does come hand in hand with justice, and so does the title of “public servant”)

Character Story 1

“The heavy workload, malicious deceptions, and attempts to frame him at every turn he parried away, even turning them to his own advantage.

The passage of time has only increased the standing of the Yashiro Commission's Kamisato Clan in the Shogunate and with the people.” [H]

Character Story 3

i dont want to copy paste the entire passage but this whole thing shows that in his free time he tries to peek into the personal lives of the people and get to know whats happening. i think that deserves a care point ! [C]

Character Story 4

“Kamisato Ayato's table is always a terrible mess after he uses it.

Books are strewn about, open and even dumped face-down on the table, while documents of uneven size are stacked haphazardly.” [H]

Character Story 5

“Though he still believed in protecting his clan above all else, he also understood that Inazuma was sustained by the Electro Archon's protection. Only peace in Inazuma could guarantee the longevity and prosperity of the clan.” [C] [J]

(this shows care for his clan but also a sense of justice, because he knows that the archons protection is what keeps inazuma safe, even if he has issues with her.)

Vision Story

once again i do not want to copy paste everything but it shows care, justice and hard work so thats a point towards all 3 [C] [J] [H]

Mentions of Justice : 3

Mentions of Care : 3

Mentions of Insufficiency : they come up around the part where the clan was failing, but i feel like that was more about him rising past it than being a lingering feeling so no points

Mentions of Hard Work : 3

woah ayato has alot of 3’s there

overall prevalence 

8/10 justice

6/10 for care

1/10 for insufficiency 

10/10 for hard work, he revived an entire clans legacy on his own. nice.

Character Story 1

“Yelan's eyes, these things are not hobbies, but a means to an end.”  [J]

(doing whats right, no matter what)

Character Story 2

“She plucks the fruits of intelligence from the tree of danger for Ningguang, and in return, all she asks for is danger itself and the sense of achievement.” [J]

(again, doing whats right no matter what. also theres a nice connection here between her and childe for the thrill of danger and the thrill of battle)

“Every secret and perilous demesne shall become a garden where orchids bloom.”

(no points for this one i just think its an interesting connection to mona)

Character Story 4

“One day, the information will come in handy — Liyue will never plunge into disaster without any clue of the danger like it once did 500 years ago.

She will see to it that Liyue is not caught unprepared.” [C] [J]

Vision

not going to paste the entire passage here but it shows hard work, and a sense of justice. she would go into the depths of the abyss to find the information she needs to keep liyue safe. even if that meant losing her team. im not giving her care points for this reason, not to imply she doesnt care about her team, she clearly regrets losing them, but i feel like the “/ no matter what. /“ overpowers the care factor for this. [H] [J]

Mentions of Justice : 4

Mentions of Care : 1

Mentions of Insufficiency : none 

Mentions of Hard Work : 1

overall prevalence 

9/10 justice

8/10 care

2/10 insufficiency 

10/10 hard work

after reading all of this i hope we’ve both come to the conclusion that the most important factors in hydro vision users are being caring, a strong sense of justice, and an unbreakable work ethic. the insufficiency part was unfortunately a miss, sorry to whoever made that video. 

ah, but we aren't done yet ! visions are given to those who are most suitable to rise to celestia and become archons, or even more. so, who is the most apt to become the new hydro archon, hypothetically ?

im leaning towards Yelan, she seems the most determined of all of them, even overpowering tartaglia in some senses (though he probably wouldnt be able to be an archon anyways due to being a harbinger.)

“My ideals have no stains."

I must correct you. People here bear no sins in the eyes of the gods... Only laws and the Tribunal can judge someone."

They can judge even me. So praise my magnificence and purity."

hydro characters and themes of purity is something that interests me a whole lot… 

barbara and kokomi are obvious, theyre both religious figures in some form, barbara working for the church and kokomi being a divine priestess

but, with purity comes purging the world of something

barbara wants to purge the world of sadness and illness

kokomi wants to purge inazuma of the cruel effects of the vision hunt decree

mona wants to purge the world of lies

tartaglia purges the world of enemies of the tsaritsa

xingqiu wants to purge the world of criminals

ayato shares the values of xingqiu and mona i believe

and yelan wants to purge the land of liyue of its past mistakes.

i think water itself, being valued in its most pure form having connections to purity is pretty cool.

anyways. i am finally fucking finished with this after like 7 hours of working on it. please reblog if you liked it and also share your opinions and anything i missed in the reblogs or comments

im proud of myself for this one, thanks for reading <3 (and yea i did make all the dividers lmao i’ll post them seperately as well)

#genshin analysis #genshin theory #hydro #genshin hydro #hydro archon #kamisato ayato #barbara pegg #xingqiu #mona megistus #sangonomiya kokomi #yelan #tartaglia

[seven-stars-in-his-palm]

august help rat and i are going absolutely feral over running minds au . i didnt even know anything abt fnaf before this but i have been CONVERTED homestly . i need to ficify it so bad . God . oh right thats why im here i was wondering if you have like any writing tips ?? because i have Zero Clue what im doing and you are By Far the best writer out of everyone i know Shoves microphone in your face whats your advice to someone who has like never written ever . actually i have an unrelated actually pretty decent quarter-ish of a fanfic sitting in my notes app but i barely remember how i Did That so it doesn't count i dont remember what wizardry i performed to materialize all those Words

OKAY OKAY OKAY ive figured it alllll out. its honestly not much but it's My process. LETS A GO

august's shitass guide to all things fanfiction and planning (which is near nonexistant!) 🔥

i will be using my current nano project for this because honestly this is the epitamy of writing i have right now and i love talkin about it. sooooo GOOOO

1: Bare Basics

the tagline. the who when what where why. why are u writing this fanfic. for me its the Talking: i want my angel and demon to talk about Feelings, so im gonna make them talk about FEELINGS. this is personal fulfillment. it might take a while to get there, but i want them to TALK. for you, i suppose would be for ford and michael to meet and go on whimscal adventures. basics!

2: How To Get There

so how are we making aziraphale and crowley talk. how are we getting ford and michael afton smushed together in the multiverse. you, of course, have told me how that works. now is it important enought to flesh that out before the rest or just needs to be explained in a quick flashback? your pick, but since my topic is so vague, i definitely need context before it. that, my friend, is up to you. nothing much more to it. if u dont know how to start a fic, just explain how we got to what's intriguing about it (the crossover :))

3: Notes.

now is where the process BEGINS. what happens in the story. i usually start with miscellanous bullet points--everything i want to happen, no matter the order it'll happen, in a little page. here's a picture of one of my pages ib my notebook, with things i want to happen in my titanic fic (handwriting reveal?!??!) (TEA, IF UR READING THIS SOMEHOW, DONT LOOK AT THE IMAGES🫵🫵🫵) (SORY FOR HURRIED SCRIBLES, I WAS TRYNA REMEMBER IT ALL)

there's literally no order. just stuff that need to be there, there. even if its as simple as the au coming to fruition, or even just one conversation, PUT IT THERE. its all the appeal. what you're doing this for. dontforget....

4: Outlines

now, before i tell you how to do this, there really isn't a way. here's a picture of my timeline for the fic mentioned earlier (not the titanic fic) (TEA AND OTHER READERS OF THE SERIES, ALSO DO NOT LOOK TYYYY ❤️❤️)

see? complicated as fuck. it doesnt have to be that way tho, obviously: each chapter or one shot could be as simple as "michael is fucking ZAPPED, and meets ford" it just has to be something to work with. (i, on the other hand, need extensive help. so. there's the thing above. theres eve more its just online)

there really isn't too much other than that in the planning department. understand why you're doing it, know how to get there, and PLAN. detail it out. idk if this is an adequet explanation actually. if u need more specifics i can try again, but is what i got. do what works for you, work at ur pace, and such like. it doesnt have to be at this level, or even close. have fucking fun, dude. if u need morehelp, pls ask, or even consult blogs that help out specifcally for that stuff. GOOD LUCK!!!!! <3

#oh i hope its okay. pleaseeeeee #hath are perceived #the guys (with a z!) #be heard

[itsjustaturt]

do u have any fanfic recs? I'm not sure what to read next.. (can be for tmc or any fandom!!!)

thank you for the ask, anon! I, too, often find myself scrolling aorund ao3 with nothing much to read-- so here's my personal list of fanfics that are well-written, interesting, or just plain fun to read in any way!

(apologies for the pings, authors!)

TMC

my number one recommendation is, as always, every work in the Hail, True Body AU series (ongoing) written by @mustangsart, which is an AU wherein Mark doesn't die in vol. 1 while alt!Cesar starts trying a little too hard to be human. the characters are complex, relatable, compelling, and they tie in a lot to each other's role in the story and the themes; and this is all accompanied by an excellent writing style and manner of prose. 10/10, highly recommend, changed my life, constantly thinks about this AU, etc. etc. read it now.

cut down the altar! by @missr3n3 (main fic completed, accompanying pieces to come), an AU wherein Jonah lives after vol. 2 and is there to deal with the subsequent fallout. the prose is simpler, but the characters are engaging and relatable, and the plot is riveting and interesting. this one's worth a good read if you're looking for Adam dealing with humanity issues especially.

what's the softest way to say by snapplebee on ao3 (oneshot), an emotional piece detailing Cesar's friendship with Mark with a fair share of codependence-- and its inevitable end in September of 1992. this one's. uh. hhhhh. arhh..agg., yeah. this one's a hard hitter. this one might make you cry. don't blame me if it does. it's short, but very potent.

suburb life, uncertain (what is inside?) by @mythicandco (oneshot), wherein Adam takes a lie detector test. like the previous oneshot, it's short, but very potent; it handles Adam's character very well, has a good serving of his trademark Humanity Issues, and ends ominously, keeping you thinking about it for a while.

other fandoms

i'm sort of taking these off my bookmarks here

I'm gonna have to recommend the pray for disaster series by @graffitibible (ongoing; fandom: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys), a series of works detailing the backstories of the Killjoys and associated significant characters. it's a big one (over a million words long!) and even I haven't managed to read it in its entirety, but if you can spare the time, do check out at least one of the fics in there. the prose and descriptions are immaculate and bound to hook you into reading through a good portion of its word count, and the backstories and characterisations breathe new life into the characters and make them much more compelling than current canon.

Carry Me Home by valleykey on ao3 (completed; fandom: Jujutsu Kaisen), a fix-it wherein Geto and Gojo travel forward in time from 2007, right before Geto would have massacred that village, to 2018, and see what could have been. this one's especially good for the way it handles Geto's characterisation and thought processes; it really fleshes out his character in compelling ways that somewhat extend from canon but is still consistent with the way canon presents him.

march of progress by Calamitatum on ao3 (completed; fandom: Detroit: Become Human), wherein Connor has to deal with the aftermath of the android revolution and his newfound humanity at the same time. again, this one has an excellent writing style that clearly showcases Connor's character through its narrative voice. it develops Connor in interesting, compelling ways; ways that the source material could never. (for the record, I think DBH only has a mildly compelling story at best, with the 'best' being Connor's segment.) check it out-- it's a pretty engaging read!

love, comment and subscribe by nothingunrealistic on ao3 (oneshot; fandom: Dear Evan Hansen), a series of transcripts of the videos on the Youtube channel Jared's Tech Inspect. based on that one marketing video they did, this fic is as lighthearted and cheerful as Jared presents himself to be, before taking a darker, more serious turn as the events in canon progress and Jared's mental state takes a turn for the worse. the unconventional format is effective in the way it shows both Jared's characterisation and the scale of The Connor Project's fame, as well as the reactions of the internet towards Jared and TCP.

anyway, those are my recommendations; do let me know if you find these useful. cheers!

#turt replies #reki's mess #the mandela catalogue #danger days #deh #dbh #fanfic rec

[feedingtheflockministry]

Stop Trying to Change the Dogs

“Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.” Matthew 7:6

“Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet.” Psalms 22:16

“Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.” Revelation 22:15

“Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh.” Philippians 3:2

“Come, all you beasts of the field, come and devour, all you beasts of the forest! Israel’s watchmen are blind, they all lack knowledge; they are all mute dogs, they cannot bark; they lie around and dream, they love to sleep. They are dogs with mighty appetites; they never have enough. They are shepherds who lack understanding; they all turn to their own way, they seek their own gain. “Come,” each one cries, “let me get wine! Let us drink our fill of beer! And tomorrow will be like today, or even far better.” Isaiah 56:9-12

“They return at evening, snarling like dogs, and prowl about the city.” Psalms 59:6

“Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.” 2 Peter 2:22

The Message:

There is something worth noting about scripture when it comes to the term “dog”, and that is when this term is used in reference to people it is never good. As we can see from the scriptures dogs are; violent, villains, murderers, those who practice magic arts, witchcraft, and new age practices, they are sexually immoral, worship man made idols, as well as other people, they love and teach / practice falsehoods, drunks, lazy, lack understanding and find no value in righteous living, they are lovers of self above all others.

Why does this matter? It matters because we as followers of Christ try day after day online and offline to change the behavior of these “dogs” through telling them they are evil and sinful people. We often get upset when they retaliate through comments, verbal abuse, or physical violence. For we were told not to give what is sacred and holy to “dogs” or “swine”. For they love their evil and selfish deeds.

We need to be making new disciples for Christ, not raging against the world. For Jesus said this about judgement day, “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” In Matthew 25:31-46 He gives even more detail about those that make it to Heaven and those that do not. Good deeds combined with one’s faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is what gets you into Heaven. Even reading through John 3:16-21. Don’t just read verse 16 and stop.

Lastly, we must follow the steps Jesus gave us about how to make new disciples in the great commission. He said this, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” We must first baptize someone into the faith, THEN teach them the what is righteous and true. It is much easier to teach someone who wants to learn than someone who does not. For it is easier to lead a lamb than a stubborn goat that plants their feet in the dirt and will not come with you no matter how much you push and pull on them.

So moving forward in your ministry efforts, do not fight with “dogs”, “swine”, or “goats”. Rather block them online without a response. They only want to argue with you in order to make their case before you and those who will see it. They seek to slander you and discredit you in your words. They want you to act as they do so they can call you a hypocrite. Do not give into this temptation from the children of darkness.

#bible teaching #bible #jesus christ #scriptures #christianity #biblescripture

[minheeskitten]

"2k is long" is also nonsense i'm so sorry 😭 2k is barely anything if you're trying to introduce an AU and actually flesh in a setting and especially if you're trying to show different personality traits 😭 your fic are mostly AUs with really well thought out lore, and it needs the word count to breathe and establish everything. if someone's attention span is too short to read more than - what - 2 pages? that's their problem, not yours! fwiw, my fic lengths range with the shortest starting at around 5k and the longest getting close to 30k and i have never had anyone leave a complaint about the length! people are more than willing to sit through 10k+ just to get to the smutty stuff, and they usually end up enjoying the rest of the fic as well. do not worry about it! you're doing just fine 🩷

I don't often look at the length of a fic unless im updating someone on how long its getting. My shortest wip is 100 words. And. Ive posted it to here bcs i feel it'll never be finished.

If it does get finished eventually then i will post it as a fic but. Until then it sits in my drafts.

My fics almost always include worldbuilding to at least 3k now. Though not all of them were like that.

Do you want in on a secret? I don't think out the world for my aus. It fleshes itself out. I think on what may happen n go from there. The story writes itself. I am just a vessel for the words and visions.

I am absolutely terrible at worldbuilding if im doing it consciously.

Its why i have visible headcanons for idols. But i just can't put them into words haha.

The most i think through is 'what sort of details would enhance this and make it better to read'

And then thats where i go from!

Siren!ivan was originally supposed to be more non-con than it is rn. The consent is not proper consent tho but thats bcs. Well. Siren wants what he wants and he will convince dann to give it to him.

Though. Thats a little bit of a spoiler. It is going to be tagged accordingly. Don't worry ill tag fics right.

The fic i thought through the most, probably is one ive not even started wtiting. The dissection fic. I gotta do all sorts of research so i can make sure its accurate and well done.

Which unfortunately means i gotta look at anatomy from a more medical standpoint. Need to go find a book for that..

The first fic i put out actually has a very strong plot hole. That i told myself id patch before posting it but. I didn't.

That plot hole was the reasoning as to why ivan was doing that to hwon. It has a very weak reason and i could absolutely fix it now. But. Not this year.

I write ab 5k minimum most of the time haha. I prefer letting the story fill itself out n then helping fine tune details. Its why i really can't tell you how long a fic may be.

So far my longest fic is 16k words. Published. Theres more unpublished. That's for the abandoned but not orphaned one.

I may return to it eventually. That's why i didn't wanna orphan it.

All of my fics stop at a point they organically would have stopped at. When i feel it can't really take another scene. I end it. That usually leaves spaces for part twos to them as well!

But i like exploring aus as i write them.

Fun fact! I write aus bcs im worried that if i do anything else i may accidentally copy someone else's idea.

I do get inspired by the other kd writers. Oh gods do i get inspired.

Lee, lunar, eve, even erin, who encourages the hwonicide. They all inspire me in their own ways. Does that usually come in the form of a prompt to note down asap? Yeah.

But other ways are helping with details for fics. And they are all very welcome to chat ab fics w me. I don't steal ideas. Not without permission and changing it to be my own.

I have a prompt that is inspired by eve's fic Clear My Mind (eve is karmacumover btw!)

But it is different. I may show her the prompt itself if she wants to see it haha.

But i love working on fics. Even if I can't be proud of them as a 'look i made this!' i can still look at the work and go 'yeah. Thats good.'

Thank you lee for helping me figure out how to do that. It was amazing to be able to step back and go 'thats a good story' if i removed myself from it.

The lee im referring to here is intenselysalmon. So she knows who im referring to.

One day. One day my goal is to be proud of how much I've written. Of what I've written.

Its a goal i think is far away. But the more i talk to other writers. The more i realize.

Im not as bad at writing as i think i am.

Honestly id never even considered myself a good writer, until i asked writers like lee and erin their feedback on my works. And they both said i write well. Maybe a little dialogue heavy but. Thats fine i can work on it.

Im doing my best. And im trying to ensure i continue getting better.

The more i talk to other writers and see how they talk ab my writing. The more i go. 'maybe im too harsh on myself' but. As they say, you are your own worst critic.

Honestly i never even considered my work good enough to do much with. But. Lunar still offered to possibly do a collab or fic trade. And i keep thinking on it. Maybe.

It makes me think they find me a better writer than i find myself to be.

Then i see eve, reacting to some of the xlips of airen!ivan ive put out. And she's reacting as i would for any of lee's clips. I find lee an amazing writer. It seems eve thinks of me that way too.

Im trying to wrap my head around it. But the reason i am so harsh on myself is. Anxiety and self doubt. And i need to work through them.

Thats the first time ive admitted that.

I will work through my weaknesses, and be better than before. Slowly. It takes time. I have to be patient.

One day. One day i will be able to proudly say 'im a good writer'

Its not today. But. It will be an eventuality.

Moots mentioned in this post:

Lee (@intenselysalmon )

Erin (@kurenaiwataru )

Eve (@karmacumover )

Lunar (@kingdoms-babygirl )

#asks <3 #anons <3 #🩷 anon #long post

[sirnavergi]

1: is that a fancy threat? or a weird prophecy?

2: neither

2: its a choice

fun fact! soleil’s main design hadn’t received an actual redesign since she was first created in 2021! while i changed super minor details along the way (bc i refuse to look at my own ocs references) he stayed fundamentally the same up until now! This still has many details from their og design but I simply gave it more character, I think! I’m frankly really happy with it ^_^

More yapping below

Sorry Its One Big Wall Of Text

One issue I had with Soleil’s initial design was that it was supposed to look a little weird. Like something your avg person wouldn’t wear 24/7. I couldn’t have her change outfits bc by the lore another weird thing he does is simply never change clothes. Their old design SURE was something your avg person wouldn’t wear everyday it was still lacking that ,, weirdness factor I think? It was really clean. I wanted her to look both organic and alive yet not exactly in a way that makes sense? Something graceful yet also just. flesh. Sol is cool bc. I associate her heavily with a lot of meat and flesh but she isn’t even flesh and bone herself. N that plays into the weirdness of it all too? I think. Its 1 am right now sorry if this is very badly worded LMAO Sol also acts as a good parallel to AZIMUTH actually in this design ideology bc . hes also supposed to look out of place and odd. But he looks out of place in a polished-almost out of your computer screen kind of way. Hes colorful (and he actually changes clothes very frequently. Too Frequently.) N thats a well contrast to sol.. I think.. Fun. Very Fun. Anyways yeah back to sol. Sols hair started out fairly tame but along the refusing to use references the art telephone game tm with myself it became very sharp and pointy and just. messy. and thats just not what i think he should look like ?!?! So i fixed up his hair. The tiptoeing thing was jist sumn that came to me while i was sketching N i was like OH this is it! That will add to the Weirdness Factor or something. I’ve walked on my tiptoes basically all my life n ppl always made huge of a deal out of it so ik from experience people notice it n perceive it as. odd behavior 🤧 I was thinking of mayb going for an anatomically correct heart silhouette or something but. Im very attached to soleils generally Very Symmetrical silhouette i didnt wanna touch it much… I think i incorporated enough <3 hearts to make up for it though! OH AND. Downturned her eyes! Ive been not drawing characters with downturned eyes for a while . Unsure why it became less frequent of me to draw them. Figured they fit her so. Thats a win for me bc i always love trying to make sure my ocs have unique ish traits within their circles. VERY LIKELY the design will get simplified as i draw him in the future. We’ll see i guess. That’s all i think maybe. Goodnight from the Key

#i was actually going to put a different. quote from my notes at the beginning #but i went to scavenge through my private server for some sol dialog instead #i wanna save that quote for an actual illustration #1 is avi and 2 is soleil i just didnt feel like writing their names there #oc #original character #my art #oc artwork #oc art #ocs #v teatime #Soleil Teatime #oc lore #oc design #character design

[actualbird]

Hiya Zak!

Lately I've been wondering, how do you write your fics? Do you have a process? A starting point?

Also, I know a major part ppl talk about in writing is "show not tell", how do you know if you're telling instead of showing? Cause I know that I, for one, would look down at what I wrote and have no idea if I'm showing or telling.

eyyo roshie-writes :DDD

ive actually answered the question on my writing process several times before. heres the latest time i answered that question in depth (answered in dec 2021), but the tl;dr is "i make at minimum 2 outlines before Actually Writing, and my outlines get Very detailed so im effectively writing each fic at least 3 times before it actually gets posted on ao3, because i apparently love to make myself suffer" jHVJHVKJFHD

but forreal, that ask does basically go thru my entire writing process, from idea conception to Actual Writing. and my process hasnt changed one bit since then. this has been my process since like, 2015 actually HAHA. it really works for me and how my brain is Built, but every single writer is different. what works for me may not work for others. like, i am Hugely reliant on outlines, but i know a lot of writers who get bogged down by outlines and prefer to write just straight to the page, and it's really fascinating and delightful to me that there are endless methods and ways to get a story out :D

what i wanted to talk about more is the "show dont tell" thing because.....

i hate that writing tip so much JHVKJDVFJKHDSFS

and u just gave me an excuse to talk about why at length! but i still also answer ur questions ofc! just.....after i talk about a whole lot of other things oops

for easy reference, heres the chronological table of contents im gonna go through under the cut (because this response got Long As Hell it's---OH GOD IT'S OVER 1.4K WORDS LONG, IM SO SORRY)

what "show dont tell" is (bcuz definitions r important)

litmus test to figure out whether youre showing or telling

why i dont like "show dont tell" (bcuz theres a time and place for both showing and telling, they both have benefits)

how i personally like to spruce up "telling"

feel free to skip over to the litmus test, since thats what u asked for! the rest is just me rambling because i am Very passionate about the benefits of "telling" HAHA

without further ado, lemme get into it!

-

what "show dont tell" is (bcuz definitions r important)

Telling is = giving the information that a sentence/scene is trying to convey outright.

Showing is = giving the information that a sentence/scene is trying to convey through description.

so in its simplest definition, an example of a Telling sentence could be, for example "The office of Luke's detective agency was often messy, but Rosa's has always known that Luke's a bit of a messy person."

meanwhile a Showing version of that sentence could be, for example "Upon entering the office of Luke's detective agency, there were discarded reports on the floor, dusty file boxes in disarray, a half empty bag of dried figs on the couch; all of which Rosa just sighs fondly at."

at this point, i wanna say that "show dont tell" is probably a very popular piece of advice because for many beginner writers or for people new to storytelling in general, the first instinct is to tell. because it's often more direct, and it's also how we generally tell stories in casual conversation, for example. like, when im telling my friend about a funny thing that happened at work, i tell them "dude this thing made me SO FUCKING NERVOUS" which is a Telling sentence. i usually dont go "my hands were shaking the entire time i was giving this presentation and my gut felt like it was twisting into itself" which is a Showing sentence, simply because the Telling sentence is easier and quicker to say.

Telling is first instinct, but reading a 5k short story that is all Telling can get pretty boring or monotonous, because what Showing has that Telling often doesnt have is Description. Showing fleshes out a scene some more, challenges the reader to surmise details on their own and connect the dots themselves, and also trains beginners to be more active in describing their scenes and fleshing it out further.

-

litmus test to figure out whether youre showing or telling

in general when youve got a Telling sentence, the information a sentence is trying to convey is most usually directly spelled out in the sentence itself.

on the flipside, when youve got a Showing sentence, the information is something that can be garnered from the descriptors of what can be seen, how other characters react, etc.

so long as a sentence is Not Outright saying the information it wants to get across, then youve probably got a showing sentence.

so if ur trying to figure out if what youve written is Telling or Showing, first ask yourself "what information am i trying to convey here?" and once you know that, look at what youve written and see how you conveyed it. did you convey this directly? or did you allude to it using details that lead to that information?

to demonstrate, let me go back to my previous example with luke and rosa. both sentences are conveying two pieces of information. 1) that the office is usually messy and 2) that rosa isn't surprised cuz she knows luke Lives Like This

the Telling sentence says these pieces of info outright. meanwhile the Showing sentence doesnt and takes more time to give details that simply allude to those two pieces of information, details like what shit luke has strewn around his apartment and rosa's reaction.

-

why i dont like "show dont tell" (bcuz theres a time and place for both showing and telling, they both have benefits)

i dont like "show dont tell" because a lot of the time, when i see this piece of writing advice, it's worded as "ALWAYS show and NEVER tell" and uh.......no, thats not right

first off, all writing advice is Not absolute. what works for one writer may not work for another writer and no technique out there is inherently Bad, it all Depends on so many factors. secondly, the balance between Showing and Telling is also hugely reliant on each writer's specific style. like, personally i love to do Telling a bunch for sentence structure variation, for humor/comedy, or for a whole lot of other reasons!! which leads me to my third point:

Telling has its uses and its benefits.

because listen......Showing is indeed really great, and like i said earlier, it pushes writers to flesh out scenes more.

but not every scene or piece of information in a story needs to be fleshed out in the way that Showing necessitates.

i like to think about it this way. Showing has the tendency to expand a scene/information, and i visualize this literally. like, if my story was represented by 5 accordions glued to each other (bear with me here), and i just so happened wanted to use Showing for everything, all of those accordions would be stretched out and expanded. on the flipside, if i use Telling for everything, all of those accordions are pushed tight together, because Telling tends to contract a scene/information.

having a story thats 5 accordions long that made up of All Telling OR All Showing is generally not how stories work. instead, stories are a mix of accordions, some contracted and some expanded, because different scenes/information have different levels of importance and value.

like, lemme use an example from chapter 2 of "yes, she’s my lover, yes, she’s a half-dragon. any more questions?" since thats one of my most recent non smut fics HAHA

over the course of this chapter, the following happens

luke realizes he needs to find out more information on ria being half dragon

luke starts writing to vyn, a scholar, who could have that info

luke travels to stellis to meet vyn

luke meets vyn at his bookshop and theres a whole situation that happens there

luke returns back to his and ria's cottage

luke and ria have a little heart to heart over dinner about stuff

of those 6 things, numbers 4 and 6 are the most important scenes to me. in the chapter, numbers 4 and 6 are the scenes that get most fleshed out, they are the most told through Showing sentences in a Showing kind of method

but the other stuff isnt as important in the chapter, but they still need to be there for logistical reasons. number 1 needs to be there to setup the reason for why this whole chapter happens, but i dont want to bog the entire chapter down with just luke Realizing He Needs More Info, so i write number 1 mostly in hindsight, and mostly through Telling sentences.

same goes with numbers 2, 3, and 5. those things need to happen to get from scene to scene, but it's not like it's narratively important for me to write out luke's entire medieval fantasy commute. i can just say "One of the kingdom’s main cities is a quarter-day’s ride away from the nearby village, and after letting Ria know that he’s off to do some errands, Luke hitches a ride with a vendor on his way to the city; Stellis." and boom, done, we're in stellis and now we can get on with the more interesting bits

Telling has its uses because a story can't always be Showing everything, because then that puts every single instance or piece of information at Exactly the same value. when it really isnt! sometimes, a guy just needs to get from point A to point B, and so long as nothing important is happening during that travel, Telling is a much more economical way to go about it. sometimes the info Needs to be conveyed, but not necessarily expanded.

and this can make the stuff that is expanded and is done through Showing more impactful or striking because of the contrast. like, in the chapter i used as an example, thats 6 accordions, but 2 are completely expanded while the other 4 are more contracted. this makes the 2 more notable because it's chock full of description, dialog, imagery, etc. it makes more of an impact than, say, luke's medieval fantasy commute, because i contracted that accordion and expanded these accordions.

additionally, i seem to see a lot of people who espouse "ALWAYS show and NEVER tell" seeing Telling as something that will always be boring and dull.

and Telling can be dull sometimes, sure, but there are definitely ways to spruce it up and make it integral to the story. which leads me to my next point

-

how i personally like to spruce up "telling"

ok it's at this point that i realize this response is now over 1.4k words long so UHHHH I'LL GO THROUGH THIS NEXT BIT SUPER QUICKLY

which will be easy cuz i actually wrote up a whole post about this before, so lemme just link it: "USE YOUR CHARACTER'S PERSPECTIVE IN "TELLING" TO MAKE "TELLING" MORE ENGAGING" POST

-

uh so. this response got outta hand jhvjhVKJHVKHJ but i hope something her can be helpful!!!

#i get uh....impassioned when talking abt writing processes and techniques jVKJVKJH #asks #roshie-writes

[yerbamansa]

Ohhhh my god, so I wrote a novel-length fic over the last five months and I just…need to write down some Thoughts on that, because it hadn’t happened before and I have no idea if it will again, just seemed worthwhile to collect myself a bit. To be clear: I’m…really proud of myself?? Who knew I had it in me! And I think it’s a fun read! I learned a lot! More under a cut if you care to read my ramblings.

The gdoc containing my initial outline of ideas was created on October 29, 2022. I shared it with the group chat from whence the idea came, because I was planning to participate in a daily prompt challenge in November so I wasn’t going to have time for it yet. By late November, quite a bit of work was happening in the doc—a proper outline with a three-act structure I borrowed from various writing tips websites and then wandered off on my own with. I’ve never written something this structured and long before, so I searched for some structure tips.

I found a few different forms (a 9-block, 27-chapter structure; a three-act checklist) that I ended up using almost like a self-survey/brainstorm. A couple passes through that, plus trying to work it out as a character/timeline spreadsheet, gave the whole thing a much clearer shape. I knew I wanted to alternate between Ed’s and Stede’s POVs, but not limit it to theirs. Early on I decided that Oluwande would be a third POV character because (a) I love writing him and (b) the crew’s perspective is REALLY IMPORTANT. Then, because I used Lucius as an outsider, he became the fourth POV, introduced at the beginning of act 2.

[ID: A bar chart showing word count by POV character. Ed has over 34,000 words, Stede about 26,000 words, Oluwande 13,000 words, and Lucius a little under 10,000 words. End ID.]

But it’s not like I had it 100% perfectly mapped out at a chapter level, nor did I know exactly what details would…emerge. Like, I knew the shape of the details, but I kind of worked them out as I got to know this version of the characters better. The outlining process was kind of my draft: I went through it to get to the point that I could sit down and outline each chapter (or two ahead, in some cases) and then write it.

Very few things were written out of order, but the scene where they’re trapped in the storage closet was written well before I finished chapter 1. And I thought it would happen later than it did. I really thought I was gonna enemies-to-lovers these guys! 😂

There were a TON of details/potential plotlines I thought about including, but ultimately decided not to, either because it was totally out of my lane to do it justice (ex.: literally anything to do with Ed’s heritage and food—I read up some and whew, it’d have to be its own story, and not really mine to tell) and/or because it would’ve overcomplicated/distracted from the plot as it unfolded. There was a whole thing where Stede was meant to pull a Christopher Kimball thing and screw over the magazine by starting a rival publication and, you know what, there was more than enough drama to mine from just the Bon Appetit Test Kitchen debacle(s).

The idea came from a group chat, and the same group chat was instrumental in helping me flesh out a bunch of character details. That was fun. That’s also where my main beta reader came from. It’s funny, I’ve written on and off pretty much my whole life, but rarely had an editor like this. It was very collaborative and challenging in the best possible ways, I think; especially with something this long, it really helped to have someone who knew some of what was in my head but wasn’t nose-deep in it.

While it hasn’t been a runaway hit or anything, it’s had by far more eyeballs than anything else I’ve written in this fandom. Definitely a lot more comments than anything else, which is fun. Some folks I really admire have said kind things and if that didn’t make me all 😊 well. (It did, though.) It was because of those commenters that I got a sense of how it was coming off—that it was, and could be, fun and frothy and still touch on subjects that were difficult (labor rights etc.) without making light of them. At least, that’s what I hope I pulled off in the end.

There were so many random little side routes and ideas that came up while thinking about and writing this that I really had to make a series. For the one-shots. For fuck’s sake, I put too much into building out this little world and this version of each character not to.

And if one of those ends up being some kind of E-rated fic involving Mary and Evelyn, like, posing for Doug with fresh fruit still-life and it turning into A Whole Thing, so be it. (It didn’t make the story text, but Mary and Evelyn are married and Doug is Mary’s guy who lives in the guest house out back. Also they make cooking YouTube videos together as a trio. There will probably be one-shots about them because Evelyn was too much fun to write.)

#my stuff #kitchen mistakes #test kitchen au #writing about writing #collecting my thoughts for myself mainly

[catboygirling]

Damian's Fic Recs - Whumptober Time!

[October 2022]

[Masterpost]

welcome back, folks, for another issue of Damian's Fic Recs! in honor of my beloved Whumptober (and as penance for not writing much for it this year), we're in for a list full of whumps! not all written for Whumptober, but all with that generally depressing vibe.

this is the first list I've done for multiple fandoms at a time, so here's all the ones I'll be covering today:

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Ace Attorney

Persona 5

DC Comics

each fandom is grouped together, in that order! though most of them are Fire Emblem, because... yeah <5

because of some... heavier material this time around, there's two new additions to my rating system, those being Graphic Depictions of Violence (🩸) and Major Character Death (☠️). stay safe, and happy reading!

Ratings Guide:

🌹 - Shippy

🌷 - Hints/mentions of ships, but not the main focus

🌻 - Purely Platonic

💚 - General Audiences

💛 - Teen

🧡 - Mature

🩸 - Graphic Depictions of Violence

☠️ - Major Character Death

✅ - Complete

❌- In-progress

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

🌻💛✅🩸☠️ God Slayer by Elluia

Word Count: 1.9k Chapters: 1/1

Published: October 6th, 2022

Sothis was murdered in her sleep, or so they believe. Whumptober 2022, Prompt No.6: Proof of life

[Notes: barely any dialogue, mostly the most brutal death you've ever read in your life. excellent prose and imagery, especially if you like the combo of dragons and stars.]

🌻💛❌ His Sweat and Blood by Elluia

Word Count: 2.7k Chapters: 1/2

First Published: October 11th, 2022

From war orphan to prisoner of war, Cyril is just trying to survive. Whumptober 2022, Prompt No.11: sloppy bandages + self-done first aid

[Notes: I included two Elluia fics on pure accident, haha. this one is backstory for Cyril, one of the most underrated characters in the game, in my opinion. not as gruesome as the last one, but Elluia's wonderful prose is still present!]

🌹💛✅ love is a thing with thorns by miyatini

Word Count: 3.2k Chapters: 1/1

Published: October 5th, 2022

Honeysuckle signifies devoted affection, Sylvain learns. He wonders how even his body has become Felix’s in its destruction. - sylvain is a lover, destroyed over and over again

[Notes: unrequited hanahaki! where the other person isn't portrayed as completely in the wrong! woo!! I mean, it still has a sad ending, so maybe the woo isn't entirely appropriate, I've just read too much arophobic hanahaki takes to not celebrate.]

🌻💛❌ All the Time in the World by Cinnabunni

Word Count: 5k Chapters: 1/?

First Published: June 23rd, 2022

The man’s eye immediately softened when he looked at the Archbishop. “Byleth…” he spoke in a low tone. “...is he real?” The Archbishop–Byleth–gave a firm nod. “He’s very much real, Dimitri. But right now, he needs to rest-”  “But how do we know if it’s him?” the man pressed. “How do we know it’s really him? How do we not know it’s the same people who assumed the role of Monica and Tomas? How do we know that he won’t stab us in the back and kill us all?” The man focused back onto Glenn. “I say we strike now, before he has the chance to heal and get back to full strength. Destroy the seeds of tragedy and despair before they get the chance to sprout.”  Glenn, if it was any other circumstance, would’ve gotten angry, and reply with his own remark. Maybe even fight if he was physically able to. But one detail made his mind spin, made his whole world pause and destroy everything that he thought he knew or understood.   “Dimitri…?” ~~~ In which Glenn is thrown through time, and no one is happy about the situation.

[Notes: hiii Cinna I'm recommending one of your fics <5 because you deserve it <5]

🌹💛✅ Save Me (Get Me the Hell Out of Here) by LucRambles

Word Count: 7k Chapters: 1/1

Published: December 25th, 2021

“Don’t move,” Felix says before pressing his hands to either side of the slashed flesh and pushing them closer together, channeling his minor healing spell. Sylvain hisses in pain but stays still as Felix desperately tries to get the flesh to knit back together. But healing was never his strong suit and he feels it fizzle out, the cooling sensation replaced by the warmth of Sylvain’s blood. “Leave me here,” Sylvain says. “The battle is still going on, you need—” “You need to shut up,” Felix snaps, practically snarls. “I am not leaving you.” “Don’t get yourself killed,” Sylvain says, like the insufferable hypocrite he is. Felix has lived this day before. Sylvain keeps dying. And he can't let that happen.

[Notes: timeloop fics my beloved!! not officially tagged for violence, but the loop is caused by being killed in battle... so don't expect a picnic.]

Ace Attorney

🌻💚✅ Down For the Count by Hextoons

Word Count: 3k Chapters: 1/1

Published: September 20th, 2022

When Phoenix, quite literally falls ill, Franziska takes it upon herself to care for him. This will totally not go terribly. Sicktember 2022 Day 20: Cold Sweat

[Notes: definitely one of the tenser sickfics I've ever read. if Franziska having to take care of Phoenix doesn't sound bad enough, it's the middle of aa2. yeah.]

🌻💚✅ True North by BillyRayCyrus

Word Count: 354 Chapters: 1/1

Published: September 5th, 2021

Phoenix and Miles continue their journey.

[Notes: zombie au! zombie au! really short, but still a punch to the gut.]

Persona 5

🌻💛✅ nothing to celebrate by Setio

Word Count: 2.4k

Chapters: 1/1

Published: October 15th, 2022

“What do you want to eat tomorrow?” Sojiro asked. Akira’s head tilted a little further. “You always make curry?” he asked, brow furrowing together in confusion. Sojiro coughed lightly. “Well, yes. But I would have thought you would have wanted something a little bit different tomorrow. It is a special day.” The confusion only deepened. “A special day?” Akira asked. Sojiro gave him a puzzled look. “Your birthday?” he said. Oh. Right. His birthday.

DC Comics

🌻💛✅ Whumptober 2021 by dizarys

Word Count: 42k

Chapters: 30/30

First Published: October 1st, 2021

Finished: November 1st, 2021

Jason tried to tighten his hold but blood made Dick's gauntlet too slick. His hand slipped free. A wordless, desperate sound clawed its way out of Jason's throat as Dick tumbled towards the murky water. Without hesitation Jason let go, plummeting after him. -- All of my completed 2021 Whumptober prompts (plus some extra!)

[Notes: an absolute BEAST of a read if you want to tackle the whole thing, but the individual chapters aren't too long, and they aren't connected. you can easily just read whichever ones stick out to you and ignore the rest, if you want to. this one isn't tagged for violence, but it is pretty brutal at parts, and even if the violence isn't always explicit the subject matter can get pretty heavy. batfam-centric.]

🌻💛✅ Under & Over by Batshit_Bogs

Word Count: 3.5k Chapters: 1/1

Published: October 3rd, 2021

Duke sees it happen. He sees the stone crumble, the lenses in Damian’s mask widen, Damian reaches out - and Duke watches him disappear over the side of the bridge. - Or: Duke and Damian go for a mid-mission swim. It's not as fun as it sounds

#fic rec #ace attorney #persona 5 #batfam #dc comics #fire emblem three houses #whumptober #d.txt #aa #p5 #dc #fe