#vaguely poetry flavored

[story-hoard-212]

I feel my insides glowing when people assume I’m your sister

I keep forgetting you’re not my baby cousins

I once dreamt of your future kids calling me their aunt

I wish, more than anything, that I could call you family

-

Maybe it’s the promise that we’ll be bound by blood no matter how far we go

Maybe it’s the promise that we’ll keep caring about each other through all the years to come

Maybe it’s the promise that we’ll be each other’s anchor even when we scatter like dandelion seeds

Maybe it’s the promise that we’ll be here for each other - always and forever

Maybe it’s the promise that it won’t end with me losing you

#writing scraps #vaguely poetry flavored

[dulcesiabits]

hope i'm not over stepping my boundaries but i am curious. you said that there are some tactics you use in fanfics that cannot be used in "serious" writing. what are some of these things? or what do you think the differences between fanfic and "serious" writing is?

Hi!! This isn't overstepping at all! I'd be happy to elaborate on my thought process, but I do want to make several caveats!

I think "serious writing" wasn't a really good term for what I meant, so I regret that wording! A better term would be original writing instead. I do take every piece of writing I do seriously, even if it's considered "lowbrow," and I didn't want to imply that fanfiction was less serious or important to me. Every piece of writing deserves respect and love, because an act of creativity should be celebrated!

These are my personal thoughts, and mostly pertain to my own style of writing, so the advice I give here might not be applicable to everyone. The issue with creative writing is that there are no real rules as to what makes a piece good; it's all subjective. There might be some general guidelines for good writing, but every rule has exceptions, and can be broken if done right. This is partly why it's so hard to write, haha.

But let me answer your questions! Let me start off with your second question, just so it can set the groundwork for the first.

What do you think the differences between fanfic and "serious" writing is?

There are a lot of different categories for writing; an instruction manual is writing, just as much a piece of poetry or a short story can be. When I say "serious" writing, I meant my original writing, or my more "literary" works (said with quotations because even the very definition of literature can be debated endlessly; what gives a work merit? Sorry if I keep giving vague answers! These ideas can be approached from so many different angles that I want to give it justice and acknowledge the various complexities).

(Original writing might not be the best term, either, because non-fanfiction genres are so varied... YA, adult, literary, sci-fi, fantasy, etc... but I'm trying to keep this as general as possible).

In this case, I think that both fanfiction and original writing have their own merits; they're just different subcategories of writing, and it's like comparing apples and oranges. They're both fruit, but the flavors, taste and growth process are different, even if they share similarities. So, they're both forms of creative writing, but the skillsets that they require are different.

There are some similarities, though; they both require knowledge of prose and how it functions, characterization, the use of literary devices (similes, metaphors, etc), an understanding of pacing and how plot moves, and so on.

However, one of the major differences isn't even the craft of writing itself: it's "public perception." Fanfiction is seen as lowbrow, or embarrassing, and "original writing," while it can also be mocked, is seen as a bit more "highbrow" (not a hard and fast rule, as I'm generalizing here). Because fanfiction draws on a source material, people assume it's not as creative, silly, or requires less effort, when fanfiction writers know that's not true.

Some of the major differences between these writings involve characterization and world-building. In original writing, you'd need to build these completely from scratch, but in fanfiction, these worlds and characters are already there. Instead of building a character from the ground up, you interpret and translate an existing character into your own work (I use the term interpret and translate because all fanfiction writers are analyzing and writing their own versions of an existing character, so no one interpretation is more correct than the other (unless you completely disregard the source material), because none of us are the original author. If we were, it wouldn't be fanfiction). At the same time, fanfiction authors might build off existing characters and world-building to formulate new understandings of both (ie expanding a character or world beyond what we seen of them in a story). Both forms of writing require the ability to analyze and understand characterization and world-building, but apply them differently (creation vs interpretation).

Additionally, there are certain conventions to original writing and fanfiction writing, respectively, and the troupes utilized in both are different because they're different forms of writing. In fanfiction, you're working with a world and characters that your audience already recognizes. They already have context for the world, which means you can focus on other aspects of the narrative. "5+1," drabbles, headcanons, "AUs": these are all structures of fanfiction writing that we're familiar with, that are made possible precisely because the material you're working with is fanfiction. You couldn't necessarily do the same thing in original writing, when the audience doesn't have an attachment to or understanding of these characters.

In original writing, however, your audience doesn't know who these characters are or what the world is. Since you're working to build that connection, you have to develop the narrative as a whole, instead of taking pieces of it. "Insta-love," "boy next door love interest and brooding dark haired love interest," "secret evil religious institution," "it was all a dream": these are also some troupes that take place in some forms of original writing, which happen because original writing follows different patterns from fanfiction writing, but nonetheless, still have their own patterns and structures (which vary from genre to genre).

I do want to recognize that there are still similar troupes in both original writing and fanfiction writing! Forced proximity, pining, etc... these are used in both forms of writing (though potentially applied differently), because sometimes original writing can be just as self-indulgent or wish-fulfilling as fanfiction writing, just like how fanfiction writing can be just as literary and thoughtful as original writing.

Another difference is that, structurally, fanfiction can be shorter than original writing. You can write drabbles, snippets, and even multi-chapter fics that take years to complete, if they finish at all (I'm guilty of not finishing my own multi-chapter fic). But in original writing, you have to build the narrative yourself. You decide the plot, the character arcs, the ending, and the whole course of the story and its characters. Especially if you want to get published, you can't drop a story halfway through like you can with fanfiction (though there's no shame of getting bored with a WIP and dropping it), and there's no fandom to build your world for you.

You said that there are some tactics you use in fanfics that cannot be used in "serious" writing. What are some of these things?

When I said this, I was venting a bit about the frustrations in my own writing! I found that in my original writing, my literary writing, I'd skipped over the foundations of world-building and characterizations. I'm the sort of person who writes from the top down: I tend to focus on themes and motifs first before I decide on characters and individual scenes, and plan the end goal before I plan the details. But when I do this, sometimes the details get lost and my piece loses strength because I focus more on making my characters symbols instead of people. Fanfiction ties into this because I'm used to not having to build context for my characters and world, and when I don't do this, it's disastrous for my original writing. In fanfiction, people already know who Lyney and the Fatui are without me explaining it, but in original writing, people have no clue who my OCs or world are! If I forget to establish fundamental details of my world (like rules on how magic works, explaining the roles of certain institutions etc), it messes up my overall execution. I focused too much on the forest instead of individual trees, so to speak.

I also have a habit of making clean little sections in my fanfiction; I might do several drabbles that, together, make up a whole story, and I can skip scenes I don't want to write. However, sometimes my original writing requires that I write an extended scene, including all the "boring" set ups and character-building moments. Instead of certain context being built in, I have to write the context myself, which means I can't just skip around from emotional bit to emotional bit; I have to do the proper build-up for it (ie like how in my ruggie fic, I don't have to elaborate on what happened with Leona, and I jump around from emotional point to emotional point. But in original writing, I'd need to build the context for their relationship, why it fell apart, what made both of them act like that, their respective pasts, what NRC is, how the magic system works, etc).

When I write reader-inserts, I can be vague with details on who the reader character is, to make sure anyone can self-insert into them. However, if I were to use second-person POV in original writing, I'd need to think about intent (why this POV and not other POVs? what's effective about it? what purpose do I use this for?), and ensure I make the reader-character their own distinct person; you're not always supposed to self-insert in the reader-character in original writing, because the reasons for using second person POV are different.

In fanfiction writing, I can "let loose" and not worry over motifs or themes or other literary devices. I can just write for fun, but with my original writing, I'm more conscious of those things. Each detail has a purpose (my purpose in fanfiction is usually self-indulgence, but my purpose in original writing might be, say, to do a piece on the nature of grief, and as such, I have to pay more attention to the structure of my writing the devices I use).

Additionally, when it comes to fanfiction writing, I can lean on troupes (if I write a royalty AU, for example, there's no need to establish too many rules for the world because it's more about the characters playing different roles than the world itself), but in original writing, troupes are used with more care and purpose. Leaning on troupes and refusing to develop them beyond troupes can, in my opinion, lead to flat and uninteresting writing (if they're royalty, why? What's the world like? The system? Is there opposition? How does the government work? What's the history of the world? How does being royalty affect their interactions? Why did I make them royalty?). I can't do "short-hands" (ie leaning on troupes) in original writing, not if I want to be successful.

Also, in fanfiction writing, I can get away without a proper resolution. I can write a series of events, and explore a character's motivations and backstory, and never make it an actual "plot." But in original writing, I need resolution and a plot. I can't write a series of events, where we jump here and then there because I want to; I need those events to link together (or not link together) with a purpose (resolution is used loosely. If it's an ambiguous ending, or one where nothing changes, why? What's the purpose of that? What am I trying to express through a lack of resolution?).

So, the skills I've picked up from fanfiction writing have helped me become a better writer, but some of those skills don't translate quite as well to original writing.

#liya answers #THIS WAS SO LONG OMG.... #My apologies if you were expecting a different answer anon TT TT #It was just a really interesting question so i found myself wanting to do it justice and give you a thorough answer!!!! #i can say a lot more on the subject... but i wanted to keep it general + brief #bc if i went in further with the nuances i'd be dropping a whole 20 page paper on your lap LOL #anywayz i love talking about the craft of writing!! hmu #id love to run a writing workshop sometimes lol (maybe for fanfic?)

[collegeoflore]

OC meme!

tagged by @aliasknives!! thank you love :3

tagging @menzoberranzans @elminsters @tadpole-apocalypse @undead-potatoes and anyone else who wants to do it :3c

B A S I C S

Full name: xarrai. just xarrai lol. they’ve never once used their last name and so that gave me an excuse to never make one up for them :)

Gender: sure. whatever. (transfem flavor)

Sexuality: bi/pan/who cares

Pronouns: any

O T H E R

Family: they don’t remember if they ever met their father or not, and while their mother and at least two half siblings live in neverwinter, they don’t speak at all

Birthplace: the outer city, somewhere between wyrm’s crossing and the basilisk gate

Job: bard, courtesan, information broker, pickpocket, con artist, professional drunkard, etc etc etc. post-game, they add adventurer and (reluctantly) bard college instructor. (jury is still out on if the xarrastarion harper ending is canon in which case they add harper to the list even more reluctantly LOL)

Phobias: loss of autonomy, The Church Of Bane As A Whole lol

Guilty pleasures: if you asked, xarrai would tell you they’re a true hedonist and would never feel guilty for any pleasure. but if you dig deep enough into the trunk they had stashed at the elfsong you will find a collection of some of the worst romance novels in faerun buried under fancy dresses and thigh high boots that they would VEHEMENTLY deny is theirs. they don’t Like these books but they are obsessed with them the way people hate watch reality television LMAO

Hobbies: reading, leather working, writing (mostly music or poetry), stick n poke tattoos, drunkenly making out with strangers at the blushing mermaid, petty theft. obvs they sing and play their lyre but that’s part of their day job so i’m not sure if it counts under hobbies? lmao

M O R A L S

Alignment: chaotic neutral, leaning a littleeee chaotic good by the end of act 3. a little.

Sins: most of them if we’re being fully honest. lmao

Virtues: self-control, vigilance, freedom (is that a virtue? whatever.)

T H I S O R T H A T

Introvert / Extrovert

Organized / Disorganized

Close-minded / Open-minded

Calm / Anxious / Restless

Disagreeable / Agreeable / In between

Cautious / Reckless / In between

Patient / Impatient / In between

Outspoken / Reserved / In between

Leader / Follower / Flexible

Empathetic / Unempathetic / In between

Optimist / Pessimist / Realist

Traditional / Modern / In between

Hard-working / Lazy

this section was such a challenge for xar they r very much an Everything All At Once guy lol. take these answers with a grain of salt ig

R E L A T I O N S H I P S

OTP: astarion, unfortunately for everyone involved

Acceptable Ships: gale (but it never really works out for them,) technically they romance halsin in game as well but it’s not really romantic. tbh u could make an argument for them with most of the companions and it wouldn’t be That outlandish

OT3: i mean like astarion/xarrai/halsin is vaguely canon but they’re never Serious with halsin, though perhaps they get a little more romantically involved with him post-game? realistically i think xar just keeps a rotating cast of other partners coming in and out of their life until the end of time and i rly dont see astarion ever having an issue with it. they would get bored without hearts to break tbh. its enrichment.

Brotp: karlachhhh forever and ever. after she dies, they’re probably closest with gale (sorry gale lol)

Notp: it’s not technically a notp but i am obsessed with how badly xarrai wants jaheira and how she turns them down every time. ur never gonna get that milf honey but u can keep trying

#pls feel free to ignore this if i tagged u and u don’t feel like doing it #and if u weren’t tagged and wanted to be… um yes u were #i try to tag ppl who have tagged me before bc i know not everyone Wants to do these kinds of posts but if u want me to add u to my lil list #lmk :3 #also sorry it took me like a whole week to do this after u tagged me LOL #oc. xarrai #漫言

[starshideouslaughter]

ermmm bloodweave “fic”

Y’all like bloodweave? Slightly unsettling poetry? Well do I have just the thing for you! Have a collection of “poetry” that i’ve written in the last few months thats vaguely bloodweave flavored!!

#bloodweave #bg3 #astarion #astarion ancunin #gale #gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep

[damienthepious]

this is truly an unhinged pull from me. did anyone ask for a flower shop au? no? TOO BAD I GUESS

Budding, Blooming

[ao3]

Fandom: The Penumbra Podcast

Relationship: Lord Arum/Sir Damien, Sir Damien/Rilla, Lord Arum/Sir Damien/Rilla

Characters: Lord Arum, Sir Damien

Additional Tags: Second Citadel, Lizard Kissin’ Tuesday, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, (but there's still monsters), Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Pre-Relationship, Romantic Tension, Poetry, Flowers, Valentine's Day, (implied but not stated. could be a some weird modern-citadel fest), DOESN"T MATTER

Summary: It is the busiest day of the year at his family's florist shop, and Arum is not in the mood to deal with the worst customer he has ever had. Again.

Notes: i've had this idea for about a billion years and it's vaguely valentine's flavored and i am SCRAMBLING so you get this i guess! Rilla is a tattoo artist in this au and she works literally across the street. Damien is desperately in love, as usual. hope you have some fun with this one! did up quick and dirty, and i don't know fuckall about how florists work. doesn't matter. also it's a modern au but arum's still a monster because why the fuck not. i like that better :P

~

Arum winces the moment he hears the bell above the door.

"If you are here to pick up, the door for that is in the back , and if you are not, turn around. We are out of everything," he snaps without looking up from the arrangement in his hands. "If you wanted something for the holiday, you should not have left it to the last possible second on the busiest day of my year."

"Please," says a fluting, pleading, familiar voice, and Arum instantly grinds his teeth.

"No," he growls, raising his snout enough to glare down it at his least favorite customer. Or- customer may not be the correct term, considering that this particular problem refuses to ever actually purchase a single damned flower.

"Please," Damien says again, clutching his hands together in front of himself. "Anything you have left, anything. I'll take a single rose, a single tulip, anything-"

"No, honeysuckle, you will not." Arum slices a section of ribbon as if it personally offended him, then deftly ties it into a bow across the boring mostly-rose arrangement in his hands. "You say you will take anything, but the moment I shove some imperfect bloom beneath your nose, your tune will change." He pulls a few stems of waxflower in front of himself, and begins to snip the bottoms off at an angle as he speaks. "You will realize that it cannot possibly be given to your perfect, lovely Rilla if it is not perfect-" snip, "and lovely itself, and then you will attempt to wheedle me into giving you something better-" snip, "when I-" snip, "have-" snip, "nothing left for you."

"But-" he looks lost for a moment, uncertain, and Arum (buries a spark of guilt, and) thinks that he might be able to avoid the rest of this annoyance, for once, before Damien seems to steel himself, stepping up to the counter and pulling out his wallet. "No. Please. This is- this is it. This will be the day, it will. Any arrangement you have. I'll double the price. I'm going to tell her today, and I need- I need-"

"You're going to tell her today," Arum repeats blankly. He thinks he feels his eye twitch.

"I am," Damien says, nodding, apparently entirely ignorant of the way that something in Arum's chest is bubbling over like a volcano. "I have to. I've finally written the perfect-"

"Poem," Arum barks at the same moment that Damien tugs a little folded scrap of paper, powder blue, from his breast pocket. He blinks, and Arum laughs without mirth.

"Wh- what?" he insists, and Arum bares his teeth.

"A poem," he spits. "Rather, another poem." Arum turns, tail lashing, and stalks to tug open the drawer beneath the rack of blue ribbons, grabbing out a small circular box that likely held candy at some point in the past. "Every week. At least once a week, you wander in to my shop and insist upon your angst, whining and moaning about your beloved Rilla - who you can barely bring yourself to speak to - and every single time, you say that you will finally tell her! You will find just the right arrangement of flowers, append it with just the right arrangement of verse, and then it will all be perfect."

Arum smacks the shiny-cardboard box down on the counter as Damien stares up at him with wide, almost panicked eyes. He shoves the top from the box, reaching in to pull out scrap after scrap of paper by turn.

"Poems! Countless poems! Verse after verse about her hair and her eyes and her smile and her brilliance, her cleverness and care, about her humor and her confidence and if she is even an ounce like your writing, then perhaps your cowardice is justified."

"Cowardice," Damien half-yelps, but Arum isn't quite done, yet.

"Because every. Single. Time, you lose your nerve! You abandon whatever overly complex floral monstrosity you insisted that I begin to put together for you, you leave your words in a crumple on my counter and you go sigh your way out of my shop without even the courtesy of an apology for wasting my time, let alone payment for the same, again and again and again! And now you come on the busiest day of the year, no notice! No planning! Last minute and desperate and insistent that your dilemma is the only thing that matters, but it is clearly true! Because you," Arum spits, "have finally written a poem. Because today is the day. For the hundredth time."

He levels his most potent glare at Damien, scraping his claws through the abandoned poems and crumpling the paper again. Damien only stares at him, swallowing uncomfortably.

"Today is always the day, and you will never, never follow through. You will never tell her how you feel. You will never buy a bouquet, you will never hand your poems to her, you will never grow a spine. I am tired of dealing with your dramatics and stupidity," Arum says, and then, in his blandest professional voice, "I do not have any flowers for you today, Damien."

Damien looks up at him with his eyes bright and his lip pulled into a pout- a wobbly sort of pout-

And then he drops his gaze. He tucks the new poem back into his pocket without unfolding it, curling his fingers around the leather of his wallet as he turns.

"I- I apologize for-" he wets his lips, then turns away entirely. "Wasting your time," he finishes.

(Another flash of guilt. Ignore it, ignore it. He might actually-)

Damien pushes the door open, and then he-

Pauses, in the doorway, the little bell chiming lightly above his head.

(something in Arum's stomach twists, a placeless sort of anticipation)

Damien turns, brow furrowing as he glances towards Arum over his shoulder.

"... Why did you keep those?"

Arum blinks. "What?"

"All those notes. All my poems, little scraps of abandoned love letters." Damien pulls his hand back, the door hissing closed behind him as he steps carefully closer to the counter again. "Why wouldn't you throw them away? Why keep them?"

If the earth opened up beneath Arum's feet, he thinks, then he wouldn't have to be in this conversation anymore. Out loud, he says nothing. Damien continues to meet his eye, something searching in his expression.

"You kept them," he says, his voice a little softer. "Arum."

Arum jolts, just a little, vaguely surprised that Damien actually remembers his name. He realizes that his claws are still half-buried in the candy box of poetry, and he pulls the hand back as if it might catch fire in there, another hand slapping the lid back down. "I don't," he says, but he doesn't actually know how to finish that sentence in any way that is remotely safe.

"Why did you keep them?" Damien asks again, and Arum struggles to regain his own tongue.

"B-because you- because you are the most obnoxious- to prove to myself that I did not invent you because it is impossible to believe that someone quite so annoying might actually exist," he stammers, but Damien does not look quite so bothered as he should.

"Did you..." Damien pauses, then reaches to brush his fingertips across the top of the box, tracing an errant loop of pink on the red. "Did you read them?"

Arum stiffens, his frill doing something incriminating at the edges of his vision, and Damien's lips curl into a strange little smile, the tension softening from his brow.

"Do you-" he seems to catch himself, and then he shakes his head. "Er. Right. Inconsiderate. Busiest day of the year, you said, and I- am inconsiderate," he murmurs, and Arum-

Does not know what to do, or say, or think. Mostly he would like to try standing very still, and maybe then Damien-the-worst-customer with the pretty voice and the terrible manners and the deft poetic voice will stop looking at him as if he has actually noticed him.

"What... what time, may I ask, is your shift over?" Damien asks, sounding almost meek.

"Not until at least seven, I should think," Arum says, too surprised by the question to be anything but honest. "Wh- er, why?"

Damien- shuffles his feet, almost boyish, and then smiles very slightly up at Arum. "I think I might owe you an apology," he says. "Or... at least, a poem for yourself. May I come meet you, later tonight?"

Arum stares, still baffled, still adrift. "I... I... suppose?" he manages, his voice sounding oddly distant to his own ears. "I nearly screamed at you. Just now," he says, blank. "Why would you want to..."

Damien only smiles a little wider, nodding, and then he turns. "I should leave you to it, I think."

"Honeysuckle," Arum barks, and Damien glances back towards him from the door again, his expression substantially softer, now.

"Hm?"

"I... it isn't. Quite so bad," he admits, haltingly. "On the slower days. Hearing you out. Putting together something for you, even if you never follow through. On the slower days... I don't quite mind."

Damien smiles, a prettier bloom than anything in any of his bouquets. "Until tonight, Arum," he says, and then he nods and ducks out the door, practically bouncing on his heels until he disappears from sight past the edge of the window.

"Until... tonight," Arum echoes, noticing far too late the flowers he has clutched against his chest.

#crossposting to tumblr a bit LATE in my timezone but it's FINE #elle's fanfic #second citadel #rad bouquet #lizard kissin' tuesday #lord arum #sir damien #budding blooming

[lankira]

Was just talking about this character's BG3 version in @dee-the-red-witch's replies when I remembered that I've not talked about her on the blog much. WHICH IS A CRIME.

This is Razira Fein, my funky lil lesbian drow follower of Eilistraee (art by @canine-king-art )

When it comes time to talk about her backstory, I will admit that I kind of fridged her girlfriend. So cws for religious trauma and character death below the cut.

So, first up: Razira is practical, but not necessarily high femme or butch in her preferred presentation. This is heavily informed by her time as house guard and surface raider for one of the Houses of her universe's equivalent of Menzoberranzan. Like...being alive trumps looking good (far right armored look), and being comfortable on the road now that she's on the surface trumps style (all black hatted look).

The other two looks? The one that's very peacocky with the feather in the hat is her stage look. Gotta grab attention there, and she's spent so much of her life in full armor that exposed skin feels incorrect. She's fine with nudity in places like full moon rituals and the bedroom. Just not her thing on stage. She'd totally be down for watching a burlesque show though. Her other (vaguely-Japanese-inspired) look is what she wears when busking on city streets. Since not a lot of places on the surface are kind to drow and she doesn't want to risk damaging the embroidery and beadwork on that performance jacket, she picked something unique but simple.

Wait. Busking? Armor? This is either the most armored bard or something else is going on here! That's correct, something else is going on here.

See, Razira left her home after her girlfriend, Llostin, was murdered for trying to leave and join a enclave of followers of Eilistraee on the surface. Drow society does NOT like when its members turn their back on Lolth. The only thing left of the girlfriend's that Razira had was a holy text. As she read more of it, she understood why Llostin wanted to leave, and did so, succeeding where her late love had failed.

After spending decades with the enclave, learning about Eilistraee, learning song and dance and art and poetry, and unlearning a lot of the typical drow society bullshit, the leaders of the enclave suggested that Razira was ready to see the world. And so, she set out to do so, making money sometimes as an entertainer, sometimes as hired muscle to secure safe travel between cities. (This is why she started as a Fighter withe the Entertainer background)

Through all this travel, she learned a lot more about the world and found her own little place in it. Until the start of the campaign had her thrust into a series of world-shattering events.

While the campaign she was in ran very short for a number of reasons, she's one of the characters I'm most fond of. I usually play someone young, at the start of their journey. But Razira...not so much. She was about 250 years old and had been mourning her lost love for about a century of that time. She thought she was nearing the end of her character arc. She had discovered a lot about herself in that time and had believed that she would never find love again, in part because of the crippling survivor's guilt, in part because she didn't think that she would want to love again.

Until she met Aurellon, one of our party's sidekicks who was described as an androgynous Milo Thatch with the fashion sense of Billy Porter. The pair talked a lot about a lot of things and there was a queer little romance starting when the campaign was tragically cut short.

So, yeah... That's the short version of explaining Razira. Oh! Also! Her fighter subclass is Echo Knight, which we flavored as pulling echoes that were past or future incarnations of her soul instead of alternate world versions. So that was neat.

#razira fein #dnd character #my ocs #dnd

[the-dust-jacket]

Do you have any recs for unhinged queer books, flavored vaguely similar to the locked tomb series?

Locked Tomb is so hard to comp, but I hope there are some sufficiently unhinged options here! 

The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps or A Taste of Honey, by Kai Ashante Wilson: for science and gods and magic, poetry and profanity and original, stylistically ambitious storytelling 

The Darkness Outside Us, by Eliot Schrefer: for enemies-to-lovers, weird twists, YA space gothic 

The Sunbearer Trials, by Aiden Thomas: YA and considerably more upbeat and wholesome considering it’s about teenagers battling it out over who gets sacrificed to the sun god for the greater good 

The Captive Prince trilogy, by CS Pacat: completely unhinged in a very different way, although there are some similarities in the dynamic of the central ships 

The Stars Are Legion, by Kameron Hurley: for giant biological space fleets, love and revenge and war and body horror, and dark, epic, generally bonkers space opera 

Iron Widow, by Xiran Jay Zhao: YA mmf sci-fi/fantasy/historical reimagining/giant mecha action, fueled entirely by rage 

This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal Al-Mohtar and Max Gladstone: chaotic, layered, lyrical, featuring an unlikely correspondence between two time traveling agents on opposite sides of a brutal war 

The Monster of Elendhaven, by Jennifer Giesbrecht: dark romance for people who like the Ninth House aesthetic 

Other authors to consider: Billy Martin (most books written as Poppy Z Brite), Tessa Gratton, Carmen Maria Machado 

#Locked Tomb #sorry this took forever I'm sleepy #ask a bookseller

[kindan-no-kanojo]

Hello!!! I came with what I think is a great idea (although very cheesy)!

Scarlett: how your lover's kisses taste like? How they make you feel? Is it a pleasant taste and feeling?

*I need some fluff and poetry in my life(? 🥺🤌🏻

Mun!R: THAT'S SO SWEET 🥺 Ngl, it almost ends up being neutral/vague but who are we trying to kid. We're getting the Kinolett route 🏃‍♀️

"My lover's kisses...?" She tasted that word for a few moments, the corners of her mouth rose up slowly.

"Hm~... They taste like all I could be craving at that moment. Love, desire, even sugar, or reassurance... They taste very sweet regardless. No one could ever kiss me like that even if they tried."

Her fingers tapped her lips, softly.

"Of course it's a pleasant feeling...! The best feeling, honestly. After so many kisses only his are the ones that make me feel loved. Who would've thought that someone like me could ever feel that...? Almost makes me feel happy to be immortal, so I can have all the kisses I could ever want for all the eternity."

"Small and brief or long and passionate... I can never have enough every time I'm kissed... And it's not about skill at this point. I get drunk in the fuzzy, warm feeling I get when I feel my beloved's lips on mine... or anywhere, but I rather taste them back. The sweetness, the need, the greed..."

She sighed dreamily.

"All the feelings are immensely wonderful... And I like the sounds too. Don't look at me like that, hear me out~." She chuckled. "Not only our breathing getting heavier overtime, or one of us humming in delight, but also... there are moments when it's more of a silly thing and I pepper his face with kisses, so I hear his chuckle. That sound is absolutely precious. Or chuckling against my mouth, or whispering sweet nothings mid-kiss, or the urgent touches, or..." She breathed in and out, blushing more at a specific thought. "Ah... maybe I'm not one to hold myself back when I feel so good. It can lead to other situations, but we're just talking about kisses, right?"

"Uh, well, yes... In short, I like kisses. Very much. But I like his guava-flavored kisses the most."

#📭Asklett #munarisblog #scarlett wakahisa #🌠. Kinolett #diabolik lovers oc #i swear to you i was blushing while typing this so enjoy #🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️

[littlecarnet]

I've gotten asked by friends what I do offline, since I intentionally limit my screen time. It's easy for me to say I devote a lot of time to creative and meditative activities, but that's probably too vague. So I compiled a very short list of the top activities I like doing daily or every weekend. Many of these I was either trained in or dabbled in out of boredom. Remember, I existed waaay before the internet, so I needed to do something with my time. Heh...

God I've lived too long.

Writing: I write nearly every day for various reasons. Either basic journaling, keeping track of budgets, keeping a commonplace book, writing poetry, listing favorite books and what I think of them, travel journaling, lectio divina, testing out art supplies, cataloging my gem and mineral finds, and mood tracking. Because of this I have so many little notebooks and journals everywhere. Sure I could use a phone or word processor, but it's such a deeply rooted habit for me, plus I really enjoy the tactile feel of paper and pen.

Making tea and bath supplies: I use a lot of herbs for my basic health needs, a skill picked up from my grandmother. I like making rosewater and herb steams for my face, distilling oils from roses, brewing hibiscus into a concentrate for flavoring sparkling water, anddrying lavender for sachets. Herbal healing salves made from herbs and beeswax are a staple in my emergency kit when outdoors. I can make my own soaps as well, tailored to my skin's needs.

Making and mixing ink: Because I do write a lot, naturally I'm drawn to pretty inks. For mundane tings, a simple gel pen will do, but for special thing I go for my glass pens, but there's a satisfaction of making custom colors and even adding scents to them. I have a book filled with ink formulas to recreate my favorite blends.

Drying flowers: During the warmer season I love bunching up sweet smelling flowers, like honeysuckle, lavender, and greenthread, to hang in my room. The added bonus is that the flowers once dried, make a great tea. I also love pressing flowers to use on cards, in scrapbooking, or put between glass to make suncatcaters.

Making incense: Naturally since I work with herbs, I also love making incense. I like using hard sap I've collected from pine trees, but also sweet grass, juniper, star anise, cedar, ect. I powder them, add a binder, and either press them into a cone or pellet. Apart from burning them, I like to put them in small cloth bags to scent a drawer or in a box with stationery or even fabric pieces.

Grinding pigments and binders: There's a certain therapeutic process in grinding paint pigment to turn into paint or pastels, along with any binders like gum arabic and limestone. I tend to do this during the winter, when I'm snowed in. In the summer I'll have lots of material to use in dyes, inks, paints, soft or oil pastels, and even colored beeswax for encaustic art and crayons.

Sewing practical items: If a bedsheet is worn or stained, I'll repurpose it into handkerchiefs, napkins, and small bags for jewelry or other tiny things. Old jeans get turned into kitchen cleaning cloths. Its a treat to use fabric that I've put in a box with incense, I can make pincushions and coasters while smelling pine or rose petals. Related to this is tatting, a type of lace-making.

Leather work: Related to the above, I like working with leather to make practical long lasting outdoor gear, such as bags for my binoculars, a roll up kit for my chisels, as well as a secure case for my gem loupes. I've also made a journal cover out of leather, it uses an elastic in the center so I can switch out booklets when they're filled up or need to be moved around.

Jewelry: Basically beaded chokers and bracelets, macrame, and kumihimo. I like making them while listening to music or having a movie on in the background.

Mosaic: Mostly a summer activity, I have a lot of shells, glass, gems, and broken ceramic to create mosaics.

Other stuff I've experimented in: Origami, woodburning, glass etching, bonseki, soap making, cross stitch, embroidery, basket weaving, sun printing, henna, quilling, mushroom growing, terrariums, cultivating dinoflagellates (blue tide), growing crystals, gourd art, ceramics, clay and rock sculpture, calligraphy, stamp carving. Pretty sure there's stuff I've forgotten.

#Things I do when not online #A lot of it I cycle through based on interest or desire #I'll go through a whole week doing nothing but origami #Then start doing pottery #Then start making temari or something

[blujayonthewing]

I think gnomes are partly Like That because their culture encourages it but also partly for the same reason 60+ year old humans are more likely to be Like That

I think after being alive for fifty or more years you generally stop giving a shit whether other people think you’re weird regardless of your overall lifespan

#the 'idgaf'ness of a gleefully eccentric old lady with the energy and vague feeling of immortality of a 25 year old #elves' different overall culture flavors their 'old and doesn't give a shit about anybody's opinions' in a different way #I think elvish arrogance is at least partly the comfortable self-assurance that you're doing Your Own Thing and it's truly no one's busines #similar attitude but put toward different stuff #gnomes-- experimental and curious: I'm gonna dye my hair and learn how to make fireworks in my backyard idgaf #elves-- traditional and grounded: I'm gonna dedicate the next decade to poetry and if people think I'm antisocial for it idgaf

[romanianwilkinson]

MONSTER CAMP QUOTES STARTERS

A collection of sentence starters from the game Monster Camp. Feel free to change words and pronouns as desired. CONTENT WARNING(S) FOR: Monster Prom/Monster Camp spoilers, suggestive, cursing, crude content

“ I just have it here because [NAME] insisted that I offer it, as a marketing stunt. ”

“ And lastly, super-horny-type players no longer get a charm buff against tsundere types! ”

“ War machines don’t turn me on or anything! ”

“ I don’t wanna be weird, but do you mind if I climb inside of you and play around with your main turret? ”

“ A wine to DIE for, you say? Well, darling, don’t threaten me with a good time! ”

“ This one just says ‘ hmu with that reaper dick, daddy ’. ”

“ You on your phone, as always! Probably making blogposts on your Tik Tok page. ”

“ Yeah, you really don’t want to witness a repeat of the last time [NAME]’s diehard fans went without a selfie for fifteen minutes. My tailbone still hasn’t completely healed. ”

“ Now hold still, this will only hurt for a moment --- ”

“ Yay! You found a shenanigan! ”

“ My poems all have two or three emotions in them, AT LEAST. ”

“ CRYING IS OBVIOUSLY A COMPETITION TO SEE WHO CAN SQUEEZE THE MOST WATER OUT OF THEIR EYES! ”

“ No way, really? The way to WIN at poetry is by LOSING at life? ”

“ I dunno, maybe fall in love with someone who’s married and develop an opioid addiction? ”

“ HELL YEAH, SPEEDRUN! ”

“ It’s morbid, but... kind of romantic? ”

“ GASP! Google+? Are you kidding me? The psychopaths behind that global tragedy are here?! ”

“ Prison has changed me, [NAME]. Would you like to trade me some cigarettes in exchange for my fundamental dignity? ”

“ Undermining the laws of reality, subverting life and death, that’s the kind of stuff my followers expect. But CHEATING? No way. ”

“ Though we are imprisoned in chalk jail, we are free in our hearts. But our hearts are also imprisoned in chalk jail. ”

“ Um, no, I am NOT groveling. I am posing a dignified query to [NAME] that just so happens to be performed on my hands and knees. ”

“ I didn’t know you condoned playing the friend card to get free labor, [NAME]. ”

“ Ah, but saving the world doesn’t put avocado toast on the table. We indie seancers and necromancers need to pay our rent too, you know. ”

“ And as you know, I am illustriously Internet-famous, so if you could shower me with adoration and give me the pizza that would be fabulous. ”

“ Do you wanna fuck the pizza or not? ”

“ Are you ready to go swimming? I must admit, darling, I’ve always wondered what you would look like while... wet.”

“ Did you turn this date into an orgy without consulting me? ”

“ Gosh, I love it when you insult me! Please do it more! ”

“ Now who wants to make a baby? ”

“ What if she puts a curse on me that makes me magically forget the location of the clitoris?! ”

“ Hey, don’t knock wacky decisions that endanger us all! That’s how I always manage to stay a step ahead of my nemeses! ”

“ Oh gods, I’ve killed so many monsters, just for being monsters. This is making me question my entire moral foundation. I NEED MORE THERAPY. ”

“ I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again: fish give better pedicures than people! ”

“ You’re not tricking me into parenting a stupid egg. I’ve never fucked even ONE chicken! The egg is not my son! ”

“ You came to visit me at camp, Daddy! ”

“ Don’t be ridiculous, I know your brand of horny, [NAME], and this ain’t it. ”

“ I thought we both agreed to be nothing but vague and haughtily aloof about our past dalliances. ”

“ Point EAST, compass! EAAAAAAAAST! You dumb fuckboot!!!! POINT! EAST! ”

“ One time I was told a soul’s worst fear was bugs and I inadvertantly sent The Beatles. It happens to the best of us... And the worst of us. ”

“ SOMEDAY I SHALL DEFEAT YOUR FIVE STRANGE FEET! ”

“ Why do you keep suppressing your monster half? Embrace your true nature! ”

“ Wow. I didn't think this was possible, but I guess I was... wrong? About social media? Oh dear God, is this how grandparents feel?!?! Am I a GRANDPARENT?! ”

“ I don’t know! I was relying on my friends to cover up my bold and idiotic statement! ”

“ ... I ate the oars. ”

“ PSYCHE. The ocean can eat my ass. ”

“ So pucker up, [NAME]! I'm about to declare mouth war on your FACE! ”

“ YOU FOOLISHLY FOOLISH FOOL! You're showing our inexperience! YOUR HONOR, THE ENTIRE LEGAL TEAM PLEADS THE FIFTH! ”

“ That's right. I'm talking about a classic Transylvania Hot Tub, a Seth Brundle, and a REVERSE Reverse Romanian Wilkinson. ”

“ Sorry, I was in your ribcage seeing if I could use it to cut strips of crepe paper into confetti and then I got lost in your kidneys. ”

“ There's nothing sexier than a doomed romance between a dating sim player and a hot fictional character. ”

“ That's right! I secretly replaced one of you with a bear while no one was looking, to teach you a valuable lesson about the art of disguise! ”

“ Enchant my armor. I’m going into the lake. ”

“ For VIOLENCE REASONS! ” 

“ This stupid lake monster called me short the other day, but I was too low level to crush him like he deserved. ”

“ That dumb wet dinkhole won't know what hit him! But it will be me! I will hit him! ”

“ No, YOU'RE a fuckshark! Also, what does that even mean?! ”

“ You seriously didn't notice the enormous needles those interns jabbed into your veins as soon as [NAME] got here? “

“ It all makes sense! The Camp Dome is just an elaborate ploy to distract us from the giant mouth that eats campers! “

“ This is the BEST show I've ever seen in my life, which is now at an end! “

“ Am I high, or did he just tell us EXACTLY how to foil his evil scheme? “

“ What, like a few severed heads and visions of my grandpa screaming in horrendous pain are gonna freak me out? Where I'm from, you can buy that stuff at IKEA. “

“ ERROR: Due to the sixth mass extinction, the slaying of leprechauns is inadvisable. “

“ Then why do I have half-finished scarves, decoupage, pot-holders, friendship bracelets, and a taxidermied rabbit in my skeleton? “

“ The wang elemental. ”

“ I also have an uncle who works at Nintendo as a copy machine! “

“ What flavor of ice cream AM I?! Now I gotta know. HA! You know what I should be? 'Pistachio.' Because my outside is HARD, but I'm full of NUT. “

“ I mean, life is a bit like... this sandwich! No, stay with me, I'm going somewhere good with this. “

“ A survival situation without any sexy fun time isn't worth surviving in the first place. “

“ Rut the RUCK?! ”

“ The ' ambulance of the heart ' is just a regular ambulance! Ambulances treat all organs! ”

“ Yeah, that's why I made sure that my so-called ' emotional armor ' was also ' actual armor '. “

“ And being yourself is the key to living your dreams, which is the key to self actualization, which is the key to being really good at sex! “

“ So hot I'd buy that even without free shipping. 10/10, call me some time. “

“ Hi, quick question: does it count as kidnapping if I'm abducting you so you can help me do a thing you already agreed to help with? “

“ I could be wrong, but are you just upset because you DON'T have a skeleton that's inside your body? “

“ I'm gonna get SO FUCKING RELAXED MY HEAD WILL EXPLODE! “

“ Whoah, whoa, hold up. You're fucking my grandma? “

“ No, [NAME], that is a popcorn bag full of more dynamite. Put it down. “

“ I hear that at least 70% of people on Patreon aren't murderers! “

“ If you want cash, just rob banks like the rest of us! “

“ Did it work? Do you feel any less horny? ”

“ FUCK YEAH, LET'S PUNCH THAT MOUTH IN ITS MOUTH! “

“ Yes... incidentally, we are no longer allowed to enter Italy. “

“ Is anyone else turned on right now? ”

“ Yes! Yes! I know what you're feeling! I suddenly see how marrying a corpse isn't okay! “

“ JUST LET ME IMPROVE YOUR SELF ESTEEM, MORTAL! “

“ Look, choose whatever you want, but I'm not responsible for whatever you put in your mouth. ”

#rp starters #rp sentence starters #roleplay meme #roleplay starters #rp meme #ask meme #rp ask meme #monster prom #monster camp #monster prom rp #monster prom roleplay #monster camp rp #monster camp roleplay #mine

[parkerlyn]

5: what’a their most useless, weirdest trait for the ROs? 💃

4. Where do they see themselves in five years? Ten?

Oisein: Before Renescen, probably doing the same thing, making deals and executing even more wild shenanigans five or ten years from now. After arriving and the events of the game, they're probably more focused on surviving the next month.

The Healer: They'd be happy settling down in Renescen, continuing to expand on their own house and helping around the city. They'd love to find someone within five or ten years that they could be committed to and share a life with, but aren't in a hurry. A little bit ago they would've likely been indecisive between returning to Han and staying in Renescen, but Renescen has become their home now.

The Sage: Would love to be traveling within the next five years to the other cities, with a goal of seeing and living for a bit in all four within ten years and working with their Archival Libraries. As a stretch goal, would want to go sand sailing again and see if they can get past the barrier into the Mirror.

The Magesmith: Would stay in Renescen for five years, but also want to travel like the Sage, so after that, would seek to learn about other enchanting techniques from other cities. I could see them also wanting to test their skill and see if they could find a sand sailing crew brave enough to try to sail between the cities vs using the Crossings, augmented by their enchantments.

5. What's their most useless, weirdest, or least marketable skill?

(first of all this is a hilarious question adjfkaslfja and I couldn't help talking about other skills too x_x)

Oisein: Not necessarily useless, but I've always imagined them having absolute pitch/perfect pitch. Is also the stretchiest / most flexible of the ROs, aka all the double-jointed stuff people can do with arms, fingers, legs etc, they can definitely do.

The Healer: Is a tea connoisseur. Like you could give them any cup of tea and they could do the whole "peppermint aged in the shadow of a crumbling mountain" type of stuff ajsdkalfja. Very intuned to the flavors and enjoys brewing and making up their own combinations (though probably makes up the extra descriptions just to mess with people). Is also really emotive so has the best control of...I don't know how to describe this, like the parts of their face? Eyebrow wiggles and the like haha.

The Sage: Has the wildest memory for books and poetry. You could describe vague vibes and they could give you the author, title, and publishing date within a minute. But their memory for other things is not as good. Also can pen spin like no one's business. The whole, spinning a pen over your thumb thing? They can do it in their sleep. (which KILLS me because I've never been able to do it TT^TT)

The Magesmith: Is really good at worming their way into small places, like in the whole cats-are-liquid kind of way, but has definitely gotten stuck before. Also can tie a cherry stem with their tongue/ do the clover thing too.

Thank you for the ask! ❤️

#ask game #ro asks #the sage #oisein #the healer #the magesmith #lilas #magesmiths #future #useless skills #ajfdksalj #long post

[inventors-fair]

ExTemporaneous: Chiasmus Runners-Up ~

Our runners-up this week are @helloijustreadyourpost, @i-am-the-one-who-wololoes and @reaperfromtheabyss!

@helloijustreadyourpost — Talan, Dimir Inquisitor

Hey, wow, two Dimir posts in one this week? Who’da think it! This was the closest one for the winner’s circle, and it was a rough choice. It’s the unfortunate position of being up against another Dimir card that was 2% more Dimir-y than your Dimir card. Dimiresqueness. Actually, no, there WAS a real reason. I think that this card could have been non-legendary. The only reason is because the flavor text is vague enough to feel like a part of the world being built and not a specific character within. Is the flavor text good? Yes, absolutely. Could it be tempered easily into something that fits my whims? Yes, also absolutely.

Right, yes, also, the card is badass and the art is something I’m envisioning, so keep that in mind. Utilitarian and appropriately menacing. I really like how menace feels here. ANYWAY text! So, for one, this could have been a quote with minor reconfiguration, maybe? That’s the go-to for legends, and I think it could have worked here, having them inquire. Making this a general rogue/assassin could have been fine, too, as I mentioned, hm... Yeah, no, no huge thoughts, and I’m a little low on time and high on “coffee is kicking in,” but the way you structured your text is absolutely on the right track.

@i-am-the-one-who-wololoes — Mushrooming Mist

It’s unfortunate that this was a flavor text oriented contest specifically. But, as someone who struggles with vagueness in poetry, I can tell you from experience that the words you used fit perfectly well and are also, well, not exactly engaging. It fits the contest, and it’s perfectly reasonable, and your grammar works poetically, but the sonic quality (i.e. what specific sounds are pleasant to the ears when read aloud) is contrasted between the words, and there aren’t exactly English footholds with which “nature” and “peace” come together. Which is a shame, because my dumb butt just realized how clever this card is mechanically to fit that.

The spell makes a mushroom, poof, whatever you cast is what creates this little guy. And then, later, it’s the mushroom itself that’s poofing out the mist, but that energy is used up for now. I think you’ve inadvertently made a pretty tier-1.5 pauper control card, in a way? Moment’s Peace is already a thing. Maybe it’s just because I was looking for cards that were conniving in their wording, or grand in scope, or focused in a different way. No, yeah, this is probably a much better card in any other contest. IIRC, English is a second language, correct? I want you to mark this card down as one of your strongest entries for a multitude of reasons.

@reaperfromtheabyss — Disarming Turnabout

I am royally incensed [jocular]. I’ll get my big things out of the way: this card is fine. Feels Modern Horizonsy, because there’s not a whole lot of places I can imagine an equipment-matters cycling-too series of cards. You can have a range and I think that in any other set, a “hate” card this specific wouldn’t have that added benefit. Everything about this card is totally fine on that front, and Magnetic Theft is different enough that the inspiration is different enough (and flavored enough here) to give a far different feel.

But: “Grez loved smacking with his whacking stick, but then the whacking stick smacked back.” Imagine that, all that “-ack” sounds in different words together! Argh! It was so close to being something silly, perfect, poetic, childish, and honestly the gist of it was still there, but I really wish you could’ve played with the language more because all those -acking sounds were right there in front of you. Still, that’s something that I was looking for because I look for sounds, and honestly, you did good with what you had. Can’t fault you for goblining. I assume Grez is a goblin. Right? Maybe.

General commentary is being written. Be well, and thanks again! @abelzumi

#mtg #magic the gathering #custom magic card #chiasmus contest #inventor's fair #runners up #commentary

[tinypurplewizardfan]

Do you think Veigar would like poetry? If so, what kind would it be? the little gnome proved to have refined tastes.

Headcanon: He thinks that any idiot can bang out a few frilly lines, but it takes a true master to write actual ~poetry~

Which is a long-winded way to say that he's incredibly snobby about the poetry he likes. He collects poetry books (like any book he finds on his conquests) in his library but he's copied down, like, four or five poems total that he deems worth his time into a separate little journal on his night stand.

As for kind of poem? Tough to say, but I bet he'd be particular about rhyming and meter. He'd hate free verse/free form- if it doesn't sound snappy and dramatic when you read it out loud, then what's the point?

I think he'd like The Old Astronomer and Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night. Both poems deal heavily with ambition and legacy, (plus are vaguely celestial-flavored,) and I think those themes would speak to him.

#veigar #league of legends #legends of runeterra #headcanon #original content #oh and he's definitely tried writing his own poetry before #it's sucked. Like really sucked. #that's why he has minions to do it for him! #his bards don't like writing straight poetry- they always write songs

[vinyls-and-valentines]

Description: Cherri Cola pays a visit to the Diner. Everyone's about as stoked as you'd expect

Warning(s): Blood, Vaguely Sexual Content, Alcohol

Tagging: @always-and-forever-a-killjoy, @tasteofamnesia, @dagger-queen, @katastrophekid

Additional notes: Twitter Cherri Cola, my belo(ved)athed ao3 link | wordcount: 773 words

Enter scene.

The Diner. East Jesus Nowhere, Zone Three, California. A cockroach of architecture, hollowed out and turned into a hybrid nest-airwave-station through rock 'n' roll and detonation.

Lights dim and actors take their place.

Agent Cherri Cola. Local heartthrob, amateur radio zipliner, and promising author of the Zone's first poetry collection in 69 parts, all written in dingy bathroom stalls. See also: currently getting blood all over the Diner's floor.

Party Poison. Cherry martini with a shot of gasoline, leader of the most infamous gang of thrill killers on the playground, and the only person conceited enough to have their face plastered all over City walls. See also: currently pressing a blaster under Cherri Cola's chin.

5... 4... 3... 2.... 1.... Curtains drop.

"Why not give me a kiss too while you're at it, sweetheart?" Cherri smiles, looking up through his eyelashes at the red-haired 'joy as he leans against the plastic digging through his skin, looking for the airway.

"Please," Poison scoffs with an eyeroll, pulling their blaster away like the agent was doing things to it best spoken of when motorbabies are asleep (then again, knowing them, they'd probably like that- for better or for worse), "I've got better things to waste my time on."

"Suit yourself." he shrugs, watching the latter holster their gun and walk over to one of the far-off booths, sitting on the table and picking up a small switchblade that they begin to flick on and off, "Didn't think the infamous Party Poison would settle for second rates, though."

"You're just bitter you can't afford it." the switchblade in their hand closes with a sharp sound- a sign that he's hit a nerve, but he isn't quite in the mood for play, so he shakes it off.

"Perhaps." he shrugs, leaning into the doorframe and giving the room a one-over, "Where's the loverboy, anyways? I think i like him better, between the two of you, anyways."

"Out." Poison scowls at the silver blade and Cherri's almost starting to think he's not wanted there (note the sarcasm), "And so are D and Show, so don't expect me to clean up after you."

"Wouldn't dream of it, princess- most of it isn't mine anyways." he hums, before pushing himself back upright in a practiced motion, "Just dropped by to contact mothership."

There's a court exchange of pleasantries- a nod and salute met with pointed glares and a proud middle finger- before the visitor ducks back out of the Diner and to the shack stuck on the side of the building like weeds growing in the cracks of Route Guano.

Airwaves stay silent for a couple more seconds as the transmitter's lights blink on and off in lieu of a dial tone before a snappy voice answers on the other side.

"Congratulations, you've reached the frequency of licorice-flavored Armageddon- NewsAGoGo speaking, don't waste my breath."

"Hey, loser." Cherri chuckles (you've ever noticed how funny everything seems while bleeding out and with napalm in your brain?)

There's nothing but the sound of shuffling coming through the static for a moment before the DJ wishes him a loving, "Choke."

"Wow, such a warm welcome- it's like homecoming all over." the agent muses fondly, smiling at his sibling's artfully crafted discontent.

"Do you have anything to say or are you just trying to take up all my bandwidth?" Newsie says in a bored voice, and Cherri can almost see them kicking back in their chair with an issue of Shiny in hand.

"Hmmm, tempting, but no." he hums, tapping his chin like he's thinking about it for a moment, "Remember that disco up south? Yeah, turned out to be a total bust. Gumdrops flying everywhere."

There's a beat of silence before, "Shit. Cher, are you..?"

"Oh, i'm bonus track, you should see the other guy, though. He's wearing his insides out like it's in season- so 2005." the agent laughs, twirling the microphone's wire around their finger.

"Fuck your world!" Newsie hisses, most likely annoyed by their brother's antics (then again, who isn't these days? They just don't know how to have fun), "For a moment i though i'd have to come collect your sorry ass off the curb of the road like Easter."

"Love you too." Cherri says, though the red light lets him know his words were likely lost to the radiation that entwines the airwaves. Talking of red, he should probably check if he got injured during that clap after he takes a quick nap- his head feels heavy like a rock, and it's not like he has much choice as it hits the table with a thud

#no funny comment in the tags. too tired. enjoy the non-director cut of this ficlet #killjoys #danger days #agent cherri cola #party poison #newsagogo #boo's writing #killjoys fanfic #twitterverse #ttlotfk

[felassan]

Gamers For Groceries 2 event

A Twitch stream event from a few days ago. It can currently be re-watched here (it was fun & interesting, so I do recommend to check it out direct). This post contains some notes on things of particular interest & relevant timestamps, in case this is useful to anyone (for example bc of accessibility reasons).

First up is the All About Animating panel, a series of mini-interviews with game devs (animators) asking what they do, how they got there, and advice for anyone interested in getting into the industry. Some or all of the devs that were interviewed are currently working on DA4. They talked a bit about their day-to-day work and a lot about the craft of game dev animation in general. This segment runs from timestamp ~38 mins 40 secs to 1:07:50. Some notes:

[sounded like DA4] Right now the creature team are working on different creatures in a way which involves going through a lot of mocap data

At BioWare they have a pretty big technical animation team, to support their animators, so each tech animator has a different specialty. Tech anim involves animation support, character art support, and rigging the characters so that the animators can pose them

[not sure if re: DA4 work specifically, another project or a general comment on the craft] One of the featured animators’ area of specialty at the moment is faces and hair (building the control structure for face animations). First they had to decide how the face rig and its control structure would work. This involves a lot of performance capture of live actors for things like cinematics and gameplay animation, therefore the rigs for bodies and faces have to be able to accurately capture the full range of expressions and emotions that the actor is portraying. Right now the stage that this dev is working on most is setting up the heads that they’re getting through the pipeline from character art e.g. making adjustments based on feedback from the cinematics team. “Polish - just trying to get realism”

Hair tech has come quite a long way in the last few years [in the industry]

[not sure if re: DA4 work specifically, another project or a general comment on the craft] Hair is very complex to get right. “In the past most games have used card-based hair, which is basically like sheets of polygons with a texture on it that looks like hair, through layers of transparency. But real hair is strand-based, digital strands, so we’re starting to look into that kind of tech - try to get more realistic, more beautiful hair, but there’s always a performance cost to hair. Layers of transparent things are always an expense, they need to balance like, it looks good and moves well, but it doesn’t make your computer or console chug. [...] I guess we’re in the prototype stage but we’ve almost got a set pipeline. It’s always fun to experiment”

In Mass Effect 2 or 3, Miranda’s hair was as expensive as a whole character (!)

[on balancing hair costs/performance, general] It depends on things like character importance and how many characters are on-screen at the time. When you’re in gameplay fighting a bunch of monsters you’re not going to be giving full beautiful hair to all the characters and the monsters, as it will cost too much. (Having a helmet on is a convenient way to get rid of hair.) But if it’s a cinematic scene, with 2 characters talking to each other in a dramatic context, there’s a better budget for nice hair allocated

Some of the hair in Anthem was quite expensive in cinematics. They kept getting bugs from QA saying (for example) that a character’s hair was tripling the performance cost in the scene, so it would go back to character art so they could take away some of the hair cards. “Tough balance, quality versus cost”

“I wish all the characters could have beautiful strand hair”

For p-cap, a lot of the time they don’t want to be too prescriptive in terms of the direction that they’re giving the actors, as the actors know what they’re doing and have a lot of experience, so they give them vague instructions that they then riff off of

[sounded like DA4] They recently did a mocap shoot

[sounded like DA4] There’s a bit more productivity happening now in the pandemic situation; now that the animators are not all going to the capture lab in Vancouver in person for shoots, if it’s not their turn to direct a shot they can instead be working on something else on their computers (multi-tasking). ((Lead DA4 Producer Scylla Costa recently gave a talk at a games festival on the challenges of DA production during the pandemic. In part of this talk he talked about various benefits and drawbacks to the remote-working situation. He also talked about and showed some behind-the-scenes stuff for p-cap and mocap. Notes, images and link here))

[sounded like DA4] Special mocap suits were sent out that they can use with a laptop to go anywhere and shoot motion capture. It’s not as high fidelity as what comes out of the capture lab, but it’s really good for prototyping stuff. Before the pandemic they did some of this (going to a park and shooting some running around)

[sounded like DA4] In one of the shoots they had some actors who were really well-trained in dancing. They were trying to get them to do some combat stuff. This was a bit challenging in the pandemic situation as there’s only so much they can demonstrate/portray as an example to the actors from a distance on camera. “It’s hard to describe what a ‘dodge to attack’ is through the camera to somebody who has no idea what combat looks like in video games”

[not sure if re: DA4 work specifically, another project or a general comment on the craft] The pandemic has really affected performance capture for the face side of things badly, as in order to record, the actor gets dots painted on their face in specific locations by a makeup artist. They can’t do that right now because of social distancing/restrictions, so they haven’t been recording faces at the moment

The more detailed a face, the more joints it has, the more the cost to performance is

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There was also the Writers’ Block panel, featuring DA writers Mary Kirby, Sheryl Chee and Patrick Weekes, and DA editor Karin Weekes. The timestamps for this segment are ~2:37:50 - 3:26:20. Some notes:

PW has never been weirder than when they were writing Cole on DAI

PW thinks that they accidentally wrote part of “Timber” by Kesha into Solas at one point and they were like “Well, okay, I have to stop listening to Kesha”

For Sheryl, after a while Blackwall’s VA always nailed doing his lines. She loved the quality of his voice and so after a while would always hear his voice while she was writing. This really worked out

^ Mary had this with Merrill. As soon as they cast Eve Myles she listened to several hours of her in Torchwood, and then just wrote to the way that she spoke as much as possible

^ PW had this with GDL as Solas and FPJ as Bull. As soon as they heard FPJ’s delivery, they were like “Oh, okay, I have to write some lines differently, because Bull is smarter than I realized”. With GDL they were like “Okay, he’s going to put poetry into anything I say, in the best way possible”. In early drafts of Solas lines there were parts where they [PW] wondered “Is this too melodramatic? Is this too tragically-angstful?” and then they would hear GDL and be like “Oh! [It’s fine] Game on!”

For localization, German words are often quite long so they often have to make sure that everything fits on the GUI

They think scenes like the romance scenes sound prettier in the Italian versions

Behind the curtain in creating the in-world languages: PW: “There are some awesome websites that have every elven word, like ‘Here are the translations and verb tenses and conjugations’ [etc], [...] and usually Mary and I get very sad slightly looking at those pages going like ‘Does that mean that we have to stick to that?’ [...] The rule is, if I’ve looked at the Wiki and the words, and I go ‘Here’s the correct grammatical way to do it’, and if that turns out to be too long or too many disconnected syllables and it just looks bad or sounds bad, then we shorten it to something simpler, because the key is we want to give the flavor of a foreign language, but we don’t have the world-building budget and capacity to make something that is going to be dictionary-real [in a way that] someone could go through and translate all the background things written on the old temple walls”. Part of the reason for this is the consideration for VAs, who already have to act while bearing lots of things in mind, like the cues in the script for each line

Mary: “For building a language, the first things that I started with for qunlat, elven and dwarven, was what words do we need to use the most? Greetings, farewells, words for friend and enemy, basic things that will come up easily in conversation. After that it’s ‘How difficult is this for other writers to use?’ Can they just pick it off the Wiki? Do they need just one word? Do they need to write whole sentences, and how does that work? Qunlat has almost no grammar to it because asking anyone to learn how to use Qunari grammar and conjugate verbs in a pretend language is impossible, and then once you’ve done that a human being has to be able to read it, while not knowing what any of it means”

PW: “One thing that I was really impressed with with Mary in particular doing, Mary was one of the big lore people across the entire DA series; I can look at a word and go like, ‘That has two A’s in a row, that’s definitely a Qunari word. That word is kind of long and maybe has some apostrophes and has a couple of flowy vowel sounds, that’s probably elven’, I think that’s what’s important. You want players to be able to look at a word, players want to feel smart, [like] ‘Oh I don’t know what that means but I totally know that’s a word from the Qunari people!’”. Mary: “Every language has its own set of phonemes, the sounds that they make, and the sort of word structure and spelling so that it gives a flavor to that language. Hopefully that is always chosen to be pronounceable, because again, very important that the words can be said by human beings :D”

Sheryl: “One of the fun things to do is to make up swear words in the fake languages [...] Recently Brianne wanted a word, I don’t know if she managed to find one”

The origin of bosh’tet in ME: it’s just saying “bastard” and slurring it

PW: “I feel like there are times when past writers kind of leave traps for future writers, where past writers will go ‘Okay, I’m going to write this detailed phrase in a codex entry but don’t worry, it doesn’t matter if it can never be said aloud, because it’ll never have to be voiced!’ and then, next game, guess what guys! Look what you have to make someone [a VA] say! And you’re like [facepalm], c’mon!”

Karin: “Now, four games in, we have pages and pages of all these examples, and I wanna say this, well that’s how we said something before, well that’s ridiculous, I don’t wanna say that, but now we’ve said it and it’s out there, so it’s like, how do we, y’know, how do we evolve, and sometimes we just go ‘Screw it! Languages are living languages! We’ll just say it like this now!’”

PW's favorite is the sarcastic Mythal’enaste, “Because it’s the sarcastic Mythal's blessing that basically means you’re getting screwed over somehow. I love it because Mythal nasty! Whoever wrote that clearly never thought that someone would have to say this out loud”

Sheryl wrote Bull’s joke icicles line. She also wrote Isabela’s big boats line - Jennifer took it out but then DG was like “No it has to come back”

They have a pun test, they get a few of them and have to allot them wisely so as not to oversaturate on the puns. “Is this good/bad enough to be one of the times that we pull the trigger? We did have one of those recently, I obviously can’t talk about it, but it was pronounced Okay to go ahead”

The ‘baby-est’ writer is Brianne, who’s been there 8 years

It makes PW sad that the players never get to see the writers’ temp-text [placeholder text when portions are a WIP]. “People have the best temp-text". Mary: “The number of conversations that I’ve temped in like ‘WELL. I hope nothing BAD happens HERE’”

Q. If you could bring in anybody from outside of gamedev, who would you like to work with and do a writer’s session with? PW: “I will say romance novelist Nora Roberts, she is really smart and also she knows how to write inside a genre, and do wonders within it. Her structure is so good. If you pick up one of her books, you know here’s when this is gonna happen, here’s when they’re gonna meet, here’s when this first moment will happen. We’re all experienced and I feel pretty good about that but I really like all of the things she does that way, and also I am a sucker for romance so I would love to bring a romance novelist in and just have them look at our scenes and go ‘Okay here, no, they should pull the tie so that the article of clothing comes open, we need a sense of how warm the skin is here’ - something like that. I’d wanna see what they could do with that”

“Luke writes the best worst lines”

“I’m always impressed with Mary getting away with lines. There are lines that I look at like, wow, you buried that one. [...] The only players who get that line, I feel like they earned it if they went that far into it. [...] And then Varric or Merrill says a ridiculous line in a one-time throwaway”

Karin: “The group dynamic, you’ll see conversations or snippets of a lunch chat or a thing we’ve been joking about and you’ll see it get pulled in, and how all of you [the writers] are able to take a normal kind of thing - as normal as we get as a group anyway - and then turn it into a moment, and use it to further the plot or use it to further a character. It’s just the cleverest thing and it happens in so many different ways. [...] The little snippet of life, then how you crafted it into this very cool thing”

Quartermaster Threnn was written by PW in half a day. “When I was writing Threnn, ‘Okay, this is a good-hearted [person], I was doing a little bit of Steel Magnolias, southern, no-nonsense, but like, blue collar Steel Magnolias’. This is someone accustomed to the ways of the world so she’s going to call a spade a spade. If you come up to her and you’re an elf she doesn’t recognize you and says ‘Buckets are over there’ because she thinks you’re there to clean, [but] ‘Anyone calls you a knife-ear you come to me I’ll take care of it’. It’s problematic but she’s trying - the good-hearted person rooted for the wrong group on every occasion. She was a proud Loghain supporter, she gets really exited if he comes to Skyhold.  That was a fun character for me to write because I had a viewpoint in my mind. I remember someone was like ‘Threnn is really important to me’. And you have to honor that, cause you’re like ‘Cool, it means so much to me that this connected with some part of you’”

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Also of interest was the Mass Affection panel, in which BioWare devs looked back in over a decade of history to remaster a classic. It featured devs who worked on MELE. The timestamps for this segment are ~3:36:09 - 4:24:37. Some notes:

When the pandemic hit the MELE team were in a relatively awkward spot. They were really entering into what they consider full production and were on-boarding a bunch of teams, as well as training and on-boarding third-party external partner specialized teams worldwide. When the pandemic hit, BioWare and EA were super on top of it. They were tracking it weeks beforehand, getting everyone their computers ready, and getting everything encrypted. When the middle of March 2020 hit they were home rightaway. EA were nothing but supportive throughout the entire thing. They got money every quarter for stuff. It functionally ‘hit’ at 4-6 different times for them as the pandemic occurred in different places throughout the world at different times depending on each country’s response plan (and their external partners were in different countries). “So it was one of those things where it was just like, every day we’d come in like can we still work with this company anymore? Do we need to find someone else? Do we need to pull people in off the other projects at BioWare to fill gaps here and there?”

There was a bug on Virmire at the part when you’re coming into the STG camp. If the Mako had its new boosters on and you came hurtling in really fast, it cut to the cutscene, but the Mako hit a jump and when Ash was like “What do we do now?” the Mako ended up literally flying around in the background sideways and then crashing into the camp

Another bug: when they were re-tuning the guns, the physics force on some of the guns with Hammerhead rounds was so high that when you were fighting some of the Thorian Creepers, you could ragdoll them so hard that you could basically embed them in the roof. They’d be moving so fast that they’d penetrate all the walls with their legs dangling out. It was so easy to do and you could do it to everybody. You could launch a geth halfway across an Uncharted World

Another bug: with Shepard’s casual appearance in ME3, if you didn’t have it set up perfectly correctly it would default to Grunt for some reason. You’d be walking around as Grunt, going on dates as Grunt, and your face would be all scrunched up because it was all mapped to human bones still, so it was just, like, Nightmare Fuel of Grunt

Another bug: in ME2 on Illium when trying to recruit Samara, the Asari enemies just would not stop screaming - regardless of whether they were hit or not, it was endless screaming. Later one of the devs got an audio file of the scream, endless and looped, and now one of the devs has it on their phone and uses it for their morning alarm tone

“Shepard would come up to characters and they’d just be screaming”

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There was also the Programming Variables panel, talking about what hurdles game programmers face. Some [or all?] of the devs that were part of this panel are currently working on DA4. They talked a bit about their day-to-day work and about the craft of game dev programming in general. The timestamps for this segment are ~ 4:24:46 - 5:06:02.

[source]

[insights/notes from Gamers For Groceries 1]

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