#i just have a few things in my drafts that i need to write ids for

[dragonmuse]

How to be a Dirtbag Fic Writer

I got to do some talking about writing today and I couldn’t stop thinking about it so here are my full thoughts on the matter of being a dirtbag fic writer.

Being the disorganized thoughts of someone two and a half decades into the beautiful mess that is writing fanfic (and a few non-fanfic things too).

What is a dirtbag fic writer? 

 I am talking about someone who is not cleaning up anything. We show up filthy, fresh out of rooting around in the garden of our imaginations. We probably smell a little from work. We will hand you our hard grown fruits, but we have not washed them and we carried them in the bottom upturned parts of our t-shirts. The fruit is a little bruised. It’s not cut up or put in a bowl yet. But we got it in the house! It’s here. Someone can eat it.  

Why dirtbag it? Because the fruit gets in the house. If you’re hemming and hawing, if the idea you want to do seems to be big or you want it perfect and shiny. If you’re imagining a ten thousand step process, so you’re not taking the first step? Dirtbag it. 

How do I dirtbag? 

That’s the best part. You just write. Sit down. One word after the other. No outline, no plan, no destination. No thought of editing. Just word vomit. Every word is a good word. It’a word that wasn’t there before. Grammar sucks? Who cares. Can’t think of the perfect word? Fuck it, put in the simplest version of what you mean. 

Write the idea that you love. The one thing you want to say. Has it been done 3000000 times? WHO CARES human history is long, every idea has been done, probably more than twice. YOU have never written it before. It’s your grubby potato that you clawed out of the ground and guess what someone can still make it into delicious french fries. 

Now here’s the critical part. Write as much as you can squeeze out of your brain. One word in front of the other. 

And then I challenge you this: at most, read it over once and then put it into the world. Just as it is. AND THIS IS IMPORTANT: DO IT WITHOUT APOLOGY OR CAVEAT.  I challenge you, beautiful dirtbag to not pre-emptively apologize. Do not make your work lesser. THAT IS YOUR POTATO! It has eyes and roots and dirt clinging to it because that is what happens.  We are dirtbagging it today. Hell really confused people at do #dirtbagwriter on it.  

Dirtbag writes id, base, lizard brain. Dig in the fertile garden of your imagination. What is the story you tell yourself before you fall asleep? What’s your anxiety this week? Your fantasy? What is going well? What do you wish things looked like? Who is the feral imaginary character you’ve been crafting to take your frustrations and joys out on? 

But, VEE, I wish to have an editor and an outline, use a cool software like scrivener instead of retching up onto a google doc and making it look NICE and PRETTY!

COOL! DO THAT THEN! IF YOU’RE ACTUALLY DOING IT! You should have a process! That’s cool and healthy and necessary for sustainable writing. But if you’re not writing because all of that seems too much? THEN DON’T. 

Did you know fic is free? That we do this from love? From sheer desire? For the love of the game? If you have a process, and the words are flowing, amazing, I love that for you, you don’t need this essay.  If you don’t, let us continue. 

What does dirtbag writing look like? 

It’s messy. It’s a little raw and tatty around the edges sometimes. It’s weird.  It’s someone else’s first draft. Maybe it winds up being your first draft, Idek, that’s your business. 

It’s jokes that make YOU laugh. It’s drama that would make YOU cry if you read it. You are your first commenter. You are your first audience (and possibly continuing pleasure! If you don’t go back and reread your own work sometimes, you might be missing out on one of your favorite authors cause you wrote it for you! Wait until you’re not so close to it. Years sometimes. Then hey, maybe some of this is pretty dang good actually.) 

It has mistakes. 

Dirtbags make mistakes, but dirtbags have published pieces. They have things other people can read out there. 

What if I don’t get good feedback? 

Look, the most likely outcome of any new, untried fic writer (and even established writers trying something new-ish)  is that you get no feedback. That’s real. Silence. It’s eerie, it’s terrible, it sucks. I don’t want to pretend it doesn’t. But nothing is not negative. It’s a big fic-y ocean out there and we are all wee itty-bitty-sometimes-with-titty fishes.  

You should still do it all over again. And again. And again. You get better at writing by writing. You just do. Nothing else replaces it. If your well is dry? Fill it with new things. Go do something new, read a new kind of book, watch a new film,  (libraries have so much good shit, you don’t even have to spend money for so many things if you have a library card), just go for a walk in a new direction. Stimulate yourself. Got a cup of something hot and eavesdrop on conversations. Refill yourself with newness. 

And hey, speaking of, do you leave comments? Because you get what you give. You can build relationships with people by commenting and that builds community and community means places to get feedback in the end. Comments are gold. They are all we are paid in. Tip your writers with ‘extra kudos’ or ‘this made me laugh’. And hey, when you go back for a re-read so you can tell them your favorite part? Ask yourself how they made that favorite part? What do you like about it?  Tone? Metaphor? The structure? Reading teaches us how to write too! 

BUT, okay. Sometimes. Sometimes there is actual bad feedback and people suck. 

You know the best part about being a dirtbag? Unrepentant block, delete, goodbye. You don’t own anyone with a shitty opinion any of your precious time on this earth. You did it for free, you gave them your dirty, but still delicious fruit and they went ‘ew, this is a dirty strawberry, how could you not make a clean tomato?”  Because you didn’t plant fucking tomatoes, did you? Don’t fight, don’t engage. Block. Delete. Goodbye. 

If someone in person, looked you in the eye when you brought them a plate of food to share at a party and they said “Why didn’t you bring me MY favorite? This isn’t cooked well at all.” You would probably write up a Reddit AiTA question about it just to hear five thousand people say they were an asshole.   Fic is no different 

And hey, when you dirtbag it? You know you did. It’s not your most cleaned up perfect version. So who cares what they think? You might make it more shiny and polished next time! You might NOT. 

Ok, but what if I don’t finish it? 

Fuck it, post it anyway. 

What if it’s bad? 

Fuck it, post it anyway. 

What if it doesn’t make sense? 

That’s ART, baby. Fuck it, post it anyway. 

What if what I want to write doesn’t work with current fandom norms? 

Then someone out there probably needs it!  And what the hell is this? The western canon? FUCK IT POST IT ANYWAY* 

*Basic human decency is not a ‘fandom norm’. Don’t be racist, sexist, ableist, fat shaming, classist or shitty about anyone's identity on main, okay? Dirtbag writers are KIND first and foremost. Someone saying you are stepping into shit about their identity is not the same as unsolicited crappy feedback about pairings. In the immortal words of Kurt Vonnegut: "God damn it, you've got to be kind.”

You’re being very flippant about something that’s scary. 

I know. I know I am. I know it can be scary. But no risk, no reward and hell, you aren’t using your goddamn legal name on the internet are you? (please for the love of fuck do not be using your legal name to write fic) You’ve got on a mask. You’re a superhero. With dirt on your cape. 

That niche thing that you think no one cares about? Guaranteed you will find someone else in the world who wants it. Maybe they won’t find it right away. Maybe they will be too shy to comment or even hit a button. But your dirty potato will stick with them. They will make french fries in their head.

You have an audience. But they can’t find you if you have nothing out there. 

Go forth. Make. 

You have some errors in this essay. 

PROBABLY CAUSE I DIRTBAGGED IT.  But I picked this strawberry for you out of my brain, so I hope you run it under some cold water and find the good bits and have a nice snack. Or throw it away. Or use it to plant more strawberries (I know that’s not how strawberries work, metaphors break when stretched).  

#dirtbagwriter 

Go forth and MAKE

#writing #i'm not an expert #I just have been doing this a long time #and these are my feels #please feel free to throw away this strawberry

[hearthouses]

hello!! happy wincest wednesday! I'm not great at coming up with questions but-- are there any aspects of wincest or any tropes or angles you've been thinking about recently that are making you go particularly nuts???

This is a good and fun question!

So... I'm kind of an intense nerd who has people pleasing syndrome as well as fun traits like issues with choice paralysis, so picking one of my many many many ideas is very difficult, so in order to keep track of things I am interested for me, I have a document that is called "iddy ideas" which are essentially concepts that speak directly to my id. I'm gonna use the headers as way to answer this because otherwise I will forget something and it'll bug me, so things that live in my psyche re: Winchesters are:

→ DEAN & GENDER: I have a few asks in drafts that need answering about this topic, so I will keep this sort of brief—I am really into how Dean and his relationship to gender, and how the roles he plays in life force him into one box or another. I tend to headcanon him on the nonbinary/genderfluid spectrum, even if he’d never personally identify as either. I love exploring how he often uses toxic masculinity as a shield and how he uses it to cover up the more vulnerable aspects of his desires and identity. As for the Sam/Dean angle, I really love Sam figuring it out and using lingerie kink and feminization kink as a way for Dean to explore in a way that doesn’t completely freak him out. There’s a long fic in my head that I’ve been too nervous to write about this.

→ OMEGAVERSE & PREGNANCY: I have come up with so many ways to get Dean pregnant because I think about this topic so often. I won’t bore you with the list. I am unfortunately a sucker for pregnancy and kid fics as a trope. I don’t often read them because I prefer realism in the sense that the kid has to feel like an actual kid to me and not a symbol of happiness and completeness. For Sam/Dean, I enjoy the fucked up aspects of having a kid with your brother and how they would be so into that because it’s combining themselves into another living being, that they made together, ultimate symbol of their intense incestuous love. I also think Dean very much wants kids, but didn’t think he could have them with Sam, while I think Sam would really only want to have kids with Dean. I have many AUs where it is also the worst possible time for this to happen because I live for the melodrama. I also like post-pregnancy and seeing the kids grow up to be fucked up in their own special and unique ways.

→ DOMESTICITY & DISABILITY: I am simple and sometimes I want to force Sam and Dean to retire and live in a little cabin or cottage in the woods somewhere so they can grow old. Often, I think for the only way that makes sense for them to do so is if one or both were physically incapable of hunting anymore. I love them being forced to slow down and take care of one another. Given their lives, permenent injury is pretty likely and I love exploring the ways in which they'd have to grow and adjust to their new realities. Also, I kind of just want certain ideas presented in canon explored? Like Sam's issues with his sense of reality and hallucinations, or both of them having chronic pain. Plus, there should be more finale AUs where Dean lives, but he has mobility issues now.

→ WINCHESTERS & RAPE RECOVERY: Both Sam and Dean are rape survivors who repeatedly are sexually assaulted throughout the narrative, but they both react so differently to similar traumas and I would like to have this explored since the show wouldn't. Hell trauma also goes under this umbrella. I am fascinated by the ways in which Sam and Dean are mirrors and foils, and would like to explore the interiority of that. I’m also very into concepts and ideas that explore how their respective trauma informs some of their kinks i.e. I think post-s7 Sam especially wants more pain kink and D/s where he submits to get out of his own head and Dean struggling with the dom role due to his trauma from hell where he was put into the position of torturer and rapist, and them having to figure out to make that work without sending Dean into a tailspin.

→ CONSENT ISSUES: I love fuck or die, sex pollen, curses, and all related tropes. I also like "dark" versions of Sam or Dean (Demon!Dean, Soulless!Sam, Shapeshifters, Leviathans, etc.) menacing and putting the other in situations. I will never tire of this.

→ BOY KING SAM & MAGIC: Sam should be able to always have his powers as a treat. He should be able to be a little evil as a treat. Sam should get to go full on witchy as a treat. I love the demon blood arc, I love psychic wonder Sam, I love Sam who puts hex bags in witches mouthes and tells them he learned from the best. I am from the ancient times and watched the season three finale live, so my formative years were shaped by so many Sam becomes The Boy King and rescues Dean from hell fix it fics and AUs, and so it's always a favorite. I am currently writing one that is very slow going, but as a general vibe check I am calling it Sam's Moving Castle and "suiteverse but nice".

→ WEREWOLVES & MONSTER WINCHESTERS: I love werewolves and I want Sam and Dean to be werewolves and be a pack of two. But I'm not picky and would like them to be any sort of monster. I think the show was too scared of upsetting the status quo and permanently transforming them into monsters, which is a shame, but now it is now my hyperfixation when it comes to fic for them.

#rontology #applecrumbledore #wincest #sam x dean #replies! #wincest wednesday

[murdockparker]

Good Vibrations

Eddie Munson x Reader

Summary: Eddie never backs down from a dare, even if he had to drive out to the middle-of-fucking-nowhere to a sex shop to prove it.

Word Count: 3k

Rating: 18+ for mature themes (no actual smut)

Warnings: mentions of sex, swearing, adult themes, reader works at a sex shop, Eddie and reader are over 18

A/N: first time writing for Eddie! well, first time posting what I’ve written for Eddie... may or may not have more in my drafts lol (also bad title but fucking sue me okay)

__

This was stupid. 

The entire notion of this dare was completely and utterly stupid.

But, a dare was a dare and Eddie Munson wasn’t one to chicken out—not when he drove his sorry-ass thirty minutes out of his way to a building sat in the seemingly middle of nowhere. But, to the building’s credit, Hawkins itself was in the middle of nowhere to begin with—the point? Moot.

Why was this even the dare that Gareth came up with anyway? He could’ve had Eddie run a hundred laps at the school field, lick the bottom of his own sneakers—the thought alone was nauseating—hell, Eddie would’ve taken spending an entire Saturday at the library… studying. This? This was embarrassing. 

After finishing the blunt he had stashed away in his glove compartment, Eddie finally found enough nerve to pull his ass out of his truck and move to the building next to the small lot he parked in. The neon sign hanging in the front door flickered and nearly fizzled—it had to be as old as the building it hung in—it wasn’t looking like a great sign for him to continue on, but, like a soldier going into battle, he ventured on and into the store. His first impression? It was… clean. Surprisingly so, hell, even the air smelled fresher than the outdoors he just came in from. He guessed his preconceived notions about an establishment such as this one was just— 

“Hello?”

Eddie couldn’t have turned his head faster.

“Oh good, you can hear me,” the girl at the register laughed lightly, “thought you were ignoring my very kind greeting.”

“I—uh—guess I was,” Eddie replied sheepishly, his hand finding a home at the back of his neck, “sorry.”

“I was trying to ask you,” she smirked, shifting her weight from one elbow over to the other, “that I needed to see some ID.” 

“ID?”

“I’m afraid this shop isn’t exactly a watering hole for children and tweens—I’m sure you already knew that, though.”

“W-what?” 

She blinked once. Twice. “Y’know, because…?” With that, she ended her thought with a—rather ostentatious—gesture to the sales floor in front of them, products lit up and blinking like a Christmas tree. 

Eddie’s face grew warm. “Uh, yeah, right,” he fumbled up to the counter, fishing into his back pocket for his wallet, “here you go.”

The girl took his ID and scanned over it quickly—it was obvious that she had done that quite a few times—before handing it back to Eddie. “Not that I thought that you were in middle school or anything, but, y’know, store policy and all that.”

“Really? Damn, here I thought I could’ve weaseled my way into the Snow Ball this year and wreak some havoc.”

“You want to go to a middle school dance?”

“Well, no, obviously not,” he laughed shakily, “I was… sorry, it was a joke.”

“I know,” she hummed, “well, it was an attempt at a joke—didn’t really land though.”

“Ouch,” Eddie grabbed his chest dramatically, “that cut me deep.”

“If a stranger working at a sex shop cut you deep with an insult, I’d hate to know what happens when a friend does the same thing.”

“My friends are respectable people,” he stood a bit straighter, pulling on his leather jacket, “they would never defile my honor like that.”

“Uh huh,” she clicked, “sure.”

Eddie blinked. “You don’t believe me?”

“Tell me, Edward—”

“How’d you—”

“Your license,” she shrugged as if it were such a simple explanation, “though I can’t say I pegged you for an Edward, seems a bit too… basic for someone like you.”

“I go by Eddie,” he clarified. 

“Eddie,” she repeated. He couldn’t say he hated how it sounded coming from her—beautiful and pink—lips. “Okay Eddie, as I was saying, those friends of yours whom you claim would never defile your honor—” 

“They would not,” he nodded.

“They wouldn’t happen to be the whole reason you’re here, right?”

Eddie was at a loss for words. Was it really that obvious? Did he look truly that out of place? “You don’t think that I came here on my own volition? By my own choice?”

“Nope,” she shook her head, “I reckon you probably buy your rubbers and nudie magazines from some corner store in town, so why would you bother coming out all this way unless it were for… I don’t know, a dare of some kind?”

“Maybe the nudie mags that are offered near me weren’t my speed,” he shrugged, trying to play it off, “or I already burned through the corner store’s stock of rubbers?”

“Oh I’m sure that’s it.”

“Y’know, being sarcastic with your customers isn’t exactly a great business model.”

“Don’t really have to worry about scaring off someone who wasn’t planning on buying anything anyway.”

“I’ll have you know I was planning on buying something,” he corrected, “but your attitude is just entirely off-putting. Maybe I should take my business elsewhere?”

“Okay.”

She turned her attention back to the—completely safe for young eyes—magazine that had sat on the register beside her, effectively ignoring Eddie. He stood silent, nearly shocked at absolute gall of the beautiful stranger. “Aren’t you supposed to fight for my business?”

“Aren’t you supposed to not lie to people?” she asked, not looking up from her magazine. “Isn’t that, like, the first rule of kindergarten or something?”

“I’m not lying to you.”

“…right, and I’m the Queen of England.”

“Oh, Your Majesty,” he bowed deeply, “my sincerest of apologies.”

Her gaze flicked up for just a moment, laughter bubbling in her chest at the sight of Eddie bowing so elegantly before her. She’ll bite. “Alright, you’ve made your point,” the laugh she tried holding back escaped her, “do you need help finding anything in here?”

“Actually,” he rose his head, still bowing, “yes, I would appreciate some assistance in finding what I seek from your humble establishment, Your Majesty.”

“Humble establishment,” she mumbled, pulling herself away from the desk, “so, what’re you looking for?” 

Her arms were at her hips, giving Eddie full view of the outfit she was wearing—it was relatively normal—he was expecting something more… out there. “That’s an excellent question, use it often?”

“Yeah that’s, like, my job?”

“Just tryin’ to make small talk, sweetheart,” he held his hands up in admission, “but, uh, I guess I’m not really sure exactly what I’m looking for.”

“You drove yourself out to a sex shop without knowing what you’re looking for?”

“I think I said ‘exactly’,” he narrowed his eyes, “obviously I know what I’m looking for.”

“And that would be…?”

“A… vibrator,” he mumbled, suddenly feeling very shy. 

“I’m sorry, I’m gonna need you to speak up?”

“I’m looking for a vibrator,” he repeated, speaking more clearly, “you know? Something that vibrates or whatever.”

“Well that I can help you find, easy,” she smirked, waving him to follow her. She continued to walk across the small store, was hardly bigger than a classroom, a classroom filled to the brim with all sorts of fun looking things, things he didn’t know existed until that moment. “What kind of vibrator are you in the market for? You’ve got a few options.”

“Ah, I don’t think that it has to be anything fancy—”

“I’m sure your girlfriend would beg to differ,” she laughed airily, thumbing through a few options hanging on the wall.

“S’not for my girlfriend,” he rocked on his feet, heel to toe.

“Oh, in that case, you may want to get one with a flared bottom just so it doesn’t get lost up your—”

“No!” Eddie didn’t mean to shout, but the sound carried a bit farther than he expected it to. “It’s not for me either, no ma’am. I’m very comfortable in my tried and true methods, thank you very much.”

“Never hurts to try something new,” she said, gently putting back a package that she had pulled from the wall, “so if it’s not for your girlfriend and it’s not for you…?”

“Well, considering I don’t have a girlfriend—”

“No?”

“What? Are you shocked?” He felt his chest swell the tiniest bit, she seemed relieved. 

“Honestly? A little bit,” she agreed, “you’ve got that whole rock-n-roll vibe and everything. Most girls are into that nowadays.”

“Is that something you’re into, sweetheart?” 

“I could be persuaded, sure.”

“That’s not a no.”

“I guess it’s not,” she smiled lightly, turning her attention back to the wall of colorful machinery. She looked as if she was contemplating the options, mulling over a fine wine or critiquing a piece of art, before pulling a package from the wall. It was a small thing, hot pink and—if Eddie had to guess—was bullet shaped. “Is this something that will fit your very cryptic needs?”

“No fucking way that thing is a vibrator,” he scoffed, pulling the package from her hands, “it’s tiny.”

“Size doesn’t matter,” she laughed, “from what I’ve heard this model packs quite the punch.”

“What? Do you not fancy one of these for yourself?” It was a bold question, Eddie knew that much, but the blunt from earlier was finally kicking in—the adrenaline from entering the store probably outweighed the effects earlier—so anything was seemingly fair game. “Or,” he pulled a rather large, more phallic shaped thing from the wall, “is this more your speed?”

“I can’t say I test all the merchandise,” she nearly yawned, “but if you really want to know what I like…”

He held his breath.

“You better be taking me out first,” she winked, turning her back to the now furiously blushing metalhead. “Seriously though, if you’re not gonna share any sort of information of what you’re wanting with me I’m just going to rip down the entire wall into your arms.”

“I’d like to see you try that.”

“Don’t test me, Zeppelin.”

Eddie smiled at the nickname, his attention flicking back to the colorful wall beside them. Led Zeppelin wasn’t at the top of his favorite bands, but for some reason he had the strange urge to go and listen to any tape or record he or Uncle Wayne had of theirs—for research purposes, obviously. He reached out to pull another box off the wall, the weight surprising him. “Do people actually buy these? I mean, really?”

“Some people prefer the realistic look,” she said simply, “the realistic feel.”

“Oh,” he put the package back, “sure, yeah that… checks out.”

“You sound surprised.”

“I’m not.”

“You are.”

“Do I look surprised?”

“You do.”

Eddie stood silent for a moment before taking a deep breath. “Fine, maybe I’m a little surprised. I guess I never imagined that when people came to buy… these, that they’d really be going for a realistic thing, you know?”

“Oh yeah,” she nodded, “there’s something for everyone these days.”

“But, I mean,” he pressed his finger to the plastic, “this is like… scary real looking.”

“Some people just really miss their partners I guess, wanting a similar feel, if I had to take a wild guess,” she laughed, “but I try not to judge people’s interests, not too critically anyway.”

“Ah.”

He tapped his fingers a few times against the packaging, his rings not offering much of a different sound on the surface. The girl nearly sashayed back up to the register whilst he was momentarily lost in thought, only turning her attention back to Eddie when she returned.

“Well?”

“Huh?”

“Aren’t you gonna buy it?”

“Oh,” he raised the package closer to his chest, reading the text on the plastic diligently, “yeah, I think this will be fine.”

“I think your buddies are gonna love that one,” the tap of her fingers against the glass of the counter rang throughout the room, “it’s terribly realistic.” 

“Yeah I think they’ll be alright with—”

He stopped dead in his tracks. 

Shit.

“Uh huh,” she clicked, a small smile creeping onto her lips, “I knew it.”

“Fuck,” he ran his free hand through his hair, “was it really that obvious?”

“I work at a sex shop in the middle of the fucking woods, the only people who come out here are perverts, curious ladies looking to change up their solo time or some freshly-eighteen boys on a bet or dare. It’s not hard to catch onto a pattern.”

“How often does that happen?”

“Eh, twice a week?”

“Shit, really?”

“Lots of people lose bets, apparently,” she helplessly shrugged, “either way, it’s good for business and my parents can keep the lights on this shack a bit longer.”

“I’m sorry, parents? Like, your mom and pop own this kind of shop?”

“Yeah, not exactly a quaint little downtown boutique, but it’s got charm and the cash flow is insane. Who knew perverts would blow a couple of Benjamins on this shit?”

“I—yeah, that’s actually pretty impressive,” Eddie agreed, fishing into his back pocket again for his wallet, “so… what’s the damage?”

“Ten bucks,” she said, putting the purchase into a hot pink plastic bag—thankfully with no store branding on it to Eddie’s relief.

He pointed to the back wall, “but the sign over there said—”

“Consider it a new customer discount,” she said nonchalantly, pushing the bag across the glass countertop. He hadn’t noticed it before, but the glass case she stood behind was full of higher-end, colorful, glass blown products. They weren’t all toys, he realized, he might’ve spotted a few pipes if he looked hard enough.

“Aw, a discount for little ol’ me?” Eddie handed the girl a crumpled bill. 

“What can I say? I’m feeling generous.”

“You sure it’s not a handsome guy discount?” 

Another bold statement from Eddie this evening, it seemed. It was worth a shot, anyway, right?  

“A discount is a discount,” the girl smirked as she loaded the money into the register beside her, “could be the senior citizen discount and you’d be none the wiser.”

“Okay, that’s a little gross to think about—”

“Old people can have sex—”

“You think I’m a senior citizen?”

“Of course not,” she laughed, “you’re not much older than I am.”

“Yeah?”

“You seem to forget I read your license earlier?”

“Oh. Right,” he deflated a little bit, “is it by a lot…or…?”

“Well, I sure as hell am not a minor, if that’s what you’re asking,” she laughed again. God, he loved that laugh. “Couldn’t be working here if I was.”

“That’s good, wouldn’t want to catch a case for thinking the store clerk is cute,” Eddie smiled, leaning against the glass counter. 

“Do you normally think minors are cute…?”

Eddie stumbled. “Jesus, no! Of course not! I was—it was a bad joke—”

“You seem to have a lot of those.”

“Well, pretty girls make me nervous,” he tried to play it off. 

“Huh,” she clicked, clearly fighting back a grin, “alright, well, I hope your buddies get a kick outta their prize.” She pointed to the bag that now firmly sat in Eddie’s grasp.

“Yeah,” he nodded, “I’m sure they will.”

“Can I ask?”

“Ask?” He turned his head. 

“Why did your friends make you come out here to buy a vibrator?” she quirked her brow. “Aren’t they sitting in your car or something and just dare you to spend like, fifteen minutes or whatever in the store?”

“That—well, funny you mention that,” Eddie nervously chuckled, “that was the original plan, but they had something come up tonight so… they insisted I buy evidence that I came in here.”

“They insisted you buy something you have no use for?”

“I’m sure I could find some use for it,” he grinned, “or maybe find someone to use it with.” He couldn’t really tell, but he could’ve sworn he saw the tips of her ears darken—her cheeks following in a similar fashion. 

“I threw our business card in the bag. Y’know, just incase your buddies don’t believe you—”

“I’m sure the realistic sculpted dick vibrator is enough for them,” Eddie winked, pressing his hand up against the door to handle, “but I appreciate the excellent customer service, sweetheart.”

Without even a goodbye, Eddie practically ran out of the store and back to his van. Why did he do that? He could’ve at least asked her out—she was clearly interested in what he had to offer. He never even got her name.

“Fuck!” Eddie hit his head against the steering wheel, fists resting on both sides of his face. “You’re an idiot, Munson. Obviously can’t go back in there now, she’d think I’m a crazy pervert or something,” he hit his head again, “stupid, stupid, stupid…” It only took him exactly seven minutes to finish with his pity party he threw for himself before he dared to look in the hot pink bag in the seat next to him.

The business card. 

It had to have had the shop’s phone number on it, right? He could speed home and try giving it a ring before they closed for the night. Maybe she’d answer? Laugh with him about how stupid he was—or maybe just laugh in his face at his mistake. Either way, he had to give it a shot. Eddie reached into the bag for the card, his shoulders slumping immediately when there was no phone number listed on the face of the card, just the name of the shop and the address. “What kind of store doesn’t have a fucking phone number?”

It was only when he flipped the card over he saw it.

There, on the pristine white of the backside of the card was something written in pink ink—a bit smudged—it was obviously written in a hurry. It was a phone number, a personal home phone number if Eddie had to take a wild guess. 

-

You better call me, Zeppelin

~ (Y/N) 

-

He pursed his lips, his face contorting into probably his biggest grin of the night. She gave him her number. “(Y/N), huh?” Eddie laughed to himself, re-reading the card as if the ink would fade away. He’d be an idiot not to call her—to ignore such a pretty face.

Maybe he’d get use out of his recent purchase after all. 

#eddie munson #eddie munson x reader #stranger things #eddie munson reader insert #eddie munson x you #fanfic #fluff #eddie isn't as big of a player as y'all make him out to be!!! #proof read but if you see errors no you dont

[defiledtomb]

Ouroboros: Progress

I haven't written one of these in forever, so it's slightly clunky, but I aim to have one of these out at least every quarter, if not monthly. Let's dive into it! Spoiler warning for the sneak peeks at the bottom.

What I got done since last month:

After the update drop, I took some time off the main story to prevent the budding burnout. I’m sure you are well aware of my malaise by now- it's a constant effort to stay on the tightrope.

I don't think I brought it up explicitly but when I started writing Ouroboros it was me riding the high of becoming a person again right after years long sick leave and battle with mental health, meaning that while I am absolutely thrilled that I'm getting so much out of life again, that fragile part of me still lives on and I have to take care not to let it get the best of me, and that means constant vigilance and self-compassion. Writing a project this big could easily be a full time job on its own, but I also have to account for going back to the workforce after being gone for so long. It's tough! irl work/life keeps amping up and will continue to eat my energy. Though, come summer, I might actually have some good news on my schedule and how my writing will fit into that. Fingers crossed.

Otherwise I have really enjoyed interacting and goofing around with you on tumblr again, and I’ve had a blast just reading and playing games. It was a very welcomed break. I still got a lot done regarding Ouroboros:

- Got started on all the short stories you voted on, and built the framework of code for how stories will be unlocked as you progress the story. 

- I got some much needed help with setting up a side-blog for writing content only; it’s getting there! Soon Ouro will have its own space.

- I added about 3k words to the next chunk of act 1. A drop in the ocean, but progress is progress. 

- I started sneak-writing on the next act and specifically, the underwater/caving chapter. I am so excited for it! Besides writing and hiking, diving and caving are core parts of my interests. (Didn't I once say that Ouro is disgustingly self indulgent? x] Because it sure is.) 

What’s next:

I am still taking it slow, since most of act 1 pt2 is already written  (60k words ish), and I have some responsibilities I’m gonna need to devote my time to. My goals for February are leading up to Ouro’s first anniversary, so I want to prepare something fun for us to enjoy! If it will be a chunk of update or something else remains to be decided. On the 8th of March we ride.

My priorities for February are:

-having fun with the short stories

-get the sideblog up and running with a new FAQ and character pages, and a new intro post.

-solidify the code and scene transitions for the next update 

- (stretch goal) edit/rewrite/add to the unhinged mess that the next update still is 

 Re: bug reports

Thankfully, last update was relatively bug free, but there are still a few reports sitting in my inbox waiting for changes, mainly

-the egregious oversight of having id's romance scenes appearing although the hunter is committed to L/not in the poly. More on that here.

-the questions with Iontif cutting off short in one path

-a section of the flashback with wrong pronouns + other pronoun variables not displaying correctly (the bane of my existence!!)

Thank you to those who reported these, I always note them down if I don't fix them directly. The reason why I am almost always tardy on bug fixes is because I'm treating this as a first draft that will be rewritten; it makes little sense to dedicate so much time to fixing things that will need to be fixed again. I do them when I have little else I want/have to do. I'm sorry! Triaging problem areas is essential to keeping this show going. I hope that it isn't too invasive to have a few errors in the scenes; rest assured that they will get fixed (eventually 🤡)

Re: save system

Something that has really bothered me lately, is thinking about CoG's obstinate refusal to implement save systems. I absolutely won't release Ouroboros without one, as with how much variation goes into the story (and knowing from first-hand experience playing large games, that one miss-click (or that horrendous bug that chooses options for you if you even look at it wrong) will have you go down a path you didn’t want, or you are faced with starting over, which sometimes leads to such fatigue that you just…stop playing.) it feels like shooting yourself in the foot to not have one. And worse, it feels plain cruel to subject the reader to that. There isn’t any possible way to fit every nuance of a choice into the box-text, or to imply a delayed outcome as a result of making a choice that seems very “innocent” at first glance.

So I stand before a really difficult decision; either code a save system from the bottom up, and I would have to do that sooner rather than later, or port the game to twine which brings its own bundle of problems. Right now I honestly no idea what I want to do, and I have to admit that it fuels a bit of writer's block as I feel locked in place until I come to a decision. Heurgh.

Now for the fun part. Sneak peeks!

I wont share the latter parts as they are still... Unhinged. But the next update isn't just romance, its weapons and insidious cults and fighting, too.  More on that, later.

Thanks for your support, your kind words and for sharing your journey in Ouro. It means the world to me. I’m serious!

#ouroboros-if #interactive fiction #hosted games #dev log #writers update #progress report #me throwing every possible tag on this post cause I can't remember which one I actually use: random bullshit go! #And now :] DARK AND DARKER BABEEEEYY #please let me know if you use a screen reader and it doesn't pick up the text <3

[space-writes]

I have a couple more obsidian templates I wanted to share! They’re fairly simple, but they’re what I use for writing fic and for scene tracking.

Also: I post these kinds of thing to show examples of what you can do with obsidian. I came to these setups through trial and error and reworking of processes, borrowing other people's ideas and tweaking them to what made sense for my workflow. I encourage you always to do the same: don't force my templates into your mould, use them as a jumping off point instead

Under the cut you'll find a fic template and a scene metadata template, with screenshot examples, pastebin links, and explanations. Enjoy!

Fic Template

pastebin link

This is the base template I use for all my fanfiction, but it can easily be modified for original fic by removing the fandom-specific terms. The callouts are custom callouts, so to get them looking like mine, here’s a json you can use in the ‘Admonitions’ plugin.

(download it, save it as a .json file, then in the Admonitions plugin settings, use the ‘import’ option)

As with my other templates I’ve shared, I’ve left the CSS class field blank so you can add your own if you want.

This example has the template, plus what it looks like filled out with a fic. (fonts/colours/etc come from my theme which is a franken-css mess built on top of the typomagical theme. source mode font is spectral, preview mode is ia writer quattro s)

The ‘datecreated’ field being filled out as {{date}} means that when you apply the template, it will automatically fill in with today’s date. I use the ‘date’ field then to log the date I finish a fic. That’s the one I use to sort my auto-tables of ‘fic what i have finished’.

‘pwa’ stands for ‘prowritingaid’, and is there so I can mark if I’ve done a grammar check or not. feel free to stubstitute with your own grammar checker of choice.

‘readaloud’ is what it sounds like - I read all my writing out loud as an edit pass, then mark when I’ve done it.

Scene metadata

pastebin link

This is a very simple way you can set up metadata for scenes in a longer work. A few notes:

number is for which number scene it is, so you can sort them in queries. this can get finicky if you’re moving scenes around because you have to do it manually, so I usually don’t number scenes until I’ve planned things out a lot in other ways

wordcount is also a thing to fill out manually, but again, it’s useful for queries - it allows me to see if my scene lengths are balanced nicely

The example dataview I have is for my fic-novel, since that’s the main thing I’ve been working on, so there are a few things that are different but the theory is the same (mostly it’s that instead of ‘subplot’ i have ‘pornplot’ because. it’s an erotic romance. so.)

this example shows it pulling wordcount and scene summary. I do find pulling everything in one query can make things way too cramped, so I tend to make seperate tables to look at different things. For example, whilst I was editing this fic, I had one sorting by status, so I could see which scenes were still a first draft and needing more work, and which were second or third drafts, and needed less.

To break down the query a little:

table without id produces a table without the file-link being auto added

the ‘link’ section is to have the file linked with the title of the note as the link, but under a heading of scene instead of file. it just looks nicer

everything in ‘from’ is just pulling notes from the right section because my folder structure is A Very Special Mess

sort number - this is where that number field comes in, for sorting the scenes in the right order

the other great thing you can do with this metadata setup is pull out specific plot threads by scene, like so:

the important part is the ‘where contains’ field (which I have a template for that query structure because I need it all the time and I can never remember the format.) What that does is pull all notes where the field ‘plot’ has the thread listed in the quotation marks (so in this example, that’s rizeths research). Then you get a nice little list! I find this great for tracking threads, especially subplotty ones.

To do it you do have to remember to list all your plot threads in the metadata but that’s on you /shrug

#writeblr #obsidian md #obsidian.md #obsidian templates #writing templates #writing resources #writing tools #it is once again obsidian posting time #i love making templates for things its so useful

[chen-chen-chen-again-chen]

Hi, hello, hola, and happy Stab Caesar Day! Tumblr ate my original draft because, um, I guess its hunger is horrible and insatiable? But here I am for take two. Thank you to @artsyunderstudy, @larkral, and @forabeatofadrum, who tagged me today and who continue to craft delightful things.

Updates on My Good Egg (Good morning, good night, good morning): My plan of posting Chapter 4 today ain't gonna happen. I updated the author's notes, but the next posting date is TBD. I need to focus on my health right now, and then I'll be travelling for a bit (March 24-April 7). But hey, if you've been meaning to read this one, now's a great time to catch up? 🤣

In the meanwhile, I'll share a snippet featuring several of my OCs, Baz's queer, chaotic uni friends. Behind the cut for mild spice. 🌶️

Bunce goes off with Simon so that she can pump the American bartender for information, and as soon as they’re out of earshot, Emma leans forward, her eyes glittering. “Well?”

“Well what.”

“I told Liu and Ramesh you got kidnapped,” Emma says, waving her hand dismissively, “and of course we’re all very worried and hope you’re doing okay and acclimating to regular life again, but have. You. Ridden. That.” 

Baz regrets downing a few rats before they left for the pub, because it means he has enough blood in him to blush. “We’ve been figuring out this kidnapping situation,” he says coolly. “It hasn’t left much time for carnal pursuits.” 

“Baz,” Liu says, aghast. “Why haven’t you fucked that nice himbo? He’s clearly gagging for it - he couldn’t stop staring at your arse in those jeans.” 

“Is he a himbo?” Ramesh says. He pulls out a pen and starts to doodle a triple Venn diagram on a napkin. “He seemed like more of a twunk to me. And he’s got a great bear belly.” 

“Ladies,” Emma says, her hands fluttering in mock-distress, “please don’t objectify that sweet boy before Baz gets to objectify him. Baz will eat his fill of the man-meat and then give us a report.” 

(Please put in the comments/tags if you think Simon Snow is a twunk, a himbo, or something else delightful. 🤣)

Hello tags and tagbacks: @whogaveyoupermission, @cutestkilla, @facewithoutheart, @captain-aralias, @fatalfangirl, @you-remind-me-of-the-babe, @whogaveyoupermission (THE EDGING CONTINUES), @raenestee, @ileadacharmedlife, @shrekgogurt, @hushed-chorus, @shemakesmeforget, @theimpossibledemon, @imagineacoolusername

More about the hiatus for My Good Egg:

(Warning for some hard stuff, Big Feelings, trauma recovery. Feel free to skip and just bask in Ides of March posts instead!)

Okay, so introspective life/writing blather here... I keep meaning to write a post, at some point, about some of the best practices that I follow when I am writing about material that is heavy, like in Baker boxer teacher grief or the Rosethorn girl universe.

A lot of stuff that works for me is probably self-evident: go slow, be gentle, ground yourself, talk to safe people, have a release valve, be able to walk away, offer yourself a lot of self-care and self-compassion, take care of the soft animal of your body. And don't feel like you have to put everything in - some of what you can write can just be for you, and it can be enough to have written it, and not include it in the finished product.

I honestly didn't expect Good morning, good night, good morning to get me where I live. It is, as I've always maintained, a dumb horny rom com (that somehow developed a plot and backstory and plot TWISTS and OCs but ANYWAY). But there was a line in Chapter 3 that kept rattling around in me:

“You were a kid,” Simon says, his voice low and angry. “You were just a kid.” 

This is not the first time I've been triggered by own fic (and probably won't be the last, LOL!), but this one did me a doozy. I've had to take a few steps back, and just focus on recovering from trauma that's been reactivated in my body. It is wild what the body remembers, and how it holds onto pain.

(There is, at the same time, other stuff happening with my family with grief and estrangement and just a whole mischegoss of hard feelings, so that adds another element into the mix.)

To circle back round to My Good Egg: I'm putting it to the side for now while I tend to my health and just recovering from the past few weeks. It's funny - I don't think it's a particularly angsty story or one that does a super deep dive into trauma, but I need to take some pieces off my plate right now, and this fic is one of them.

I will always keep writing - the WIP game has been a delightful brain refresher, and I have a very fun Six Sentence Sunday post that I'm already excited to share. But for now, My Good Egg is gonna have a li'l nap. When I come back to it, I think I'll switch over to writing the second draft in its entirety, and then posting the chapters weekly, whenever that happens. I'm not putting a timeline on it right now.

Anyway, thanks for coming to my TED talk making your way through this personal essay, if you've gotten this far. I am continually blown away and delighted by everyone who engages with the fic, and I am so excited to serve you up some treats in the future.

To end on a lighter note, here is an exchange with my spouse, the inestimable EarlobeGreyTea who continues to offer thoughtful and nuanced feedback on this fic, Exhibit A:

EarlobeGreyTea: Did they fuck in this chapter?

Me: No Me: And they didn't fuck in the previous chapter Me: It's the EROTIC Grope Fest. It doesn't have to have explicit sex (yet) EarlobeGreyTea: Yeah, I guess it isn't the Sloppy Fuck Fest

Love you all. ❤️❤️❤️

#WIP Wednesday #My Good Egg #good morning good night good morning #life and writing #long boi #big mood #my fic tag

[smoosnoom]

Hello!! I’ve been a fan of your fics for a while and I was wondering what your writing process is like? I haven’t written a fic in ages and I honestly miss it, so I was wondering how you tend to get started or find inspo :^)

u are so kind hello thank u so much i am glad u enjoy the things i write !!!! it means the world :D !!!

hmmm . i actually havent been writing any fics as of late but thtas mostly been for how stressed and busy i have been . but !!! i can tell u that my process is very much . a lack of one . i write oddly and strangely and i am a mess about it . i usually write a few lines in a scene and jump around from one part to another, wherever i feel my mind leaning towards i tend to go there and feed it ! its not very much a process as it is an . experience .

however, if im very much intentionally trying to get started on a fic i usually just . open up a doc and write the first sentence that pops up in my head . it doesnt matter if it is the most mundane and uninteresting thing, because the first draft is very rarely perfect . the main goal is to have something written down, because if u keep going, then that one mundane sentence builds up to create a showstopping paragraph and thats where u get the most motivation and satisfaction !!! so id say if ur very caught up with urself and thinking that nothing ur writing is good enough and u keep backspacing and have urself stuck in the same spot, then just . keep writing . keep going forward even if its grueling and absolutely terrible . after u have dug urself a tunnel out of that hole, u can go back and make it a proper staircase . u just need to get to where u want to be, and once u are satisfied or content, u can go back and fix what u want

if u find urself unable to do that, then i say seek out other media that really entices or evokes emotion in u . nothing (in my opinion) is as inspiring as a good piece of fiction or art or music or dance ! listen to music u wouldnt usually listen to or check out a friends movie recommendation, just try to push yourself out of the usual things you watch or read or listen to on repeat . taking the time to listen to something new and finding one good song that sticks with me for three weeks is the kind of stuff that has me writing 4 fics in one month !!!

anyway . i hope some of this was helpful or useful at all, if none of it was or if i just . didnt do a very good job of answering ur question, then let me know :) and the most important part of the writing process is just that, to write !!! write whatever it is, and if ur stuck in a block or arent proud of anything ur writing, then write the first thing in ur brain ! if u dont like that either, then thats fine !! just keep going until u find a rhythm . and if u dont, try again and again and again ! i am a firm believer in that trying makes all the difference . is that too cliche idk ! but i think its true

so . anywho . please let me know if any of this is actually useful to u :) id love to know how it goes, and please feel free to drop by with an update or anything !! thank u for the ask !!!!

#/ask #i hope this was helpful LOL

[starlit-hopes-and-dreams]

WIP Intro(s)

Alright, alright, I'm finally biting the bullet and making this damned thing XD

Wip 1

[ID: The words Beautiful Lies and Shattered Dreams over an image of branches with shimmery purple flowers. end ID]

This is the first in a planned (I use that word loosely) trilogy. It's also my first piece of writing. Ever. *looks down at all that stuff* I think I did pretty good, if I do say so myself :D

Genre | Dark Fantasy Romance (New Adult/Adult)

Style | close 3rd, past tense, multi-pov

Status | Complete (115k), beta read x2, another round of editing

POV Characters

Alaia, human (19/F)

Serin, human (23/M)

Kadin, seraph (~150/M)

Darian, fae (~100/M)

Basic idea:

Alaia (19/F) manifests as a mage in the human realm of Elysia. While mistreatment of mages should be a thing of the past, she finds that is not the case when she is almost killed, then taken captive. A little dragon, a fellow captive mage, and pure stubbornness motivate her escape plans, while secrets and a fierce desire to protect the one she has come to love complicate them. It may seem that Alaia’s choices are simple. Escape and live or die in captivity. But there are bigger forces at play—in Elysia, and among the gods. More depends on her survival than she knows, including the lives of the fae beyond the Veil.

Themes and Vibes | hurt/comfort, forced proximity, forbidden romance, shared trauma, DRAGONS-little ones :D, magic with glowy eyes, elemental magic + structured magic, healing magic, empaths, light political intrigue, do anything to save the one you love and almost die trying, matebond only felt on one side, stupid decisions have tragic consequences, all decisions suck anyway :) , cliffhanger ending

CW's | profanity, captivity, loss, SA (non-graphic, dubious consent, attempted rape), physical/emotional abuse, fantasy violence/torture/implied death (one explicit scene), consensual sexually explicit scenes, forced marriage (this is the short version 😶)

Tags | shattered dreams

Deleted scene | buried memories (noncon)

Magic | magic inspo tag game

Matebonds | ask

Wip 2

[ID: The words Fractured Pieces of a Shattered Soul over an image of gold sparks on a black background. end ID]

This is book 2 of the above mentioned trilogy.

Genre | Dark Fantasy Romance (New Adult/Adult)

Style | close 3rd, past tense, multi-pov

Status | First draft, 121k and closing in on the end

Same cast of characters, plus a few one-shot pov's

Basic Idea: I need one? :')

This picks up after the cliffhanger of the last book and any description I can think of is kinda spoilery for the first lol. Lets just say Alaia escaped and we get to see lots more of the fae in this book.

Themes and Vibes | magical fae lands, healing magic, empaths, found family, some more hurt/comfort of course, recovering from trauma, soulmates, refusing a matebond, more dragons, tragic backstories, backstabbing fire bitch goddess, secret enclaves, a ridiculous amount of angst and sexual tension, hopefully some revenge, and probably another cliffhanger lol

CW's | I haven't put an official list together, but pretty similar to the first... profanity, captivity, loss, grief, PTSD, flashbacks, SA (non-graphic, dubious consent, attempted rape), physical/emotional abuse, fantasy violence/torture (graphic)/death, mental manipulation/mind control, breeding, consensual sexually explicit scene(s)

Tags | shattered soul

Charater Art | Alaia & Fyel

WIP 3

The (hopefully) final book in the trilogy.

This is just vague ideas right now and isn't yet named.

#wip intro #writblr #writeblr #writing community #shattered dreams #shattered soul #original writing #writers of tumblr #fantasy #fantasy romance #will edit this as i go #:D

[authorsadiethatcher]

It's time for another State of the Thatcher address. And this time I do it on the American Labor Day. For those who are celebrating, enjoy the day.

I chose this image, because I really wanted to use it on a previous book, but it didn't quite fit. Even without bimbo curves, that is one sexy dress.

The last couple months have been filled with a lot of work, writing multiple books, as well as my next fantasy novel. That fantasy novel, which I'll mention more about below, is now with my editor after a harried week to get it done. But after the major grind that saw me produce over 90k words in a single week, I'm able to sit back and relax a little.

Not that I'm completely taking time off. I took a couple days off last week, but I'm back to it with some great new material. But first, a reminder about where you can find my books.

Amazon is the main spot for most people, so here’s a link to my catalogue: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Sadie-Thatcher/author/B00B4MINAC

Smashwords is a great place to buy books, especially if you don’t like Amazon’s evil empire. You can find them here: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/sadiethatcher

Plus, you can find them at the Google Play bookstore: https://play.google.com/store/books/author?id=Sadie+Thatcher

I’ve added a new way you can get my books. It’s called Ream and it’s a bit like Patreon, but its author specific, made by authors for authors. In addition getting to read all of my new books for a monthly subscription fee, I also give you access to the images that didn't quite make the cut for my covers. You can see my Ream page here: https://reamstories.com/sadiethatcher

Additionally, my books are available through Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Scribd. I don’t have links to those stores handy, but if that’s where you like to buy books from, my books will show up there, eventually. I distribute through Smashwords and have to wait until the review team there approves my books for distribution. This can take days or even weeks.

If fantasy is your thing, take a look at all of my novels under my other pen name here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Libby-Feron/author/B09PJ9J5RN

I have finished writing the final novel in the Magic's Most Wanted trilogy. I remain on pace for an October 3 release date. As the date approaches, I will be writing a special series epilogue that will be exclusive to newsletter subscribers.

And speaking of newsletters, if you sign up for the Libby Feron newsletter, you get other exclusive content and updates like cover reveals before anyone else. I have a bonus prequel scene up for the Magic’s Most Wanted Series ready to go, just in case you haven't checked it out yet. You can sign up here: https://libbyferon.com/newsletter/

With the fantasy novel plug complete, let me also mention some of the cool stories I have coming out in the next month month.

I just finished publishing the third novel in the At His Service Series. I really loved writing this and I hope readers enjoy it, because it took a lot of work to put it all together. The Billionaire's Bimbo not only wraps up the series, but it ties a nice bow around it all. And there's lots of sex throughout.

Next up on my list is a series that centers around free use and a draft for women. I'm still working on the details, but this series will be available to all paid subscribers to Ream, in addition to my normal publishing channels.

And after that, I've got a series about six friends who move into a house together start going through some changes. I'm still working through some details on this one, but I've already come up with a few things for some newfound bimbos to say in it.

Finally, I still intend to eventually release Fake It Until You Make It in audio. However, my narrator is just really busy and hasn't been able to devote the time needed to get this done. It's a long book, so it could take a while. But I promise it will happen. They even bought a new microphone just for this project.

#sadie thatcher #buildingbettergiggles #writing #story #announcement #State of the Thatcher Address

[executionerspity]

trying to get somewhere on deciding my next yuzugiri fic to focus on now that Rough Patch is nearly complete (in my drafts, as a very rough first draft) and ill have the time to work on other stuff

ideas under the cut, figured id at least get them out here and let people maybe comment or whatever

Idea 1: Focus on Catching Pop Flies and Feelings, a baseball AU with Baseball Pro!Sagiri and Bodyguard!Yuzuriha. It's already got the groundwork fairly set (and a few chapters uploaded), which allows for ease of transition into it, but I'm not a sports person, so I might prefer to keep it as a semi-sporadic fic to update.

Idea 2: Post-Series fic with a few of the butterflies that Rien planned to use on the mainland having actually reached there, altering things in ways that leave Yuzuriha and Sagiri investigating and handling several unwanted changes. This one could last a while with lower amounts of prep work, and could probably carry on and off until close to the end of the anime's airing, especially if they make 3 seasons with 1 cour each.

Idea 3: Modern AU fic with Cop!Sagiri, who makes a deal with Prisoner!Yuzuriha to get a confession from a different person to prevent a murder case mistrial, and the terms for Yuzuriha's cooperation requires them to interact semi-frequently. I've got a bit of the basics for this prepped, but not as much as the Baseball AU.

Idea 4: Arranged Marriage AU, where Yuzuriha agrees to go find an arranged marriage to get Saya better medical help in hopes of saving her dying sister. Cue Sagiri pushing her father's company needing to prove their diversity statements in order to get a wife, but her father insists on picking someone he thinks will be well behaved. Yuzuriha, of course, knows how to put on a façade. It's a newer idea, but fairly easy to write with minimal prep work.

Idea 5: Chess AU, modern. Nothing too complex or anything, just a meet-cute with some terrible pun title involving the word check or maybe a different chess term. Again, basically zero groundwork has been done for this, but it's a much easier concept to include overall, and can involve one of them teaching the other in order to make the gameplay lower level.

I do have a few different ideas beyond these that I've toyed with, but don't currently feel confident writing. I also could try to figure out another AU that's commonly used, like Band AU, Coffeeshop AU, or Florist/Tattoo Artist AU, and make that work. Probably would have some easy resources, but I'd be starting from square one on even building the ideas. Still down for people to suggest that stuff, in case anything pops out at me, it's just less likely than if I end up working on some idea of mine with some prep already done.

If I don't get any responses on this by roughly the end of April 12th (for at least one time zone), I'll probably end up working more on 1 and/or 3, but I'm pretty open to ideas. The time zone converter for that time is here.

#yuzugiri #my posts tag #hoping to have something to have for updating about twice per month with about 2-2.5k words per chapter for most of these ideas

[whatwewrotepodcast]

WIP Questionaire Tag Game

Thanks @jackiezenauthor for the tag!

On a bit of a The Second Coming run so I'll use that for this.

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

The first chapter? Haha so this is probably the 4th or 5th time we've re-written/re-done this story. The first version was about 120 hand written pages long, spewed out over a few weeks in high school. We then re-wrote the whole thing, it wound up being 150k+ words so we decided to turn it into a trilogy, and that's where we're at. But we very much started at the beginning, with chapter

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

Bleeding out by Imagine Dragons. ID is pretty much the soundtrack for this story, and was the main music we listened to while we wrote it and so they're always indelibly tied together in my mind. But this song sort of sums up the vibe really well to me.

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

Belial is definitely a fan favourite for us. He was never really meant to be a main character - he was a side character! He was just an NPC! But somehow he ended up becoming vital to the story and then the next thing you know he's a POV character. Belial is such a great character because he's so complex. He's a good person! Kind of! But he isn't afraid to do what needs to be done and if that means doing things that aren't so savoury, he's willing to do that. He's loyal to those he thinks are deserving, he's brave when he thinks it'll make a difference. He's also extremely hot.

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

Hmmm interesting. I mean, I don't love the comparison but fans of Cassandra Clare would probably enjoy TSC because it does have similar feels and themes. Potentially also Laini Taylor? Anyone who likes modern fantasy? Maybe Good Omens fans too, though we're not nearly as funny haha.

5. What has been your biggest struggle while writing?

Oh my god the editing. Honestly we are in editing hell right now and it's just excruciating. It's so disheartening to have to throw big chunks of writing in the bin and have to write the scene again because it wasn't quite right.

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

There aren't really, which is kinda weird because we're both huge animal lovers.

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

Mostly in Merry's beat up old Kia.

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

Currently doing editing/rewrites on Anarchy, book two of the trilogy, a rough draft of which we spat out during a writing holiday back in 2020 and haven't had time to get back to.

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

We definitely have a couple of good ships, lots of action and great fight scenes, but I think (hope?) the characters are what people will enjoy. We want people to love our characters, to want to know more about them, to spend more time with them.

10. What are your hopes for your wip?

Honestly, publication with this one! We really think it has the chops to go the distance, we just need to find someone willing to take a chance on us. Or, for our podcast to get popular enough that we have a chance to self pub. Whatever works!

Tagging @illarian-rambling @cssnder and @xenascribbles

#writeblr #writers of tumblr #writing #writer #write #writing community #tag game

[worldwide-simp]

Diary of the inferior

Scp x reader

(isn't really proof-read )

This is something I had written a few words of, stored in my drafts and didn't let it see the light of day (see what I did there hehe) for some time. But I have now finished it (kinda) and its certainly one of my longest pieces. 

(The first few entries are short and poorly written, but it becomes better after some time.)

warnings: gore, kinda pessimistic views, I hate Entry 1 with all my heart, false reality, violence, euthanasia, body horror, religious talk, death.

Scp 105 is post Omega-7, she’s 24 here.

Entry 1: New Beginnings

Dear Diary, 

Maybe I should’ve listened when people told me to never take strange job opportunities.  

I thought it was perfect, I was working in a shop on minimum wage, and I could barely afford simple life necessities.

I still had to pay off my student debt and that made life all the harder. When I saw this strange opportunity presented to me by a shady caucasian man, I believed that this would be my saving light. 

I wish I had been shot that day. A bullet mysteriously found its way into my skull. A news reported merely stated it was an accident; or running from that horrid officer only to “disappear” and never see the light of day again.

I just wish that death had claimed me as one of their countless victims before immortality and the infinite loop of time laid hands upon me.

—-

Entry 2: the flower of beloved Iris

Dear Diary, 

On my photo ID, there was my smiling face. It was a smile of pure joy. You could glance at it and call it cheeky if you dared. But I was merely innocent. Innocent as a human could be. 

After the photo had been taken, I was briefed on what I’d be doing. A rambling speech about the foundation's lack of care for qualified staff and instead people with logic and reasoning. 

That gave you a fighting chance, because how bad could this job be if you just needed a little logic?  I met a girl a few weeks later. I always wondered why she had that camera with her. Perhaps it had been a dear hobby of hers? 

I found out my presumption was wrong when she took a photograph of a flower in a vase some distance away, took the picture out and then proceeded to stick her hand in the image; giving me the flower after twirling it in her fingers. 

Iris seemed proud of making me joyful, I believed I laughed all night. I later placed the flower on my desk, and even after it wilted and its petals fragile and bleak; I still folded it into my pocket and to this day it still resides there. 

She was more on the quiet side but still gave me those sad smiles with dimples on her cheeks.  I had distinctively remembered wondering about the cause of those scars on her eyelid, jaw and hands.  — 

Entry 3: false reality

Dear Diary, 

I found out Iris was an anomaly; an Scp, if you wanted a more precise definition. This was told to me by a person higher on the foundation hierarchy for its staff. Not Iris herself. 

Was I slightly hurt? Yes. 

It had left me staring into a void, although I had seen her camera doing its magic. I must have created some false reality in my head that explained this bizarre situation. 

At the time, I was scrawling through my notebook with such vigour it was comparable to an inspired writer. I was not inspired in a awestriking way. Simply wanting to write about my trepidations concerning this topic and send the letter to me in a shitty way of making myself laugh.

(Mind you, if you too were stuck as a lab assistant watching sentient doughnuts bite people, you almost certainly develop terrible humour.)

—

Entry 4: the beginning of the end

Dear Diary, 

Something strange had occurred.

I had been assigned a mission. Naturally I was confused. Lab assistants being assigned things other than cleaning up the blood after cross-testings? It was something I found most peculiar. 

They, (foundation staff),had suited me up in some strange black equipment, handed me a gun and pushed me over to some people waiting inside a black van.

I don't even have a formal qualification to handle a gun; I had screamed. Why would this be happening? I remember saying that to myself. over and over again.

A pathetic mantra that I so feebly considered answered by the many voices in my head. I cried. Then I wiped the liquid with my hand; I had refused the notion that I was a weak, feeble creature hiding the true meaning of my nature. 

When I really was just that. 

All those other people had kept their heads down, mindlessly fidgeting with their hands or drumming their fingers nervously on the knee. I merely stared at the wall, already feeling the sensation of butterflies fluttering in my stomach. 

I didn't know them, and at this rate; I would never.

—

Entry 5: pathetic chess games

Dear diary, 

They had gotten off the van, dressed in full tactical gear and shivering with a dreadful fear. This situation felt wrong and I memorized the look of someone who knew too much. It was in a puddle of water. It was my face.

Perhaps I was seeing the foreshadows of fate that dangled right in front of my eyes. But I saw nothing, heard nothing and knew nothing. This was all one of the many cruel games the foundation played, killing people as if they were mere chess pieces. 

All just to win to the game, only for another to proceed after that.

—

Entry 6: the majority and the minority

Dear Diary, 

 Scp-001 S. D. Locke’s proposal is one of the many 001 proposals that exist: detailing the sun becoming a hostile being that eradicates human beings, converts them into sentient piles of flesh which aim to find unconverted humans and drag them into the sunlight, for them too to become those hideous masses of skin. 

The scenario occurred in my timeline, at first I didn't know what was happening, only that the other staff members had screamed about the light being good and holy before I heard the most awful noises.

It squelched, moaned and cried. I suppressed gags and muffled my mouth with a cloth. What the fuck was happening? Where had they all gone? Why do they sound not human anymore?

I had ran out from the cover of the van to shield under the safety of a building, not before looking back and laying my eyes upon a horror of flesh melting away under the rays of the hostile sun, dragging its amorphous clumps of bodies towards me. 

They had once been human like myself. I had only saved myself but not them. I should go join them to redeem myself to the judging light and have my sins cleansed. I was a wretched human not worthy of being alive. 

I kept on running, determined to never let the sun touch my skin ever again. I had slammed the door of the building. It was desolate and empty. When I’d step on the ground too hard, I could hear the echoes of the impact.

The was a distinctive waft of bleach, specifically chlorine that reminded me of swimming pools. There was a lack of furnacing; which reminisced the not-so-distant memory of my office. I took shallow breaths, slumping down to the ground and rubbing a sore ligament. 

This was a weak thing a human could do, but I sobbed. I cried and cried until I felt like everything went numb. But it cleared my mind slightly, feeling less like a suffocating cloth and more so like a haze of cloud. 

I felt around in my breast pocket, closing my fingers around a packet and tearing it off and chewed on the granola bar slowly. My mouth felt dry and my throat burned, however, despite the lack of comfort, I still ate. 

I pondered on what I could do. Could I stay here and call for backup or try to find someone who was still alive? 

I sighed, then fiddled with the packet from the granola bar. Was I at fault for my comrades being turned into those abominations of flesh? I could've saved them; told them to stay inside the van and that I’d go out and check. It would’ve resulted in my death, but wasn't appeasing the majority a more important factor than the minority? 

—

Entry 7: The silence of the lamb

Dear Diary,  

I had a radio that I had snatched last minute from the van before dashing off. I had tried reaching out to anyone I could. But there was only silence.

—

Entry 8: Nihilism

Dear Diary, 

I had successfully contacted a person without being disoriented by loud static. I heard heavy breathing, it was loud and quite alarming. There was a persistent sloshing of liquid in the background. It was quiet for a few seconds; eerily quiet. Before someone spoke. 

“You are alone. You will stay forever alone if you do not accept the beautiful light. Go outside.” 

I threw the radio to a corner of the room, and it broke into several pieces. The voice didn't sound human anymore, it was distorted with an otherworldly passion. I was so blinded by the anger that had irrationally consumed me for a second I broke my only means of communication.  

Maybe I would be truly alone if I didn't go outside.

There was nothing to live for anymore.

—

Entry 9: kiss away the gore

Dear Diary, 

If loneliness was the way I would die, perhaps it would be better to perish in the sun than of hunger and the echoing quiet. I lived in cowardliness and fear. I can be free where I belong. 

I opened the door I had blocked two days ago. Such a feeble mind, but I had found revelation.  I will cleanse my body of this impurity, harbouring sins and the devil's hands caressing my skin. 

I will burn it all away. 

This was the only way I would be accepted, then I’d find peace. 

I stepped into the sunlight and stared at the scarlet sun's beauty. I felt my skin being pulled apart, melting into a puddle of goo, bones liquefying and a boiling feeling. My human mouth shrieked, but that was insignificant. My fingers merged together before becoming a singular stump and my body was crafted new.

There was an agony I couldn't describe in words. No matter how many times I may rip out this page and rewrite it countless times, no work of poetry could ever shed light on the feeling. 

My body was crafted pristine, I now moved surprisingly fast. The puddle of goo had moulded itself into the body of my absolute nature. I sought new flesh. That I would bind myself to another pure being. 

Later, I stumbled across a facility devoid of people, there were only pools of blood on the floor. The once pure white walls had undertones of fleshy colours. If I were still human, I would've gagged at the goriness of it all.

But I didn't, instead I lurked deeper into the building. A net ensnared my body all of a sudden, and I choked out a throaty snarl. A familiar figure loomed over me, with a knife poised at my throat. 

I gnashed my fleshy teeth together, reaching out to capture this impure human and bring it to the light. But the creases under their eyes faded, tossed the knife to the side and removed the netting. 

What was this revolting human doing-

I was engulfed in an embrace, a hand of theirs resting on the small of my back and the other placed upon my throat, pushing it back. Almost as if it was endeavouring for me not to rip out their face.

“I can't believe something like this could happen to such a beautiful person like you.” They murmured, gripping my body tighter like I would dissolve into ash at any moment. My jaw snapped abruptly and they hushed me. 

I heard the shuffling of fabric. Cool metal grazed my face before I heard them speak again; “It must be painful for you, I’ll shoot you so you can rest peacefully.” 

Then they squeezed my back with such gentleness it would be hard to imagine that someone like this would shoot me. 

The last things I felt were the soft fluttering of my dead heart, a soft kiss on the lips and seeing their appearance one more time. Admiring their shortly cut blond hair, scars adorning their face and cerulean blue eyes. 

Those beloved dimples showed as they smiled so miserably at the prospect of being alone once again. But this was for your sake. 

“Wait-”

She pulled the trigger. 

And you saw nothing. 

#scp x reader #scp 105 #scp foundation #scp au #scp #yandere scp x reader #when day breaks #S. D. Locke’s proposal #not proofread #first pov #Plot holes

[souryogurt64]

Hi. It's really late where I'm at(it's one of Europe's capital cities, hence all the mistakes that's going to happen) and I just finished reading your essay on Gray and there is no coherent though left in my head, except reading it was such a blast. It also hurt me very badly and I cried at one point or two, but that's fine, that's how I know it's good stuff. I'd love nothing more than to have like an hour long conversation about all that you wrote, it's so interesting Nd thought-out. But it's late, my brain has been scorched completely and I had to bring out alcohol for section about mother. So I'll just let you know it's one of the cleveres, eloquent things I've ever read. This is my equivalent of that 6-hour long yt video on Victorious, only catering exactly to my needs. Also, bless your heart, I love knowing about this book but I couldn't bring myself to read it even at the gunpoint.

Thank you for reading it, I really appreciate it! I'd be happy to answer any questions you have about it lol

That book blows my mind, I know that everyone thinks that it's this like terrible whiny rockstar sex misogyny book but the amount of effort and skill that went into writing something that looked like it was that but wasnt but you only noticed if you managed to figure out like the insane 4D chess happening is just genuinely so insane it blows my mind.

i always knew there was something about it cuz on. on the first reading i was only like 14 but i picked up on the freud stuff which made me positive it was satire, and i thought a few other things about it were strange.

but i think in college when i started reading the sun also rises and tender is the night very closely the gears started to turn, i had severely lapsed in my fall out boy obsession for about four years while i was in college but i took this class called "americans in paris" where we read a lot of hemingway and fitzgerald and some other stuff and all i could think about was the book, and i remember reading tender is the night and it felt like i was reading petes book again even though i dont think pete cares about fitzgerald at all

and then i didnt really talk about this in the dissertation i just alluded to it because i didnt particularly want to include a 3 page accusation of a violation of journalistic ethics but i kind of blindly stumbled backwards into some of the stuff with his cowriter while writing the peteryan thing (and then more after the brent wilson thing). and i started to understand how the unreliable narration in the book worked because the articles were written the same way. and i was like ohhh okay and then i noticed the allusions and parentheses and it snowballed from there like that old Playstation game where you roll a ball around collecting garbage until it gets big enough to become a planet

I also know it was excessively niche and very excessively and intricately detailed to the point of being a bit ridiculous but i kind of wanted to respect the fact that its supposed to be a secret and hide the explanation of the book under a bunch of drivel about the drafting process that maybe 3 people on planet earth care about. i probably would have gotten 10-20x more clicks if i had just written about the roman a clef part but alas i have ethics

anyway i have a big dramatic work thing next week and then i am going to finish my cross stitch and listen to the beautiful and the damned on audiobook and try not to think about pete wentz. like at all. because im sick of him believe it or not. and id like to write an essay not about pete wentz. but then i will probably end up writing the verlaine/rimbaud thing

[sailorsplatoon]

Chapter 1 of a Dedf1sh/Acht fanfic I wrote

So, looking at my last post about sharing my writing, I figured I'd post a little something I've been working on recently in celebration of Dedf1sh being in Side Order. Consider this an AU because most of it will probably be proven wrong by Side Order lore. I am open to any feedback at all! (Also, I will be referring to Def1sh with they/them pronouns and calling them Ahato because of a few headcanons I have. And TarTar doesn't talk in contemporary speech mode for the first chapter because MORE HEADCANONS!!! If you have any questions feel free to ask!)

Next

Read it on ao3

Chapter 1 below!

(CW: Swearing)

The sky was blue. Ahato had never seen the sky before. It was so beautiful. 

Marina was right, the surface was amazing. Maybe they could find her and she could teach them about this astounding new world. So this was the Inkopolis Square she’d talked so much about. It wasn’t very big yet and most of the buildings were still under construction, the most eye catching of which was what looked like a giant tower. And the music! The inklings loved music, it was so different than what Ahato was used to. There were different songs playing everywhere, like a symphony of new. 

Maybe Ahato could make music like the inklings. They’d brought the portable turntables Marina had left to them when she ran away from the Octarian Army. Maybe finding her could wait if they got the chance to experiment with this new music. But they would need someplace quiet. Maybe an alleyway? Oh, perfect! A little alley sat in the corner of The Square. They could work there in peace.

It took. So. Long. To finish making the song. They just kept getting distracted by how interesting and strange this new world was. But all Ahato really wanted to do was finish this song. Just finish this one remix. Why couldn’t they focus!? If only there was a way to get rid of what was distracting them…

After working hard for what felt like forever, they’d finally made it. Their very own remix of Splattack, Splattack (Octo). Admittedly they could have come up with a more creative name, but the real joy was what they had made. 

Ahato wanted to keep making music. Maybe even something original? But how could they focus with all these distractions!? Maybe if they went further into the alley? There was a staircase leading down into what looked like a subway, but there was gate in front of it. They could easily hop over it if they wanted to… and they could always come back out later…

Ahato hopped the fence and ventured further into the depths.

***

It was dark and cold. Ahato already missed seeing the real sky. Here, there wasn’t even a fake one. But they desperately wanted to keep making music, so they trudged into the growing darkness. Their heavy duffel bag was beginning to hurt their shoulder, but there was not a chance they were going to leave it behind. It carried all that they owned.

It only took a few minutes before Ahato began to hear something in the distance. A telephone ringing? Why would there be a phone down here? After a little more exploring, they found the source of the ringing. An ancient looking phone that appeared to almost have a face. Out of curiosity, Ahato picked it up.

“[SEARCHING FOR USER ID…] [USER 283 CONFIRMED]” The phone screeched into their ear and they pulled away from the speaker, not expecting it to be so loud. “Greetings 283. Your current location is: Deepsea Metro Central Station.” What was this thing, and why was it calling them 283? Ahato did not like it at all, it reminded them of being in the Octarian Army. Most of the octolings born into the army were given numbers rather than names, Ahato was lucky enough to have been born outside the army and then be drafted in.

The memory hit them like a shot from a splatterscope. The day they were drafted. Scrambling to gather their most valuable possessions before being taken away from their home. Ruffling their little brother’s tentacles for the last time, and exchanging hats with him as a keepsake. They could never forget the scared looking face that had become somewhat of a symbol of how much they cared about eachother. How they would be there for eachother when the other was afraid. Or the last hug that their father gave them on that day. How his smell lingered on their clothing long after they left, and how they cried when they could no longer remember how his voice sounded. Or trying to hide their fear as they walked away from everything that they loved. 

Ahato froze from the sudden recollection. They hadn’t thought about their life before the army for so long. That was it. Whatever this place was, they did not like it at all. No amount of focus is worth-

“My primary function is to facilitate your journey to the promised land,” the telephone interrupted Ahato’s thoughts. Promised land? Could that be some place even better than living in Inkopolis? Their gut told them this was a bad idea, but their curiosity had been piqued. “Pleased to make your acquaintance.” 

“What do you mean by ‘promised land’?” Ahato asked. They had so many questions, but they still didn’t know what was going on and they weren’t sure if they fully trusted it.

“You’ve spent your entire life in the dark. Your eyes closed to the beauty that awaits. The promised land is a utopia of light beyond your wildest dreams.” The telephone continued. Whatever this promised land place was sounded great, but Ahato still didn’t have enough information. “You cannot go to the promised land.” Seriously!? This thing was just going to talk up a place that they couldn’t even go!?

“Then why the fuck did you tell me about it,” Ahato snapped. They were exhausted from their journey already and were starting to get annoyed with this rusty old phone and this dark subway.

“Let me finish,” its tone turned harsh and caused Ahato to tense up, “You cannot go to the promised land yet. You must prove yourself first. There have been 282 applicants so far, you are applicant 283.”

“I never applied for-”

“Do you octopuses ever shut your beaks!?” The phone snapped. There was a long heavy silence in the air. Then, making up their mind, Ahato turned around and began to leave, their boots thumping as they made their way to the exit.

“Wait!” The mechanical voice echoed through the large station. “If you leave you’ll be missing out on the opportunity of a lifetime. You won’t get another chance.”

“Fine by me. I was perfectly happy where I could actually see the sky.”

“I heard the music you were making earlier.” That caused Ahato to stop in her tracks. This thing could hear their music all the way down here? “Any loud noises echo through the entire subway. If you stay here, you could go to the promised land and make music for everyone here to hear.” The offer wasn’t bad. As much as they wanted to explore Inkopolis more, they desperately wanted to make more music and this certainly seemed like a good place. After all, they could leave at any time, right?

“Fine. Whatever. But I have a couple terms if I going to agree to whatever you have going on. Firstly my name is not some series of numbers, it’s Ahato Mizuta and that is what you’re going to call me. Second, don’t expect me to do anything you tell me to. I am done following orders from people and I especially won’t follow any from some rusty hunk of metal.”

“... Here is your CQ-80 and CQ card. Don’t lose them, they’re very important,” the phone printed out a little card with a blue and white pattern on it that seemed to resemble a sea cucumber. It dropped a large hunk of metal as well that Ahato guessed was meant to be the CQ-80. “The train will come to pick you up shortly.” With that, the phone went silent. Ahato assumed it had powered off. Despite its reassurance that the train would come soon, they had to wait there for nearly an hour and a half before it finally came rolling down the tracks. The doors opened and Ahato backed up, assuming people would walk out, but the entry way stood entirely empty. They climbed on and the large metal slates shut behind them.

The train was also nearly empty except for a few passengers. Ahato had never seen anyone that looked like the people they saw on this train. They were fascinated by just how many other living things existed that they didn’t even know about. Maybe being down here could teach them more than living in Inkopolis could. Ahato took a seat on the train as it lurched forward, beginning to move again.

After just a few seconds a small blue thing that looked similar to the design on their CQ card came inching through the door, “Hello and welcome to the Deepsea Metro, thank you for choosing us. I am C.Q. Cumber, your conductor.” A sea cucumber! Ahato had never seen a sea cucumber in real life before! “Judging by your awestruck facial expression, I can assume this is your first time riding with us. I can explain how our lines work and our partnership with Kamao Co. if you would like.”

“That would be great, thank you,” at the very least, maybe the conductor of this train could answer a few of Ahato’s questions.

“My pleasure. This underground facility is a series of chambers connected by the Deepsea Metro subway system. The facility itself is run and owned by Kamabo Co. Is that a CQ-80 you have?” C.Q. Cumber seemed to gesture to the large piece of metal that Ahato was holding. Though, being a sea slug he couldn’t gesture with much other than his head.

“You mean this old looking thing? Yeah, I’m not sure what it does.”

“You CQ-80 will allow you to navigate the tests within the stations at the Deepsea Metro. If you complete enough of these tests it will help you to reach the promised land.”

“What is this promised land place? That telephone wouldn't stop talking about it but I still have no clue what it is.”

“We denizens of the deep are not allowed to ender the promised land. However, I have been told that it is a paradise.”

“Why can’t you enter it? That seems unfair,” Ahato's suspicion rose again. Why was is restricted to only e few people? If it was so great then why not let everyone enjoy it?

“The tests are designed only for inkfish to be able to pass them. Those of us without ink sacks or aquatic forms stand no chance. But that is unimportant. I and many of the other denizens here are happy with our lives as they are now. But if you want to make it to the promised land, you will have to pass enough tests so that you can find and collect the four thangs. Once you gather all of them, you will be able to enter the promised land.”

“Four what? Okay… so I just have to pass a few tests and collect the thangs? Is that what they're called? The I can go to the promised land?”

“That is what I have been told. Allow me to show you how to access your first test. Please activate your CQ-80.” Ahato clicked a button on the device and a large glowing map projected out of it. “This is a map of the stations you can visit at the Deepsea Metro. The more tests you pass, the more you will unlock. Seeing as you only have one station unlocked currently, I can take you there now if you would like.”

“Would you mind if I started these tests in the morning? Or uh… when I can get some rest?” Not being able to see the sky, artificial or real, had caused Ahato to entirely lose their sense of time. “I’m really tired...”

“Of course. Unfortunately, we have no sleeping areas on the train, so unless you have a place to stay you will have to sleep on the seats.”

“That’s alright. I’m a heavy sleeper,” Ahato gave the little blue conductor a smile as he left the car. They lied down on the seat, clutching their large duffel bag tightly and wrapping the straps around their arms. They were not going to risk losing it. They placed their hat over their face to block out the florescent lights and let sleep fall over them.

That's the end of chapter 1! If you have any feedback or questions, I'd love to hear them. I'm always looking to improve my writing, so anything helps. And if you want to see the next chapter, let me know! Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed!

#creative writing #writers on tumblr #fanfic #splatoon 3 #splatoon 2 #octo expansion #side order #dedf1sh

[bcdrawsandwrites]

[ID: A Bad Things Happen Bingo card! As the card will be repeatedly updated, a list indicating what prompts have been taken and what haven't will be provided under the cut.]

(Guide to the card: A half-brain is a requested prompt, and a full brain is a filled prompt.)

WOOOOO!!! ALL RIGHT GUYS IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN!! I'm doing Bad Things Happen Bingo--which means I'm writing fics for these prompts--and this time it's Psychonauts themed!! And guess what?

I'M OPEN FOR REQUESTS, BUT PLEASE READ THE RULES BELOW THE CUT!

(Also for the record, I'm still working on other stuff--the rough draft of the final chapters of Psychics Ruin Everything is finished and just needs to be edited and prepared to post. Also have another finished oneshot that will be posted in the future! (And if you're still hanging on for more For Unity, that will come in time too!))

I do have a few rules I want to put in place for requests! If you're interested in requesting a fic for this, please read below the cut!

RULES!

One request per person. At least at the start! If I need more requests later, I might allow for seconds.

PLEASE SEND REQUEST VIA ASK ON TUMBLR! This just makes the requests easier for me to keep track of.

ANONYMOUS REQUESTS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. This is to make sure the previous rule is enforced!

Send me an ask with a character (or multiple characters, if a prompt requires multiple) and a prompt.

These MUST be Psychonauts characters! I'm not doing requests for other fandoms! 

One prompt per ask! You cannot combine prompts as they don't count for Bad Things Happen Bingo's official rules. 

If you're unfamiliar with what a prompt means, check out my post explaining the remaining prompts here!

Please do not request prompts that have already been taken!

Please do not request the following characters: 

Any of the interns

Any of the campers (aside from Raz and Lili of course)

Raz's family members (other than Lucy and Augustus)

Crispin

Random Motherlobe NPCs

Mental figures

(Nothing against those characters--I'm just not interested in writing anything focused on them. They MAY show up in fics, but they will not be the focus.)

Give me more details! This could be simple stuff like when you want the fic to take place like "pre-Psychonauts 1" or "during Rhombus of Ruin" or "during the battle of Grulovia" and so on. Or, especially if the prompt warrants a more fleshed out situation, please give me a rough idea of the story you're picturing! (Though give me some wiggle room, please!) That said...

Do not ask for smut.

Do not ask for romance. I may include some romance elements if the characters are canonically in a relationship, as then those elements would naturally show up in the story, but I don't like to focus on romance most of the time.

Be patient! I'll have to be writing at least five fics to score a bingo, so it may be a bit before I get to your request. Please bear with me!

I RESERVE THE RIGHT TO REFUSE A REQUEST FOR ANY REASON.

LIST OF ALL PROMPTS!

Italicized prompts have been requested. Prompts with links have been filled!

Stumbling and Staggering Breaking a Promise I Have Your Loved One Communication Suddenly Cut Off Organ Theft

Go Through Me Reluctant Caretaker Taking the Blame Never Be Hurt Again Common Cold

This Is for Your Own Good Confined to Bed Rest Villain Reveals the Secret Banished What Have I Done

Dragging Themselves Along the Ground Anger Born of Worry Hidden Scar "Who Did This to You?" Friendly Fire

Crisis Catch-and-Carry Bundled Up in Blankets Rescue Mission Neglect/Abandonment Tortured for Information

Aaaand that's it! Have at it! I’m going to at least try for a bingo, so PLEASE SEND ME REQUESTS I NEED SOMETHING TO WRITE AAAAAAAAAAA

#psychonauts #psychonauts 2 #bad things happen bingo #non art

[idonthaveanyurlideas]

sorry if this has been asked before but i'd love to know your process for creating animatics. not only are they so incredibly fluid and perfect to the music but they're COLORED! absolutely inspiring. i'd love to know what you do for planning and editing, basically how to put an animatic together in general. i use procreate to make art but other than that i'm completely clueless on how to make animatics

ooooh okay i would LOVE to tell you!!!! So first things first I will say that my animatic process is probably not the most like. Efficient way to do it. I'm not an artistic expert and I'm very self-taught so this is just what I've come up with over the years with the resources I had.

This has ended up VERY long so I'm sticking a read more in

All that to say I have two main programs that I use, one to draw (Medibang Paint Pro) and one to put the frames together for my animatics (Davinci Resolve). These days, I have both of these programs on my laptop so I have everything on one device. Before I had my current laptop, I used Medibang Paint on my iPad and iMovie on my laptop, but the overall process is basically the same.

So. I have five main stages of making an animatic once I have a song and a character/narrative in mind.

Stage 0 is arguably the most important stage, which is deciding it's something I for real want to do. Making an animatic is a big commitment, so it has to be something im 100% on board with or I'll get bored before I finish it. So usually when I hear a song and I think "oh I can apply that to x character" I'll have to listen to that song on repeat for at least a few weeks just to iron out the story in my head, decide what moment I'm going to put with each lyric, basically plot out the narrative internally.

This stage is a bit different for every animatic. For some of them, like the Snackrifice as an example, I heard the song for the very first time and went: i know EXACTLY how this is going to go and then I went home and started planning it out immediately. Others, like Aequitas Aug, I had the song as a vague "oh this is Coin vibes" for months before Expansion Era ended and I finally knew I had all the material I would need for a full cohesive narrative. And then a bit longer to really decide "okay so the redactions are going to be at this point, the semicentennial will be at This moment" and so on.

I have a whole playlist full of songs that I COULD make into animatics that I vibe to on a regular basis, basically marinating them until I have enough content and ideas to start actually planning them out into an animatic.

Stage 1 is scripting it out: I write out all the lyrics of the song, count up how many beats correspond to each line, and plan out what I'm going to do with each section. As an example here's a portion of my script for Miguel's first animatic Autoignition. As you can see my script is often pretty loose and jokey at myself, because I already kinda know what I want it to look like by the time I start scripting it, this is just to get it down for pacing and to fill in any gaps.

[Image ID: Screenshot of white writing on a dark background. There are eight lines, alternating between bolded writing to signify planned action, and regular writing to signify the lyrics of the song Everybody Loves Me by OneRepublic. Line 1, in bold: Uh oh Zack is fallin into fire and hell and disintegrating ur gonna earn that content warning. Line 2, regular: And you don't have to make a Line 3: Miguel left alone at edge of Solarium :) fire everywhere :) big f Line 4: Sound 'Cause they got what you Line 5: Miguel falls to her knees for a moment, stunned. Line 6: Need. What you need Line 7: Then he runs away Line 8: Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh /end ID]

Stage 2 I do my actual draft. I do every frame as a very quick sketch. This stage is where I put all my frames into Divinci Resolve and match it all up to the beats of the song. I work out my timings, I figure out if I need to add/delete frames somewhere. The majority of the fiddly work happens here in terms of lining it all up to the music. All the frames look about as basic as this lmao the idea is Quick and To the point so i get can idea of what I'm working with. Very often I'll have figures in this draft stage where, as an example, I know I'll need to put players from the Flowers or the Dale from a certain point in time, but I haven't decided exactly who yet, so they're just vague humanoid blobs.

[Image ID: A very basic sketch with black lines on a white background, showing two figures facing away from the camera with loose lines showing the ground exploding in the distance. /end ID]

Stage 3 is Lineart, and this stage takes the longest because I'm actually doing the proper drawings for everything. I don't do colouring yet, because this stage takes so Long and I prefer to do my colouring all in one go so I can keep it consistent. it also allows me to catch any errors that I might make in my Lineart because I get to go over it again when I colour. This is where I make my final decisions on who all the extra characters are that show up that don't Really need to be there.

When it comes to deciding Who Gets To Appear in the Animatic, there are a few tiers.

Characters that NEED to be there for plot/emotional reasons (think like Nagomi Mcdaniel appearing in Alaynabella because Layna switched with her for the Shadows)

Characters that I want to put in there for theme reasons (think Luis Acevedo in Hall Stars, I included them as a cameo because they were later incinerated and the whole animatic was about incinerated players)

Characters that I like/my friends like (Esme and Howell making appearances at the start of Aequitas Aug)

Characters that are just easier to draw, depending on how many times I have to draw them and how tired I am at the time (when in doubt, I tend to default to humanoid characters with reasonably simple designs. If I'm like 400 frames in on Aequitas Aug and I have to choose between horse person Winnie Hess and regular human Eizabeth Guerra to help represent the Breath Mints getting got, I'm gonna go with Eizabeth even if Winnie is technically more iconic and recognisable.)

[Image ID: Lineart of a digital drawing showing Miguel James and Zack Sanders as humans, facing away from the camera and looking towards the ground exploding in the distance. Miguel is kneeling on the ground while Zack is standing. /end ID]

And so of course Stage 4 is Colour. I add in the colours, any lighting effects, all the extra fun bits.

My colouring is USUALLY pretty basic, to save time and effort. For colours that I tend to reuse a lot (typically sunbeams uniforms and the main colours for the various beams) I have them saved in my paint app so I can access them easily. For other players I've drawn before I usually have to bring up one of my previous drawings to reference the colours. Backgrounds are the bane of my existence and as thus are usually kept as simple as possible, and lighting is typically something I use sparingly. Basically, I take as many shortcuts as I possibly can to save my sanity.

[Image ID: The above picture but with basic colour. The background is a pale orange. There are some lighting effects on the explosion. /end ID]

And voila! Off to Youtube. Like I said above, I'm sure this isn't the quote unquote 'Best' way to do it. But it works for me, and doing it in these stages give me a fun little progress video to look back on when I'm slogging through the lineart stage.

It's definitely really tedious at times, and keeping up the motivation to do hundreds of frames three times in a row can be really difficult (especially with a full time job) but it's definitely sooooo exciting when I finally finish. I publish all the draft and lineart videos on youtube as well as unlisted videos, and its always fun to look back on them to see the difference between the draft and the final finished product.

Most of all though, it took me AGES to get to the point of animatic making where I am now. My very first animatics for Dimension 20 were SO different to what I do now, and I was very lucky for a while to have a lot of free time to focus on doing it a lot. My VERY first animatic wasn't even set to a song. It was from a Fantasy High clip, and i never got past the draft stage for it.

The other part of animatic making that I had to start taking really seriously was character design credit. For Quite a while, I did not include credits for designs of players that I did not create. It wasn't until Aequitas Aug (which had an OBSCENE number of players) that I realised what a massive oversight that was. Nowadays I have a big spreadsheet that lists every Blaseball player that has ever appeared in my animatics and the creator of the design that I used/riffed off of if I could narrow it down to one or two. For some players its trickier, often because their design was consistent over multiple artists or I couldn't be sure what the origin was, but I do my best to be as accurate as possible. If you're looking to make some blaseball animatics, I totally encourage you to do so, but I would advise getting on top of credits sooner rather than later! It's so much easier to add in new characters and their designers now as I find them rather than trying to backtrack and remember exactly which picture on the wiki I took inspiration from, along with it being a lot more respectful to all the other amazing artists in the fandom.

Overall, animatics are a lot of effort, but they're soooo worth it. If you have any more questions please feel free to ask me, I love to talk about my animatics and my process.

#ask #my art #animatics #long post #i hope this is helpful!!! #legitimately feel free to ask me more questions or send me a dm #i love to talk about myself and my work