#and i can't remember what fonts i've used in the past

[strawberrysodaslut]

𝓓𝓸𝓰𝓰𝔂 𝓓𝓻𝓲𝓿𝓮 𝓘𝓷 - Eddie Munson x GN!Reader

(and GN!dog)

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[ main masterlist ]

[ eddie munson masterlist ]

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word count: 1.9k

(description in small font for formatting and convenience, actual story is in regular)

warnings: mostly fluff, some angst, mentions of upcoming death of dog, dog in palative care, not fully proof read but i tried to keep both dog and reader as gender neutral, and without descriptions, i am basing a this in real life so it might have slipped.

summary: After receiving bad news about your dog, you and Eddie decide to take them to their favourite movie at the drive ins.

authors note: Hi. It’s been a little while. This is based on something i did with my dog a few weeks ago, we took her to the eras tour movie and it’s one of the best nights i’ve had with her. i’ve i wanted to get it out within the week of that but then life happened, i had to take care of her a bit more and we sadly had to put her down the sunday before last. we’re receiving her ashes soon and i got a plush that looks like her so i felt inspired to write this again as a way to deal with my grief. i have included a lot of anecdotes about her in this, so im sorry if you’re trying to picture your dog or a past one and some events done line up. i tried my best to keep the descriptions of the dog pretty general, the only big thing i think is that they would have a tail. anyway it’s 4am and i’m crying now so i’m gonna be on my way. i hope you enjoy <3

i won’t be doing my taglist for this one, hope you can understand <3 if you would like to join the taglist for less emotional fics you can here

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"They're not gonna let us in."

"Will you sto- they're gonna let us in." He chuckled, glancing at you quickly with a smile."Stop worrying. Remember what I told you? Your only job this week is relaxation and snuggles."

You sigh, opting to look out of the window instead of responding.

Eddie notices, but he also knows you're still listening. "Which conveniently go hand in hand don't they sweetheart." He says, upping the baby talk as he stretches his arm behind the drivers seat to scratch your dogs chin, marvelling at how quickly they leaned into his touch, groaning in joy.

"See!" He said, laughing. "I'm their favorite."

It's the same thing he said when he installed the makeshift doggy car-seat Wayne had made you months ago. When Eddie first suggested taking your dog with the two of you on drives, he started drawing up the plans immediately.

"That dog is the darn cutest thing I've seen since you were in diapers." Wayne said, pointing to his nephew. "And I don't trust your cowboy driving."

Two weeks later when he picked you and your dog up for your first big drive, you were immediately taken by surprise that he put the seat on his side.

"You traitor!" You said, pointing towards the seat Eddie was now fastening your beloved dog to, away from you.

Eddie gasped in faux shock, looking at your dog with wide eyes. "Can you believe they called me that?" He said to your dog, who responded to him only with a wagging tail and a lick on the chin.

"See!" He said, clapping his hands once your dog was settled in. "I'm their favorite. So I get to be closer to them. You get a nice view, so don't complain." He said, winking at you as he swung into the drivers seat.

You had done a lot of trips since then, but this was the first one later at night. It wasn't too bad, springtime means the sun is slowly setting a bit later. You can't help but be enamoured when you turn to look at your dog, the way the sunset sits behind them makes look like a painting.

Eddie seems to have noticed, because he's reaching on the dashboard and passing you his prized film camera. "If you don't get a photo of them right now I'm never talking to you again."

You laugh, snapping a photo that you would later discover is your favorite one you've ever taken of your dog... and a few more for good measure.

"We're here!" Eddie says,  pulling into the Hawkins Drive In. He parks just outside of the concession stand. "Do you want anything."

"Popcorn and a coke please." You say, pulling out your wallet to give him money, but you know it's no use when swats it out of your hand.

Instead of mentioning it though, he turns around to the back of the seat to face your dog. "And some nuggets for you bud?"

As if they can somehow hear him, your dog yaps in response. Eddie nods, "Thought so."

"Eddie..." You start, nuggets were salty and salt is not good for your dog.

Eddie cuts you off though, "I'll ask for no salt, they'll probably like it better that way anyway. And hey, you said it didn't matter what they ate anymore."

It's not Eddie's fault, but you feel as though you've been struck. He was right, that was what you had said, but for a shining moment, you had forgotten the constant countdown ticking over your dogs head. Displaying a number you had no way of reading exactly what it said.

It doesn't take more than a second for eddie to realise what he's said. "Hey- no. I'm sorry I didn't mean to bring that up. Here, let's take them in and they can pick out something." He said, running around to your side of the door and opening it for you- ever the gentleman.

He helps you out of the car and the two of you take your dog out of the back of the van, heading into the concession bay.

Immediately you- or your dog- is greeted by a young girl running up to pay them. Her mother quickly scolding her for going up to a strangers dog. Less than a minute later, the girl carefully walks up to you, almost stubbornly.

"Can I pet your doggy?" She asks, her hand twitching as she clearly fights the urge to give your dog a big hug.

You nod your head, "You definitely can, thank you for asking." You say, looking up to the girls mother and winking at her, getting a mouthed 'thank you' in response.

And you have to say, if there is a heaven, it's going to have a tough time beating the joy your dog gets when a new person gives them cuddles. You and Eddie both swear that your dog is convinced that everywhere you go, everyone is there to see your dog specifically.

"It's the pet tax." Eddie said a few months ago when your dog barked out your front window at unsuspecting people walking by for the third time that afternoon. "The people walking past have to pay a pet tax to the top dog."

You both agree that it's better for it not to be an official tax, as your dog would not appreciate having to stop at every house with a dog so that you could pet a random dog. Absolutely not.

Eventually, the little girl's mother got her food, and told her they had to go. The girl frowned, but said bye to your dog, whispering a 'i'll save some popcorn for you.' before running off to join her mother.

In the meantime, Eddie had ordered your food, two large popcorns- of course, a coke and a pepsi- something the two of you could never agree on, and two servings of nuggets, no salt.

"You're funny." You say, opening the door for him as he tries to balance the abundance of food and drinks.

"I am- hey could you-?" He started, but you've already grabbed your drink, noticing it just about to slip from his grip and onto the dirty cement. "Yeah, thanks."

You smile at him. "We're a well oiled machine you and me." He nods in agreement, muttering something about 'you and i' incorrectly when you get back to the van. It’s hard not to chuckle.

It's barely a thirty second drive to the parking spaces for the movie, but both you and Eddie insist on strapping your dog in their seat while you park.

Unfortunately, you have to do it while your dog is giving you the saddest puppy dog eyes you've ever seen. They don't want to be in the doggy-seat, they want to be in the front with you... and the food.

The order of those aren't important.

"I know hun, but it'll just be a minute and then we'll get to cuddle okay?" You say, doing absolutely nothing to stop your dog viewing the car seat they're now in as an obstacle from the food they want.

Eddie parks the van with the back facing the screen, jumping out of the car before pulling the back doors open. You giggle when he shouts at you to wait so that he can once again open your door for you.

"Here you go m'lady!" He says in a bad british accent, pairing it with a theatrical bow.

You take his hand like how you've seen rich people do it in movies. "Why thank you sir!" You gasp, matching his dramatics instantly.

Before you can get too lost in the bit, your dog barks, reminding you that the more you chat, the longer they have to wait for food- cuddles. Cuddles, not food. Not food at all.

You climb into the back of the van, Eddie following close behind you, food in tow. "Here you go buddy, I've got the goods."

"Don't say it like that! You sound like you're giving them weed." You giggle, unclasping the safety belts from around your dog.

Eddie furrows his brows, clearly still appealing to his inner theatre kid with faux confusion, "Wait..." He says, before dramatically laying out the first blanket. "Was I not supposed to?"

You both giggle as you set up the blankets and pillows, and if you hadn't been keeping such a close eye on your dog, you might not have noticed them slowly sneaking towards where the food sits.

"Hey!" Eddie laughs, grabbing the food and moving it to where you're all going to sit among the blankets and pillows.

Once again, your dog gives an oscar winning performance, giving Eddie a look at only a starving puppy could have.

Eddie, ever the softie, gives in.

"Oh alright." He says pulling out a nugget from the box and ripping a chunk from it. "Okay, now sit." Your dog follows, tail wagging so hard it's making a clanging noise against the metal floor.

"Good, now high five." Eddie says, lifting up his right hand, your dog deciding not to leave him hanging by smacking his hand with his paw. "Good job buddy." He says, "Now other paw, can you do other paw?"

Other paw was one of the newer stills your dog learned. To be entirely honest, you have no idea how they learned it. You were just asking for high fives one day, said other paw and it worked. You gave them praise and then the next time they did it again, and then again.

You're half convinced your dog taught you other paw, not the other way around.

It's still about 50/50, if your dog thinks they've done enough, they won't respond to other paw the same they would with other commands. You guess that comes with the whole 'they trained you' theory you had.

That odd also jumps wayy down whenever you try to show off  'other paw' to someone who hasn't seen it before. Your dog loves you and enjoys your games, but they're also a pet and they love embarrassing you and proving you wrong.

Today, the odds were on your side, with your dog doing a perfect example of the 'other paw' to Eddie, who for weeks of failed attempts of showing him, thought you were lying about.

"See! I told you!" You cheered, grabbing a bigger chunk off of the nugget in Eddie's hand and giving it to your dog. "Good doggy! What a good doggy!"

Eddie laughs, "I'll be damned." He says, throwing his piece of the nugget into the air for your dog to catch, they do so, ready for more.

You both give them the rest of the nugget before settling in for the movie, you figured you'd try to spread the nuggets out, so your dog could enjoy them the whole time.

Your dog seemed to get the message, crawling inbetween you and Eddie. Or- actually, pushing the two of you apart so they could be sandwiched in the middle. Their favorite spot.

As the previews come to an end, you turn to Eddie "Thank you for doing this with me." You say, scratching your dog behind their ear.

"No thank yous necessary sweetheart, I'm glad you're both having a good time." He replies, a soft smile adorning his face.

You all relax into each other just as the beginning of your dogs favorite film; 101 Dalmatians, starts to play on the big screen.

#stranger things #eddie munson #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson imagine #eddie munson x gn!reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson fic #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson angst #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson x y/n #stranger things fanfic #stranger things fanfiction #hurt/comfort #tw death

[cyborgpulsebooks]

Pulse of Life Press 1st Anniversary - and an experiment!

It's been a whole year since I started this crazy artform! I can't believe it myself. The amount of books I've made in the past year has long since hit the double digits, and each and every one of them is incredibly important to me, flaws and all.

However, there was one book - my first book - that had more issues than the others, some that outright interfered with reading. Luckily I've been learning book repair at the same time as binding, but when I tried to fix some of the problems for Bernhardiner, it went...well... about as badly as it could.

What to do, then, with a ruined book? I didn't have enough decorative paper to completely redo the cover, with all the little dogs. But then I thought - why not leave the cover? I know how books work - I could pretty easily detach the whole case from the ruined textblock, make a new textblock, and just reuse the old case. It seemed like a sound experiment. Now, for the press's first anniversary, I have compiled most of the process under the cut, complete with pictures.

Please come along with me on this journey!

This was the beginning of the process, after having slooowly and carefully detached the endpapers of the textblock (right) from the case itself (left). You might remember this from my recent shitpost! To loosen the adhesive and separate the two parts without ruining either one, I initially slid a bonefolder into the hinge area of the case, and then switched to a thin little boi called a microspatula to slip through the glue not unlike a letter opener.

This did lead to some wear and tear on the boards of course, but it could have gone a lot worse. Most binders that I've learned from use a homemade wheat paste to attach case to textblock, but so far I have not been able to make it without the ingredients turning into an Oobleck-esque gelatin. Thus I use PVA glue, which is far stronger, and can lead to things like this. Still, not too bad. The case was successfully salvaged!

Before I describe and show off the redux, I just wanna share a couple of the errors and mistakes I made on the first textblock here, as I usually try and photograph my books with the least amount of flaws visible. Here we can see, firstly, that the glue job on the spine was shoddy at best; none of it really got quite between the individual signatures of the book, leading to weird gaps like that which compromise the stability of the book and show off the spine liner/mull, to my dismay.

In the other two pics you can see page numbers where they're definitely not supposed to be. Ah, MS Word, you son of a bitch and your terrible, terrible pagination settings. Took me months and months to learn how to paginate my books correctly, up until about my FINAGLC bind.

Not enough glue here on the pre-made endbands, either. It would sometimes fold under while reading, which wasn't super fun to see.

Finally, the botched repair that started this whole journey - I had attempted to fix one of the gaps between signatures (seen earlier) with some Japanese repair tissue, but ended up sticking these pages awkwardly together and fucked up that little top part there. A nightmare!

For all the above reasons, I actually decided to go back to my original typeset and revamp it. I've gotten some... teasing in my binding groups for the fact that my first few books were set in Times New Roman (which I actually find satisfying to read, thank you very much), which apparently gives off a sort of amateurish vibe. I've been experimenting with body fonts since, and the two I reliably use at the moment are usually Sylfaen (for shorter, smaller books) and Baskerville Old Face (for longer books). I switched it to Sylfaen here, and you can compare and contrast the results far down below.

Now, I'm not going to detail the entire bookmaking process here - just the interesting bits. If you want to learn how to make books, I highly suggest checking out @renegadepublishing's resources, as they're how I learned. But here we can see all the new signatures of the new edition nice and crisp and printed. In the second photo they've even been punched for sewing already!

At the co-op where I print and sew my textblocks, I often get to use real nipping presses like this bad boy right here. It's entirely metal (iron?) and way too heavy to lift. Between the two scrap papers peeking out is the new Bernhardiner!

But at home, this is my current set up:

Everyone, meet the eponymous Pulse of Life Press. POL Press, meet everyone.

A family member of mine made the wood part (obviously, a separate piece from the HS books) for me last Christmas, with no real knowledge of what a book press should look like at all. It's sort of a cross between what's known as a lying/finishing press and just some sort of regular old clamp. I line it with wax paper, stick the spine of the book in the center, tighten, and then cover the rest of the textblock with my trusty viz Homestuck books. It's a little MacGyver-y, but it's served me well.

This is the part where you glue the spine, attach the endpapers, and so forth.

For this redux, I decided to continue practicing making my own endbands instead of using the same pre-made ones I had for the first copy. These ones actually came out pretty darn well, if I do say so myself! They're the absolute neatest I've made them so far, and that's a relief. Obviously I still need work, but it's so lovely making them. <3

After this, I actually don't have a lot of pictures! It's basically just press, attach the spine liner and glue again, press again, casing in, and then...

Et voila!

Lookin' pretty good, if I do say so myself.

I didn't get exact duplicate photos of the original textblock's mistakes for a before/after, but you can probably just tell from these just how cleaned up the new one is. Rest assured those pesky out-of-place page numbers are long gone, and my spine gluing has gotten a lot better. I'm honestly just glad that it cased in so well - I was worried about that flaky board for a minute there!

And that's all. Thank you for coming with me on this little peek behind the scenes! Here's to many more books in the coming year - more to read, more to make, and more to write.

Cheers!

#cyborg rambles #POL press #bookbinding #fanbinding #book repair #it's also my birthday month so! double the warm and fuzzies #long post

[lumilasi]

In relation to the snow witch/cat lesbian duo, here are the said witch's dads. The first one, Marcus is AGES OLD character I've had for a decade that I still love a lot, and I actually didn't change his design from the old one almost at all? I simply drew him better now, thanks to having my drawing skills improve at least somewhat in the past decade.

Lethas is an amalgamation of an entire family of old dragonic deity characters squished together. I'll draw his dragon form sometime later.

...The font I'm using is kinda not matching for the fantasy vibe, but I really didn't feel like doing graphic design so to speak rn lmao

Fun Facts below:

Marcus is a Romanian noble in heritage, though local villagers rarely see him, and think of their count as bit of a weird hermit. Pleasant and polite enough, but odd.

Marcus doesn't have human staff, he uses his powerful ice magic to create icy entities that act as servants.

Marcus' Patron Deity is Jack Frost

Irina was abandoned at his doorstep as a toddler, and he was initially hesitant in taking her in, but saw potential in her already strong magic, and was admittedly kind of lonely living there alone

He and Lethas are in a mostly platonic, non-sexual relationship, but they do come off like an old married couple that bicker constantly, and clearly have a very strong emotional bond between one another.

Marcus is gay (and basically anyone who meets him can tell he's not straight, there's no way lol) and Lethas basically has no sexual/romantic drive whatsoever given the way his kind are born. (So he's Aro-ace if you apply human labels)

They started out as rivals, but overtime kind of become each other's only company (up until Irina showed up)

Lethas was actually frozen as a statue in dragon form in front of the Vasile castle for almost fifty years, and was released accidentally by Irina when she was 8.

She thought he was going to eat her dad, only to see the two start bickering and head inside for tea, as if him being frozen by Marcus for five whole decades wasn't unusual. (It was an accident, Marcus actually thought he'd accidentally killed Lethas and was relieved to find out that wasn't the case, even if he doesn't show it openly)

Lethas is a soul dragon, a being born from the lost souls of dead warriors perished in wars. All his weapons are formed from soul fire.

Lethas was born sometime around the age of the roman empire, though can't remember exactly when. Marcus is couple hundred years old, but he did spend about half of it on ice literally, hence he actually appears younger than he should. (Long story, he met Lethas because the dragon released him from ice accidentally)

Lethas breathes fire like average dragons, though his soul fire is immensely powerful and can't be put out in any other way, except essentially powerful exorcism magic or a soul eater's devouring of it.

Lethas immediately took into his role as the more strict and responsible dad, the first thing he did when waking up was to pick Irina up in his dragonic form and place her gently on the balcony of her room, patting her head, before turning around to bitch at Marcus.

The swirly pattern on Lethas' cloak doesn't just glow in soul form, but they move and swirl around too.

Split hair and coloring with Lethas symbolizes the duality of life in all its forms; life and death, sky and earth, fire and water, war and peace, etc. or that's what Lethas likes to claim anyway. Marcus suspects he just thinks it looks cool.

Marcus' coat turns into hues of blue and white when he fully activates his powers. The snowflake/star design on it is actually the center of the Warlock sect symbol for this world's Arcane Council (body that governs primary magic users, I.E beings whose main thing is magic, rather than the magic being result of being some sort of mythical being)

Technically, you're not supposed to remove parts of the symbol if you wish to utilize it, but Marcus didn't like the hostile looking spiky eyes surrounding the central star pattern, so he didn't include them + made the colors more to his taste.

#artists on tumblr #oc illustration #oc reference #dragon #warlock #lumi's art scribbles #lumi's chaotic creations #Night city parlor #The mage and the mobster #Marcus Vasile #Soul Dragon Lethas #my oc #old oc revamp

[severeweatheralert]

Things I learned while writing two novel-length fics in the space of nine months

Or, advice I hope might be of someone use to someone out there, but all brains are different so YMMV. Ironically, this is probably the longest tumblr post I've ever written. Do let me know if you got something out of it!

Planning

You don't need to know every single plot detail at the start. It DOES really help to know roughly where you're going, plotwise and thematically, so it feels less like you're running straight into the great unknown and more like you're headed to some destination. Even if you don't quite know how you're going to get there, yet.

You don't need to know every single character detail, either. Favourite song? Favourite food? I couldn't name my own, let alone my characters'. What is important is a general idea of what makes them tick. What do they want? Why are they here? How do they think? (and if you do introduce details, save them in a notes file someplace, so you can easily find them later).

Outlines are great. Outlines are not the law. If you come up with something that works better than the thing you'd originally planned? Change it.

Scene setting

Remember that you're writing fic, not a movie script. That means you don't have an effects team to pay and you can make the entire environment do whatever you want. Forest fire on the horizon to match your characters' mood? Do it.

Trust that your readers' imagination works. You don't need to describe every single detail to set a scene effectively. Just pick out a few that give off the mood you want, and leave it at that. (Setting dependent, of course- a scifi setting will need more description than a classroom or a hospital room, where most people will have been in their life at least once). This goes for character descriptions too.

Sprinkle scene descriptors through the dialogue/action instead of starting with a whole paragraph of exposition. You'll pull people in quicker.

Research: if you're setting your fic in an existing place, it helps to do (some) research and incorporate that in the work. Simple things like incorporating the name of an existing retail chain or a highway makes your setting feel a lot more real. Google Maps is great if you're writing in a country you've never been to. Just hop on streetview.

Drafting

If you're trying and failing (multiple times) to write a scene, ask yourself if there might be a pacing reason for that. Is the scene necessary at all? Are you trying to start too early in the scene? What are you trying to establish with it, and could that maybe happen elsewhere in the story?

If you get stuck on a phrase/name you haven't picked/word you can't think of/detail you haven't yet researched: put something like [NAME] in brackets. Then keep going. You can come back to it later and you don't need to disrupt your writing flow.

Turn grammar and spell check off. Run a spell check when editing but don't get haunted by the little red line while drafting. A lot of the time its suggestions are bad anyway.

When writing dialogue-heavy scenes, it's sometimes nice to get the actual dialogue out of the way first, then come back later and add actions or descriptions in between to pace the dialogue.

Sometimes you'll have to draft a scene multiple times before it feels right. This is painful, but ultimately okay.

Feel like you should write but don't really want to? I like to set a timer for like 20-30 minutes, give it a go, and if I'm not into it by the time it goes off I'll go do something else.

Editing

Let a section sit for at least a day before going back in to edit. Give your brain some time to forget some of it. You can still draft the next bit in this time!

Sometimes it helps to set the text to a different font or to paste it into a different text editor. Trick your brain into thinking you haven't seen it before, basically. If you're brave, you can even use the editor of whatever website you're posting to.

This is when you run the spell check. But remember: you're allowed to mess with grammar and use words that the spell check says don't exist. "He deadpanned" is a perfectly understandable dialogue tag, for example.

Use a thesaurus! I like powerthesaurus.org because it has a dark mode. The main thing to remember is that you're using it to find synonyms that may fit your meaning/the mood better, not to find more complex words. Especially useful if you find yourself using the same word over and over in a section.

Practical things

Brainstorming on paper works WAY better for my brain than brainstorming digitally, for reasons unknown. Plus you get the fullfillment of using up a notebook.

Have a scraps folder for deleted scenes. Don't actually delete them! You can scrap them for good lines later.

Especially for longform work, keep notes. Things like repeated lines, relevant plot details, things you want to incorporate in future chapters: keep them somewhere where you can find them.

For writer's block: sometimes you need to let a story simmer for a bit. I like going for hikes or chewing on my plot in the shower.

I like having two WIPs with vastly different moods at the same time. One in posting stages, one in drafting stages. That way if I don't want to work on a very moody WIP, I can switch to the other and still get something done.

If you're writing longform work: you'll improve over time. Try to resist the urge to go back and edit the first chapters once they start grating at your perfectionism. Especially if you've already posted them.

Don't write the whole thing in one document if it's longer than ~10k. I like SmartEdit Writer to organize my fics. It's free.

Uploading

I'd recommend having a few chapters' backlog before you start posting. This way you a) know you like the fic enough to keep working on it for more than one chapter; b) have some backlog in case writer's block strikes or life gets in the way of writing; c) can go back and edit in foreshadowing or edit out plotholes as you discover them.

If you have (and want to give) a lot of content warnings, keep a list while you're writing the chapter, so you don't have to figure it out last minute before uploading.

Your works' stats (kudos/hits/subs/comments) say nothing about the quality of your work. This one is hard to internalize.

#writing #fanfic #fanfiction #ao3 #writing advice #writing tips #mine #writeblr #creative writing #writing advice with lang #this is very personal obviously #long post

[midorisudachi]

"The Dreamer, Walker of the Fade"

Here is my second art piece for my "Countdown to Dragon Age Day" (which will be in December). Please visit my first DA Inquisiton piece (prior to this artwork) if you have not seen it yet. As mentioned in the first piece ("The Herald of Andraste"), I will be submitting a DAI character fan art every other Monday until DA Day.

Solas is quite the mysterious, intriguing character, isn't he? Especially at the end of the DLC Trespasser. I like his accent and his manner of speaking, and his views on the world. I also like his murals (in Skyhold) as the story progresses. My first DA character/Inquisitor actually wasn't Bryony (she is in my first/previous fan art)...it was an elven mage: Zephyra Lavellan, and I had made Solas her love interest. I also don't want to give away any spoilers, so I'll write more about Solas at the bottom of my description. Be warned!

I drew Solas in the outfit that I had him wearing [the 2nd time I played DAI]. He is wearing the "Overseer Cowl" schematic on his head, which gives him a totally different look rather than his well-known shiny bald head. Ha ha. His outfit was another mage schematic (I can't remember the name at the moment), and I had used Dales Loden Wool (the bluish-purple) and Royale Sea Silk (the silvery brocade). I drew him holding a "Magister Fire Staff".

I've never been good at backgrounds, but so far I am enjoying drawing the DAI characters with backgrounds inspired by their "tarot card" looks in the game. It's been interesting trying to figure out what kind of background & design to come up with, to suit the character.

Drawn with Sakura Pigma Micron pens, then coloured in with a mix of Copic Markers & Ohuhu Markers. White accents & lines were done with a gel pen. The gold is Golden Paint acrylics, but for some unknown reason, the scanner murders the spectacular shiny gold and it looks “flat”. Font & glowing effect around the orb was done in Photoshop Elements.

Fan artwork © Jacqueline E. McNeese

Dragon Age Inquisition/Solas © Bioware & Electronic Arts

All hearts/Likes are SO much appreciated!

***Spoiler Time!***

So...

...

...

The "end" of the game (before I had the Trespasser DLC) had me totally surprised the 1st time I played the game. Fen'Harel? Damn you, Solas! The whole time, he lied! He was very convincing. Especially when I had made my 1st character (Zephyra Lavellan, the elf) fall for him, and then he bloody breaks her heart! The first time I played, I didn't have the DLCs. The 2nd time I played the game (this past March through July), I made my character "Bryony Trevelyan" the human warrior, who fell for Cullen. Cullen & Bryony were so cute and I loved their relationship. Zephyra & Solas? Tragic! And the Trespasser DLC (2nd time I played the game) really tied everything together! I wish I had known about the DLC the first time, to see how Zephyra would have reacted to seeing Solas again. With Bryony, I just wanted to kick Solas/Fen'Harel's arse, but I made her calm and ask why he did what he did.

I so can't wait for Dragon Age 4!!!!! ***End of Spoiler***

#dragon age #dragon age inquistion fan art #dragon age inquisition #da inquisitor #da inquisition #dragon age fan art #dragon age solas #solas #solas dragon age #solas dai #damn you solas #solas elf #dragon age elf #dragon age mages #mage #fantasy #fantasy art #i love dragon age #copic markers #ohuhu markers #traditional art #my fanart #dragon age fanart #electronic arts #bioware

[golby-moon]

a look a fic for the @dadstielminibang that I stole and promptly dumped art all over

got to draw lots of new things in this bang, from mallets to whac-a-mole machines to a carnival-style tarp for the fair thing. I found some fancy carnival-y font online that I can't remember the name of and traced over that for the title text; never would've gotten it anywhere near consistent otherwise. idk why the title has lights around it really, I just like it

I've never done anything quite like this one before with the characters on the sides like that and I'm not quite sure why I did it now, I just pictured it. I think it's due to the emphasis the claims info placed on the scene in which they first meet, their dynamic-influenced eyes locking from a distance until Dean approaches in his flannel that I spent way too much time on (and was designed to sorta reflect the 'Cas' color (blue) while Cas' shirt reflects the 'Dean' color (green)). Claire is naturally very suspicious and Jack has no idea what's happening

talking things out scene, in which I force myself to attempt to draw a shoe bench (which I've never heard of before this) and used the opportunity to dress Cas up like a dorky professor for his date with Dean and Claire like an angsty pre-teen that thinks that double sleeves thing is cool (it's not) (please don't look too closely at the proportions in this, especially around the legs uh)

upon making a sketch for this one, I was really dreading trying to figure out how to draw this one and very strongly considered just covering everybody up with multiple blankets and calling it a day because ghkjfgjkfgjkfg posing gjfkfg. it ended up being not nearly as bad as I thought. there's no particular significance in the colors or anything and I basically just picked whatever, although Jack's strawberry-themed pajamas' colors were picked on purpose. the author gave the idea to make Dean's clothes ones that he borrowed from Cas instead of Generic Grey Sweatpants like I was originally gonna do because Dean is Repressed, so he gets flowers to match Cas' bees ,_,

finally, after rambling wayy too much about all the art I buried my author with, here's the divider I did (that I kept calling 'page break thingy' up until the end where I accidentally learned its actual name). I've never done a divider before and wanted to give it a shot. it includes a mallet from the fair thing and a Lego spaceship as well as a bundle of flowers and a 'death lantern' (which is used to protect the candle apparently, another thing I learned about while doing the art for this fic). I tried to emphasize both the past and the present by adding two elements from both, but idk if I did that very well tbh. either way, an attempt was made

the fic this is made for is called "Legos, Love, & Batman's Little Helpers" by @liron-ao3 for the dadstiel mini bang

(08/25/23)

#my art #supernatural #spn #spn fanart #castiel #dean winchester #destiel #fic art #art made for other people #claire novak #jack kline #baby jack #kid claire #my thoughts #my bang legacy #alpha dean winchester #omega castiel #omegaverse #dadstiel mini bang

[bestbonnist]

Chapter 168.1

Now that we know that the people who picked the doll and Kanitarou up are friendly and just happened to see them, that means that the person who was chasing them in the last chapter was someone else. Probably the guy from Chapter 167.1. And probably gonna track the doll to where she's currently hiding out.

Two things. One: we can see a bit of a scar on the mechanic's nose that matches the one on Kai's. The mechanic being amiable with the doll while maintaining a wariness towards her is also a very Kai thing to do. He's very observant. I think at this point he's older than he usually appears once resurrected, and judging from the apparent ages that we saw on their wanted signs, I'm guessing they were freshly resurrected a few years ago.

Second thing: Kai's probably referring to the Beholder/Satoru when he talks about someone who wanted to become human, and not Fushi. Because Fushi's never described themselves as human or discussed their desire to be human after the Takunaha arc. Satoru, on the other hand, was very upfront about wanting to be human, and Kai was there when Messar insinuated that the Beholder wished he was mortal.

I really like that Kai and Eko have both become mechanics. Or Eko has become a mechanic and Kai is her assistant, it's a bit unclear. It's so nice seeing Eko having something that she's passionate about, and that her dream of being able to communicate her thoughts to others has been fulfilled without her having to sacrifice an important part of her identity. And Kai is a blacksmith, so he knows a bit about working with metal and maybe that translates over to engineering somehow? I don't know.

A few notes about this part of the chapter: first, the script that hasn't been translated (because Ooima made it up) says the same thing that appeared in Chapter 166.2 before the doll's flashback.

The only difference is that the percentage that's been restored is marginally higher.

In the original Japanese, the text for the dialogue is in a specific font that's only been used for the person with the blindfold. I've included the raws for comparison.

And finally, the pill is the same one that was around their neck.

Based on the evidence, we can conclude that the doll's "self-identification system" is for her memories, we'll get a flashback every time a bit more of that system is restored, and the pill was an essential part of the process of making her human. We'll probably get the full story when the system reaches one hundred percent, but at the rate we're going it's gonna be a while.

Kai says earlier in the chapter that the mud only responds to human brainwaves specifically and on the final page we see the doll controlling it. df;dfa;dafslkadfs;dasflkj NICE.

How the doll has brain waves and no brain is a bit of a mystery, but the point is that they're implying that it's human already and just stuck in a different form. Which :\ is part of the mystery I guess, clearly the doll has a past involving efforts to become human that it can't remember. I don't love the idea of its backstory being "well, it's not a normal doll, it's a special doll that was secretly human all along." I'm hoping we get something else, because I think the doll being a piece of technology who's human anyways is more in line with what the manga's had to say about humanity so far. Like, maybe experimenting to make it human failed, or the experiment was just to make a program that thinks it's human, because thinking you're human = actually being human. I would imagine that learning that would really fuck the doll up, because in that case everything it's been trying to do in the name of proving that it's human was just more proof that it's not. And that's what I would do if I were Ooima because she loves to think of the worst possible thing that would happen to a character and then do that (compliment).

Still, no matter what the doll's backstory turns out to be, I'll be into it as long as it adds more layers to her character and to the story. Which it will because this is Ooima we're talking about :)

#lotta pictures in this one #fumetsu no anata e #to your eternity #to you the immortal #fnae #tye #fnae manga #fnae spoilers #fnae anime spoilers #fnae manga spoilers #wish era #chapter 168.1 #the doll #kai renald rawle #kai #original post #meta #eko #iddy

[java-dragon]

Bookbinding for Beginners by a Beginner Part 3

*braces self on a door frame* Right there's a lot of information I still need to cover so lets get into it.

I don't recall if I told everyone to set up the document to be booklet type or not but here's how to do that (I'm not re-reading what I wrote my brain stopped working at some point)

But Layout Tab, Page Layout, hit the little arrow pointing towards the document:

I have the sheets per booklet set to 32, but this site is helpful for helping you get the exact number of signatures (a portion of the fic you are printing it is one section of the book, whereas a text block is the whole thing together)

That's if you want to print through the program you're type facing (the text within the pages all of the formatting and indents and everything we started covering in part 2 is type facing). I have totally done printing through the word processor but there is a different option that I will cover later down this post.

For now I'm going to try and remember all of the extra stuff I need to cover. A lot of this is trial an error and fiddling, farting, and sometimes sobbing your way through this.

OH! Right if the fic you're type facing has a fake email. Like.... I don't know "[email protected]" Word will sensor it automatically when you paste it onto the document. The only work around I have is to have the OG link to the fic you're working on, and try your best to locate the email copy it, and find it within the text of the document using the headers to skip to the chapter in question and scan for the brackets with [Email redacted] or some such, it's usually blue text with "[ ]" going on.

I can't truly think of anything else at this time pertaining to my tips and tricks for Word. There is more I may know but my mind is fizzling out I may circle back to this but I think I'll move on towards downloading and uploading fonts to use in your bookbinding adventures and some Canva stuff.

DaFont and 1001 Free Fonts work

Dafont:

1001:

I'll be using these two Fonts as my examples cause... well I actually quite like them.

Hit "Download"

This will pop up on your screen hit "OK"

Go to your Downloads or where you put your downloads,

Right click on the file in question and hit "Extract All"

Hit Extract.

Click on the folder post extraction. The file type you're looking for is "Open Type Font File" Right Click, "Install" or "Install for all Users" works as well and the font will be available to anyone that has a User key for the computer you're on.

Sometimes the file will look like this:

The Greyed out one? That's the type file.

There will be a pop up that says "Installing Font" give it a few seconds and it will disappear.

You will now be able to open up your word processor and go to the font section and be able to find your newly downloaded font

Enjoy your new found power in getting fancy pants fonts on your word documents!

Now... Canva...

You can download it for free like I said. I have it on my phone and on my computer as a software application:

So I don't accidentally doxx myself this is all you really need to see- you can do much much more than bookcovers, I've done bookmarks, and logos and a few other things.

but for our purposes we'll open up a document and make a few pages:

At the very tippy top that I did not show there's "create Design" I usually hit either "Bookcover" or "ebook cover".

There will be a document with some template examples and you can scroll and see if you like any of those. OR You can just go down to "Elements" and start playing and toying around with that.

You can also grab screen captures of decorative lines to replace the "***" on your document.

How to do this- in elements there should be a search bar type in "decorative lines" and you can refine it "Decorative Rainbow" "brush stroke" "ornate" then open up the application on your computer that allows for screen shots Snip and Sketch for Windows, I don't know for Mac. Sorry.

Select something you like and when it appears on the document click outside of it.

open up your screen grab and grab the line in question

Here's my example.

Now in your word document feel free to go into the Pages tab of the Navigation bar and find whatever the author has used to break up the text. Highlight, right click, hit "search" There will be a pop up on the right hand of word hit the tab that says "Search this document/file" you can see how many times "***" or the equivalent has been used. I would suggest opening this link and reading all of the other tips and tricks since they break it down better than I ever could.

Edit as of November 18th 2023: But the root gist of it all is to highlight the "***" or equivalent divider on the document. Right click, "Search" there will be a prompt that opens on the right hand side of Word hit the "In this Document" and it will bring up every instance of what you have highlighted.

Have the image you intend to replace "***" with right click "Copy". Back in Word, hit "Replace" there will be a box that pops up with "Replace with" Type: ^C . What this does is take the image you've just copied and will override the highlighted "***" Hit "Replace all". You may have to scrub through the document to center it properly but thankfully it's easier to find especially with the Navigation Bar on the "Pages" tab open.

End Edit

Though you can just scroll and find the breaks highlight and drag and drop the image to break up the text if you so choose. Do what works for you.

Now you can also do the same thing with decorative chapter headers, just choose or fiddle and make something that works for the fic in question. Remember when I made you do all of those "Next Page" breaks for the fic? Well on the top of that page with the chapter, double click the header insert an image and "warp image" to "Behind text" and you are free to resize and move the image around.

Just so you know whatever is next to the image will repeat with this example it's the author's name, it will appear no matter the page number odd or even. I don't know the work around and it doesn't bother me much at the end of the day. At this point I'm just trying to pull all of the tips and tricks I've learned over time out of my ass to help people out.

Back to Canva. You can make your Covers if you'd like in this and you can do decorative cover pages. Just go to the page that you want the title page on, insert an image, and warp image to "In front of text" You will be free to stretch and fill the page as much as you please. I do the same thing with my logo placement for the logo page.

Now... if you're still with me... Congratulations I'm not sure I'm still with me or not.

So I'll move on to the "OK I like how this all looks and I've saved everything I've done"

GREAT you can calculate the right number of signatures and print from here OR you can take a few extra steps.

Hit File, Export, hit Create PDF/XPS. I hope you have at least a free Acrobat or PDF reader. Wait. Don't panic if it looks like the processor is freezing up on you. there should be a pop up of a PDF after that minor heart attack.

Now. With your new PDF you're going to go to Bookbinder JS

Upload the pdf file you've created and I'll walk you through the steps.

Letter 612 x 792 is your standard 8.5 x 11 paper.

Printer type- Duplex I hope you have a duplex printer. You'll need it or else you will be manually flipping the pages to make this book bind.

Folio- That is just 8.5 x 11 paper folded in half to make 8.5 x 5.5 booklets. Keep these numbers in mind.

Signature format- there you can select "Perfect bound" AKA Paperback. Or Standard signature. Here I select 20 page signatures. Keep in mind that there will be four pages per one sheet of paper.

Preview output ALWAYS preview output because it will tell you how many signatures will be with the upload. For example:

What this means: Total pages of the file uploaded, since the fic I'm type facing is 300+k words I divided the chapters up.

so you know what a 100+k word fic looks like printed folded and the air compressed (I will cover this as well) Keep this in mind this was Celestial Navigation now add similarly stacked pages atop of what's here. 100+k fics it's wisest and best to split this in half. Keep in mind your wrists. 500-600 pages is comfortable holding. You can get to around 800 pages but if it's 900+ pages I would think about dividing the document up.

After you are happy with the number of everything. Hit "Generate Output" wait for the popup for the save file to appear and hit "Save" this will be in a zip file as well. Head over to your Downloads and hit extract, open up the file and some terminology that will help with this:

Aggregate book means "the whole damn thing" Signature 0 is the first signature.

To spare the wrath and protest of my printer- I print one signature at a time and fold it since I don't have to worry about getting the page numbers to line up.

Take however much time you please. Next post. Folding signatures, pressing signatures, stitching, gluing end bands and ribbons.

aka- welcome to the world little fic. We hope you enjoy your stay. You're going to be a real book soon.

If I wasn't running out of steam I would cover Quartos. But if you wanted to print a smaller fic know this- increase the text size through out the whole document, these things are SMALL. 4.5x5.5 all said and done. I would go to TikTok and Youtube and look up "Quarto Book bind" if you want to see the smallest, cutest most pain in your ass book you've ever wanted to try and make.

I've done those as experiments as well... they can be fun but my god I'm bad at mathing at times.

#bookbinding for beginners by a beginner #book binding #DIY #so you really want to get into bookbinding? #have I scared you yet?

[rpschtuff]

I also thought I'd make a quick post going over my experiences and observations using the beta editor, as someone who put off switching for months and months and has now been using it for about a week. If you're putting off making the switch because you're not sure what it will be like, and are worried about committing to a broken editor, this post is for you.

General Observations

Overall, the editor itself really isn't that much different. A few things are in different places, such as blockquotes being under the dropdown and being called indented now, but it's not the buggy, broken mess that I half-expected it to be. A lot of the bugs that various people have reported on have already been fixed by staff. (And you can report bugs or just general complaints to staff! There's a feedback section of their form and they are actively taking user suggestions into account. Just remember to be nice about it.)

Sometimes bold, italics, and small text will act up and not apply correctly. But frankly, those would act up on the legacy editor, too. And if things are being weird, it's fairly easy to select the offending text and just fix it.

Things I Like

By far my favorite feature of the beta editor is the ability to disable reblogs on a post. As someone who runs a roleplay blog for a pretty popular canon character, I've gotten used to typing all of the names L.ike Th/is in order to prevent my posts from showing up in search, and slapping a huge "do not reblog" disclaimer onto everything -- only to have some personal who apparently can't read reblog it anyway. But now I can simply take my OOC posts, headcanons, metas, whatever, and set it so that no one can reblog them.

I love the ability to edit tags without having to completely delete and rewrite them. I've gotten so used to having to redo tags over a single typo that the realization of this the other day left me in shock. You can just click inside the tag and change any of the text that you want.

The new content label system is pretty good. You can clearly designate a post as having mature content, and your followers can choose in settings whether they want to have those flagged posts viewable or not. It's another feature I'd love to see Tumblr expand on, and add some more options to flag a post as, it's a really good start.

The post scheduling system is much more clear than before. You can actually schedule a post and feel confident in the exact date and time that it will go up, unlike the previous system that felt like a wild shot in the dark.

You can add colored text to posts pretty easily. There are a bunch of preset colors, and while I haven't played around with it much, I understand that adding custom colors via HTML is pretty straightforward. It's not a feature I personally use much, but it's neat.

There are also additional font and styling options, like Lucille, Chat, and Quote. Again, not things I use very often, but cool features to have.

Things I Dislike

Tumblr will remember your old tags, but without any capitalization. If your frequently used tags have capitalization and you want them to be consistent, you'll have to retype or paste them in every time.

When you paste an image URL into a post, it will insert the image as before, but include that link below it, with no way to easily remove it. This is an issue for those using gifs or icons with transparency, and simply pasting the image in directly will cause it to display incorrectly. As someone who uses a webpage of my icons when working on threads, I now have to download the icon I want to use and upload it, which is a minor annoyance compared to simply copying the image link and pasting it in.

#rph #rpt #rpc #beta editor #*my stuff #*misc

[godspellcraft]

I keep having this dream...

That my parents are telling me to get in the car for church, and I ask them which one we're going to, because growing up we would switch around from time to time depending on what time we wanted to go to Mass or how far we were willing to drive for better music, etc.

And I ask them if we can PLEASE go to "that little one in the woods we went to once, we don't go there nearly enough" (this doesn't exist in real life, I don't know where this idea came from).

And then sometimes I'll be inside suddenly, or sometimes I'm in the woods and I have to find the little church. It's hidden away in the forest. Sometimes it's a little shack-like building, sometimes it's underground under a tree, and I have to walk down a little tunnel using its roots as steps. When I get to the bottom of the dirt staircase, there's usually what looks like a Holy Water font on the wall - but it's natural water flowing from the dirt ceiling in a cascade and pooling in a natural basin in the wall. I'll usually put my hand in.

The whole little forest church is a very thin and cozy tunnel. Even when it opens up to about three rows of risers with seats (these are made of wood, but built right into the earthen walls), there is nearly no separation from the altar right in front of it (I think this is wood, too, but it's hazy). I don't remember who exactly is at the altar, if anyone. But I remember a sort of cozy, hushed excitement, like a story is about to be told, and everyone wants to hear it. Maybe there was no one preaching, and this little forest church was a place for gathering and learning from each other. Maybe that's why there was barely any distinction between the altar and the seats.

I can't remember if there are torches, but it definitely isn't dark inside. It's bright as can be, as if lit by the outside sun, even underground.

I get the sense that the tunnel continues past this little room, that there are dozens of little nooks and crannies inside to explore, and I desperately want to venture further.

I know I've had this dream at least a handful of times. The other day I woke up and remembered it for the first time, and I knew I had had it before. It felt like a breakthrough. It felt important. It felt like I had finally received a message.

I'm not sure exactly what the little forest church is or what it means, but I know how it feels, and it's equally exciting and familiar.

I think maybe this is ultimately what my practice feels like, how I conceptualize my connection to God. It's private and communal, it's natural and cozy, it's mysterious and homey. It's exciting and comforting and enticing and magical and unique and it makes perfect sense to me. I hope to return there in another dream soon.

#christian witch #folkcatholic #catholicwitch #dream

[muraenide]

5. is there a muse you really want to try? if yes: what’s stopping you?

12. what roleplay trends do you remember from the year you started tumblr rp? how did you feel about those trends?

14. which roleplay community has been your favorite to write in?

QUESTIONS FOR MUNS. // @oftwilight

5. is there a muse you really want to try? if yes: what’s stopping you?

I actually have more than I'd like to have. They're a mix of canons and ocs, but because I was hoping to avoid spending too much time online I've limited myself to Jade. I miiiight be open to writing them on discord, however.

12. what roleplay trends do you remember from the year you started tumblr rp? how did you feel about those trends?

I can't stand big icons, gifs, oversaturated aesthetics, or overly formatted text. Anything with more than three colours in general makes my head spin, and there is a reason why I never make my graphics too flashy/fancy. for the same reason I can't play games with a lot of light or games that are overly bright for more than an hour. I think I'm one of those people the warnings in certain games pop up for. 😔 It's unfortunately not just "I dislike it" but it just gives me a headache and nausea to stare at them for long periods of time. Muted colours or monochrome is nice to my eyesight and I use my ears whenever possible to lift some burden off my eyes. Small text are just the right size for my eyes, but small small text are nigh unreadable I have to copy paste them onto another text editor and tweak them back to a normal font size.

14. which roleplay community has been your favorite to write in?

Hmmm. This is a bit hard to choose because I've had good memories of all of them. Gens//hin was probably the only fandom that I've ever had a bad experience with. But it's also probably because the other fandoms I've been in are very small there was hardly any room for discourse or drama. The Fate fandom.. though... I apologize in advance to whoever is still into Fate, but because I have a few friends in Fate and Fate itself is a very flexible fandom, I tend to follow the same friends across my blogs and follow their friends by extension. Throughout the years I've seen wild stuff going on there and not having context feels like watching a house in the opposite street caught fire and you're fine until it decides to burn its way to your door.

#oftwilight #// thank you bri <33

[wander-over-the-words]

1, 5, 6, 10, 13, 22, and 35 for the weird writing ask game!

Weird Questions for Writers (because writers are weird)

(under cut cause lots of numbers and I got a little rambly a couple of times lmao)

1. What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

Times New Roman, size 12. Nothing else is acceptable to mine eyes lmao

5. Do you have any writing superstitions? What are they and why are they 100% true?

Scratches chin

I don't think I do, no. I am a huge perfectionist when it comes to writing (especially if it deals with an actual canon and such), but I don't think I have any superstitions about it.

6. What is your darkest fear about writing?

Pretty much all the fears I have regarding writing are, in the moment, pretty severe, but in hindsight, are probably quite trivial. The sort of things writing blogs make posts about, like how "we should write for ourselves so who cares about notes" and whatnot. How a fic might not get attention even after the amount of time I've spent on it (though, to be fair, that's sometimes just Tumblr's fault for locking me out of tags huff puff).

The only real dark fears I've had about writing are intrusive thoughts about like. which fic will be my last. In that, which fic will be the last posted before something happens to me or some such. My greatest fear in life is dying before I get to do everything I want to do, and sharing the millions of stories in my head is part of that.

But like I said, those are just dumb intrusive thoughts that my brain likes to shove in my mind every so often. Keeps me on my toes, I guess.

10. Has a piece of writing ever “haunted” you? Has your own writing haunted you? What does that mean to you?

I've certainly read things in the past that stuck with me for a long time! Been a while since I've read a fanfic that's done that, but I read a mystery/psychological sort of novel toward the beginning of the year that had a helluva twist, where I just kinda went "woah" and then immediately went to my mama like "YOU HAVE TO READ THIS" lmao

As for my own writing - ehhhh. Sort of. My own writing 'haunting' me is more like. I put too many expectations on myself for things. So I guess it's not 'haunting' so much as 'taunting', heh. The current one is Part 3 of Wherever Life Takes You and whether or not it'll be a satisfying sequel to a fic that I. did not expect to get as popular as it did. It's got bigger shoes to fill than I thought would be the case and so it's on my mind more than I'd like.

13. What is a subject matter that is incredibly difficult for you write about? What is easy?

Eeehhh. Death, mostly (or rather, the aftermath of somebody's death). Hits too close to home. And obviously any sort of discrimination stuff, especially any I relate to. Makes me feel disgusting afterwards. I have to put myself in a specific mood to write about either of those things, and sometimes it just leads to me accidentally unlocking a depression episode cause my brain becomes too loud.

One that's kind of both easy and difficult is the topic of guilt. Like, it's hard because I relate a little too much to it (thanks to a high level of empathy and a guilt complex), but it means I can just fly through descriptions of it cause. I get it. I understand why a character's doing something out of guilt. I've been there.

One that's easy is - funnily enough - violence lmao. I don't get to write fight scenes often, but I tend to fly through them when I do.

22. How organized are you with your writing? Describe to me your organization method, if it exists. What tools do you use? Notebooks? Binders? Apps? The Cloud?

Not as organised as I'd like lmao

I have a shit ton of notes on my phone of random bits of dialogue and facts to remember. If I'm in bed and can't be bothered to roll over and grab my phone, I write said thing on the back of my hand and just have to remember to write it down properly the next day lmao.

Recently, I did move the notes from my phone to my Google Docs, where everything else is (shoutout to the BioShock fic notes that came out at over two hundred pages! y'all were slowing my fuckin phone down). Different drafts of things get different documents (and are usually just named [fic name] and (whatever number of draft it is)), I have a 'graveyard' document dedicated to having bits I deleted that I might be able to use later or that I just liked a lot. Multi-chap fics tend to have a doc dedicated to just their plans. That kind of thing.

35. What’s your favorite writing rule to smash into smithereens?

Favourite has got to be my little trick of removing (most) punctuation from scenes where the character(s) is panicking, in order to make the reader's 'reading voice' speed up and match the character's racing thoughts (think the most recent time I did it was Here Comes Frankenstein, with Delta in That Scene; in posted stuff, anyway). I know doing that would probably piss off most of my old English teachers, but hey. it does what I want it to do so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm usually a wee bit of a snob when it comes to grammar, but there are some rules that I just. don't care about. Like. I know there're specific rules on how to structure a sentence when somebody's speech is interrupted, like whether the - goes before or after the speech marks, and I'm sure I've done it wrong pretty much every time, but it's because I just. don't give a fuck nrnrng Like maybe I'll care when I actually publish something but like. y'all know they were interrupted, and that's all I need you to know.

My English teachers used to tell me I should never 'list' during descriptions in writing (e.g. don't have a paragraph dedicated to what a character looks like), but like. how the fuck are y'all supposed to know this shit otherwise? I'd much rather a writer just give me some list of what their character or setting looks like rather than pick up clues along the way, like my old teachers used to make me do (they would have me do shit like "instead of just saying she has blonde hair, just mention it when she eventually touches her hair" or some shit. or I'd have to implant a scene where a character happens to see their reflection just to give me an excuse to be like "LOOK HERE'S WHAT THEY LOOK LIKE. THEY'RE THINKING ABOUT IT SO THIS IS JUSTIFIED."). I'd rather have something to consult in case I forget rather than have to fine-tooth-comb the text to find out if this gal is blonde or not. fuckin wait for her to touch her damn hair just so I can know what colour it is. Obviously, yes, don't be too rambly with it, and show, don't tell their personality, but what they look like? Yes, please, just fuckin tell me. Let me have a picture in my mind rather than a bunch of puzzle pieces that I have put together over the span of reading this entire book.

Also, I’m aware some people don’t like it when writers actually write out accents, but fuck that (except if it makes the text legit hard to read). Y’all can pry especially Southern accents from my cold dead hands.

And hey, yeah, sometimes I structure stuff more on how it looks rather than writing rules, or how easily I think it reads. I'm in no way perfect ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#answering #reply #long post #thanks for sending this in! #Sorry for rambling too much haha ^^'

[traumasurvivorshelpingsurvivors]

Tw: School

I'll mark possible touchy subjects too: Feeling stupid, imposter syndrome (?), I think that's it.

Just looking for some comfort and advice if possible, but I'm happy just be comforted.

I returned to school a couple of days ago. I'm a host of a system, and only formed/became the host this time (ish) last year. I've found that I'm probably a symptom holder for a couple of disabilities, and that I barely remember learning things in school before...just leaks of trauma.

I was originally put in the SE class because of trouble getting an aid (I'm in a wheelchair), and while they moved me to a normal classroom the day after, it made me realize some things. It made me realize the support I easily got at home isn't nearly as close to a normal level of support. And when they did math, and learned time, I realized not only did I scarcely know what I was doing, I was genuinely having trouble.

And I felt bad because I felt like I was faking my trouble, and the whole time I felt like I didn't belong there, but then when I got into the normal classes I realized I needed the teachers to spell things out for me. I needed them to accept my AAC. I couldn't understand the math, I couldn't focus on the history, and in general my mental disorders were hindering everything I could do.

Luckily, I found a friend in someone glad to help without question, but I know without them I wouldn't have made it through the day without a meltdown - I was well on my way to one before they stepped in.

So...I just feel stupid. I need help understanding, I need help reading anything that's not normal basic fonts I was taught to read, I need help moving sometimes, I need help hearing, processing, talking - I need help with so much and I didn't realize it and I feel like I'm faking it all and I don't know what to do. And so far the teachers seem nice, but I know from the system's past that can change the minute you reach too far out of what's normal. And I'm scared. And I feel helpless.

Thank you for listening to me vent, I hope you're okay with me dumping this here.

Hi anon,

I know you say you feel like you're faking it, but at the same time you admit that are genuinely struggling. It sounds like there may be some internalized ableism going on that is potentially fueling your impostor syndrome, through calling yourself stupid and calling the classrooms that the able-bodied and NT students are in "normal". That could be something worth exploring.

I think being a system can be extremely difficult, confusing, exhausting, and disorienting, so it may be worth considering the fact that despite that, on top of your physical disabilities, you are trying your best. I also think you could consider cutting yourself some slack for not knowing the body's situation, how to navigate that, as well as the past and current curriculum because you've only formed a year ago.

I can't imagine how terrified you must be, not only to be thrown in a mostly unfamiliar situation but to consider reaching out and asking for help, unsure of the kind of response you may get. At the same time, you deserve the help you need. I don't know how accommodating your school is but it may help to take advantage of whatever resources are available to help you understand the material, whether that's extra time, separate location, a scribe or assistant, or whatever else they offer.

I hope I could help. Please let us know if you or the system need anything.

-Bun

#mod bun #trauma talks

[pepperf]

for the writing asks: 1, 32, and 38 if you want!

1. What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

Oh, hah - I carefully DON'T pick a font, because I have been down that procrastination rabbit hole once too often. It's now as bland and unexciting as possible, so that it doesn't grab my attention. I write in Arial (the beige of fonts) 11pt, auto-spaced after the paragraph, because that way I can move seamlessly between Word and Google Docs, and I don't have to add or remove paragraph breaks when I paste into AO3.

32. What is a line from a poem/novel/fanfic etc that you return to from time and time again? How did you find it? What does it mean to you?

I immediately got myself sidetracked looking up lines from books, lol - I am very bad at remembering the exact words (and very nitpicky about it being the EXACT words), so I’m just going to go with the first one that came to mind: “There’s no justice. There’s just us.”

It’s said by Death in Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett, one of my all-time favourite Pratchett books, and I think it encapsulates a lot of what I love about his writing. It’s about the reality, the here-and-now of it all - great, abstract concepts like Truth and Justice are all very jolly to talk about over a glass of wine, but you can’t rely on them, or pin them down - and there may be no afterlife, no underlying system of reward and punishment, so all you can do is work with who you are and what you’ve got. That’s what matters.

38. What is something about your writing process YOU think is Really Weird? If you are comfortable, please share. If you’re not comfortable, what do you think cats say about us?

I wouldn't mind sharing, but I'm not sure I have anything about the process that's Really Weird, tbh. I find cutting my nails very effective when I want to get myself going (my process is all about removing distractions). I like to lie on the bed in the sunshine and let my brain drift, because boredom/inactivity is critical to creativity. idk. Some years I've written nothing at all, and this year I've already hit 100k - that I find weird. And I get depressed if I don't write. Even though I'm not a big believer in writer's block as, like, a thing in and of itself (I think it's more lack of time/inspiration/energy), I do have periods where it's just impossible, and some times when I can't stop, but it's the lack of writing itself that I find impacts my mental health, and not necessarily the other way around. I find that fascinating.

Thank you! Post is here, if anyone else wants to ask one.

#writing #mememe

[tryalittlejoytomorrow]

1 and 20 for the writer ask ❤️

Thank you!

1. What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

Currently, I use Calibri (Body), with a 130% zoom in - specific, right? 😹 but it's got me thinking that I didn't always used to. Back in my NCISLA days, I used Trebuchet MS, and I used Times New Roman for my Everlark fics. So I went digging in my writing folder and it seems that I've been using Calibri for the past 8 years now. Can't remember what motivated the change, but it seems like I've found the one!

20. If a witch offered you the choice between eternal happiness with your one true love and the ability to finally finish, perfect, and publish your dearest, darlingest, most precious WIP in exactly the way you’ve always imagined it — which would you choose? You can’t have both sorry, life’s a bitch

I mean, is anyone really gonna choose writing over love??? Of course I'm gonna pick love. Love is fundamental.

But I guess there's also a corny part of me that's already satisfied with my writing? Like, yeah, some pieces never quite work out the way you'd planned, but...is that so bad? Sometimes your best writing comes out of being a little raw or weird, looking a little unfinished, and that's what makes it perfect because it's true. It might not be the story you meant to write but that's the one that wrote itself and that's its own perfection. Some of my favorite stories are the one that didn't turn out like I expected at all. Look at my home edit fic - it was a crack idea, just some dumb idea that came up while chatting with Ash and Allison, and all of a sudden it turned into this big 20k monster that had more layers and depth than I expected it to have in the first place? All of a sudden it bloomed into a story that had waited for me to catch up on to realize its true potential. So, like...as cheesy as it's gonna sound, I don't need a witch to make my writing perfect. I guess I've dabbled in writing long enough to know it is just the way it is, Alexa, play Bruno Mars.

#Angèle babbles #writer ask

[skinnidreamss]

Fuck tumblr

I've been scrolling through this blog for the past 2 hours. I don't even know how to feel. I guess the word "nauseous" would come to mind first. Ana tumblr has taken my fucking childhood from me and I gave it away happily.

I was fucking warned and I didn't listen. I would do anything to be able to stop my 13 year old self from ever discovering this place. I wish I could tell her that she really wasn't that fat, but the adults around her were trying to live through her and feeding her lies about how "dangerous" her very much healthy BMI was. I was just chubby. I was just a kid. I trusted everyone around me because they were adults and they were supposed to know everything, but it turns out that they were even more clueless than me.

I guess maybe when I found out that ED Tumblr, a place that is literally based on toxicity shared a few of the beliefs that these people would tell me, I should've been a bit concerned. But I wasn't. And I just fell into this rabbit hole that I don't think I will ever get out of. The things you learn here follow you forever. I can be happy and having a good day, eating something and the part of my brain that developed under the influence of this hell will remind me of some idiotic quote I read in a pretty font at 14. "once on the lips, forever on the hips", or some shit like that. And just like that, my day is ruined.

The truth is, I haven't been on here for a full year. My last post is from february 3rd 2023. It's february 6th 2024 now. I've been trying to heal, sort of. About 6 months ago, I started losing weight in a healthy(?) way. I think. I can't even tell at this point. After all these years, it's impossible to think about weight loss without triggering some horrible memories and starting some old habits again. I've had some close calls, but I haven't relapsed. I haven't starved myself the way I used to in a year. It's getting better.

I logged in today thinking I might delete this account once and for all. I decided to scroll through it and to my horror, I realized that I have repressed a lot of memories about my eating disorder. I had forgotten very big parts of my life and what my diets used to look like. I don't even know how to react and I don't have anyone to talk to about it. It's stuff that was happening a year and a half ago. One of the things I regret a lot is not journaling throughout my teenage years. But this blog has a ton of journal entries that reminded me of stuff my brain tried to erase. Like, for example. MY FUCKING THERAPIST TOLD ME THAT IF I TRULY WANTED TO LOSE WEIGHT, I WOULD???? WHat the actual fuck??????? I remember being very hurt about that and thinking about it a lot for a while, before getting back on tumblr and finding some crazy diet to do, after a while of actually doing better. If I hadn't found the post I made about it at the time, I would've probably forgotten about it forever. And there's probably so much shit that I will never remember again. The crazy thing is that although I had pretty much forgotten all of the things I wrote on here, they still hurt me somehow.

I am just so fucking angry at everything and anyone. I hate tumblr and everything about ed tumblr. My brain feels rotten from all the shit I learned here. I am getting better, but I've been having a shitty day so I guess I needed someplace to rant. I am angry at the complete lack of attention that everyone in my life gave me when it came to my diet. I used to be scared that they would find out and try to stop me from starving myself. But I slowly realized that I could show as many signs of an unhealthy diet as I wanted. Nobody ever noticed, or if they did, they just didn't give a shit. I was doing stuff that if a skinnier girl did, it would've raised a million red flags to everyone. But because I was fat, I guess it was fine.

I'm not gonna get into any more of my trauma anymore because if I start, I might just never stop writing.

I'll be 19 in two months. Everyone else I know has discovered themselves, bettered themselves, found friends and even love. All I've discovered in the past 6 years is how to lose and gain back the same 10 kg over and over and over again in the most disgusting and painful ways.

But whatever.

Life goes on. I owe it to my younger self to get better. I truly believe it's possible to do this in a healthy way. I will keep trying to be better and hopefully the anger will fade away in time and I will finally be able to heal from all of this. Someday.