#AND I STILL HAVEN'T FULLY WORKED ON WRITING THAT FUCKING NOVEL

[dragonagitator]

Timeline of major events during Gale Dekarios's lifetime

Here is my attempt to compile a timeline of major events that took place during Gale's lifetime, including his personal history, happenings in his hometown of Waterdeep, and major world events that would have affected him personally or affected everyone in Faerun. I hope this is useful in writing your Gale-centric fanfics!

The time period covered assumes that Gale is 40 years old during the events of BG3 and thus was born in the year 1452 DR. AFAIK there's no canon age given for Gale, but most fanons seem to peg him as being between 35 and 45, so I went with the middle of that range. Please feel free to adjust his estimated age for each event up or down depending on how old you think he is in BG3, e.g., if you think he's 38 then subtract 2 years, if you think he's 42 then add 2 years, etc.

Some of the more interesting implications of this timeline revolve around how much Mystra's powers and presence in the world significantly changed during Gale's lifetime. When Gale was a child or teen and first attracted the attention of Mystra, she was weak, not in contact with her Chosen, and assumed to be dead by most of the world. Gale was ~27 years old and already her lover by the time a "much diminished" Mystra called to Elminster for help, and Gale was ~35 years old when Mystra fully regained her powers as the Goddess of Magic. She seems to have dumped him shortly thereafter.

Detailed timeline and sources under the cut. It's long.

Most of the text that isn't specifically about Gale is copypasted from the Forgotten Realms wiki. See bottom for links. I haven't read all the novels and modules referenced by the wiki for these events yet and thus will likely need to revise this timeline as I work my way through those.

Birth to age ~27: until 1479 DR worldwide: Mystra was generally considered to be "dead"/missing during Gale's childhood and early adulthood because Mystra/Midnight was "murdered" by Cyric in 1385 DR (67 years before Gale was born).

However, Forgotten Realms canon of Mystra's timeline clashes with what Gale tells us about the timeline of his relationship with her:

Gale: "Once upon a time, not quite that long ago, there lived a wizard in a tower. The wizard was what one might call a prodigy, who from an early age could not only control the Weave, but compose it, much like a musician or a poet. Such was my skill that it earned me the attention of the mother of magic herself. The Lady of Mysteries. The goddess Mystra. She revealed herself to me and she became my teacher. In time, she became my muse, and later, even my lover." PC: "What did Mystra's attention feel like?" Gale: "Love. Perhaps it was not quite love, but you see, the wizard was but a very young man. It was most certainly love to him."

Speaking as a middle-aged person myself, while most 40-year-olds would consider 27 to be "young," the modifier of "very" suggests he that was much younger than 27 when he first became Mystra's lover. I'm older than the oldest estimates for Gale's age and I still wouldn't characterize myself at age 27 as being "but a very young woman." That description seems more fitting for someone in their late teens / early 20s.

Also, if he was "but a very young man" when they became lovers, then that means he was even younger (a child or teenager) when she first revealed herself to him and started teaching him magic.

So Gale's relationship with Mystra must have started during the period that the rest of the world believed she was dead or missing. Mystra did still have some sort of disembodied "presence" during this period, so maybe she was simply not able or interested in speaking to Elminster or her other previously established Chosen. Or perhaps she was fragmented, and Gale's relationship began with one of those fragments? Part of her "presence" ended up possessing a bear, but I'm assuming not the part that Gale was fucking.

Birth to age ~30: until 1482 DR worldwide: Gale was born and grew up during the "Era of Upheaval," which was known for widespread wild magic and dead magic zones, a lot of changes in the pantheon of deities, and a lot of wars and political conflicts amongst mortals.

Age ~16: c. 1468 DR in Waterdeep: "Dagult Neverember, the richest man in the city, became Open Lord."

Age ~27: 1479 DR in Waterdeep: "By this year, the Field Ward had been established, and Skullport was no longer inhabited."

Age ~27: 1479 DR in Waterdeep: "The 8th walking statue, the Griffon, appeared in Waterdeep and to defend Ahghairon's Tower. It eventually settled down near the Peaktop Aerie on Mount Waterdeep and eventually became a landmark of the city."

Age ~27: 1479 DR in western Cormyr [roughly 1050 miles / 1690 km southeast of Waterdeep]: "While recuperating in a cabin in the King's Forest, Elminster felt Mystra's presence calling to him. He found her much diminished, possessing the body of a bear that had guarded a cache of items Mystra's still-mortal form had collected. She asked her most trusted servant to find new candidates to become Chosen and to recruit Cormyr's War Wizards. Only a few weeks later, having been restored to his full powers as a Chosen by absorbing the silver fire of the dying Symrustar Auglamyr and then that of the Simbul and Manshoon, Elminster returned to Mystra (in agony from absorbing too much of it) and returned much of it to the Lady of Mysteries, restoring much of her power and divinity. This event became known as Mystra's Return."

I'm assuming that Elminster's acquaintance with Gale must have begun sometime after this because otherwise you'd think Gale would have mentioned "oh yeah she's not actually dead, we've been banging for a while now."

Mystra reestablishing contact Elminster, regaining some of her power, and the rest of the world learning that she was alive is pretty huge and therefore must have been a significant turning point in her relationship with Gale as well.

I'm also assuming that Gale did not become one of Mystra's official Chosen until after this, since it seems like Mystra's Chosen weren't active while she was laying low and letting the world think she was dead?

Ages ~30 to ~35: 1482 DR to 1487 DR worldwide: "The Second Sundering, also known as the Sundering of Toril and Abeir, was a great catastrophic event in the history of the worlds of Abeir and Toril."

Age ~32: 1484 DR worldwide: "Most of the gods created many Chosen among mortals, trying to gather as much power as possible to be as high in divine ranking as they could before Ao completed the new Tablets of Fate, sealing their status and portfolio. People started to claim they had been 'chosen' by the gods and granted special powers, some apparently for 'divine purposes' while others had no idea why."

It's possible that Gale was recruited to be a Chosen of Mystra by Elminster per Mystra's instructions to Elminster to find candidates, but given that the gods were also choosing people directly during this period and that Mystra had a preexisting relationship with Gale, she may have also Chosen him directly herself. Poor Elminster out there trying to find the best candidates and then Mystra surprises him by adding her boyfriend to the roster. Gale being a nepotism hire despite having otherwise been qualified would be pretty funny.

Age ~34: 1486 DR in Waterdeep: "Neverwinter and Waterdeep began to clear the rubble in their cities that had built up over a century of neglect."

Hey, remember when Gale said that he used to be able to levitate an entire tower back when he was an archmage? Maybe this is when he was doing stuff like that.

Age ~35: 1487 DR worldwide: "Stars reportedly fell from the sky, gods long thought dead walked the land and armies led by Chosen clashed everywhere. Major geological instability resulted in numerous earthquakes and volcanoes, as the worlds of Abeir and Toril were separated once again, and areas once consumed by large chasms were restored to their pre-Spellplague status. Ships arrived on the mainland continent from Evermeet, Halruaa, Lantan, and Nimbral—all realms previously thought lost to Toril."

Age ~35: 1487 DR in Candledeep [roughly 650 miles / 1050 km south of Waterdeep] : "In an attempt to fully restore the goddess Mystra and the Weave, Elminster Aumar began his search for Khelben Arunsun's writings on the Weave, heading towards Candlekeep. Laeral and Alustriel Silverhand had also been hiding within the library: the two sisters' duty was to prepare their own destruction, so that no one could use their power to gain control over the Weave." ... "The energies of the destroyed Wards were absorbed by the Shadow King, who then left for Myth Drannor, followed by the three Chosen of Mystra."

Although Gale was likely a Chosen of Mystra by this point, he wasn't one of the three mentioned here.

Age ~35: 1487 DR in Myth Drannor [roughly 1350 miles / 2170 km east of Waterdeep]: "Meanwhile in Myth Drannor, Larloch, the Netherese, and the Chosen of Mystra (allied with the elves) clashed in a catastrophic battle." ... "As Elminster defeated Tanthul in a mage duel, the Netherese enclave crashed atop Myth Drannor. Elminster himself was saved by Mystra, who gained full control over the Weave once more, stopping Shar from turning it into a new Shadow Weave."

Age ~35: 1487 DR worldwide: "As 1487 DR came to a close, the Second Sundering ended with the full return of Mystra and the Weave, the separation of the worlds Abeir and Toril."

Gale was not a character in the novel about these events so any personal involvement would have been minor, but I'm including them in his timeline because he would have been impacted by the "full return" of Mystra to the world. I imagine he would have experienced many of the same issues that spouses of someone just elected to a high-level office go through.

Gale's lack of personal involvement in Mystra's restoration despite being her Chosen AND her lover is kinda weird, which makes me wonder if things were already starting to sour between them? I really wish that I could lock Ed Greenwood and Jan Van Dosselaer in a room together until they came up with a coherent explanation for what the fuck Gale was up to while all this was going down.

Age ~35 to ~39: 1487 DR to 1491 DR: Sometime during this period must have been when Mystra dumped Gale and he went looking for a lost bit of Weave to win her back but got a Netherese orb lodged in his chest instead.

Mystra was newly back to her full power as the Goddess of Magic and laying down the law, and Gale didn't take that very well:

Gale: "We enjoyed each other's company - body, mind and soul. But even so, I desired more. You see, no matter how powerful a wizard we mortals can become, we never scratch more than the surface of the Weave. Mystra keeps us in check. There are boundaries she doesn't let us cross. Yet every time I was with her, I stood on the precipice, gazing into the wonders that lay beyond. I sought to cross her boundaries." PC: "How exactly did you try to cross those boundaries?" Gale: "I tried to convince her. I pouted, I pleaded, I swore my ambition was only to serve her better. But she only smiled and told me to be contented. As inconceivable as it seems to me now, I shared a bed with a goddess and yet I wasn't satisfied. So I sought to prove myself worthy to her instead."

Gale's description of what happened after she dumped him sounds like it took place over a multi-year period, since I'm assuming that he had to spend some time searching for the "tome of gateways":

Gale: "The goddess spurned the mortal. The veils were drawn once more, and the wizard was left behind heartbroken." ... "Poor wizard. Silly wizard too, for he wouldn't take no for an answer. Like so many of the heartbroken, he did something infinitely foolish. One has to think big if one seeks to win back a goddess. So the wizard thought big." PC: "Define big." Gale: "Here goes: Once upon a time, very long ago, a mighty lord lived in a tower. A flying tower to be precise. I'll save his story for another time, but the gist of it is that he sought to usurp the goddess of magic so that he could become a god himself. He almost managed, but not quite, and his entire empire - Netheril - came crashing down around him as he turned to stone. The magic unleashed that day was phenomenal, roiling like the prime chaos that outdates creation. A fragment of it was caught and sealed away in a book. No ordinary book, mind you: a tome of gateways that contained within it a bubble of Astral Plane. It was a fragment of primal Weave locked out of time - locked away from Mystra herself. 'What if', the silly wizard thought, 'What if after all this time, I could return this lost part of herself to the goddess?'" PC: "What was the answer to his question?" Gale: "The answer was to try, and the outcome was to fail."

Not sure how much Gale was around for the next few events, since he might have been gallivanting around the Astral Plane looking for the tome instead of spending time in Waterdeep. But one assumes he'd notice the physical changes to the city whenever he returned, and that he'd hear about local news from his mother and Tara, so he would certainly be aware that these things happened.

Age ~37: 1489 DR in Waterdeep: "In response to increasing dragon and cultist activity, the Council of Waterdeep was formed, bringing together representatives of realms from all across the Sword Coast. The threat of the Cult of the Dragon was driven home when Masked Lord Arthagast Ulbrinter was assassinated, though it inspired more resolve than fear. In the midst of these events, Open Lord Dagult Neverember was ousted by a vote of the Lords of Waterdeep, replaced by Laeral Silverhand. Although Waterdeep was largely spared due to the dragonward, the Field Ward was still burned to ashes by dragon attacks, displacing huge numbers of people."

Age ~38: 1490 DR in Waterdeep: "The cloud giant castle of Count Nimbolo and Countess Mulara appeared out of clouds and hovered over Waterdeep for a while, triggering mass panic. Heralds sent out by Lady Laeral Silverhand tried to calm citizens and promise that there was no danger. In fact, the giants wanted to research Waterdeep's history and meet its leaders, as they search for traces of the ancient giant realm of Ostoria."

Age ~39: 1491 DR in the Astral Plane (I think?): Gale finds the "tome of gateways" and becomes afflicted with the Netherese orb:

Narrator: "You see through Gale's eyes, staring down the corridors of a dread memory. A book, bound, then suddenly opened. Inside there are no pages, only a swirling mass of blackest Weave that pounces. It's teeth, it's claws, it's unstoppable as it digs through you and becomes part of you. And gods, is it ever-hungry…"

Age ~39: 1491 DR in Waterdeep: Gale begins a year-long isolation in his tower in Waterdeep and eventually stops communicating with anyone except Tara. Not sure exactly when his isolation began relative to the other events of this year, so he may or may not have been personally affected by or even aware of some of the Waterdeep events below.

Age ~39: 1491 DR in Waterdeep: "The returned Eilistraee appeared under the walls of Waterdeep causing an influx in the amount of her followers in the city. They eventually sought out Remallia Haventree and asked her for a holy forest-glade in the ruins of the Field Ward. By Mirtul, the housing crisis in Waterdeep had worsened as a mysterious sickness killed or drove out all of the inhabitants of Downshadow, the Field Ward remained desolated by dragonfire, and Mistshore was burned down by agents of Masked Lord Braethan Cazondur, rendering all three unofficial wards uninhabitable."

Age ~39: 1491 DR in Waterdeep: "Fear threatened to overtake Waterdeep once again as the cloud giant castle of Burruld hovered over the ocean near the city. After the Blackstaff Vajra Safahr panicked and threatened the giants, Open Lord Laeral Silverhand calmed the situation, negotiated with Burruld, and learned that their purpose was to search for the lost daughter of King Skyvald, Princess Irie."

Age ~39: 1491 DR in Waterdeep: "In mid-Mirtul, numerous Masked Lords and other people were gruesomely assassinated as part of Cazondur's conspiracy to seize control of the city. Open Lord Laeral Silverhand, assisted by Elminster and Mirt, worked to maintain order in the city while investigating the murders. While attempting to apprehend Cazondur, Laeral herself was killed and disintegrated by a surprisingly simple trap involving falling rocks, but recovered with Elminster's assistance. An exceedingly dramatic showdown at the Palace of Waterdeep between Laeral and Cazondur in front of assembled servants, nobles and guildmasters resulted in Cazondur's death at the hands of an unexpected third party, Xanathar agents Belvarra Bowmantle and Suthool. Including Cazondur, a total of thirteen Masked Lords and scores of others were slain, and several more Lords publicly unmasked."

Please note that our best guess for the location of Gale's tower puts it couple blocks away from Mirt's Mansion and Gale has mentioned being a patron of the Yawning Portal Tavern, so it seems likely that Gale and Mirt would have been acquainted. If Gale was already in isolation by the time all this went down, perhaps Elminster and Mirt tried dropping by Gale's tower at some point but were repelled by the wards that Gale had set up to keep everyone away? Gale seemed very certain that no one cared about him enough to check on him but I wonder how much of that was the depression talking.

Age ~39: 1491 DR in Waterdeep: "A delegation from the city of Mirabar disappeared while en route to the city, having been waylaid by cultists of the Elder Elemental Eye."

Age ~40: 1492 DR in Waterdeep: Gale abruptly departs his tower and doesn't tell anyone where he's going per Tara's line in his origin, "You left the tower in such a hurry, and you didn't leave an address."

Age ~40: 1492 DR in Yartar [roughly 310 miles / 500 km north of Waterdeep as the crow flies]: Gale is kidnapped by the nautiloid. As explained in a previous post, I believe that he was headed north to find an unpopulated area to die and explode in.

Sources:

FR wiki: Gale Dekarios

FR wiki: Era of Upheaval

FR wiki: Second Sundering

FR wiki: Mystra

FR wiki: Mystra (Midnight)

FR wiki: History of Waterdeep

FR wiki: Yartar

BG3 datamined dialogue transcripts

Map of Faerun

Sad headcanons posted to Tumblr by various people over the past few months that I unfortunately didn't save links to. If you saw something in here that you've posted about then I probably got the idea from you. Please feel free to drop links in the comments so people can read the original post(s) about it, thanks!

#BG3 #Baldur's Gate 3 #Forgotten Realms #Waterdeep #Gale #Gale of Waterdeep #Gale Dekarios #Gale BG3 #BG3 Gale #bg3 fanfic writing resources #Elminster #Mystra #the autism won today

[emilykaldwen]

Fic Recs!

I decided to grab a few fics that I was recently introduced to as well as fics I haven't seen get a lot of traction in the space. This is just a personal list that I wanted to share!

@corporalicent's Rhaenicent Fics at AO3 - Cata is a beast when it comes to writing this ship (as well as other fandoms!) and has some really creative AUs out there: I mean come on: Nun!Rhaenyra and Novice!Alicent? We're here for that!

@lullaebies GenderSwapped!Green Kids AU Protector of the Realm on AO3 - So Helaena is now the only *son* of Viserys and Alicent, and Aegon/Aemond/Daeron were born girls. How intriguing is that! They are on a break for right now but go give that fic a look! Not to mention they write Aegon III/Jaehaera content that I just think is chef's kiss.

@dragonsoftheeast Firebender!Targaryen/No Dragons Dance AU Fire Made Flesh on AO3 - Um Hi, Helaena being the one to lose the eye? Actual good political matches. Unparralelled usage of High Valyrian and Valyrian Culture world building???? Sign me the fuck up! Dote is an amazing crafter of such a unique and fantastic canon divergence and I am constantly surprised more people aren't squealing about this amazing story that packs in so many twists and turns and is truly so thoughtful.

@theothermaidoftarth writing some Baela/Daeron and is currently working on Nettles/Cregan check out Song for Evermore on AO3 - Rare Pairs are a precious thing in any fandom and my girl is killing it with some fascinating ideas and utterly fantastic characterizations. We love IC AUs!

@gwenllian-in-the-abbey is leading the Baela/Aegon ship with her solo fic All Kings Are Beautiful on AO3, an 'Aegon was named heir' AU, as well as her other co-written work - Gwen's work reads like a historical fiction novel and that's really my favorite kind of thing. I haven't been able to read everything she's done but man, the nuance! The stakes! the ideas! She brings what I love to call an Old School A Song of Ice and Fire fic vibe to HotD space and I mean this with the highest of praise.

@selfproclaimedunicorn is writing Sins of the Father on AO3 because what if Rhea and Daemon actually had some kids but things still went sideways? - HELLO! MISA? Misa's talent for burying her fingers into every character we see and pulling out all the bits and bobs that make them tick? Is just.. I want to write this well when I grow up. The way she has seamlessly altered canon to the point where I'll see gifsets of scenes and go 'Where are Yorick and Ella?'. Also she has an Alicent x OC fic, and I would lay my life down for Aldreda Farwynd, my tall seal mommy.

@mimikoflamemaker is writing Daemon centric OC fic the False Dragon on AO3 - I haven't been able to dive into this yet but have talked fic and plotting with Justine. Their passion for the source is palpable and her creative ideas deserve to reach more people! Vaerra and Elyas are fascinating OCs with intriguing connections that you do not want to miss!

@jotterjots / @bronzefuryfic is also writing a 'What if Daemon and Rhea had a daughter' AU, Bronze Fury both on tumblr and AO3 - JJ is a real one and I always enjoy her insights. I actually had NO IDEA! that she was writing fic but from what I've read, it looks fantastic!

@acrossthesestars is writing Haunt Me, an Aemond War Bride AU that has me by the throat on AO3 - It's not a list without mentioning this amazing fic that's almost to the finish line. Alex's command of conflict and characterization where characters are allowed to be imperfect is something more of us need to dive into! We love a byronic lead in Aemond where all his edges and issues are fully acknowledged, a wily and fantastic female lead in Wylla Karstark, and just an overall amazing AU where these characters are clawing for their happy ending.

@branwendaughterofllyr is writing a 'What if Vizzy and Daemon's youngest brother lives and has a daughter' AU, A poison Tree on AO3 - I haven't been able to dig into this yet but it's just such a fascinating and original concept to make this Dance make a little more sense, and bring more high stakes. She's a long time ASOIAF writer who is passionate about the source material and here to show you what this world can be. Do go check her work out!

#house of the dragon #hotd fanfic #hotd fic #fic rec #wanted to spread the love around and put my actions to my words here

[xxhispieceofheavenxx]

When you start dating Remus, everything is a dream. He takes you on nice dates, constantly dotes on you, helps you with homework… Everything feels like a dream except the sex; sex with Remus always feels… not enough. It's not because he doesn't make you orgasm, he is the best boyfriend you've had in that aspect. He's sweet, gentle and extremely giving, but it never feels enough. It always feels like Remus is holding back, and no matter how many times you ask him if he enjoyed himself, he always gives you the same smile that doesn't reach his eyes "Of course I did, love. Didn't you?" And obviously, you did; because you climaxed, you got your cuddles, and you love Remus. So why does it never feel as it should?

All comes to a stop when you haven't had sex in a couple of weeks, and while you're making out in your dorm, you stop Remus and hit him with the "we need to talk". Que Remus-panic-mode, where he lets you speak as his mind is racing, thinking that you're breaking up with him. But instead, you open up about how you feel he doesn't enjoy sex with you and how you want to know if you're doing something wrong and what can you change to make everything better and…

He stops your rambling, and with sad eyes, he tells you that there is nothing you've done wrong, that it's his fault and that he is sorry. So you make him explain because you've asked him enough times already, so he comes out clean. It's not anything you've done; it's something he hasn't done. He hasn't been able to fully let go and enjoy himself, thinking that he was going to scare you or worse, hurt you; because he has this thing, his lycanthropy, his "wolfie tendencies", that make him not so gentle in bed and he has been stopping himself from claiming you like he wants to because, as he said, he is scared of hurting you or driving you away. So you reassure him that you love him with all your heart, that you want him to be happy during sex and that you want to explore his needs as much as he explores yours.

And after your heart-to-heart is game one. You start trying kinks and everything he likes out; ropes? Hell yeah, we can do ropes. Ice? Why not? Your sex life improves drastically; now when you're together, it feels like a dream. He is a lot less gentle, he bites and scratches, and he loves when you do it to him too. He loves marking your body, your neck, your thighs, everywhere. It isn't just missionary anymore, you work your way through a multitude of positions.

Remus still gets scared from time to time that you're going to get tired of his roughness, that you're going to want the sweet, gentle Remus from the beginning. But all his worries flow out the window when you look at him, eyes glossed over, lips swollen and a fucked out look on your face. He knows that you enjoy sex with him as much as he enjoys sex with you; and you get the sweet, gentle, loving Remus after, when he is wiping the sweat off your forehead or giving you a bath. He realises he doesn't have to be afraid, that he can be himself around you because you're going to love him no matter what.

Hey!! Thank you for all the notes on my few last Remus posts, I'm so glad you guys liked them! I'm still writing Possessive!Sirius because it keeps getting longer and longer, and I'm not trying to write a novel. I've rewritten it about three times but sometimes that's how it is. In the meantime, I thought you guys would enjoy this Remus dabble. I still haven't given up on my Sirius one-shot so don't worry! Hope you enjoyed reading it <3

#notsfw.sel #remus lupin #remus #remus x reader #remus lupin x reader #remus lupin smut #remus lupin x reader smut #remus x reader smut #marauders #marauders smut #remus lupin fluff #remus lupin x reader fluff #remus x reader fluff #marauders fluff

[olderthannetfic]

I kind of get confused sometimes when people say women fetishize queer trauma in their books. Most of the ones that had lots of queer trauma and violence I’ve read were written by queer men. I did see people accusing Becky Albertalli of doing it with Simon versus the Homosapiens before she came out so I don’t know. But I do get the feeling these people would be up in arms if they ever read something like Drawing Blood by Billy Martin.

--

Billy Martin is the poster child for the sort of "woman" these people are mad about, and not just because of his books' content.

For those who aren't familiar with him, he started his writing career as Poppy Z. Brite, goth babe and icon of 90s nerds who thought Hot Topic was too mainstream. A lot of his fans from back then still don't know because he changed genres and then stopped writing. (Surprise, fellow olds! He switched to male pronouns in 2011.)

His 90s novels were some of the m/m that was most accessible to my generation, and they were gothic horror filled with fucked up shit happening to pretty woobie boys. Peak fujoshi-bait.

Also all of the women died in gruesome ways or were forever alone losers because all the men worth having were into other men.

Even as a massive fan, I always raised my eyebrow a bit. I eventually stopped reading Brite because I found "her" too weird about female characters in downer ways.

Years later, when Billy had started to figure things out and was living out his Hurricane Katrina trauma on his Livejournal, it became a lot clearer why he was so fucking weird about things in the 90s. Not just gender. Fear of AIDS and other things too. Dude had a lot going on, and it definitely informed his dark-as-fuck early books.

It was years before he unpacked enough of his other trauma to figure out he wanted everyone to use male pronouns for him and to fully live as a man instead of just feeling like not a woman.

I haven't read his work in years, but I felt for the guy. He wrote movingly about his mental health struggles.

The point of writing out all this is that it took Billy nearly twenty years.

He spent the 90s describing himself as "a gay man in a woman's body", but in a way that often sounded fetishy and weird. He was the target of appropriation discourse, though nothing like you'd see today.

Whomever is today's Poppy Z. Brite isn't going to be Billy Martin until 2040.

[neonghostcat]

Brain Overflow

You know how in my last 'state of the author' post I said I could feel the urge to write coming back?

Oh, it has.

It's terribly inconvenient too. I'm going to tell you a little about some of the things I've been thinking of and then whine/wibble a tiny bit if you click through to behind the cut. (You don't have to read the last bit!)

I've written down three different SVSSS (LiuShen) ideas in the last couple of weeks, added a few thoughts to older ideas, made a mental note of possible Cultivate extras, and just refused to write down others so as not to encourage rampant plot bunny breeding.

But let me tell you about a few of them because I'm hoping it reduces the urge to work on them better than just typing up notes.

The Lady Blackbird fusion Not sure what Lady Blackbird is? Well, it's a free tabletop rpg that you can download here. But the TL;DR is, "Sort of like steampunk Star Wars: A New Hope + Firefly + potential Jane Austen novel, if you want." I'll just C&P the pitch here: Lady Blackbird is an Imperial noble fleeing from an arranged marriage to be with her secret lover, the pirate king Uriah Flint. To reunite with him, she has hired a notorious smuggler and the crew of his skyship, The Owl. However, The Owl has been captured by an Imperial cruiser. How will Lady Blackbird and the others escape? What dangers lie in their path on the way to the pirate king’s lair? Can you see where this is going? (Actually, probably not your first thought, no.) We start with Shen Yuan transmigrated in a xianxia-by-way-of-steampunk gown, sitting in a jail cell with several men, a teenage boy, and a veiled teenage girl. System helpfully informs him that he is now "Lady" Blackbird, on the run to end up in the arms of Pirate King Mobei-Jun. His cell-mates are, as follows: Smuggler Captain Liu Qingge, Lady Blackbird's personal bodyguard Liu Mingyan who suggested her brother when LB said she wanted to escape, the ship's mechanic Shang Qinghua, the ship's doctor Mu Qingfang (or they pick him up later, I haven't decided), and "a goblin named BingBing". While SY is busy freaking out that System can't fool him - that's the Protagonist, Luo Binghe!!! wtf!!! System says "later, loser" and more-or-less abandons him (though still employing an OOC ban). So now you can probably see where this is going, lol. It involves at least a brief period where SY has to crossdress and pretend to be one of Binghe's future wives - a fiancée/wife of Mobei-Jun as Liu Qingge gets very conflicted feelings about his troublesome passenger. Featuring lots of Cumplane friendship, sassy MQF (as a treat), teenage smirking (likely aided and abetted by the adults), and space whales (naturally). I have not yet fully decided if the story Shen Yuan read was PIDW and now he has to figure out how the infiltration of "space with gears on it" into his xianxia has fucked up what he and Airplane know, or if the story was something like "Proud Immortal Starlit Way" and it was always like that. (Thoughts?) ---

The "SY Bodysnatches MQF" idea What it says on the tin... SY accidentally ends up in MQF's body instead of SQQ's. Only MQF isn't gone - he remains. This occurs directly before the Demonic Invasion and double qi deviation part of the plot and they rush back to the sect to deal with that. Then things get messy while they conspire to get SY his own body. Featuring: An extremely confused Liu Qingge, eventual Shenbros, and aro-ace MQF being very bemused at all times. ---

The "LQG Gets De-Aged/Age-Regressed" idea As you can guess: LQG gets age-regressed. This happens in Lingxi Caves instead of his death-by-deviation. He latches onto SY-SQQ and SY-SQQ is helpless to do anything but take the cute kid in. Featuring: BingLiu friendship, possibly Bing-other disciples friendship, but mostly establishing bro-code that makes Binghe switch his infatuation with SY-SQQ into family feelings as soon as LQG regains his adult body and it becomes clear that LiuShen is happening. ----

This is along with: Joint Custody (LiuShen), my SJ-SQQ second-chance redemption fic (LiuShen and LiuJiu, but different LQGs), a peak lords ascension fic using Cultivate's backstory (LiuJiu), a LiuShen timeloop fic, and at least another half a dozen fic ideas sitting in the hopper that aren't nearly as developed/that I am not burning to write yet.

I'd love to know which ideas you guys are most interested in. ;) Joint Custody is still next regardless and I'll probably not be working on either of the LiuJiu fics in the near future because they are definitely 100k+ territory and I'm still not ready for that. But knowing people are hype for something keeps me hype. ;3

I'll probably be in this fandom awhile, y'all. Please send help.

Sadly, I can't work on any of them yet, because I have over 2,600 messages in my inbox waiting for me to respond to. (This is not a humble brag - this is thousand-yard-stare territory. It was somewhere over 3000 for awhile until I started making a list of people who generally only left emojis or thanks and let them know that I was going to just thank them for all of them in one email so they didn't peppered by replies in kind.)

Not that I'm complaining about them, because I missed replying to comments so much (it's genuinely one of my favorite parts about writing fanfic), but it's still a lot and even if I could manage 100 replies a day (which for mental health reasons, I really can't), it's going to take awhile.

RIP.

More importantly - I hope you are well! 🌼

#fic planning

[unabashedly-so]

😉 SDV Elliot HC 😘

Flirting.

Content warning: does get a little naughty post 10 hearts, still SFW.

everyone's entitled to their opinion, even if they're wrong, and since i can't be wrong in my own hc post

📣 Elliott is the biggest flirt of all the bachelors.

...and bachelorettes, I feel confident in that too.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say in the whole valley maybe.

you don't see it much in his actual in-game dialogue, but tbf you don't see much of it in anyone's dialogue. The game's not really written like that.

BUT IF IT WAS!!!!! ☝️

I'd hang my hat on this. Elliott's flirt game would be 🔥✨🔥😩😩👌👌👌

he's self-assured, he's foppish and aware of it, and heck SOMEBODY's gotta hear all the GREAT one-liners and colloquialisms he's got bouncing around in his head all day from writing.

once he gets to know someone (mainly knows that they're okay with playful, meaningless flirting), he's just shameless.

he's complimentary: "that shirt really brings out your beautiful [color] eyes!"

he's self-aggrandizing: "did you miss me already?" (<--narrator voice: it's been <10 minutes).

he uses pet names and terms of affection so much you almost think he's forgotten your name but it's too late to ask now. "dear," "darling," "love," "light of my life," "sunshine," "lovely," "beautiful," etc.

he's also self-deprecating, or the damsel in distress, "oh, if only there was someone strong and dashing who could save me from my misery!" (author's note: his misery is an unopened wine bottle.)

✨ D R A M A T I C . ✨ calm down, sir. (read: don't.)

then the praise. oh the praise. "bless you, you kind and radiant soul. My world would be so dark but for your captivating light."

he's probably not one to use a lot of physical touch in his flirtations because, y'know, boundaries. But with a receptive 4-7 heart farmer, he might make some exceptions, particularly if it was farmer-led, and so long as it wasn't genuinely romantic or sexual. Like dancing, brief hand-holding, kisses on the hand, hugs of most kinds, etc.

and if there was something he wasn't comfortable with, he'd first deflect playfully. ie, holding hands for too long, "I haven't gotten my cooties booster this year."

he'd only use pick up lines if he came up with them himself. a man has to have standards, y'know.

so, he'd basically be like this with ANYONE with whom he has a decent enough relationship with (and he knows it wouldn't make them uncomfortable)

But. BUT.

Here's where it gets really interesting. Follow me down......

after a farmer gets his 8 heart scene... he shuts it down.

he stops flirting with them. cold turkey.

for those of you who think graphically like i do, see below for a representation:

so what the heck is going on between 8 and 10 hearts???? why does it actually get WORSE than before he barely knew the farmer????????

aliensfeelings.png

he's not thinking much about any kind of relationship beyond friendship (with anyone, really) while he's working on his novel because he's So Close and that's really invigorating and it kind of overshadows all else.

then the book reading happens, and he hears himself say out loud that he dedicated his novel--his ENTIRE BOOK, arguably his LIFE'S WORK up to this point so far--to the farmer that he only just met a few seasons ago

(not to mention he canonically made it at their behest?!??? (2 heart scene picking the genre))

most authors dedicate first books to, like, their spouse or parents, or childhood best friend, sibling--someone MEANINGFUL, who has STAYING POWER, and has impacted the trajectory of their LIFE..........

🎵oh no.

🎵oh no.

🎵oh no no no no no.

talk about a fucking tidal wave of realizations that come crashing down on him. Things that he was too swept up in his own head to really realize or fully acknowledge. Like how, oh no, he's actually been putting some heat (and hope) behind his recent flirty interactions with the farmer. y'know, a more sophisticated of "hahaha... unless.....? 👀" Or how, oh no, did their lips always look so kissable? Or, oh no, was that story arc in his novel just an allegory for his subconscious pining? Oh, you mean the one he just READ OUT LOUD to the entIRE TOWN?????

the man's about to go jump into the sea with cement shoes.

and here's the thing: he's very SELF-assured. His confidence comes from knowing his own worth separate of extrinsic factors. But his confidence when it comes to relationships with other people??? Far less assured. He knows he can be intense in some ways, and not everybody wants that all the time. That stung, having to figure that out the hard way. And now it turns out all the sweet nothings he'd been saying to the farmer are actually emphatically true, but now how's the farmer to know that he's being serious when he says them??? And wouldn't it be so weird to say them with the fervor and hope of it being received genuinely while also having to acknowledge he'd said all those things ingenuously before, but he means them fr now??!?

he's too passionate about his adorée to want them to feel that he was being facetious with them, but was he not???

Oh, Elliott...

Despair(TM)-2

so he stops all flirting with the farmer. He doesn't ice them out, he just... acts a little differently. Where once he might have greeted them with a melodramatic tale of how he missed them so... instead he says, "It's wonderful to see you again."

it's almost like he treats them warmly, but professionally. The friendliness, warmth, sincerity is all still there but the jokes have faded away and he's a little more... stilted. It's about as subtle as he can be (ymmv), but the change is definitely... perceptible.

it's even worse when you take into consideration the bouquet, omfg. it DOES grant him a sense of security, but this is man is a ROMANTIC who is INTENSELY PASSIONATE. He's got a foot in the door, but doesn't want to scare them away by suddenly becoming overbearing. 8-10hearts is a bit of a tightrope walk for him, as he navigates getting closer to the farmer and being aware that not everyone can (or wants to) handle all he has to give (which is fine!).

he tries to give little tastes here and there but..... subtlety is not his strong suit, and he knows it.

and maybe the farmer has to confront him about it at some point, ymmv. it could very much be a "it's not you, it's me" conversation that leads to ???? or in this hc post, it leads to the 10heart event, where Elliott knows he has to let go of his fears and commit.

Despair(TM)-2_final_FINAL

It's just so hard because apparently this farmer really, really means a lot to him.

whoops how'd that happen *sweeps mountain of duck feathers and pomegranates under the rug*

without getting into the 10heart scene too much, I'd just also like to point out how fucking funny it is because you KNOW this romantic ass man has day dreamed so many different scenarios of expressing his love and adoration and when the moment finally arrives he just... totally flops. poetic.

but anyway once that's all established and good, the flirting comes back with a vengeance.

a saucy, naughty, 🌶️spicy🌶️ vengeance.

now that he's figured out where the new boundaries are, he's unafraid to use any opportunity (within reason) to express his adoration for them and reaffirm his commitment to them.

example, farmer teases him over a glass of wine, "wine on your tongue got you slurring, El?" To which he smirks, and lets out a low hum. "It's the wine now and you later, my love."

sometimes it's stupid, like stage whispering to Leah as you join them at the Saloon, "don't look now, but a ten just walked in. Should I talk to them? Do you think I have a chance?" (you're married, btw.) Leah's heard this before and says, "No."

sometimes if you're holding hands, he'll just start spontaneously pull you into a wrap in and dance with you, murmuring some lines of spicy poetry he writes and shares only with you. Sometimes this happens at home or on the farm, but not always.

but one way he NEVER flirts with you again is with anything that would put his adoration of you into question for even a moment. You may as well hang the moon and stars for him, and he'll never once let you forget or doubt that. 💖

sometimes it's just so infuriatingly cocky. "I hope you'll still love me when I'm so old and senile that I forget my own name."

"Of course I will."

"You make me so happy, dear. I just hope I can maintain the stamina needed to properly ravish it out of you."

#im just love him ok #sdv #sdv elliott #stardew valley #unabashedly posting #some of these are probably a little more on the silly side of canon compliant #but what fun is flirting if you dont make an ass of yourself sometimes???

[marvelsassbutts]

omg hii love your writing! i know u said u're trying not to set yourself up for disappointment if she's nothing like u imagined but like................free the thoughts feed temptation what's ur maria rambeau mcu binary like? 👁️

FINE !!! i'll cave (aka i love talking about maria rambeau and no force alive can stop me...not even.........me)

what is my maria rambeau binary like AHHHH honestly she's still not fully fleshed out in my head for reasons you mentioned that i may have mentioned (i'm scared of the brains at marvel) but i think ideally starting with her backstory i want it to be completely different from carol's - i think people have pointed out that 838 maria probably had a similar story to carol because of the kree suit but binary is just BINARY - i think even in the comics (someone let me know if i'm wrong) the character kind of just is (?) like it's the powers without the person if i'm understanding what people have told me lol so i think there's a lot of room to play with who maria was before the powers if there's even a before to see!

in terms of character i think about that one interview with the captain marvel cast (the insane one where brie talked for like a minute and a half straight on how maria is the love of the film.....yeah) where the interviewer said "so maria is like a softer version of carol" and lashana very quickly was like "uhh...no" and I SO AGREE !!! i think maria, because of the era she and carol came into the airforce, had to be a lot tougher than carol actually especially as a Black woman so i want binary to reflect that part of maria the one who was top of her class at USAFA

but with that in miiiiinnnndddd......maria is funny! if you haven't read the prequel novel to captain marvel (higher further faster by liza palmer) i SOOO so recommend it! she's just as fun and ridiculous and stupid (affectionate😭) as carol and while we got little glimpses of that in captain marvel we deserve so much more

this is such a tough question to answer because in terms of "616" maria rambeau we really didn't get a lot so when i think about binary i'm like "man, i hope she's developed!" and i would count that as a win lol

when it comes to her relationship with carol..............................................I'M UNDECIDED!!!!!!!!!!

obviously she doesn't have a monica (or a monice she remembers!!!!) so that leaves us questioning what her relationship with carol is if there's one at all - i think it would be kind of funny if she had a carol and just couldn't stand her and then our carol shows up like "maria!" and binary's like "aw man" but that's just my shits and giggles idea

i don't think i want her to have a carol because i want that spot to be left open for our carol because even if they give us a binary who is in love with her carol danvers it's like okay well how often are we gonna see this universe? is it just a cop out? and i think that's a valid fear with the mcu lmaoooo - PLUS i want her to be flirty SORRY I'LL SAY IT if carol does show up and she either reminds binary of someone she lost or is someone completely new i need binary to have the space to be like "what the hell is wrong with you and why is it working on me" like i need it. i need it? i need it.

so all in allllllllllllllllllllllllll my mcu binary is all the things that maria is and we didn't get the full amount of in captain marvel and the marvels one because she deserves it and two lashana can fucking DO it!

i think that's all from me for now but i will probably have more to say in 6 seconds flat.

**also thank you so much for reading my works :')) that means so so much and warms me right up

#maria rambeau #mcu binary #binary #the marvels #captain marvel #carol danvers x maria rambeau #carolmaria #cy answers

[james-stark-the-writer]

i have been writing a paper for a class for coming up on a continuous 10 hours now and i've only just reached the minimum page limit and only analyzed one of the two texts i was supposed to be analyzing, and i still have obviously not gotten to a conclusive argument so,,,,,,, i'm so fucking tired. and this paper is fucking due noon tomorrow so i have to finish it before i go to sleep tonight bc ik i'm not going to wake up early to finish it so like my life is a nightmare. thankfully, the second text is way shorter and easier to talk about, but i have only managed to write 9 pages in 10 hours, it is genuinely so exhausting writing this, and it's not even because i don't know what to write, it's that there's just so much shit to fucking write about like i could make this a 30-page paper but my professor knows me and she has given me a max limit of 15 pages so i'm trying to keep it contained, and figure out which like the most important pieces to my arguments are but also i'm writing about like entire novels so it is hard to fully get all of my thoughts and arguments across because so many of them are built like a scaffolding on top of each other so it is very difficult to know where to even begin and what to cut out and like if i make this a full 30 page paper i can't then cut it down to a 15 page paper because the structure of the arguments won't work and i would have to end up rewriting the whole thing anyway so i'm trying to get it right the first time so it requires minimal editing and it is really annoying but i am at least at my minimum page limit so whatever the fuck i write now just has to be good enough to get an A on this assignment which should be easy bc i do really like everything i have so far (even if it needs a little restructuring) so i just literally have to like analyze the other text in a few pages and really condense it and write a conclusion (these are herculean tasks) and then i'll be done but that's going to take like another three fucking hours and i have no coffee and i am starting to feel the effects of sleep on my brain so genuinely just i hate everything. i even have to write another paper tomorrow which i haven't even started but thankfully that's due at midnight and it's only like four pages so i can do that pretty easily but this one is fucking killing me.

#james talks #back to writing the paper we go. #i will be so happy if i never have to analyze a Jane Austen text for a paper again bc girl there is simply so much to say

[pertinax--loculos]

2024 Goals

So, I know, I'm a little late for this given it's a solid week (or so) into the new year, but hey, better late than never, right?

My Real Life this year will primarily involve working to pass my course in order to become fully qualified in my new job. Fortunately, from about June onwards, that's going to give me a fair bit of time to work on writing, so I figured I'd try and put down some relatively specific goals regarding the WIPs I have.

My biggest issue with writing is finishing things. Since I joined writeblr, I've gone from having no WIPs in anything approaching a complete state, to three completed first drafts (Absent That Night, The Monstrosity, and Miles To Go) and one completed zero draft (Psyche Shards). That in itself in astonishing for me, but I'd also like to continue to work towards having 'publishable' (read: clean, cohesive, comprehensible) drafts. With that in mind, this year I am going to work on four projects.

Project One is going to be the Vibes WIP. This is my 'first draft' project, ie something I'm starting without a whole lot of words down. I'm also approaching it in a novel way for me (working from vibes), so it's somewhat of an experiment in that sense as well. This is the project aiming to feed my need for discovery and chucking in cool shit that occurs to me over the course of my life.

(It's also pretty heavily linked to my new job, which is part of the reason I've decided to make it a key project this year. Any luck I'll be able to twist most new ideas/inspiration to fit within the scope of what I'm writing. Plus the actual form of the WIP is experimental enough that I can probably chuck in other random inspirations as well and deal with it later.)

Project Two is Psyche Shards. I have a (pretty much) complete zero draft for this, so I'll say the aim is to finish draft 1.5. This will be another new experience, in that I'll be writing from what amounts to a detailed outline; something I've never done before. I hope it will help me to pin down a process that allows me to finish more WIPs -- if writing from the zero draft works to keep the wordcount down to something reasonable, and is faster than my normal sort of draft one, then it will help to inform how I approach WIPs from here on out.

(I should mention, regarding wordcount, that the zero draft is 27k words. Not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I am a chronic fucking overwriter. So I'm hoping that having what I need to put down in front of me will help quell that issue. There's also issues with the climax of this WIP I still need to work out, but I think beginning to draft it in earnest will be the only thing that will fully help with that.)

Project Three is Absent That Night. 🥳 I've been saying for, like, over two years now that I'm going to write a second draft of this beast, and it's becoming my white whale, so it's about time I knuckle down and give it a go. It's intimidating as fuck because of how much I need to change, but I owe it to Latrell to sort my shit out, because it's a story I would really like to tell, and I cannot write either of the two sequels I have planned if I haven't wrangled the first installment into something coherent.

Project Four is theoretical, and a project-of-grace I'm giving myself in case I'm smacked with inspiration that just won't go away. I am going to try and make this a relatively high bar, however. I have an 'inspo' document where I can jot down notes and vague ideas, and I'm going to primarily use that for new ideas. If something does persist and develops on its own without my having to take time to sit down and think about it, then I will allow my muse to take me where it will and consider it project four.

(Ideally, I'd like to close out this year without touching a Project Four. Because, as I said, my main problem is starting things and then not finishing them, and this sort of random inspiration is a key reason why that happens.)

So there it is! Three/four key projects that I would like to work on for this year. I don't yet have any dates or deadlines regarding them, because up until March work is going to take priority and I don't want to stress myself out too much with anything else going on. However, I'm hoping to do a monthly update for the start of the year letting people know where I'm at, and if/when I get properly into working on any of these projects I'll increase the frequency of updates and sharing.

Another goal I have is perpetual, which is to be more active on here. I'm working on actionable steps to make this a reality, however, and I hope that that will bear fruit. There are far too many amazing, talented people on my dash to not spend at least some time on here every week. So I apologise to people who like numbers and deadlines (I'm one of them!), but these more ambiguous goals are the way I need to be at this point, and I'm enjoying the way they're inspiring me regardless. ^_^

What are you all's goals for the new year? Feel free to let me know! I'm way behind on what everybody is doing and would love to be updated by anybody who's managed to read this far. :D

#pockets muses IWL #long post #WIP: PS #WIP: ATN #vibes WIP #writeblr #original writing #let's hope the new year inspiration continues for a while #i like having goals though so narrowing things down i hope will work for me #i also have july off so i'm sideeyeing camp nano #we will see how things are going in march #love you all! #but in all seriousness tell me how things are going #i know i dip in and out and seem very enthusiastic and then disappear for weeks at a time #but i miss you all when i do! #i miss all your projects! #i miss being here! <3

[goodluckclove]

WIP Tag Game!

Whoa tagged again by the brilliant @ivaspinoza! Check her out if you're down for what I imagine to be some intense bloodsucking existentialism!

I'll do this for all of Songbird Elegies as a whole. I'm on book two right now - Blind Trust comes out June 20th!

Read below to hear some things about the origins of the series that I haven't actually said yet and probably won't say again.

1. What was the first part of your wip that you created?

Funny story! I hadn't written anything tangible for months since leaving my terrible copyrighting job. I was absolutely miserable. I ended up leaving my second job because of a medication problem and spent a week in bed detoxing off of Seroquel withdrawal - bad bad don't do that if you can help it. After that I fell into recovery and just had no idea what to do with my days.

The turning point was when I sent an email going fully no-contact with my across-the-board abusive parents. They did some awful things across the course of my life and I'm still spending a good chunk of time making up for their ridiculous medical neglect. I might need throat surgery because of them. Not great! But anyways, I sent that email and wrote the first 15 pages of Blind Trust later that day, sitting on the floor while my wife took a nap on the couch. It just came out. Wife said they liked it so I just kept going.

Three months and two data losses later and the first draft was done!

2. If your story was a TV show, what would the theme song/intro be?

I have so many Songbird Elegy playlists oh my God. It's hard to say, and the answer will change, but right now it's "Love Me, Normally" by Will Wood.

3. Who are your favourite characters you've made? Why?

They're all very important to me for different reasons. Scott is the one I tend to talk about the most because he captures a lot of mania and upbeat romanticism, qualities of myself that I value despite the obvious faults. Edgar is just as important, but they represent a lot of my current struggles and I'm doing a lot of healing and processing through them which is good but less - you know - fun?

Tenzin reminds me of my wife with her quiet stoicism. Katy reminds me of my older sister and everything she sacrificed to keep me and my siblings alive. She's more of a mother to me than my own mother. My sister is actually the first person to finish Blind Trust after I finished it.

4. What other pieces of media do you think would share a fan base for your story?

Disco Elysium maybe? Griffin and Sabine - has anyone else read that? The Witcher, but specifically the novels? Requiem for a Dream for later books. Tales of the City in terms of tone and character focus. Fleet Foxes and Hoizer and early Decemberists?

Good, warm soup. If you like a bowl of good, warm soup, you will enjoy Songbird Elegies.

5. What has been your biggest struggle with your wip?

Definitely Edgar's arc. Their experience with their metaphorical (or are they??) inner child and the abuse they've been working to escape and recover from has been hard to look at directly. Especially once I introduced Scott's mother, who's turned into a weird mix of the maternal figure I wish I had and the one I feel I could've been if I chose that path.

Yesterday I found myself writing how I wish it went when my wife met my parents, through Scott and Edgar meeting Scott's mom. The sharing of parental pride and affection despite potential embarrassment. It's a cute scene, but there's a lot of grief in there for me. I wonder if it'll show.

6. Are there any animals in your story? Talk about them!

Wilford Brimley is Katy's pet Persian cat. He is old and weird and a little fucked up. I had to edit his introduction in Blind Trust because it was six (small) paragraphs and Wife told me that was unreasonable (skill issue), but I can include some canon info:

He shoves his paw under the bathroom door while people are in the bathroom

He likes feet

Edgar sometimes shares little bits of cheese with him

Once he fell asleep in Edgar's lap but then peed in his lap and just kept sleeping in the piss

Edgar treat him like a weird cousin he has to make conversation with during holidays

Wilford thinks he's his brother and an equally fucked up cat

7. How do your characters get around? (ex: trains, horses, cars, dragons, etc.)

Cars mostly! Edgar has a shitty used car that's always close to breaking down. Katy has a newer car that's still used, but she takes very good care of it - I think it's a Fiat. I think Tenzin probably uses the car Scott's Dad left behind after he died, which is a vintage Cadillac convertible that Scott's Mom fixed up.

Scott is the only one without a license since he essentially has a magical dissociative disorder and hasn't yet felt safe behind the wheel. In Blind Trust he's taken every form of public transit to cross the country. I think when he was younger he used to skateboard to get around Bluerose.

8. What part of your wip are you working on rn?

I'm close to 40k into book two!

9. What aspects (tropes, maybe?) of your wip do you think will draw people in?

I have hopes that people will enjoy the tenderness of it. I'm like a reverse-whump ace writer, in that I've written a series that's aggressively pro-comfort and recovery. People start off in pretty sorry states and then make the difficult effort to put themselves and each other back together.

There's explicit ace representation in Scott and aroace rep in Katy (she doesn't know it yet though shhh). Edgar comes out as Agender and changes pronouns midway into the series, but still keeps presenting as androgynous/masc leaning. There's diversity in body types and gender identities in a way that feels warranted to me - Scott has Klinefelter's and grew up taking T, and he made a best friend that came out so she could take her E with him. Same goes with disabilities in prominent characters, though the main four focus on what I have personal experience in.

As a disabled queer writer I hope to make a series that tells a fantastical story about people like me that doesn't pander specifically to my market.

10. What are your hopes for your wip?

I hope people read it. I hope they like it. It'd be cool if I could talk to people about it. I've been pretty deep in the Songbird Elegy fandom for some time now haha.

On a more serious note I hope there's a market for non-sexualized romances that are still hyper intimate. I know I'm into it but I'm still not sure if other people are. I'd like to create more media about positive and fulfilling ace relationships, both romantic and platonic. I'm tired of people seeing that type of life as a loss. Any healthy companionship is not a loss.

I want people to read Songbird Elegies and think about the love in their lives and in themselves. All of it, in every way. Yeah.

I tag @ryns-ramblings! I wanna hear about your thing!

#writers on tumblr #writeblr #writing community #blind trust #writing #on writing #migration patterns #queer writers #agender #asexuality #songbird elegies #authors of tumblr

[delistravaganza]

Enemies to lovers is pretty much my go-to wlw trope. I find that childhood friends to enemies to lovers often works even better because they have a history.

Still, I have found few examples of "true" wlw enemies to lovers in series, much less in books. I have found many "don't like you much", "been a moron to me several times", "academic rivals" and even "on opposite sides of a universe-threatening war", but neither of these necessarily equate enemies.

I know that fanfiction does this trope better because it relies on what you know about the characters and their shared history, but I'm starting to wonder whether there's some kind of animosity between the trope and writing exclusively about women (or girls). It's like the phase of pure hate is never fully realized. Why? I mean, we have all these memes about women's resentment being eternal, about women's endless state of competition against other women, and then we can't have new media where the characters genuinely hate each other's guts for a while before becoming all soft?

I've found the trope to be generally better executed in mlm media (and fanfiction of course!). Sadly enemies to lovers isn't usually my cup of tea when it comes to mlm, as I favor the more tender friends to lovers trope. It's just a preference and I guess it's simply because I tend to prefer my women feral and my men soft.

As for m/f, I haven't found any enemies to lovers storyline that I was excited about in modern media. Straight enemies to lovers seems to me the most lazily executed trope ever, and it's usually just an excuse for the guy to act like a jerk. I once stumbled across a Reylo fic right after TFA and I was mildly interested in the idea, so I started reading it. It was only after some chapters that I realized that Kylo Ren had already raped Rey, threatened her and turned her into some kind of trophy wife that I understood what kind of story I was reading. I realized that, for many readers, that was what m/f enemies to lovers was about. Really fucked me up in the head, and I read lots of very fucked up stuff. But it was the fact that this story seemed to be so innocent and was virtually clueless about its message what really got to me.

The only m/f enemies to lovers that I have liked have been those in classic novels, such as Pride and Prejudice or Wuthering Heights, though arguably those aren't enemies either or aren't a romance per se. Might also be the reason why I tend not to identify with any lesbian novels unless they're not a romance per se or they're not overtly lesbian (covertly lesbian I'm an expert of).

I just don't see myself in contemporary lesbian romance books. And I find it weird that I identify more with Catradora or Caitvi, or even any cheap m/m vampire/werewolf book, than with situations I have also experienced and been a part of. It's like - it's all dumbed down, it's watered down. Not all of them, of course, but it's like the world is way more dangerous in my experience, romance has sharp edges to it, pain is often difficult to overcome, there are many shades of you that you still don't know about, and these books aren't even giving me female characters that are fleshed out to begin with.

Just a rant, just my experience, and just a bit sad that I can almost never join in the excitement of ooooh check out this new lesbian couple on this series because I dngf about them, they're barely characters to me and to the screenwriters, and I dngf about girls getting kissy and huggy without any depth to it.

#personal #tropes #enemies to lovers #fanfiction #books #lesbian #tv shows #wlw

[bropunzeling]

Director's commentary, anything from mattdrai soulmate AU (or future snippets!)

hello anon! gosh it's been a while since ive looked at this one; here's the early section where they are in germany and going for a little walk:

Leon harries Matthew until they’re both dressed and ready to go, grabbing a spare key from the table in the hall. The weather outside, once they get there, isn’t too bad; it’s a little brisk, but nothing that either of them can’t handle compared to an Alberta spring. Matthew still looks shivery, though, hands tucked into his sweatshirt pocket and head bowed. [poor bondsick matthew! in all seriousness figuring out how to portray bondsickness was honestly really fun - just being a pathetic lil mess until someone touches you. idk if i ever said so explicitly in the fic/fully committed, but in my head/memory as of now, i think it's one of those things that is not so much caused by physical distance but by emotional distance. they haven't figured out/reconciled their feelings = you get sick. leon leaving was just a triggering event. but the beauty of never saying so explicitly is i can't get it wrong either way lmao.]

“Hey,” Leon says, bumping Matthew with his elbow until Matthew looks up. “You okay?” he asks, feeling like a broken record, but there’s not—what else is he supposed to do? [leon just actively flailing throughout the whole of the 2022 sections was also fun. he's a demonstrative guy but it's hard to be demonstrative when you don't have a clear sense of what either of you want. also, he is not yet willing to internally acknowledge how important matthew is to him, so he's just gonna... kinda suck at it.]

“Yeah,” Matthew says flatly. There’s big purple circles under his eyes. It makes Leon think again about how badly Matthew’s taking it, much worse than how Leon’s doing. Sure, he supposes he didn’t feel great for the twenty hours they were separated by an ocean, but he also didn’t look like he’d been run over by a zamboni. [bc you are not in emotional turmoil my guy]

Leon knows, at this point, that he should know better, but he’s still not sure how exactly all of this works. Bond-sickness is a thing from romance novels and weepy made-for-TV movies, not for a couple of hockey players who are regularly a continent apart. [again because it's an emotional thing, and leon isnt ready to clue into the emotional aspects of their relationship - purposefully oblivious] Leon leaving shouldn’t have done anything, he’s pretty sure. What difference would the Atlantic make, compared to North America? [bc you ~left~ him/aren't easily accessible anymore!]

Besides, in every depiction of bond-sickness he’s seen—which was mostly the one movie Kim watched on repeat when she was thirteen, some weepfest based on a Nicholas Sparks novel that Leon got so sick of he threatened to snap the DVD in half [my favorite thing about writing aus is figuring out alternate media for aus. i love a shitty reality tv concept. i love a bad romance novel. i love an ed sheeran ballad. it's the most fun part and also is such an easy way to add color and a sense of heft to your world building.]—it always happens to both sides of the bond. He’s pretty sure that if Matthew’s sick, he should be too, or else neither of them should be. [more hinting at one-sidedness] Which—that’s something he’s not sure he wants to interrogate too closely.

“Here,” Leon says finally, pulling at Matthew’s arm until he finally manages to get at Matthew’s hand. “Let me just—”

The second his fingers wrap around Matthew’s, Leon has a sensation of realignment, like one of his joints has eased back into place. Matthew starts to look more alive, color returning to his face as he sighs with relief. It’s kind of fucked up, how much touching makes things better, but it’s kind of cool, too, that this is all it takes. [one of my fave lines! (a) i think that would be the appeal of a thing like a bond to me, that you can make each other feel better and (b) i like it as an unconscious acknowledgement on leon's part that he wants matthew to feel better. he gives a shit! it isn't really platonic anymore even if he can't see that or admit it]

“This okay?” Leon asks, darting a glance at Matthew before looking down the street.

“Yeah,” Matthew says, fingers squeezing once. “I mean—if you don’t mind.”

“Whatever will help,” Leon says, more sincerely than he means to.

Leon started their walk without any destination in mind, but it isn’t far from his parents’ new house to the west bank of the Rhine. Once they get to the river, they stop, looking out at the Rodenkirchen bridge, huge and coppery green; the trees dotting the riverbank on the opposite side; the water reflecting the bridge as it flows north. There are ducklings following their parents down through the current, people walking past with dogs and strollers or only themselves. It’s peaceful to be around other people, to hear pieces of their conversation and the rush of the river and Matthew’s steps in time with his own. [i never made it to cologne but it looks really gorgeous in pictures! love a big bridge by the river. fixes me every time]

He wonders what it’s like for Matthew, somewhere unfamiliar, where not even the background noise is the same. [there's a thing about this that like, is tricky to articulate but i'll do my best lol - when they were both in alberta, they were both far from/couldn't always go home, which is a theme i find compelling (see marriage bets) but leon is obviously more separated. and during the 2022 sections of the fic, it was fun to explore matthew as the one far from home, in an unfamiliar environment, with leon as the one fixed point. idk! it's a fun theme.]

“Want to go farther?” he offers, tugging their hands towards the river. “Not too bad right now.”

Matthew nods, fingers tightening around Leon’s. “Sure,” he says. “If you want to.”

“Yeah,” Leon says. Now that he’s looking at Matthew, it’s like he’s gotten stuck, gaze snagged on Matthew’s eyes, as clear and blue as the spring sky. [ur in love with him. hope that helps.] He has to blink hard before he can look away, back to the tree-lined path and the river ahead. “Yeah, I want to.”

They spend another half an hour walking down the river and back, until it’s too cold to continue. [i just love a romantic walk!] Then they turn down into the neighborhood, wandering streets that should be more familiar to Leon than they are. [another bit of that far from home theme; what even is home in the first place if you've spent your adult life somewhere else?] Eventually they find a café and Leon gets them coffee, more to warm their hands more than anything else. Matthew stumbles through a “Danke schön” when he takes his.

“Did you practice or something?” Leon asks, raising his eyebrows.

The tips of Matthew’s ears flush, [he has been practicing for at minimum six months and at least a year. maybe started during those summer calls. he has an irrational hatred for the duolingo owl] and he takes a long sip of coffee. Leon decides not to push. It’s just—unexpected, is all.

Eventually they find their way back to the right street. Matthew’s shivering again. Leon should’ve given him one of his heavier jackets; they’re close enough to the same size. [them being the same build is important and sexy to me] He’ll remember next time.

“You good?” he asks again.

Matthew nods, takes another sip of coffee. “This is strong,” he says, narrowing his eyes.

“I’ve been telling you, your coffee is shit,” Leon says easily, accepting the misdirection. [european coffee just is better. alas.]

“Just because you’re a snob,” Matthew retorts, and they’re back to not quite normal, but closer. When Matthew nearly shoves him off the sidewalk mid-argument, it’s practically a relief. [they will always be a little bit butting heads but in a fun flirty way :)]

#ask meme #soulbond au

[juspeczyk]

btw since this is My HouseTM here's a list of blorbos from my brain. i've been burnt the fuck out on art this year but by god these ocs are still kicking and someday i'll make more art about them. pwease do send me asks or something about them cause i really would love to make stuff for them i just don't have the executive function to decide what rn

fantasy daydreaming child -> fantasy ttrpg adult pipeline. polycule of magical girl superheroes in college + their social circle. main cast is siobhan-therese (goth, english major), talia (jock, journalism and/or sports medicine), drew (alt girl, taking a gap year), and rowan (granola girl, probably majoring in environmental science or something that will save the earth). the main four are a magical girl group who have to balance saving the world with college and 20something social dramas. also features lilah (siobhan-therese and talia's ex who is a total mean girl but still secretly has feelings for them both), wyllow (an even alt-er alt girl who is drew's "apprentice" but nobody really knows what that means), syd (lichrally just sidney from scream, she got adopted by the group because they were like oh she is such a poor little meow meow) and talia's younger sister who i haven't decided on a name for yet.

superhero universe that started as a chemistry project when i was in high school where we had to like, anthropomorphize a certain element in order to learn about the periodic table, so of COURSE i made it gay and comics. includes the above magical girls and another group of supers in college, except these ones are more sciencey. main character is nicki walton (can change her flesh into a superdense metallic substance, kind of like how emma frost can become a diamond) and her co-supers valentina foster-nguyen (half alien, can shoot sparkle rays and stuff), basira baz/the all-seeing girl (psychic/teleporter), silver star (haven't decided on a name yet, he's basically ghost rider but a cowboy instead of a biker), and liz doe (ghost girl who is also a toxic slime girl, can become intangible like kitty pryde, started as a villain but turned good cause she fell in love with nicki). she has a whole rogues gallery but the main villain is adam huxley, nicki's old lab partner who tried to kill her but instead gave her superpowers.

juno and milos. started as a college project in my comics class and has never left. root of my dnd homebrew world. she's a hunter turned knight, he's a cursed prince, they're in love, she kills his dad, it's a whole thing. i am perpetually trying to write a graphic novel about it.

gary stu vamp boy. his name is matthew monroe and he used to be vegan 😔 he got briefly mildly famous for accidentally filming his own attack where he was "mauled by a rabid dog", then "mistakenly" pronounced dead and buried "alive", then managed to crawl out of his own grave. he now works as the night manager of the local video store and has a big fixer-upper house where all the local cryptids crash. his best friend is a butch werewolf.

edmund fredericks. he's definitely not an axe murderer! probably exists as a historical figure in matthew's universe.

colette coupe. caricature of evil french ladies. eviscerated her husband but he managed to slit her throat before fully dying and now they're both ghosts who thrive on drama. somehow they ended up in matthew's house (idk cursed item or something) and they all despise each other.

#piri oc #piri.txt #this does not include my rpg ocs or dc takes cause those are in different universes ofc. these guys are all mostly in the same universe :3c #juno and milos' world/my dnd homebrew world exists as a monthly comic in the vampire/superhero/etc. extended universe #i don't know if the superheroes and cryptids are in the same universe or if the superheroes exist as a comic there too 🤔

[gwenthebard]

I think one of my favorite bits of writing advice/observation is "you can't parody or satire something unless you like the genre" and I love that, but also I feel like an additional step is "you can't copy the charm of something unless you love the original for what it is"

Because honestly I was thinking about it, and like, fully honestly? I think a lot of modern media does run into this problem. Where a work will say "I want to be X but unproblematic" and you end up with all the workings of that piece of media, but missing a charm

One of my favorite examples is Warhammer, because I think a lot of stuff is like "I want to be Warhammer, but I don't want it to be problematic", and you end up with something that maybe has the dressings of it but has none of the feel. Locked Tomb is one of the only ones I think said anything close to "I want to be Warhammer, but I don't want the problematic aspects" and still managed to keep the feel and I'm not sure if that was purposeful

Fantasy you run into a lot of stuff that wants to be that golden age of cheap fantasy novels, but doesn't want a character to be evil for anything more than either capitalism/feudalism/misunderstanding, or it'll just have a villain tick every single evil box without even a fun personality

Sci-Fi you see a lot that wants to be Dune or Mass Effect or Star Wars, and explore social issues or have deep stories about points, but ends up with a lot of the same issues as Fantasy

Romance you have a lot of novels obviously written by people who WANT to do old oil painted bodice rippers, and have the trappings of one, but don't want to write a problematic relationship. So you usually still end up with a problematic relationship, but the book goes out of its way to keep it in a gray area of audience and doesn't push that far

Horror I feel like I don't enjoy a lot of modern stuff in, because I feel like not enough horror says "wouldn't that be fucked up" as its first thing. A lot of horror and Dystopian stuff feels like it looks at old aspects held up as metaphors for societal issues, and starts at that.

The horror stuff you tend to get a lot of blatant points where the metaphor is almost nonexistent its so clear, and doesn't want the horror to be too horrifying. There's almost a sense of "these are people who grew up or were influenced by horror writing and movies of the 90s and 00s who thought it was just gross and didn't have a purpose", and fight their own writing to keep a lot of that out of it

Dystopian stuff I lump in here, but mostly because I think it has similar problems. It feels like most dystopian stuff heard Fahrenheit 451 was was about censorship, never heard about the stuff about TVs connected to it, and thought dystopian was supposed to be that blatant. Like, the trope of "World but X is controlled or banned by government, and everything revolves around that" was already a joke when I was in middle school

This isn't to say I don't like modern stuff, I still like a lot of things I read and get recommended or at least hear about and haven't got around to checking out. This is more just "I feel like this is a problem weirdly unique to modern media"

There was a lot of bad writing in the past, but I think there's something interesting in how a lot of bad writing in the modern day is bad because it's not sure of what the charm is of what they're trying to cover. It might like the aesthetic, and it might like the media even, but it's missing a core. Usually it ends up almost feeling good, but like it's not sure if it wants to be safe and simple or dark and morally gray.

IDK, this was a long rant because I was thinking of my own writing, and what I liked about it and what I didn't, and I thought about this connecting to a wider feeling I had about a lot of media. That like there's been a good understanding of "it was bad this was normalized and we need to fix it," and there's some understanding of why stuff was good, but there's a desire to only copy the aesthetic and complexities are inevitably forgotten.

A lot of people want to write 90s horror novel, 50s dystopian, oil painting bodice ripper, mass market fantasy novel, galaxy spanning space epic, and they want to make it leftist and queer, I want to do that with a lot of things. But I feel like in trying to remove issues of those old examples, real and perceived, they inevitably remove what made them work. You can't write a kidnapped fantasy romance and have the relationship be 90% healthy, you can't write a psychological horror and have the main characters be perfectly normal, a 90s mass market fantasy where the societies are unproblematic and fair

This didn't really have much point but me rambling to myself, so I'm just holding it off here and hoping at some point I made sense and this wasn't just a series of unconnected thoughts poorly explained

[elean0rarose]

🌈🎮💯 for any character you please :)

From this ask game

Thank you for the question, and I'm sorry it's taken me so long to get to it!

I'll answer all for Blood and Water, as these are the most fleshed-out characters.

🌈 RAINBOW — what is your oc's sexual orientation/gender identity? what pronouns do they use?

All my characters in every story I write are some flavour queer unless otherwise stated.

Braddik is a gay cis man

Elenia is a cis lesbian

Retruk is an asexual agender person (well, goblins don't really have any concept of gender so saying "agender" is still kind of... not really the case because it still presupposes a system of gender that just makes zero sense to the orcish, but that's as close as we'd get to it in our language)

🎮 VIDEO GAME CONTROLLER — what are three of your oc's favorite hobbies?

Oooh good question! I had never thought of this.

Braddik is a nerd so his main hobby is working on smithing projects but for himself. His magical ability is also to always make tasty food no matter what shit ingredients he has to cook with, so this is something he enjoys, too

Elenia would probably secretly write beautiful romantic poems but would likely not mention this to anyone, although she'd fully own it if they found out

Retruk's is also cooking, although they don't have the magical power Braddik does (theirs are much more flashy). Retruk is very nurturing so I feel this makes sense for them

💯 HUNDRED POINTS SYMBOL — share three random facts about your oc that others may not know.

I'll do this for Braddik alone; otherwise, this post will get long. Some of these facts become apparent in the novel's prose but haven't been shared in much detail at all on here.

He has paranoia—and not in the sense of anxiety, as in actual psychosis

He can't grow a beard—odd for a dwarf

He's scared of spiders, which is a problem for someone who lives underground as Dwarfesbörg is fucking full of 'em. It's like Australia down there

#noblebs #eleanora explans olrion #ask games

[paused-waterfall]

Care to tell more about what you think of the plot and characters to the dsmp? Which ideas you enjoy and don't? It's super interesting since I was there during the hype and it sucks that the whole thing seemed to crash in and burn (at least in my eyes). At least a few CCS got to end their characters how they wanted too

Ah man, the plot and characters. First, a caveat: My thorough watch-through hasn't yet reached the conclusion of many of the characters, so I can't properly speak to that. I've encountered plenty of warning signs of controversial and stunted conclusions, so that has been my expectation from the start. With that hanging ominously over our heads, here are some of my thoughts on the rest:

Despite its overt absurdity, the plot of the dsmp feels more like a history book than a novel. In your prototypical novel, one author is really just trying to tell one story. They will cut scenes that don't add to that core story, and simplify their work if they're afraid their audience might get lost in the weeds. Background characters, in particular, get cut down to only existing as the minimally adorned cogs needed to complete the mechanisms of the plot.

In the dsmp, damn near every character is fleshed out by a whole human who is specifically invested in that character. A creator might only play a small part in a given storyline, and any individual viewer might have a complete blindspot for a given character. But there's still a whole person sitting behind every username, monitoring (and sometimes, experiencing) their motivations in real time.

And this lets them do weird shit with their characters. Authors need to keep their whole cast in their head and keep them on the rails well enough that there aren't any unexpected crashes. The creators on the server generally don't bother with this. I haven't gone out of my way to peel back the curtains of the server's writing process -- curtains can hide horrors, I don't touch curtains until I'm ready to flee -- but I have the impression that pivotal characters in pivotal scenes have beats to hit and maybe some scripted lines. Meanwhile, the rest of the players seem to be set loose to do whatever fits their concept of their character, with only minimal guardrails in place to prevent an accidental derailment of the core plot of the day. Nobody looks like a cardboard cutout who is just there to play Shocked Man #3. Even players who are not deeply invested in the roleplay have comprehensible motives, because they seem to mostly be there to just play some goddamn Minecraft. Hey, that's a game I've played! They want to build a nice house and maybe find some netherite -- I know what that feels like!

No viewer can follow all of the uncurated knot of plotlines that make up the dsmp. But I find it so satisfying that any thread I choose to pull on is likely to reveal an earnest line of character motivation. When I complete a novel and want to know more about a character, the best I can hope for is that the author happened to have the same thought and is willing to act on it. When I finished watching the Blueberry TV cut of Doomsday and wondered what the fuck Ranboo's deal was, I was able to dig up VODs and see it all first hand. Plenty of plotlines are cut short and plenty of perspectives have been deleted, but on some level these flaws in basic storytelling are a rarely explored reflection of the real world. Because history is not a streamlined novel. No history book can fully encapsulate the events it portrays, but we know that every character contained within it has their own perspective, and that every thread in the knot can be pulled on further if we're just lucky enough to have not lost the information to time.

There are, of course, a ridiculous number of downsides to this approach to storytelling. But, since this is my first time encountering this specific type of narrative, to me they are new and interesting downsides. Flaws that haven't yet dug grooves into my patience. I'm quite eager to see artists build on this example, wrestle with those flaws, and either find solutions or find some other approach that's even better.

I've somehow rambled for 6 paragraphs and barely touched on any specific character and story beats, but I better cut myself off here for now. If you want more of a rundown of notable design choices, I could certainly be baited into more of that lol.

#dsmp