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onyx-archer · 1 year

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A Follow-Up Post About Stringbean (Sort Of)

Well, I didn’t expect my first real post on Tumblr in... *checks notes* about 4 years (that wasn’t just OC art related stuff) to get any steam, but it’s doing pretty okay. Probably because it’s about The Owl House, but hey, so far (at time of writing), nobody has said my take is bad or anything. I look forward to eventually seeing that, but until then, I wanted to make a follow-up post to address Stringbean’s role in the story, and why it’s one of the few things that I was disappointed by in the specials. Spoilers will be discussed here, much like the last post, but I’ll put it under the cut as per usual.

So... Stringbean. If there are any specific things that I can point at and say “the cuts really hurt this,” Stringbean would be one of them. In fact, of the things cut, Stringbean is the biggest casualty of Disney’s Apple Blood fueled bender. The Collector and Hunter are the other big two casualties, as far as characters are concerned, and the stuff involving the Human Realm is the biggest bit of the story next to Luz’s Palisman as far as I’m concerned. I might make a post about Hunter in the future, since he’s a topic I have a lot of thoughts about too, but that will have to wait. If people actually want to hear my thoughts, then by all means, let me know.

Now, before I get too deep into this, I want to address the Owlbeast in the room: I’m speaking from a place that involves a great deal of speculation on my behalf, and unless Dana reads these posts and tells me I’m right, take stuff I’m saying with the appropriate amount of salt you deem necessary. Obviously, when talking about a character or plot element that had it’s potential affected by the powers that be in a negative way, you can only really speculate on these things. I’m looking at how things could have been in relation to how they are, and I’m far from an authority on the subject of the story of The Owl House.

Stringbean, as previously mentioned, is a plot element that I feel was cut off at the knees when the show got cancelled prematurely, and naturally didn’t have the most room to breathe as far as plot is concerned. It’s clear that she, much like Hooty’s Origin Episode (which we know was a thing Dana and the TOH crew wanted to do) was more or less cut. I say it that way because of the imagery within The Titan’s eye in the realm in-between seems to imply Hooty was a creation of the Titan, and Stringbean DID appear, albeit in a functionally neutered form. This is basically how most plot/character threads that could have gone somewhere that were set up in Season 2A ended up by the end.

As stated in my previous post, I firmly believe that the early stages of Season 2 (i.e. most, if not all of the first half) were written back when the show got greenlit for a second season. A lot of media, especially cartoons, have a long period of preproduction before we hear so much as a peep from the creative team or the production house reveal that stuff to the general public. Cartoons in particular generally have a long creation pipeline. Unless you’re South Park, you typically can’t get away with lackluster writing. Disney, being one of the cornerstones of animation, likely has tight production schedules, but they’re likely still at least 6-9 months on the low end.

Dana has said that she was just told one day, likely weeks after it was decided, that the show was getting cancelled. I’d hazard a guess and assume that she and her writing team for the show had already submitted plot outlines and basic script stuff for approval for early episodes of Season 2, up to a certain point. I believe this to be the case because Standards & Practices are pretty quick to demand rewrites and the like, as seen with Alex Hirsch’s little montage of actual things they told him to change on Twitter on Gravity Falls’ 10 year anniversary.

That’s the thing with creative projects where you have to answer to a studio with investors: you have to do what they say, and while you can fight certain decisions, you’re ultimately not in charge of your own creation from a business angle. This isn’t always a bad thing, but it largely depends on the state of a show. This can ultimately save a show from having a terrible conclusion, or it can highlight just how little the team had left in the tank (see Star Vs.). Either way, you are beholden to people who are largely not creative types, and are more about doing smart business. Whether or not the business decisions they make are actually smart or not is irrelevant, as the intention is doing right by the company’s pocketbook.

Now, none of this is to say that I’m gonna kiss Disney’s ass and say that Dana should have planned things better just in case the show got cancelled, because that’s often not how I think creative people think. It’s my belief that if you get a single season, or even a single movie, to make what you want to make, you’re going to do your best to have everything fit within that timeframe, and you’ll kill your darlings more liberally because you want to make the best possible representation of your vision within that limited amount of “space.” When you get greenlit for more though, you start thinking about those ideas that you had to push to the side, and you want to do more with them. You then start thinking in a more “long-term” sort of way, insofar that you’re thinking with what I like to call “trilogy brain.”

I think this is something that is born from how a lot of stories tend to have conventional 3 Act Structures, and seeing a trilogy of things rather than a duology slots into that part of your brain that recognizes the 3 Act Structure. It’s one of those “you may not have noticed it, but your brain did” kind of things. That why I firmly believe that if you’re greenlit for a second season, and you have the ideas for more story beyond the first season, you immediately push for a third season before you so much as lift a finger for season 2. This way you can fulfill the feeling of a 3 Act Structure, and you get room to tell your more complex ideas. Don’t push your luck beyond 3 seasons though.

“Well Onyx, that’s all well and good, but how exactly does this relate to Stringbean?”

Simply put, I believe Stringbean is one of those things that was written before the cancellation was finalized that was set up and needed to be resolved in some capacity, even if not the way that Dana wanted, because the set up was likely already approved. I feel this because Season 2A and Season 2B feel like they were written with two different mindsets: 2A is pre-cancellation, 2B is post-cancellation. While they could certainly edit parts of the plot for 2A to minimize the damage dealt by a cancellation, it seems pretty likely to me that some things just couldn’t be cut out without pissing off the fans. It was a very “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” sort of things.

Stringbean’s eventual existence ties into Luz’s growth as a Witch, and the idea that Witches earn their magic staffs (aka their Palismans) when they are “ready,” which presumably refers to a point of magical maturity or something to that effect. Eda directly says that Luz will earn her staff one day, and that was enough to get people thinking about Luz earning her staff. It’s kind of like how Hunter appearing in “Young Blood, Old Souls” was written before the team even knew they were cancelled. That episode was already in the can by then after all. They couldn’t just not use him going forward. Yeah, they could have downplayed the role in his case, but the fact that they didn’t tells me that Season 2A was written without the knowledge of that cancellation in mind, and by the time they knew that was a thing, they’d likely already been greenlit to start production with what they had, and could only make minimal changes to reflect the truncated run time.

Stringbean’s role is very clearly trimmed down to the bare minimum, and you need only look at how Stringbean is used in the episode following her debut (aka, the finale of the series) to see what I mean. Her impact on the story had served what little purpose was left after the cuts in “For The Future,” as I have to assume that Titan Luz was something that was planned for the finale before the cuts. I imagine elements of the Titan form date back to early planning for the series, and were considered the logical endpoint for the way Glyphs work lore-wise.

Now, I want to briefly explain why, in my last post, I think that Stringbean would have been used in a more climactic moment than what we got in “For The Future,” had the series not been cancelled too soon. Or rather, I want to address a misunderstanding caused by that thought. As stated near the beginning of this post, I was speaking from the stand point of what I assume would have been the case, based on my reading of the way the series was set up versus how it ended up because of the cuts. I don’t think we would have gotten “For The Future” had the cuts not been made. Maybe we would have had an episode by that name, sure, but the events of Season 3 are very clearly speedrunning through things to make the best possible end product within the very tight restrictions born from the circumstances of the show’s cancellation.

As said earlier, I think that Season 2A and Season 2B were written largely pre-cancellation and post-cancellation respectively, so the story we got in Season 2B is likely a truncated version of what we were going to get had we got a proper Season 3. They had to make the best of a bad situation, rather than continue on like nothing changed and hope Disney would change their mind. Otherwise, The Owl House very well could have ended on the same sour note that Star Vs. did, and it would have likely stung more than that show’s ending did due to how much better a show The Owl House is considered to be when compared to Star Vs. I obviously don’t much care for that show, but I’m sure even the most devout fan of Star would tell you the show lost it’s spark somewhere along the way.

Stringbean’s execution very much feels like they planned to have the reveal likely serve as the Season 2 finale or even the mid-season finale for Season 3, had we got the story as the team likely intended when stuff like Eda’s mention of Luz being able to earn her staff one day, or when Luz got her piece of Palistrom Wood in “Hunting Palisman.” Otherwise, Luz could have just gotten a Palisman in that episode. It very clearly was something that was written before the cuts, and couldn’t just be swept to the side either. If they scrapped that part of the episode, then Luz would have been better off adopting a Palisman like everyone else. If they didn’t, but then act like Luz never got the piece of Palistrom, the audience would be like “hey, wait, why hasn’t Luz carved her Palisman yet?” Likely, as a result of the cuts, they were stuck in a tricky situation, and ultimately decided to go with what we got because at least then we’d get something rather than nothing.

The reason I suggested adding the idea of Luz and her Father coming up with the idea of a Snakeshifter together was, in part, to give Stringbean’s debut an extra layer of emotional depth. It’d do more to make the best out of what we got, it would have potentially had Camila’s words about understanding her daughter mean more, and it would give the mention of Luz’s dad being dead more narrative and emotional impact. Of course, I’d ideally prefer this to be part of a more fleshed out Season 3, and a less truncated Season 2B, but that’s what fanfiction is for.

Anyway, I spent a lot of this post talking about industry stuff, and less about Stringbean, but to be fair, the industry stuff is why I feel Stringbean was narratively kneecapped. Anyway, as always, feel free to let me know what you think. You can reblog it without writing that stuff in the tags if you want by the way.

#The Owl House #TOH Analysis #The Owl House Spoilers #Stringbean #the owl house analysis #TOH #Talking about the cancellation #How the cancellation affected the show #Long Post #TOH Spoilers

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asachuu · 8 months

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Alright, BSD/AO3-related “confession” time, although this shouldn’t have really become a confession.

While my works over on AO3 are occasionally quite dark, the full extent of which is entirely subjective, yet still one I could describe as such objectively, I do sometimes try to water a lot of it down out of fear I’m starting to sound “edgy for the sake of it”, as nonsensical as I personally find that description. Though I’m aware the thought process goes against what I personally believe on these matters, I still don’t want anyone to look at anything I write and assume it’s nothing but a mindless pile of brutality treated without proper seriousness and/or something to exaggerate for “no real reason”, and I often find myself worrying whether or not it’ll come off as such, even though I understand each author has their own visions and motives, me included, and not everyone will assume those correctly, nor will people ever universally agree on them, enjoy the content or even have the willingness to accept the mere existence of art that isn’t pure or sanitized, therefore one shouldn’t feel anxious over this when nobody owes any sort of explanation or justification for their creations to strangers anyway, but…let’s just say I’m still trying to get past that. Unfortunately, I suppose spending too much time around audiences who consider going into any type of ever-so-slightly darker territory in one’s works as an act only terrible, cruel individuals would do may have had its long-lasting effects…but I digress.

There was one work which was initially meant to be entirely unfiltered, “uncensored”, if I should say so, and that work was meant to be what would eventually become both A Second Chance and No Retakes, given the two are merely two varying iterations of an alternate universe I wanted to create for the ship I’m writing about. I suppose it’s the third, never spoken about version of it, and although there are four to five total versions as of today, this one in particular had almost made it through, had I not completely washed everything I were to include away just a few days before I got to writing my “first” fic. In fact, it was precisely the fully clean version which became A Second Chance; the series is essentially only different in its beginning, past and subsequently the way said past would affect what was happening, yet the more general events stayed intact, unlike No Retakes which is still not being too truthful to its original introductory disclaimer as of the last update.

Now, I felt like I had to tidy this one up, and if I am to be honest, it was mainly thanks to my only “enthusiastic” audience at the time always focusing on any sadder element of my writing and pinpointing how much it ruined the whole work, which was…a rather demotivating experience, aside from all else I could say about it. Considering this was a work I would be posting publicly with the intention of actually having others see it and associate it with this chain of accounts instead of someone’s random throwaway I could just ditch at any time, and not only that, this would also be something of great personal importance to me, I didn’t want to discard what I assumed to be my only chance at making something I could look back and be satisfied with. There is certainly far more to this story, but all that is to say, I didn’t want— and frankly couldn’t even afford— this to be dismissed as someone’s “horrible” work with such “unnecessary cruelty” in it, or however else it would have been described.

Even after a long time, after I had started publishing far more “risky” things, such as my whole Rimlaine-related series, and detached myself as much as possible from an audience which would ultimately never find any enjoyment in what I actually wished to be creating and would only serve to bring me down or make me dislike my own content, there was one thing I didn’t change my mind on, and that was feeling as though I still wouldn’t have been able to write the original concept of the ChuuArt series/fic/etc. I had in mind, even after everything I had written by that point and even after many chapters of No Retakes. In fact, I changed my mind a mere four weeks ago, which is the only reason I’m writing this.

If you’ve never heard me describe what the original consisted of, I’ll have to slightly disappoint you this time as I definitely don’t have enough confidence to actually state what it could have been, but as is probably very obvious, it wasn’t for the faint-hearted. I feel as though it’s no exaggeration if I say it was far more dark than every single Rimlaine fic I have ever written combined. I don’t believe I ever considered it “unreasonable” or any other such descriptor, not even when I was too afraid to write it, though— in truth, I sincerely believe both A Second Chance and No Retakes are extremely unrealistic and don’t represent practically anything I had been envisioning. Right now, I’ve decided to see if it’s possible for me to rework the outlines for the latter as it’s obviously very far from done and nobody apart from me would know what the original was meant to be, steering it a little bit closer to its long-lost predecessors, but even if I do manage to pull this off, the concept has been lost from the very beginning, and nothing can replicate it unless I somehow wholeheartedly try to overwrite people’s memories.

Of course, not stating it directly doesn’t mean I can’t imply it, and I will have to, just for the sake of what I’m trying to get at. The initial premise was always having Arthur survive the events of Fifteen, that much is obvious, and while there is one other version of the AU in which he survives on his own accord without any interference from the Port Mafia, the rest of them did require him to fall into the organization’s hands. Now, here is where I feel like ASC/NR completely fail at being anyhow logical, and this has hit me more than ever recently, though I’ll explain why afterwards, despite being somewhat confident that you could figure it out even without my input from here.

Naturally, there is absolutely no reason for Arthur to have been entirely safe and intact until meeting Chuuya in any iteration (…maybe aside from that one exception, but I think you’ll get what I mean more specifically), and no horrible living conditions I place him in are even remotely comparable to what I believe an organization such as the Port Mafia would do to a traitor if he were to be kept alive for any reason instead of immediately assassinated, as implied in Fifteen. I will give off somewhat plot-important spoilers here for No Retakes, so please beware, but NR tries to give some flimsy reasoning for this as I seemed to have become more and more self-aware of it while writing the initial outlines— I thought that perhaps, if Arthur regained his memories and could have potentially held some valuable information about other organizations, it would have made sense to try and keep him alive and well, and while it would have definitely been more straightforward for any PM member to just…let’s say…“standard-mafia-procedure” the information out of him, nobody would have had any reason to do that if he’d either been completely unconscious or he forgot everything again, right…? And one more “spoiler”, although it’s been slightly hinted at in the fic itself already and I heavily regret giving it such little relevance— even that much didn’t sit right with me, so he doesn’t escape entirely unscathed, but nonetheless, all of it is extremely tame, in my opinion. (Spoilers end) It feels more like a last resort to attain more realism points which simply aren’t really there, or so I believe.

The original, however, went all-out with this “realism” I so speak of, and I’ll just say that every variation of this AU has a five year gap between Fifteen and its present at the very least, but in both I’ve written about so far, Arthur isn’t particularly conscious for any of those five or more years. In that version, for one reason or another that hasn’t been properly worked on before being discarded and turned into one of the newer ideas, he’d been reluctantly kept alive, but not a soul would have given him the luxury of just leaving him be for ages until he would have most likely rotted away like in ASC, or until he’d woken up again like in NR. I believe everyone can have their own interpretation of my words here as I don’t even know how I would type this out in the first place, but essentially, at that point, Chuuya wouldn’t have simply carried him away for the sake of it or been tasked to watch over him, it’d be more of him just outright saving whatever was left of his life. I’m sure that anything one could imagine here would also lead to an obvious difference between how this AU’s Arthur would act, as opposed to both AU versions of him currently existing, yet to write all that simply felt…wrong. Not wrong because it didn’t make sense and felt like a pointless gore fest— the complete opposite, actually, but wrong as in, according to my mind and my mind only, something “too dark for AO3” or the BSD fandom as a whole. I probably would have had the tendency to overdescribe it as well instead of letting the reader make up their own mind, which would have added onto that factor, and I was too worried to even dare venturing there. Some of it certainly also had to do with fearing I wouldn’t be able to pull it off as a more amateurish writer, but it wasn’t the main driving force.

Now, anyone could sit here and tell me that my reason was complete bullshit, and I can’t believe I’ve only arrived to this conclusion myself so late. What led me to it, you may ask? Simple— Bungou Stray Dogs itself.

I’ve drafted this very post those four weeks ago when I changed my thoughts on these matters and just edited it to make it fit recent events, but at the time of writing this initially, I was only on chapter 40 of re-reading the manga, and that has been enough to convince me none of my fics, not even the original AU I had in mind, are “too edgy” for anything to do with BSD (and AO3, of course, I think that site has seen it all). Though I firmly believe no such thing even needs some kind of “justification” to be written in the first place, as for my observation, all of my harsher ideas would still be reduced to mere dust if compared to that or the light novels. There is not a single thing I could have ever written that would have gone “too far” by my own anxiety-driven standards, and even if I genuinely took that entire concept and wrote it to the full extent I’ve had in my mind, it would only be dreaming of being on par with something like Atsushi’s backstory or Q’s treatment, both of which are basically at the mere start of the manga. If not that, it would absolutely pale in comparison to the entirety of Stormbringer, for example, and if one was to put it simply, the amount of missing limbs, dead bodies, torture, on-screen and described gore in this series would make my own concepts…I want to say laughable, but it’d actually make them just a tiny bit more BSD-worthy.

Nothing I’m writing feels like BSD itself from this perspective, and I understand that I’m writing fanfiction— I’m in a space where people don’t always want to match the mood and tone of the media they’re making their own spin on, and there is not a single thing out of place if I make any of my works more toned down, peaceful and whatnot, but at the same time, there will also be nothing out of place if I don’t. Honestly, this may be somewhat clear already, but I don’t want to write works which are fully sanitized, clean and light-hearted only, and while yes, I believe a couple of those exist on my page, those aren’t meant to be the majority as that was never my goal to begin with. I didn’t even have one at first, but when I both actually tried to think of one somewhere along the way and reflected on all my old drafts and notes, the answer I got was to make the opposite of what I look for while browsing AO3 myself, ironically— as I don’t usually spend my time reading much, not even on there, I only ever read short fics that I can go through in one sitting which don’t leave me thinking about anything surrounding them and I feel as though I’ve read them from their true beginning to their true end, with the plot being only what was in the 4000 or so words I skimmed through rather than something much different, something I’ve only looked through a window into, and, simply put for what I think is my case, something far more pretentious than that, of course. Hopefully, there is no need for me to clarify I clearly do enjoy the shorter, less complex fics and am in no way trying to devalue them, they’re just not what I personally would like to write myself— I would be delighted if someday, I could feel as though I have created something which has a full, proper story in itself, and additionally, seeing as it’s BSD fanfiction, absolutely not have this story be one in which you could almost believe all the characters are regular office workers with rather mild problems in their lives. The only thing which is closest to this, yet which still fails to meet the former criteria, is probably all to do with Rimlaine that I’ve written, but that was not the initial plan, and now I’m seeing that it didn’t really have to be this way.

Not that I regret it too much, seeing as I could fix this if I truly wanted to— No Retakes was mostly born out of late regrets after I’ve fallen in love with that version of the AU and spent months wishing I had worked on it from the very beginning instead of having a thousand separate worries about it, all before I realized there were more people encouraging me to write it than people who would have insinuated I’d already written a ChuuArt AU and another “similar” one wasn’t necessary anymore. I could undoubtedly go back and show everyone one more of the originals, the one which would have rivaled every single work of mine in terms of just how dark it would have been, but I’m not sure whether it’s my ongoing WIP or general exhaustion stopping me more here, aside from the fact that I simply don’t have that much of a desire to do it when I could still try and pray to salvage said WIP a little bit and find a middle ground that doesn’t require me to start another project I will inevitably have no time to work on without getting too worn down.

Anyhow, I suppose I’ll get to looking through the outlines again, perhaps cut out some chapters on the way if I can and hope not to add more by accident. For better or for worse, while the reason should have probably been a bit different, I’m glad to be a bit less willing to censor half my works now that I’ve at least realized what media I’ve actually been using this whole time, and I’m hoping it will have some impact going forward as I really want to write what I alone want to write, not what people who don’t even care about my works want to see me create.

#text post #asachuu #all that being said I think reworking the outlines properly is sadly a bit too hopeful #I’ll see what’s doable at least

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vampire-himbos-of-santa-perdita · 2 years

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#showyourprocess tag game!

Rules: When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag 5 people. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours!

Full disclosure, I’m not directly tagging anyone, but if you see this post and think it’s cool, consider yourself tagged!

Thanks so much @mr-writes for the tag! This one sounds super fun!

Inspiration: It’s no secret that Heaven’s Tiny Daggers is my My Chemical Romance novel... It didn’t really start out that way though. I jokingly started rumbling about a girl punk novel after watching Mad Max: Fury Road and seeing that three second shot of the pyromaniac guitarist harnessed to the stereo rig. I knew I wanted to write some sort of rival girl gangs novel, but it didn’t wind up that way...

As any OG emo might tell you, MCR’s breakup was a true tragedy that took several years to recover from. I couldn’t listen to “Welcome to the Black Parade” without having a complete breakdown until 2019, where I finally decided to bite the bullet and listen to their entire discography. I started catching myself up on all the MCR lore I missed over the years and stumbled upon the story of how they wrote The Black Parade in a haunted mansion. All the pieces started coming together from there...! It somehow became this novel about grief and the intensity of that feeling when you find out your favourite band breaks up. ...and then MCR promptly got back together a few months after I started writing it...

Preparation: I didn’t know anything about punk rock music beforehand, so I took about a year to listen to so much music, reading so much music history, and generally immersing myself in the culture. The fun thing about writing a music-centric novel is any reading you’re doing can be easily supplemented by listening to whatever artists you’re reading about at the same time. So it was a lot of that and a lot of learning how to put on messy eyeliner and red eye shadow and sobbing it all off, watching old MCR concerts on Youtube. A lot of that.

Art Process: Prior to Heaven’s TIny Daggers, I was something of a pantser, but I was just coming out of a year of query rejections and a lot of editors telling me my best bet would be to start planning my plots more thoroughly. So, this is the first novel I really put my head down and plotted everything. I downloaded Scrivener and plugged in the Save the Cat 3 Act Structure into separate folders to keep everything in order. To keep myself on task, I would write every morning on my ipad Notes app and then copy/pasted scenes into Scrivener when I was done. First draft was just getting it all out of me and onto the page and then when I had wrung myself out of as much plot as I could get, I went back and refined and filled in scenes here and there, moved things around... all that good stuff.

I think one of the biggest changes that happened between the three drafts is I had this one scene that happens reasonably early in the original draft that I couldn’t figure out, so I just kept pushing it back until I realized it was sequel fodder. I had this idea that the main villain would be behind this big scheme where they were creating doppelgangers of female artists whenever they started standing up for themselves too much. I was feeling the Avril Lavigne is Dead conspiracy fantasy, but it wasn’t gelling with where I was going with the characters over all, so I moved it to the second book.

The original plot was going to end a lot more tragically, and I’ve changed the ending about ten times by now and I’m still not 100% sure what is happening yet (which is why I keep going back and playing with more drafts instead of actually finishing it, RIP). I also don’t think it was going to be a murder mystery until the second draft. Once I cleaned out the doppelganger angle, the main concept was just a bunch of punks in a haunted house. As soon as the mansion became sentient and started fucking with everyone’s nightmares, it all came together in this demonic crescendo between drafts 2 and 3.

...and now I’m just finishing up Act 2 so I can finally fully write up Act 3 and send it out for querying by September!

Thoughts: I think in this whole process, it’s been so important for me to write something I love because it’s what teenage me would’ve been obsessed with reading. When you get stuck in a rejection spiral, it’s easy to forget why you’re writing what you’re working on. At the end of the day, it should be for you, and if you love it, you will find people out there who love that same topic too.

#showyourprocess #writeblr #sophie writes #am writing #heaven's tiny daggers #girl punk novel

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harbingers-appointed · 2 years

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Your Demon King Master post

Ask status:

Open

"characters" open to receiving asks:

[Me only. I'll get to character asks eventually again]

[As a foreword on this, I want to add more information to this post! I just wanted to get what I have up since the blog desperately needed a new information post. Please bear with me as I continue to work on this post]

What Is the DemonKing Yb AU?

The Demon king Au is a Your Boyfriend Alternate universe (AU) That features the same familiar cast along with a few new faces in the setting of HELL. I (VEE) The creator- and god of this AU- am working on a fan game for it. It is being built using Ren’py and I am mainly a one-person team. I am doing all the character creation, all the art (character talk sprites, backgrounds, etc), writing, and the bulk of the coding (I will be getting help from someone for the complex things later down the road). The music will be done by someone else as well and I would love to get voice actors eventually too.

Beyond this post, I recommend reading through old asks since there is a lot of hidden information in them! I do have a tendency to put hints in the tags as well. Some information has changed, but for the most part, a lot of the information is still accurate.

Premise

You, a human, lived an ordinary life on earth until one day as fate will have it you get into an accident, falling into a coma of sorts. You awake in a mysterious place, surrounded by other lost souls unsure of how you got there or why you ended up there. Soon after you are whisked off to a grand palace and are told you were one of the lucky souls selected to work right in the center of Hell for the Devil himself. Hell, you were in Hell and you were to become the devil's new house worker.

From here on out you meet the main cast of demons, The king himself, Don, Lucy, Tk, and Flauros. They all play their own unique part in this Au and it will be up to you what story you get to hear.

Meet The Characters

Click the name of the character below to be taken to the corresponding post with their information

Your Demon King

"Darling, you want to learn more about me? I want to learn more about you!"

"I suppose if we're going to be working together from now on I should tell you more about myself"

Don

"..."

Lucy

"Oh~? Well if I tell you all about me, I want to know all about you."

Flauros

"You'll find out more about me if you look through the blog, but d;"

Important in World Things and Abilities

¹The Blue Flames

Commonly referred to as true hellfire

These flames can only be controlled by one being at a time(it could be inherited by any being but the prior user would have to pass the ability off to them and they would lose access to it) the Blue Flames can consume any Demon or entity and completely absorb their soul/flame.

The only way to completely kill a demon is to use Dk's Blue Flames, Supposedly. His fire will consume a demon's inner flame and they will forever become a part of the Blue Flames- unable to reform as they get merged into them for all eternity. Getting "extinguished" is like a final death for demons. They become a part of The Blue Flames forever, their original fire converted into this greater energy. The mystery of how The Blue Flames work is only held by the King.

So maybe he is withholding important information on them.

He can also control the heat of the Blue Flames. For example, he could cover you with them and they'd feel like nothing more than a warm tingle, maybe more if you catch my drift.

²K̵̨͓̲̖̽̏̒̀̈́̈́̃͐̄̚͘͠n̸̰̺̱͍͌̈́̆͌̉ͅi̵̡̲̫̙͉̤̙͉̪̞̬͉̜̔̀̃̒̔f̶̨̠͉̝̟͉͉̻͓̠̖̘̥̟̎̑͛̆̃̈́̎̽̉̀͌͒͗e̷̛̪̺̠̜̰̙͛͆̈́̑̑̏̈́̐̇̍̕̕͠͝

A knife belonging to Flauros. The reflection that shines from the blade doesn’t match up the surroundings it currently is in. It doesn’t look like it belongs in this realm of existence. He calls it very special to him, mentioning how

“nobody but me can wield this weapon properly. So, don't get any funny ideas~”.

Dk has commented on the knife saying that,

“When I was cut by it… It did...SOMETHING to me. Stay away from him, please darling I’m begging you”

The 9 Circles of Hell

The 9 circles, or rings, of Hell, consists of the following(and the corresponding inner flame associated with each) from the outer rim to the center;

limbo(white-black)

Lust (pink-magenta)

Gluttony (Green)

Avarice (Yellow-gold)

Sloth (orange)

Heresy (purple)

Wrath ( red)

Pride (dark blue)

Treachery ( cyan )

Each circle has a prince and their higher-ranking demons just beneath them. There is one exception to this rule, however. The Limbo ring is not quite fully a part of Hell. It is the place between Heaven and Hell, empty- save for the souls trapped there and the prince Of Limbo. They are an unsettling being, neither demon nor angel. They once were an Angel, but due to not choosing a side were cast to Limbo for the rest of eternity. Their body is always shifting and changing. When spoken to they will take on the form of your face and speak back to you in your voice as well.

All the princes, including DK find Limbo an extremely unpleasant place to visit. The prince of Limbo cannot leave Limbo either, trapped there just like all the other lost souls.

[more info on the princes+abilities related to the different circles to come soon!]

Inner Flames

All demons possess an inner flame that corresponds to the circle of hell they were created in. Inner flames are the equivalent to a human's soul, as in if a demon's inner flame were to be snuffed out they would ‘die’. Unlike humans, however, when a demon is killed their physical body will decay and crumble, yet their inner flame will still remain. The severity of the way they were killed determines how long it takes for the demon to reform. Sometimes the inner flame will be so small and scattered, taking many centuries to reform.

The hands of a demon reflect the flame colour they possess. Demons can't have two different colours of inner flame. Just one.

Demon Reproduction

Demon reproduction can happen in a typical sexual manner. Though there's more to it than simple mixing of DNA and more so mixing of two demons' inner "flames". Reproducing in other manners Is a possibility though. As for demons reproducing with humans, it depends on the human and if their soul can handle taking on a demon's energy.

Importance on demon horns+tails

[click above for the original post]

Demon horns aren't exactly fragile, but it depends on the Demon. I like to think you'd need to really try to break them. In fights, demons try to cover their horns and tails in armour to protect themselves. Horns are made of the demon's inner flames condensed essence. It can take on different forms and materials, so some being more like keratin growth while others may seem like glass or crystals even.

horns can break- as seen in the art of Dk with missing horns and the one where he's impaled on one of his own snapped-off horns. It would be INTENSELY painful- agonizing...(Flauros is built differently, however) break a demon's horn/’s and they're essentially crippled, can't control their innate magic and the regulation of their inner flame. Cutting demon's tail will also result similarly to breaking their horns.

So if a demon's horn or tail is cut/broken said demon will suffer a lot of pain and lose control over their inner flame- which is like a soul and what keeps them alive. They can be regenerated over time and this can be sped up through healing magic. But if left unattended they'll likely "die" and return to being a little flame/ loose energy that can't take a form. They are immortal so eventually, they will reform fully. It depends on how they were killed to determine how long it takes. Damaging the horns could lead to it taking years to reform for example. Stronger demons can regenerate quicker, but getting their full strength back takes time. So I wouldn't recommend damaging the horns or tail of a demon!

About Aggressive demon forms

[click above for the original post]

All demons have "Aggro" forms [aggressive] they use mainly When they are in battle. While in this form they have heightened reflexes, better hearing added strength[in general more aware and ideal for a fight] but it burns through their energy faster(doesn't exactly apply to the king). Their inner flame is burning extremely brightly during the time this form is active.

The king would also have his blue flames likely crawling up his body/around him. This would also provide more offensive and defensive capabilities for him. Of course, if he wanted to he could be in this more monstrous form indefinitely- but he wouldn't want to scare you... He is the King so his power is huge.

A demon who is almost always in half-aggro is Don, as his scleras are always darkened. He has his reasons why for this, but you can imagine why.

FAQ

When is the fan game slated for release?

As of right now, I’m working solely alone for most of the game. I have hopes I can get a beta test out for day one by December-January. I do have a life outside of all this, so sometimes things come up and things get pushed back. I try to work on it a little bit every day, but there’s a lot to do (finish the rest of the visual assets, writing the dialogue, programming… but also running this blog and answering asks). Make sure to keep checking on the blog- I try to update with something every few days- and while you are here you can read through all the past updates +and asks! There are a ton of hints and foreshadowing of what’s to come- and be aware the tags have information in them oftentimes!

How can I support you?

Sadly as of right now since this is a fangame I cannot accept any money for this. Ideally, someday I can get some merch made- but until the rules on fan merch of YB content loosens there isn’t much I can do. (Unless people want Flauros merch? haha) The best thing you can do to show your support is to interact with my posts, follow, comment, like, and reblogging really helps get the word out! I also hope someday to work on my own fully original game as well- and maybe by extension, you would all love to support that too!

Is this blog a trans and other minority-friendly space?

Yes! Very much so! As a chubby trans person who is also half Chinese, I like to try my best to be inclusive on all fronts. I do not tolerate racism, sexism and in general bigotry.

[More FAQ To be added later!]

#DemonKingYbAu #DkMasterPost #y0urb0yfriend #yourboyfriendgame #yourboyfriend #yb au #ybfg

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finalfantasyix · 3 years

Photo

Meet The Team Working On A Final Fantasy 9 Remake You’ll Never Get To Play

Final Fantasy 9: Memoria Project is a fan homage like nothing we've ever seen before. “It is no secret that fan projects get shut down all the time,” Dan Eder tells us about Final Fantasy 9: Memoria Project, a fan-driven love letter to the classic JRPG. It isn’t aiming to be a playable remake of the epic adventure though - instead, it’s an aesthetic homage to its timeless world and characters.

It’s somewhat anomalous in the world of community creations, but Eder wants to use this distinct identity to craft something truly special, even if many obstacles stand in the way of making it a reality. But the team keeps moving forward: “Without a doubt, some of the most frequent comments we get from naysayers is ‘have fun with it while it lasts’ or ‘cease and desist incoming’”, Eder explains. “People are understandably skeptical of the longevity potential of yet another passion project. The key difference is that, unlike those projects, Memoria is essentially an elaborate piece of fan art, nothing more - it will have no actual gameplay, will never be released to the public, and is nothing more than a ‘what-if’ scenario. [It’s] no different from any other fan-made piece of artwork. We have never, and will never, make a single dollar out of this project, and are basically doing this for the personal gratification of the fans.”

The genesis of Memoria Project dates all the way back to Eder’s younger years, with dreams of a potential FF9 remake entering his imagination soon after the original game’s launch. That’s no great surprise - millions still regard Final Fantasy 9 as the series’ finest hour. “While it's true that the project really started to pick up steam a few months ago, it wouldn't be a stretch to say I've been planning it since high school,” Eder explains. “I remember scribbling ‘FF9 remake’ on my notepad during classes and writing imaginary new features and battle system mechanics, starting online petitions to remake FF9 for the PS2, sketching drawings depicting scenes from the ‘FF9 sequel’ and whatnot. I could confidently say that my life would probably have been completely different had my older brother not borrowed this game from his friend in the summer of 2000.

“As a non-native English speaker who had never played an RPG up until that point, my first playthrough was a challenging experience to say the least, and I can honestly say that I understood literally nothing of what was going on the first time I finished the game (how I even managed to beat it is a mystery in and of itself). It didn't really matter to me though, since I was absolutely enamored with the incredible cast of characters, jaw-dropping FMV sequences, mesmerizing music, thrilling gameplay, and just the overall atmosphere and charm it exuded at every step. My unconditional love for this game persisted throughout my entire childhood and adult life, and it is one of the central reasons why I chose to become a 3D character artist in the video game industry. In short, this project is my way of thanking this game for everything it has done for me over the past 21 years.”

Eder’s passion for this game can be found across several industry professionals who grew up with games like this and wanted to replicate them, or create something entirely unique to live up to their brilliance. This is very much how Memoria Project found its feet, beginning life as a trivial side activity before blossoming into something infinitely more ambitious. It still has a long way to go, but there’s little urgency to reach the finish line, so the team can take their time and just enjoy the nostalgic indulgence of it all.

“Memoria actually started unofficially as a side project when I reached out to Colin Valek [of] Sucker Punch Studios in early 2020 after I came across his fanart of an environment from FF7,” Eder says. “I had already modeled Princess Garnet, and thought it could be a fun idea to combine our talents to reimagine the opening area of Alexandria. Initially, it was progressing at a snail's pace - we were slowly chipping away at it for over a year without making a lot of progress. While Colin continued modeling the buildings, I created another character - Vivi.”

This glacial pace received a resurgence of sorts in January when the Alexandria scene was finally complete, with Eder and company finally being able to see how much potential the project had if it was opened up to a larger range of creators. “When I posted that WIP screenshot, the response from fellow FF fans was overwhelmingly positive, more than we could have imagined,” Eder remembers. “Very quickly, other people from the gaming industry started reaching out - environment artists, animators, riggers, concept artists. That's when I decided to turn this side project into a full-fledged modern reimagining of the original game, while always making sure to emphasize the fact that this is a non-playable proof-of-concept, since we never have any intention of doing anything to violate Square Enix's copyright. Four months after officially announcing the project, we've grown from a couple of FF fanboys to a huge team of over 20 industry veterans working collaboratively to honor this masterpiece, fueled by our love and adoration for the source material.”

Now, the project has over 20 developers from Sucker Punch, Ubisoft, Rare, Unbroken Studios, and more all diving into this labour of love in their spare time, with composers and voice actors also contributing their talents to help make this glimpse into the world of Final Fantasy 9 worth celebrating. But Eder is aware of being overly enthusiastic, knowing that fan projects like this often doom themselves by undertaking something that isn’t feasible with so few resources.

“One of the most common traps for these kinds of fan projects is being overly ambitious,” Eder says. “Since all of us are actively working in the video game industry, we understand the importance of milestones, short term goals, and taking things one step at a time. For now, we are focusing our efforts on the opening sequence of the game, which mainly revolves around Vivi and his exploration of Alexandria. Where we go from here is still being discussed, but one thing I can say for sure is that Vivi will not be the only main character we're planning to include.” I’m told that Memoria is aiming to look indistinguishable - at least from a graphics perspective - from something you’d see in a triple-A blockbuster, and it seems the team has the pedigree to back that claim up.

Visuals are the entire point after all, since turning this project into a playable piece of media would require far more resources to create. By narrowing its focus, Memoria is able to deliver something special while also hopefully avoiding the ire of Square Enix. “The fact that this is a non-playable project definitely makes it easier for us to tailor the experience in a way that would truly allow the audience to be fully immersed in the world without having to worry about technical limitations,” Eder tells me. “Creating actual functional gameplay is a completely different ball game, one that we never had any intention of even discussing given the copyright limitations. This gives us a lot of leeway with how we are going to portray the world of Gaia in terms of character interaction, camera movement, [and] scene transitions. We have a lot of cool plans for the near future - please look forward to it!”

As for the sad truth of fan projects like this often being wiped from existence by publishers throwing out cease and desist letters, Eder is confident that Memoria occupies a niche where this won’t happen. It’s not a commercial or even playable product - it’s a piece of fan art, albeit an endlessly elaborate one. If the tides were to change, Eder believes companies should welcome the enthusiasm for experiences like this.

“If I were to be completely honest, I think it could be a potentially brilliant decision by Square Enix to do something wildly unexpected and invest in a project like this,” Eder states. “There's a considerable amount of hype, talent, motivation, and pure, unadulterated passion behind it. It's not something I would expect, but I think it could be incredibly helpful in regaining some of the trust and reverence that this legendary company was known for during its golden years.”

(source)

#final fantasy ix #memoria project #final fantasy 9 #ffix: memoria project #article #news #interview #long post #very long post!

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wolfstar-in-color · 3 years

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Creator’s spotlight: alifeincoffeespoons

It’s September and our fourth Creator’s Spotlight is here! We are so happy to share with you today the thoughts of a wonderful creator: @alifeincoffeespoons. We’ve rec’ed her fic Sirius and Harry go to Whitecastle here and we did the description for one of her artworks here (which includes the rec of some mitski songs!!).

As usual, here you have one of our favorite quotes of the interview, and under the cut you can read the full interview!

“Remus and Sirius understand each other on a level that few other characters in the series do. They have so many shared experiences and so much history, and there’s so many different ways to write them as a result. They are also foils, but somehow also a matched pair — they move in sync so easily.”

alifeincoffeespoons prompt: “It’s a rare sunny day when Remus sees Sirius, for the first time in three years, and he has to resist the urge to call emergency services immediately and announce that he needs to be hospitalized on account of a broken heart.”

Q: Tell us a bit about yourself

A: My Tumblr username is alifeincoffeespoons (inspired by Eliot’s “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock”) and I go by spellingmynamewrong on AO3. I’d probably be considered part of Gen Z, and I’m Asian-American, which inspires a lot of my work. I usually create works of writing, though I also dabble in fanart occasionally. I’m a fan of both modern and canon divergent AUs; I’ll write canon compliant content occasionally but not very often, given how tragic canon is.

Q:How did you start creating in the fandom? What did you wish to bring into the fandom?

A: I started writing back in middle school, and I’ve been reading and writing fanworks on-and-off since then. My first work of fanfiction was for Harry Potter too, although I didn’t start writing for Wolfstar until later on. I want to write works that make people think more deeply about — and even critique — the existing world of Harry Potter. There are a lot of deeply problematic aspects of the original work, as we all know, and I think we have an obligation as creators to call them out and demonstrate why they are so problematic.

Q: What things about Sirius/Remus as characters or in their relationship inspire you to create around them?

A: Remus and Sirius understand each other on a level that few other characters in the series do. They have so many shared experiences and so much history, and there’s so many different ways to write them as a result. They are also foils, but somehow also a matched pair — they move in sync so easily.

Q: What things would you like to highlight about the Wolfstar fandom and your experience in it?

A: It’s such an expansive fandom! That’s one thing that’s dawned on me over time — it has so, so much history, and so many individuals are or have been involved in it.

Q: What type of content do you wish you saw more in the fandom?

A: I’d love to see more content that deals with the historical circumstances of the wider world around them — I’m a big sucker for historical fiction and real-world context. If we’re going for a particular sort of story, I’d love to see more superhero AUs. Also, a Good Omens AU. I saw fanart for it once and it’s never left my mind. There are so, so many possibilities there.

Q: What is your favourite wolfstar fan content (fic/fanart/gifset/etc) and how does it inspire you?

A: This is so hard to choose! Let’s go with some tropes instead — I love fix-it fics, and I also find canon divergent AUs very interesting, particularly ones that involve giving Harry a better life. I’m also a big fan of Modern AUs, though. I also love humor — whether that be a full-on humor fic or just one with humor interspersed lovingly throughout.

Q: Which of your own identities inform your creative processes? How has that process been for you?

A: My Asian-American identity likely informs my creative process the most. There are so few Asian characters represented in media still, particularly fan-created content, and I’d like to see that changed. What I usually do is incorporate small details that can feel universal but also give readers an insight into a particular culture — usually through food or similarly common experiences. It comes fairly naturally, actually, since I often write about Asian or Asian-American characters in my original fiction as well.

Q: What advice do you have for other content creators with diverse backgrounds in the fandom? What would you say to people that might feel they don’t have the “right” experience to participate in the creation of content related to Wolfstar?

A: If you’re comfortable, definitely share your experiences — we always need more diverse voices in fandom. I don’t think there’s any particular history or characteristic you need to be an active participant in Wolfstar fandom.

Q: How could we build a more diverse fandom?

A: Firstly, by seeking out and supporting content that features characters with diverse backgrounds. Secondly, by calling out rhetoric that marginalizes diverse creators. Thirdly, by doing our best to do better ourselves.

Q: What’s your favorite thing to modify in Sirius’s or Remus’s characterizations to bring new perspectives to them?

A: I’ve often written Sirius as Asian, mostly because I think it truly does add another layer to his characterization. I’ve explained some of my reasoning behind that in this Tumblr post I wrote eons ago. I often also write Remus as Jewish — I saw this headcanon a long time ago and it’s stuck with me since. My characterizations of them are always shifting, though, and I’m sure they will continue to over time.

Q: What does diversity mean to you? What does that encompass in fannish spaces?

A: Diversity doesn’t just mean including a POC in your work or an LGBTQ character; it means giving them meaningful, non-stereotypical narratives and characterization. In fan spaces, that means supporting creators from diverse backgrounds and works featuring well-written, diverse characters. It also means, as a creator, doing research on the cultural backgrounds of characters you are writing about, particularly if you do not belong to that culture yourself.

Q: Is there a resource you would recommend for fans to read when it comes to learning about diversity?

A: If you’re interested in learning more about Asian-American culture and diversity in particular through literature, two memoirs I read recently and enjoyed were Cathy Park Hong’s Minor Feelings and Michelle Zauner’s Crying in H-Mart. I think they give insight into the Asian-American experience and are also incredibly moving. There are lots of resources for writing out there, on Tumblr, Reddit, and elsewhere. Also, sensitivity readers, if you are a writer, are critical.

Q: Is there a project/organization that you want to hype?

A: Given what’s been happening in Texas and in countless other states across the U.S. — horrific attacks on bodily autonomy and the right to choose — please donate to Planned Parenthood.

Q: Any cause that you want fans to know about so that they can support it?

A: Rental assistance — the Supreme Court recently struck down Biden’s eviction moratorium. If anyone you know is at risk of being evicted, please direct them to local and state rental assistance programs (a tool to search for them: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/coronavirus/mortgage-and-housing-assistance/renter-protections/find-help-with-rent-and-utilities/).

Q: Leave us with a quote or work of art that always inspires you.

A: Whenever I need to write, I’ll put on a Phoebe Bridgers song if it’s a sad section I’m writing, and if it’s a relatively happier section, I’ll put on a NIKI song. Other artists that inspire me: Mitski, Lorde, Lucy Dacus, Taylor Swift, Lily Allen, and Lizzo.

#creator spotlight #alifeincoffeespoons #spellingmynamewrong #wolfstar fandom #fic writer #fanartist

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s8ncake · 3 years

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Originally I wasn’t planning on posting this here, but a friend of mine convinced me. You can also check it out on ao3!

🔞The following fic is nsfw. Minors dni.🔞

Sacrilege

Summary: Simeon has fallen, but he doesn’t view himself as such. No, given the feelings he has towards you, this could only be an ascension; one beyond anything he had in the Celestial Realm, and anything the Devildom could offer. Now he serves no one, only you. His one and only god.

word count: ~5700

⚠️c/w: gore and blood (but Simeon and the reader are fine), yandere!Simeon, sacrilegious themes, blasphemy

Additional note: the reader is gender neutral, and the reader’s genitalia isn’t specified

In ao3, I tagged this with Dead Dove: Do not eat. That still applies here. Make sure you’ve read over the content warnings before proceeding / interacting.

🔞And once again, minors dni.🔞

Falling’s a strange thing, a concept that Simeon never quite understood. It happened to angels who were wicked, those who sought to undo his father’s plan. So they were cut off. From the heavenly host. From their powers. Their wings turned black, and their light faded. Until the only thing left was a darkness, one that sought to consume everything that they once were. They either died or transformed, becoming monsters. Beasts. Demons.

Simeon is none of those things. He didn’t fall to oppose his father, nor did he seek to undo any sort of plan. He’s an author after all, and authors create.

And what could his muse be, other than you?

Your soul is brilliant, a beacon of light amongst everything else in this miserable realm. It took him far too long to see that. But thankfully, his eyes have been opened. And never again shall they shut. In the long span of his existence, he’s seen everything that the universe could offer. Stars. Galaxies. The rise and fall of human civilization itself. Existence itself is always in a state of flux, constantly shifting and warping as things are created and then destroyed.

But you… You exist beyond that.

Your soul never tarnishes, nor does it fade when things get rough. Instead, it fights. Nails. Fists. Some would say that it’s barbaric, but Simeon had always found it to be beautiful. It’s a philosophy that he’s tried to emulate. Words are meaningless, unless they are used to praise you. So now he resorts to action. And well, the saying is true. So perhaps it’s only natural that he uses it to replace his books, that the tales he creates are no longer works of fiction. No, fantasy has lost all meaning now.

There’s only you.

You have always inspired him. Even now, Simeon can’t help but write poetry about you as he moves. The world that he’s in is dark. Depressing. Very little of it is worthy of being compared to someone as brilliant as you. But that doesn’t prevent him from trying.

Today, he starts with a crumbling city. It’s silence echoes throughout the land, and you are the slight breeze that rushes past his ear. The moon, although unlike its cratered surface, you have no imperfections. No, the dips and grooves along your skin are beautiful. Like the glinting of a knife, the way the metal slices through the air. You have pierced his heart just as easily. But that’s okay, it’s yours after all.

It’s a shame that he can’t carve out his own and give it to you. That despite everything, he is still limited by this corporeal form. But if he were to be anything else, then you wouldn’t be able to look at him. And that would get in the way of his worship. A god must be able to view their subjects after all.

Besides, this new form is perfect for him. It’s yet another form of his art, a piece that was made specifically for you. His horns. His tail. His cock… He considered it all. Like a good follower should.

No one else would be able to do that. They are limited by their pathetic mortal frame. Rats. Parasites. They’re unfit to even look upon you. But with another flicker of his knife, they are handled. And he will morph them until something better. Something more suited for you.

The process of creation is a never ending one, especially given the thousands of pieces that he’s working on. Some of them are grand, and others are small. But all of them are for you. How else would he pay tribute?

There’s a gust of wind. Your arrival is soon. He can sense it. It comes with everything that is right. The sun peaking over the clouds. Starlight reflecting off of a lake. The rippling of water as it reveals the creatures that lurk within its depths. The sound of laughter, followed by the blessed silence that he’s come to adore. That is who you are. An omen of things to come. The others say you are bad, but Simeon knows better. It is impossible for you to be anything other than good.

For you are greater than the heavens, and the earth itself. His father was nothing, but you—

There’s a scream as Simeon feels blunt nails dig into his arm. It’s followed by a shove, and footsteps frantically scrambling away from him. ...How annoying.

His latest sacrifice had just ruined his internal monologue. And it was going to be such a good one too. What a shame. If only he had a pen and paper nearby…

They don’t travel far. There’s another sound, although this one is a plea. Simeon silences it with a crunch, and tsks when he looks at his hands. That was messier than he had intended, but it looks like no longer needs any ink. An amused chuckle falls from his lips. Would you like that? Poetry written in the blood of your enemies, the very nonbelievers who seek to destroy the world that the two of you are trying to create?

...Perhaps that’s something to try next time. Right now, he has something more important to focus on. He’s still in the process of creation after all, and he’s not finished decorating. Thankfully this… creature (it can’t be a human, for nothing could compare to you) should provide him with the rest of the materials that he needs. So Simeon gets to work.

This too is a form of art, and one he would never have considered before. But he has expanded beyond quills and parchment. Now he builds sculptures out of the very people who would defy you. Those who are unworthy of being graced with your presence. They are broken down, and fashioned into a suitable idol.

Another splash of crimson. The breaking of bones. Wire. Nails. And then it’s done. Your new altar is complete. Simeon takes a step back, appraises his work, and grins. It’s perfect.

Fresh blood drips off of it, reminding him of rain, the way it softly drizzles and brings life to those around it. This is a form of life as well, one that does nothing but speak of your greatness. The various limbs that have been tacked and strung above it make a rainbow, an icon of the color you have given this dull and drab world. Maybe one day you’ll be able to color it all. But the best part about it is when you stand away, when you view his masterpiece from a distance. It takes the shape of a heart, one that resembles his own. And it exists entirely for you.

The wind picks up, howling in his ears, and he knows that you are here. Once you enter the room, Simeon falls to his knees. He doesn’t have to stay there for long; it’s simply a gesture of formality, one that reminds you of how important you truly are.

“You may rise.”

He follows the command without hesitation. Your voice is a melody. A soothing tone that seeps into his bones and leaves him feeling lighter. It truly is an act of kindness that you’ve allowed him to stand as your equal, if only for a brief moment. But he will be on his knees again soon enough.

He can’t wait.

A sigh falls from your lips once you notice the various remains that litter the floor. “Those were supposed to be the new recruits. I guess none of them were willing?”

Simeon nods. “They were all unworthy of you.”

“A shame.” Your eyes then roam over his altar. He awaits your response with trepidation. ...Do you like it?

But as always, there’s no need for him to voice his question. Like the god you are, you already answer it with a grin. Your power, your majesty, truly knows no bounds. “You’ve found a better use for them though. I’m pleased.”

A shiver runs down Simeon’s spine. Your approval means everything. It is the air that fills up his lungs and allows him to breath. He feels incredibly lucky, to be blessed with such a thing.

It only inspires him to work even harder for what comes next. There is no church here, nor is there a temple. But those measly little things are unneeded. Your body outshines it all. And that is what he shall worship.

A strike of a bell, and then Simeon kneels before you once as you sit upon your handmade throne. It begins now. Sacrament. He licks his lips in anticipation.

You are an image, perched atop yet another one of his creations. Although this one is his favorite. There’s no flesh or bone, only gold. Treasure that he had stolen from the Celestial Realm and the Devildom alike. Melting it was difficult, but the result was definitely worth it. For now you have a throne, one that suits your majesty.

It makes him feel small, as it should. Your presence is grand, a shining iridescent star amongst the blank canvas that he’s created. And it’s reflected in his eyes once you beckon him forward.

He delicately peels each and every garment off of you, savoring the sight of your body as it’s slowly revealed to him. He’s seen it before, yet you never fail to take his breath away. Every hair, every scar, all of the dips and grooves that make up who you are; Simeon loves it all. How could he not?

Beauty takes the form of your legs, the way they spread open before him. Magnificent is the sight that greets him, your most intimate parts bare now before his gaze. Adoration is what he feels when you whisper his name and guide his head forward. And divinity, well... that is what you taste like.

He dives in with enthusiasm. You immediately grab onto his horns, and pull him in closer. Simeon groans. They’re handles after all, ones that he made specifically for you. To tug. To control. He is but a follower, and you are a god. One that will never fail to help him find the right path.

And everything about this, the taste of your essence on his tongue, is right.

Every noise that you make spurs him on. This is what you deserve. The pleasure that courses through your veins. The moans that fall from your lips. It’s a shame that he can’t give you more, not yet at least. One day the world will be yours, but until then… an orgasm will have to do.

You cum with a cry, one that could shake the very heavens itself. A part of him hopes that they've heard you, but the other knows that they are unworthy of such a thing. He laps up each and every drop. It would be a sin to allow any of it to spill. Nothing you create should ever go to waste. Especially when it’s this good.

Once your orgasm ends, he pulls away, giving you a moment to collect yourself. It’s a shame that he cannot taste you forever; that like all good things, it must come to an end. But his worship of you is far from over. No, the two of you have only just begun.

Your eyes meet, and Simeon’s tongue lolls out, wiping away the spare traces of your cum. A chuckle, then you gently pat his head. “Such a good boy Simeon. You’ve improved.”

Pleasure shoots down his spine the moment you praise him. This is what he’s after. This is the reason he exists. To serve you. To please you. Your fingers begin to run through his hair, and a moan falls from his lips as he leans into your touch.

“You remember what comes next, don’t you?”

Of course. His worship of you is a form of art, one that he has practiced over and over again. Simeon nods, and then finally removes the last of his clothing.

His cock springs free. It’s hard. Leaking. He wants you, as always. But how could he not? Your visage is the most beautiful thing that he’s ever seen. Your voice rolls through his mind like honey. He loves you.

It’s normal of course, for a follower to love their god. Yet even the word itself feels unsatisfactory. One day he’ll have to create a new one. But until then, love will have to suffice. Besides, he has better ways to show his devotion. Actions speak louder than words after all. So despite the desire that courses through him, he doesn’t even make an attempt to touch himself. His own pleasure is unimportant. The only thing that matters is you.

So instead he stays on his knees. Where he belongs. He starts with your ankle, placing feather light kisses along each one as his mouth slowly works his way up to your calf. You gasp once he reaches your thighs, and then the next part of sacrament begins: creation.

In the past he created galaxies. Stars. Nebulas. Simeon had the luxury of forming several of them before that task was given to someone else. But thanks to you, he can perform it once more. Only this time the materials are different. Instead of creating constellations in the sky, he makes them on your body.

Today he starts with the Big Dipper. He lightly suckles on your thighs, mapping out each and every star, and once that constellation is done, he moves onto another. Caenis Major. Orion. Cygnus. Your body looks even more breathtaking like this, so he adds a few more. These ones are new, ones that he just made up. They have yet to have a name, but for now… Consecratio will have to do. Perhaps he’ll be able to come up with a more official title for them later.

Your name falls from his lips, along with a moan, and something inside of him slips. He falls even further into your depths. Beautiful. You’re so beautiful. His name never sounded so pretty; but everytime you say it, he can feel his cock begin to swell. He is the one you want. The only being that makes you feel like this, and the only one that ever will.

You are his god.

Blood rushes through him, staining his cheeks, hardening his cock even further. In the haze of his own mind, his mouth parts from your skin, and his fingers enter you instead.

You mewl at the intrusion. This isn’t how things are supposed to go. This step comes later on, yet Simeon can’t wait. He wants to see you cum once more. To hear your praise as he pleasures you beyond your own comprehension.

Perfect. Stunning. Simeon adds another finger, his gaze fixed on your expression and nothing else. Finding that spot within you is easy. He had memorized its location long ago as proof of his devotion. Each and every part of your body has been mapped out, a never ending piece of parchment that he keeps in his head. In truth, Simeon has never been much of a navigator. But your body is the only thing that he needs to know.

You moan once again. You’re close, Simeon can feel it. Although he’s neglected to take his own pleasure into account. He’s close as well.

Simeon hasn’t even laid a hand on himself, yet his own noises grow louder. Every gasp. Every groan. Knowing that he’s able to do this to you spurs him on, his cock aching from how much it desires you. Yet your image drowns all of that out.

His peak arrives, but he never gets to fully reach it. Instead, your hand clenches around the base of his cock, preventing him from cumming.

“You’re getting ahead of yourself. Recite your scripture as punishment.”

His labored breathing echoes across the room, and Simeon’s eyes widen once he realizes his mistake. He was being selfish, allowing his own pleasure to get in the way of yours. Lust is a vise that he should have had better control of. He was a fool to let it get in the way of his love, so he accepts your punishment with grace.

Magic soon replaces your hand, creating a cockring that now leaves your fingers free to move up and down along his shaft. His breathing stutters, but he’s thankful for the intervention. More of your magic curls around his body, brushing up against his skin. It’s a sign of what’s to come, yet he shoves that excitement aside, or tries to at least.

Simeon frowns. The cockring was sorely needed. It makes sure that he doesn’t forget about what’s truly important. No matter what, he isn’t allowed to cum before you. The only sin that exists is putting his pleasure before your own. Yes, he deserves to be punished for this. His devotion towards you never should have wavered.

So he opens his mouth, and speaks; his voice not faltering despite the way your hand moves across his shaft. “The steadfast love of you, my god, never ceases. Your mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning.”

You press one of your fingers against his slit, smearing some of his precum along the head of his cock. A shudder runs down Simeon’s spine. Your touch is a blessing, one that he can never get enough of. But he cannot focus on it. No. The pleasure is unimportant. You must be worshipped.

“There’s no greater love other than this: to lay down my life for you.”

He focuses on the words instead, and on everything that they entail. He would gladly die for you. In both this timeline, and any of the other ones that follow. The universe is full of constants: gravity, matter, humanity itself, and the devotion that he feels towards you. Those are all things that shall exist in every universe.

No matter what, Simeon loves you. And he will die and fall as many times as he needs in order to prove it. Although he’s never met any of his alternate selves, he already knows that it’s true. His love cannot be contained in any vessel. It flows throughout time and space, and every spec of it is dedicated towards you and you alone.

Your hand leaves his cock. Simeon feels it twitch under the absence of your touch. A part of him wants to whine, but he holds that in. He refuses to sin once more, to tarnish his reputation as your most devout follower. So he simply continues reciting the words that he’s come to know by heart.

Indeed, you’re no longer stroking him. But that’s only because your hands have wondered elsewhere. A finger traces the rim of his ass, and it doesn’t take Simeon long to put two and two together. Ah. He had never—

You enter him. Slowly but surely, although there’s no resistance. Another one quickly joins it. Your fingers are slick from his precum and some of your own spit, not to mention your magic… It widens him, making lube unnecessary. Not that he would ask for any. No, he’s being punished right now. This is simply another example of your benevolence.

The feeling is strange, but he continues. “I give thanks to you, for everything about you is good. Our love endures forever.”

Your fingers haven’t stopped moving. They’re searching around for something, although Simeon doesn’t know what you're looking for. There’s nothing left of him to find. You have seen it all.

“And I know that in all things, you do good for those who love you, who have been called according to your purpose.”

And then you brush up against a spot inside of him, one that has him seeing stars. He’s unable to stop the surprised “Oh!” that falls from his mouth, or the way he tries to fuck himself on your hand. Thankfully that was the last verse, so there’s no harm in letting another mewl spill from his throat.

You laugh. It’s a beautiful sound, one that Simeon is blessed to hear. “What a good little follower. If you beg for me, I’ll let you cum.”

He wants to. To immediately get on his knees and beg for you to fuck him, as you take away the last shred of innocence that he has. Ah, but take isn’t the right word. Give. He would give it all to you. That purity is nothing more than a cocoon, one he’s been working on shedding himself of. It only gets in the way of loving you. Besides, how could he perform his tasks if he was worried about heaven’s definition of sin? No, there’s too much work to be done. And what he’s doing is okay. You’ve told him so.

Submitting to the desire that's coursing through him would be easy, but this is a test. One that he refuses to fail. Worshiping you takes precedence. It always does. “No. I wish to pick up where we left off. My only desire is to pleasure you.”

You flash him a smile, one more brilliant than the sun. “Your devotion truly is admirable. We’ll begin our worship again shortly. But first, I’m going to fuck you like this, okay? Remember the feeling of my fingers Simeon. Because next time, you’re going to cum around them and nothing else. Do you understand?”

Next time. He’ll be ready then. And you will finally own all of him. He can’t wait. “Yes, my beloved. I’ll do as you ask.”

You hum in approval, and then your fingers start moving once more. Pleasure courses through him, and he bites his lip as he smothers his gasp. You are everything. This is everything.

“I don’t want you to hold back Simeon. Let me hear you.”

Of course. This is a form of devotion too. How could he have forgotten that? A high pitched moan immediately falls from his lips. Words are hard, but Simeon still manages to speak. You wanted to hear his voice after all.

“G—Good. So good.”

Another finger gets added. Somehow the pleasure increases. His cock aches. It’s hard and weeping, yet he doesn’t care. The pleasure that you have shown him outshines it all. And he never wants this moment to end.

His mind is slowly becoming blank, the fog of lust threatening to consume his every thought. But Simeon shoves it all aside. Vocal. He has to focus on being vocal.

You briefly pull out. A fourth finger teases at his entrance, and your voice coos into his ear, “Can you handle more?”

More. The possibility excites him. He had no idea that it was an option. But he will do it. Of course he will. As your follower, it’s his duty to handle every inch of you. That’s why he created this vessel in the first place. And Simeon leaps at each and every opportunity to put it to the test.

He has to think, to piece the fragile bits of his mind together in order to form a response. But as soon as he comes close to making one, the magical ring around his cock vibrates. It’s slow, a low thrum that’s incredibly unsatisfying, yet it leaves him shivering all the same.

It’s a warning. He still can’t cum after all, and unless he performs well… he may never be able to. A response. You need one now. “Fuck. Y-Yes I can handle more.”

And like the benevolent god you are, you give him exactly that. Yes, you’re so wide inside of him. He didn’t even know that it was possible to feel this full. That his body could accommodate this much. And the fact that one of your limbs is inside of him... Simeon keens.

Truly, he’s unworthy of such a thing. Your fingers, your hand, should be elsewhere. That you would even consider touching him there is already enough to make him cum. Thankfully the cockring is still in place, so the pleasure never has to end.

He focuses on the shape of your hand, the dip and groove of each finger; the way it scrapes against his walls as you slam into him. Your pace is rough. Brutal. Heavenly. His mind goes hazy underneath it all. No. He can’t let this consume him. This is only a preview of what’s to come, and you are gracious enough to give it to him.

It’s another test. But this one… Oh, this one is his favorite.

Another wave of pleasure. He’s a shivering mess, one that can do nothing more than scream for you. Time itself has no meaning. There’s only this; the fullness that you provide, and the love behind each and every gesture that you make. He mewls out your name once more, and then it’s over.

He’s repented for his mistakes.

Your fingers… no it was your fist, pulls out of him. Simeon briefly whines at the loss. He falls to the floor, and then you place that very same hand in front of his lips. He lavishes it with kisses, and groans. More. He needs more.

And he knows that there will be more to come. It’s all a part of his worship after all. The taste of your inevitable union will be even stronger, richer. This is but a treat, a kind dessert that you have gifted him. The real meal comes later on. But Simeon is willing to wait. Once he’s finished lapping at your hands, he moves to your altar and lays himself upon it.

This is his final offering. His body is yours to use as you see fit.

You get up. Although Simeon cannot see it, he hears your bare feet walking across the abandoned chapel’s floor. There is no choir, but the ex-angel wants to sing when you impale yourself upon him.

A purr leaves your throat. “You feel perfect.”

He’s glad. Like his horns, his cock is made for you. Every ridge, every bump, was created to maximize your pleasure. No toy will ever compare. Simeon made sure of that.

You begin to move. He allows you to set the pace as his nails dig into your thigh. Perfect. You fit perfectly around him. He feels an incredible amount of pride as you gasp and moan with the rise and fall of your hips. Out of all of the offerings that he’s made, his mortal form is definitely the best. The flush of your cheeks proves it.

The magic around his cock finally loosens, and you clench around him. Simeon’s climax quickly follows your own. The tangling of tongues. The squirting of cum. He finished inside of you, but you don’t remain on his softening cock for long. No, you pull yourself off of him, and Simeon watches as his cum flows out of you.

He licks his lips. This is it. The moment that he’s been waiting for. His favorite part of worship.

Your voice is a command, one that never fails to send a shiver down his spine. “Clean up.”

He immediately begins lapping at your dripping hole. The taste of your cum has melded into his own. Your union has created this, the most delicious thing that Simeon has ever consumed. The essence of a god flows into his mouth, along with the proof that he was the one who had pleasured you. And now it is inside of him. A bond that cannot be broken. He hungers for more.

Simeon lewdly moans as his tongue reaches deeper and deeper into you, searching for every bit of his cum that he can find. Noises fall from your mouth, but like always, he drowns them out with his own. This is a feast, one that the Celestial Realm could never recreate. Their food pales in comparison. Simeon doesn’t understand how he was able to stomach it before.

Another orgasm ripples through you, and he keens as he consumes each and every drop. Were he in a more poetic mood, he would compare it to ambrosia, but he can write verses about you another time. Instead, he focuses on completing this final act. It doesn’t take long. Once he’s thoroughly licked every trace of cum off your body, he pulls away with a grin. You pat his head, and Simeon hums as he leans into your touch.

“I love you.”

The words sound beautiful coming from your mouth. It’s something that you’ve said before. A sentence that led to this exact moment, and many others like it. Yet he’ll never tire of hearing it, of knowing that he has earned those very words time and time again.

“I love you as well. My god. My beloved. And one day, the world will love you too.”

The two of you embrace. And in your arms, Simeon comes up with ideas for his next altar. It’s sure to take everyone’s breath away. It’ll be bigger than the last one. More limbs. More blood. Wires. Nails— Ah, he’s already getting excited.

It’s amazing; how quickly you inspire him, and all it takes is a hug. You truly are an excellent muse, one that he hopes to be completely worthy of someday. But until then, he is simply an author. An artist. One that exists to worship you.

Eventually you take your leave. There’s work to be done after all, especially for a god such as yourself. And although Simeon longs for your embrace… that just makes it more precious when it actually occurs. Besides, he wants his creations to be a surprise, and it’s impossible for that to happen if you’re looking over his shoulder. So the two of you part. And like the quiet whisper of the wind, you’re gone.

The silence doesn’t last long. It’s interrupted by the ringing of his phone. A number shows up on his screen, one that he hadn’t seen in an incredibly long time. He had tried to block it ages ago, but eventually gave up. Technology still confuses him. ...Some things never quite change.

He accepts the call, and Lucifer’s voice greets him. “Simeon.”

He hadn’t heard it in awhile. The man’s tone sounds deeper than he remembered, and it’s entirely different from your own. The contrast throws him for a loop, if only briefly. Simeon clears his throat. For some reason he doesn’t hang up.

“Yes?”

“This has to stop. The two of you are upsetting the balance. If this continues, then Lord Diavolo will intervene.”

A threat. Of course that would be why he called. But Simeon doesn’t care. No one can stop either of you, including the most powerful demons in the Devildom. Your love transcends beyond that. ...It’s a shame that Lucifer still is unable to comprehend what the two of you are trying to achieve.

A part of Simeon can’t help but feel disappointed at the reminder. “Perhaps he’ll join us. You’re welcome to as well, of course.”

“No. What your doing is wrong. You know that, don’t you?”

“I’m simply serving my god.”

“They are just a human, Simeon. And can easily be replaced. There are billions—“

Anger rushes through him; the intensity of it causing him to crack his phone’s screen. His grip loosens, but the rage still festers within him. How dare he.

“Watch your tongue, lest I rip it out of you next time we meet.”

A pause. The silence seems awkward, sad almost. Lucifer eventually breaks it. “...I see I am too late. The others are right. You have fallen. And unlike me, you’ve had no family to help put you back together again.”

“I don’t need one. I have my god, and they have been by my side through thick and thin. What have you done for me, Lucifer?”

Silence. No other answer is needed.

After a minute or two Lucifer sighs. “I must report my failure to Lord Diavolo. You have exactly 48 hours before he arrives. Use them wisely.”

There’s a click, and then the number vanishes from his screen. Lucifer must have hung up. Yet his words echo around in Simeon’s head.

You have fallen. It makes him want to laugh. There is nothing wrong about this. The love that he feels towards you cannot be tainted, nor will it ever waver. For you have given him something that he’s never had before: Freedom. From the Celestial Realm, from his boring day to day life. Simeon had not truly lived until he abandoned it all in favor of following you. No, this was an ascension. One that everyone is too foolish to understand. And Diavolo seeks to destroy everything that you’ve built. But that’s okay, Simeon has a plan.

A few magic circles… some stolen holy relics… and even the future Demon King can be captured. So when he comes, Simeon will be ready, and the foolish prince will walk right into a trap.

A manic giggle bursts from his mouth. This is perfect.

Diavolo will be made to see, like so many others before him. It’s impossible not to after all, given how grand you are. Ah, but Simeon will deny him the privilege of serving you. No matter what, you will only ever have one follower. Diavolo can beg and plead as much as he likes, but he will never get to feel your touch. He hasn’t earned the right, and he never will. Once he has served his purpose, he will be disposed of, just like the rest.

Simeon grins. In truth, The world doesn’t even need to have people in it. A god does not require subjects in order to be considered such. So why bother expanding your little cult, when no one else will ever be able to serve you like him?

You are his. His human. His god. His everything. And no one is going to get in the way of that. This realm will be made into something that is worthy of you, even if he has empty it himself. But once every single creature is gone, and he is the only being left... Then the world truly will love you, won’t it?

#obey me #omnsfw #minors dni #obey me simeon #fallen!Simeon #simeon x mc #simeon x reader #the reader is gender neutral #my writing!#sacrilege

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the-fae-folk · 3 years

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2am musings on Character Creation, Originality, and More Writing Nonsense

Recently I’ve been fascinated with characters who are vaguely distantly reminiscent of the humanoid form, but very clearly and frighteningly inhuman. How many arms could a character work with? Four? Six? And how many eyes? Could I perhaps have a good nine of those? Wings? Of course. Lets have several sets. Also why don’t I give them three tongues and make them 12 feet tall and incredibly strong. And...oh no. I’ve just realized that I have, in fact, made a biblical angel.... Botheration. You know, characters need not be constrained to human form all the time. I’ve read plenty of books with animal characters like mice (”Redwall” by Brian Jacques), owls and wolves (”Guardians of Ga’Hoole” and “Wolves of the Beyond” by Katherine Lasky), and many many books with dragon protagonists (because who wouldn’t choose to be a dragon, given the chance?). But we could go further than that. If you did it well, there is absolutely no reason you couldn’t have a book entirely from the point of view of a little thimble, or a dust mote. Sure it might be weird, and you’ll constantly be bombarded with the desire to use personification (Giving human characteristics to something nonhuman). That’s not a bad thing, exactly. But I’ll bet there are lots of unexplored ways to write the point of view of a thimble without personifying it, possibly all kinds of weird ways. What if you wrote an entire story on the premise of living beings formed from dark matter? Since science is still working on this, the field is wide open for all kinds of probably highly unscientific stories that go in every direction. If the matter is so spread out that its invisible to us, perhaps the way they perceive the universe and reality is very different from us as well? Can they even tell we’re here? How would such a being think? What might their world be like? What could you do there? And then, in time, what stories could you tell? It would be a lot of hard work, and it would be incredibly weird. To be honest, there’s probably not a market for things like that. (there might be but I haven’t found it anywhere). Publishers are in the habit of going for books they think they can sell, stories and characters that people can relate to. I can see the value in relating to characters and stories. Sure. But I’m only marginally interested in selling my stories. No, what I’m interested in is what can be done with writing that we haven’t explored yet. I hear all the time “Oh there’s no original ideas left. Everything has been written already! You’ve just got to put your own spin on it!”..... um.... no? I’ve seen plenty of original ideas all over the place. In video games, in books, movies, shows, etc. Some of them fantastic, some incredibly stupid. And usually they were accompanied by a lot of borrowed concepts and ideas or even traditional formulas and styles (Because those things work. That’s why they’ve lasted this long). Furthermore, why can’t I relate to a being of dark matter? I might have to look pretty closely to find something in common with such a being in a terribly alien reality and understanding of living. But there’s always SOMETHING, even if its not the sort of thing I usually try to relate to (such as “we are both alive in some way” or “we are made of matter so we actively affect the universe in a significant way even if we can’t really figure out what that means”). It just means I have to improve my writing skills to make a reader relate to a character in that way. And not all stories involve characters you’re supposed to relate to. Sometimes you’re NOT supposed to relate to them but watch awestruck as they do things you would never dare to or don’t want to do, but enjoy witnessing anyway because wow.... that's something alright. Some of my favorite characters are ones I don’t relate to at all in any way. Heck... if I wanted to write about a being who lived outside of time and space... no physical matter and no conception of linear time, I could do it. Heck, I HAVE tried something very similar. It wasn’t my best work, but I proved to myself that it was possible! And now that I know that, I can work on getting better at it. The point I’m trying to get at here is this. When you’re creating characters, you don’t have to let yourself be confined to all the preconceived notions about what constitutes a character. If you wanna write a human or humanoid character, GREAT! Do that! Absolutely all the way. If you want to write a book or story that is likely to be published... MORE POWER TO YOU! GO FOR IT! But you don’t have to. Not if you don’t want to. There are still unexplored wilds. The Art of Writing is still evolving in ways that would have been difficult to even dream of a hundred years ago (Or even 20 years ago!). I’ve seen fanfictions by that sleep deprived writer who decided two months ago that she was gonna do a full eight book series and she’s halfway done and somehow the writing is not just good, its so wholly original and groundbreaking that it redefines my own idea of what can be done with writing at every third paragraph. I’ve seen published books and poetry and essays like that too, that can make me stop in my tracks and have to reevaluate the ways that writing can be used. So go, explore. Create WEIRD and CRAZY stuff! Try something totally off the wall and bonkers! ... maybe it won’t work. That’s alright. Lots of things don’t. Some things don’t work if you haven’t built up the skills to achieve them. Some things just don’t work. But you can’t possibly know that unless you give it a go. Let yourself transcend for a short time beyond humanity, to think and perceive in truly alien ways. To live as something incredibly inhuman, and maybe even something you might not have considered could be a character before. Can you make the epic of the scrub brush vs the dish into an engaging tale without giving them human traits? You can. Can you tell me the epic battle between the spider and the fly? I’ve seen someone do that. So you can. How might a butterfly see and understand itself? What are the cultural norms of the deep sea hermit crabs? How do crystals communicate with one another, and what do they have to say (and why that’s important)? The possibilities are infinite. And so is your potential.

#creativity #writing #character creation #fanficion #writing thoughts #writing advice #musings at 2am #originality #original ideas #humanity #human #humanoid #personification #writing skills #stories #characters #feel free to reblog #if you want

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the-ghost-king · 3 years

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I think most of the olympians are characterized semi well, except for aphrodite. I don't have a problem with aphrodite being awful, but i wish we had gotten a more twisted version of her meddling and interference. I think part of the problem is that we see all the gods through the eyes of mortal until toa and they are going to have a different perception fo things. I sort of get why apollo was written the way he was, but it's still annoying at times because its an ancient deity written for 10 year olds. I liked his moments when he seemed more ancient and classical even though those moments are few and far between. Most of the gods fall into very obvious tropes, which was fine for me when i was young but now that im older i want more depth which rr just cant provide in his writing style.

ps. do you prefer the pjo gods or the kane chronicles gods?

Eh, I think it's hard to say any of them are characterized well considering how godly personalities are viewed by Hellenistic polytheists. Each individual will feel a different way about a certain god and interpret their presence a different way, to say a god is characterized well is mostly a subjective experience, so it's almost impossible to do so objectively.

However, I think yes Aphrodite was really poorly written, Apollo is also one of the worst written gods by Rick. Apollo is a god of civilization alongside Athena, meaning he has a deep respect for the order of humanity. He was considered one of the most Hellenistic gods by the Greeks, and often overseen the writing of treaties and the creation of cities ("that a town or a colony was never founded by the Greeks without consulting an oracle of Apollo, so that in every case he became, as it were, their spiritual leader"). He's also a god of sciences, and very smart because of it. He is rarely angered or overly invested, and is often described as kind, energetic, and cheerful. He's extremely femme, often depicted in women's clothes, with women's hairstyles (and has even been confused for Kore in some art), and yet he is known for his athleticism. He's a god of agriculture alongside Demeter, and god of light and the sun alongside the titan Helios.

And he's not at all what Rick wrote him as, a self-conceited, bored with humanity, priss who's also a jock. I bet from Rick's writing you also never knew Dionysus was basically a god of gender? And yeah sure, if you know the myth of Dionysus's origins you know about how he was raised as a girl but the fact that Dionysus also often wore women's clothes and hairstyles is completely erased from Rick's work... (Part 2) Or maybe most of Dionysus personality? Yeah sure, one could argue that he's maybe a bit peeved at not being able to drink and having to babysit kids, except wouldn't some of his personality still come through somewhere? Like his clairvoyance, or go with the flow kind of attitude? Where's his love of peace, and his love of theatre? I am thankful at least we got to see some of his madness.

I can go on really, about Hera, and Hermes, and Ares, and Persephone, and so many others. Rick's characterization of the gods is almost like he took the idea of them and then remolded it to be whatever he wanted. I'm not here to say there's a correct way to depict the gods, because as aforementioned it's a very subjective experience which is encouraged in Hellenistic Polytheism- however a lot of what Rick did shows a lack of care in many ways. That's avoiding even really truly digging into the amount of queer erasure (most specifically genderqueer erasure) in Rick's depiction of many Greek gods (and some goddesses too).

I understand the need to simplify them but the need to alter them significantly? It's very weird to me, and I'm not Hellenistic Polytheistic or anything but even as just someone who's read up a lot on the myths it's very quick to see where he went wrong. I've seen more complaints about the PJO fandom than Rick's books in Hellenistic Polytheistic communities, but the books are also criticized.

Again, subjective not objective, but simply to compare Rick's version of the gods to the original myths he is very far off the mark, which is fine if that's how he sees the gods, but I still think he was very far off the mark (again avoiding erasure, which is objective not subjective).

As for my favorite, I like the way Rick wrote the personalities of the Egyptian gods, he did a much better job with making them less simplified and more of a full individual. I will say I am not as familiar with Egyptian mythology, and I have only kept up with some of the stories about Anubis and the underworld, so I don't know how accurate his depiction of the gods is in comparison to them in mythology. I'm more familiar with Egypt and it's gods from historical standpoints than Mythological ones. So in that case the Kane Chronical gods, but even then I'm very aware that Rick was well off the mark with them- whitewashing is common in TKC and that's a whole problem in and of it's self.

#asks #anon

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chaotic-bells · 3 years

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Show your process

To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

RULES - When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag up to 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you’d like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours.

Thank you Anni @whatagreatproblemtohave for the tag! This is even more fun because this is her notebook I’m making.

Planning

Well, I’m a terrible planner, I don’t really plan things. I feel like they happen by accident and luck most of the time lol it started when I was using some leftover dyed paper to make a junk journal, and I’ve realized that making signatures with A5 paper was about the same size as a photograph and they would make nice covers. Then by luck I found some really cool A5 acrylic/mixed media and watercolor papers at the dollar store (I was there to get something else, but I always go through the whole store because I might find something cool) and I’d printed some of my favorite Louis/Harry/Liam pics, inspired by my desire to own copies of the House of Solo outtakes. It all sort of came together and I just had to make these.

Materials

# Cover:

Kraft board 935gsm 1.5mm

Black paper A5 220gsm

Strong glue stick

Strong clear glue

Sandpaper

Picture

# Interior:

White paper A5 160gsm

Watercolor paper A5 190gsm

Acrylic/mixed media paper A5 190gsm

# Binding

Waxed cord 0.5mm

Awl

Curved needle

Scrap cardboard

# Etc

Cutting mat

Metal ruler

Craft knife/box cutter

Fine tip pen/marker

Making

I’ve been a subscriber to SeaLemon’s channel for years, and while I only started book binding this year, I always found it very relaxing watching her videos. I’m using her old Coptic Stich videos for these journals, both for how I make the cover as well as the binding method itself.

I started by cutting the cover boards. I’m making two notebooks at once, so I cut 4 boards by first tracing the picture, then using the ruler and box cutter to cut it to size. I sand any stray bit of the cardboard I don’t want it, or any uneven part.

This board is thick enough that I could just paint it, and I tried that at first with acrylic paint on my test notebook (Louis drinking milk), but the first and last page were getting a bit of transfer from the paint and looking dirty. I tested on a scrap piece of board painting and doing a clear coat, but the even when the can said “matte coat”, it still came out shiny and I didn’t like the look, so I decided to go with the paper wrap path.

It’s important to use a glue that is not very wet, or else the board warps, so I do as much as I can with the glue stick and set the board the dry under heavy books (or a book press, if you have one of those). I use the clear glue to glue the inside as it’s a bit stronger and the edges that are exposed need to really stick down. To make sure nothing warps, I use a glue brush so the layer is very thin, and set it to dry under the books to make sure everything is flat.

While that is drying, I fold my signatures (paper folded in half and stacked in groups). For the white paper, as it’s a bit lighter, I do 3 pages per signature, and the thicker watercolor and mixed media paper I do just 2. For each notebook I do 5 signatures of white, 3 of mixed media and 2 of watercolor paper, giving me a total of 50 pages per notebook. It’s not a big journal, and I don’t know how practical it is to really paint on them, but I’m using the coptic stich, which makes sure every page opens completely flat without harming the other pages, and I also saw videos of Slew painting a full oil painting on his notebook, so I know it’s not impossible. I still think the writing or sketching experience will be pretty good on this because of the paper type. Also, they get to look at those pictures, that’s always a plus.

Once the signatures are all stacked, I create a template using an extra paper to measure where the holes will be. I use the spare cardboard in a V shape as a punching cradle, and with the help of the template I pierce through all the signatures.

This is where I’ll diverge a bit from the pictures. Initially, I bound the signatures and cover first, then glued the picture over the cover stitch, and let it dry at least a couple hours under the heavy books to make sure there was no warping or bubbles. Looked pretty cool because the thread I’m using is very thing, and it didn’t really show under the picture. However, because the thread is very thin, I didn’t like how it opened and closed. The thread feels strong and I didn’t think it would snap, but I decided to cut the binding and redo it with a double thread. As the picture was already glued to the cover, I had to pierce the picture to do the binding. I ended up liking the look better with the exposed thread anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal. Also, not shown here is Evi's final notebook, because I've decided to redo it. I had an issue with the cover (used a different folding technique for the paper and it was bulkier than I wanted to, so her cover is currently under very heavy books drying right now. So the final picture I chose will be a surprise for when she gets her mail in a week or so.

Not counting all the drying time, the whole process takes me about two hours per notebook.

Posting

Well, I shared it on the Larry Library, but I didn’t post it here until now. It’s not original art or an edit so I just didn't 🤷🏻‍♀️

☆ • ☆

I haven’t seen if these were done, but I really liked them, so I’m tagging it.

@sunsmile-lou for this moodboard. Moodboards fascinate me and I want to learn how to make them.

@whatagreatproblemtohave for her Tired Tired Sea art. I feel like I was there for some of it, but it’s just one of my favorites.

@killmygoldenn for the Faith in the Future edit

@essercipertuttienonperse for the Livestream tickets or her rainbow series which I love so much

@evilovesyou for A Song Not for Whispering

#showyourprocess #tag games

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kyluxtrashpit · 3 years

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2020 Fic Recap

I really like writing these and 2020 has been a HELL of a year, so here we go lmao. It’s been a wild ride for sure

Total wordcount: 88 109 words (note: I’m subtracting the ‘sorry I didn’t finish this, here’s a summary of the remaining plot’ that I published for a fic in a previous fandom from this since it’s not relevant here). Overall I wrote less than last year, but given all that happened in terms of the world and personally and fandom-wise and all of it, I don’t feel too bad about it lmao. I also have a lot of WIP words of half-finished things and some planning and such so I feel okay with this

Favours, 4906 words, posted Jan 4

This was a weird one cause this is a two chapter reader insert fic, the same story but told with both Phasma and Hux. I originally wrote this for Phasma, but later decided it would be easy to tweak into a Hux story (which it was lmao) and figured people might like that, so I did both. I had fun doing it, even if this is kind of a very small niche ship and trope wise

Know Your Shadow, 5022 words, posted Feb 16

Ah yes, here we are, the first foray into renben, a ship I had NO idea would grab me so hard but here we are lmao. I’m not done with them either yet, don’t you worry. There’s something about the corruption angle I really like, also Ren is HOT, and it’s also interesting to think about Kylo truly getting to find himself and be who he wants to be. Canon didn’t really satisfy on this, but the concept still interests me and it’s what had me writing this fic. Also, Ben losing his virginity to an older man like Ren is just *chef’s kiss*

Public Indecency, 3719 words, posted Mar 1

And my second renben! This was partially inspired by art and partially by just the idea of not giving one single fuck, and how thrilling that must be for someone like Ben to experience. Ren and the KOR truly do not give a shit and it’s really beautiful in a way. Plus some hinting at found family with the KOR. Ngl, Ben/Kylo finding his place and acceptance with the KOR makes me so Soft and there’s so many words I could write about it. Plus public sex is very hot lmao

Beautiful, 3254 words, posted Mar 8

Back to kylux, and this one was an old WIP I started back when the prompt was first posted on KHK in like 2019 or something. I got stuck on it and then left it for a while. I was digging through my old WIPs, looking for something that might catch my interest and boom, this one did, so I finished it and then posted it. I quite like the fic and it’s a bit more in the ~classic~ style. It’s also always a good feeling to get an old WIP done lmao

Choose Your Destiny, 5077 words, posted Mar 20

More renben and this was my fix it fic for ROKR vol 4. I talked about this more on twitter at the time and why I found the story as it was unsatisfying, but ultimately it’s really just a case of rushed writing and playing into established bad writing (e.g. showing a fall from grace by having someone kill someone eviler than themselves). I also really liked Ren and I felt like Kylo didn’t really get to have enough agency in like... any of it. His motivations were weirdly absent as well, despite this being ostensibly about him. So I wrote this, which I think handled how the story should have gone a lot better and, plus, it’s got smut!

(Okay and the rest are behind a cut for length)

Show of Devotion, 2479 words, posted Mar 28

Renben once again and this time, I mean, it’s all inappropriate use of lightsabers lmao. I was looking at the Ren and was like ‘wow that is SO phallic’ and then the horny brain turned on and, well, here we are. I also wanted a side of found family with the KOR and I think got that with this. It’s horny. It’s fun. What more could one want?

Aural, 2729 words, posted May 12

Okay this one... I have absolutely no excuses for lmao. I’m not even sure where the inspiration came from, I just remember I was in an online work meeting that was boring and the entire sequence of events played itself out in my head. It was all I could do to focus on work for the rest of the day and not immediately write this cursed creation lmao. The worst part was I’d been totally blocked on writing since March and this, THIS, was what eventually broke out of me. In case you haven’t read this one, it’s ear sex. Hux’s dick, Kylo’s ear. No, I don’t know the logistics either. But hey, I had a blast with it, both in terms of writing it and the reactions lmao. Someday I gotta write a follow up involving a nose too

Missed Chances, 10 749 words, posted Jun 7

Ah yes, this is the point where my renben met my kylux and created this absolutely enormous peanut butter cup of a fic lmao. It really was supposed to be like half the length it was, but alas, it was not. Also cockblocking kylux was SO hard, they wanted to fuck SO bad, but I had to stop them, the story demanded it lmao (and people in the comments were MAD, which is always excellent). It’s also when my renben series really started to have like, an overarching plot (aside from the modern au fics which I’ll talk about later). I even still have more instalments planned

Free Use, 6971 words, posted Jun 23

Another one that turned out far longer than initially planned, and also my most popular fic this year! I’m both surprised and not cause like. It’s a complete smut fest + my heavy headcanoning of the personalities of the KOR. People like smut, but I also feel it’s kinda niche considering how deep I’m in for the KOR lmao. So idk, I guess the smut won out. I did have a lot of fun with this one and there’s a lot of characterization thought put into each KOR, so it was really nice to see people loving that as much as I did. Canon gave us crumbs, but I just used them to make meatballs

Eat You Up, 1573 words, posted Jul 5

There’s not a lot to this one, it’s really just renben rimming cause the sexual dynamic with renben is so fun. Kylo/Ben is inexperienced yet eager and depraved enough to impress Ren, which is something considering I think of Ren as Very Experienced lmao. I really do love this ship; it’s a lot of fun to play with

In the Vents, 2002 words, posted Aug 3

Ah and this was my first piece for the stuck inside event on twitter, which I had a lot of fun with. Stuck fetish is one I’ve always wanted to explore, but never had any concrete ideas for. This event led to me finally getting to have Kylo stuck in a wall (plus more as well), which was fun. Also I spent far too long thinking about Hux’s vent contraption set up cause I knew he would never let Millie go anywhere that might hurt her, so I had to come up with a way to make the vent safe and here we are lmao. Hux being an engineer and also the most extra cat owner in existence worked out very well indeed. This was also the start of my creativity boom near the middle-end of the year that uh kinda burned out in a not so great way, but I’ll talk about that later lmao

Distraction, 3658 words, posted Aug 6

Another for the stuck inside event and another kylux/renben sandwich! Also featuring the KOR this time! Listen... it’s a gangbang, it’s got renben, it’s got kylux, it’s got Kylo getting stuffed from all ends... this is the kind of fic that, to me, is pure indulgence lmao. I had a tremendous amount of fun with it

Entrapped, 3484 words, posted Aug 8

So this was also for the stuck inside event (yes, I wrote 3 fics in about a week lmao - I don’t know how I did it either) and it’s darker than the sort of things I usually write. I enjoyed exploring something like this though, something outside my usual purview. It didn’t perform super well, but tbh the dark ones rarely do so lmao

Pit Stop, 1505 words, posted Aug 31

Welp, this is just an excuse for watersports lmao. I like piss, what can I say? And I’ve done it to kylux, so I had to do it to renben, and the modern au ‘need to pee on a road trip’ seemed like the perfect opportunity for it. Not much to say for it really

The Deal, 2431 words, posted Sep 3

Ah and this one here was the first for the throwback event I ran on twitter! The event itself ended up kind of being tainted by drama from one singular person who kind of ruined it by being a jerk for literally no good reason, but I’m not going to talk too much about that. Even with that, I still greatly enjoyed it and this piece might be my favourite from it as a whole. Kylo Amidala, political scandals, neither of them being nice... ahhhh yes, it definitely brought me back lmao

Devotion, 1929 words, posted Sep 10

Another for the throwback event, this time with Emperor and Hound dynamics which, unf, yes, I will literally never get tired of it. I really had fun with every fic from this event and this one was great because I so rarely get to write real action scenes, even if they’re in a flashback here. That and the dynamic itself really made it fun

To Be Wanted, 10 473 words, posted Sep 16

Ah yes, and here is my KBB for the year! I did a minibang this time, as, well, everything was going horribly wrong around the time of sign ups and I thought a mini would be more realistic. I think I was right on that and I’m glad I did it, even if I was torn at the time. The idea itself is one I’d been thinking about for a while. I can’t remember if I thought of it after seeing the leaks for tros or after watching the movie itself, but it’s been with me for a while and while I dithered over whether or not to sign up this year, the idea came back and was just perfect for a minibang. Plus I got an absolutely amazing and wonderful partner, which is really what makes the experience of doing bangs so great. I love this fic, I LOVE the art for it, and the whole experience was definitely a highlight to 2020 as a whole, both overall and in terms of my fandom/writing experience this year

Floss Me, 2033 words, posted Sep 21

My third for the throwback event and also the dental fetish fic I’ve wanted to write for a while now lmao but could never figure out a scenario for. As some of you may remember, 2018-2019, I went through some pretty horrific dental stuff and ultimately I think it kinda gave me a fetish lmao. Also I feel like there may or may not have been a kinky flossing prompt on one of the prompt sites at some point, but I looked everywhere and couldn’t find it so. But anyway, it was a fun fic for a kink I think is quite underrated tbh

The Cost of Certainty, 2541 words, posted Sep 25

My fourth and final piece for the throwback event, and this one is also a contender for my favourite piece from that event. I have always loved the idea of Hux being a serial killer and this was a perfect excuse to write it. I’d also recently finished a rewatch of Hannibal and, well, you can see where this came from lmao. I love writing tension and it was just very fun all around. I almost wish I’d done something like this as a long fic but tbh I don’t think I would’ve enjoyed writing it as much

Huxloween Drawings, 676 words, posted Nov 1

So this isn’t a fic but rather the drawings I did for huxloween, but people wanted them on ao3, so posted they are. Now, I mentioned above that I had this massive creative boom in Aug-Sep, but that it burned out rather badly. This is when that happened. I got into this place where I just... felt like everything I made wasn’t wanted or needed in the fandom. That everything I like is so unpopular at this point that I should just give up and leave. That I’ve spent all this time and energy over the years trying so desperately to get people engaged and so few ever cared and I just... ugh. It was bad. It was really bad and definitely partly fuelled by the bullshit that someone brought up regarding the throwback event (and I still believe that they are the sole cause of it’s poor reception). I, uh, am doing better now and still working through it all but it was a really rough time. But I found myself still wanting to be creative so I decided to draw. I am not good at drawing. I am not an artist. But that’s what made it fun: I went into each drawing knowing it wasn’t gonna look great. That wasn’t the point. So I never got upset about it. I think it helped me a lot tbh and I did really enjoy it and I’m glad I did it

Unconventional, 7243 words (in progress), updated Dec 20, first posted Nov 18

So the next part of me trying to fix the bullshit in my brain creativity-wise was to post the first chapter to this fic. This is a piece I’ve been working on since 2016-2017 (I don’t remember exactly when, but it was pre-TLJ, and I’ve gotten a new computer since so I don’t have the original creation date of the document) but I could just... never get a plot together for it and ever since I abandoned a fic in my old fandom (and this year I finally posted the ‘sorry this isn’t getting finished, here’s a closure summary’ chapter), I’ve been hesitant to post WIPs before being at least 80% done. So I said fuck it, I’m gonna post this and not be scared. Is this fic complete? Nope, but the plan is starting to come together. Do I know exactly where it’s going? Nope, but I don’t need to. Is it self-indulgent as all hell? Absolutely. I love this fic and I love this story and I love the concepts within it. So I posted it and tbh, it really helped. And I think this, combined with my writing break where I drew for 31 days straight lmao were really my saving graces here

Test Run, 3661 words, posted Dec 31

And now my final fic of the year! Which is a ship I honestly wasn’t super into (I don’t hate it, it just generally doesn’t do much for me) but then I did that thing where I thought ‘hmm but could it be written in a way that I am into?’ which, in my experience, always leads to me writing exactly that. Which is what I did here lmao. I’m pretty happy with it though and despite it being very strange to write, as I really had to work to get these two to get where they were going lmao, I had fun with it. I honestly doubt I’ll write more of them, but I’m glad I wrote this one, and I think it’s a good experiment to close out the year with

What have I learned?

Honestly, this year was a clusterfuck lmao. 2019 wasn’t great for me either, but we all lived through this and it was certainly An Experience. I think what this year really helped me focus on was what made me happy. I ended up in some dark places and I don’t want to go there again. It feels repetitive to say that, once again, I have learned that writing what I want is key when I say that every damn year, but tbh I think 2020 underscored it even more so. Spite as a motivator, when used to much, smothers the spark of creativity and the joy of creation. The most important lesson I learned this year by far is to not let that take the driver’s seat. A dash here and there? That’s fine. But as your main motivator? That’s just not healthy. And I need to work to keep it from consuming me like it has been for too long

Goals for 2021?

So last year I didn’t set any hard goals and boy, is it a good thing I didn’t, cause I achieved none of them lmao. I didn’t write more words (though I did write more individual fics, and the word count gap between this year and last is about the size of the difference between a big bang fic and a mini bang fic so really, I think I did okay), I didn’t even write a single fic for BTHB, and, to be really honest, I did not manage to keep my love for writing alive the whole time. I was in a really dark place a few times this year, but that drop in Sep-Oct was the worst from a creative standpoint. I feel like I’m mostly out of it now, even if I still have some work to do maintaining it. I’m hopeful for the future in that regard. The only thing I really did accomplish was that I feel positively towards all the fics I wrote; I’m happy and proud of all of them

So what is my goal? Honestly, I feel like every year I have to relearn the lesson of ‘write what you want, have fun, be self-indulgent, fuck expectations, etc.’ and my goal this year is to not have to relearn that again, but to keep that energy and carry it with me for the whole year. I realize I may have to put some effort in there, but I’m okay with that. I don’t know what 2021 has in store, but if I can just keep my passion alive and not fall into that pit again, I’m calling it a win

#kylux #renben #hey I'm not late this year lmao #it's been an interesting one that's for sure #anyway I'm happy with all my fics this year which is good #but I need to keep working at keeping my head in the right space #which will likely take some practice #but I'm off to a good start #and I have good feelings about the future in that regard #so here's to a 2020 full of writing about kylo getting railed to high heaven #and to a 2021 full of the same!#my fic #long post #shut up nerd

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myevilmouse · 3 years

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2020 Fic Year In Review

This disaster year was my second of writing fanfic for the Star Wars fandom, focused as always on my handsome Jedi and charismatic Grand Admiral. Here’s the same thing I did last year: basically share the idea of the fic I wanted to write and the result of what came out of that idea.

Because I don’t outline or plan, it is often as much a surprise to me as to my readers as to where the story winds up. But I enjoy the magic that is surrendering to the muse / autonomous typing hands, so I doubt that will change anytime soon.

Context: 2020 began with the fic whining circle’s discussion of the sad dearth of blowjobs for Luke Skywalker in fandom. We resolved to remedy this with the creation of the Luke Deserves All The Blowjobs Challenge, our 12-month mission to provide our man with 12 blowjobs, detailed lovingly for your (and his) pleasure. We all agreed to contribute and so my first offering was:

1. Anomaly

Idea: In 2019, I participated in the Star Wars Rare Pairs Fic Exchange. Shanlyrical had requested the pairing of Guri/Luke, which I’d never considered. I didn’t get assigned that one (I got assigned Thrawn/Original Art Forger), but the idea stayed with me. The blowjob challenge was the perfect opportunity.

Result: A one-shot I am quite proud of, written from droid POV attempting to seduce our Jedi (who is quite difficult to seduce damn his perfect ass), full of technical and cyborgian terminology. Since shanlyrical had put the ship in my brain, it was gifted to her.

2. Comfortable

Idea: Write an “old married Skywalkers” smutfic for a Valentine’s Day gift to my Luke/Mara cohorts.

Result: A rather florid one-shot that is overstuffed with choice adjectives and bursting at the seams with love for my Jedi’s happy ever after.

3. The Problem With Prophecy

Idea: Write a Thrawn/Pryce fic for the Thryce Discord’s Valentine’s Day. The prompts shifted, from “blind date” to “soulmates” or maybe vice versa as a theme. I had already started it when the prompt changed so made them both work.

Result: Another “how they got together fic” (of which I seem to write many for Thryce) that was a lot of fun to write, with a little contemplation about free will vs destiny in there.

4. Proxy

Idea: The Luke Deserves All The Blowjobs Challenge needed more fic, and no one wrote that Asajj Ventress/Luke pairing I had requested for SW rarepairs 2019… *cracks knuckles* If you want something done, gotta do it yourself!

Result: This was an interesting challenge. Whilst I typically attempt to create scenarios for Luke to bang all the ladies that are SOMEWHAT realistic, I decided the only way to make this happen was to assume whatever plot was required to set this up had already occurred, so it starts *cough* right before the action, so to speak. I also sort of low-key ship Ventress/Kenobi (what is that called? Ventrobi?) so operated throughout with the idea that since she couldn’t have Obi-Wan, she was settling for another Jedi as a plaything. Since I used only pronouns for Ventress in the fic, I suppose the reader could imagine any wicked woman or Nightsister or whomever on the other end of Luke’s cock, but in my brain it’s Asajj and she is a lucky woman (and Luke is a lucky man). Anyway, it was probably one of my least popular fics this year but I still like it!

5. Thranto 400 Works Celebration Ficlet (Ch 3: Everything To Lose)

Idea: @jessko-fic asked me to contribute to this collection to commemorate the Thrawn/Vanto ship hitting 400 works on AO3. Me: Slash?!?!

Result: I don’t write slash in general because I just…don’t really enjoy it, doesn’t float my boat or melt my butter, although so often I wish that weren’t the case. I have read a lot of Thranto thanks to Jess’s evil influence though, and thought I could tackle this ship. I wanted to write something exactly 400 words for the 400 works thing, and the result was a little “missing scene” that I hope was true to the spirit of the collection while also slotting into Thrawn and Eli’s storyline.

6. Creativity

Idea: For The May The Fourth fic exchange, try to hit my giftee’s likes and stuff as many MacGyver-inspired easter eggs as possible into the story.

Result: 14 “original series” MacGyver-isms crammed into this thing, including winks and nods to names and dates, and plenty of Luke and Mara banter to accompany the mission. One of my most researched fics this year and one of the most fun to write! And my giftee loved it, which is the best result possible.

7. Physical Graffiti

Idea: Agreed to a one-on-one fic exchange with @jessko-fic, since we never get matched in “regular” exchanges. She requested Luke x Sabine, which tied in perfectly to my never-ending goal of Luke x All The Ladies.

Result: A (hopefully) sexy multi-chapter that required a lot of research on timelines to get them together for this “missing scene” and Mandalorian stuff. My septuagenarian mom has proclaimed it’s her favorite of any of my stories, so I call it a success. O_O Yes, she reads my fic.

8. Strangers When We Meet

Idea: Write a reader-insert fic for @enmudecer. I love setting challenges for myself, and writing a smutty reader insert was something entirely new to tackle.

Result: I think reader inserts sometimes get a bad name but they can be a lot of fun. I avoided the (y/n) convention because I find it pulls me out of the story, tried hard to keep it gender neutral, and hopefully everyone who reads it can feel like they just banged Luke Skywalker 😉 Also I have a long-standing goal of writing songfic, and while I didn’t do it here, at least the title is from a Bowie song that seemed appropriate. So not just my first reader-insert, my first song-titled-fic!

9. Infectious

Idea: The Thryce Discord, and in particular @handsofthrawn, had been asking/lobbying me for ages about writing a quarantine fic since the world was in lockdown.

Result: Well, this is what I achieved this year, when I look back at what I accomplished. My longest fic ever, and a particularly ambitious premise of getting from an awkward, miserable (and hopefully realistic) fuck-or-die scenario to a happy ever after for my evil OTP. I unashamedly love this story and I’m so happy and grateful to the readers who loved it with me—their comments and kudos gave me life when the stress of reality made me want to curl into a defensive little ball and hide for the rest of the year.

10. Evilmousetober 2020

Idea: I couldn’t choose what X-tober prompts to use for my October drabbles this year, so I used whatever felt right that day.

Result: A compilation of my tumblr drabbles from various October prompts.

11. Dis Manibus

Idea: I am not going to write this fic. I am not going to write this fic. Crack and ridonc and no way is there any conceivable way it would work. And then I wrote it. The basic concept as my muse nagged me was to write the “nightmare comfort” trope with Luke and Pryce. WHY?! I HAVE NO IDEA I DON’T CONTROL THIS BITCH. Anyway, the idea wouldn’t go away.

Result: This fic is the perfect exhibit of how I never know what the heck is going to happen when I start writing. Everything was a surprise to me, including the Thryce element to what was SUPPOSED to be a Luke/Pryce fic. Also I didn’t get the smut I wanted. *curses* But I like it anyway and it worked, timing-wise, for Halloween-y themes.

12. Alone Time

Idea: After swearing not to write fic for the rest of the year, @contentment-of-cats put out her Merry Chissmas bingo card and my ambitious ass decided to try to knock every single prompt out with a one-shot.

Result: Thrawn jerking off in the shower and thinking verrrrrry naughty things. I apologize for nothing.

So in 2019 I wrote 26 fics and this year only got to about 12…but fanfic is for fun, and we all needed fun this year. I enjoyed writing for you and I hope you enjoyed reading my output. I look forward to providing more smexy silly and strange fic for you in 2021. <3

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lighdramons · 3 years

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Hi I'm back. I promised awhile ago I’d tell the story of the fucked up digi.mon cult, so I figured that’s a great start for getting back onto this hellsite.

If the read more works, everything will be below the cut and it is a mess. Just a few things before the cut though:

General TW as I will be bringing up some of the bad experiences I had as well as talking about mental illness.

I will not be using names of sites, usernames, etc. I will not answer on specific users either. I’m sure these sites are still operating somewhere privately and back in the day, some of these people were big in the Digi.mon community outside of the sites as well.

If any of the people involved see this, no ill wishes towards you guys, just my take on things.

I quit these sites back in early 2015. I do not know what happened after I quit. I am only still in contact with a few individuals who either quit around the same time as me or long before.

As a general courtesy, some of these sites still exist. Please do not go harass them. A lot of the public sites are just teens trying to figure out themselves.

If you have questions or comments after reading this whole thing, I’m happy to answer any either publicly or privately. And yes, you can reblog this post.

We need to jump back to 2007 to begin with. I was a middle schooler getting back into Digi.mon because I walked into Gamestop and Digi.mon was sitting in the new releases. And I had access to the internet. I did binge S1-5 with subs and watching reruns of the dub on Toon Disney. I spent some time on the big fansite. Great site, just bad experience at the time because I was a teen and probably lied about my age. I didn’t feel like that was the community for me. I do check it every day now for news, just never made a new account cause I don’t even remember what I used back in the day.

By end of 2008/beginning of 2009 I began looking for other sites, stumbled across the digiclipse stuff on the bad encyclopedia site, looked into it, thought it was neat, moved on. Stuck with the big site for now because the only other sites I found were RP sites and not my thing at the time. Got hit hard with depression at the start of 10th grade (late 2010) and found my way back onto the digiclipse stuff. Didn’t really believe most of it, but thought the idea of creating AI Digi.mon was neat. Joined the smaller of the two sites because it felt friendlier and most users seemed my age.

For people who do not know, digiclipse is the act of going outside and holding the toys up hoping to get teleported. Most people by the time I joined thought the people who did this were crazy. Some people liked to do it for the lolz though.

Anyways, most of what happened on the sites was just talking and hanging out in chat rooms about life and other things. It was pretty chill. I can’t speak for everyone on the sites, but for me it was an escapism kind of thing. I was depressed and hated life so pretending that a magical adventure was a possibility gave me some hope. But honestly, got a group of people who were cool to talk with for the most part. There was one older female in her mid 20s that would come in the chat drunk and sexually harass the other female users and tell all the male they should die and are worthless. Nothing was ever done about her. And honestly it was weird having her there when most of the other people on the site were under 18. That was initially my only bad experience on the sites.

At some point during 2011, there were three individuals who claimed to see and speak with their digi.mon partners. And that they could read your aura and tell you exactly your digi.mon partner. And everyone believed this shit, mostly because two of them were prominent members and how could they lie. The process was simple, you would DM them either a creative piece you’ve done (art, writing, etc) or send a photo of yourself and they’d come back in a few days and tell you who your partner was. There was only ever one individual this method of tracking did not work on and that is yours truly. Oh and at the time it hit hard because I had started falling down the rabbit hole. This is the beginning of the cult-ish stuff.

Then the Ouija board happened. I have no issues with what happened during the fucking around with said Ouija board, I have issues with everything that spiraled out of control after. They fucked around with it confirming people’s partners that the others had “found”. And eventually they asked about mine. And then it was basically said, “oh we can’t tell you the results”. I was eventually added to this secret site of “The Chosen”. And basically told, “oh your partner is the offspring/creation of THE BIG BAD” and there were all sorts of debates on what to do about it. I literally thought I was getting punked at first and these people are clearly taking this whole thing too far. No, these people all believed this. Oh and the best part, most of the people involved in this “chosen” group were in their mid 20s. Me being a depressed as fuck 16yo that just wanted something exciting in life ended up eating all this up. I felt special and chosen. I look back on it now and I’m like what a fucking idiot.

We were all taught from the three who could do the stuff I explained earlier how we can also learn to bond and communicate and see our partner. I had absolutely no progress. Eventually this stuff led to everyone in this “chosen” group getting a “special guardian spirit”. Again, I made no progress on this. And to the point where they made me feel special again, I was the only person who had the wrong “guardian spirit” and they eventually found my “real one”, more on this later.

These discussions moved from a forum site to a private skype chat room, and then further smaller private chat rooms. The movement to skype is where I started having some bad experiences. I gave a few of my “close” friends on the site my phone number, soon everyone had my number. And this happened to multiple people over the years. My own stupidity at the time.

This stuff continued as I finished high school. At the time, I still managed to maintain my social life with school friends, keep up my grades, etc. Got into college with a good scholarship in my dream field. And then I started to go downhill once I got to school. The longer this stuff went on, the more you were expected to be involved. Including being on skype calls all night. It slowly began consuming my life. I ended up not only with depression, but ending up with an ED that was tied to anxiety so I’d go days without eating. I was seeing things and hearing voices, which was highly encouraged because it meant things were working. I literally could not tell the difference of when I was asleep or awake. I honestly do not remember the majority of my freshman year of college. I had no real friends and was just barely scraping by grade-wise. And well, the academic year almost ended with me hanging from a pipe in my dorm.

I ended up running the site I started on as an admin after the original admin team left. And it was expected you do not mention any of the “secret” stuff on the main site. Over the years I know it became clear to the users not included that there were secrets in the background. And those who knew stuff would actively fuck with these users. And if I haven’t made it clear yet, there was a hierarchy to this whole secret group. And it was the original three who were mentioned at the beginning that were on top. And what they said was gospel. Whatever they claimed is what happened and whatever rules they had were the rules. But of course certain people could break the rules and get away with it.

This next part happened at some point during my freshman year and will be relevant again later on. This is the biggest TW section so skip if you have to. I had a user dox me. He had my home address and threatened to post it. He had sent it privately to a few other users as well that alerted me of this. His reasoning? I would not date him or say I loved him. He told me that he would come to my house, murder me, r*pe my dead body, because he is the only one who gets to have me. Another user got involved and called the cops. I do not know if anything ever came of this because I never spoke to anyone about it. I at the time had admin privileges on one of the sites so I banned him and blocked his IP and I blocked him on anything I could. And I continued doing this over the years. I was told I was a bad person for doing this because I did not understand him. This lead to a lot of the things in the above paragraph getting worse.

As this all continued, there were battles and casualties and everyone ended up with like 20 partners. And if you haven’t noticed I’ve stopped using the term digi.mon entirely in the past few paragraphs. That’s because oh they weren’t digi.mon. They were spirits/dimensional beings that took on a form we were comfortable with and we formed a bond with. And I kept going along with all of this because I was in too deep at this point. And obviously yes, this all made sense. So at some point during this time, my “spirit” went to sleep and a new one “awakened”. And I of course still went along with all this. The BIG BAD kept mutating into stronger forms and blah blah blah.

During my fall semester sophomore year, I joined theatre at my college and did tech. Honestly, one of the reasons I was able to begin breaking away from this. I started to get an actual friend group and have less time for these sites. But there was always a pull of “you have to be here”. You were expected to be on skype calls and/or active in chat.

Well, that all changed at the start of 2015. They wanted a deletion of all the other sites and they would have one site united under one belief system. I was not a huge fan of this and made this known, but also offered to help in the coding as that was a skill I had that no one else really had. It got out around that I was a cunt and a power hungry bitch and blah blah blah. If it was just that, I would probably not have left. No no no, I was accused of lying about the shit that that user said and did to me. Because he is such a nice guy that could never do that type of stuff. And unless I provided the receipts I was clearly an attention seeking liar that wanted to ruin his life. That was the straw. I fucking blacked out in a rage and attempted to delete some of the different websites, I blasted some of these people on their real facebooks, and then I deleted all of my accounts and blocked everyone and blocked their numbers.

After that, I started talking with other people that quit. I started enjoying my college life. And I tried to act like none of that stuff had happened. I distanced myself from those individuals that were active in the Digi.mon community. I stopped hearing the voices and seeing things. I started going to therapy. My road hasn’t been perfect, but I’ve come a long way since I got out of this stuff. Honestly going to meet up with one old member after covid is all clear cause we’ve known each other for over a decade now and its about time we finally meet in person.

So yeah, that’s my story. I know I jumped around a bit and thoughts might not be too clear, but I wanted to share the fucked up things that happen in the background of the digi.mon community. Did I have good times? Hell yeah. The Olive Garden incident still to this day is iconic. We played d&d oneshots sometimes. We had memes. We all watched xros and hunters together live. And I still have some good friends out of this. The most fascinating thing out of all of this is everyone from the community that I still am either in contact with or see them via social media had admitted over the years to suffer from some kind of mental illness and has come out as part of the LGBTQA+ community. My own conclusion is a lot of us got sucked in due to depression/escapism and just a feeling of not belonging. And being around people of similar age with similar interests just made things more bearable at times. It also made a lot of us very vulnerable to the manipulation that took place, whether it was intentional or just one big group delusion created by multiple mentally ill people. I call it a cult, but I'm sure people will disagree with me. Whatever you want to call it, it wasn't good for my mental health in the long run.

If this shit is still going on, I hope people aren’t letting it consume their lives. And I just wish the best for everyone even if some of the shit hurt me.

As I said up top, if you want me to elaborate on anything or have questions, I’m good with talking about stuff. If you know me IRL and are reading this and are like "RACHEL WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK" I owe you a drink and explanation. And of course it Is okay to reblog. This is one hell of a comeback post on this site, am I right?

#ray's rants #im back on this hellsite and im here to share bullshit

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neocatharsis · 3 years

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The Brilliant Members of World Renowned NCT 127 Share Their Thoughts Fashion, Music, Lifestyle, Favorite Things… What Their Individual Styles Are　#009 MARK

Some Excerpts

To know the world, to be a writer. What are your thoughts on that?

MN: Now then, after thoroughly reading your questionnaire, how to put this, it’s not that often that you see so many amazing responses in one place that happen to be philosophical in nature. That’s how amazing we thought your responses were, MARK-san.

M: Woh~!!

MN: For the question, “If you were to introduce yourself to the readers of MEN’S NON-NO as if you were doing so to someone you just met for the first time, what would that be?”, you answered, “I’m a young man who is still learning about the world”. How concise yet such lovely words. Please tell us in what way you are coming face-to-face with the world right now.

M: Wow, thank you very much. I often feel how scary it is the way time just flies by. Like time is flashing by in an instant. However, I feel that the “youth” of each person is exactly when that person feels like “it is right now”. Of course, it depends on the person, but I think that there is a sense of youth that I can feel at any given time, whether I’m in my 30’s or my 40’s, and I think that will change depending on how I feel and how I perceive it. What I can say now is that somewhere inside, I feel like, “I still have yet to know the world”. That’s why I always feel that I’m in still the process of learning more about the world, and that I have a lot of new things to learn with so many different aspects. There is so much wisdom, information, and knowledge in this world, and it’s as if I’m digesting these things one by one within my mind without rushing the process, and I’m shaping my identity by selecting what I need. I feel like I’m amidst this process.

MN: It feels like facing the vastness of the outside world is also connected to facing yourself. Also, to the question, “What is your source of inspiration for creative work?”, you wrote, “EVERYTHING”.

M: That’s true. I’m currently trying to understand so many things and ingest them within myself. So, well, I guess I’m in the middle of my lessons.

MN: You talked about how you perceive the world, but the concept of the group is exactly “TO THE WORLD”. For the question, “What is important to you in expressing yourself and conveying your style as a global artist?”, you wrote, “I believe that we should know ourselves and be honest with ourselves”. To the world, to know yourself. It seems that “to know” is important you.

M: With regard my policy of being honest with myself in order to know myself, I believe it is necessary with all aspects. For example, as an artist, “I wasn’t honest with my previous performance, but this time I am”, just doesn’t cut it. After all, I think that in order to absorb various things, you should always be honest with your feelings and with yourself. Inspiration often comes from the outside, but I think it’s important to think about how you interpret it, what types of emotions you are willing to accept, and how you are going to express them. I feel like I’m always trying to figure out how I interpret a song and its concept with honesty, and then how I’m going to perform that song. I think the other members are the same, but TAEYONG-san, who also writes lyrics as I do, likely has many opportunities to feel the same way when writing poetry.

MN: Since you brought up writing lyrics, I’d like to ask you a couple of things accordingly. To the actual question, “What dream would you like to achieve in your life other than music?”, you responded, “To write literary work”. We can tell that you like to write from the questionnaire that was jam-packed with words, but please tell us what is important to you when putting your feelings into words, and if there is anything you would challenge yourself to try.

M: Let’s see… Though I mention writing, it’s mostly lyrics these days. However, in order to complete those lyrics, I need to keep writing down my ideas. Those ideas become the source of everything I write and I start from there. Each letter/character and sentence always are the basis of my lyrics and other works, and I think that they contain my various viewpoints as well as perspectives. I also try to express these different viewpoints and perspectives in words.

MN: That’s a vital essence on how to create works of art.

M：For example, even if the theme is the same, the interpretation will change depending on how you look at things, or rather, your point of view, and I think this will appeal differently to people. So, the lyrics then are taken further as they fit the music. Thus, the way it is conveyed will then change depending on the beat and sounds. I rather enjoy that part of it. As far as things “I would like to challenge myself to” in the future… Of course, right now, I think that writing lyrics is already a good way for me to express myself in terms of writing itself, and it’s very gratifying as well, but… If in the future, really further into the future, that is, once I have achieved a lot of experience, it would be wonderful if I could publish a book.

MN: Wow! We look forward to that!

M: My original dream was to become an author! And I am really satisfied that I am able to write lyrics and sing those lyrics, but it would be something if I could publish a book someday when I’m older….

MN: As a young man still in the process of learning about the world, we hope for the day when you, MARK-san, have seen and listened to more things, will be able to share your experiences with us.

M: One day, eventually. Whether it be a novel, or some kind of autobiography, or even something that’s philosophical…or something that represents my thoughts… As of now, it is all up in the air, but I do hope to be able to write a book of that sort one day.

MN: So, your passion for writing something is being devoted to the creation of lyrics.

M: Well, to be honest, I don’t’ really think I’ve been able to express myself fully yet. As I mentioned earlier, I’m still in the process of learning and absorbing various things, and in many ways, I feel my writing skills are still in its infancy as well. However, the important thing to remember is that it’s often not until you write down what you’re thinking about that you realize what it is that you were thinking about. When I write, a lot of things come to mind, and they then naturally becomes letters/characters and then sentences. So, I didn’t notice it before I began writing, but as I continued to write, I realized, “Oh, I had this idea in me” and “I had that idea in me”. The thoughts and feelings that were hiding within began coming to light. Right now, I find that process very stimulating”

MN： And what we hear is what has been output from that process.

M: I guess that’s how it works. And there’s one thing I know without a doubt. I am currently trying to express myself on a daily basis while feeling how “interesting” everything is. Besides, I think that if you don’t have fun yourself while experiencing all these different things, it simply won’t be able to write and express yourself well. That’s why I feel that, in addition to “writing”, it’s important for me to experience more interesting and different things.

MN: Well put. We will introduce the songs written by you, MARK-san, and TAEYONG-san, who came up earlier, at the end of this topic.

What kind of place is NCT 127 for MARK?

MN: We would like to ask what NCT 127 means to you, MARK-san?

M: Yes, certainly!

MN: There was one thing that was deeply impressive and we’d like to share that with the readers first. Two years ago, YUTA-san gave his first solo interview with MEN’S NON-NO and that article became a record-breaking hit. After it posted, when we told him about it at the Saitama Super Arena concert (NCT 127 1st Tour ‘NEO CITY:JAPAN‐The Origin’), you were next to him and we were surprised that you jumped up before him. We felt your deep affection for the other members.

M: Ahh~, thank you for looking over me with such warmth!

MN: We can’t forget how you shook YUTA-san’s shoulders and said, “You did it!”, while YUTA-san was still in shock, saying, “What? Really?” (laughter). All the staff members were talking about how “MARK’s response was the fastest~!”

M: Haha! First off, I mean, YUTA-san is just so adorable. I really do love him. It is of course important to be happy when someone important to you has had something good happen to him, and I’m sure YUTA-san would do the same for me. So, right now in that way, for me, the members mean a lot to me and I want everyone to be happy, and to be really happy all the time.

MN: It shows how you care about one another.

M: Since we are friends who have truly shared various things together and have experienced both joy as well as hardship, we’re so close that we can almost always tell what each other is thinking about. I think that it is more comfortable for each and every one of us to be each other than to be with anybody else, which I’m sure is the same for everybody else.

MN: In contrast, to the question, “What is behind the coolness of NCT 127?”, you responded, “I find it cool to be able to accomplish something difficult, so I think it is cool how I challenge myself and my team challenges itself in order to do so!”

M: We as NCT 127 are an ambitious group. We strive to pursue that ambition and are constantly trying to upgrade our own capabilities. I think these activities have made me a smarter person, and when they look at one another, I feel that we as an entire group are becoming more mature and blossoming through that effort. NCT 127 has really become an indispensable part of my life now. It’s a place in which I am able to grow and where happiness exists.

What are your thoughts about communication?

MN: To the question, “Please list three things that make up who you are, MARK-san”, you wrote, “Family, members, fans”. It appears you’re all about “people”, MARK-san. Due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, it is becoming increasingly difficult to see our loved ones. With group activities, not being able to do offline concerts or events. Under these circumstances, what do you find is important, MARK-san, when it comes to connecting with your family, members, and fans?

M: I find it truly “unfortunate and sad” that we are unable to do our regular activities and unable to see each other. But since there’s really nothing we can do about this situation, I think we have to accept it. On the other hand, in times like these, I think it’s really important to “communicate” with your loved ones and to find a way to communicate with them. For example, even between husband and wife, it is often said that it is not good to rely too much on “knowing without saying”. I mean, I’ve heard that there are some things that you simply can’t know unless you put them into words… Although, I don’t know about that kind of thing yet (LOL)

MN: Yes, we hear that a lot (LOL).

M: Even I used to nebulously think that my fans likely knew how much I wanted to see them and that I miss them when I can’t see them. However, I have come to realize that it is definitely necessary for people to communicate with each other and to properly express their feelings. I feel more aware of the importance of expressing my feelings in words without assuming that they will understand. With this in mind, I’ve been trying to express my feelings in words through SNS and online content as much as possible, so that my fans can think, “Oh, I’m so glad I waited for you.” I’d like to communicate with my fans through the use of my own words, so that I can stay connected and in a good relationship with all my fans for a long time to come.

MN: Your feeling are already clearly conveyed in those words.

M: If that’s the case, I am happy!

MN: The questionnaire we received back from you was positive overall, and full of strong willed words, but there was one particular answer that was really striking. It was the answer you wrote, “I would like others to see me as a happy person, but in fact, I have a lot of things to worry about.” to the question, “What kind of gap is there between the real you and how you want to be seen by others?” To the question, “What would you like to overcome?”, you responded, “Worrying too much about unnecessary things.” Of course, nobody is fine all the time, but you have an image of being cheerful and energetic, MARK-san. So, the question is, how do you fill in the gaps when it comes to that?

M: Ugh~. That’s partly due to my personality. When I meet people, when I come face-to-face with them, whether it’s the fans or people who are normally around me, I don’t like to show them that I’m not doing well because I’ve had a bad day, for example. I mean, I don’t think it’s in my nature to show my negative side. The reason is that there is nothing wrong with the other person. So, to express the problem I’m having in front of that person is… well, I think it’s just wrong. That’s why I always want to bring as much positive energy as possible to the person in front of me, and to be in a cheerful state.

MN: It’s common to take your anger out on others when you are in a bad mood, but you are making an effort to control yourself there! With regard to, “a memorable piece of advice you received from somebody”, you responded, “TREAT OTHERS THE WAY YOU WISH TO BE TREATED.” There feels like a connection here.

M: Yes, there is. In particular, for my fans, I want to show a good image of myself. They always support us, and even for our concerts and events, they often come from afar to meet us. Why would we want to take the trouble to show our negative side under those circumstances? If we did, we would wind up in regret after getting off the stage. That’s why I always want to deliver energy to my fans, and even if I do have worries or concerns, I do what I can to not to show them. There’s always another place where I can release it. So, if I’m in a bad state, I tend to shift my emotions. I try to eliminate my worries and concerns as much as possible, but if I find it difficult or impossible to do, I think it’s something that should be resolved by talking to the members of the group, talking to my family, or talking to the people around me.

#nct #nct 127 #Mark

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Pinky and the Brain: A Pinky And the Brain Christmas Review or I Just Think Schotzie’s Neat

Christmas Continues on this blog... and getting away from one set of Christmas commissions and into another, I offered my friend Blahdiddy three commissions as a present. The other two we’ll get to eventually, but with Animaniacs on the brain, heh, due to the reboot, he selected two Pinky and the Brains and one Animaniacs for me to cover. And while I intended to cover this one sometime this month anyway, my friend’s recent and sad covid diagnosis meant i’m bumping this one all the way up to the front of the line so he has some christmas cheer during this rough time. So with that in mind let’s talk about pinky, pinky and the brain brain brain brain brain shall we? Of course we can’t really talk about pinky and the brain without talking about Animaniacs. I absolutely love the series, I grew up with it as a kid and reconnected with it as an adult when it ended up on netflix. It was smart, well animated and most importantly really fucking funny. I highly recommend checking both the original and reboot of it out some time if you have Hulu. Speaking of the reboot while I might go on in full about it at some point it’s pretty good, with some creatvie jokes, some nice updates, with Rita Anita Anrita being a great new addition to the warner side of things. It’s only real flaw is it gets a bit reptitious as for the most part there’s only really the warners and pinky and the brain with a few exceptions one of which DAMN well deserved at least two segments and we all know which one that is.

Bring.. this.. to series. The warners and pinky and the brain segments weren’t bad, but as is inevitible in a screwball comedy some just weren’t as good as others and those fell harder when you’ve already seen 2 or 3 better versions of this sort of skit in the season. They did really find their groove towards the end and if you like both Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain, or even just one or the other, it’s worth checking out. But enough about the reboot let’s talk about those labratory mice whose genes have been spliced. Thanks to wikipedia, I now know the duo were based on Eddie Fitzgerald and Tom Minton, who worked with Tom Rutgeter on Tiny Toon adventures, with menton being the one who came up with Narf, even saying it in one episode of Tiny Tunes. During the creation of animaniacs, Bruce Timm, yes THE Bruce Timm, sketched the two, and Ruetger added mouse ears and the rest was history. Maurice LaMarche was the one who added the Orson Welles to the character, as LaMarche saw the Orson Welles in Brain, ran with it and got the part and a long and storied career in voice acting as a result. In a nice and fitting bit of contrast, Rob Paulsen got the part.. because he was already on the show. Not to downplay Paulsen’s clear talent, I just find it hilarious.

That’s about what I could dig up on the behind the scenes of the show. From what I can tell it was greenlit because Animaniacs was a massive it, and Pinky and the Brain was the most popular segment, so it just made sense. The show would likewise be a massive sucess with both adults and kids, and go on for three seasons and what should legally be considered a war crime.

For those of you blissfully unaware yeah, that happened, no no one people actually LIKED from Tiny Toons was in it. And yeah if you want me to talk about it commission it otherwise not going near this one. While I do need to tackle more bad animation... I’ve successfully avoided watching an episode of this show for 22 years next wedsday, I’m not breaking the streak for free.

But some.. things aside I remembered liking the series as a kid but just never got around to seeking it out as an adult. I had nothing against the animaniacs segments and I even still have a stuffed brain doll I got at a garage sale.. the pinky is sadly missing and persumed dead. I just wasn’t as bit into it as I was the slappy bits rewatching animaniacs and didin’t really see reason to watch the show. Watching this though made me realize I was wrong and I probably watch more of it in the future This special is damn good, i’m pleased ot review it and to revive and old childhood memory. So with all the exposition out of the way let’s talk Pinky, PInky and the brain brain brain brain christmas edition after the cut.

This was indeed a special: while it was presumably produced with season one of the show and is packaged with it both on DVD and on Hulu, where I watched it, the special was aired in prime time and even put on it’s own VHS.. which I found out and of course, like with my review of the Darkwing Duck Pilot, had to use as the art for old VHS’ tapes for cartoons.. was really fucking beautiful and it’s a nice break from my traditional screencaps. So we open with a clever Christmas rendition of the theme, frequently sprinkling in bits of other christmas stuff, utterly fantastic. The intro animation is less impressive as it’s literally just the regular intro but with a stock snow effect over everything. In case you thought Ducktales doing that was a new thing. I do not blame the team however, as apparently they only had a week to get the scripts out, so I highly doubt warner was forking out more cash for the animation than they had to. They still forked out enough to make it LOOK really good mind you, something I wish they’d do more often with their DTV Movies but do do with their animated shows still with certain exceptions so good on them, i’m just saying they clearly cared more about money than having a memorable christmas opening. Given a budget to actually make one, i’m sure the animators would’ve come up with something lovely, and i’m sure the same is true of Ducktales and other shows and like i’ve said, i’m highly in favor of shows actuallly doing unique openings for the holidays, especially since Holiday episodes tend to get reaired every year as long as the show is in circulation on the network. Sometimes even if it isn’t. So it’s fully worth the effort to fork out a little extra for this as while you’ll most likely only use it once, you’ll be using the special for years. You can afford to treat yourself networks come on. It’s...

Just like Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain. But onto the episode itself after 80 years. We find Pinky writing his Christmas list to santa, complete with Narf, a gag I like. As usual for a comedy show, I will try to gloss over as much of the gags as possible, to avoid repetttion but yeah this episode is really damn funny and reminded me just how good these characters are. Maurice and Rob just have perfect chemistry. It’s like Tom and Jerry: It’s a very simple premise, that one being “Cat chases mouse and Mouse beats shit out of mouse”, and pinky and the brain of course being “Super genuis mouse and dimwitted but loveable sidekick try and takeover the world eveyr night”. But a simple premise can be used just about anywhere and adapated for anything. To me a cartoon’s premise only has to be as complicated as it needs to be to work. Sometimes you have a vast complex tapestry behind the world like She Ra, Steven Universe or Avatar with lots of planning and ins and outs and deep character stuff.. and sometimes you just have two mice who get into shenanigans because one is a would be dictator who sounds like orson welles and the other’s a loveable british weirdo/moron. Sometimes simple just works.

Anyways, Brain, noticing Pinky’s distracted and replaces himself with a horrifying poorly made doll of himself called Noodle Noggin, which is both an excellent name and not the only time they’d use the name either, as there was an animaniacs short about Brain making himself a fad to endear himself to the children of the future with the same name. It’s just an inherently funny set of words, but also shows Brain’s genius in a subtle and clever way as he never spells it out, but despite sounding kind of ridiculous for such a buttoned up intellectual like brain... he knows that’s the kind of name kids will eat up. His schemes may often fail, but he’s an objectively brilliant schemer and i’ts often either PInky’s incompetence or his own miscalculation of humanity, either over or underestimating them, that undoes Brain. Back to the plot, so Brain’s plan is to distribute noodle noggins around the world, make it the hot new toy, and as always, take over the world. Problem is naturally two Mice simply don’t have the resources to make the billions of dolls. But PInky stumbles upon the solution in the paper: a want ad for elves! Everything about that sentence except “pinky stumbles upon the solution” has not aged paticuarlly well, but point is they have a plan and we have our christmas special. This does bring me to my one problem with the special.. Brain’s weird inconsistency towards Santa. What I mean is he spends the portion doubting Santa can do anything he’s claimed to despite being proven frequently he can. That part is not all that annoying as it’s in character with him and while yes, he is a talking mouse, he’s also a man of science and reason and Santa is the opposite of that. That would be fine... IF it wasn’t for the fact that said magical bollocks weren’t constantly part of his plans. Despite Brain constantly throughought the special doubting Santa... his plans FREQUENTLY rely on everything we’ve heard about him being right. His initial plan here ENTIRELY runs on the fact Santa has a massive workforce to make the toys yet even if that’s true by Brain’s own logic, he wouldn’t be able to deliver them. Later when the boys need to escape, They hide with the Reindeer despite Brain just saying santa can’t be everywhere in one night.. which if he can’t then the odds are slim he’ll wind up at Acme Labs isn’t it? It would be fine if the special acknowledged any of this outside of one bit we’ll get to, but other than that one bit.. they don’t. IT’s just really frustrating and really sticks out since the rest of the special is perfection, so this one failing bit really grates. That being said, it dosen’t last long enough to really drag the episode down as a whole, just to annoy me a bit every so often. It speaks to the episodes quality that the bad part ONLY drags so much because everything else is so well put together. So our boys head to the north pole with the help of a kooky pilot and a santa dummy, this pilot is voiced by Tress MacNeile and is easily one of the best parts of the special. And naturally given their luck, she asks them to take the wheel so the plane instead jerks and causes them to fall out. Luckily they end up near Santa’s workshop and soon apply for temp work with local head of things and gruff type Shotzie, played by Jeff Bennett. And yes that is his name. I like Shotzie: he’s a goateed elf and Bennett just plays him well.. hard to explain honestly I may just like his name and Bennett’s voice for him, one he used before in animanaics for various bit parts and in shows after this, it’s just a voice i’ve always liked.

They get put to work in the mail room, which is the bit I mentioned: Brain earlier scoffed at Santa answering all the letters with Pinky simply suggesting that Santa had his elves go through all of them. Turns out Pinky was right... while he may be a BIT stupid, one intresting thing i’ve found about Pinky after watching the reboot that ironically the friend who comissioned this and I discussed is that he’s not ENTIRELY stupid, it’s just , much like Dan from Dan Vs his knowledge is just random.. he can not know how a lot of things work, but sometimes like in this instance Pinky generally just GETS something. It’s part of why he and Brain are such a good team despite their failures: Brain is all about planning and thought and research, Pinky is about intuition and gut instinct. He just does things and it often works out. This also makes their recently added backstories all the more brilliant as they explain this well: Pinky started life just being told to find the diffrence in cheeses and thus was taught form childhood to trust in himself and his weird brain. Brain was cruelly torturued with an experiment on learned behaviors via electroshock, and was taught to never give up control again, to always know what’s going on and to always control it. It perfectly sums up who the two are and why they are that way. Brain however quickly pivots, as the mail room ends up being the perfect location to start his plans. Since their job is to file away what each person wants Brain simply adds Noodle Noggin to it and plans to put his plans into the workshop. While Santa and Schotzie are suprised and baffled, Santa quickly adds it to the list. However things hit a snag when Schotzie gets supscious when the two try to sneak into the blueprint room to drop theirs off and he accidently yanks off their disguises leading to a REALLY fun chase scene, as the boys end up in a toy wherehouse and thus try out various toy cars: a barbie dream car that dosen’t have a working motor, a toy truck that dosen’t go very fast, and finally an rc car that while fast naturally just means Schotzie can grab it and capture them. It’s easily my faviorite scene of the episode just for how clever it is and as someone whow as a kid around the time this came out, I applaud the accuracy.. granted I didn’t have any of those personally but I had lots of friends so yeah.

So our heroes are interrogated.. and again Brain brilliantly pivots. Schotzie assumes since they have the blueprints their spies for the easter bunny or the tooth fairy or Herschel, the Hanukah Goblin. Why Herschel never got his own Hannukah special trying to stop Pinky and the Brain from using it to take over the world, I genuinely do not know and that’s something the reboot really needs to adress in the future. Seriously Hannukah needs a mascot and it’s either Herschel or the Hannukah Zombie. Kwanza already has Kwanzabot. I want to see more of Herschel the Hannukah Goblin dammit!. I love goblins. Especially this one.

And this one

And most of all this one

I likes goblins. It’s a thing. So anyway, point is Schotize has the blueprints taken in while our boys slip out and sucessfully make their way outside, though they have to find a way home to turn on the mind control device. They see Santa and brain being a dick refuses to let pinky hand in his letter.. but does as mentioned earlier have them pose as reindeer. So our heroes make their way home and in time to be able to activate the device once santa’s route’s finished!

And.. then land directly on the mind control device thing, meaning they now have to scramble to repair it. Oh and Pinky is inconsolable after realizing Santa didn’t get his letter and Brain is a HUGE dick about it. Easily the worst i’ve seen him just far more focused on his machine than his friend’s wel lbeing especially since ALL he needs from pinky is for him to throw one lousy switch.

But we then get easily the best part of the entire special. As Brain scrambles to rebuild his device while abusing his best friend we get a really nice tense sequence as Brain rebuilds while kids all over the world warmly receive noodle noggin. I mean.. it’s not the creepiest doll I’ve seen a kid enjoy.

Also Bill Clinton gets one because the series apparently really likes “Bill Clinton is stupid jokes” Oh you poor innocent dears who haven’t had to suffer through the president being revealed to be a sexual predator, the one after him being even dumber if not a predator, the one after that being easily one of the best people around, and the outgoing one being a waking nightmare whose both a preadator and dumb beyond all comprehension ina dangerous and soul crushing way.

But yeah onto the good part, Brain, for whatever reason, reads the letter.. and finds Pinky asked for nothing. He just wanted to give Brain the world at long last, recognizing his friend really and genuinely means well for it and that he’s worked hard to conquer it. And with that goal in reach, with the very thing he’s always wanted his... Brain instead uses the device to wish a merry christmas. He sees through his friend’s kindess and selflessness that he himself.. has been selfish once again turning something into a world destroying plot and being cruel to his best friend... when all his best friend wanted was to selflessly make sure he finally got what he wanted. It’s then that Brain, for all his cold and cynical logic and superiority complex, realized the true meaning of christmas, which i’ve said before and i’ll say again: it’s about giving, about giving someone something with your heart and soul just to be nice with no expectation of something in return. It’s about being selfless for once instead of selfish. I’ts about love. And Brain loves his friend too much to destroy his faviorite holiday. For once the world can wait.. and for once they all join in saying merry christmas to one another and in love and camradire. And I know not everyone celebrates christmas, there are other winter holidays and not everyone in the world would willingly do this. I know all that.. but the special has such a well meaning message, I really can’t be mad at that or get into the weeds too much> This isn’t some jackass making an entire movie, of which there have been several, saying “There’s a war on christmas” which instead equates to them just bitching about not everyone celebrating HIS holiday. It’s about a mouse for one moment truly being selfless and putting ihs loyal and faithful friend over his greatest want to give him a nice christmas and to do something nice for the world instead of trying to take it. And that.. that’s really damn heartmelting. So we end on the two exchanging presents, with it being a little extra heartwarming as Brain likely already got Pinky something meaning even before his big revelation, he really does care beneath all the dope slaps. Pinky got him a keychain of the world and rather than be frustrated like you’d think.. Brain just takes it in stride. It is christmas after all.. the world.. it can wait. For now it’s just the two of them having one moment in time, this merry christmas. Final Thoughts: If it wasn’t obvious, I loved this freaking special. It’s funny, clever and has one hell of an ending. There isn’t much more to say other than go watch it if you have Hulu.. you will not regret it and a sepcial thanks to Blah for comissioning this. it was an amazing time and is now a competitor for a spot on my best christmas special list. For now though it’s just really good and I say go check it out. Merry christmas, happy holidays and later days.

#animaniacs #pinky and the brain #warner brothers #pinky #the brain #santa claus #christmas #blahdiddy #christmas specials #reviews #animation #kids wb

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