#it’s fun to infodump/brainstorm about this though

[braisedhoney]

Mmmmmm what if Narry’s scarf adventure line is sentient like each one of those head it manifest is sentient and they are the little helper for Narry. If he’s in danger they go berserk

oh you mean like doc ock’s actual metal arms!

on some level this is kinda already semi-canon (fanon?) for my version of narry as it is—the scarf-line-thing (that i still don’t know how to label) can definitely move independently from his limbs, and i usually draw ‘em moving in response to whatever happens to him whenever they’re not draped over his arms because i think the aesthetic is cool and it helps take up empty space on the canvas.

the difference is that they don’t have actual emotional reactions to anything though since they’re not really sentient, just extensions of whatever it is he wants to do. so in theory if he was in danger and feeling particularly aggressive/skittish as a result, he could end up using them to lash out and protect himself. or to grab a cup of… tea? coffee? whatever it is he drinks. maybe he drinks the steeped conceptualization of the color blue. vaguely eldritch creatures are weird like that.

#ney’s chatter (ask answers) #i can definitely see the appeal of fully-sentient shawl-arm-things though #i mean that’s basically exactly how doc ock’s arms work and i think those are metal as hell (forgive the pun lmao) #i know he named them (?) or something #it’s been a while so i’m not sure #but yeah they’re probably not as sentient as that. it’s just the adventure line except it’s doing what narry expects for once! #… which is ironically a good argument for sentience actually. but shhh #it’s fun to infodump/brainstorm about this though #this is what happens when you rewatch one (one and a half?) spiderman movies out of nostalgia btw

[thatndginger]

❤️ Happy WorldBuilding Wednesday! ❤️

What are your cities or towns like? Feel free to talk about the layouts or the people or the architecture, etc. and to talk about more than one if you'd like!

Tori how did you know

I've literally been brainstorming Shapeshifter's city all day. I stared at topographical maps of various port cities this morning for way too long lmao. Sidenote: maybe I should actually name the city instead of just calling it 'the city'?

Anyway, at the moment I have two original cities/towns in Shapeshifter:

'the city' which Cryptid gets mad about every time I describe as "a combo of New York, Seattle, Portland, and Gotham"

Perrin Falls - a small mountain town in the mid/west of Wyoming situated uncomfortably close to a Fae gate. Fun fact: me and the husband had one of our rare argument about the naming and geographic placement of this town because he's from the county I chose for Perrin Falls (that was deliberate lol) and he has Opinions.

And since I'm working on the city, I may as well infodump here~

The city is technically on the Pacific Northwest coast, but I refuse to actually give any legitimate geographic location. It's got a population of roughly 700k-800k, though with the metro area that bumps it up to over 3mil. The city started as a fur trading depot way back in the 1790's, and has always had some section of the population dedicated to smuggling and similar illegal activities. It slowly built it's way up from a small trading fort to a city of considerable size in the late 1800's due to it's convenient location: straddling a freshwater river that ran into a deep and naturally-protected bay. The original city was built above a warren of smuggler tunnels that saw regular use until the mid/late 1800's when a large part of the city burned to the ground, and city planners opted to grade parts of the city in an attempt to flatten some of the more steep areas. This destroyed some of the smuggler tunnels, but also buried parts of the city that had already been rebuilt, leaving a new layer of underground passageways for ne'er-do-wells to utilize. Many modern citizens of the city aren't even aware of these passages - though urban legends abound. Some brave souls venture down occasionally, but for the most part the underground belongs to the outcasts.

Life in the city is dark and damp. It rains roughly 330 days of the year, thanks to the mountains to the east creating a natural barrier for moisture rolling off the Pacific. Rain is usually light and misty, but occasionally a storm will roll in that turns the streets to rivers and chases even the most stubborn denizen inside. Most locals take the rain in stride - opting for water-resistant or magically charmed outerwear. To combat the dreariness of constantly-overcast skies, most businesses - and even the more outgoing residences - opt for bright neon signs and displays, and large awnings.

The city is most well-known for its statistically-large supernatural population; one of the largest in the United States. Roughly 15% of the population is supernatural - the large majority of these being shapeshifters of varying type. There are also an unusually large number of witches in the city, which only adds to the image of the city as one of the 'most magically charge population centers' in the States. Due to the fact that a distinct percentage of the population prefers to - or can only - exist at night, there is a very active and diverse nightlife. It's not uncommon to find events that are only held at night - such as markets and festivals - as well as businesses that opt to have 'night hours' as well as 'day hours'. (Unfortunately, even though a 6th of the city is supernatural, there are very few police precincts that will hire a supernatural, so many laws are skewed towards the mundane citizens.)

Economically, the city thrives on it's active port and trade capabilities, as well as a booming tourist sector. It also houses a large life sciences and medical research sector, with many companies focused on merging technology and magic. But everyone knows that it's still the criminal element of the city that holds the most power, the most wealth. Some flaunt their power, daring the (often understaffed and under-equipped) justice system to do something about them. Some prefer to work behind the scenes, buying out politicians and CEOs and chiefs of police to ensure they can continue to exist unmolested.

My current goal with the city is to make an actual map of it. Mostly just the overall geography and major sectors of it, so that I can better describe the important parts lol. As you can see, I am... very obsessed with the worldbuilding.

#worldbuilding wednesday #thanks so much for this! #you must be psychic or smth lol

[fushigidane]

You are now legally required to infodump about the gameplay mechanics that you think up for video games fanfics.

HELLO BELOVED MUTUAL I AM VERY HAPPY YOU ASKED

it involves a variety of things like sometimes when i am writing FE fic i'll think about hypothetical level designs, recruitment requirements for certain characters in the au, things like that

what's got me thinking about this NOW is i've been brainstorming a fe awakening/XC3 fic for the past couple weeks and considering what their classes would be

the ones i've got most for are lucina and severa, who with cynthia would be the kevesi trio here. i'm only including six characters bc i'd overload myself otherwise,,

lucina is an attacker with good all-round stats but particularly strong atk, dex, and agility. her class skills:

aether: chance to pierce/heal dealt damage

charm: party accuracy up 

dual strike: grants art follow-up to party members within a fixed radius [lvl 5 inheritance]

awakening: increased crit/accuracy/avo at low health [lvl 15 inheritance]

for plot reasons, her blade (i.e. the one summoned through the iris) ISN'T falchion. her blade is a lance-staff combination that deals good damage while empowering allies, bc i feel that mix of offence and support is How Lucina Should Be. falchion, unlocked later, would come with its own set of arts (which are more strongly offensive) and probably be switched to via the talent art.

severa is a defender. she acts as a hybrid dodge/hp tank, having strong hp, agility, and def but lower dex and atk [stats based off her fates incarnation]. she also has high base crit. her class skills:

competitive: increases damage dealt to enemies targeting her

triumphant: boosts aggro when dealing a critical hit

strong riposte: increases damage dealt when hp is 50% or lower [lvl 5 inheritance] 

fierce rival: increases crit rate for every critical hit performed by an ally [lvl 15 inheritance]

she uses a sword, generating aggro via swift attacks and high aggro arts. some of her arts also have crit recharge, and her talent art has crit damage up. she has less focus on party defence than other defenders tend to, which is complemented by lucina and cynthia’s ability to more or less handle themselves. this is a fun class to put in the context of xc2 bc it'd one where you'd equip an avant-garde medal (crit healing) and win

the last of this trio is cynthia, a healer, and i've got less ideas for her right now? she's similar to lucina but has more focus on support than offence. i'm considering making her fairly buff-focused though not as broken as signifier is. her provisional skills:

rally speed: increases ally evasion within a fixed radius

heroic spirit: boots party damage dealt by 5-10% for each active buff (max: 200%)

luna: when landing a hit, deals damage as though enemy ether defence was 30-50% lower [lvl 5 inheritance]

[unnamed]: increases healing power with number of party buffs

luna would be the inheritable ether counterpart to ultimate qigong (same skill but physical def), which is REALLY needed in the xc3 meta. i don't know much about her arts yet either but they'll probs be ether-based.

i've planned much less for this au's agnian trio (owain, inigo, brady) BUT vague outlines:

owain is the defender purely because the way he acts and stuff he says can't NOT draw attention. he also has good crit, like severa, and basically all his arts are ether + AOE to some extent. he's more the hp sponge type of tank, being very good at handling crowds of enemies (and probs has a skill that reduces damage taken per no. enemies in battle)

inigo is the attacker with good combo access (topple + smash) and strong offence. he can find himself taking aggro from owain at times. to counter this he has a skill called "stop staring at me!" that increases damage dealt to enemies targeting him (he makes them stop targeting him by killing them, which is exactly how i play the attacker role in-game) and his talent art both has increased damage when aggroed AND eliminates aggro.

brady is the healer, and a very traditional one at that, dealing in strong healing, reducing party damage, and increasing party debuff resistance. his blade is a staff. one of his skills, which is inheritable, is:

miracle: 50-70% chance to survive a KO with 1hp and five seconds of invincibility (once per battle, does not stack) [lvl 5 inheritance]

bc i don't actually think any other class gives you that aside from soulhacker.

anyway, if you got this far you have my congratulations and eternal respect. this was fun to ramble about :DDD ty for the ask!

#xenoblade #xc3 #fire emblem #fe13

[curewhimsy]

I decided to write original fiction for the first time in ages and get inspiration for my characterizations of Vocaloid and UTAU

Vocaloid and UTAU have no canon personalities so any personalities I made for them are really much like having an OC. I decided to fully make them into OCs in the story

Anyway I just wrote an infodump about the story

If you’re a longtime follower of me you should remember some of the old OCs I’m featuring here

———Overview———

The story is inspired by the vivid dreams I have at night.

There is a wacky school where everything is surreal. Despite its whimsical magic atmosphere, it has many dangers and strict rules. Every day attending there is like a high-stakes adventure, or just plain strange.

The school is for people from the ages of 4 and 44. Groups are often divided by age.

The school is fun and wacky but also stressful and kinda awful. Life is never boring though. It’s just really crazy!

The school has an unfair hierarchy based on how many friends a student has. The more friends, the more perks. Outcasts? They get nothing.

The school lunch is cooked in a volcano, and the dishes have magical properties and very eccentric. Firework popcorn, anyone?

The classes cover all the bases. There there are even oddball classes such as “nap time,” where you get a failing grade if you can’t sleep that day!

Finally, if you miss the regular school bus to the dorm homes, you have to ride the Tragic School Bus, that takes “the long way home.” Chances are, you’ll be home past midnight.

Also, super-corrupt villains are totally not running the scenes the school and there’s TOTALLY NOT gonna be an arc where the students rebel against the school system. What makes you think that? :3

There’s more too but I just need to write lol

———Concept brainstorm———

Queen Rainbow is Queen of the whole School. (Don’t worry, she’s not a villain, she’s a student and she’s wonderful and eccentric and lovely)

The school is divided into 4 groups, named after the seasons. They are each ruled by monarchs named for the respective season. (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter.)

Each group is kind of like a school team or a like… a DND class, but I have yet to think and elaborate. Perhaps it’s like, the group that scores the most “school points” the previous month gets perks for the next month, and the worst one gets penalties.

Also I just think the concept of “four character attribute options” or whatever is cool and I would hate comparisons to the HP books

There are also rivaling school idol groups just for drama and shiz

Each of the 4 groups has a different student council since I like Seitokaichou characters, I just need to decide who’s on the seitokai

School cliques. There will definitely be drama

———Characters and rationships——— (Not all are listed, because there are a lot planned. I plan on giving a lot of characters a spot in the limelight because this will be more like a franchise than a linear story or series…) (This also isn’t a bio list so I won’t be going into detail about their personalities here at least.) (Vocaloid and UTAU have no canon personalities so any personalities I made for them are really much like having an OC. I decided to fully make them into OCs here)

———Spring group——— (This group mostly has the first group of main characters, and Vocaloid expys)

Amelie Sugar- She’s me and y’all should know her

Sumi Shimizu- Based on Haku Yowane, specifically Clarith in Daughter of White. Is albino with white hair.

Sada Oyamada- Based on Neru Akita. She goes by Oya so her ship name with Sumi can be Oyasumi which means good night. Has blonde hair

Joy Smiley- OC turned UTAU. Has chestnut red hair

Soyi- Based on Utane Uta, but as an only child. Has black hair

Kiri Takamori- Based on Hatsune Miku, more specifically Michaela in Daughter of white. Has clover-green hair.

Kasumi Takamori- Kiri’s little sister based on Chibi Miku-san. Has darker clover-green hair

Haru Asaga- Old OC from 2012. One of my first. Originally from my first series Nichijou no Niji. Has rose red hair

Rosa- Sumi and Amelie’s daughter from the future. Don’t tell anyone. Has pale pink hair

Princess Spring (idk the royal titles could change)

———Summer group——— (This group mostly has a group of less-major but still important characters, and OCs I created back in 2015-2019)

Rhona Hydra- Formerly Rhona Aequor, I changed her last name. OC who is also an UTAU with my voice edited. Has blue hair

Nagisa Onda- Rhona’s gf, also UTAU with my voice edited. Has dark magenta hair

Luana Kai- Chaotic pirate girl OC. Also an UTAU. Has dark teal hair

Rie Hibine- From 2012’s Nichijou no Niji. May or may not also be an UTAU. Has spring green hair

Nina Rivera- Side character from Nichijou no Niji who got her spotlight in a story about a cruise I wrote in 2013

Natasha Evans III- One of Nina’s friends from her cruise, from the 2013 story. Likes to be called Kitty.

Sasha Oddison- One of Nina’s friends from her cruise, from the 2013 story

Mora Oddison- Sasha’s little sister. 

Vivian Star- Originally a teammate of Joy Smiley’s in a story called Whimsy Quartet. Has yellow hair

Reisei Kiyone- That poet guy I created in 2015. He has a chronic illness. He was inspired by a dream I had when I fell asleep to Seiko-P (Vocaloid producer) music

Tamika Towa- Reisei’s best friend. Created in 2015. She and Reisei have become adults in my writing.

Sowon Moon- Reisei’s boyfriend… he is also kind of my male alter-ego. I kinda ship him with a lot of OCs too. I created him recently.

Princess Summer

———Autumn group———

(This group mostly has the second group of main characters, and UTAU expys)

Lanyue Fei- Based on Taya Soune. Has dark blue hair. His first name means blue moon in Chinese

Jihong Cha- Based on Ritsu Namine. Has scarlet hair. His first name means scarlet in Korean

Kanade Yozora- Based on Defota. Oldest sibling in Yozora family. Has cool lavender hair

Shigure Yozora- Based on Defosuke. Second oldest Yozora sibling. Has indigo hair

Arata Yozora- Based on Utane Uta/Defoko. Second-youngest Yozora sibling. Has dark purple hair

Kiwa- Based on Koe Utane. Youngest Yozora sibling. Has warm lilac hair

Emiri- Based on Momo Momone with a side of Yui from K-on. Has red hair. 

Aimi- Emiri’s sister. Kinda based on Ui from K-on. Has magenta hair.

Yuiru- Based on Teto. Has pink hair

Seiya- Based on Ted with a bit of Momoraro vibe. Has pale pink hair.

Leimi- Based on Ruko. I’ll go into more detail because she honestly super cool. Kaoru’s outgoing younger sister. Has wild black hair with red and blue streaks. Loves mecha and those transparent sparkly machine and robot aeshetics. Loves Coke more than Pepsi. Kinda goth, kinda scene. Neon and rave aesthetic. Nightcore. Age 22.

Kaoru- Based on Rook. I’ll go into detail because he’s honeslty super cool. Leimi’s edgy older brother. Has wild black hair with green and purple streaks. Is a furry and likes sparkledogs. Loves Pepsi more than Coke. Kinda emo, kinda scene. Neon and rave aesthetic. Nightcore. Age 26.

Celia- A random character from a random Rainbow Week story who got promoted to a major character. A spooky banshee woman. Has periwinkle hair.

Noemi Kise- From Nichijou no Niji back in 2012

Maia Mei- another Whimsy Quartet girl created along with Joy

Nikamowin Takwakin- Celestine’s good friend. Originally named Alvarina, I decided to give her a name to reflect her Native Canadian roots. She was originally going to marry Celestine into royalty, but I realized it has racial connotations for a Native woman to marry into (white) royalty so she’s just going to be a friend to Celestine and possibly on the student council.

Princess Autumn

———Winter group———

(These OCs are mostly new with some exceptions (the exceptions mostly are the ones listed, and I don’t know what to do with this group yet.) (UPDATE: this group also features characters from my old first original work Whimsica Saga)

Margot Nocturne- The dramatic disaster monocle lady

Octavia Forte- Another dramatic monocle lady, but they’re genderfluid and not as much of a disaster

Aria Dolce- Octavia’s wife who is also dramatic. What’s with winter group and these people. 

Sonata Coda- She wears a monocle but she’s just grumpy.

Setsuna Usui- The dramatic angsty girl from Nichijou no Niji. Had a ship subtext with Rie

Bonnie Lace- Dramatic and theatrical member of Whimsy Quartet. I guess winter is the dramatic season

Souko Okuda- From Whimsy Quartet. A timid genius

Momoka Misaki- Souko’s best friend who is gyaru (Japanese fashion subculture) and is cheerful and sweet

Bianca Luna- Main character from Whimsica Saga. That title makes me nostalgic. Did you know Whimsica saga was originally a Vocaloid fanfic and that Bianca replaced Yowane Haku?

Camille Rainer- From Whimsica Saga. Replaced Neru Akita

Candy Corn- From Whimsica Saga. Replaced Kaito

Pepper Corn- From Whimsica Saga. Replaced Akaito

Pop Corn- From Whimsica Saga. An extra sibling 

Ruby- From Whimsica Saga. Replaced the role of Yukari Yuzuki

Kuma- From Whimsica Saga. Relaced Len Kagamine

Kuri- From Whimsica Saga. Replaced Rin Kagamine

Puma- From Whimsica Saga. Kuma’s older brother

Emi- From Whimsica Saga

Nova- From Whimsica Saga

Jay- From Whimsica Saga

Princess Winter

———Royal group——— (These are the “royal” students who don’t fit anywhere. Despite being royal and special and all that, I stilll want to make them feel normal. Also they generally don’t like their royal status much, and/or don’t feel it very much important, unless they are jerk)

Queen Rainbow

Stelle Shimmer

Lunette Shimmer

Celestine Shimmer

Simone 

Jasmine 

Jolene 

Serena (became royalty due to being Celestine’s girlfriend)

Tally (Serena’a royal hand puppet. I mean she is literally a puppet.)

Harmony (Queen Rainbow is engaged to her)

#My writing

[cosmicfleaux]

Update:

Fortunately, I have been able to change my housing situation, so I’m no longer living with my emotionally abusive family. I’m in transitional housing, and while that allows me time and space for some much-needed rest, the world is still the world and I’m still stressed about what comes next and how to support myself. In an ideal headspace, I would be posting content like pick-a-card readings or infodumping about astrology and tarot while also incorporating my interests in Jungian psychology and archetypes and various pop culture artifacts because I’m me. But real-talk, I have to manage my expectations because neurodivergent brain.

I’ve been assessing my relationship to financial trauma and why I feel so underserving and wrong when asking for mutual aid. I feel the need to offer worthwhile services to justify asking for help, and I know that’s tied to societal conditioning.

My brain insists there is always a “right” or “methodical” way to approach a task—even when it comes to seeking support. I would argue it’s all the water and air placements in my chart, but I spend A LOT of time in my head trying to work plans out before executing them. I can recognize that it’s often my mother or grandparents’ voices in my head telling me that I’m doing something “incorrectly” or that I need to consider all the disastrous consequences of my actions before moving forward with a decision. I also have Saturn (the planet of responsibility, obligations, and general harshness) positioned in the part of my chart that deals with the mind and thought processes, and that’s been…interesting. Even though I can recognize my thought patterns, I can still find myself overwhelmed and burnt out after brainstorming because of all the overthinking.

Despite this being a not-so-fun period of my life, I’ve found joy in offering readings to my roommates and continuing to educate myself about astrology and tarot. I genuinely think these are awe-inspiring tools people can use to become closer to or more honest with themselves. I’ve found that these tools are helping me to accept various phases of life while still actively participating in it, to give myself grace when harshness presents itself, even in my own mind. I want to share that grace with others.

At this time, I’m offering the following services:

Natal Chart Interpretation + Stimmy Tarot Reading

20-40 minute video call discussing the natal chart (includes automatic tarot reading because in addition to being a stim, shuffling my tarot deck and seeing which cards present themselves helps me to interpret and synthesize the chart). I like to consider the chart to be a person’s astrological thumbprint—it illustrates your unique path in this lifetime. If you’ve ever had trouble relating to your Sun Sign and the horoscopes you’ve read, I may be the reader to clear up some confusion.

Tarot Reading

20-40 minute reading in which we discuss a blockage you are struggling with, contextualize the blockage, and discuss potential resolutions. If you’re unable to meet for a video call, I can also provide a report.

I’m tailoring my sessions based on the querent’s interests. You can even hit me up if you don’t have a birth time or specific question, or simply want to learn more about astrology and tarot. I’m also operating on donations-based services — essentially, give what you can. Please allow 48 hours for a response to your initial message.

Also on IG as cosmicfleaux44, Twitter as cosmicfleaux

#signal boost #tarot #astrology #cptsd #cptsdrecovery #actually adhd #neurodivergence #neurodivergent #donations #donation post #help needed

[zosonils-art]

Do you have a robot master OC (of the eight plus Drum) that you’d say is your favorite? If you haven’t done an infodump for them yet then you should do that one next

i couldn't choose a favourite if i tried, i love them all, but since you mentioned drum i thought i'd give her some new art and a proper dedicated post too! infodrump [ayyy] under the cut

drum, serial number SWN-002, is my take on the popular [????? i'm still a bit of a mega man fandom newbie i don't know hjdfn] 'wily equivalent to roll' oc template! she keeps things running at the various castles and fortresses and hideouts and whatever else her dad holes up in, whether that's by doing housework, planning schemes, or dodging taxes. whenever wily is trying to take over the world, drum acts as his second-in-command, ensuring that everything goes according to plan and ordering around the latest group of robot masters

she's every bit the edgy mid-00s teenager she looks: sarcastic, apathetic, and always talking back to her dad. she's more obedient than bass is, but she doesn't care for her job at all and will resort to any flimsy excuse or act of malicious compliance she can come up with to slack off. due to her purpose as an organiser and commander, she's a bossy control freak who's quick to anger when things don't go exactly her way, although when she's off work the worst of these traits recede in favour of more conventional teenage apathy. she sees herself as above the time and effort it takes to go out of her way to be mean to people like wily and bass tend to do, but she's equally uninterested in being nice on purpose and her default attitude is squarely on the nastier side

when she doesn't have work to focus on - and sometimes when she does anyway - drum is the lead vocalist and guitarist in a garage band, of which she is [currently - a friend's ocs get involved later, but that's a whole different post] the only member. i'm not good with music terms but she's into whatever genre stuff like wake me up inside and crawling in my skin is [i know those aren't the names hdfjf it's just the words i know people will recognise]. the sort with the crunchy guitar and the very loud lyrics about being sad and/or angry. playing or blasting music helps her to calm down when she's in a bad mood, which is pretty much all the time. the first warning sign of a new wily plot is a spike in search popularity for my chemical romance

i haven't gotten around to designing it, but drum has a non-armoured form like most of the other more explicitly kid-like robots, which she mostly uses for loitering around malls when she has an excuse to not be at home. she rarely buys anything, just hangs out and radiates an aura that makes suburban white women hurry their three kids into the next shop. drum often ends up hanging out with like-minded teens in the same vague area of the goth/punk/emo venn diagram she occupies, and makes a bit of a game out of seeing how honest she can be about her life without revealing that she's one of the world's most wanted robots. she tells herself that it's just something she does out of boredom and curiosity towards humans, but it mostly stems from loneliness and the desire to have literally any friends that aren't her brother's dog

as a sort of contrast to the healthy and positive relationship between their lightbot counterparts, drum and bass absolutely DESPISE each other and make no secret of it. each of them thinks of the other as an insufferable prick and they'll get into petty arguments over just about anything, from whose turn it is on the xbox to who treble loves more. [for the record, it's drum. she lets him hang out in the kitchen while she's cooking and sneaks him food scraps when bass isn't looking. he's the only family member she has an even remotely positive relationship with.] pretty much the only thing that can get them to stop fighting is mutual hatred of a bigger prick, and so far the only person to consistently get them to put their differences aside like this is wily himself - as much as the wily kids hate each other, they hate their dad just a little more, and have a history of teaming up just to mess with him. sometimes mega man can spark that spiteful cooperation, but drum's total apathy towards the light-wily family rivalry means she usually sees him as not worth her time and just finds bass' obsession with beating him even more annoying

drum wasn't made for combat, and as such she doesn't have a signature weapon or any fancy tricks like the copy chip. usually she just orders other robots to do the fighting for her. however, she is equipped with a standard arm-mounted buster, and can hold her own in battle with a 'fight smarter, not harder' approach if she has to. she's also outfitted with the same treble adapter that bass has, so if she's backed into a corner she can call on him for a power boost. treble is capable of supporting both adapters simultaneously, so as an absolute last resort they can all combine into treble-boosted drum & bass, who theoretically has all the combat power of bass plus the strategic thinking from drum and the boost in power from treble. in practice, though, drum and bass are so at odds with each other that they can barely hold together in the same body without either fighting for control or outright splitting apart to argue harder. again, it takes a lot of spite to get them to work together, but if something draws their combined ire and convinces them to cooperate they're an utterly terrifying force to be reckoned with

the game idea i vaguely have in my mind would feature drum as the final-not-final boss before wily reveals he was the mastermind behind it all and surprises absolutely nobody. she was put in charge of the latest world domination attempt, probably as the result of a 'why don't YOU take over the world if you're so smart' conversation, and in true drum fashion she follows a standard wily plot outline to the letter - including the blatant flaws, like all eight of her chosen robot masters forming a rock-paper-scissors wheel just begging to be exploited by the copy chip, and making a clear path from just outside the death fortress to her base of operations. after she's defeated in combat, she sarcasically wonders aloud how mega man could have possibly bested her plan and then helpfully points rock directly to wily's castle. she didn't wanna do the stupid scheme in the first place

again, i love all my ocs too much to possibly choose a favourite, but i'd say drum was the most fun to come up with if only because i had the help of some mates in a discord server. someone was like 'hey if there's bass is there a roll equivalent called drum or something lol' and i SPRINTED to microsoft paint to rough out a character design and the next entire day was just a constant stream of all of us bouncing ideas off each other and creating the meanest girl in the universe. her design changed a little bit from the initial sketch, most notably she used to have the half-shaved hairstyle that every gay person tries at some point before that changed to a midpoint between phoenix wright and sonic the hedgehog, but overall everything about her as a character flowed really well from the start. while she's fallen mostly into my hands since the initial brainstorm, she absolutely wouldn't exist without those friends' input and i feel that that's important to mention!

i'm very tired and i've been working on this on and off for the past day so i'm gonna call the infodrump finished here - thanks for giving me the excuse to talk about her! unfiltered and transparent versions of the art below as always

#i already talked about drum in my first post about her long long ago but i think she deserves a new infodump #zos draws #mega man #mega man oc #robot master oc #drum wily #zos talks #zos answers #aprofessionallurker #man there's so much art i gotta do of her. gotta draw her civilian form and her treble boost AND treble-boosted d&b eventually

[cherry-bomb-ships]

the post u just made had me thinking about how like even after ur s/i is warned away from hopper like.... you dont listen obviously and he himself is a little surprised/intrigued by it and he gets more interested in you 🥺 pls feel free to talk more about your stranger things s/i i recently rewatched the series and am still crying abt it

OMG I'M SORRY I KNOW YOU SENT THIS LIKE 2 WEEKS AGO BUT I STILL WANNA ANSWER IT 🥺🥺🥺 Half cuz I feel so bad ignoring asks and half cuz I love developing lore for my s/is! So this is gonna be a bit of an infodump of me just brainstorming ideas so I'll keep it under the cut 😅💖💖💖 (uhh warning for some intimacy mentions I guess lol sorry)

Ok starting at the.. start. My s/i would move to Hawkins between season 1 and 2, in the late spring of 1984. She moves from LA, California to escape the city life and settle into the nice, quiet country.

...At least that's what she tells everyone who asks. In reality, she's a writer who wants to be known for her horror and mystery novels, but the only book of hers that's gotten any popularity is a smutty self-indulgent novella that she mostly published as a joke (which coincidentally enough, is about a city girl being seduced by a man from the country... hmm 👀)

Ruby could have easily lived off the profits and royalties from her one-hit wonder, but to make her own way and stay inconspicuous, she began working at a local family-owned cafe in Hawkins, where she met Hopper for the first time

As aloof as Hopper may seem, he is still protective of Hawkins and makes it a point to at least meet everyone new to the town, and Ruby working at a cafe gave him the perfect excuse of ordering a morning coffee to meet Ruby for the first time

Ruby is both a huge romantic and also very lonely so for her, it was love at first sight when she saw Hopper. Well in all honesty, it more started off as mostly infatuation and lust, but don't worry over time those feelings turned into genuine love.

Their first meeting was absolutely filled to the brim with heavy-handed flirting, but the moment Hopper was gone, Ruby got a stern warning from her boss, the older woman who owns the cafe, to stay away from Jim because he's "broken every lonely heart in Hawkins", and yet that drew Ruby to him even more as she started to see him as a kind of forbidden fruit

Within a week of meeting each other, Ruby and Jim ended up spending a night together, but even on that first night Jim felt like something was different about her. She didn't ignore him the moment the fun was over, but she actually wanted to talk with him and get to know him better, and even though Jim wasn't willing to open up to her that soon, he definitely felt more relaxed around her than any woman he had been with since moving back to Hawkins 🥺💖💖

#ruby answers #echoingback #🍒🐻: hot cocoa and marshmallows #💜: where have all the good men gone #sorry if this ended kinda abruptly but i basically wanted to just cover how him and my s/i met 🥺💖🥺 #and also i gotta go but i feel like this was a good place to stop 💖💖💖

[script-a-world]

What are your five rules to new authors about world building? I struggle with this, as a minimalist author. And I would love suggestions on how to build a world in as few words as possible, while the description is still efficient and powerful.

Constablewrites:

Teach us about the world through the characters interacting with it. If your characters never interact with it, is it really relevant to your story?

Culture and society all ultimately derives from people--what they know about the world around them, how they survive in their particular environment, how they ensure the survival of future generations, and so on.

Conflict and tension come from limitations. Infinite and/or ill-defined power kills a reader’s emotional investment.

Don’t answer a question we haven’t asked. Context first, then explanation only if necessary.

Your reader will comprehend your world based on what they know of ours.

Personally, I think minimalism can be a good thing! New authors tend to err on the side of waaaaaay too much world building and explanation thereof. The best way to figure out the balance is to read closely. If you’re reading something that makes you feel really present in the scene, pay close attention to how they do that: the details the author chooses, the things they merely suggest or infer, the senses being evoked, and so on. And remember that contemporary literature has to world build just as much as genre stuff does; I’ve spent just as much time on a ranch as I have on Mars, so while I might be bringing more knowledge/assumptions to the table I’m still relying on the writer to make the world come alive.

Brainstormed:

Do you enjoy what you’re making? If not, let the idea lie fallow to be recycled, and ask yourself what would make you enjoy the worldbuilding again. Even if what you’re doing will never show up in your story, it’s still worldbuilding and therefore great. Just prioritize plot-relevant details, and make sure to have fun.

How different would the plot and/or characters be if this detail was changed? This question allows you to figure out the really vital parts of your world and its natural consequences in your story. The details that don’t affect much of your plot/characters are still good, as they add depth, but okay to parse down for a more minimalist perspective.

How far am I willing to ask my readers to suspend their disbelief? Can be asked of specific parts of your world, like magic systems or physics or geographical oddities, or of your setting in general.

Is this self evident? That is, does this part of your worldbuilding become foundational to the plot and/or setting in such a way that the reader understands and extrapolates without ever requiring the dreaded infodump? Not every detail has to be self evident, and in fact I don’t think every detail should be. There’s plenty of things about the real world that I would love to absorb infodumps about, but the way the sun in the sky affects my day to day life requires no context.

Breadth vs. depth, which is more a function of your plot and cast than setting. If your plot follows your characters wandering through a great deal of varying places/cultures/times/etc or a very diverse cast of different races/beliefs/jobs/etc, you’ll need a lot of distinct and interconnected settings with just enough detail to function and stick out as unique in the reader’s mind. Buckling down on a single world/culture/nation/etc to flesh out its complexities and variants will get far deeper into the why’s and how’s of your plot and/or characters, just be careful not to turn it into an encyclopedia instead of a story. (of course, you could do like me and create a lot of breadth and then murder yourself by trying to achieve depth with all of it)

Saphira:

Worldbuilding itself, and setting up the world, comes before the writing in my book. I find that chronic descriptors fall into two categories:

Those who know their world so well that they want to tell EVERYTHING. These I affectionately call the Gushers.

Those who are discovering their world as they write. The world is a mystery to them until the written word tells the writer where they are. These I affectionately call the Explorers.

I suspect you are concerned about being the former. In my gut, however, I suspect you may be the latter. Now there are different rules for each method.

FOR GUSHERS: Use Constablewrite's rules. Those rules underline what's important.

Worried you're still overboard? Count your paragraphs. How many has it been since something happened?

FOR EXPLORERS: Write as normal. Then go over it and look for the things Brainstorm mentions! Highlight them, or copy the stuff on another document.

When you get to rewriting your work, look at your notes and see what you feel is important! You've already explored, so now you can filter.

Worldbuilding in the scale that we know it is relatively new to novel-writing. (Thanks to Sci-Fi and Fantasy authors in the 1950's? Ish? Research it. Cool stuff.) That being said we're already getting really good at it. We've seen the wild phenomenon of cultural diving that Lord of the Rings, Star Trek and Harry Potter have had, and we want to give our readers the same experience!

Though I will note, what draws a reader into the world is the intrigue of the questions they can ask! If we can give our readers just enough information about the world to ask the coolest, deepest questions? We have succeeded.

Tex: I'm not a big fan of generalized advice, especially in regards to "new"... anything. I'm not aware of either your flaws or your strengths, though your use of "minimalist author" intrigues me - what do you consider minimalism? Is it descriptions, is it settings, is it dialogue? Is it something else?

I don't know whether this minimalism is the result of developing your writing voice or the result of underdevelopment in various writing skills, so I hesitate to give any concrete answers. In that respect, I would like to recommend @scriptstructure for the finer points of writing descriptions.

The others look to have covered about everything on this topic, but I would like to reiterate the idea that worldbuilding for the purpose of exposition is heavily dependent upon the plot. Whatever the focus of the plot is, and to some degree that of the characters, is the focus of your worldbuilding.

What's important to your story? Can you remove an element and still make sense? Those are consistently my two biggest guides when worldbuilding because everything outside the immediate needs of the plot are usually extraneous.

Feral: I don’t have rules so much as questions to provide some guidance for new writers getting into worldbuilding.

What quirk of character or plot stands out as being from a society different from my own, and what society would produce this? For a sense of verisimilitude in fantasy and sci-fi, it’s important that the characters not be reproductions of who you would expect to meet in the author’s own society especially when that society does not reflect the author’s own. Dragons, a post-singularity Earth, and a hundred other things that cast the story in a specific genre would create very distinct pressures that would lend themselves to different worldviews, economies, traditions, etc.

Would a particular feature of the world make my character or the plot more interesting? Would it create more problems than it would solve? I always advise against creating a feature of the world that solves your characters’ problems. Features of the world should either a) provide a lovely flavor or b) create obstacles for your characters to overcome or c) both. New writers, particularly those who don’t want too much superfluous flavor might look at Premise Brainstorming, or “In a World Where…” brainstorming to create world ideas that tie directly to the character and/or plot.

Am I avoiding describing something because it is not in my style or doesn’t fit the narrator’s voice? Or am I avoiding describing something because I can’t picture it in my mind or lack the confidence to execute it? This is me all the time. 2 decades of writing, and my first couple drafts are always a little lean on world details because I’m still wrapping my mind around what things really look like and how to take the image in my brain and translate it to the page. It’s ok to take your time getting the world rendered out; that’s what multiple drafts are for.

How have writers I admire and whose writing style matches what I want for myself handled the question of worldbuilding? If you’re not familiar with The City and the City by China Mieville, I strongly recommend checking it out. When I think of so-called minimalist world building, that is what I think of.

Do I know enough about my world to know what is important and what is not important to include? I recommend the Iceberg Principle for newer writers/builders: 90% of the world isn’t gonna make it into the story. So, that 10% better be enough and relevant.

#pylons #world building #rules #kt-anansi

[slushblock]

Fell - The Buildup

Now that most of the people who I think were really involved with the story and its background have contacted me separately and discussed it at length, I might as well drop a bunch of the hints I was leaving around prior to the story’s ending. ;>  Just to be sure, I’ll cut them, but I want people to know just what I’d been doing all this time with the story behind the scenes.

Axl Colin Eyre - “Axl C. Eyre”

This was the major one. The entire purpose of the story. I’d made it known for a while that Excelsior was just a normal dude, and was hoping people would have caught the name-pun in the first chapter...when nobody did outright, I decided to make a big drama about the whole thing.

If people had caught it (and/or those that did had spoken up), I might not have, so I’m honestly glad it was just subtle enough. Again, it was an 80+ page pun reveal and I couldn’t be happier.

In chapter 2, when his “weeb”ishness was revealed (he’s really not that weeby, but it’s a fun silly quirk when you take into consideration who he became), I was hoping people’d catch it, as before the start of Fell, I’d given a link to the NPC infodumps on TCF, with emphasis on the fact that Excelsior got a full writeup when he originally didn’t have one (it came up right after a bunch of Asks/answers involved him). I was hoping people would draw the anime connection there, but when people didn’t (and continued not to), I started adding more and more to that bio with the intent to spoil things for potential readers who might’ve been proactive enough to look at off-blog supplementary stuff.

On one stream I brought up how his ‘boss form’ isn’t just him magically getting larger, but was actually a giant robot built with help from the Lihzahrd to help him fight the giant awakened Starfallen, which is a very anime thing to do. Stream ‘benefits’ lol.

The writeup itself also had the whole ‘voodoo doll’ thing (which even predated Excelsior getting a writeup at all, as Abomination selling the doll was part of the original Starfallen brainstorm), which I’d hoped to allude to with Axl obsessing over ‘holy’ things while drawing attention to his making a practice figurine of a suit of armor ‘like silver but better’.

Also, on a very obscured note, there’s this post. I didn’t expect anyone to get it (and nobody openly did), but the image on it is click-draggable. ;)

Anna Paulette-Rhodes “Aura”  Anderson - A. P.-R. A. (or A. P. “Aura”)

Don’t get hung up on the name, it was thrown together at kind of the last moment to keep to the stupid “normal human names that break down into character names” convention I’ve been using (that technically started with Richard Brighton/”RB”/Arbeh).

The main part of the hints here were more on the plain side, with people left to simply draw the connection between bee armor and a connection to the dryad (and thus the jungle). A few people on stream did draw the bee armor connection, I simply threw it off as a fluke in an effort to keep the spoiler hidden.

The fact that she acquired a red scarf later in the story is more of a technicality.

...oh, yeah, and nobody questioned why she was holding a picture frame that one time.

Ren Gustav “Gus” Caris - R. “Gus” Caris

By contrast, this one mostly just came down to hoping people would catch the name, but I wasn’t expecting too many people to get it since Arguscaris is a painfully obscure character among the lot (he didn’t even have a proper bio! I’d actually added one part-way through in the same vein that I’d started adding to Excelsior and Abomination’s bios on TCF, but got cold-feet that people might see the spoiler and removed it. Speaking of, I’ve updated the page a bit to reflect the reveals and the completion of the story).

It largely came down to whether or not anyone remembered that Arguscaris was a horribly malformed victim of a pact with Abomination… though I did throw that gif recently in to see if anyone would find it curious that I’d suddenly brought him up again.

More people than I’d like to admit thought he WAS the Abomination, and not just a victim of it, so I feel that’s more a failure on my part to to telegraph that properly... Either that or people are just naturally inclined to fixate on major characters instead of minor ones.

Overall, though, I’m really happy with how this panned out, and even if only a handful of people really stuck through to the end and kept up with enough supplementary material to piece things together, that’s MORE than enough to make me extremely happy, and I can’t thank you all enough for all the support!

#the wall of text has awoken #fell extras #thank you all again :) #i'm not gonna put the names of the people who figured things out unless you want me to haha

[fishdavidson]

Dream Journal 2017-02-05: So Awesome, Guys. So Awesome.

Have you ever had a dream that was simultaneously so vivid and cool that you were legitimately disappointed that you had to wake up? Not only did that happen last night, but it happened twice. In a break from tradition, I’ve got TWO dreams to tell you!

Making More Firefly

The sci-fi series Firefly holds a special place in my heart. It was canceled before its time, and I didn’t get a chance to watch it when it was on the air. Since its cancellation, the series has lived on in a movie, ongoing comics, and potentially a videogame. And somehow a man with my dubious qualifications was selected to help with rebooting the series.

This is the kind of honor nerds will kill people for, and not only that, but the creative director of the reboot was none other than ol’ Captain Browncoat himself: Nathan Fillion. The dream took place almost entirely in one room, with me and Nathan and a few other random writers brainstorming ideas to create what I guess would be called a “pitch document” for what sort of story the series would tell. We’re working at the most fundamental level of the story and fleshing out details of the ship and crew.

In fact, our first assignment was to create a name for the ship and some of the crew. We would be doing the idea generation, while Nathan would be providing feedback on the stuff we came up with. Not to brag guys (okay, I’m totally going to brag), but I ended up getting more of my ideas into the pitch document than anybody else. Here’s a list of all my ideas that got final approval:

The ship would be called The Neon Dandy, and it was a relatively small craft that was made for maneuvering in atmo with a small amount of cargo. It was about 2/3 the size of Serenity and it had two main weapons: a light machine gun thing, and a powerful beam weapon that could only be fired if all the power in the ship was diverted to the canon. On top of that, the beam could only be fired once every 10 minutes or so.

Alice McDonald, captain of The Neon Dandy. She always does the right thing, even if it’s not in her best interest. Unfortunately, that’s part of the reason her crew is perpetually on a shoestring budget.

Torvald. He’s Norwegian and nobody knows if Torvald is his first or his last name.

Emerson Pilgrim. He looks like Jack Black with a neckbeard, and he’s an alcoholic accountant on the run who booked passage on The Neon Dandy. He’s got some dirt on a prominent company, and that company is doing everything they can to make sure Emerson doesn’t talk.

We took a break in our meeting here, which was great because I was chugging water like a fish during the roundtable and that made me need to pee like a metaphor that involves spraying a lot of liquid. Unfortunately the real-life urge to pee took precedence and woke me up.

The one good thing that came from waking up is that my creations aren’t owned by Fox, so I can totally use them in one of my own stories. THIS IS GONNA BE SO FUN!

Jumpin’ Out Of A Plane... FOR AMERICA!

We need to unpack a little bit of backstory before getting to the main event. There was a convenient little infodump at the beginning of the dream that told me there was a new political meme making the rounds on the internet. Instead of planking or doing the Ice Bucket Challenge, people would be photographed while skydiving.

Except this was also a state-sponsored propaganda effort. Various militaries around the world would allow civilians to jump out of military planes. And in the images, the plane would be always be prominently featured. It was like a Cold War show of force, where nations had an excuse to deploy a lot of military hardware for “peaceful” reasons.

Most people on the internet just saw silly pictures of skydivers, but the people who took a closer look noticed that this influx of skydiving memes were coming primarily from North Korea and Iran. As you might imagine, this realization didn’t sit very well with the top brass in the land of obese eagles (that’s a jab at the USA, guys.). So the various branches of the US armed services started making skydiving memes of their own.

Somehow I managed to get on one of these missions. I got on a plane near my local airport, went up many thousands of feet, and hopped out of the plane with a photographer in tow. HOLY CRAP, GUYS, THIS WAS SO MUCH FUN!

I felt weightless as I hurtled toward the ground. The wind is whipping past me, and I’ve got a stupid grin on my face. Obligatory spinning and aerial gymnastics ensue, and that’s when I realize that I was carrying a bunch of change in my pockets before I jumped. My weightless state is causing coins to leak out of my pockets, hit a wall of air and rocket upward (upward relative to me due to the difference in terminal velocities, because dream me apparently understands physics).

There was maybe about $3 worth of change in my pocket, and I let it all out. Watching it fly through the air around me was worth the price of admission. I started laughing because I was having so much fun. This would definitely be on my life’s highlight reel.

But now I was nearing the end of my journey and it was time to pull the ripcord. --FWIP!-- The parachute unfurls and yanks me into a safe speed of descent. Now that I’ve slowed down, I can really take in the view from up here. My hometown looks like it’s made of ants. It’s peaceful up here.

Now the ground is getting close and I need to control my descent to land in an open space. For me, it looks like the easiest place will be an empty field near my church. The ground is really close now; better brace for impact!

I hit the ground harder than I expected. I tumble and get a face full of soft earth. No matter, though, because I’m having the time of my life. Even though I know my wife will refuse, I run over to her and try to convince her to go skydiving with me.

But then the ripcord to reality gets pulled and I snap back into reality. If skydiving is anything like what happened in the dream, this is something I’ve gotta do! BUCKET LIST, AHOY!

-------------

Image of Captain Malcom Reynolds taken from this place where you can buy his jacket.

#skydiving #nathan fillion #firefly #meme #propaganda #dream journal #dreams #fishdavidson #hof