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hedgehog-moss · 7 months

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Pampérigouste escaped today and I almost didn't make a post about it because it's just more of the same isn't it? do people who read this blog really want to hear about yet another Pampe escape? Then I thought, that's like asking if people who read detective novels really want to hear about yet another mysterious murder. Probably yes. Also Pampe would have been offended to have such a successful escape go unreported.

I would like to say that my new fence is still fully Pampe-proof. She has not escaped a single time through breaking or outsmarting the fence, so now she does it by outsmarting me. Which doesn't happen all that often, because we are intellectual equals. But I let my guard down this morning—I'd just peeled some greenhouse carrots to make purée and I went into the pasture to distribute the peelings even though it was raining (see how I got punished for my selflessness?), and I left the gate open because I was right in front of it, obstructing it with my body.

Pampe dropped her carrot peelings and acted like she couldn't find them even though they were right under her feet, so I took pity on her and crouched down to gather them and offer them to her again (see how I'm getting punished for my compassion??) and she took advantage of this diversion. In the span of 0.2 seconds she slithered around me and she was out. It was a little bit beautiful. I don't know if you remember this photo of Pampe & Pyrgus, but it's a perfect illustration of what happened:

I sighed and ignored her and finished distributing the peelings to the other animals, and then went to the barn to get muesli to lure my nuisance back to her pasture. After escaping she initially ran towards the woods, but since I ignored her the whole time, she emerged from the woods when I returned, like, wait, did you notice I escaped? Behind your back, just earlier? Did you notice how I won and you lost?

It shouldn't have been difficult to get her back into the pasture with the help of her favourite snack; unfortunately Pampoldine is still a big baby who was distraught that her mum had left her behind yet again (she should be used to it, honestly, it's been like this since she was an infant), she started making these little panicky noises that Pampe has never paid any attention to—

—so when I propped the gate open with a branch to get Pampe back inside, Poldine hurried out instead. I wasn't expecting this, I thought it was clear that I had the situation under control and her mum would be back in 5 seconds. You could have just waited 5 seconds, Poldine.

Pampelune had no interest in escaping, but she's the matriarch and where her herd goes, she goes, so once the other two were out she barrelled past me as well. I opened the gate to bring 1 llama in and instead 2 llamas went out. Pirlouit besides me was like

For some reason the llamas galloped towards the road, instead of just hanging out in the woods where there's stuff to eat. Maybe because Pampe hadn't gone out in a long time and she wanted to be admired for her feat. Her wish was granted—2 cars stopped to say hi as I was miserably trotting after my llamas on the road in the rain. One of them was the post office lady who once herded my animals out of a pasture with her car, and she was like hop in, it'll be like old times!!!

The two people who stopped their car were enchanted with the encounter and they both told me that they missed the days when Pampe Sightings on this road were a regular thing. No one sides with my fence in the Pampe v. Fence conflict. I love the post office lady though, she had a Niagara song playing in her car when I got in and a minute later I muttered "I'll sell her to the butcher" and she started singing "Pampe ♪ Je vais devoir te vendre au boucher ♫" to the tune of that song. It fit the tune really well, too.

After we managed to get the llamas off the main road and back in the woods, she was like, godspeed, I wish I could continue chasing them with you but I have to go make lunch for my kids. I told her that now that the llamas were no longer on the road I'd just let them roam, they'll come home before night, no way I'm going to chase after them in the woods in this dog weather. So I went home and grumpily resumed peeling carrots and potatoes for my mash.

I sat in front of the window to do it so I could keep an eye on Pirlouit, who was wandering around the pasture like a cursed soul, drenched with rain, lonely and llamaforsaken. Sometimes he brayed to try and guide his friends back home, wherever they were, but he never brayed while I was filming. His braying is a poignant display of emotion and is not for public consumption.

I figured, if the llamas come back Pirou will spot them and perk up his immense ears, and I'll know to go out and open the gate. Instead at some point I looked up from my potatoes and saw my donkey finally at peace, grazing rather than pacing restlessly, and I went to look outside and his friends were back! And so was his appetite.

I had new peelings + some muesli to offer, but of course Pampe could tell this offering was a crude and blatant trap and refused to fall for it. Meanwhile her innocent daughter was like yay, snacks :) and followed me in the pasture, a llama entirely devoid of wiles.

After I got Poldine back inside I went like WELL since NOBODY else wants that delicious MUESLI I guess these deserving chickens can have it—and Pampe was here in the blink of an eye to shoo the hens away from her muesli.

She was grudgingly smiling about it, too. Like, point for you.

I love this pic where my chicken looks like she's herding the animals back in their pasture all by herself.

Everyone is home! Pampe and Pandolf are walking away in search of new adventures, Poldine follows her mum because of her abandonment issues, and Pirlouit is also following everyone very closely, like, I'm not getting left behind again.

I finally managed to cook my mashed carrots & potatoes (+ herbs from the greenhouse) and it's so nice to make food with nothing but ingredients you grew yourself! (To be completely honest I only managed to grow 3 carrots in the past few months but that's because I neglected them in pursuit of more flashy summer vegetables)

I also had an apple-plum compote for dessert made with my own fruit <3 Okay, the cheese course in between was store-bought. One of my friends really wants me to get goats and be self-sufficient in cheese and when I told her I would be constantly chasing my goats over hill and dale because they have a reputation to be insufferable escape artists she was like, what difference will it make to your life...

#crawling along #llama drama

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adoroborosgoth · 4 months

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Crowley dying in s3

I wasn't sure how to start this meta. I've had this theory with possible (big possible) evidence sitting around for ages and I just didn't know what to do with the information.

After I'd already had this information, I only seen a hand full of others talk about it, but none have touched on it in the same way as the things I've found in my research.

So let's get on with it. For reference I'm going to tag @nightingalecottage and their lovely post here. I really recommend reading it. This theory only saw the light of day because of their post and I told them I would tag them with my meta since it lends a lot to it. And I promised myself that I would finish this for them.

Now for the meat and potatoes. I'll break it all down about how I found this information and how it might lend some theory about possible plot to s3.

This got really long so I put a cut.

-Silly narrator voice-

The facts were these.

To start I was doing research for a fic I'm working on and the details don't matter much but I'd planned to make my 'human' crowley a barrister. I was googling famous barristers for inspiration.

This lead me to wikipedia naturally as you do. And as I was looking over the list I saw this.

After seeing this name on the list of barristers in popular culture I had a mini freakout. Mainly because two things NG is a huge fan of Charles Dickens and A Tale of Two Cities is on the bookclub reading list. And I kept thinking why did this seem familiar and this is why.

A Tale of Two Cities is on the list of books that they recommend we read or were found in s2. So after I stopped freaking out I immediately went to the wiki page for this character. I wasn't too familiar with this book so I wanted to know more. As I was now super invested and intrigued. And found this.

Sydney Carton

I couldn't help be blown away by the similarities here between Sydney Carton and a certain depressed snake demon from s2. Morosely asking Shax on a bench in the first episode "What's the point of it all?"

For some context, in the novel Sydney Carton and his later best friend Charles Darnay share a striking semblance and are easily mistaken for each other. This is how Sydney is then able to make the switch with Darnay in the end saving his life.

This brings to mind of the lore that we know that Crowley and Aziraphale were once long ago one character and split into two. Also with the ideal casting choice that Terry Pratchett wanted one actor to play both roles. That would have been really interesting and funny. Also this plays into our favorite duo MS and DT having not worked together before because they were up for the same roles.

Let's move on to

Charles Darnay

Darnay resents his uncle's views much how Aziraphale resents certain aspects of heaven, but is never able to act on very much.

The note about Darnay being tutor of French made me chuckle considering what we know about Aziraphale being terrible at French. With that whole scene centered around it in s2.

Ok so we all are well versed and familiar with the famous Bastille scene. We all know the one and its clear the inspiration here for it comes from A Tale of Two Cities possibly.

Side note Darnay and Carton are both in love with Lucie here, but I posit that in the case of Good omens, Aziraphale is possibly both Darnay and Lucie. Making him the best friend and love intrest.

Lucie Manette

And finally why does any of this matter and what does this have to do with Crowley maybe dying in s3 you ask?

The one important detail in all of this is that at the end of the novel Carton heroically sacrificed himself to save his best friend and for the women he loves. He feels it gave him purpose and felt as if his life finally had meaning.

Two things here. The scene in which Carton swaps places with Darnay being able to pass as him well enough to save his life. Is very reminiscent of our Body Swap from s1. As well as the idea that in s3 this could also happen, but in the sense that Crowley does it to save Aziraphale's life. I clearly have no idea how s3 will play out.

Now I'm not saying that s3 will be as dramatic as all of this. It is still a comedy at its core. As others have touched on in meta and in nightingalecottage's post there are many little hints that point to the similarities and the idea that Crowley maybe doomed by the narrative. In a way, I personally don't think that Crowley's hypothetical death will be permanent. I just do not see that happening at all. A temporary death I could definitely see and it could also serve to show how much Crowley truly means to Aziraphale. The shock of it would maybe be similar to how Crowley thought he lost Aziraphale in s1 and could be a parallel.

In the end this is all speculation and theory. Either way the idea of it all makes me vibrate and I needed to finally share this with someone else. They wouldn't have recommended this book if there wasn't some sort of meaning here right? And its entirely possible I'm looking in the wrong direction.

Overall there are many parallels and similarities here between A Tale of Two Cities and certain parts of Good Omens, I'm sure I may have missed some and I just wanted to end this now before it gets too long. If you made it this far and have any other theories or something you want to add on to this please feel free to tag me. I release this into the void.

#good omens #good omens 2 #good omens meta #good omens 3 #good omens theory #a tale of two cities #charles dickens #crowley #aziraphale #ineffable husbands #doomed by the narrative #this got away from me #ive been sitting on this for months #its time #im ready to finally talk about it #may need to edit this later

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rakruined · 1 year

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The Religious Implications of GotG vol. 3

So, it's Easter, and while I've got a lot of stuff to work on and things to do, I wanted to take the time to discuss the utterly insane things Guardians of the Galaxy volume three has done to my brain chemistry. After seeing @adamwarlock's post here, I've been thinking about just how many religious themes there seem to be in James Gunn's magnum opus. From a villain with a god complex to Rocket Raccoon becoming my new favorite satanic archetype maybe, this is gonna be a deep dive into everything I've picked up from the trailers so far.

So, let's start with the implications of that post I linked: "some corners of the galaxy consider (The High Evolutionary) God".

Now, the High Evolutionary has always had a theme of 'playing god' in the comics, what with his whole deal being creating sentient life from animal experiments, but in the MCU, his connections to Christian notions of religion are a lot more fascinating. For starters, his goal is stated to be wanting to create a "perfect society", which you'll notice looks a lot like suburban Bible Belt America, albeit with a lot more hybrid animal-people.

Now, in the comics, he uses Earth animals as a basis for his new lifeforms because he was once a normal human named Herbert Wyndham. He eventually traveled into space to continue his experiments on his own world, later adopting Adam Warlock (this will come back later). Given his desire to make himself more powerful in the movie, this makes him an interesting counterpart to MCU!Peter Quill, who was born with Celestial (ie. godly) power and left Earth not by choice.

Now, there are a few things they changed from the comics, his connection to Rocket being the most significant in the context of this story. While Halfworld performed similar experiments on Rocket and the other uplifts, the H.E had nothing to do with the planet. And while I'll get back to why his connection to Rocket is significant, as well as what I said about Adam, I want to get into another major change: his design.

Here we have the comics design on the left and the movie design on the right. But isn't his movie look almost priestly? Almost... familiar...?

IT'S FUCKMOTHERING ENRICO PUCCI WITH THE STEEL CHAIR

Okay, JoJo references aside, the High Evolutionary's connections to Adam Warlock definitely add to the whole religious overtones. I mean, a guy who's considered God has a perfect creation literally named "Adam", trying to create a perfect world? This shit writes itself. But if you consider a few additional facts, this takes on a pretty wild meaning. For starters, Adam has been stated to be relatively naive and innocent, unknowledgeable of the universe.

But where this gets interesting is that, based on Rocket's absence from most group shots during what is clearly being billed as the midsection of the movie (spacesuits scene, that fight where they're all in orange, the team arriving on Halfworld) that he possibly is captured by Adam and brought back to his creator for additional experimentation. Shots of someone implied to be Rocket on the operating table and Gamora carrying him to the ship half-naked serve as further evidence of a rescue mission.

But if he's captured by Adam Warlock, that means he has the opportunity to tell Adam what his creator is really planning. He has the chance to tell him how he was made and what the High Evolutionary's "perfect society" is built upon: the blood of innocent creatures he'd deemed imperfect. This could be what changes Adam, what makes him turn against his god and his Garden of Eden.

The voice of the devil on his shoulder.

Edit: I forgot to mention this wild coincidence! Gunn once said Rocket was inspired by Frankenstein's monster. It makes sense on the basic level of a tragic science experiment abandoned by his creator, but it gets even more bizarre. In the novel, the monster identifies with Satan in the book Paradise Lost, making him the same sort of tragic figure as Lucifer. Rocket too was an imperfect creation cast out by the "god" who made him. In this light, it's undeniable that yes, Rocket Raccoon is as much a satan figure as Adam Warlock is space Jesus.

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n0bluev · 2 months

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Somehow, im inspired to write that 'revision fic'. === (EDIT : u can skip but heres another snippet for u (3 separate bits that fit together nicely, actually haha) cuz hihi. THE AU: As i said, its a failed "3"rd regression context, where yjh is now in his "4"th round. The last memory he has of kdj is him dying, and to make things worse "In this round, that guy doesn't exist." is a thing, so yjh freaks out a bit but hes totally normal about this whole ordeal & the fact that he doesnt even remembers kdj's face now. Wdym! Hes fiiiiiine!

sorry lol back to the actual post : (,hope u enjoyed that little treat tho^^)) ===

!!THAT [Somehow, im inspired to write [...]] HAS NEVER HAPPENED TO ME BEFORE!!. I always like. do an outline for the overall story and vibe, then flesh out the start or something and cook up a little 500 (probably unsatisfying) words for fun kind of as a bonus. Keep it mostly for my private enjoyment and move on before the story comes to life. And that's okay... Yes, it would be cooler to actually write the AU ideas i get in novel or comic form instead of having them stay at just the 'sketch' & 'idea/brainstorm' phase before i get another idea and leave them to dust up in the pile,,

But yeah, its okay.

In the few years since ive started getting ideas for more elaborate aus/fics, ive noticed that my ideas improved with time. (no shit, i know, but it makes me happy! i grew up!!! i can see it.) My planning methods are better too. So all of that unfinished or abandoned stuff is not at all useless work in my eyes. And who knows, maybe one day i'll bring them back.

--> as a plus, all my fandom brainrot experiences even get transferred into my OC stuff, and frl whenever i read my notes these days (or listen to my voice memos lol) and im just like "HOW DID I THINK OF THIS WOW" or "WHEN DID I PUT THIS LIKE THIS? IT WORKS!" (not to brag or anything but my oc lore goes hard ☝️)

BUT. NOW THIS IS UNEXPECTED.

I DID NO PLANNING. I just started writing for orv and its. Lowkey, good ???? Dont get me wrong i only have 1.5k right now and there are clear holes i have to fill and stuff but... CLEAR HOLES! CLEAR HOLES. Sure Im used to being like "something of the sort should go there..." BUT THIS TIME ITS "THIS SHOULD GO THERE, ILL WRITE IT LATER BUT THE IMAGE IS IN MY MIND, CLEAR AS WATER, AND ONCE I START PUTTING IT ON THE PAGE ISTG THOSE WORDS WILL STREAM OUT OF MY FINGERS AS IF IT WAS A NORMAL OCCURENCE FOR ME" ,,- !??? Yo!

Anyways. Point is that somehow theres interesting stuff going on in my gg doc and the more i write the more i know where i want to go, so that's cool, i feel all powerfull for once

idk if that ease is going to stay once im done with the first scenes (ughh!!! theres so much potential!!!!!!!!) but hopefully yes. either way ill probably post it so im not baiting yall with a "um actually im writing smt rn --- *never shares with the class*" --- either 1) things go well and i write a "real fic" (!? wtf that wasnt my plan!) --- or 2) i only post the finished version of what i have now (expect around 5k? (i have no idea actually)) and we wait together to see if i pick up the idea again haha. (i do wish to write it tho! im not a 'writer' writer but i want to be one, u get me?)

! thank u see u byebye

#orv fic #orv au #nhoblu narration #(<- thats gonna be my all encompassing AU-FIC-OCS lore n stuff tag now ive decided hehe)#next step is to make an art tag (another day lol. ill make a post :3)#orv #전독시 #전지적 독자 시점 #omniscient reader's viewpoint #writing

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hoardingpuffin · 4 months

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Okay, so lemme preface this by saying I haven't watched the PJO show yet because I am boycotting the Mouse Company, however this post is likely going to at reference spoilers from later books [just fyi if you are not familiar with the books and want to avoid spoilers]

In the past few days I have seen so many readers be absolute SHITS toward people who are completely new to the fandom, who are show-watchers only, and it's making me so fjucking mad.

Like yeah, I get it, we are all super hyped to finally get a good adaption of these books, but there is no reason - absolutely no reason - to treat non-readers the way I've seen some people treat them, especially when all they do is ask for a spoiler warning.

I've legit seen people say things like, I quote: "The books were out for years, learn to read, you imbecile" (I wish I was kidding) and more in that general tone, and guys, that's shitty ass behaviour. Stop.

People are going to be newcomers to a fandom. People who maybe were too young for the books then are old enough for the show now, or people might not have been aware of the books at all and then saw the ads for the show and went "well that seems fun I'll give it a watch" - and this elitism of some of the readers is going to ruin the experience of these newcomers and possibly even turn them away from the PJO fandom before they could even properly get invested.

Yes, the books have been out for years. Yes, there was plenty of chance to read them. Yes, people are going to likely get spoiled when exploring the online part of the fandom. That doesn't give you an excuse to be shitty to these newcomers, to insult them, call them illiterate or cuss them out. Just put a fucking spoiler warning on your Luke Castellan Tiktok edit if it's gonna reference what happens to him with Kronos. Put a fucking spoiler warning on your Clarisse LaRue edit that references Silena's death in Last Olympian. It's not that hard, it is one little word. Plus, novel thought [/s], not all book readers get to watch the show immediatly and might likewise appreciate a spoiler warning!

I seriously don't get why I have seen nothing but hostility toward newcomers since the show has been out. I thought we'd be excited that a whole new wave of people gets to experience this series that we all love for the first time! For me, there is nothing quite so exciting as getting my friends into a fandom I've been in that they haven't - we should let newcomers give that chance with PJO.

Tag spoilers. It is one word, it's not that hard, and it makes the fandom space more welcoming.

Also don't cuss out people who are new. Don't go all high and mighty "It's not my fault you can't read" at them - it's shitty. It is asshole behaviour and you are gonna give the fandom a bad name.

Basically, don't be a dick and let newcomers enjoy the show.

#percy jackson #percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson series #percy jackson show #percy jackson spoilers #tag your spoilers #fandom rant #hey guys don't be assholes

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ohmeadows · 2 months

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with the experience you have now, what is something you usually do when you feel the creative block so bad that it makes you want to drop all your writing during an indeterminate period of time? (Not considering talking to someone because i don't have friends with the same interests as me)

Lately i have been writing consistently but now i am in a point between the overwhelming need to keep creating and the suffocating need to just stop. the last time this happened not a single word was written in over a year xd

oh and im so in love with your writing btw <3

thank you and i'm sorry to hear you're struggling with a creative block, i know the feeling all too well. (there's a span of years between 2013 and 2016 where i didn't write at all.)

while a little break does do good, i know the threshold to getting back to it becomes so high it feels insurmountable. but it sounds like you need to replenish the well, as i like to call it. think of your writing as a well you draw from, and it needs a steady supply of water to be able to sustain you dipping into it for the power and inspiration to keep going. feeding it involves engaging in texts in a different way. for me, that's reading, and a lot. i sometimes feel so parched i have to steamroll thru ten books before i feel like i have it balanced again.

i've made some posts beforehand on how to approach reading as a writer (wish i'd tagged them better), but it boils down to:

make lists of beautiful words and sentences that you like; could you emulate them? could you write them in your style?

how do the writers pull off the tricks you struggle with? for me this is knowing when to just move the scene along, or how to showcase that time has passed. (i did a whole study on this from my fave books and it boiled down to just writing "A day later/Weeks down the line/Three months passed before she/It didn't take more than forty-five minutes to get across town but it felt like moving backwards through time" which was fun to learn)

just reading for fun. cannot be understated. sometimes you just need to be pulled into a story and feel too dazzled to stop and think to be reminded of how delicious writing feels

and yes, this goes for mangas, comics, scripts, movies, tv shows, even game writing imo (visual novels are great fun for how they do dialogue and emotional appeal).

another thing to not lose touch with the writing as a practice but maybe take a little breather from the project is to start a journal. i like this one a lot personally, there's the concept of morning pages where you get up in the morning and write three pages without stopping or overthinking.

this leads into automatic writing, which is about setting a timer (25 mins is a good one i feel, but even 15-10-5 does wonders) and while it ticks, you have to keep writing. yes, even if all you write is the same word over and over, or your thoughts as they come to you. this is a key component exercise at all writing schools i've ever gone to. personally i like to "guide it" so to speak with a prompt, be it a word (Lust, Rose, Name, Echo) or a full sentence ("She didn't like where this was going.") or an image. what this exercise teaches you is to shorten the distance between hand putting the words down and your thoughts as they process and come to you, as well as embracing writing messy and ugly and shitty because you can always come back and fix a half-assed page, but you can't do anything with a blank one.

third and final thing: movement. go outside. look around. if you can, get moving, take in the surroundings. there's no expectation on you to write anything from this, just let the movement and your thoughts be it. whenever i hit creative rut, i go for a walk. the first half hour my brain is quiet and annoyed. then things start moving in there as well. i'll walk all the way down to the sea and look at the waves and back home and process an idea from it. (i do keep the notes app on my phone readily available for this, but a notebook or receipt or post-it notes also work fine.)

like all art, writing is a practice and the actual act of writing is maybe 20-30% of what it is. nourish the well and it will nourish you back.

+ for what it's worth, i also often try to edge in rest days where i don't write. at least two a week. be gentle and forgiving on yourself.

#ask meadows anything

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severeweatheralert · 5 months

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

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

Planning

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

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

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

Scene setting

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

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

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

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

Drafting

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

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

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

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

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

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

Editing

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

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

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

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

Practical things

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Uploading

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

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

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

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

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new-kit-on-the-block · 3 months

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Spoilers for The Dragonet Prophecy

I've decided to get into Wings of Fire, starting with a graphic novel version of the first book that I found at Barnes & Noble.

I just finished reading it, and I've also decided to catalog all of the thoughts I have about each book right after I read them. I'm gonna do it all in this post, one reblog at a time.

Here we go.

The Dragonet Prophecy:

I really like Clay's flat arc. The fact that, in the first book, the first thing we learn about him and the last thing we learn about him is the same piece of information twice, just framed under a different context will drive me insane for the rest of my life.

Seriously, there are 13 fucking books left for me to read, I cannot be getting so hung up over a single detail in book number one(1).

I wanted to see Tsunami beat up more dragons, but alas. From what I can glean, the second book will focus more on her. So maybe I'll get my wish after all.

Welp. Starflight's a double agent now. And I get the feeling that they're going to get a lot of mileage out of that when it comes to internal conflict. It's a pity that I didn't find him too interesting in this one, but I'll just have to assume they're saving all of that for a bit later in the series. We're still only in the world-building phase, after all.

Sunny's cute. Wish she was given more time to shine.

Same with Glory. But at least she got to kill someone.

It really seems like they were banking on the hopes that they would be able to publish a lot of books and would have plenty of time to flesh out the five dragonets later. Fortunately, like I said, there are 13 books left. And that's just the main series.

Hoping to see everyone get plenty of chances to shine. (Please please please tell me that they do. Please don't let this age poorly.)

The only name I knew going into this was Scarlet, who I've heard is just an absolute monster throughout the series. Excited to see how much more they can make me hate her.

Jesus fucking Christ that dude just fucking killed himself by hugging Peril. That shit was brutal.

Anyway, I really like Peril. Once again, wanted to see a lot more of her.

I also like the obvious parallels already being drawn between Peril and Clay. They were both introduced as having killed/tried to kill their sibling when they hatched. And then within the same book, both of those things were proven to be untrue.

It's pretty obvious they're setting up a ship between them, but it's a damn cute ship, so that's fine by me.

I really really like that the four of them keep consistently reminding Glory that they think she's pretty, as well as constantly reassuring her that they don't think she's lazy or stupid. Love me some siblings being collectively supportive of their extremely self-deprecating sister. I think she's shaping up to be my favorite of the five. With Tsunami being a close second. Make no mistake: I love them all.

Also, Tsunami coming from the Seawing Queen's hatchery is the funniest shit ever. She spends the whole book making jokes like "Maybe I'm the lost Seawing Princess or something Xp" and then right at the end Kestrel's just like "Yeah, no, you totally are." AND THEN SHE JUST FUCKING LEAVES

"Definitely our bigwings." Aww~ What a cute way to close off the first book :)

KESTREL'S DEAD?????

Anyway, great book. Can't wait to get my hands on the second one.

#wof #wings of fire #the dragonet prophecy #clay wof #tsunami wof #starflight wof #sunny wof #glory wof #peril wof

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t-lane-writes · 4 months

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2024

What do I expect of this year? What do I want to write?

For starters, I decided to give up on two WIPs that I will likely not write, at least not soon. The Ribbon was supposed to be a companion piece to Ananke (both could be around 40k stories, so together they'd make the length of a whole novel), but since Ananke has been shortened, The Ribbon is not necessary. And on its own it doesn't have enough pull for me to finish it.

Untitled Sentira project is... well, the name itself is enough to tell you my feelings about it. I still think the worldbuilding for this story, or rather the one that existed before, is spectacular. I'm not giving up on the Sentira world, but maybe I'll do something completely different with it? The novel idea, the characters I tried to design for it, the plot -- they just didn't really click, so. This particular story will not happen, at least not in the form of a novel.

Hmm... I should update my pinned post... Later.

Now, what will I write?

I'm changing the ending of Ananke. The second half, ten chapters, require a lot of changes and I want to do it, like, now. First half of January, then mabe final re-read right away, or maybe some pro editor? IDEK. Or a re-read in February. And then I want to send it to three sci-fi magazines and see if they bite.

I started to edit The Specters, but now that I'm back at work I don't think I'll be able to work on two things simultanously, so I'm putting it on the backburner until I'm done with Ananke, and then I'll probably continue second draft until the end of February.

I've been having feels about Crystal Spring Valley lately -- it means I miss Priya and Tenney and the gang. I might take March and April to look at this story and maybe get through that Turning Point finally. I don't hope to finish it, but, as usual, make as much progress as I can.

May could be a good moment to work on the spreadsheet and maybe even pre-draft of The Duke and the B Brothers -- so that I could tackle the first draft during NaNoWriMo. Ha! Yes.

Then I should return to Black Wings and its second draft for June and July (or perhaps even longer), and that would more-or-less conclude my current WIPs.

August, September and October would remain "to be decided". I also have Mars Idea in very early stages of development, so I might give it a month here or there. And then do some more work on either on the most advanced WIPs, meaning Crystal Spring, Specters or Black Wings.

November would be the first draft of The Duke, of course, and then December... Maybe rest after NaNo, lol, or finish The Duke, because 50k will likely not be enough.

So that's that. That's the plan. :)

#tes talks about writing #year in preview #inventory of stories #crystal spring valley #the specters #black wings #ananke #duke and the b brothers #the mars idea

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r1ddly · 6 months

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YOU'RE GONNA MAKE A GAME OF YOUR VERSE?!?!?! THAT'S SO COOL WHAT!!!!

I'm punching the wall right now /pos. I really really admire the determination to make a whole ass game for your version of the universe and the characters!! I'm ready to wait as long as you need and support the project because really, your designs and your story is so awesome and I really love it and I get super excited when you post stuff about it!!!

Yeah!!! I've had different game building softwares like rpg maker 2022 (or 2023? I forgor) and a couple visual novels! I've been wanting to make games for a long time and I've had different ideas for some more original concepts so this is a good way to introduce myself into game development!!

Thank you though for your support and excitement! I'm happy your excited! I'm excited too! I have some big ideas for it and I'd love to at some point maybe get some volunteers! Like to help with music or even maybe voice acting though that's for much later! This game will obviously be free since it not official but I'd still make it free anyway cause I want as many people to be able to play it ya know?

I'm thinking of doing something similar to deltarune where there's multiple parts/chapters, I think it would be easy for the story telling but also easy on development! And most if not all chapters will be specific for a character in the story. I'm unsure how many chapters but just to be safe I'll assume 10 LMAO

#my post #eddieverse

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whypolar · 9 months

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Gundam Unicorn OVA 2: The Second Coming of Char

It's time.

Here comes a special boy!

If you don't cheer and clap for him I'll blow this whole building up.

(You can read my previous post here, if you want.)

I was grinning every time Frontal was on screen. I'm so easy. He's perfect.

The music continues to be excellent.

The percussion in Frontal's theme is fucking crazy. I don't even have the vocabulary to describe what is happening here musically, but I like the aggressive synth and that there's a xylophone. Maybe multiple xylophones. Imagine.

I also particularly liked this one track with the chanting vocals before the hostage negotiation-- apparently it's the Sinanju's theme.

The main theme associated with the Unicorn itself keeps getting caught in my head.

The robots remain very cool.

Combat plays out almost beat-for-beat as described in Novel 3, right down to the automatic cockpit functions and Banagher throwing up in his helmet. Gross.

Environments: effectively conveying information.

The backgrounds in this one didn't wow me as consistently as the first one, but that's fine. They're in space. They're on closed ships. They have other, more important things they want you to look at. Sterile corridors communicate information about the setting, even if they're not necessarily exciting.

They do some cool stuff with the lighting on the bridge. I also like that they have an inexplicable vaporwave room to put the civilians in.

I'm pretty sure I have this exact room in my house in Animal Crossing.

After Banagher gets captured we start seeing more variety again, since there are more different places for us to visit.

Those are my big surface-level impressions.

From this point on, there will be novel spoilers up to the equivalent point where this OVA ends (which will include some things that I assume will show up in OVA 3).

One of my favourite background nobodies, Lieutenant Commander Liam. I love that the main thing we know about her is that she's big and constantly side-eyeing her blustering boss.

In terms of novel comparisons, there's a lot more I can potentially talk about in this one than the first.

Judging by these first two, it seems like each OVA covers about 1.5 novels worth of material, which sounds about right to cover all ten in seven episodes.

They swapped a number of scenes around. They've been skipping over a lot of little Vist family stuff that will have to come up later. I don't think that will be a problem. I assume they had two priorities:

Establish key details of Frontal's character, such as his self-identity as a vessel and his ambiguous relationship to Char, in the same OVA where he's introduced

Set up the hook of Banagher getting rescued for OVA 3

They've held off on introducing Martha for now, which is fair. She hasn't really done much by this point, she just exists as a vaguely menacing figure. I assume she'll be in the next one. Please?

They also skipped over Cardeas' memories of Syam arranging to have Cardeas' father killed. If they intend to tell us that later, it will probably be through another character, such as Martha or Syam himself.

Alberto hasn't figured out Banagher is his half-brother yet. Martha is the one who tells him this, so that makes sense. I could see them making that scene Martha's introduction.

Have I mentioned I love Alberto? I really do. I like him even better without a judgmental narrator describing his fatness, so there's an unambiguous point in the anime's favour, lmao.

Banagher

I'm glad they kept the flashback of Banagher's childhood 'training', but disappointed that they cut off the nightmare at the end. I wanted to see how they'd do it.

Caught my not-husband zapping our son so he'll be good at killing people in the psychic death machine when he's older. He does it in the piano tapestry room, to make sure the repressed traumatic memories are as poetic as possible.

We don’t get to hear Banagher's mother confront his father about putting him in the newtype pilot torture simulator, so we miss out on Cardeas' incredible defence of "don’t worry, I'm not using drugs on him in the tests." Father of the year.

In the novel: we hear the fight, it moves on to memories of Banagher leaving home with his mother, and then it eventually degenerates into the horrible withered body of Banagher's dead father grabbing his ankle and trying to make him go to the Gundam. The Gundam is described as a giant bleeding demon that wants to eat him.

It's important to me that a Gundam should always be at least a little monstrous. They should let the Unicorn be evil. As a treat.

At this point, I think anime Banagher comes across as mostly in line with his novel counterpart's characterization. The change in situation means a change in behaviour. Events have forced him to start openly expressing his doubts and fears-- which means the audience can actually know what they are.

There is still one difference that stuck out to me, because they chose to cut a particular scene:

OVA Banagher feels less genuinely attached to his friends.

I don't think this is a worse characterization. It's interesting in its own way. It's just like... a notably different one, imo.

There's a very sweet scene in the novel of him reuniting with Micott and Takuya. They're all overjoyed to see each other again alive. They hug, floating through the air in low gravity. Banagher feels warmth and a sense of belonging, and seriously considers never getting back in the Gundam again. They get so caught up that they end up hitting a wall and getting grabbed by gravity again, so they all collapse and start laughing. Then Audrey comes in, and the moment ends, as Banagher is compelled to go to her instead.

In the anime, they're all at his hospital bedside when he wakes up. Micott directly calls out to him in concern. He totally ignores her and addresses Audrey instead. Bro???

Given that he mostly ignored the other students and stared into space for a lot of the previous OVA, because they cut a lot of their casual school interactions from that one, too, well... Audrey doesn't just feel like Banagher's most powerful connection, but possibly his only real connection.

They also cut Micott being the one who approaches Mackle about Audrey, which makes him decide to look her up. Instead, he recognizes her face on his own. I was surprised by this one, since it felt like they were setting it up, but I guess not.

Audrey / Mineva

Mineva translates flawlessly to the screen. It helps that she's central both to the plot and to our protagonist's motivation. An element of mystery is also already important to her portrayal, so not getting direct glimpses into her thoughts doesn't feel like losing something. Much like last time, we basically know what the protagonist knows, and it works.

This is the best case scenario, but it also gives me less of an excuse to talk about her. Now I have to talk about Riddhe instead. I can't even believe how much I feel the need to talk about Riddhe. I did not think I cared about Riddhe.

And yet.

Riddhe

We find out who he is by the end of this one. Kinda. Depending on how much attention the viewer pays to character surnames, they may have figured it out earlier, or might even still not have grasped exactly what was being implied.

Again: I don't especially care about Riddhe, so I'm hesitant to say I want them spending time on him that could be used elsewhere, but the thing about reading the novels first is that I know his significance to the plot going forward. I'm worried things might end up more frustrating in the long run if they don't do enough with him early on.

When I think about scenes centred on Riddhe from the first 4 novels that I found particularly memorable… a lot of them were removed!

That good luck charm he has? In the novel, he doesn't have that. He has model biplanes, like actual hand-sized toys. In his introductory scene, he's sitting in a cockpit with one and basically zoning out, pretending to make it fly around. He thinks about wanting to be a pilot growing up, and it really gives the distinct impression that he's a bit mad that planes are mostly obsolete and he has to fly in a mobile suit instead. People roast him for being a rich kid playing with his toys.

That's the kind of idiosyncratic and slightly cringe enthusiasm that makes a character feel real to me. I don't even know if it would have been better to keep that in, I just know that I personally would like it.

The little things are what let me engage with him as a specific character, as opposed to an archetype I'm not personally invested in. I'd rather have a more detailed character than a guy who feels like nothing, whether I personally like him or not.

This is how the novel version of Riddhe meeting Banagher played out:

After the battle, Riddhe is feeling survivor's guilt, since they lost a lot of pilots during the battle. He goes to check on his machine. The mechanic inside is one of the older crew members, and he's crying.

When Riddhe tries to speak to him, he turns around and screams at him. He found the airplane model in the cockpit, where Riddhe accidentally left it. He's furious that Riddhe brought a toy onto the battlefield. He tells him to his face that he wasn't taking things seriously, and that's why they got massacred in the battle.

He throws the plane out of the cockpit, Riddhe chases it down as it glides through low gravity, and Banagher ultimately catches it, which is how they meet for the first time.

It's just much meatier than what we got.

I also feel like we've seen less conflict with others and emotions from Riddhe about his family so far. We don't know what his relationship to them is like at all, really. We miss the scene of him biting the bullet and asking his father for help, even though he really doesn't want to, because he believes it might save lives.

Maybe that will feel more present going forward, now that Mineva knows who he is?

Still, it's not like we didn't get any character moments for him. We get a bit of banter between him and other members of the crew. He reacts to stuff. I thought the scene where he confronts Mineva about Zeon and recalls Garma's funeral was very good.

Just... I want him to be interesting enough for me to get something from his arc.

Imagine me pacing around my room and gesticulating wildly for this next part, because I finally get to talk about Full Frontal

This scene. This specific scene is the one I most want to talk about.

First of all, it has Frontal in it. Second, there's a lot of information conveyed in the novel scene that does not make it to the screen at all. Third, the anime makes its own strong visual choices that are entirely original and not drawn from any kind of novel description.

This shot of Frontal's mask is downright fascinating to me. The outside of the mask is pristine and smooth, but the inside has all these gnarled ridges. The lines around the eyes remind me of wrinkles on an old man's face. In-universe, someone decided it was important to make it look like that, where nobody but Frontal himself will see it. Was it designed this way at his request?

This scene in the novel is written from Banagher's perspective. There is no camera, it's just Banagher pointing out whatever he thinks is important to comment on. When they decided how to frame it in the anime, they pulled the camera way back, for all these extreme distance shots in this huge room. Everyone looks so tiny. This is, obviously, an unusual framing for an intimate conversation between three people.

There were so many cool and very deliberate shots in this scene; I'm kind of obsessed with it. The separation of spaces in this massive room and how they kept showing Frontal moving back and forth between them... I wish I could include them all, but tumblr has a 30 image limit per post.

When Frontal is wearing the mask and sitting next to Angelo, he is visually separated from Banagher. When he moves to speak to Banagher, he is then separated from Angelo. This is a sentiment that Angelo expresses in the novel-- that when Banagher was around, Frontal suddenly 'left him out of focus'. This is one of the things that drives Angelo to fixate on Banagher out of jealousy going forward.

Aside from depicting emotional distance between characters and showing off the absurdity of how big the room is, it's possible that the camera choices are meant to evoke another detail from the novels.

There is something very important we learn about Frontal that is conveyed solely through narration, and which has not come up at all yet in the OVA: the way characters describe his appearance, and the emotional response they have to it.

Specifically: Full Frontal looks exactly like Char Aznable, but he doesn't look like a convincing human being.

How does Banagher describe Full Frontal in this scene?

Well:

Is he a human? This was the first impression Banagher had. He could not detect any sense of life from that man, not just from the mask covering his eyes, but also the vibe that he was artificially created. He stared at the masked man who sat on the Mahogany made office table, and seriously thought that it might really be part of the decorations in the room.

The hand under the glove felt rather hard, causing Banagher to remember the first impression of a puppet ...

Perhaps I might not have seen the true appearance of this man? Banagher recalled the beautiful blue eyes, and felt that he was following an illusion ...

He also describes his stare as "machine-like" at one point.

After removing the mask, he describes Frontal's face as handsome and without identifiable flaws. "His cheekbones did not reflect his age" -- he looked younger than expected based on the age of Char Aznable, I think is the implication.

Anyway. The point is, he's good-looking and there's nothing specific anyone can pinpoint that's obviously wrong with him, and yet this is a consistent reaction characters have to meeting him. He doesn't feel real.

Honestly, this is one of my favourite things about Frontal, and it makes me a bit sad that it doesn't translate at all. I'm sure it would be difficult to visually convey-- any attempt runs the risk of looking like an error, or just 'bad'. It could also be they were worried about going too hard with it and making him read like a monster, rather than someone who could plausibly be a charismatic leader.

I get it. I just miss it, man. It's such a good little detail. He'll always be a beautiful creepy puppet to ME.

I love that Angelo's always two seconds from going on the attack. He's like a beautiful fluffy dog that's human-aggressive and keeps biting people. He's Frontal's feral rescue persian cat.

Angelo doesn't go for Banagher a third time in the novel. In that version, these lines are delivered (less violently) by Frontal himself.

The change makes sense. It's in character for Angelo, and it still implies something about Frontal-- he speaks about Banagher sympathetically, but he pretty much just lets Angelo do this, not even chastising him or telling him to stop like the previous two times.

Banagher still falls over in the novel, despite not being physically assaulted. He almost passes out from the horror of realizing he killed someone, and then he spends the entire rest of the scene dissociating and feeling physically ill. Marida and Zinnerman pretty much have to drag him out of there.

The scene with Angelo and Frontal on their own discussing the possibility of an attack on Palau is gayer in the novel. Being inside Angelo's head is always gayer. We might get the full version of this scene in the next one, since they started talking about certain exposition-related things before getting abruptly cut off.

Concluding scenes

I really like this scene with the family. The designs of these characters and how they interact with each other is very endearing. Marida casually holding the little girl upside-down and handing her over to the mother is unbearably cute.

They don't fully explain the logistics of where and how Banagher is being held prisoner, leaving it to you to intuit what the arrangement is. This works just fine for me, but I did wonder if it might throw some people off. Maybe not-- I feel like most UC Gundam stuff I've watched occasionally leaves gaps like this and trusts you to connect the dots on your own.

It's just very different from reading the novel, where it leads you through the whole process of him being kept on the ship, brought to Palau, being taken to see Frontal, etc. It gives a history of Palau as a mining colony, including how and why it was built, why the guy who bought it most recently renamed it Palau, the population size, the dimensions in kilometers... you get the idea. Completely different approach.

Marida.... the next one should have a lot more of Marida, I think. I'm glad. I want more Marida. She's one of my favourites.

Her big scene in this one is a good one with a lot of thematic and emotional weight, but the reordering of scenes did skip over a lot of smaller moments between her and Banagher that I really love-- big fan of her grabbing his face to check his eyes and then telling him about the effects of g-force on the human eyeball.

I'm hoping at least some of those casual interactions make it into the next one. They can be shifted around pretty easily, so long as it's before the attack on Palau begins.

I think that's everything I wanted to go over... either way, I'm done. This post took me a lot longer to edit than the first one.

I can't believe they made me write fifteen paragraphs about Riddhe.

#remibloggue #gundam #gundam unicorn

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glitched-dawn · 2 months

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So I have noticed some cool grimblos do in fact notice that I have written funny words and want to read them so uhhh

Imma just post the first chapter here?

Aight here we go: Novel 1 out of 9, Breached Containment, Chapter one: How haven't I seen this cool thing before?

[Warning tho it is really long like 20 A5 pages]

[Also PS if this gets over 100 notes I'll post chapter two]

How haven’t I seen this cool thing before?

Soon I’d literally die from boredom. No offense to my teacher, but since I was used to having biology lessons indoors, maybe doing an experiment or two, this was just a punishment. Walking around in the woods, that I knew inside out, looking for anomalies in fungi.

But this day turned out to be something unusual - something unusual, cool, and potentially, bad.

☙•❧

Me and my friend Rick left our class’s search for mushrooms pretty early (cause who could be interested in mushrooms when they’d already explored almost the entire forest?), and we had special permission to leave and “explore”, which was weird, since we got permission because we knew the forest inside out.

We’d left the school about ten minutes ago, and most of us were enjoying the warm and fresh air. Others (ehm, those who didn’t know forests exist) were just staring at their phones, waiting for the lesson to be over.

Two of our teachers were there with us, our PE and - of course - biology teacher. Our PE teacher, Mr Raminez, a buff bald dude with a blonde beard wearing coaching clothes, walked around trying to push us into doing healthy exercises. And our biology teacher, Brian (he’s such a homie, everybody just calls him Brian), mainly just mingled with students about their grades, about fun and lean lessons he’d have in the future, and about potential future trips like this one, hopefully not in the local forest.

Rick and I didn’t have much to do, except maybe finding a good tree to climb, or maybe doing the exercises Raminez wanted us to do. But since we knew the forest here inside out, there wasn’t anything fun we could do during the trip, if we didn’t sneak away.

I sighed and looked around. The dense forest had all kinds of different trees - it wasn’t just a boring pine one, or a birch one, so on. There was both pine and birch, there were mighty old oaks, clusters of rowan and juniper, and spots with fir and beech. And the whole place was filled with life, even though you couldn’t see it directly.

Squirrels were easy to spot, they didn’t care about being hidden. Then the frogs were everywhere, so that wasn’t a surprise, and you were heavenly lucky if you caught a deer or fox. Unluckily, since there was so much passive wildlife, there were also many predators, like wolves, bears and wolverines, and also the biggest moose I’d ever seen in any forest throughout my life.

I remembered one time, when I was out in my backyard, there was a moose munching on our apples. I ran to my dad, who grabbed his rifle and shot it, because we wouldn’t risk the moose hurting anyone. I hadn’t understood why until later, when Dad told me that a portion of the apples were fermented. The moose tasted good though, and we got to hang its antlers over the fireplace in the living room, which was extremely cool.

Rick shook my shoulders, making me wake up from my zone-out.

‘Oh, what is it?’ I asked him.

‘There’s a gap’, he announced, and I grinned. It was time for some exercise.

☙•❧

As the other students in our class stood bent over one of the most common mushrooms in the forest, that I’d seen at least a couple hundred times, Rick and I took our chance and threw ourselves away from the others in hopes that the teachers would assume that we’d just gone for a quick detour - when in reality, we were running as fast as we could away from the class to gain some free time.

We ran for a few more minutes, until we had to stop so I wouldn’t choke on my laughter.

‘Bro, they didn’t even notice!’ I laughed, stumbling backwards. I hit a tree and leaned against it, to give me something to hold on to as I tried to sip air. Rick was out of breath too, laughing at me.

‘Couldn’t they hear what was happening? Like seriously, we almost threw ourselves down that cliff!’ I fell forwards, and Rick caught me at the last second. I struggled to stand up and I fell again, causing Rick to cough, he was laughing so hard.

When I had finally gotten up and brushed myself off, and when our laughter had subsided somewhat, we took off through the forest again - through shrubbery, glades and brushwood, over fallen trees and narrow streams. It was cloudless and warm outside, and the sun shone in rays through the beautiful arched roof of fresh green leaves. It wasn’t very windy, the most noticeable sound was us walking on leaves and pine needles, and the birds and other animals going about in the distance.

We walked casually, safe and sound, in the direction of the old limestone quarry, where we could take a fresh dip later today. It wasn’t that popular, with the ocean so close by, so we usually had it for ourselves.

But we must’ve walked in a somewhat wrong direction, and we walked for a good fifteen minutes before I realized. I interrupted Rick in the middle of his epic, overly dramatic story about how he beat me in Castle Crashers for the first time (he got to use my most powerful character, and he didn’t let me heal. Sounds unfair to me).

‘Hey, bro, I think we went in the wrong direction’, I cut him off. He stared at me in confusion. Then his eyes lit up in excitement.

‘Well, that doesn’t matter now’, he said quirkily, ‘cause I’ve found something way more interesting!’ He turned around and started running away from me, through a glade filled with thicket, and past a wall of trees.

‘Oh woah, take a look at this, bro!’ Rick shouted to me. I followed up and when I reached Rick, I wasn’t very surprised.

’What? I thought I’d shown you the ravine before’, I said, confused. In front of us, a rip in the earth cut through the dirt and rock below. On the other side of the ravine, there were more coniferous trees than on this side. That place looked pretty dark, and I hadn’t spent much time there. In the bottom of the rave, a small river snaked through the rubble and boulders. It wasn’t really a ravine, it was more of a canyon, but whatever.

Rick frowned and answered; ‘Yeah, yeah, you have, but that’s not what I was talking about-’ he turned around and pointed at something at the line of the horizon -’my bro, you goin’ blind? There’s a building over there!’ I squinted at the spot Rick was pointing at and saw a gray block, and it did look like some sort of building. I regretted not having explored the forest past the ravine.

‘Ey, that’s epic!’ I responded with a smile, ‘But I don’t think we have the time to go get your binoculars.’ Rick nodded.

‘That’s true. And sneaking past the teachers and the other students would be harder than before’, he summed up. I glanced at the building again - it was hard to see what kind of building it could be; but it was easy to foreclose. It obviously wasn’t a normal house you’d live in, not even an apartment building. Maybe it was just an abnormally huge abandoned house, but from the shape and gray color I doubted it; it looked more like concrete, and not many abandoned houses in the forest were made out of concrete.

‘What do you think it is?’ I asked Rick. He squinted at the block just like I did, frowning.

‘It’s pretty hard to tell from this angle and distance, I should really bring my binoculars tomorrow. But it can’t be a normal house - I’d say that it’s an abandoned factory or something.’ Yeah, that made some sense, but why would it be out in the middle of the forest?

‘Yeah. That’s neat, though. You think we can check it out tomorrow?’ I looked back at Rick. He caught my gaze and smiled quirkily.

‘Time for some urban exploring’, he grinned.

☙•❧

‘I’m home!’ I yelled into the quiet house.

Huh, that’s weird, I thought to myself. There was usually quite a bit of noise here, even when I wasn’t home.

I looked around the empty space. The wooden walls were coloured a light brown, tainted gray. Past the narrow hall I was standing in was the living room, and to my right was the kitchen. To my left were the stairs up to the master bedroom and my room, plus a soundproof room, a little common room and a bathroom.

I heard someone getting up from bed upstairs, and a few moments later my dad came stumbling down the stairs - an averagely tall dude, with mixed ginger-brown, fluffy hair, dressed in an orange flannel shirt and a pair of ripped jeans.

‘Hey buddy! How was school today? I heard you went on a trip to the forest’, he said brightly.

His sky-blue eyes glittered friendly, and his warm smile was extremely contagious. People often told me I looked similar to him, probably because we were both tall, had the same bushy brown hair and lanky posture, but he had many many more laugh lines than me, blue eyes, lighter skin and a warmer face. I had energetic green eyes, a crooked smile, a browner, more coffee-colored hue, and a few faded freckles around my nose. If I’d just been a little taller, we’d almost look like we were the same age. It was magical how he managed to look like an older teen, when he really was 39.

I smiled back and responded; ‘Oh, yeah! Rick and I got a special permission to leave and explore, which is really weird since we’ve already explored a really big part of the forest’, I told him while taking off my shoes and backpack.

‘We did go exploring though, we walked all the way to the ravine and spotted some kind of building on the other side of it. We plan to go see what it is tomorrow - on a distance, of course, with Rick’s binoculars.’ I walked into the kitchen and grabbed two mugs from one of the cabinets. Dad followed me into the kitchen.

‘Oh, by the way, my buddies from work invited me for a fishing trip tomorrow, but we’ll be home by the evening’, he said, grabbing some milk out the fridge, putting it on the counter, and then he grabbed the sugar and cocoa from the pantry.

‘You want some hot chocolate?’ He smiled.

‘Yeah, sure!’ I replied. I got up from my chair and helped him prepare - I put a small saucepan on the stove, and I turned the heat up. As Dad started to cook the heavenly drink, I told him about my day and what plans I had for today. He nodded along, listening, smiling encouragingly.

‘Where are you going, though? The ocean? Along the coast, or out in the big blue?’ Dad nodded.

‘Yep, we’re going fishing in the ocean, out in the endless bright blue! It’s gonna be lit, and my buddies are even going to bring a barbeque with them on the boat!’ I grinned. That sounded awesome!

‘I hope you catch some fish for me’, I said, and Dad smiled back, nodding again.

It was wonderful how happy he still was, considering he’d lost his wife - my mum - just a few years ago. She’d died in a terrorist bombing in a large city we’d lived in, and from there we had moved to EverNought afterwards to be able to healthily deal with the trauma. She’d saved many lives that day, and I was proud of her. She’d been an amazing mom.

Our family were atheists, but we were always grateful for nature and believed in its spirit. My mum had always prayed with us before bed, more for fun and giggles, singing fast-paced little tales as she tickled us and clapped her hands. We’d stopped after her passing, as it was her own thing, and it was kind of down-feeling to have a memory like that bringing longing and sadness every night.

My dad often said, “As long as we have each other, there’ll be no need to cry, and if you cry, you’ll always have someone to cheer you up.” And that was true, and really comforting. He was a very light dude, after all, and he had a good life. Two kids, a good house and a well-paying job, not to talk about the beautiful environment. The huge, mixed forest is astounding, and the small town is cozy and overall pretty nice. And about his two kids…

‘Hey, by the way, where’s Samantha?’ I asked Dad. He turned around and took the saucepan with him, still stirring.

‘Oh, she’s out on a date with someone. I don’t remember his name, but he seemed decent. Or she’s out with her friends, it’s hard to keep track of her’, he chuckled. Wait, what? My whiny, slightly bratty little sister had gotten a date?

‘Nah, you’re kidding’, I said. Dad laughed again, and he almost couldn’t stop.

‘No, for real! I wonder how, though. She hasn’t really worked on her manners’, he grinned. ‘She’s a bit ahead of you, eh?’ I gasped and dramatically put my hand over my chest, and now Dad had to put the saucepan down again, he was laughing so hard.

‘You dare insult my fabulous singularity! Absolutely flabbergasted!’ I exclaimed with a grin. We laughed for a long while, and it was hard to stop since we just laughed harder every time we looked at each other again. But finally, when we’d managed to keep calm for approximately three seconds, Dad approached me and patted me on my shoulder.

‘You know I won’t force you to love, right? That’s something you choose yourself, buddy. It’s not my business, and you’re safe to love whoever you want! Sorry if I haven’t told you before.’ I hugged him and responded; ‘No, you’ve told me before. You’re safe to love whoever you want too.’ Dad hugged me back.

‘That’s right’, he replied, smiling. Then he let go and hurried to the stove - we’d both forgotten the hot chocolate. A few minutes later, Dad grabbed a pad and brought the saucepan to the dining table.

‘You up for some steaming hot liquid heaven?’ He asked triumphantly - not only a lit dad, also an amazing cook - as he showed me how he’d managed to avoid burning the cocoa into the bottom of the pan. As he talked, I grabbed the mugs and Dad poured in the cocoa. I took a sip, and… wow.

‘Woah. That’s amazing’, I managed to say before gulping down almost the entire thing. Dad smiled and sipped his slowly and calmly.

‘I’m surprised it turned out so good even though I forgot to stir for a while’, he said contentedly.

‘Is it okay if I bring some for me and Rick’s exploration adventure tomorrow? This cocoa is honestly better than heavenly! Though, I feel like we’re using that term a bit too much considering that we don’t believe in God and that stuff’, I figured. Dad smirked and said, ‘All hail the hot chocolate!’ while raising his mug. I burst into laughter and was relieved I wasn’t drinking at the moment.

I’m happy Dad doesn’t get irritated by my almost-constant laughter, at least. Dealing with my energy though, that was somewhat worse. Thinking about it, I should probably talk more about it with Dad. But not this second, I thought, when I heard someone unlocking the door.

‘That must be Samantha’, Dad said, getting up to welcome her in.

‘Okay, uh, I’m just gonna…’ I wanted to avoid more teasing - because of course my little sister took every chance to make herself feel better than me - so I got up and quickly swept around the corner of the hall into the living room, then I bolted to the door leading to our backyard, opened it and rushed out into the forest in a split second.

Great placing of the house, I thought to myself. Free activity whenever I felt like it.

Somewhere to spend all my overflowing energy and avoid annoying siblings.

Somewhere to feel a little more peace and quiet.

☙•❧

I run out into the woods regularly, so I didn’t have to worry about Dad wondering where I’d gone. It was no problem - and it was easier to spend time in the forest than in my room. Sure, my room was big and I had loads of stuff I could use to pass time with, but there were no walls in the forest - not any boundaries for my energy.

Plus, I wanted to go to the ravine and see if there was a way over without needing rope or other equipment. So I started making my way through the forest, and I realized that I should have brought a flashlight. It must’ve been quite some time past noon - the sun almost almost touched the treetops. Well, it is what it is. I just had to make it back before six, or else I’d miss dinner.

And I’d have to be really careful - there would be a lot of dangerous animals out now in the evening. But spending more than half of my conscious time in the forest gave me quite a lot of experience. I was sure nothing was going to happen.

In the fading sunlight you could see decently under the crowns of the trees, but soon enough it’d be too dark to see my own hands. It wouldn’t be a problem spotting wildlife considering their glowing eyes, but they’d have an easy time spotting me too, so that was one of the reasons to stay quiet. I was used to walking around in the forest in the dark, so I had a route where I’d be relatively predator-safe.

Just past my house was a big, pale oak, stripped of its bark. It was hollow and crooked, so when the wind passed by, it made a loud, continuous whistling noise. Past the whistling oak, there was a healthy, normal oak I used to climb. And I did so this time too - I climbed the healthy oak, and from there, I could continue climbing from tree to tree, naturally avoiding ground-borne predators.

It was in the middle of April, so it was just starting to get warmer outside, and the insects hadn’t really come back yet. That was nice - it would’ve been much worse if I had to climb around in the forest while ants marched around the branches I grabbed and wasps flew around my head. For now, it was just the most perfect time of the year.

I would say that I’m pretty fast, but the time literally flew by as I swung from tree to tree in a flow. I was having a really great time, so I didn’t even notice the shadows growing longer and pushing the sunlight out of view.

There were a few, barely visible rays of sunlight almost horizontally shining from the treeline far away, but as I got closer to the ravine, more and more light made its way from the ravine through the lush vegetation. When I measured I was roughly twenty meters away from the ravine, the forest opened up to reveal a small glade.

It was partially filled with fresh green grass, thinning out into flat, dirty rock closer to the ravine’s edge. But the building on the other side was nowhere in sight - instead was another, different one.

To my left, almost halfway into the shrubbery and trees, was an intact abandoned cabin. It was pretty big, and from the look of it, it seemed to have been built pretty recently. But why was it there?

Wonder if someone lives there, I thought to myself, before approaching the building and barging down the door.

☙•❧

Okay, I didn’t really barge down the door, but I should’ve been a lot more quiet. Maybe it wasn’t so smart to break into an abandoned house during nighttime, but I couldn’t see any light inside it, and it was safer to be inside than outside now - and it doesn’t hurt to be concerned about safety. Plus, I could always talk to humans if there were any in here, but I would just get mauled by a bear or something if I stayed out. And I simply wanted to check the place out. So I was pretty relieved when I saw that there was no one inside from what I could see from the door. I closed it behind me - quietly this time - and examined the place.

The room I was standing in seemed to be a mixup between a living room and a kitchen, with a long kitchen island shielding off part of the kitchen. There wasn’t much furniture, just a worn old couch, a coffee table, a firepit - that I really hoped wasn’t clogged - and a couple armchairs in the corners. A rugged mat covered about half of the floor in the living room, and a dusty, dusty chandelier barely clung to the ceiling.

The kitchen wasn’t much better: there was a gas-driven stove, and miraculously enough an oven, a few pantries, cupboards, a sink and a kitchen island between the sink and stove. The stove seemed to work, I just had to bring gas and an icebox, then I could comfortably spend a few nights here.

I decided to quickly check the fireplace; and it was clogged with clumps of thicket. That was relieving, it’d be easier to remove than a bird nest or chimney creosote. I remembered when that’d happened to a friend of my dad’s - their chimney had been clogged by the tar-like stuff, and it’d almost caused a house fire. My dad had luckily been close by and noticed the smoke through a window, so he saved them from that. He worked as a firefighter, so he knew exactly how to work through it.

But there was still a lot of work to do - that I saw when I discovered a door in the living room, leading to a bedroom and a bathroom.

I didn’t spend much time in the bathroom, understandably. But in the bedroom, there was much to discover.

The double bed was torn up and dirty, as was the floor, the walls and surprisingly, the roof. There were a couple wardrobes, a shabby dresser, a moldy rug that had almost melted into the floor, and a bedside table that was barely intact.

I’ll visit here again, maybe with Rick, I thought to myself. I don’t have time to clean today, though. I checked the wardrobes and the dresser cautiously, but there was nothing inside except for a few blown-in leaves and a scared mouse. Had to check where it came from later on.

But I found something exceptionally weird when I opened the bedside table. The first table drawer held an old book, but it was covered in dried mud so I could hardly see the title, and the text inside was too small. The second drawer was filled with papers in plastic pockets, and they looked brand new. I wasn’t interested in them, so I let them be for the moment. They all looked like office files anyways. But the weirdest thing was in the third drawer.

There, under a layer of leaves and dry dirt, was a pretty wicked thing looking like a murder-weapon.

☙•❧

It was a shining steel device, unlike anything I’d ever seen before. And I often visited the science lab at EverNought High. It was roughly the size of my arm, maybe a bit bigger, and it looked like a syringe mixed with a miniature robotic arm holding a couple pairs of pliers.

‘Uh… the hell is this?’ I mumbled out loud, examining the device closely. It didn’t have any buttons, or levers, so I wasn’t sure how it worked. It was made up of two sections, one short arm with the pliers sitting on top and the syringe kind of sitting in the middle top between the pliers, and then another arm below it with some kind of attachment system on the bottom. I guess it was made to connect some other kind of instrument.

‘I… don’t think I want to get too deep down investigating this thing’, I mumbled. It’s never too great to do so. So I carefully laid the device back in the bottom drawer, closed it, and began looking through the papers in the drawer above. Man, those were unsettling.

Most of them seemed to be documents over different “Subjects”, as the texts described them, sorted by numbers and occasionally letters. Some of them were files over things like “sector four”, other sectors, weird tools and instruments.

But there was something that really caught my attention. A file regarding something called Subject A.

There was no picture, but the descriptions were enough to illuminate an image in my head.

In the text, the subject was described as a bear-sized creature, looking like a wolf with furious, feral eyes. It was made out of an unknown substance beneath the fur and didn’t seem to have any bones, apart from its teeth.

The image painting itself in my head didn’t look very friendly. But why in the world would this be in an abandoned house in the middle of the forest? It had to be fake, right? Some kind of prank?

With shaking hands, I put the documents back down in the drawer, and brought my phone up from my pocket. I opened the bottom drawer again and took a photo of the device. After that, I called Dad.

He answered quickly with a bright ‘Hello, Jay!’, and a familiar sizzling in the background.

‘H-hey’, I stammered.

‘Hey, you sound kinda shook. Has something happened?’ Dad asked, now in a concerned tone.

‘No, not really. But do you think you can drive Boomer over to the ravine and pick me up?’ I asked, putting down the papers in the drawer with one hand.

‘Yeah, sure, buddy! Where around the ravine?’ I tried to describe where I was, including the abandoned cabin, but it was hard when I was shaking so much. I hadn’t found anything this messed up in a long time. Dad tried to console me, telling me to keep calm as he got the ATV going.

‘You said you’re inside an abandoned cabin, right? I think I’ve seen it before. Stay inside, I’ll be there as soon as possible’, he assured me, before ending the call.

I took a deep breath. Only a few minutes. Then I’d be back to safety. Away from this messed up house.

#writeblr #writing #my writing #wip #writers on tumblr #writers #horror #writing inspiration #breached containment #my novel Breached Containment #my novel #novel 1 out of 9 #chapter 1 #chapter one #creative writing

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sugoi-and-spice · 11 months

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Okay Hi again. I'm the Anon that made Dust Daddy Bible a thing. I wish to open the Dust Daddy Bible again and take a few new notes as I am curious if you can reveal some hcs about the Reader that once again has already been revealed/you wish to share? Maybe even some Hcs bout other characters like Spinner? Maybe some hcs that'll never see the light of day that you wish to share?

I'm also a bit curious on what inspired you to write PN and how does your general planning looks like for the series? I was inspired by you to start my own fanfic but alas...making hcs and an actual story is very hard and ends up in the dirty mostly white gutters fast.

Hey Anon! So glad to hear that my weird little Au fic inspired you!! I'm certainly happy to explain my inspiration and process a bit!

This took A LOT longer to write up than I anticipated, but I wanted to be thorough lol. So, in an effort to not make these novel of a post any longer than it needs to be, I'm just gonna answer the second half of your ask, rather than the headcanon stuff. But if you wanna re-ask that in a separate message I'll be happy to answer. ^_^

Alright, onto Spice's Fanfic Plotting 101!

So full disclosure: I get a lot of (if not most) of my ideas from other media and in some case other fanfics. For Play Nice, I was really inspired by the fic: The Danger Next Door by ratmonkey. I really liked that dynamic of the creepy forced friend with the popular girl and wanted to explore that in a one-shot. But of course, as I got writing, I ended up taking it in a completely different direction that I thought better suited the types of long-format stories I liked to tell and fit better in my writing style. And they went in two wildly different directions.

I'd never be ashamed of that idea origin though -- and neither should any of you. If you decide that you want to write literally the plot of Titanic but with Jujutsu Kaisen characters, fucking do it - it'll be original just on the basis that it'll be written by you. It's as the saying goes:

Good artists borrow, great artist steal.

So that's where the original idea came from. But as for expanding an idea into a full fic? Lately, I've been using the three following steps to do that:

1. Pilot.

2. Outline.

3. Schedule.

Self-explanatory right? No? Haha, well then--

So a pilot, in the way that I'm using the term, is the first episode of a tv show that serves as a prototype of a series. When a network likes a concept that they're pitched, they'll typically order a pilot episode to showcase the series' potential and gauge audience interest before committing to making a whole season.

This is essentially the same thing I do with a fanfic concept - a Pilot Phase. I write the idea as a one-shot or short multi-chapter fic, something that has a satisfying ending if I leave it as is, but that I could also expand on later. I measure how good or poor the response is as well as my own enjoyment and inspiration while writing, and if it's all great - I'll move forward into turning it into a longfic.

After that, I move into the Outline Phase. Outlining goes such a long way in keeping a fic consistent and motivated, imo. There are a lot of writers that start writing without any goal in mind, and then eventually burn out because they run out ideas. No shade to anyone who does btw! There are writers out there who can write without an outline and make something complete and amazing. And even those who do end up running out of ideas and abandoning a fic, fanfiction is all about fun at the end of the day. But for someone looking to break out of that habit and finish their long fics consistently and with quality, outlining and having a clear direction can really help mitigate these pitfalls.

Outlining can also work wonders for eliminating the ever-dreaded blank page. If I'm starting a chapter, even copy-and-pasting a word for word description like the following gives me something to work with:

"The beginning of MC and Shigaraki’s new routine. Bratty back and forths. Although by the end of it, Shigaraki decides that the time they have together is not enough and sets a new plan in motion."

And then I can expand and flourish the language from there, I'm not starting from nothing.

But of course, writing out a whole outline can be just as intimidating if not more so - after all, how do you go from a blank page to "here's all the plot!"? Well, this is why the Pilot and Outline Phases actually go hand and hand for me. Writing a Pilot/One-shot version when I'm first inspired by an idea means that when I start expanding it into a long fic, I'm also not starting from nothing! I already have a story or dynamic started, so it's a lot easier to build ideas and plot-points off of that, rather than just pulling a whole story out of thin air. They're very symbiotic.

Now, writing a good outline could easily be a whole giant post itself, and there's no one right way to do it. For me, I really like to use my outlines to track character arcs and different storylines. Play Nice has about four major different Plots and Sub-Plots going on that I label alphabetically and track in each episode.

Now as anyone that has read Play Nice can tell, these story beats are not necessarily all separate scenes or plotlines or anything - the A, B, & C Plot of this episode are all part of the same actual scene, but I still like to note them and the different effects that even one line of dialogue has on all these different plot points!

Identifying which story beats belong to which plot points helps me keep track of the progress of each one so that I don't write five chapters in a row just about Shigaraki and his relationship with AFO and suddenly realize "Oh shit! MC hasn't been in the story for like five chapters!" (Extreme example, but you get what I mean lol).

I also write out character guides and such in my outlines with the characters' wants, needs, and - in these AU fics - their alternate backstories. Crafting those things for a character however could, once again, be it's own whole post - but knowledge of Want vs Need and keeping character arcs in mind is what takes any piece of media to that next level, not just fanfic. :)

(You can find a great brief on Want vs Need here - welcome to Spice's film school friends xD)

One last note on outlines, is that you don't have to be beholden to them. I move around plot points I've outlined for earlier episodes into later episodes all the time. Play Nice was originally outlined as like a 15 chapter long-fic, but as the story has developed, that's obviously doubled (potentially tripled as I already brain-storm the sequel lolol). But yeah, Outlines are a map, not a bible.

So the Pilot and Outline phases make up the bulk of my patented fanfic process lol. But the icing on the cake that really keeps a fic moving for me is to keep a Schedule.

Full transparency if you didn't know already, I've worked professionally as a freelance writer for a little over three years now. And before that I got a BFA in Screenwriting. So I'm admittedly pretty used to having weekly deadlines for my creative writing now. My grades and rent have depended on it for 7+ years. There were absolutely weeks where, even on a project I loved, the absolute LAST fucking thing I wanted to do that week was write. But I had to push through if I wanted to get paid.

By setting the same type of schedule and expectations for myself, I'm able to hold myself accountable and force my way through even the worst writer's block. There's no real other trick to this one, I'm sorry to say. You just need to set a doable schedule and stick to it.

Now, I am fully aware of the irony of me stressing the importance of schedule right when Play Nice is in a bit of a slowdown - but I am only human. And while I have switched to a monthly posting schedule, I do still keep a similar writing schedule: I try to finish at least a rough draft of a chapter every two weeks. It just takes me a lot longer to edit the chapters now because they're so freaking long these days.

And, you know, this isn't my job. I write fanfic to have fun and explore ideas and themes that I don't necessarily want connected to my personal brand (*cough* Non-Con & Problematic Relationships *cough*), as well as to write for fun without the worry of whether or not an idea is sellable. If any of you do decide to take these tips and tricks for yourself, please remember to keep having fun and not put too much pressure on yourself!

(Also, a little Step 2.5: I try to have at least two chapters - preferably three or four - written past what I'm posting that week. For example, Chapter 20 is the last chapter I uploaded, but I'm actively writing the rough draft for Chapter 23 at the moment. I write in little arcs essentially, that way I can switch out moments between episodes and make edits to keep them all connected).

So, yeah! That's more or less my process! There's a lot more I could say but this post is already way too long, so if you have any follow-ups please feel free to send them in. Thank you for coming to my TEDTalk lol. I hope it was helpful for some of you and not just super lecture-y and pretentious. 😅 At the end of the day, whether you write a one-shot or a long fic, finish or abandon it, the fact that you put your ideas into existence is amazing.

¡Adiós!

#spice answers #spice writing academy #fanfiction #fanfiction writer #fanfic #writing #creative writing #on writing #writers of tumblr #writblr #writers on tumblr #writeblr #writer #writing advice #fanfic writing #fanfic advice #writer resources

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thesoundofanicefall · 2 years

Text

ONS Ichinose Guren World Resurrection at 19 Volume 2 Chapter 4 part 1

The masterpost is here

P.S. : This post is a gift to all those fans who can't buy the novels originally for whatever reasons. But if you can buy the novels please don't forget to try to support the author by buying the novels!!

Lights out for off - duty children ten and under was 9:00.

Title: Two Geniuses

The time was 9:15 p.m.

For the older kids it was at 10:00.

So the youngest children should've already been in bed ,safe and sound.

As they walked down the hall , however , there were still children excitedly scampering to and fro.

" What the hell ? " muttered Guren ,as he watched them running every which way.

" Uh - oh , it's Second Lieutenant Guren ! "

" It's Second Lieutenant Ichinose ! "

" Crap , we're busted ! " the children cried in a panic. They were so young they probably didn't even know what the words " second lieutenant " meant.

Second lieutenant. Guren's current rank.

Not that the title held much meaning. Now that they were officially an army, Guren had been made a lieutenant only because there weren't enough adults left to fill the role. Even then ,he had only been given that rank grudgingly , thanks to his role in getting the power back on, and because he had Kureto's backing. The truth, however, was that the top brass still thought of him as an Ichinose traitor.

For proof, Guren need look no further than Norito and Mito, who had both been made lieutenant colonels.

Shinya, meanwhile, was a full - blown colonel.

Doubtless the Hiragis would begin using rank and title to control and motivate their troops before too long , but now wasn't the time for that. Right now everyone was still focused on working together to survive.

" What's all the ruckus ? " Guren, but the children just blushed and ran away.

Guren watched them flee , then looked over at Shinya.

" What do you think that was all about?"

" Norito's discovery , maybe ? "

The uproar only increased the farther down the hall they went - children screaming and hollering , all of them boys.

"Can I go back to my room now ? " asked Guren , staring at the scene through heavy lids.

Shinya laughed. " Norito said he wanted you there too."

" I'll pass ."

" Come on , you know you want to see it. "

Who would want to see something like that with such a crowd? "

" Oh , I see. So you'd rather sneak back here in the middle of the night and watch it all alone? "

" Well ... I mean, if I was going to watch it, wouldn't tham make the most sense ? So it's settled , then. I'll just come back later. " Guren finished, turning to head back to his room, when a voice suddenly stopped him.

" Hey , Guren , where do you think you're going ? You're not believe what I found . You've gotta come see this ! "

It was Norito , yelling to them from the end of the hall.

He was poking his head out of the room where all the kids had gathered, waving them over.

" They're gonna charge you with corrupting public morals, " said Guren.

" What makes you think I'm corrupting public morals? "

" Your whole existence is a corruption of public morals. "

" Just get over here, " insisted Norito , " It's nothing like that , I promise. "

True , Norito had never said his big discovery was a porno.

Maybe it really was something innocent.

" Guess it's not a video , after all , " Guren said to Shinya.

" Maybe it's a smutty novel , then . "

" Do you really think these little brats would be so worked up over a book ? "

" What else could it be ? An eroge , maybe ? "

" What's an eroge ? "

" An erotic game . "

" How can a game be erotic ? "

" Don't ask me . "

" Don't lie , you must've played one before . "

" Come on , let's just take a look already . Maybe Norito will surprise us . "

" Are we really gonna do this ? " groaned Guren , trailing after Shinya down the hall .

The whole hallway was packed with children , who all looked up as they passed.

" Oh , it's Lord Guren ! "

" And Lord Shinya ! "

" Clear a path ! They've come to see the treasure!"

" Everyone , look ! Lord Guren and Lord Shinya are here to see the treasure !"

" They're here ! They're here ! They're here to see the treasure! " the children shouted .

" If this turns out to be a porno , I swear I'm going to kill Norito , " said Guren .

Shinya grinned . " What's wrong with having a little fun ? "

" Plenty . "

" It's not like there's a lot of fun left to be had in this world . "

" Tough shit , " said Guren . The words were barely out of his mouth before he realized what was waiting for them inside the room .

They could hear loud voices drifting from the open door at the end of the hall .

" Ahh , no , dooon't . "

" Yeah baby , you like that ? Does it make you feel dirty ? "

" Doo00oon't , stop , no , don't stop! Stop it- "

Guren buried his face in his hands.

He trudged towards the room.

There were about two dozen kids packed inside like sardines.

They were all sitting cross - legged, staring at a TV.

The screen must've been 50 inches across ,

On that 50 - inch screen , a balding middle - aged man was tormenting a woman who looked to be in her late thirties .

"...."

Sitting there in the middle of the crowd of children was Norito , wearing a serious expression .

He glanced over his shoulder at Guren , and pointed toward the 50 - inch TV .

" Right ? " he said .

" What's right ? " Guren shot back .

Norito rolled his eyes , as if it should have been obvious .

" This ! "

" What about it ? "

" Pretty impressive , right ? "

" Looks like I was right about the corruption of public morals . "

" Corruption ? This is a rare treasure , you philistine. "

" I dare you to say that to Mito , " Guren fumed . " More importantly , listen up you little shits! What the hell are you all doing in here , it's past your bedtime! "

The children bolted to their feet .

" S - Sorry , sir !! "

" L - Lord Goshi said it was alright ! "

" Calm down , you nincompoops . Lord Guren just wants to watch the treasure by himself . "

" Oh , of course . Sorry , Lord Guren . We'll just come back later , then ... "

" No , no , NOO000000 ! " screamed Guren . " I have no intention of watching it ! I'm angry because you're breaking the rules . Some of you definitely aren't eleven yet. Lights out was half an hour ago ! "

In response , the children who were clearly too young to be up scrambled out of the room .

" No fair , the adults get to have all the fun . "

" Shut up , they'll hear you . Remember what Lord Goshi said , we can just come back later . "

The children were still smiling and laughing as they left the room , however , like children making their way home from a festival . Guren narrowed his eyes as he watched them go.

He had to admit that it might not be so bad if they had a little fun . There was so little amusement left in the world now.

Did you hear what those kids said ? The adults get to have all the fun , " chuckled Shinya . " Someone should tell them we're only sixteen ... "

Norito grinned . " Either way , now that the kids are gone it's time for the adults to play . Who wants to go first ? "

" Count me out . " Guren's exasperation was boiling over.

" What ? Why ? "

" Just forget it . Besides , these ladies are old . "

At which Norito pulled several more DVDs out of his inside pocket . " I knew you'd say that . That's why I also brought some barely legal---"

" That's not what I meant ! "

" Then perhaps I can interest you in some amateur couples . you know , hidden camera stuff---"

" Amateur couples ? " Shinya broke in.

" Don't encourage him , " seethed Guren, but Norito pretended not to hear.

" Yes indeed , my fine sir. I had you pegged as a connoisseur . Then it's decided . Tonight we feast on hidden camera couples! " he exclaimed , eagerly walking over to put in the DVD.

Guren looked at Shinya skeptically. " Are you seriously into this? "

Shinya shrugged. " I was just wondering if it's really done with hidden cameras or if it's all staged. "

" Suuuuure . "

" What do you think ? "

" I think I don't give a shit. "

Staged or not , everyone who appeared in the video was dead now thanks to the virus.

Norito finally pressed PLAY.

" Here we go ! "

The name of a company - presumably the one that had made the film - floated into view on the 50 - inch screen . Next , the title card appeared:

100 % Real !!! Hidden Cam Couple F * c * fest !!!

"Oh shit , guys , this is 100 % real , " Norito crowed.

" Dumbass , " Guren shot back sardonically , but the movie was already starting.

It opened on a scene in downtown Shibuya .

It looked like it might be a Sunday ; the famous Shibuya Scramble bustled with a massive crowd . Guren was pretty sure it had been the busiest intersection in the world .

How many of the people on the screen had been among the corpses they had burned earlier on the outskirts of Shibuya ? Surely none of them had suspected in that moment that the How many world was about to end .

The camera focused in on a couple enjoying their day out .

" I want ice cream , " said the girl .

Guren had never heard such wooden delivery . So much for " 100 % Real . "

" I'm going to bed , " he announced .

" Hold on , Guren , " said Norito , flustered . " Just wait a little bit more . I don't blame you for being upset , I know how committed you are to authenticity . But it's still too early to give up . "

" What the hell are you talking about ? "

" Well , maybe they've just started going out , and they're still nervous around each other . "

" You're so full of shit . "

" Just give it a little while longer . I made tea and everything . " said Norito .

Talk about coming prepared . Shinya took a cup from Norito and sat down cross - legged .

" You're sitting down ?! "

" I mean , it would be rude not to drink it . "

" Hmph . " Guren glanced at his own cup , then sat down as well .

Norito joined them .

The three boys sat together amid the ruins of their world, watching the 100 % not real amateur hidden camera porno .

" Forget ice cream , let's go to a hotel . " said the guy .

" No way we just met up !"

" But love hotels are cheaper during the day . "

" No ! I want a proper date . I want to go out for ice cream ! "

"We can get ice cream at a convenience store . I don't have that much money today Come on , you understand , don't you baby ? Don't you ? "

" Do you even have enough money for a hotel ? "

"...."

"Oh my god , seriously ?! "

" We can go to my house instead . My family's out today , we'll have the whole place to ourselves . "

" Gross , your room's always so dirty . "

" Come on , don't be like that , baby . "

" I guess it's starting to get a little more real , " remarked Shinya as the scene unfolded .

" Right ? Besides , it said it right there on the screen : 100 % Real . So it's gotta be true . "

" Think about it for a sec . Who's filming it , then? "

" I bet it was the brother . He probably has cameras planted all over the house . "

" I can't believe you , " protested the girl , before giving in .

" Fine , whatever . "

The scene faded to black .

" Finally , now for the good stuff , " Norito exulted.

But when the scene finally changed the couple were in a convenience store , enthusiastically picking out flavors of ice cream.

" Was this scene really necessary ? " asked Guren .

" Can't wait for the action , can you , you pervert ?" replied Shinya.

" Yeah , Guren . Scenes like this are what make the payoff worth it . "

" If you say so . "

The three sipped at their tea .

Just then , a girl's voice came from behind them .

" What are you guys watching ? "

" Huh ?! "

Guren whirled around , only to be confronted by the sight of Mito . He had thought she was out on some mission , but here she was dressed in pajamas or sweatpants or something . She had evidently just taken a shower , and was drying her damp hair with a towel .

" What ? This ? This is nothing , " said Norito , a little panicked .

" I can't believe you don't even have enough money for ice cream . You're such a jerk , Masaki ," said the girl on the screen .

Mito sat down next to the boys .

" What is this , a movie ? " she asked , but Norito was still at a loss for words .

Guren shrugged . " Apparently it's a documentary about couples. "

" A documentary ? That's weird , why does it seem like they're reading off a teleprompter ,then? "

Guren flashed Shinya and Norito a triumphant look , but they were both clearly avoiding his gaze.

" Can't you pay for my ice cream too , Misaki ? Pretty please ? "

" No way ! I barely got any shifts at work this month . "

" Pretty , pretty please ! I blew all my money at the pachinko parlor , I 'm totally broke ! "

" Shh ! Keep your voice down , we're in a convenience store ! "

" What a loser , " observed Mito .

" You have to admit , though , as pointless as this scene is , it does give a sense of realism , " said Shinya . " In a way , it's actually a pretty good script . "

" How can it be real if there's a script ? " asked Guren .

" Hahaha . Script or not , who cares ? Either way , it's making me want ice cream . "

" I know ! " said Mito . " I was just thinking the same thing . "

" Ice cream , huh ? " added Norito . " You know , we could probably make some if we wanted . The next time we're out maybe we should see if we can find the ingredients . "

The four looked on as the girl bought her loser boyfriend a 100 - yen bar of ice cream . While they were watching , Shigure and Sayuri showed up as well .

Guren had been under the impression that they were out on a mission , guarding a supply transfer to the southwest .

But now here they were too , wearing pajamas and looking like they had just showered .

" Master Guren , we're back ! " said Sayuri .

" We've returned , Master Guren , " dittoed Shigure . " What are you watching ? "

" Apparently it's a documentary , " Mito responded . " Something about the everyday lives of couples . "

" Oh ? " The two sat down next to them .

Which meant ...

"..."

....that there were now three boys and three girls , all sitting around a 50 - inch TV watching 100 % Real !!! Hidden Cam Couple * u *kfest !!!

"... "

By this point , the boys were desperate for a way out . Someone had to do something before things went too far .

The movie was already starting to drift into dangerous territory .

Inside the boyfriend's house .

A kotatsu had been left out even though it was summer , and the boy and girl sat around it eating their ice cream . The scene seemed to drag on forever .

The couple looked like they were having fun . The acting might have been stiff and wooden at first , but their dialogue was slowly growing more natural .

Once the boy finished eating his ice cream he scooted over next to the girl .

She leaned against his shoulder .

Uh-oh here we go - but no sooner had the thought occurred to Guren than Shinya suddenly spoke up :

" You know , guys , this is apparently one of Guren's favoriet movies . "

" What ?! "

" Oh , yeah , that's right ! " put in Norito . " What was your favorite scene again , Guren ? "

" You bastards . "

" This is your favorite ? " asked Mito , turning to Guren . " I had no idea you liked documentaries . "

" This is the first time I've ever heard about you liking anything , Master Guren , " said Sayuri . " I can't wait to see what hap pens next , I'm sure it'll be fascinating ! "

Shigure suddenly sat up straight and began paying close attention to the screen . " I won't miss a single minute . "

" Shit . "

They'd gotten him . It was too late to say anything now . If he was going to claim innocence , he should have done it right away---

" Can I kiss you ? "

" Okay . "

The guy on the screen leaned in and kissed the girl . Soon they were entwining their tongues eagerly , making sloppy squelching noises .

" Wha ?! " cried Mito , Shigure , and Sayuri in unison .

They stared slack - jawed at the screen for a long moment , as if they couldn't believe what they were seeing. Then, again:

" Wha?! "

Their faces flushed beet red .

The events on screen had already gotten horribly out of control.

" Guren ! " shouted Mito , her cheeks crimson .

" Onono , " shrieked Sayuri , covering her face with her hands .

She peeked out between her fingers , however , doing her best to continue watching .

" So this is what Master Guren likes . This is his..." Shigure's face was bright red , but she was still watching as closely as before , trying to maintain a dignified pose . On screen , the boyfriend had skillfully removed the girl's bra and was just about to---

" THAT'S ENOOOOOOOOOUGH ! " screamed Mito , kicking the 50 - inch TV across the room .

Mito had been born into the illustrious Jujo Clan , whose unique style of magic , known as the Crimson Halo , boosted the user's physical abilities . Combined with the demon's curse , a kick from Mito was no laughing matter : the TV sailed clear across the room and embedded itself in the wall .

" Explain yourself , Guren ! "

But Guren , too , was at a loss .

" Shame on you , Guren , " chided Shinya . He looked like he was thoroughly enjoying himself. "Showing that sort of thing to the girls."

Norito nodded vigorously . " Yeah , Guren . Shame on you your nasty fetishes . Not that I don't see the appeal , mind you . "

"B - But , " stammered Sayuri , " I'm sure Master Guren has his reasons . Isn't that right , Master Guren ? "

Shigure nodded in agreement .

They all turned toward Guren , staring expectantly .

What was he supposed to say ?

"I'm waiting , Guren , " Mito demanded . Guren tried to think of something to say .

"..."

It wasn't too long ago that Mito and the others had been dead , and yet now here they were , full of life and making a stupid fuss about some dumb movie .

The silliness of it all ...

" ..."

... suddenly struck Guren as the most meaningful thing in the world . Tears welled up in his eyes , catching him off guard .

He didn't know why .

Maybe he was just tired .

Or maybe it was because he was weak . Such a weakling that he needed to attach special significance to the lives of his friends so he wouldn't have to face up to his responsibility for destroying the world .

Noticing the tears in his eyes , Mito began to ask , " Um , Guren ... " but he played it off with a yawn . He was just tired , they were just the involuntary tears that accompany a yawn .

It wasn't weakness .

Definitely not weakness .

" Geez , I'm beat . Time to hit the hay . Got an early start again tomorrow . "

" A yawn ? That's all you've got ?! "

" You must be tired too . "

" How am I supposed to sleep unless I get a decent explaintion from you ?! "

" Don't ask me . I'm gonna sleep like a baby . "

" No , explain yourself ! What was the meaning of ... that ! "

Mito thrust a finger at the demolished TV .

Guren didn't see why it mattered anymore , but when he looked at Norito , his friend wore a pleading expression , like he was begging Guren not to tell Mito the truth . Honestly , Guren doubted it really made a difference to Norito , either . At the end of the day Norito was a grownup , he'd be the first to step up and take responsibility in any situation that mattered - - - the type of guy who would lay down his life for others .

He was only making that face because it was funnier this way .

When Guren glanced at Shinya , he was still sporting the same amused grin . Come to think of it , Shinya was the one who had dragged Guren to Norito's Triple - X film festival in the first place .

Had it been a trap the whole time ? Maybe Norito and Shinya had been in on it together .

As a plot to put a smile on Guren's grumpy , frowning face .

Something silly , to make him laugh .

Something meaningless .

Because if life had no meaning...

" ... then you might as well laugh about it ? " Guren wondered aloud , looking over at Shinya , who was , as ever , grinning back at him .

" Let's hear it , Guren , " he prompted . " A convincing reason would show us something like that . And it better be why you interesting . "

This was starting to get ridiculous . Seriously ? If Norito and Shinya thought Guren was going to play along with this idiocy...

" Hmm . "

... they were right . Guren crossed his arms and began to ponder .

Something interesting ...

Nothing was coming to him , but finally Guren came up with an answer .

" Guys ... The truth is , if you watch for another hour , I'm in the movie . "

" Wha ?! " the three girls cried again in shock .

" Y - You're joking , " said Mito .

" It's the truth . "

" No way ... "

"W - What do you mean , in the movie ? " asked Sayuri , her voice shaking .

" I play Masaki's brother . I get naked . "

" Whaaaaaa ?! " Shinya and Norito doubled over with laughter , clutching their sides .

Apparently they approved of Guren's answer .

He nodded emphatically . " If you want to see my scene , fast forward another hour . My youthful indiscretion , memorialized on video ... "

Shigure spoke up , her face serious . " Th - This is a joke . Isn't it . Master Guren ? "

Guren answered just as seriously . " No , it's true ."

" But why would you do it ? "

" For the money . "

" That doesn't make any sense . You're teasing us , aren't you ? "

Guren pulled a face , as if he was displeased that she refused to believe him.

Shigure flinched . " F - Forgive me , Master Guren ," she said .

" I would never doubt you . Alright , we'll fast forward one hour. Sayuri ? "

" Huh ? "

" We have to watch that tape . "

" What ? Why ? I don't want to , I'll be scarred for life . "

" It's only a movie . We're going to watch the scene . "

The two girls actually walked over to the DVD player , which had been dragged along by its cord when the TV went flying , and ejected the disc .

" Wait , wait , you two are really going to watch it ? There's no way Guren is really in it , is there ?! "

Mito asked , goggling at Guren and the girls in turn . Guren ignored them all , however , and turned on his heel to leave .

He couldn't believe the three women were really thinking about watching the rest of the movie by themselves .

Well , whatever .

He stepped out of the room and began walking down the hallway.

Shinya joined him .

"..."

" Hey Guren . "

" Yeah ? "

" Didn't I see you start to cry back there ? "

" That was a yawn . "

" It looked like you were welling up before you yawned . "

" I was holding back the yawn the whole time . "

" Oh ? "

" Yep . "

" Oh ? "

" What. "

" Nothing . It's just , if something's bothering you---"

Guren interrupted him . " Look around . Who doesn't have something bothering them ? "

" Yeah , fair enough ... Still , seemed like an odd time to cry . "

" Maybe I was crying because you two were bullying me . "

" We weren't bullying you . "

" The worst bullies are the ones who don't realize they're bullies . "

" We really weren't bullying you . "

" Fuck off . "

" Hahaha . "

" Isn't your room in the other direction ? "

" Yup . "

" You've got another early day tomorrow , don't you ? Go get some sleep . "

" Come on , tell me . "

" Tell you what ? "

" Why you were crying . "

It didn't seem like Shinya was going to give up .He seemed to have a sixth sense when it came to this kind of stuff .

Guren looked over at his friend .

Shinya was wearing his usual relaxed grin . But if Guren said the wrong thing , Shinya might disappear forever .

Shinya could never know that Guren had started to cry because he had suddenly found meaning in bringing his friends back to life .

" You don't give up , do you , " Guren muttered .

Shinya shrugged . " Something happen while you were on duty ? "

Guren could spin some simple lie , but Shinya might investigate . So what should he say ? He needed to come up with a reason for crying . Something Shinya would believe , something that would explain a moment of weakness .

Maybe---

Shinya suddenly looked away from Guren . " Any chance that's what's been bothering you ? "

That ? Guren followed Shinya's gaze .

To the end of the hallway .

Where a boy was standing---

He looked to be about fourteen or fifteen . Average height and build , short black hair . And a cursed weapon strapped to his waist .

Guren looked him up and down.

"Are you the punk who's been strutting around acting like king shit ? " the boy demanded . " Are you Guren Ichinose ? "

" I don't recall doing any strutting , " Guren answered quietly .

" You're just a lowly Ichinose , you've got some nerve acting like you're someone who matters . "

This again .

No matter how strong Guren became or how much he accomplished , there were some people who would never accept om . All because he was an Ichinose , and once , long ago , the Ichinoses had betrayed the Hiragis . There was always another one of these guys , just around the corner .

Guren responded like he always did : " Yeah , you're right . Sorry about that . I'll be more careful next time . "

" Cut the shit . You think you can just brush me off ? Are you trying to make me look like an asshole ? "

" A lowly Ichinose like myself would never dream of---"

" I knew it , you're trying to make me look like an asshole ! " the boy shouted angrily .

" Ugh , " whispered Shinya . " Another pain in the ass . "

" Can't you get you get rid of him , O Lord Hiragi ? " Guren whispered back .

Shinya obligingly took a step forward . " Listen , kid , I think there's been a misunderstanding . "

But the boy completely ignored him . " Guren Ichinose ! Let's step outside and see how strong you really are ! "

"... "

Instead of answering , Guren looked over at Shinya again . Shinya just waved him along.

" Really ? You're not gonna help me out there ? " Guren asked incredulously .

Shinya laughed . " I've already helped you out with these guys three times . "

" Yeah , but two of those times I ended up having to fight them anyway . "

" Sure , but they all join your fan club after you beat them . Go on , recruit another one right now !"

" When's it gonna be your turn ? "

" Lord Hiragi doesn't need fans , " Shinya shot back with a yawn that made his eyes water .

" Now who's crying ? Is something bothering you ? "

Shinya laughed . " Yeah , I just found out that my best friend was in a porno . "

" Piss off . "

" Haha . "

" Are you fucking kidding me ?! " the boy shouted , incensed .

" Don't you dare ignore me ! I want you outside , now ! I'll see for myself how strong you really are ! I bet you've just been faking it all along ! "

Chuckling , Shinya departed for his own room .

Guren returned his gaze to the boy , who was still gesticulating for Guren to follow .

" Dammit , how many of these idiots am 1 gonna deal with , " Guren groaned as he headed outside.

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