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Well now tumblr won't let me post actual replies, but best of luck! I avoid the 'editing 11,000 words' problem by a) never writing anything that long, and b) being bad at (big, structural) editing. It's not quite Tolkien's 'write until you get stuck, then throw everything out and start again from the beginning', but I can see that terrifying tower from my writing nook.

I'm so close to getting this next chapter of The Baby Plot done. Within a paragraph or so.

But tumblr is very distracting. Time to ban myself until I've finished writing, and preferably edited it too. If you see me reblog anything before I post that chapter along with links to it here, I dunno, chase me off or something.

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Take the test

You can only do 12 options in a poll so if you tie choose which one you prefer???

#listen I am not in a Cha-based class #what I'm getting is that I am a very angry Oath of Ancients Paladin #a very devoted Barbarian #or a Ranger with Serious Issues

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Y'all. Please, you're killing me here. It is a defensive fortification. There are walls between Shade Academy and the city, yes. There's a cleared space between the city and the walls, yes. You can absolutely read more into that (and they apparently have, in the novels). But you don't let people build up against the walls because that is your kill zone.

You don't want to provide the enemy with a ramp up to your walls, you don't want to let them advance under cover and break through your wall without you getting a chance to shoot them.

Same deal with the courtyard within the walls. Not only is it a training ground, it's the cleared space shooting from the central keep.

Why is the entire city not walled? Well, historically, because a) walls are expensive to make, b) cities always keep growing, so you'll have to keep building more wall (forever), and c) you have to defend that (much longer) wall.

Mantle had a full (broken, mostly unguarded, poorly maintained) wall because they also had heat considerations, and even then, we see that the crater has been filled in with shanties because there are always more people. Vale doesn't have walls, and they still went and founded Mountain Glenn.

Is this an ideal set-up in a world under attack from flying and burrowing monsters? No, probably not (arguably, that's a D&D-style dungeon, or a Dwarf Fortress-esque design). It's also got more gates and entrances than I expect for a serious fortification, but there are always compromises between day-to-day usability and defensiveness. But Shade is both recognizable as a fortress and visually distinct from the rest of the city.

And, yeah, historically speaking, when an attack comes, everyone outside of the wall is out of luck and have to disperse to the countryside (because a siege is your ability to stockpile vs their ability to extend their logistics, and more hungry non-combatants inside the walls helps them and hurts you). Remnant is not Earth, though, and there's no where left to run to; do y'all really think, after all of Ironwood's nonsense, that they're just going to seal the gates against the populace?

#rwby #shade academy #beta has a little rant

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Team RWBY (Food Fight)

#I love this

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Yang Xiao Long (Food Fight)

And of course, I had to do the turkey fists for Yang. Made using a Black Canary Heroclix.

#...well I was gonna say I'd pay good money to have Canary and Yang meet #but they have so #great work!

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Blake Belladonna (Food Fight)

I think Blake might be my favorite of the four minis I did for the food fight. I used a Colleen Wing Heroclix and turned her sword into bread, which is cool.

#I love this #bread bread bread!

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Gandalf mentions that the Nazgul went to Mordor to “prepare it” for Sauron and if you think that I don’t imagine the Witch King of Angmar with a construction hardhat on, you’re wrong. 

#...I will resist the urge to make a Maid!nazgul model #probably

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Weiss Schnee (Food Fight)

I used a Nico Minoru Heroclix again for Weiss and tried to turn her staff into a swordfish. It kind of works...

#love this

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Ruby Rose (Food Fight)

I was going to just make Team RWBY in their school uniforms but then I got inspired. For Ruby, I gave her the tray she used to skate down the table.

I used a Martyr Heroclix as the based and then modified and repainted it.

#love this

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Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene

I'm begging of you, please don't take my man

Your sword is long, your lance is keen, your shining helm afar is seen

#love this

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Are you still taking any late submissions? Sorry for asking this so late, I've had a lot of things I've been busy with 😅 –@knave-of-clubs

No need to apologize we totally understand! Sorry for how late this reply is; we hadn't seen your ask until now.

Great question though! You are welcome to post your work using the prompts and tags of Bumbleby Week but we are no longer reblogging or sharing work!

Having now said that, we'd really like to thank everyone who took time to participated this year!! It's always such a joy seeing what everyone can do with a handful of prompts!

Bumbleby Week will happen again on the same date next year March 24th to the 31st, 2025, so make sure to mark y'alls calendars! You'll be hearing from us again once that date nears!

Again, thanks for everyone's participation, we'll see y'all again soon enough!

#see you next year! #Thanks for running!

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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: RWBY, World of Darkness (Games) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Rape/Non-Con Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long, Blake Belladonna/Weiss Schnee Characters: Weiss Schnee, (as LARPed by), Yang Xiao Long, Blake Belladonna, (but her eviler version), Neon Katt Additional Tags: Smut, In-Universe RPF, Fanfiction, Anti-Faunus Racism (RWBY), Oral Sex, Masturbation, Voyeurism, LARPing, Non-Consensual Bondage, Rape, Hurt No Comfort

Just a little expansion of some scenes from last night's WtB LARP. Check out the complete summary of the events here!

By CherryPop

@NeverFading, @No1WeissFan, @7LayerTraumaDip, and @LiterallyPurrfect, thanks for a fantastic game! If you show this to our guest stars, I will literally die. But they were amazing.

(This is an in-universe fic about a LARP about Real(ish)!Weiss (as played by Yang) and Evil!Blake (as played by Blake), and their hot & heavy times 'offscreen' at the LARP, written by someone who doesn't know them at all. So it's very much a cracked mirror version of both Checkmate and Bumbleby. Please read the tags; this one is not really in my usual mode. Takes 'place' around Volume 7, Episode 5 (My BMBLB fic index).)

#Bumbleby #Neon Katt #Blake Belladonna #(ish) #Weiss Schnee #(very ish) #Yang Xiao Long

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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: RWBY Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long Characters: Yang Xiao Long, Winter Schnee (RWBY) Additional Tags: Light Angst, light fluff, Canon Compliant

Yang makes a semi-official request of Winter.

Takes place during Volume 7, around Chapter 5 (My BMBLB fic index).

#Bumbleby #Yang Xiao Long #Winter Schnee #in the immortal (+10 Mako approval) words of my SWTOR bounty hunter #I do the job and then I get paid

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Reading the Silmarillion, the elves seem so active and full of life.They’re always doing things. When you get to the Lord of the Rings, they just seem so tired. Elrond holds a meeting and then he’s out. Galadriel has some guests stay with her. They’re so done. They just wanna leave.

#accurate

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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: RWBY Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long Characters: Yang Xiao Long, Blake Belladonna, Weiss Schnee, Ruby Rose (RWBY) Additional Tags: Fluff, Canon Compliant, Weiss suffers, Team Bonding, Music, Discussed Blood & Gore, Bumbleby Week 2024 (RWBY)

Yang's humming prompts a discussion of lyrics.

Takes place during Volume 7, around Chapter 5 (My BMBLB fic index).

Written for Bumbleby Week 2024: Day 8: Bonus/VA Appreciation.

( @bumblebyweek-blog Thanks for hosting a great week!)

#Bumbleby #BumblebyWeek #BumblebyWeek2024 #GREENLIGHTVOLUME10 #SaveTeamRWBY #SaveRWBY #SaveCRWBY #Blake Belladonna #Yang Xiao Long #Weiss Schnee #Ruby Rose

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WHERE NOW THE HORSE AND THE RIDER-Aka how I just had a Tolkien related freak out on the train

I can't believe what just happened to me. As in, it's such a weird chain of events that it has left me a little dizzy.

I was reading "Les Nourritures Terrestres" by Gide, and I got to a point he cites parts of a poem which I liked very much. The notes informed me that it's a French translation of "an 8th century saxon elegy called 'The Wanderer' "

That intrigued me, and, being on a train with a lot of time to pass (plus being a little tired of reading in French), I took out my phone and searched for the poem.

I found it here. It's the lament of a warrior in exile who has lost his lord and mourns the joy and glory of a world that has now disappeared. I was enjoying it a lot.

And then I got to this point:

And my mouth actually dropped open, because what?

Are you telling me that the Lament for the Rohirrim, one of my favourite poems in LOTR, which I learnt by heart at 13 and later took care to learn in the original English, which I sing when I do the dishes and which routinely makes me cry, is Tolkien's translation of an 8th century Saxon elegy?

Well, the notes at the end of the page confirmed it:

"Tolkien's rendition is hard to resist" I bet it is. I love that professional philologists add notes to their work saying "yeah, by the way, this bit here? It's in your favourite fantasy novel, and I am kinda jealous of how well it was translated, but it's Tolkien, the man spoke Old English, what can you do? Carry on, xoxo"

I mean, I had gathered that the Tolkien poem played on themes used in medieval literature, but I had no idea it was based on an actual, specific text. That makes it a hundred times cooler!

Maybe it's common knowledge, but it was a delicious tidbit of good news to me. Especially since I wasn't expecting it in the least, so I was blindsided by it.

Cherry on top? I had ignored the Old English text, since I don't understand it, but at the end I gave it a cursory read , and the line "Alas for the splendor of the prince"? "Eala þeodnes þrym!"

Now, I have never studied Old English, but I know roughly how to pronounce it (what kind of Silmarillion fan would I be if I didn’t recognize the thorn?). þeodnes has to be where "Theoden" comes from, right?

Apparently yes. I googled the "Lament for the Rohirrim", and Tolkien Gathaway has a nice little parapraph in which they explain all this. I don't know why I had never read it before, but it was a lot more fun learning it as an unexpected detour from my French practice, not gonna lie.

Bottom line: Tolkien was a both a nerd and a genius and continues to make my life brighter, and this is one of those moments in which I am very happy I have spent years of my life learning languages.

Thanks for coming to my impromptu TedTalk.

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#I have a library job now #it is the first job I haven't hated