#i could write poetry about the feeling the experience the vibe

[saw5]

SOPHIE was one of the most talented people of her decade idgaf

#the way her music makes me feel and the extent to which it does is like incomparable to anything else i listen to rn #i could write poetry about the feeling the experience the vibe #how many nights i've spent dancing in my room to it feeling both like some sort of robotalien and more in my body than i ever do outside #of the cathedrals and clubs SOPHIE builds

[yourpsicodelicbitch]

astro FACTS ‼️

(it was “astro thoughts” but I wanted to change)

it turned into a persona chart observations💋

Loika

Moon in your IC persona chart tells your childhood summary.

pls this is too accurate 😭. my moon is square mercury, this aspects tells me directly I have problems with my memory, that I don’t remember my childhood or I don’t have clarity about it. also that I could often lie to get on my way, too accurate. moon 9H tells me I was really imaginative, divagating about topics and questioning or being curious about how things worked. I was always in my world questioning why this and that and bringing in my head “what if?” scenarios. moon in cancer tells me I was more comfortable and secure in my house, specially with my mom. female roles could have been significant, this evidence also this person felt incredibly connected with their mom, it could turned into an unhealthy habit. I felt what my mom felt, I had the need of taking care of her instead and I did. sadly, people with moon in cancer in IC pc possibly had to be the mom to their mom and now they have a savior complex :( I’m so sorry if that happened to you. it’s reflected in every relationship, you need to heal your inner child in order to break that pattern. in my case, I’m trying and that’s recognizable.

Sag on 3H on Lilith pc be saying the most traumatic shit they have experienced and then laughing like’s not a big deal.

Moon opposition Venus on natal chart fcking needs or searchs for love in a profound manner.

they’re emos that write melancholic poetry and don’t like partying and stuff -not saying they have never been-, they prefer to be selective with their partners and don’t give second chances and if they do it’s because of “vibes” 🕺 they need love but it’s really hard to find someone like them that will sacrifice for others as they’ll do with them.

People with 6 house stellium/virgo placements feel more comfortable with animals than to be with people.

they spended more time with animals than with people on their childhood. they love animals, they’re not complex and irritating as people 🙄 later they could have regrets about their relationship with animals before realizing how important they’re. like megumi from jjk -appeared in my mind-.

Saturn 1H moon persona chart feels restricted to be theirselves.

it’s so frustrating, since childhood these people have had a fear of rejection. they have had even controlled the way they breath to not bother others. they hated themselves for being themselves and they’ve suffered so much bc of the critics. they’ve tried so hard to be someone they’re not, they’ve tried to controlled it and they couldn’t. they’ve suffered in silence about their identity and how insufficient they’ve felt. Saturn in moon pc evidences what difficulties exists in their emotional life and where they need to grow and mature. later, they’ll be proud about themselves and how far they’ve become.

Jupiter on scorpio 12 house on Venus pc run away from themselves.

—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•—•

❀ Based on my personal experience and what I’ve analyzed in my surroundings.

❀ English is not my first language.

❀ I’m not a profesional astrologer.

Thank youu. baibaiii🫣🫶🏼💋

Do not copy. Please give me credits.

#astrology #venus persona chart #moon persona chart #lilith persona chart #astro observations #astro posts #astro notes #pinterest #astro placements #birth chart #IC persona chart #12h placements #Virgo #3h placements #moon opposite Venus #jupiter #6H stellium #moon 9H #persona chart #persona chart observations #lilith #sagittarius #scorpio #inner child #childhood trauma #savior complex

[yaut-jaknowit]

Hi! I like you, you seem so cool. Such a vibe.

So, i might end up writing this eventually BUT the writers block has locked barricaded and blown up any entrance to writing anything beyond poetry for the past numerous months and, honestly, I don't think she (gn) is willing to open up. We've gone to therapy. But she just says she needs time. 🙄 . ANYWAYS, I had this idea, right? Reader and a Yautja who are mates/soulmates, and he is NOT for it. Big no no time. Shuts them down and pushes them away. Thing is, while the pull towards them is intense for him, he doesn't realize that for humans it's, like, a painful experience. They can go a bit without being near their soulmate once they find them, but months? *years*?? Eventually he goes back to earth and something pulls him to go check in them and finds them an absolute wreck. Chronic pain, maybe some of that ✨️classic substance abuse✨️, and absolutely heartbroken because their *soulmate* didn't even want them.

And... that's where the little writer part of my brain walks away.

Anyways, maybe one day I'll write this, but the ADHD part of my brain wants the gratification my writer part just isn't interested in entertaining.

I'd love to see your twist on it, if you'd be interested! If not, I get it (not every request peaks our interest and that's valid, but thought I'd share).

P.S. I just heard an owl for the first time in AGES. Really cool.

Are We Meant to be?

Pairing: Yautja x GN!Reader

Word Count: 2031

Summary: On a walk home from work in a city that wasn't friendly, you stupidly decide to take a shortcut. A shortcut that could cost you your life...

Author Note: Thank you! I'm glad I have good vibes! I might be falling into writers block... Towards the end, it was hard to figure out what to write but I hope this is good for you! I wanted to give you a start so you can finish it yourself!

Masterlist

Ao3

When you find your soulmate, it’s said that fireworks go off in your stomach. Then, life is a happy fairytale afterwards. Both souls are drawn to each other by an invisible string. Over time, they’ll be pulled to one another until they meet. From there, life is filled with happiness and complete. You are at height of your life with your soulmate.

So why was the universe cruel to you?

In the concrete jungle that made up your city filled to the brim of people and constant death, you raced back to your little apartment. The minute place you’ve carved out for yourself in a city like this. Something told you to be here, to stay here, no matter what happens. Just a tiny feeling in your cold, hope-filled heart. Maybe, just maybe your soulmate was here. So you endured the life you’ve created here and waited.

Waited for that faithful day they would stumble across your path and boom! Fireworks.

This was a bad idea, your brain shouted as you turned into a dark ally. It was a short cut that would shave off about five minutes. Five minutes closer to your studio apartment. Or lose your life.

A dark figure stepped out from the shadows. In the limited light, you see the way a blade reflects. Shit. Cursing internally, you skid to a stop and started to walk backwards towards the safety of the public street. But footsteps behind you had you pausing where you stood. More curses flew around in your brain as any logical thought.

Nothing needed to be said as you stared down the figure before you. This wasn’t unusual for a city like this. They wanted money, your money. Yet, you didn’t have much on you to offer. Probably only two dollars and nineteen cents in your pocket. Definitely not enough to quell them.

Before you had a chance to even inhale and speak, the person before you collapsed to the ground with nothing but little more than a squeak. A hunking form towering over his crumbled body. Your jaw dropped at the size of this figure. Your heart stutter in its bony cage as you were pinned to the spot like your shoes were welded there.

The string in your chest yanked hard directly in front of you. Your eyes couldn’t expand anymore at the feeling.

With nothing more but a breeze, the shadow zipped past you. You spun around to keep an eye on whatever had attacked your own attackers. Now that it was closer to the street lamps, you were able to pick up flashes of what it looked like. Yet, your brain couldn’t comprehend who this figure that moved in a blink of an eye was. You’ve never seen anyone move like that before. It couldn’t be possible.

A sick snapping echoed through the alleyway that had you tensing. The second attacker fell to the ground, unmoving. Finally, your shoes unpolarized from the dirty concrete but stepped away from the towering form that casted a long shadow. The head barely touching the tips of your toes. You swallow thickly and ignored the way your heart pounded heavily. It wanted freedom, wanted to rip out and go towards it.

He lifted his head. What could you see were long, thick… dreads? swaying as he shook his head. Metal, shining ornaments were attached to them. His form, larger than any man you’ve met before stood there. Only one arm moving, bending at the elbow. You couldn’t see what he was doing. You felt a fluttering feeling in your chest.

The figure whipped around with a snarl that echoed back at you. All you could see was emotionless eyes before it was upon you.

Your back slammed into the brick wall but a hand cushioned the back of your head. A gasp tore from your throat then your vision settled to take in the sight. He had pounced on you, pinned you to the alleyway wall, all the while breathing heavily. A hand had captured your neck, to ensure you stayed there, trapped.

Even with the knowledge this unknown figure might had just killed two people, your body was warm, lax underneath him. Your brain should’ve been screaming danger of the situation but all it sung was safety. A melody you couldn’t tell was true or not from the logical side of your brain. Yet, you couldn’t dispute the hot flash of an connection that struck you deep in your stomach at just his touch.

“Y-you…” he forced out in a guttural, gravely voice. This close to him, you realize he was wearing a mask, metal by the looks of it. “Not po-possible.” Your brows furrowed at his barely audible words. What did he mean?

Timidly, you reached out and rested your palm on his chest. He was incredibly hot, temperature wise. You felt a sort of netting there. He hissed, like a cat, and slipped the hand behind your head to snatch your wrist. It was pinned above your head. “No.” It was hard to understand what he was saying.

Not an ounce of fear entered your body as he continues to pin you there. Yet, your voice was caught behind a lump. So many questions fluttered around inside of your head but all you could do was stare into the emotionless eyes of his mask.

As if you had burned him, he ripped himself away from you within a blink of any eye. It left you feeling unsteady and almost falling to the ground. You saw for a moment he reached out to help you before letting the limb fall to his side.

Then, he was gone. In a small flash of blue, his form disappeared completely. Yet, you could feel him standing there, like a ghost to haunt you.

The walk home was confusing.

…

Blaring noises, inundated scents. Everything that a newly blooded would not be able to handle. Through the thick of it, the hunter waited in the shadows for the perfect moment. His ears picking up every little noise yet filtering them until he felt a pull. This pique his interest. A feeling he’s never felt before. His eyes closed as it persisted inside of him, his chest tightening.

A huff sounded from his mask he stood up, long legs stretching after being in a crouch position for so long. The Yautja cracked his neck a couple of times before beginning his trek through the concrete jungle. He allowed the tug to guide him over buildings as if he back on his home planet. It took him from one side of the city hundreds of thousands of oomans resided in all the way to the other side.

All of his moves were smooth, agile. He knew where and how to land before he was going to. His body going through the motion like a thousand times beforehand. His feet never making a sound. His breaths steady, confident. He loved this, the movement, the rise of adrenaline. That extra energy that filled his system.

The pads of his feet let him land silently on the edge of a building. The pull taking his straight down. He stopped and peered over the edge… to find three measly oomans. The heavy scent of fear permeated the air. He drank in the smell and watched the scene unfold before his bright eyes.

At the sight of ooman between the two male had his quills bristling at the sight. With his cloak deactivated, the Yautja stepped off from the edge. His entire body landed on top of one ooman, simply crushing it underneath his feet like the scum it was. Its frame making a sickening sound he could care less about to think of.

He launched himself at the other ooman. No mercy. A hand wrapped around the ooman’s throat while the other wrapped around its head. Only an ounce of his strength was extruded as he snapped the neck of this low life. Its body dropped to the dirty floor of this noisy, death filled city.

Beneath the thick scales that covered his chest, a strange feeling bloomed. It was the same notion from before. Pulling him backwards. He raised a hand to graze over the spot, deep in thought.

A snarl ripped at his throat. He whipped around to face the only other living thing in this dark path. The biomask that covered his face scanned over the little ooman left in his presence. Weapons, nonthreatening, adorn its small body. He wasn’t intimidated by them. He could scoff at how unprotected it was in a place like this.

He was upon the ooman in a second, ramming them into a brick. One hand coming around to cradle the back of its head while the other swiftly encased your neck. The Yautja gave it no room for escape.

His entire body tensed as the feeling tenfolded, eyes widening behind his mask. He didn’t know what was happening. Unlike any other time he’s had a ooman in his grasp, you didn’t move, you were like water in his grasp.

Tales as old as time sprung to life in his mind. “Y-you,” he grumbled in the ooman’s dialect. It hurt his throat to speak the language but he wasn’t going to waste a translator on you. He couldn’t… couldn’t. His heart, his mighty heart pulled, fluttered even, at your proximity and touch. “Not po-possible.” He hated the ooman languages.

The ooman’s face turned sour with confusion. He watched as you raised a hand to his chest, where his heart beats. A hiss surged past his mandibles. With a hand, he snatched your wrist and pinned it above your head harshly. Hopefully, you would learn a lesson. Not a single waft of terror rolled from your tiny, fragile body.

It jerked at his heart harder. In an instant, the Yautja yanked himself away from you with disgust. Yet, the way you stumbled from the lack of a steady body to protect you, he moved to help you. Halfway through the motion, he paused, arms falling to his sides. He needed to leave. Now.

A simple button had his cloak reactivating and gone from your sight. His feet were cemented in place right before you. You could still feel him, standing there. He observed you after you finally ripped yourself from the wall and began the trek of wherever you were heading.

Like your shadow, he followed you. All the way, even as you opened a door to a dingey old building and up the stairs. The Yautja followed your every move even as you prepared for bed and laid down. He watched you struggle to find comfort, kicking, squirming, and shivering. The distress clearly evident. Strangely enough, he wanted nothing more to march into your room and comfort you. But, the Yautja stayed.

When he knew it was time to become homebound, the Yautja gave you one last look. Days in, days out, he’s been your shadow, observing your every move. For the fifteen rotations of your planet, he’s been there. He didn’t allow himself to be seen, by anyone. Including yourself. He was there though.

.

Sleeping was difficult. A struggle to find peace within the storm raging inside of you now. It felt a door had been opened and couldn’t be shut. You felt incomplete now. A distraught noise escaped your lips as you fulfilled your worthless job. You leaned heavily on the counter with a sigh, eyes shutting. All you saw through the darkness was flashes of that night.

The night were everything changed.

On the day afterwards, you took an unfortunate day off from work. As much as you needed the money, research was needed to be done. For the entire day, you searched through every article possible about soulmates. Everything. You also dug into anything that was close to whatever had… saved you. It had saved you then disappeared. But it left behind a feeling that was consuming you every thought.

Was this what it felt like to be abandoned? You whined at the thought and opened your eyes. Work needed to be done. If only you knew the consequences.

#yautja #predator #yautja x reader #yautja x you #alien vs predator #predator x reader #yautja x human #predator x you #predator x human #x reader

[fairuzfan]

Hi I’m sorry to barge in about this but these last few posts about feeling invalid in ethnicity hit home for me. My grandfather was Lebanese and died before I could meet him, and aside from my mother I have no other Lebanese culture in my life. I have always felt pride in my heritage (especially after learning about grandpas possible skirmishes against the IDF? Unclear) but I’ve always felt like an outsider because I don’t know many other Arabs/SWANA irl and wasn’t raised in a typical Lebanese home. Obviously there are major differences between these two situations, but I wanted to know if you had any more suggestions on how to find community? At least for someone to tell me if I’m appropriating a culture I am only a fourth of. Again Sorry, I know this isn’t what you do here and I understand if it’s wasting your time. Thanks for being on this stupid app regardless

hey your grandpa sounds badass! im sorry you've always felt like an outsider... i will say, i'm not sure if it's cultural appropriation if you have familial ties to lebanon and acknowledge your history there. if anything, i think you still have a right to interact with it as a way to investigate your grandfather's history.

something that really connects me to palestine is literature. books, poetry, essays, think pieces — these expose me to a wide range of opinions and understandings of the world around them. do you happen to know if your grandfather had any writings from back then? or if you can ask your mother for stories about him? i've been trying to get my own grandpa on the phone to hear about his experiences in palestine before the Nakba.

it also might help to look into different writers and artists online and interact with them. I share a lot of tweets from palestinians (doctors, artists, writers) because that's where i learn the most about palestinian culture in palestine and the diaspora. I know I recommended them earlier, but I'd look up Radius of Arab American Writers. Their vibe is something I think you'd appreciate.

if you're part of any distinct groups like medical care or environmentalists, i would google "Lebanese Doctor Association" or "Lebanese Archivists." That's how I found librarians and archivists for Palestine.

but literature is still my go-to either way. I don't know many lebanese writers, but I do know fairuz LOL and she's probably the most famous lebanese person. Khalil Jibran is also a famous lebanese writer you might look into.

if anyone else has any tips, feel free to add on. im sorry, i don't know if i helped too much. i hope that you can reconnect with your grandfather's heritage and learn more about him. good luck and, more than anything, have fun.

[deathmetalunicorn1]

Thank you for fulfilling my other request and I absolutely adored it, your work is just so great!

I was hoping if you could do an emotionally constipated reader and their relationship with Lu Bu, Kojiro, Qi Shi Huang, and Jack the Killer. I was thinking that the reader hasn’t experienced much romantic love and is new to it all and I was hoping if you could write some head cannons for it. Thank you very much and not need to fret if you can’t do it!

-Lu Bu- You were like two peas in a pod, other than joy when fighting strong opponents or boredom when fighting weak opponents, Lu Bu didn’t show much emotion either. He wasn’t bothered by your real lack of affection, as he wasn’t overly affectionate either. However, for that reason alone, that’s why you both got along so easily, you didn’t try to smother each other in affection and basically you just vibed with each other, sitting side by side, occasionally holding hands, but you were content with that.

-Kojiro- Was very affectionate with you, wanting to shower you with love, which was a bit unnerving, but it made him happy, so you didn’t stop him. He originally thought you were just a bit shy when you first started dating, but he soon learned that you hadn’t had much experience with romance, but then again, neither did he. Kojiro was sweet with you, never pushing you and if you were to give him affection, the rare time you pecked his cheek, he would melt, giving you such a big goofy grin that you wanted to do it more and more.

-Qui Shi Huang- When he learned that you hadn’t had much time for romance and affection in your life, he was fully prepared to smother you in so much love, to make up for lost time, in his words. He constantly wanted to cuddle you, holding you close, laying his head on your lap, making you dote on him, peppering your face with so many kisses. It was strange, you did not mind his affections, you were originally a bit uneasy with them, but they slowly made you feel happy and warm, welcoming his affections.

-Jack- He was a gentleman, he wasn’t going to force his affections upon you if you did not wish them, starting off small, holding your hand and pecking the back of it when he would greet you or say goodbye to you. Jack would recite poetry to you, smiling as you leaned your head down on his shoulder, touching him only slightly, but for you, it was a big deal, as you weren’t completely sure how to go about giving him affection. He adored you, leaning his head down on yours, which made you smile only slightly as he continued to read to you, sitting quietly together.

#record of ragnarok #ror x reader #ror lu bu #ror kojiro sasaki #ror qin shi huang #ror jack the ripper

[cboffshore]

introducing there's a light on: a character playlist experiment

Or: what would happen if I made a Nadakhan character playlist, but only let myself use Fall Out Boy tracks?

Tracklist and notes below the cut, as usual.

A word before we begin: This is both a very intense character exercise and a very casual affair. Very intense in that each song here was heavily vetted over a period of a few months (and, of course, we know I've been doing Nadakhan character work for years on end now), and very casual in that the decision to create this playlist was a quick one, almost a joke. I chose Fall Out Boy for no other reason than, thanks to a new album release and concert cycle in 2023, the fact that I was very into Fall Out Boy. It was a good choice, though; FOB harbors a lot of unique, complex themes that lent themselves nicely to this project. There's also the unique meta angle of lead singer Patrick Stump performing in a style that ordinarily doesn't pair with the genre FOB calls home and pulling it off pretty much flawlessly, which is a neat parallel to Nadakhan's entire origin story.

Some of the songs here are so on the nose you'd think they were written for Nadakhan; others might be here for a single, perfect lyric, or even just Vibes. I should also note that there is no particular order to these songs. I could very well have lined them up to match his seasonal arc, but as a nod to the common critique (and astute observation) that Nadakhan is pretty erratic, I let each song fall wherever it lay while I was tossing them into the playlist. I'll do the notes for these in order of the playlist for ease, though. Additionally, these aren't comprehensive notes - truly, I could write an essay for a lot of these individually. (Please, please, please ask me about songs on here. I might have more to say.) For now, these are just the strongest correlations I picked up.

Of course, I think the best way to get through this playlist is to go listen and just... think about his character. Drop the preconceived notions and the runaway fanonization. Think of what he does, and when he does it, and who's close to or far away from him.

Enough of my blabbering. You're about to get enough of that from Pete Wentz's poetry.

"Love From The Other Side" opens with sweeping, mysterious orchestral work that crashes, hard, into angry drums and screaming guitar work. From there, the entire song acts like an overture for the rest of the playlist: themes of growing up, getting out, and feeling out of place. The lyric that cemented this song's place on the playlist ties into Nadakhan's relationship with his father, as well as his hidden self-esteem issues as he tries to live up to his final promise: "This city always hangs a little bit lonely on me, loose/Like a kid playing pretend in his father's suit." I also particularly like the bridge line "Give up what you love before it does you in" - a gorgeous little nod at the end of the season, where what he works so hard for does indeed drown him.

"Baby Annihilation" is a unique one - fully spoken word by Wentz, with a surreal, dreamlike backing track. I chose this one for its impressive lyrical parallel to a line Nadakhan speaks during the finale: "But you know what they say: if you want a job done right, you gotta do it yourself." After the fact, however, I thought it sounded a little more like someone else - possibly Jay - talking about the experience itself, or perhaps Nadakhan himself looking in after everything crumbled. It's less of a song and more a series of cryptic observations that I can't quite break down - which parallels how I feel about analyzing Nadakhan. There's always something that feels a little off.

"My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark" is classic FOB, and again, opens with a delightfully parallel line that lights up like a caution sign warning you what Nadakhan's main tactic is: "Be careful makin' wishes in the dark, dark/Can't be sure when they've hit their mark, mark." Tonally, this one is fast, angry, and strong - it sounds like fight music, honestly. It's an anthem all around, complete with layered group vocalizations in the back that remind me of an entire crew singing at once.

"27" is the single most Nadakhanish song I have ever, ever heard. I could go into extreme detail on every line here (and honestly, maybe someday I will!), but I think his attitude towards his crew and how he hides his plans from them is best summed up with this sequence:

My mind is a safe And if I keep it then we all get rich My body is an orphanage We take everyone in Doing lines of dust and sweat

This is one of those songs you need to put both earbuds in for and just... listen. Nothing else. Hands in your lap and think of him as a character, and suddenly every line should fall into place. (Also, sick guitar solo!)

"I've Got All This Ringing In My Ears And None On My Fingers" is here for a very specific part: the first verse. While the whole song is a nice fit, I absolutely have to highlight the opening few lines, because... wow, if this isn't a perfect fit, I couldn't say what is:

You're a canary I'm a coal mine 'Cause sorrow is just all the rage Take one for the team You all know what I mean

I shouldn't need to explain this one too much. (Also, yes, this is what I named that essay after.) After this point, the lyrics touch on themes of desperate (if ill-fated) love, followed up by wailing vocals in the closer and some very iffy-sounding cheering that fits well with his desperation to be someone.

"Bishop's Knife Trick" was one of the first songs that I knew had to make it onto this playlist. Most striking is the repeated line "The glow of the cities below lead us back/to the places we never should have left," which reminded me both of the floating landmasses and of Nadakhan running away from home. I also think the bridge, with its hourglass imagery and themes of desperation and refusal to let go of the past, is beautifully fitting. This, too, has a haunting, grand tone to it: lots of echoey effects and dramatic chords and reverb.

"West Coast Smoker" includes two very important components for this project: a line specifically about being the last of one's kind ("I'm the last of my kind/and that's all that should matter to you") and a female guest vocalist. The former line ties in nicely with Nadakhan's superiority complex, that belief that he deserves more power than he has simply because he has any power at all (and the whole realm collapse thing, too). The latter, however - in the form of Debbie Harry of Blondie - is a neat little meta thing that I only recently noticed. The first time I ever heard this song, I thought the backing vocals were Stump doing some weird falsetto, or maybe someone else entirely from the band. Honestly, I could barely even hear those vocals. Turns out, that's not the case! When I learned the truth, my entire perception changed. In a similar way, once you realize how much of Nadakhan's story (and all of Skybound) is driven by women (regardless of how they're treated), you never quite see it the same again. Nadakhan's motivated by an undercurrent of female influence in the same way that Harry's vocals lend something unique to this track.

"Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On A Bad Bet" starts strong with a nice parallel to Nadakhan's signature persuasion tactic: "When he walks into the room, the walls lean in to listen" and only gets better from there. My favorite part of this song is the infamous "Wish I didn't, I didn't..." sequence that culminates in a very apt line: "Don't just want to be a footnote in someone else's happiness." We know Nadakhan's bitter about having to make other people's dreams come true by virtue of who he is; in an attempt to single himself out, he twists that power, ensuring he makes it out of the footnotes and into the main text of everyone's story. Finally, I love the line "It's a sign - what if you peaked early?" Because he did, in fact, peak early. Twice, actually. First, his heyday before his imprisonment; then, as Flintlocke points out, the brief period where he fully controlled the skies and had already won. Oh, and the fact that the entire song reads like a man trying to convince someone he's trying to woo to leave their existing relationship for his sake? Sounds familiar...

"Heaven, Iowa" is desperately, gorgeously sentimental - a simple, surreal plea to be remembered well, and to be loved. This specifically ties into the moment in the season finale, where he desperately (and apparently repetitively) asks Delara if she still loves him: "Tell me, when the party ends/Will you still love who I am?" (Once again: crashing guitars and layered vocals add extra depth. I love the way this one shifts from simple maraca backing to absolutely wild, desperate percussion and backing choir.)

"I've Got A Dark Alley..." is another sentimental one, maybe a little more platonic or even introspective, that examines failure and disappointment. It also reflects, quite simply and beautifully, how Nadakhan pushes people away and digs his own grave by refusing to let others in:

And the record won't stop skipping And the lies just won't stop slipping And besides my reputation's on the line

"Heaven's Gate" is one of the very few genuine love songs FOB has ever crafted, and it's perfect for what little of the Nadakhan-Delara dynamic we see. There's the rebellious imagery of breaking into heaven, but the lovely faith of knowing one's partner will help them out; there's a near-obsessive note of devotion. It's even a waltz! Most fitting, though, is the line "everything else is a substitute for your love," which I think nicely represents how Nadakhan brushes off his relationship with Delara early on. Sure, it fuels so much of his plot, but he hides it by just keeping busy and hoping those actions all help him in the end.

"Sophomore Slump or Comeback Of The Year" is both confident and insecure - trying to convince the listener that the singer is something special, but being a little too desperate about it at points. I added this one specifically for the pairing of "I'll keep singing this lie if you'll keep believing it" and "the best part of 'believe' is the lie," both of which are desperately repeated. I also appreciated the the bitter remembrance of better times: "the kids you used to love/but then we grew old."

"The (Shipped) Gold Standard" is a restless track, flipping between memories, doubts, impossible future plans, and a desire to be honest without the ability. I do hear Nadakhan's fear of vulnerability here: "I wanna scream 'I love you' from the top of my lungs/but I'm afraid that someone else'll hear me." Oh, and the whole "business of souls" bit, which occurs in a bizarrely angry section of the otherwise very smooth song - almost like the mutiny breakdown.

"From Now On We Are Enemies" is so, so much. "A downward spiral, just a pirouette/Getting worse til there's nothing left" is an apt summary of his story, for starters. Beyond that, this song is somewhere between a confession and an analysis, a self-critique, in fact. Just... go listen to this one. Seriously. Every line here works. There's desire, there's hatred, there's fear... it's delicious.

"The Music Or The Misery" is here specifically for the line "I am indifferent (yet I'm a total wreck)/I'm every cliche, but I simply do it best" as a neat nod both towards his hypocrisy at calling Jay an avoidant coward despite doing the same thing and his meta origin as a mashup of classical literary and pop culture sources.

"Jet Pack Blues" is also only here for one specific part (as well as its overall melancholic tone and church chimes). That would be the weirdly pointed "Did you ever love her? Do you know? Or did you never want to be alone?" that occurs multiple times and reminds me immensely of Jay's accusation in episode 60. Although I like to believe that Nadakhan's love for Delara was genuine (and inf act the only thing keeping him tethered at all), it's never definitively answered, and it haunts me. Was he using her? Was she using him? Was it ever real love, or was it an excuse for power? Jay was onto something, honestly.

"Pavlove" is a song with a weird, weird history. Up until very recently, the only official way to access it was to own a specific version of the album it served as a bonus track on; otherwise, piracy! Or the one YouTube listing for it. Anyway, I like the history of this song as fun nod at the limited knowledge of Nadakhan post-Skybound - he might be a historical figure, but besides Jay and Nya, nobody else has those direct memories of interacting with him so recently. This one works lyrically, too - "I want to make you as lonely as me" and "I'm not ready for a handshake with death, no" both reflect his vindictive yet terrified personality. And all the mirror imagery! And "It's three drinks too late to talk to anyone but myself" indicating his tendency to hide things? Perfection.

"So Much (For) Stardust" is "Love From The Other Side" after it's been put through an emotional wringer. If "Love..." is Nadakhan immediately post-release, "So Much..." is him watching his world collapse and realizing that maybe, just maybe, he messed up and wasted his time. It's got themes of lost confidence and insecurity, and the painful truth that sometimes, you do need to lean on others - a fact Nadakhan refuses to accept that then ends his reign. He also attempts to get back to his glory days, which is gorgeously reflected in the lyrical callback to the first track on this playlist:

In another life you were my babe In another life you were the sunshine of my lifetime What would trade the pain for? I'm not sure

I used to be a real go-getter I used to think it'd all get better

Most painfully, I love the way this song ends as a parallel to how Nadakhan's plans crumble. First, the instrumentals fade out; then, the backing vocalists, until it's just the lead singer pleading with a musical void.

"Chicago Is So Two Years Ago" is a weird, weird way to close the playlist, which means it's great that this isn't any sort of meaningful order. This a little more upbeat than other tracks here, but the themes of homesickness, avoidance, and bitter nostalgia remain. Also, this is where the title of the playlist comes from:

But there's a light on in Chicago And I know I should be home

Just remember: Chicago and Djinjago have the same number of syllables. Do with that information what you will.

#lila speaks #ninjago skybound #ninjago nadakhan #analysis freak lila back on her bullshit #Spotify

[burntblueberrywaffles]

Fic tag game

got tagged by @fangeek-girl ❤️❤️

How many works do you have on Ao3?

I have 7 works but 3 of them are fanfic lol

2. What's your Ao3 word count?

1896 words total. Your girl is definitely one for brevity LOL

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Wednesday, that one drabble I made for The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, and I've been writing for Star Wars (though I haven't posted anything yet) and Mrs maisel (i wrote a whole short fic for that almost a year ago but I forgot about it completely until I found it in my notes apps, I should get around to posting it)  

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I don't have 5 fics total but here's my current count in order:

1-Lies

2-The world's a little blurry

3-Pretend

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes always! the fact that people are READING my stuff and taking time to comment has me 🥺🥺🥺

My writing ao3 isnt linked to my main email adress though so sometimes it takes me a while to respond because I wont see it until I periodically check my fic stats

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

.....Probably The world's a little blurry let's be real (I'm going to fix it it in the next one in the series, I promise!!!)

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

akdadhjgsjgd hard to say all my shit is angsty, I guess Pretend?? kind of, it's less of a downer than the other ones. The final part of Come a little closer will have a happy ending though I promise! (already finished writing the end, I just need to write the beginning lol)

8. Do you get hate on fics?

No ❤️ I don't think any of my stuff has gotten enough attention for that lol

9. Do you write smut? What kind?

NO my ace ass has no experience with that so I wouldn't know how 🧍‍♀️🧍‍♀️🧍‍♀️(I might need to in some future project, fortunately a lot of my friends are perverts (affectionate) so I could probably ask for some guidance if it comes to that LOL)

10. Do you write cross-overs?

No, I'm not a big fans of crossovers in general so certainly have never felt compelled to write one.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No

12. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

No

13. What WIP you would like to finish, but doubt you ever will?

So many ugh I cant even choose, it's more rare for me to actually finish something than the opposite, that's why I'll never post anything unless the whole thing is finished (only exception is my current series, but that's because I felt like each fic making up the series were self-contained enough that they didn't need to follow up immediatly to work? if that makes sense - plus the first one was a one shot and only thought of how to follow it up after posting it)

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

ANIDALA MY BELOVED

15. What are your writing strengths?

I think I'm really good at imagery and emotion (being a poetry writer goes brrrrr)

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

DESCRIPTIONS oh god I'm so bad at it. My fic are vibes only lmao, what are they wearing? where are they? what movements are they doing? NOT IMPORTANT how about I offer you 12 metaphors on how this character is feeling instead. (though I'm forcing myself to work on it haha)

I also struggle with any longer story arc... there's a reason all my stuff is so short lol

17. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

If it's in french it would be pretty fun since it's my ✨first language✨ hehe. For other languages I'd see if one of my friends speak it but otherwise idk if I'd include it bc I don't want to butcher another language, I've seen too many english authors put french through the ringer it's painful 😭

18. First fandom you wrote for?

I guess Julie and the Phantoms? I never posted it but I had a pretty advanced fic for that. unless you count the 13 reasons why fic I posted on wattpas when i was early teen but we dont talk about that

19. Favourite fic you've ever written?

right now it has to be The world's a little blurry, I just love how it came out hehe

20. What fic would you want to rewrite one day?

none right now.

Anyway tagging @nonamemanga @beri-allen @unlifeira @realmermaid333 @suchaladyy @witchysith @king-crimson-works @theycallme-thejackal and anyone else who might want to do it!

#tag game #burntblueberrywaffles

[laventadorn]

In re: the Snape music conversation

I’ve been thinking about this a lot in relation to my own Snape fic I’ve been writing, and I 100% agree that Snape is a masochist who would permit himself little enjoyment, especially while Voldemort is active.

However, I’ve been trying to picture how Snape would react if he lived post-DH and was allowed to (read: forced to by others) heal, and I feel like, for someone whose life depended on keeping himself so tightly contained, poetry would be most effective. Typical of Snape, it would not be “enjoyment” he would gain from it so much as it would be pain he could appreciate, alone. I think, if someone could point him in the right direction, he would be inclined to the modernists - T.S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, anyone writing in the aftermath of WW1 - and also Sylvia Plath. Lady Lazarus, in particular screams Snape to me: “Dying is an art/Like everything else/I do it exceptionally well/I do it so it feels like hell”

With all that said, for some reason I’ve always loved the image of him and Harriet vibing to Alanis Morissette somewhere, so do with that what you will lol.

Thank you so much for creating this world that is so rewarding to think about! I’ll have to do a reread soon.

it's a very interesting question! poetry is as difficult as music, i think, and for a similar reason -- it's about this private emotional response and just being in touch with the experience. with music you appreciate the sounds and with poetry, the language and images it inspires.

and just as with music, i can't imagine what poetry he'd like... it's definitely another layer of "my own experience and preferences are inseparable from this." since poetry is a very personal experience, whenever i try to match him to a poem or poet, it just winds up being "poetry i like" and my answer is either "he would not be into this" or "i think i'm only imagining him being into this because i am." like, i absolutely love the romantics, and nature poetry in general. i can't imagine snape thinking, "yeah william blake is where it's at." more likely: "i can't stand this weirdo."

the modernist poetry and the aftermath of the first world war is an interesting idea! i picture him as being irritated by the fragmented narratives of modernism lmao. but at the same time, he could find solace in this sort of confused emptiness.

i can much more easily picture him reading depressing books :) but i don't imagine him as having a favorite book. i don't think he'd read like that. it would just be an intellectual exercise, and/or a way of sublimating his misery. if he's feeling wild, he'll read one of those jacobean tragedies with poisoned bibles or something. (note: i have not actually read this play, i just know about it.)

harriet, reading it so they'll have something to talk about: hey what the fuck?

snape: i have loads more where that came from.

#laventadorn replies #tner tag

[gxrlcinema]

a message for new users:

tumblr isn't like a lot of sites you're used to. if you're younger than i am (and it seems like a good deal of you are) you're probably used to social media sites that throw anything at you to get your attention. sites with algorithms that show you stuff they think you want to see. sites with verification and visible follower counts, so that you can see who is important. sites where you're expected to consume content, and not necessarily to create it. those sites are fun, and it's totally valid that you've learned to engage with them in the ways that you have. but it's not like that here.

a lot of you might be too young to remember when blogs were a mainstay of the internet. basically, people had their own little website where they posted stuff they made (usually writing), often centered around a specific topic or theme. so like, cooking blogs, poetry blogs, parenting blogs, etc. tumblr came about as a way to combine the individual expression of a blog with some of the more social aspects of social media. this way, you could post your own stuff to your blog, but you could also collect cool stuff you liked by reblogging. and then your blog was this cool hybrid of stuff you made and stuff you liked. and you could go find the cool stuff again, because it was on your blog.

you see, tumblr wasn't built for users to be audience members. tumblr was built for creators, and eventually became really well known for the way it cultivated communities. especially fan communities. part of why this worked well is because almost everyone participated. people shared their thoughts and cool stuff they made, they reblogged stuff they liked, maybe even added on to it or talked about why they liked it so much. when we talk about 2014 tumblr and how cool it was, (it wasn't but, y'know, nostalgia), part of that was how a lot of us were teenagers and young people on a site that let us make friends and build communities, where we could completely cultivate our own experience.

being on tumblr without participating in tumblr is kind of like having your camera and microphone off on a zoom call. yeah, we see that you're here. maybe you like a post sometimes, sort of like using the zoom thumbs up. but you're basically a ghost. and it's sad, because we want to hang out in cool little communities, but it feels like we're talking to a sea of faceless voids who don't respond.

when current users say that they want to scare off twitter and tiktok users, or people who make stuff complain about the lack of reblogs or comments, this is why. we're losing the communal aspect of tumblr that made it so great. more and more, users have no profile picture, blank blog titles, and are private or have no posts. they like posts instead of reblogging them. they don't engage. they're audience members. they're blank zoom squares. you feel like you're talking to no one, and it's sad.

so i beg of you, please engage. please reblog that story you liked, and tell the author the one line that made you squeal in the text of the reblog. please reblog that cool gifset you saw, and tell op that the colors are pretty. please reblog that cool art and let the artist know that you wish you could get it tattooed. and, above all, please make your own posts. talk about the weather today, write that story that's been in your head for a few weeks, make fan art of characters from two different shows making out, say something so weird it ends up screenshotted in a "cryptid vibes"pinterest board. send an ask to a user who's been around a while and ask them about the skeleton wars.

this is one of the only spaces left that isn't selling you something, that isn't trying to keep your eyes on it by any means necessary. this is one of the only spaces left that doesn't want you to be an audience member. so please, don't kill this space by refusing to take part in it.

welcome to tumblr. i hope you get the most out of being here that you can.

#how to tumblr #new to tumblr #new account #new user #hello tumblr #twitterpocalypse #long post #sorry but nobody will read it if i add a cut

[ostrichmonkey-games]

Fractal Romance Design Dive

Finally writing about Fractal Romance!

Fractal Romance began life as an entry for the Record Collection Jam, inspired by the album Swimmer by Tennis (still one of my all time favorite albums). At the time, I wanted to try my hand at some rough Belonging Outside Belonging style design - and Fractal Romance is what ended up emerging from that experiment!

One of my favorite things about BOB (and/or No Dice No Masters) design is the use of different tokens to activate moves, rather than relying on dice rolls and bonuses. To summarize the gist of it, to use Strong Moves you have to spend tokens, and when you use Weak Moves you gain tokens. There are also sometimes Neutral Moves, which are things your playbook/character can always do.

This token economy, move, and playbook design was really the focus in Fractal Romance. Mechanics like setting elements I ended up playing around with in other projects like Extracausal: Monolith.

I also wanted to experiment with different "procedural elements" - or as I consider them, game mechanics that rely on some level of random procedural generation (great examples are dungeon crawls based on random tables, or the faction/heat/entanglements mechanics in Blades in the Dark). There wasn't going to be any dice in Fractal Romance, so I decided on another pretty standard procedural tool: playing cards.

This decision also gave me a great token to use - the cards themselves. Players would gain cards by making Weak Moves and spend cards to use Strong Moves. Cards are also used to randomly generate the setting of the game, the Fractal Palace - an infinite and abstract environment (but we'll get to tone and aesthetic a little later). So in addition to spending cards to make Strong Moves, cards could be played from your hand to generate the rooms you travel through, the NPCs you encounter, and to manifest solutions to obstacles.

This forms the mechanical backbone of the game. Wander around, see what you find, spend your cards and gain new cards.

So what is the game actually about? I call it a "surreal hangout" because that's what it is. It's as much a game to play, as it is an excuse to chill out somewhere weird with your friends. The main "goal" or "motivation" of the player characters is to learn more about yourself through experiencing the Fractal Palace.

Players take on different Forms aka playbooks. There's nothing explicit about what each Form is about, but the way they're written let players fill in that space themselves, with, what I think is minimal effort.

The Forms are relatively simple, and writing them was really more about channeling the vibe of the album (each Form is roughly based on a particular song, but I don't remember which is which woops). Mechanically, there's not a ton I can say about my approach to writing them! It was as much poetry as it was game design. Sometimes you just have to write something and see what emerges.

It took some noodling on word choice (and having Swimmer on on repeat) to create the different Forms. For the moves, it was about balancing metaphor and poetry with something that still feels tangible enough to actually do.

The Fractal Palace, players' Forms, and the various denizens of the palace have been described as vaporwave-adjacent and compared to the aesthetic of Paradise Killer, which is kind of the goal. I wanted to create a slightly neon, hazy, misty, and strange setting for the game so mission accomplished.

Remember how you can use cards in your hand to create rooms of the Fractal Palace and the denizens that live their? Here's how that works;

Each suit in the deck as a set of moves that either can happen within a Room or be performed by a denizen.

Each card value (faces and numerals) have a set of tones and aesthetics that can be attributed to that Room or Denizen.

Each specific card in the deck also has its own individual aesthetic.

Put together multiple cards and you end up with a fully fleshed out Room or Denizen.

Here's some examples of what that can create;

A soft glow from flickering overhead lamps that swing in a source less breeze. A phone rings in a booth filled with teal potted plants. Someone sits in a red diner booth across the room. White marble floor is run with gold veins. The ceiling fades into infinity above. A fountain burbles with splashes of tie-dye color. Jack of Diamonds: white suit, head is a moth, wears gloves • Wants; interesting conversation • Needs; lasting relationships • Fears; losing themself when opening up Queen of Clubs: alabaster skull, black glass crown, Hawaiian shirt • Wants; new experiences, new perceptions • Needs; to really see their reflection • Fears; stagnancy and complacency

As far as layout and graphical design, this was a jam project so I didn't spend too much time on it. The gradients and font choices were inspired by Swimmer, which has the sort of hazy, quasi-80s vibe to it. This was also my first time playing around a little bit with collaging. Fun fact though, the dimensions of the pages are the same size as a CD insert, and I stuck to a page limit that an insert could reasonable have.

If you're interested in exploring the Fractal Palace yourself, you can check out the game here and the first expansion of seven new playbooks here.

Fractal Romance is also currently part of the TTRPGs for Trans Rights in Florida bundle over on itch along with a slew of stellar games, which runs until April 8th 2023!

#fractal romance #design dive #indie ttrpgs #ttrpgs

[glorified-red]

Can you give some examples of show vs tell in your own fics? And do you always have to show?

I'd love to! Writing advice is one of my favorite things to do on here

Whenever it comes to show vs tell, there's always the question of how much is too much of one category, how to balance it properly, etc. When you have an excess of showing, your writing will read like poetry. When you have an excess of telling, your writing will read like scholarship. Both are useful in their own genres but the fun part is figuring out where your style lies within the spectrum.

I find my balance depends on what I aim to do with my scene. Whenever I want to set the vibe or setting, I begin with telling so my readers instantly know what to imagine, but then I dive into the details to really sharpen the image. This is seen best with You Are Loved, Damian Wayne:

Within the first line I tell: "Gotham was particularly gloomy tonight . . . A thunderstorm was brewing in the distance."

But the next paragraph I show evidence of what I just said: "Tonight the clouds were a harsh shade of coal . . . Rain pattered against the window like tiny bullets trying to chip away at the glass."

So these lines happen within the first two paragraphs very close together. The difference lies within implication. Within the "show" category, it's very obvious theres a storm happening but it doesn't explicitly say "theres a storm" like it does within the "tell" category.

I do the opposite whenever I talk about a character's headspace. I like to show evidence of everything to get the readers to speculate or draw conclusions of whats happening to then tell them the reality when the right moment hits. I find this creates tension rather than confusion.

This is also seen within You Are Loved, Damian Wayne:

Showing: "Damian was many things, vigilant was one of them. Yet, he was still as stone, even his fingers laid without so much as a twitch on top of his lap—it was unnerving . . . His katana was missing from his side, that fact alone made your heart sink . . . You had never seen him weaponless before."

So now we know something is wrong but we can't quite figure out what. It builds tension.

Showing: "There was blood soaked into his hands . . . From so close, you could see a streak of blood on his jawline, a tiny handprint that sagged downwards in a jagged line."

It doesn't explicitly say a child died, but it's painfully obvious and now we know why Damian is upset, but again, that lies within implication.

The best advice I was ever given with telling a character's motivations, emotions, actions, etc, is that you should do this through dialogue rather than exposition. It feels more natural this way and feels less "omnipotent narrator" and more like actual storytelling.

So when I tell within this scene, it's within this line: “A child lost their life today because of my own incompetence,” Damian sighed out harshly, “my own stupid mistakes left a family broken and grieving.” 

Now everything is crystal clear. We know why Damian is upset (he blames himself for a child's death) and it's done so in a way that drives the scene forward emotionally. We can now dissect his emotions and see how him and the reader interact together within this tense moment.

So how you utilize both is what will determine your tone and your style. Again, they're both useful! Especially when paired together in intentional ways. For creative writing, I usually try to reserve telling for establishing setting intially and dialogue. Most writers and movie scriptwriters will do this a lot with driving plot forward through dialogue.

Just experiment, I know I sound like a broken record, but tbh, it's all about experimentation. I didn't get good at the concept of showing until I wrote Nightmare and my entire goal was to just dive into imagery.

Best advice? Write out a scene where you can't say where you are. If your character is at the beach, don't just say that. Talk about the sounds of the waves crashing against the shore, the sand in the shoes, the sun hot against the shoulders. That'll get your brain to start getting used to showing.

#red's writing advice #asks #writing advice #writing tips

[whetstonefires]

💖🎶🛒

For the fanfic ask meme :3

💖 What made you start writing?

I...okay so there's a dumb literal answer to this I'm going to give first. My sixth grade English class was a two-semester-long creative writing seminar, where we were honestly taught almost nothing; the teacher just. Made us write things. Whatever things. For months.

She was incredibly patient with our baby shit, looking back, although when two of her students started writing execrable sixth grade poetry she set us on each other so we could get feedback without her, and managed not to make it obvious she was trying to escape the horror of sing-song childish scansion and the way kids that age take themselves horribly seriously and you have to not laugh.

Her name was Keely and I owe her, because up to that point I had refused to write my ideas down because if I slowed down enough to get a sentence written out I'd have forgotten all the bits that came after and the story was now dead and stupid and it was the worst, so writing was clearly not for me.

(I couldn't really type at this point, and didn't have reliable computer access anyway, and I'm left-handed, which makes writing longhand slightly slower and more difficult no matter what you do. Also you just don't write fast when you're ten.)

But Keely made me, for months, and it turned out this was a skillset I'd just had to work to acquire, and then I could do it and it wasn't a miserable soul-killing process after all. That's the first time I remember learning that lesson in life, and it's such a useful one. (Technically I went through a similar process with reading several years earlier, but that was partly because some very bad pedagogy put me off it at first, so it was less enlightening.)

Less prosaically, I got stuck on writing because I was a voracious reader and I kept thinking up stories, and writing them down was rewarding.

I find it's a great craft because you can get in all kinds of practice without actually doing it; you can string and edit sentences in your head when you have nothing to do or while doing something boring, and critique fiction you're exposed to, and try to understand literally anything you experience, and it's all applicable. As someone who gets frustrated with 1) materials consumed 2) skill plateaus and 3) having a Thing around after having made it, writing in the era of the word processor and cheap data storage is ideal, because it's both easier to keep my skills growing and harder to notice when they aren't than with most creative outlets, because I can store all the millions of words I've written in an object the size of my thumbnail, and because it's not supposed to do anything useful in the first place. If it does that's a happy bonus but if it doesn't I don't have to feel bad.

Fic is nice because it's got an audience to share the Things with, which makes it even better. And because you get to start at around the complexity level of a third or even fourth draft, skipping a lot of grunt work that I think is honestly overvalued--not that it's not valuable or important skill to have, especially if you want to be a novelist, but also there's a reason people on the whole mostly tell familiar stories over again, but better. The first go will suck in basically any medium. Insisting on starting there every time can lead to subtler skills getting underdeveloped.

🎶 Do you listen to music while you write? What song have you been playing on loop lately?

Occasionally? Most of the time it would just be a distraction I'd have to work through, setting myself up for sensory overload and maybe a migraine.

But when I do it often is a single song on a loop, because the point is that I'm keeping myself suspended in a particular vibe as I pursue a specific scene or character relationship or something. Hasn't happened recently, but I should maybe pull that trick out and see if it helps with any of my stuck pieces.

I seem to recall writing something once to about 19 iterations of Dessa's 'The Lamb?' Oh and several passages of Angels Still Have Faces were written to the Sonata Arctica song I took the title from; it helped me get Angeal to the right state of repressed extreme melodrama.

🛒 What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc.

Um. Food? Definitely food, between my strong opinions about subsistence informing social priorities and my personal sense that meals are both a major part of the daily pattern of life and very grounding in a place and body, I come back to it endlessly. 'Two people in a room (or other defined space granting privacy) trying so so hard to communicate' is, you know, pretty common motif but I go embarrassingly hard on it.

I'm a sucker for certain flavors of angst, and for when someone is very hopeless and then someone else gives them support. I think maybe people breaking down and asking for help and then actually getting it? And just how gross and messy it feels to be miserable and how much of it happens in the body.

What else? I feel like a third party would be better able to call me out on my patterns. A lot of them after all are the patterns of my thoughts, to a sufficient extent that I experience the universe in those terms by default and that's why it keeps being there.

When I describe hugs I tend to be very precise about where everyone's arms are because I feel like that's important. I try to be specific about features of nature like the species of a bird or tree or whatever, unless the pov character wouldn't notice such a thing, and even then I often know for the sake of precision. Lots of hand gestures, and putting of one's hands on pieces of scenery and so forth, that's my theater background coming through mostly. A tendency to emphasize the kinetic relationship between objects perhaps a bit more than usual.

If I'm describing a character that has an existing visual form, I drill in on the most distinctive details I can find; this is probably by way of mild face-blindness meaning I care a great deal about whether someone has a crooked eyebrow or distinctive dimpling or something, because I'm not going to learn their face fast enough to get away with not being able to id them and call them by name until then. It usually takes months.

Diana Wynne Jones advised making sure your mental image when you describe something, especially a place, is as precise as possible, so you won't decline into abstraction, and I've found following this advice to reliably net good results. If you only know about the things you actually mention, things get flat real fast.

(The trick then is not getting bogged down in deciding which things to mention.)

I dunno, what would you guys say are my signature moves?

#ask #hoc est meum #corgisenpai #ask game #writing #fanfiction

[professorspork]

It's no longer canon-compliant for obvious reasons, but if you're hungering for more Bees content this weekend might I point you to you and me and this temptation? This first time fic has everything: tenderness, bad Yang jokes, and even a bit of Suffering Weiss as a treat.

I'm also delighted in the vibes I managed to get exactly right:

“You’ve gotta give me something, here. What are you thinking about?”

Blake’s going to regret being honest. “Your arms.”

“My arms?” Yang crows, not so much incredulous as incredibly pleased. “Man, wait until you see the rest of me, if you’re so distracted by the sexiness of my arms.”

Blake struggles to school her expression, warring instincts of don’t encourage her and see what else we can make her say refusing to come to agreement. “It’s a real pickle,” she murmurs, as drily as she can manage.

Yang launches into a long boast, and the cadence of it is so comfortingly familiar Blake lets herself zone out, just for a second. Back when they first met, Yang had been an indefatigable flirt, her ego so large that even the vast, hallowed halls of Beacon didn’t quite seem big enough to contain it. Learning that Yang could dish it out, but she couldn’t take it—that the unexpected experience of someone flirting back would turn her into a flustered, stammering mess—probably did more to coax Blake out of her self-imposed shell than just about everything else that first semester combined.

It’s a nice memory. Even now.

When she tunes back in, Yang’s still bragging. “—just feel like you could set your bar higher. Can I interest you in my ankles, next?” As if to prove her point, she lifts her feet out of the water and wiggles—somewhat incongruously—her toes, though Blake supposes wiggling her ankles would have been a bit more difficult to pull off, physiologically speaking.

“No, stop, put them away, I can’t take it,” Blake says in monotone, and Yang laughs and laughs.

“Fair enough, though,” she says, when her guffaws subside. “If it’s my arms, it’s my arms. I could probably write sonnets about your ears.”

Blake feels them twitch and flatten at the unexpected compliment, and tries to pretend they didn’t. “If you’re not careful I’m going to take you up on it. Sure you don’t want to stick to a haiku? Sonnets are long.”

“Not that long. I’ve got plenty to say. And tons of stuff rhymes with ears. Face your fears; been waiting for years.” She stops, considers. “No more tears?”

“Okay, that’s enough poetry for one night,” Blake chuckles, finally giving into Yang’s natural gravitational pull on her and scooting closer.

READ THE REST

#rwby #rwby spoilers #bumbleby #blake and yang #fic what i wrote

[sage-the-unwise]

I wanna hear some thoughts on my pathetic baby loser failson (beloved) five pebbles

oh hell yeah i love hate love this guy and i have SO many thoughts

so, some fun hcs for starters (only one and a half of which pertain to him in canon, the others are just vague sketches of what his vibe is like):

he would like tame impala but only partially in a male manipulator way

if he were a smoker i think he'd vape and then switch to menthols (something tells me he'd be the kind of guy to start smoking because he thinks it looks cool)

hes transmasc coded. real he/they energy

his construction suffered pretty extreme budget cuts due to the political controversy surrounding his placement over the Anointed Citadel (there was a defund five pebbles campaign led by the spiritual leaders there lmao) and thus he is noticeably smaller than the other iterators

he'd be a pretty great poet, and would make a killing in clout off posting poetry to instagram if that existed in rain world lmao (if his iterator comrades appreciated it, he'd post poetry to one of their global message boards, but not many of them care for artistic pursuits. he'd get a temp ban for wasting space)

if you dug through enough pearls in garbage wastes you'd find the equivalent of amateur tumblr poetry from 2012, all written (and some partially scrambled) by pebs himself. before moon's collapse, NSH made it a project to get their hands on some of it so they could make fun of him by reading it aloud in vc. that never panned out

pebs and NSH would've collabed to produce shitty soundcloud rap, but they'd have a falling out over the duo's artistic direction and they'd split up. pebs would try to produce his own backing tracks, fail at it, and give up, and NSH would go on to make insane 120 bpm hyperpop you could mosh to and open for 100 gecs

and now for some sad character analysis:

i think pebs has like, very big feelings and not a great grip on how to handle them. he isn't maliciously selfish but he experiences his own pain as so all consuming that he forgets that his actions affect other people and simply follows his impulses without much thought. this obviously doesn't excuse his actions - he's harmed his friends in some very real, tangible and painful ways and they should hold him accountable for that (were i to write a 5p recovery arc he would definitely get taken to task by the others, who are also Messy. it would perhaps be a very dramatic fight, but i think if their heads were clear enough and moon had some means of communicating with them you could get a good approximation of what restorative justice might look like for a bunch of alien supercomputers).

it's also implied that he's like the baby of the group, or is at least younger, and therefore has had less time to get to know everyone else and establish himself as part of the local group's regular social dynamic, so i would imagine he has insecurities about that which might fuel his impulse to isolate when he feels Bad. which was, of course, disastrous on one particular occasion. i think he feels deep guilt over that and it's eating him (like the rot), but he has no idea how to express his remorse, or that the person he killed has been revived and can be talked to directly (if only via slugcat messenger). i've always read moon as someone who, in pursuit of being the group big sister/mom friend, learned to repress her feelings in order to preserve group cohesion at all costs. i think a conversation between the two of them would either be really explosively messy (timeline where moon learns to let herself feel things and be angry) or it would have the longest silences you've ever heard (timeline where moon does not learn to stop repressing her emotions). either way it would take a while for them to make peace with each other, but i think they could pull it off. neither of them want to spend the rest of eternity lonely and bitter.

#rain world #rainworld #rain world game #rw five pebbles #five pebbles #rw iterators #iterator #sorry that took me like 5000 years to answer i've been in trapped in a hole filled with various papers i have to write #and also im incredibly burnt out lmao #thanks for sending me an ask btw!! i've missed drafting silly hcs abt rain world :) #wisdom of the sage

[erosofthepen]

i dont have any specific requests but just. Kili. thoughts on Kili.

i have so many thoughts on kili you came to the right person

things i hc abt kili:

-he has a journal he writes in religiously. its all poetry and random thoughts and pressed flowers or other flora he's found that catches his eye. he doodles pretty things in it as well, from crystal caves to the fire of the forge.

-mans is a hopeless romantic. all he wants is an epic beautiful story-for-the-ages whirlwind romance that is fueled by passion and love. and whilst his romances might not always work out the way his 200k fanfic he wrote in his teens did, he never gives them up and relishes each experience. Even bad romances fuel his poetry writing at least. And with his One, when he finally meets them, he does all the simp-worthy romantic shit, from picking bouquets to opening doors.

-drawing from the poetry, kili is incredibly intelligent, at least literature-wise. dont get me wrong, mans is a dumbass and a himbo, but he could talk for hours on end on how the structure of a syllable scheme can make or break a poem. he's very well versed in symbolism and dwarven mythology and lore, and, next to ori, is the best person able to understand and find the deeper meaning in different works, and discuss them thoroughly.

-kili honestly isn't the best in the forges. he does alright, but his skill is comparable to an average human blacksmith. his real talent in metalworking comes to the details. like carving dozens of intricate lines into a single ring, or carving a whole battle scene on the inside of a bracelet. it's a skill he is very proud of, even if he can't even forge a good knife.

-mama's boy. i feel like thorin kind overlooked kili a lot growing up, his focus was on fili, being the heir and all, so kili didn't have a super strong adult male figure in his life. he had his mom, which is arguably better for him. like he'd spend all day helping dis in her shop or at her trade, and just chilling with his amad.

-he knows how to cook. like dis probs taught him, needed at least one son capable of creating edible food (she gave up with fili, who took after thorin in this way), and by god kili learned fast. he knows what he's doing in the kitchen. he is this whole video.

-i also think kili would be the type of dwarf to collect shineys. like crystals and fun rocks and bits of jewelry. he has corvid like tendencies and has pouches and boxes full of his collections.

-mans is deeply insecure. this hc is pretty popular, but like with no beard and being the dwarf version of a tall lanky string bean, he has body image issues. he doesn't have a lot of problems with confidence, like fake it till you make it vibes, but when it comes down to him and his One, he needs validation. he needs to know that he is the prettiest boy. just needs reminding and loving.

-coming from the insecure place, i believe later in life kili has a huge glow up. to quote my dear friend @cutie-cutter, "he's a late bloomer, but by god he blooms". like maybe in his 90s all of a sudden he fills out a lot, some nice body fat over all that muscle, and then starts growing a really nice beard. like it ain't super long but its thick and lush and ideal for braiding. he is the prettiest boy.

-kili is also the ultimate wingman. like when he's younger he doesn't have the looks but he has the game with his words alone. with fili its the opposite, fili's like mr. knightly in the sense of "if i loved you less i might be able to talk about it more", he ain't good with all the cute romantic shit. but kili helps him by writing poems and teaching him lines at the small price of taking his dessert for a week.

-(kinda nsfw?) while young and still escorting merchants with fili, i feel like kili def. got himself some fun nights at brothels. like he'd be more than willing to spend all his earnings in one night for some... special treatment. I also hc that kili didn't really get with women a lot when a younger adult, mostly men, bcs mans has daddy issues like you wont believe. the bisexual also probs thinks his chances with women are low anyways, since women in dwarven culture can be picky and usually go for ones with looks, or at least a full beard.

-(nsfwish) also going back to his journal, he also has a hell of a lot of erotic poetry in there. he'll spend stanzas describing sensations and the aesthetics of a particularly steamy night, and if someone catches his eye he could go on and on about them. absolutely no one is allowed to see his journal besides him (thorin found it once and just sighed in disappointment and wishing he had bleach before closing it and never bringing it up), and it is kept out of sight at all times. it would be very interesting for his One to find it though, and all the different scenarios that could play out...

that's all for now, thank you for this ask!! love talking about this bisexual whore of a man.

#kili #the hobbit #kili headcannons #headcannons #fili #ori #thorin #dís #erosofthepens thoughts #tolkien #asks

[tohisprettyc00l]

hi! could i get romantic and platonic matchup for the owl house?

my pronouns are she/her

i'm demisexual panromantic

i'm enfp 7w8, leo

i'm 6'0 and have amber eyes, long gold blond curly hair and hourglass figure

i'm positive and upbeat person, i try to see the bright side in most situations

i'm friendly, energetic, confident, sarcastic, responsible, maybe a bit chaotic, cheerful and bubbly

i care about my friends and family a lot, and go out of my way to show it

i enjoy having fun and living life to the fullest

i'm very competitive and passionate person

i really like puzzles, riddles and crosswords

i love making people smile

i have morbid, dark sense of humor

sometimes i randomly say a weird obscure fact in the middle of conversation

i can play on violin, cello, piano, guitar, saxophone, harp and drums, i'm currently learning how to play on trumpet

i like poetry and sometimes i write a poem or two, also i'm writing my book

i'm ballet dancer since i was a kid and i love performing

i'm working on my own cartoon

i never quite grew out of the fantasy phase, and i'm still enamored with tales of changelings and witches

i work as illustrator for fantasy books and books for kids

i'm kinda struggling with taking rest, doing nothing, because there is always something to do, something new to learn, etc.

i'm afraid of stagnation

i overuse this kind of emojis→(⁠ㆁ⁠ω⁠ㆁ⁠)

my style is something between whimsigothic and cryptidcore

i love: collecting things, astronomy, tea, making and watching movies, forests, making jewelry, cooking, baking, d&d, horrors, animals, plants, gardening, traveling, art, history, world mythologies, learning new things, psychology, handicraft

sorry if it's too chaotic

i hope you have a fantastic day (⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠)

I romantically match you with: Amity Blight!

-I WAS going to say Amity seems like she would be short af. But she is only a few inches below six foot as a teen and taller as an adult so never mind I guess.

-You remind me so much of seasons 1 and 2a Luz.

-Just like her and Luz you both are that ship trope where it's like a grumpy person and a ray of sunshine.

-Her REAL family (so not Odaila) and friends are the most important thing to her. She knew what it was like to have social status as her number one priority and it wasn't great.

-Amity missed out on a lot of actually living her life so now she spends a lot of her free time living her life to the fullest. Usually to the point where she expresses stuff others wouldn't experience in ten lifetimes.

-Amity will be do all the smart game things in her free time (I.E like you said puzzles, riddles and crosswords.) She find them relaxing. (Unlike me who has a storke when I mess up in a crossword.)

-Amity will read some random fact online and go to everyone she knows and be like "Guess what I just learned!"

-Amity would love to listen to you play instruments!!! She might try to learn herself to surprise you.

-She has problems with resting/ doing nothing, but she'll be damned if she lets you also have that problem. She will force you to take breaks. You might not feel overwhelmed or burnt out yet but if you carry on like this it will happen sooner or later.

-You fear stagnation? You and her both. So she is pretty good at comforting you if you're having a particularly bad time with the fear.

-Luz loves using emoticons. So first of all she's used to it. But she also finds it very endearing.

-It may be a basic headcanon but I think Amity's favorite drink is tea.

-Amity specializes in a few foods but besides that, she can't cook or bake. But the fact that you are able to remember and make so many recipes and make them taste good? You're basically magical (And she has authority on the topic.)

-She loves spooky stuff but not horror stuff if that makes sense. Like she loves a Halloween-y vibe and a campfire story scary, but nothing gory or like jump scares. That last one is just because of the cheapness of it.

-I think Lilith rubbed off on Amity in her love of history.

-She loves learning about the psychology of things. Why do people do the things they do.

I platonically match you with: Luz Noceda

-Optimistic person and optimistic person friendship is honestly always chaotic. And that's just how Luz likes it.

-Luz loves her friends and family so much. That's like her main thing

-Luz unintentionally lives life to the fullest. Danger and new experiences gravitate toward her.

-I feel like Luz played any instrument she could in school, that's not to say she was good at it but she tried. (She got better after studying in the bard coven.) So when she finds out you play she's very excited and wants to play with you.

-She wanted to do ballet when she was younger but when she found out classes weren't just dancing and were actual y'know... Lessons she left. (I can't blame her I don't know what your classes are like but when I was in ballet the keeping your head straight thing was torture for me) But since you do the dancing part that she was interested in she loves to watch perform.

-If you let her she'll watch the hell out your cartoon. You finished a very rough sketch? She is already by your side asking to see.

-Girl literally lives in the demon realm and is also obsessed with Azura She is in too deep to get out of the fantasy "phase."

-Mildred Featherwhyle ass I think I've made it clear that she loves seeing your craft, but the fact that you write FANTSY books!? She was so excited she literally bounced up and down

-Luz is going to force you to take breaks. She's not going to force you to do nothing, she has adhd she knows that can be hard. But taking breaks is important.

-She is the queen of using silly emoticons.

-Luz was obsessed with space when she was younger and you can't convince me otherwise.

-Luz likes and runs D&D campaigns.

-Luz canonically likes art both the writing and drawing kind.

Bro, I don't know what happened but I went OFF. Um- Hope you like it!

#toh x reader #the owl house x reader #amity blight x reader #amity x reader #amity blight x reade #luz toh x reader #toh luz x reader #luz noceda x reader #luz x reader #toh matchups