#only god knows how much i love steampunk

[steelthroat]

Hasbro literally woke up, made heart of steel, gave us steampunk designs (aka perfection), used them exactly once, and made zero toys or figures of them.

Hasbro, why do you hate my money so much? I want my goth-looking-cannon-gf Megatron or Starscream with cool bat wings, I will not buy your thousandth version of movie Bumblebee, I don't care if it has animal parts.

#transformers #maccadam #steel rambles #shitpost #megatron #maccadams #starscream #transformers heart of steel #there was that third party Heart of steel Bumblebee that was awesome #and that project with Optimus prime #but nothing official that I know of? #PLEASE GIMME MORE STEAMPUNK TRANSFORMERS #streamformers #i want them #i need them #only god knows how much i love steampunk #uh! there are also those third party seekers which are just #chef kiss #the prices are of course headache-inducing #but let me dream #* cries * #third party starscream is called “screecher” lmaooo #shoutout to “knight morphers” lol

[grassbreads]

What Tai Sui is and Why Everyone Should Read It

So if you follow me, over the past couple weeks, you've probably noticed me obsessively screenshotting and posting about a book called Tai Sui. And now that I've finished it, I'd like to try and convince y'all to give it a chance.

What Is Tai Sui?

Tai Sui is a chinese web novel—a relatively unpopular work by the very popular author Priest (author of Guardian and Sha Po Lang, among others). Unlike a lot of the most popular web novels on tumblr, it's not a danmei. It's in fact rather important to the plot and themes that there is almost entirely no romance, but I promise you, it is absolutely worth it regardless.

What is Tai Sui About?

Tai Sui is a steampunk xianxia cultivation story. For those unfamiliar with xianxia and cultivation, this is a particular genre of Chinese historical fantasy.

The official summary of Tai Sui reads as follows:

“If I had a choice, I would only want to be a little insect in the mundane dust, born in confusion, dying in mediocrity, never seeing the light of day beneath the fog of Jinping City.

Better than taking this wrong road to heaven.”

You may have noticed that this summary is not in fact really a summary. It gives you a glimpse into the story's themes, mood, and destination, but it doesn't exactly tell you what happens in it.

That's because Tai Sui is one of those works that's incredibly hard to summarize. The story is incredibly wide in scope and changes massively over its course, to the point that any summary that encapsulates the whole thing is going to feel like a spoiler. However, I can try my best to add a little detail without giving too much away.

Tai Sui is the story of Xi Ping—an obnoxious, trouble-making rich boy with no interest in cultivation—who gets unwittingly involved in a plot to resurrect the "evil god" Tai Sui. This plot pulls him into the cultivation world against his will and, over time, threatens to rewrite everything he is.

Tai Sui is the end of immortality.

Why Should You Read Tai Sui?

Tai Sui is one of the most compelling stories I have ever read. It is a love letter to the power and promise of the whole world and its many mundane people. It also has some of the best worldbuilding I have ever seen.

Tai Sui is written in omniscient perspective, and though Xi Ping is very much the main character, as the story progresses, we spend more and more time alongside characters that aren't him. By the time the novel ends, his entire continent is at stake, and we the audience know that continent and its troubles inside and out from countless angles. Everyone from the immortal demigods of the cultivation world to the most wretched, miserable paupers is given a grand sense of emphasis.

Tai Sui is a deconstruction of the cultivation genre. It establishes a magic/cultivation system and its history, lets the main character live in that system for a while, and then dives deep into that system's depths. It looks at the cultivation genre, at the idea of people who leave behind their status as mortals for greater things, and asks "How does this really work?" and "Is this how the world should be?"

Tai Sui is the story of countless people who were never supposed to be powerful coming together to make the world a better place. It's well written (and very well translated), exciting, heartbreaking, and incredibly beautiful. It's also funny as hell.

I cannot recommend this story enough.

Warnings/Caveats

As I said before, Tai Sui is a deconstruction of the cultivation genre. If you're unfamiliar with this genre, while the book is certainly readable, you are going to be thrown head first into the deep end with the tropes and terminology at play. It's absolutely worth the learning curve, but it will be kind of a lot. Maybe do some light googling about what a cultivator is before you pick it up. (Or just ask a fan. I think most of us would happily explain anything that would win a new reader).

There are portrayals of people/cultures in Tai Sui that are heavily inspired by minority cultures in real-world China, and some of these portrayals play into pretty harmful stereotypes. It's not SPL "Barbarian" or TGCF Banyue levels of racist, but it's something to be aware of and careful about. I'd really recommend reading from the perspectives of those from the cultures in question (including but not limited to the post I linked) for more about the issues I'm talking about.

Tai Sui's English translation is 930,000 words long. I believe this is a strength, since its length is what allows it such an incredible scope. It is also a fucking daunting commitment, and I acknowledge that.

Finally, while Tai Sui doesn't need too many trigger warnings, it does contain some pretty viscerally upsetting depictions of inequality and mistreatment, as well as a few instances of violence toward children. You can't uplift without first seeing what the people need uplifting from, and hooboy. They need it.

There's also some scenes that are technically rather violent, but the goriness is not presented as gore, if that makes sense. It never feels intensely or overly violent in the way some fantasy novels do.

Links

If all my gushing and propagandizing has convinced you to give it a try, you can find the original Chinese version (where you can buy chapters to support the author) on JJWXC.

The complete English translation is free on the website of E. Danglars, who does a truly incredible job with the translating.

Happy reading :).

#my desperate shot at propagandizing now that my followers have sat through months of on and off obsessive tai sui posting #besties it is genuinely so good #it made me cry. and that is a fcking feat. #tai sui #priest #cnovel #webnovel #long post #I'm not putting a readmore on this bc I want to force y'all to look at it #sorry #book rec #invasion of the frogs

[gayelderstourney]

OLD MAN YAOI BRACKET ROUND 1

Propaganda:

Sir Alistair Hammerlock/Wainwright Jakobs:

THEY ARE CANONICALLY MARRIED!!!!! THEY ARE FORCE/FINESSE SUN/MOON SALT/SUGAR. THEY ARE SILLY GENTLEMEN WHO ARE IN LOVE. HAMMERLOCK IS A VICTORIAN BIG GAME HUNTER LIFTED STRAIGHT FROM A STEAMPUNK NOVEL WHO IS ALL ABOUT ADVENTURE AND WAINWRIGHT IS A SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN HEIR TO A GUN MANUFACTURING MEGACORPORATION WHO HAS SMALL AMBITIONS. OPPOSITES ATTRACT ULTIMATE INCARNATION. THE THEMES AND MOTIFS AND PARALLELS BETWEEN THEM ARE IMPECCABLE. THEY SUPPORT EACHOTHER UNCONDITIONALLY AND WHOLEHEARTEDLY. HAMMERLOCK THOUGHT HE WAS GOING TO DIE AND HE RECORDED WHAT HE THOUGHT WERE GOING TO BE HIS LAST WORDS AND HE SAYS, I QUOTE: "but I long not for death seeking adventures, but instead for one… last… peaceful… moment… with you. I love you, Wainwright. Farewell." DID I MENTION HAMMERLOCK HAS A NICKNAME FOR WAINWRIGHT. HE CALLS HIM Winny AND IT MELTS MY HEART EVERY TIME. GOD THEY GET MARRIED IN THE CORPSE OF AN ELDRITCH GOD AND THEIR WEDDING IS AN ENTIRE DLC. IT ALSO COVERS THEIR RESPECTIVE DOUBTS THAT MAYBE THEY AREN'T THE RIGHT MAN FOR EACHOTHER BUT IN THE END THEY REALIZE THAT IT'S NOT TRUE AND THE OTHER LOVES HIM SO SO SO MUCH JUST LIKE HE IS. I AM SO SO AUTISTIC ABT THEM THEY ARE PEAK OLD MAN YAOI BUT THEY ARE VIRTUALLY UNKNOWN IN THE OLD MAN YAOI COMMUNITY. PLEASE.

They have an entire DLC about their wedding. Their base game story arc starts with Wainwright calling you to ask you to go on a rescue mission to save Hammerlock and calling him the love of his life.

There is a whole game DLC dedicated to their canonical marriage, they constantly call each other by pet names, every single time they talk about one another there is passion in their voices, they express how much they love and care for each other.

Irving Bailiff/Burt Goodman:

they are TRAPPED in capitalist dystopian hell and yet gay love persists. literally they are fighting for their got damn lives to be gay. they've been subjected to evil fucked up brain surgery to make them forget who they are outside of the workplace and yet. AND YET. they fall in love INSIDE the workplace and gain the desire to fight their oppressors so they can do old man yaoi activities. i forgot to take my adderall today sorry im not forming coherent thoughts but they made christopher walken yaoi real

They have only ever experienced being at work and are desperately trying to find meaning with no memory of the outside world. Fraternization is against the rules as well. The yearning is so much.

they are 2 sad old men who are in forbidden love. they bond over a mutal love of corporate art & company tote bags. their love inspired Irving to rebel against his employers for the first time ever. Burt is even Christopher Walken.

They’re so quietly sweet and heart-wrenching… fell in love on the ‘inside’ (they both work a job that ‘severs’ their work memories from their out-of-work memories; inside the job, they have no idea who they are on the outside or what the world is like, but they found each other and found a little bit of love and meaning and happiness inside the nightmare corporate world that is their job)

canonically in love with each other! in the show people sever their consciousness so they aren't aware when they're working. this creates a separate person that only exists while they're at the office, who doesn't share any memories with the person they are on the outside. these two old men bond and find comfort in each other despite the dystopian hell situation they're in

Old men having a forbidden romance while stuck in a hellish workplace dystopia

These two old men know nothing outside of their company propaganda, which says romance is forbidden, and they still choose each other. They bond over paintings, discuss company policy in each other's arms like they're debating scripture on whether their love is allowed. They're sooo gay and it's so sweet to see true, canonical old man yaoi

Weird old man office romance except they only exist inside the bounds of the world’s worst office building and they go on a little date to a room full of plastic plants

#polls #round 1 #gay elders tourney #tournament poll #sir alistair hammerlock #wainwright jakobs #borderlands #wainlock #irving bailiff #burt goodman #severance

[saym0-0]

oh my god. oh my GOD mechs esmp crossover. this is for SUCH a niche audience the esmp fandom is dead i dont care mechs esmp crossover

LISTEN TO ME okay ill have to add a sci-fi element to my established esmp world i am OKAY with this, grimlands are already victorian steampunk its not that big a stretch to add space travel, especially in the place of dimension travel.

okay so in my esmp lore the emperors are blessed by the gods with conditional immortality and flight, they know a new ruler has been born by if they're born with wings. i bet though i could twist that into the king cole/olympians idea of trading their citizen's lives for immortality. although it is kinda reversed? (mechs immortals tend to stop aging but can be killed, emperors still age and can die of old age, but cant be killed). hmm i mean theres definite differences between king cole and the olympians so maybe its just another variation, or something closer to the mechs themselves? though that ones less likely

honestly there literally is an esmp1 musical so i reckon its interesting enough to attract the mechs

but lets be honest with ourselves here, the only reason im doing this is so i have an excuse to draw grimlands!marius lmao

i think raph would be interested in it too though, with how they're so much more reliant on technical advancement than magical.

ivy would love the rivendell library, and crystal cliffs

hmmm jonny might have fun between mythland and the cod empire,,,

hmmmm brian would maybe like to hang out with shrub in the undergrove? he does like his garden,, maybe the overgrown with katherine too,, or gilded helianthia!

hrm,, i keep wanting to put people in the grimlands but i know thats only because its my favourite so therefore the most developed and also the most similar in vibe to the mechs

with that said though, tim really would have fun there,, like hes the gunpowder guy!! fwhip is the gunpowder guy!! they both r in charge of weapons!! guns, crossbows, same difference really

oough back to raph i think she and fwhip would bond over making their own wings,, fwhip made his to prove that he is fit to rule after gem fucked off to wizard school and raph,, uh actually i never found out raphs backstory beyond the fact im like 78% sure she made her and marius' mechanisms,, although that could be widely accepted fanon who knows not me

i think marius would also enjoy mezelea

but OH MY GOD TOY SOLDIER IN MEZELEA,,, i cant believe i almost forgot it,, i think it would immediately blend in with the clones and pretend to be one right up until they leave the planet, and have the time of its life the whole time,,

i dont know where ashes would go either.. i cant just say grimlands again because theres like four of them there already but,, the explosions!!

maybe mythland, or rivendell, those both seem like they'd appreciate a good mob boss taking over the place tbh

i think brian would get along with pix also

okay this isnt mechs but the fandom is a circle so if theres actually any fans of both out there reading this post, has anyone else noticed just how similar pix and jon's (tma) voices are?? genuinely when i started listening to the podcast i had to double check the va wasnt pix (and imagine my confusion when they share the same name too..)

anyways if anyone wants to scream about this with me please do, or if you want to know more about my esmp expanded universe feel free to do that too! in asks replies or reblogs idm

#the mechanisms #esmp #empires smp #empires smp s1 #the mechs #caps #tw caps #i am aware that this is so riddled with headcanons that its indecipherable to literally everyone #regardless of if they come from mechs empires or both #but idc my brain is going wild we ball

[firstofficerwiggles]

Hello! I've binged so much of your writing today and oh my gods, I love it!

I hope I'm not too late to get in on the ask, but one of the star wars boys writing to me would be lovely. I'm over 50, and it's hard to admit this but I've never been on the receiving end of romantic gestures. Don't get me wrong, there's been much love in my life - practical, solid, occasionally goofy - but no romance.

Maybe it's my work? State Department, medic of various sorts including search and rescue, now a security guard. Practical stuff. But I also adore tea parties, and gardens, and steampunk and the entire Star Wars universe. Right now I'm building a Mandalorian medic outfit for conventions because bad ass medic who WILL shoot the asswipe who put that gaping hole in you? Yes.

Anyhow, sorry for babbling on and on at you. Whichever of the ones you think would romance an older woman, and would enjoy being spicy with a lady that can take a punch or dish one out, who grows flowers that also make a useful poultice to clear up that nasty bruise, hm?

Many thanks!

Aelf

Welcome to my blog! I’m so glad you found it and that you’re enjoying my writing. I can’t thank you enough for your kind words 💗 I’m going to ship you with Din Djarin for several reasons, first, I think Din loves badass women with a softer side too, and also because Din definitely needs his own personal medic 😂 (for the Mando’a: cyar’ika = sweetheart, ner kar’ta = my heart)

Cyar’ika,

How are you, my love? I miss you more than I can say. I’m finally headed home after this latest mission for the New Republic. Why is it that so many of their missions need to take place in places that are more swamp than land? I swear I’m going to be scrubbing the beskar for a full week after this glop. I’m also not ashamed to admit that I’m going to need some patching up when I get back to you. I promise I was trying to be careful, but chasing after Trandoshans in a place infested with vines and the galaxy’s biggest mud puddles was a recipe for falling on my ass. Speaking of, there’s probably a few bruises there that I could use your help with. Thankfully I know you don’t mind looking at said ass. Mmm, and you know, if your ass needs any checking, I’m always available. In fact when I get home, I say we send the kiddo to go visit Auntie Peli, and then we get into a nice hot, soapy tub and you can inspect every inch of me, and you know I’m going to want to return that favor. Plus, as I reminded you last time, your kisses do even more for me than your medicines. I think I need to spend at least one entire evening sampling those sweet lips of yours while you’re in my arms. That sounds like sheer heaven to me. And well, you’re always telling me I need to spend more time in bed, so of course, we’ll need to spend several hours there too. It’s important for my health, and for yours too, because I’m sure you need to have some tension relieved like only I can. In fact I intend to see how often I can relieve that tension for you all night long. Ah, ner kar’ta, I wish I were home right now. I can’t wait to hear you saying my name and telling me how much you missed me too. The moment I see you, this helmet is coming off and I’m going to kiss you like something out of one of those romantic holofilms you love so much. You know what, I’m also going to send a message to Peli right now, she might need to keep the baby for a few days, because I think I need lots of extra time to remind you how special you are to me. Until then, take care, cyar’ika and know that I’m hurrying back to you.

Love,

Din

Send in an ask for Wiggles' 1200 Follower Celebration

#the mandalorian #din djarin #the mandalorian x reader #the mandalorian x you #din djarin x reader #din djarin x you #the mandalorian fanfiction #din djarin fanfiction #wiggles follower celebration

[kieran-granola]

20 questions for fic writers

I was tagged by @ladytauria! Thank you, bb ❤️

How many works do you have on AO3?

46 total, with 1 of them being @generatorcat way more than mine!

What’s your total A03 word count?

276,196.

What fandoms do you write for?

DC only on this account! I keep my obsessions separate haha

What are your top five fics by kudos?

Pretty (3,335 kudos) -> My beloved first long child that I'm hoping to post the next chapter of some time in January! Aka dysmorphic JayTim mutual pining feat accidental bonding

Whiskers and Wonder Boys (2,993 kudos) -> Adorable baby boyfriends! Or the story of Robin Jason saving Selkie Tim from starvation

The Best Taste in Omegas (2,713 kudos) -> The one in which omega hormones are catnip for children, and Jason keeps finding stray kids in his nests.

The House Always Wins (2,622 kudos) -> Top Dom Tim Wrecks Jason's Ass After Winning a Bet: The Story.

Mother Knows Best  (2,107 kudos) -> The reason why I will never beat the mommy kink allegations, aka Jason overcoming his kink shame with Dom Tim's help.

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

As much as I'm able to! I love to receive comments so I try my best to answer, but sometimes time just runs from me and it's either answering comments or writing.

What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Little Do You Know! This is a dark gaslighting fic, feat Bruce bitching Robin Jason without his knowledge or consent.

What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Probably Thicker than Water? JayTim end up happily married with children, both of them immortal vampires.

Do you get hate on your fic?

Not really? I've gotten some "I wish you'd write this", or some misguided comments but not hate.

Do you write smut?

Yeah.

Do you write crossovers?

Nope. I am Not A Fan.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! Several times! Podfics too. It never stops blowing me away 💕💕

Have you ever co-written a fic?

Yep! Speaking of, I really need to get to editing Trust Fall again. Sorry @themandylion

What‘s your all-time favorite ship?

I have SO MANY ships across too many fandoms, but if I have to pick a ship in DC... It would actually be BruJay. Sorry JayTim nation, I'm a sham 😂

What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I genuinely want to finish Dead to Rights, but I paused it indefinitely when I got pregnant, and I won't pick it back up until the topic of difficult pregnancies/risk of miscarriage stops squicking me out. I love it a lot, and there's a lot I want to say there, but the Creature will need to grow a bit bigger before I'm comfy writing it again.

What’s your writing strengths?

Uh. No idea, actually. I feel like I struggle with everything haha. Possibly writing banter? Not sure...

What’s your writing weaknesses?

EVERYTHING, if you ask me. Though the thing I struggle with the most is endings. It is SO HARD to find a good stopping point that doesn't ring hollow.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Not a full dialogue. A couple of sentences at most. I mean, I'm a native French speaker, so I could do a full conversation, but honestly I find it so unpleasant to read I wouldn't put it in my works.

First fandom you wrote for?

The Untamed 😊

Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

Oh God, that's such a hard question. I love all of my babies for different reasons. But I guess it's a toss up between Pretty and... Well. The unposted steampunk t4t JayTim WIP.

I am tagging anyone who wants to do this, as well as (no pressure) @bi-bats, @skalidra, @thenaphorism, and @beemotionpicture

#x me a q #kieran's rambling

[duckprintspress]

Meet Aether Beyond the Binary Contributor Scarlett Gale

We are sloooowly creeping up on being 2/3rds funded on the crowdfunding campaign for Aether Beyond the Binary, an anthology of 17 stories by queer authors starring non-binary main characters in aetherpunk settings! It’ll definitely be a relief when we hit that wonderful 100%. Don’t forget to share Aether Beyond the Binary with friends who you think might be interested in the project!

Head on over to our Kickstarter Campaign page NOW to learn waaaay more about this project, and read on to get to know Scarlett Gale, read an interview with her, and check out an excerpt from her contribution!

About Scarlett Gale: Scarlett Gale is the author of His Secret Illuminations and His Sacred Incantations. Long ago, under another name, she was the co-author of Needles and Artifice (Cooperative Press; 2012), featuring a rollicking romantic steampunk adventure novella and associated knitting patterns, of which she also designed several. She writes and produces fringe theatre plays based on B-movies, such as Bodacious Barbarian Babes vs. The Indigo Empress and Showgirls of Beast Island. She is a co-producer of the Alison-Bechdel-approved Bechdel Test Burlesque, which in 2017 was included in the Women and Gender Studies curriculum at the University of Oregon. She lives in Seattle with her wife where she gardens, knits, reads, and drinks warm beverages. Unsurprisingly, she also has cats.

Links: Personal Website | Tumblr | Bluesky

This is Scarlett’s second time contributing to a Duck Prints Press anthology. A short story by her was also included in our debut anthology Add Magic to Taste. Learn more about Scarlett’s other published works.

An Interview with Scarlett Gale

What motivates you to create?

Spite and love in equal measure.

What are your goals as a creator?

To make the world a kinder, hornier place one story at a time.

Are you a pantser, a planner, or a planster? What’s your process look like?

I suppose Planster is the best description, though I think that makes me sound more like someone who has a lot of plants (she says, sitting next to a glass cabinet full of houseplants). For my longer works I usually start with a vibe and a general idea of the arc and write with no real outline until I’m about two-thirds through the story, at which point I will sit down and roughly bullet point the scenes I still want to write, arrange them into story order, and use that as a reference to finish the piece. Why when I’m two-thirds through? Because at that point I’ve had enough Shower Ideas that if I don’t document them somewhere, I risk forgetting to put them in, and my Shower Ideas are the most inspired parts of my writing!

What do you consider to be your strengths as a creator?

Wordcount. Good god, wordcount. I am the rare writer who can just sit down at a computer and bang out several hundred words in twenty minutes without second-guessing myself or worrying if the words are good enough. This makes me simultaneously the best and worst person to have in your writering group.

What do you consider to be your weaknesses as a creator?

Also wordcount. I think every story I’ve submitted to the Press has started out two thousand words above the limit, which means we have to do sooooo much editing. Goodbye, my beautiful words!

Do you like having background noise when you create? What do you listen to? Does it vary depending on the project, and if so, how?

Yes! It makes writing feel less lonely, since I do a lot of it only accompanied by my cats. I listen to music at a medium to low volume that either has no lyrics, or lyrics in a language I don’t speak so I don’t get distracted by the words. I actually bought the cheapest Pandora subscription specifically for writing music. My favorite stations are:

Lofi Chill

Bonobo*

Mikel & Gamechops 

Radio Asian Kung-Fu Generation (a recent addition)

*Fun story about the group Bonobo: The morning after our wedding, my whole family crowded into our tiny house to watch us open our wedding gifts. I had given my siblings control over distributing the drink tickets, which meant that after they handed them out to the guests, they used the remaining tickets to get SPECTACULARLY plastered, and were thus deeply hungover. My wife made loads of coffee while everyone grazed on the catering leftovers, and in the interest of creating a calming atmosphere, we put on a Bonobo album. Everyone liked the music, to the point that they repeatedly asked the name of the group, which meant my wife and I kept repeating, with increasing exasperation, “BONOBO!! LIKE THE MONKEY!!!!” It is my primary memory of that morning.

What are your favorite snacks and/or drinks to consume while creating?

Remember to eat? While I’m writing?? You think I’m sensible or something?! (I enjoy a cup of tea, either green, decaf black, or herbal, depending on the time of day.)

Tell us about your pet(s).

We currently have three cats: CeeCee, Matcha, and Gyoza. CeeCee (the Lady Catherine the Purr) is our most recent addition from March of 2023. She’s a fifteen year old scrungly tiny black goblin who knows exactly what she wants out of life: Food, sippies from the bathroom sink, belly rubs, and shoulder rides. If we are not providing any of these at the speed she would prefer, she screams at us. She’s PERFECT.

Matcha is an eight-pound calico brat with the sass of at least four cats crammed into her tiny body. Her favorite things in life are causing trouble and rubbing her face on my hands when I’m trying to write.

Gyoza is a sixteen pound gray tabby with the physical properties of a water balloon full of pudding. He loves to try to “play” with Matcha, which results in her screaming like she’s being murdered. His other favorite thing to do is play in the toilet and then come step on us with his wet toilet feet, because he’s the worst.

Please enjoy this festive photo of the three of them that I had to photoshop from three individual photos, since all of them hate each other.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Always take the opportunity to use the restroom when it’s available to you. Solid life advice applicable to any situation, really!

What’s the worst advice you’ve ever received?

I had a Jimmy John’s delivery guy tell me I should lie to people and say my fire-engine-red hair was natural, does that count? (I stared him down blankly long enough that he spontaneously apologized.)

If you could give one piece of advice to a new creator who came to you for help, what would that advice be?

Just write it. You can fix the words once they’re on the page, but excessive planning and worrying and worldbuilding won’t help you if you don’t write the words. Just write it! Let it be bad! Fix it in post! Write the damn thing!!!

What’s one thing (style, genre, etc.) that you think you’ll never do, and why not?

Write the type of fantasy book that has a map in the front and a glossary of terms, only because I personally am not motivated to do that level of worldbuilding. I appreciate the people who want to do that, but I guarantee that as a reader I will skip the map and then probably the glossary in order to get to the STORY, which tells you where my priorities lie.

Scarlett’s Contribution to Aether Beyond The Binary

Title: N(ae)ghbours

Tags: attraction at first sight, bisexual, city mouse and country mouse, competence kink, didn’t know they were dating, f/nb, farmer, first kiss, genderfluid, getting together, humor, idiots to lovers, meet cute, misgendering (unintentional), omg they were neighbors, panic attacks (mentions of), present tense, self-esteem issues, third person limited pov

Excerpt:

“But you were going to tell me what you’re researching?”

Ah. Well. “This might be boring and hard to explain.”

Rin waves a fork at the breakfast spread between them. “You have at least five pancakes’ worth of time. Hit me.”

Dahlia takes a steadying sip of tea. She explains about greenhouses and other protected growing areas for delicate crops, and the advantages and disadvantages of using them on a large scale. She explains that her family has a small greenhouse for starts, but most of their land is open-air, which means they get the advantages that come with that, but also the issues—they’re at the mercy of the weather, insects, birds…

Or they would be if not for the aether tunnel.

“It’s like a hoop house,” Dahlia explains, pulling up a photo of a hoop house on her phone to show Rin. “Normally, you cover the frame with mesh, or clear bio-plastic if you’re trying to trap the heat and control the amount of water it gets, but…”

“That’d rip right off in a big storm, right? And how do you get in there when you need to do plant stuff?”

(don't forget to check out the campaign, now that you've read to the end!)

#duck prints press #aether beyond the binary #scarlett gale #aetherpunk #crowdfunding #queer crowdfunding #anthology #book crowdfunding #queer book

[daedalusdavinci]

Dirkjake Fic Recs

i will be the first to admit im picky about my dirkjake, largely because i will not fucking stand for any fic where i feel like jake isnt given his just dues. jake is too fascinating and great of a character to just be that guy dirk liked. so here are my four absolute favorite dirkjake fics that i still stand by with my whole chest

The Four Kings, the God Thief, and the Black Diamond Pirates

by @oxfordroulette

Dirk and Vriska have it good. They raid ships, pillage merchant vessels, constantly poison each other, possess a lucrative pact with the Wind King, sing a lot of dope fuckin’ sea shanties, and captain a loveable crew of pirate scum. They’re ready to kick back, take it easy, and become the vile and revered scourge of the diamond trading line. Then they find someone in the water.

this has to be one of the greatest dirkjake fics ever written. oxfordRoulette excels so brilliantly at writing homestuck characters as theyre meant to be: assholes. horrible, horrible, terrible assholes. they pull no punches writing the pirates in this story to be just the most irredeemable pieces of shit and thats what makes it so goddamn good. their dialogue is hilarious, the relationship between dirk and vriska is EVERYTHING to me, and the gods are written so fucking brilliantly its impossible not to love them (predictably, i am particularly in love w dave, but theyre genuinely all so good). plus, its ILLUSTRATED, and their art is just fantastic

Wondrous Adventures of Harley, English, and Strider

by spectralPhobia

Jake English has a pretty straightforward life: he is an amateur writer who travels around the world with his twin sister Jade Harley and their dog Becquerel, thinking this is the best a life could be. Meeting Dirk Strider is only the beginning of the journey of changing his worldview, as well as an epic quest of saving the world, when spirits from an ancient legend come to life. A story about adventures, magic, conspiracy, sacrifices, smart people and clever plans, people who make mistakes, and many instances of great love. Set in a sort of steampunk world (no computer technologies, airships are a predominant way of travelling).

this is ANOTHER one of the greatest dirkjake fics ever written, but its also just one of the best homestuck fics ever written. if you liked my godstuck fics, you should DEFINITELY read this bc it inspired me a lot. the things they do w classpects are so fucking creative and while it is dirkjake its just as much a fic about jade and jake. its brilliantly fucking done, and i recommend it to absolutely everyone and anyone

A House Built

by sunflowerwonder

The Prospitian hero who seduced a foreign prince into sending his country resources. Certainly one for the history books.

medievalstuck. this one, as well as @callmearcturus's followup fic, A Spark, A Flame, A Fire, is definitely worth a read. jake is so often shafted in dirkjake fics, its a rare treasure when you find him written with quite so much care as he is in these fics. both authors have fascinating things to say about who jake is and how he communicates with people, and when it comes to arcs fic, i just LOVE how dave and rose are written, augh. theyre so fucking precious. im also a big big fan of roxy and jakes friendship! i still think about roxys little petnames for jake all the time. the derse vs prospit worldbuilding also just lives in the back of my head rent free at all times. if you liked my fic, Tactical Retreat, you should definitely read these bc god knows they totally influenced my worldbuilding

chamomile, rose water, and other unlikely intoxicants

by @callmearcturus

"I do swear by Skaia's guiding light to eschew ambition and direction to serve in the holy retinue. I will lay my head in the safety of the bower and pay penance in thought and deed. For the King of All Winters and the Undying Prince, I will provide succor and balm, and yield my being to ease the burden he carries for us all."  An off-the-cuff jamfic for the Strilondes discord that spun rapidly out of control. In which Dirk plays the role of resigned god-prince of Skaia, locked in a twisted version of the Year King fable. His life is a sorry routine until one year, he receives a very bold, strange offering from the heir to House Harley, Jake. A story about cycles, and how to break them, and the patterns left in the scattered pieces afterward.

sort of a medieval, fairytale style fic. i just love the way jake is written in this one, hes so fucking charming. the story itself and the plot is really compelling, and the worldbuilding is great! arc also just has a writing style that just sort of... flows, you know? its fucking beautiful honestly i wanted to write like that so bad

#dirkjake #my recs #homestuck fanfiction

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 3/28/2023

accidentally read five books.

listening

look i know there's a new fall out boy but i have conflicting opinions about that band bc i am no longer seventeen.

MARINA (formerly Marina and the Diamonds) was another artist coming up when i was in high school, but even though Family Jewels was one of the first albums i really got into, she has soundtracked far less of my life compared to FOB so listening to her is a little less fraught. nothing else has taken up space in my brain this week like the lyrics to hollywood: "hollywood infected your brain/you wanted kissing in the rain".

kind of obsessed how the music video cuts out an entire chunk of lyrics about dissatisfied flight attendants? also jesus christ this came out in 2010. BABY marina

originally stuck in my brain bc my sister and i were talking about the musical chicago, and this song contains the lyrics "oh my god you look just like shakira/no wait you're catherine zeta/actually my name's marina"

-

reading

Star Wars: Dark Disciple by Christie Golden. ventress has never been my favorite of count dooku’s batmanesque kidnapped children. i respect her! she’s awful! i want to see her flirt with obi-wan more but maul (my beloved) has always had more screen time and depth.

it’s spackled together from most of a cancelled eight-episode clone wars arc and it kind of shows? this is not to say that star wars books are uninterested in the interiority of their characters, but we rarely get in their heads. star wars books are much more focused on what it looks like in the movie— there are big cinematic set pieces where it’s important to know exactly where everyone is in a fight.

golden writes a competent action scene. this is more than i can say for many star wars writers.

^ i am shoving my fist into my mouth and screaming.

anyway, one of my worst character traits is a latent previously discussed fondness for steampunk and a less latent fondness for urban fantasy.

i read Alexis Hall's Iron and Velvet Kate Kane book a million years ago possibly at the rec of @bronanlynchh during the new hampshire internship, one of the worst depressive periods of my life, but i did consume a lot of gay romance during that period. bc im in my noir era now, reread it and realized there were more! so i devoured them all over the weekend.

to quote @quaraxuanzenith who seems to be the only other person here who has read them recently,

have you ever thought, "Twilight sure is a book, but it would be better if Bella ( a ) realized that Edward is a weird controlling creep, ( b ) dumped him, ( c ) came out to herself as lesbian, and ( d ) went off to become a paranormal private investigator"?

these are just fun nonsense! i loved them and will buy paper copies after i move! i would not call these "spicy", but she falls in and out of the arms of SO many femmes and fatales (who sometimes overlap). there are SO many women throwing themselves at her. it is a delightful way of nodding at the genre's roots bc kate has some game! she doesn't have zero game! she not an oblivious useless lesbian archetype either! but she's usually like ?????? this person is OUT OF MY LEAGUE and never actually realizes a tall, tortured, sad, purple-eyed lady in a trenchcoat is catnip to nearly all wlw.

i think the third book hits its stride and flings you into a rapidly entangling web of loyalties and motivations that i really enjoy in a noir. i like how the author feels no need to write the YA vampire book trilogy she survived. i like how kate has a life going on apart from the stuff that happens in the books. she does not feel like she started existing the moment the book opens.

i finally understand the little old lady love of endless mystery series, bc this is some really comforting reading. i would read twenty of these. i trust that this author's got me and may fling some twists or red herrings at me but ultimately i won't turn the page and she'll be beaten in the street for being an out lesbian. okay so she does get whumped in the street but it's for case reasons

-

watching

virtuosity (1995, dir leonard). the tagline of this film is "Hell hath no fury like a composite of 183 serial killers. Meet Sid 6.7"

is this a Good film? oh god no. if you've seen the tv show interview with the vampire, it has the same contrasting vibes between the two leads, where one is turning in an incredible performance about a black man trying to hold onto family and dignity while the other is prancing around like a deranged show pony. except without the clarity of purpose or production values of a big budget amc tv drama. however, russell crowe (guy i love to see) put his whole ass into this performance. this is not a half-assed acting effort. it is a joy to watch him zip around screen while denzel washington is giving a very good performance as a disgraced, widowed ex-cop.

this really throws a wrench into my whole "if a movie is about being afraid of a robot it's about being afraid of women" bc crowe is not a woman, but he is a malevolent neural network given an android body. a private company has a contract for a police training tool (the neural network trained on 183 serial killers who you can fight in VR) and is testing the interface on prisoners. i wish this movie had anything to say or critique about this three-way partnership other than using it as an inciting incident for what turns into a chase movie. the movie does not attempt to convince you this would be a good idea in a different private company's dev team but i wish the movie spent slightly less time going AAAAAA HOW TO STOP and any time at all going AAAAAAA HOW DID WE LET THIS HAPPEN

i would call this film camp on vibes alone except it is almost completely uninterested in sensuality. the special effects have not aged very well at all, but the film has the same production designer (Nilo Rodis-Jamero) as Johnny Mnemomic (also 1995) so the film Looks.

why? it was leaving canopy soon and when my gender isn't "woman in the same way a sailing ship is a woman" it's "nineties movie club scenes"

-

playing

weird west! still! (image from the steam page bc i keep forgetting to take screenshots)

not terribly worried about the somewhat repetitive nature of the locations themselves, bc the enemy encounters are varied enough it feels like solving a new puzzle each time. also im still having fun.

i have been picking off guys from around the edges of enemy encampments with a silenced rifle and then tanking through this rest with a shotgun and liberal bandage application, as i am wont to do in shooty games, but i cannot currently break my husband out of a mine run by...cannibals? human traffickers to the cannibals? the xp-giving bad guys without getting one of my companions killed. i really don't want to ditch ann lara (i'm not entirely sure what her deal is? sort of a smooth-talking hustler archetype? but really good with pistols?) who has been with me for most of the eight hours i've played this game. the sheriff/my neighbor, along for the ride for her own reasons, has four times as much health as either of us so she's staying. she's been the only one left alive most of my attempts at this one FUCKING cave.

so i am looping back out into the world (sorry husband) to go think about some real tactics. practice my dodge rolls in a less tense environment. perhaps level up some guns and armor. now you might say "kay! isn't it worrying that you're hitting such a big difficulty cliff?" and to that i say "not really bc i cannot stress the amount of simply dicking around and exploring ive done, also i am not a clever woman."

-

making

fallow week

#this is a little less edited and a little more chaotic than i would like but i have an appointment with a heating pad #tuesday again #tuesday again no problem #Youtube

[one-and-lonely16]

“Lance, is this seriously necessary?”

Lance frowned at Keith from down the shopping aisle but it looked more like a pout. He had a pumpkin themed mug in his hand. 

“Yes, of course it is.”

Keith walked over to him. “It isn’t even October yet.”

He set down the mug and folded his arms. “I know that, but this way we get all the good decorations before they’re gone.” Lance gestured to the shelf. “You mean to tell me that these mugs aren’t cute.”

Keith looked over to where Lance had been looking. He had to admit, the little black cat mug was adorable.

“Ok, fair. But all of this stuff is still going to be here within a month's time.”

“And in a month’s time, I will come and buy more. Now, should I get the pumpkin or the ghost?”

Keith shook his head fondly. He had forgotten how invested Lance gets into halloween. In the two years of being together, Lance always made them wear matching costumes for the annual halloween party they had with their friends. And now that the two of them had their own place, Keith had to now help with decorating and preparing for the holiday. He didn’t mind; in fact, he loved it. When he was younger, they never really celebrated halloween so enthusiastically in the foster homes. His dad, however, had loved halloween. He took them trick or treating every year, even wearing a less elaborate costume than what Keith had worn. And seeing Lance’s face light up whenever someone so much as mentioned halloween was worth how long it took him to decide on a costume for them both.

Lance slipped both the mugs he had been debating about into the basket and continued walking down the aisle. He didn’t walk for much longer, stopping on the halloween themed candles and immediately picking one up to smell. His nose scrunched up and set the candle back down.

“Why such a floral smell for a tarot themed candle? Surely it would be more calming,” Lance said, causing Keith to chuckle.

“Only you would have a problem with that.”

“It’s true! When you think of tarot readings do you think of flowers? No! You think of, like, incense and stuff,” Lance explained, trailing off slightly at the end.

Keith grinned and linked arms with him. He nudged Lance’s side with his elbow. “Are you going to get any of them?”

Lance thought for a second. His eyes scanned the shelf before lighting up. He handed Keith the basket and reached out with his now free hand. He brought the candle to his nose and sniffed. His face relaxed and he let out a content sigh.

“Good?”

Lance basically shoved the candle into Keith’s nose. He didn’t need to take a sniff to smell it, it was all he could smell. Keith smiled and Lance brought the candle away.

“It’s pumpkin spice,” Lance said. “I fucking love it. That’s why I headed this way, I could already smell it, I just couldn’t tell which one it was. Do you like it?”

“It’s very calming. Are you gonna buy it?”

Lance scoffed. “What do you take me for? Of course I am.” He leant over and placed it in the basket gently. He tugged on Keith’s arm and they made their way down the aisle some more, Lance rambling about how they absolutely needed to get a halloween themed blanket for the sofa and Keith nodding along, watching Lance as if he hung the stars in the sky. Lance’s eyes lit up as something else caught his eye. He tapped at Keith’s arm and dragged him over to the other side of the aisle.

“Oh my god, Keith, look at these pillows.”

They spent the rest of their shopping trip in that section of the shop, and ended up taking home way too many Halloween themed utensils, pillows, blankets, candles, even this statue of a steampunk cat (“She just looks so cool, Keith!”). As soon as they entered their house, Lance got to work, putting everything in the right places and lecturing Keith about how under no circumstances he was allowed to put the cups they had brought through the washing machine otherwise the design would come off. Then, he made himself a chai tea latte in their new ghost mug and Keith a coffee in their new black cat mug (when Keith mentioned something about thinking it was cute, Lance had dragged them back to that part of the aisle to grab it). The two curled up on the sofa, Keith flicking through Netflix trying to find them something to watch as Lance curled into his side, scrolling through Pinterest at halloween costumes.

“How about a police officer and a prisoner? That’s a classic,” Lance suggested.

Keith snorted. “It’s not a classic, it’s tacky.”

“Well what would you suggest? Matching mothman costumes?”

Keith paused in thought. “Well, now that you mention it-”

Now it was Lance’s turn to snort. “Absolutely not.”

“I don’t know, what about a genderbend bubbline? I could be Marshall Lee, you could be Prince Gumball,” Keith suggested.

“That actually is a good suggestion. Maybe you’re not just a pretty face after all.”

Keith grinned and poked a finger into Lance’s ribs, causing him to giggle and squirm. “Cheeky. Now, what do you want to watch?”

“A movie, preferably. I’m not in the right mood to start a series. Oh! What about something halloweenie?”

“What, like a horror movie? I’m sure they’ve got the Conjuring on here, somewhere…”

Lance scrunched up his face. “I hated that movie.”

“You hate all horror movies. Which is surprising for someone who loves halloween.”

“Mamá didn’t raise no fool who goes messing around with spirits. Especially angry ones. Can we watch something else?” Lance thought for a second before his face lit up when an idea hit him. “I don’t think it’s on Netflix, but what about The Addams Family? I’ve got it on DVD upstairs.”

Keith shrugged. “Fine by me.”

Lance beamed, uncurled from Keith’s side and ran upstairs. Keith grinned like an idiot as he watched him. Once he disappeared, he started setting up the tv and turning the DVD player on. Lance came down a few moments later, DVD in hand. He put it in, grabbed their new blanket and tucked himself back into Keith’s side, sipping away at his drink. Thank god it was a cool day today, otherwise the two would’ve cooked alive under the blanket. The main menu for the film popped up on screen.

“Hey Lance?” Keith said as he selected the Start Movie option.

“Hmm?”

“I love you.”

Lance looked up at him to find Keith already with his head turned towards him with a smile. Lance grinned. He gave him a quick peck. “I love you too, Mullet. Now shush, the film is starting.”

Keith chuckled, knowing that Lance wouldn’t be able to go five minutes without starting up his commentary. That’s fine, though, that’s just another thing Keith loved.

------

i offer u this domestic klance fic fragment in these trying times before i go to sleep

#was this very self indulgent? absolutely #do i care? nope #i just love halloween man #and klance has my heart #klance #voltron #lance mcclain #keith kogane #klance fic

[undermine-the-instinct]

i absolutely love your bard reader series! it is practically perfect, just so well written.

my only complaint would be how much detail is put into the self insert? i wish they'd be a little more,,, vague, i guess? for premium self insert fun. but i get it, their backstory does add to the story so, and it's not a big deal to me !

anywho, here are some fun ideas for bard!reader, just cause. brainrot.

-liyue: a peking operatic, maybe with a pipa or a guzheng

-inazuma: a musical rakugo(storyteller) with a shamisen

-fonatine: a steampunk rocker with their nations newest musical invention: an electric(mechanical?) guitar

-sumeru: a ghungroo dancer (the ones with the bells!), or maybe a bharatanatyam/another classical indian dance one

-snezhnaya: a ballet dancer or even a conductor that uses their elemental powers to simulate a mini orchestra

-natlan: a griot(poet, sort of) themed after anansi, an african storyteller spider god OR a native american dancer with a flute

Bard!reader does feel more like an oc, huh? They've always felt more like their own character to me, with their own story that just needs to be told. I've had their starting story in my head, from back in Monstadt, and I felt with the situation in Sumeru they'd need to lean more a certain way, personality wise, to survive. Sumeru is not welcoming, there's heavy crowd mentality, and with their backstory I'd feel they'd act and feel a certain way bc of that. So maybe it's better to read them as an oc that you're tagging along besides.

And these ideas!!!! Put under the cut bc this gets long...

But, even though I know their story from Monstadt, and Sumeru to some extent, it was hard for me to brainstorm the other nations! A peking opera singer in Liyue? That's amazing, maybe they're working under Yun Jin, like how now they're working with Nilou at the theater! Mister Zhongli is a frequent visitor, and is an amazing source of history, telling you all about the origins of the peking opera.

They probs had to stay low in Inazuma bc of the Vision hunt decree, but maybe is secretly helping the resistance by being a rakugo, with either a shamisen or guquin (chinese instrument they learned from yun jin!!) and listening in on meetings and the like. After all in 'Second Male Lead, Enter!' Our bards says,

"I had a wanderlust. Spent a lot of time in Liyue, Inazuma was pretty interesting. I spent most of my time with a felon running from the Shogunate, whom I met on a pirate ship."

What felon do we know from Inazuma, huh?

They would play and hang out Xinyan, so they recognize the rock and roll style in Fontaine and sends her and Yun Jin (and Barbara back in monstadt) post cards and photos and lots of letters promising to go on tour with them there one day. (They all formed a performers club and promised to go on world tour together one day.)

I did a little research though, and ghungroo dancers and griots both seemed tied to religious and cultural traditions. For instance griots were typically born into the role and assisted their kings, while ghungroo/ bharatanatyam dancing was restricted to temples before it became more mainstream in response to the British and Christians trying to bash and ban the arts. And I'm still doing research for the native american dancers and flute players, but that also looks cultural and particular to certain tribes and the like?? Maybe Bard!reader meets these sorts of people, helps them out and learns things from them, like meeting other characters in a quest!

Ballet is also something that takes years to learn, but our bard has some experience, so maybe they join a school in Sneznaya, and there they meet a girl named Tonia. You two become friends and she insists you come for dinner, her brother has come home to visit so mom is making a feast, there's plenty to eat!! Only she failed to mention her brother is the famed Harbinger Tartalglia, whom you met in Liyue and wouldn't. Stop. Flirting with you. He steals the food from your plate and tries to feed you off his own, and their mother jokingly asks when's the wedding. she's not joking.

There's so many cultures and so many traditions and each have their own acclaimed spot for the arts and I think that's amazing. It's so interesting to think of exploring these cultures and arts, and our bard definitely wants to explore them all. Imaging them as part of these cultures is neat too, I'm just not sure how to write them and I dont want to disrespect or demean these cultures with mediocre writing.

Thank you for all the ideas love, and thank you for enjoying my story! You've definitely given me a lot to think about, and I hope you stick along for the rest of our bards story!

#my stuff #general #ask #cici answers #bard!reader #brainstorm #brainrot #story brainstorm #story planning #my writing #genshin impact #genshin impact x reader #thoughts #cicitalks

[trickster-shi]

Wednesday 01/03/24

I am so not ready to go back to work tomorrow, but I am pretty pleased about the work I've done on my writing projects this week.

Project Zander

Chapter Two, 1840 words

I finished the first scene of the chapter, which is from Darius' POV and I uncovered his core character strength and weakness while writing and then brainstorming separately. Darius is the tol sunshine puppy of the group, with seemingly endless sass and optimism, but that's actually covering up a lot of insecurities, fear, and mother henning tendencies. His internal thoughts are fun to write because he feels everything, worries about everything, and ties himself up in knots while trying to be brave and funny for the people around him.

They're in quite a pickle at the moment, so he's been incredibly introspective while the other two sleep, trying to figure out why they ended up somewhere they shouldn't have and how they're gonna get out of it.

He's also worrying about Zander and what he had to do to save Darius and Elivia in chapter one, and wishing the sisters were there to take over because Darius is very much not ready to Adult at that level just yet.

I'm still trying to work out some world building issues to marry this story into the ending of Fred and Taz's series that is not completely written yet, so that's also fun. I'm throwing in an alternate Texas circa 1940's or so, steampunk elements, magic, and gods into the mix with surprise time travel, so there's a lot of moving parts but I'm excited to tackle them.

Since I work Thurs-Friday, I don't know how much writing I'll get done those days, so it may be down to the weekend to make more significant progress. We'll see.

Home Across the Universe, Story #10

Untitled, 2987 words

I wrote the entire 2987 words today, so I feel really good about that. I've written a couple previous drafts of this story since October but they just didn't quite come together how I wanted, so I put it on the back burner until now so I could concentrate on NaNo and then Project Zander.

So far, this story is about Stiles taking advantage of a new opportunity and seeing where it leads. It will be pretty Stiles and Peter-centric, with some Derek POV scenes thrown in. I am still developing the Kate plot thread introduced in Boyfriend Achievements: Unlocked, so I don't know if she will be appearing in this story or the next one. It depends on how long this piece decides to be.

So far, this first part was Stiles and John talking over the new opportunity with lots of Stiles' inner thoughts and references to things that have been happening since Christmas. I would say that Stiles is currently the most hopeful he has been in quite a while, so that's really nice to write.

Still, you guys know me. I do love my angst, so I'm sure I'll get to weave some in there somewhere, but so far Stiles's only angsty struggle is that two someone's currently occupying the Stilinski home *cough, Mini-Stiles and Austin, cough* broke the coffee pot and there's been a creative punishment enforced to work off that debt to buy a new one. And Stiles hasn't had coffee first thing in the morning in a week.

He's quite testy about that. But the new opportunity has the added incentive of free, good quality coffee, so he's all for it, even if it does come from Peter.

Other Projects:

I haven't physically worked on the other projects currently occupying other back burners this week, but the following stories are still in active progress:

Into The Black Episode Two

I did restructure what exists of Episode Two during December and wrote around 1k-2k on it. It is currently sitting at 5,876 words. Mainly it was tightening up the narrative, so I cut out a lot of stuff that was dragging the chapter down and fixing stuff to move the plot forward. I'm excited about what I have planned for that episode.

Rabbit Come Home, Part Three

I haven't touched what I have written for the third and final story in a while. It's currently sitting at 16,636 words. I know what I want to have happen in my head but I've had a hard time actually getting it written down, so that one may just need to marinate for a while before I can finish it. I want to do my vision justice and nail the ending.

That's all for now. I'm going to finish up some things and head to bed. 5 am is gonna come way too quick, I can already tell *cries*

#shi speaks #writing #project zander #home across the universe #into the black #rabbit come home #writing updates #fic updates #my writing #teen wolf

[nitewrighter]

Tag 9 people you want to get to know better

I was tagged by @yourlocalrandombisexual

Three Ships: 

1. Whatever the hell Cam + Pal/Paul have going on-- I need to stress that this isn't a romantic ship. Camilla carried Palamedes' soul inside her even as it corroded her and now they've both given themselves up to make a new person because neither could stand to lose the other. The notebook. The tape recorder. "Life is too short and love is too long." "Go loud."

2. Gency-- Girlboss and Malewife with hearty helpings of whump and fluff, as well as discussions about personal growth. I've written entirely too much fic about them not to include them. Also it's nice seeing all the little references to their shippy stuff with the Valentine's event going on :)

3. Fitzcrozier-- What if our ships were stranded in ice trying to find the northwest passage and we were slowly being picked off one by one by a polar bear monster with a semi-human face and we were all slowly dying of lead poisoning from tainted food and we initially couldn't stand each other but we're gradually gaining a profound respect and affection towards each other as it becomes increasingly clear we won't make it back home... and we're both men?

First Ever Ship: I'd say the first ship that really felt like ~my~ ship was Saya and Hagi from Blood+. That ship had everything: Vampires, bodyguard dynamics, devotion, asymmetrical character development over an absurdly long period of time, weird almost insect-like biological imperatives influencing said devotion, a death pact... It's honestly shocking to me that Blood+ didn't have that much of an impact because it was everything to me.

Last Song: Delta by C2C

Last Movie: Oh god it was this really underwhelming super macho drama/thriller thing directed by Russell Crowe--Poker Face. Not nearly as good as the TV show Poker Face. You know what I'm just going to say "Tampopo" instead because that one was way better.

Currently Reading: Oh gosh a whole bunch of stuff. "How to Invent Everything" by Ryan North, "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt, this steampunk short story anthology, "The Tao of Jeet Kune Do" by Bruce Lee....The worst part about working at a library is you get Book WIP syndrome and the only thing that really forces you to try and finish books in a timely manner is the waiting list.

Currently Watching: The Last of Us on HBO, The Lost Kitchen, cooking videos on youtube.

Currently consuming: Black tea with cream and sugar and toasted Irish brown bread with looooads of butter!

Currently craving: A Geisha's kiss Sushirrito and to ride a train for at least 4 hours, if not take a 5-day long train journey. I need to be on a train like Ishmael needs to be at sea or else we'll both start knocking people's hats off.

Tagging:

@parker-of-loxley, @obicoconobi, @stealingpotatoes, @words-to-accomplish-something, @grainypicofthemoon, @macko-99, @the-legion, @callmeshei, @little-miss-mash

#tag games #about me

[crypticcodexcreations]

Hello and happy STS, Cryptic! :D This is for a WIP of your choice (though as a light suggestion, given the content of this question, Hell's Casino would be hilarious here): If your main characters were sucked into our world, The Devil Is a Part-Timer-style (i.e., dropped into our world without the resources/status they had in theirs, transformed into basically human with no powers, and the only thing they've got are the clothes on their back and their memories), how well would they fare? What would they do to survive, who's failing at adapting and how, and most importantly, who is working at McDonald's?

I can not even begin to describe the absolute joy this ask has brought me! The Devil is a Part-Timer is one of my absolute favorite animes and as such, I don't think I can resist the urge to talk about this for multiple WIPs. This is probably going to get long as I ramble on in my excitement, so I'm going to be nice and put a read more here

So, Hell's Casino is honestly pretty easy because my partner once pointed out that The Demon, Sainsevalurius, is kind of a demon Ariel! Hector is from our world, so he would fall into it pretty well, but if they were working together, he'd have to put Sainsevalurius on a child leash or he would lose this little human culture obsessed idiot demon. And that's not to say that Sainsevalurius couldn't take care of himself. He's been finding ways to survive amongst much more traditionally stronger demons for quite some time. However, he would forget that he's lost his powers sometimes and end up lost, and possibly hurt. If he were alone, however, he would definitely get into a lot of trouble. He could hold a job pretty well though and would likely be more than happy to end up at McDonald's. He would absolutely play mind games with rude customers though.

On the Cross Over front, much like Hector, Agent is from a world too similar to ours to have much trouble. Mortimer and Michael, though, would both be interesting. Mortimer would have to have a human face instead of a radio head which would be its own adjustment. First of all, eyes are not a thing he has or wants to have. He would likely need a lot of time to adjust to having senses like sight and smell, only to then have to grapple with the loss of his steampunk style of technology. For him it would just be blow after blow to what he's used to, leaving him sitting at home and trying desperately to catch up constantly. Meanwhile, Michael used to be an adventurer. He is very much adaptable and loves nothing more than to help. He would absolutely end up happily working at McDonald's so that they could eat, but he would also be every staff member there's favorite coworker. If you've ever seen the comic panel of Superman, in his Clark Kent disguise, smiling politely at someone as they realize that shaking his hand hurts, that's Michael at rude customers. So overly polite, but exuding an aura of "Knock that shit off"

And now, I haven't talked much about the characters I'm about to mention, but I have to address them. In a recent snippet, I revealed Alastor and Asterius. I don't have a name for their story, and really it's only Alastor's story, but. This kind of IS the plot of Alastor's story. Alastor tore his own world apart to remake it to be "better", then couldn't put it back together. I haven't decided what kind of world Alastor ends up in. I keep going back and forth between a world that also has magic, but that he can't use or a modern day our world type world. However, I do know that in a world like ours, he would struggle constantly, always be miserable, and curse every god his world had had to offer.

Asterius, on the other hand, would welcome the lack of magic, having believed all his life that he would be the one to tear their world apart and leave it in shambles. The poor boy would probably cry upon being told that the magic of the prophecy he felt bound by is nothing more than superstition and he could find work pretty easily considering their parents were farmers before their birth. He's quiet and shy, but he would do good work. He'd get overwhelmed somewhere like McDonald's but he would be more than happy to just do farm work for the rest of his life.

#asks #Hell's Casino #Cross Over #Alastor the Chosen #Asterius the Cursed

[halotolerant]

K-Pop Meme

Tagged by @popliar appropriately enough since she got me into k-pop <3

three favorite solo artists? ☆ OK so I'm pretty uninformed about soloists since I'm all about the group dynamics - I've enjoyed solo work by group members especially RM, Taemin and Key

five favorite bg/gg? ☆ BTS, SEVENTEEN, SHINee, &Team, Le Sserafim

top five favorite mvs? ☆ *cracks knuckles* This is hard! there are songs I like where that means I also watch the MVs but for MVs on their own merits I'll go with:

HOT by SEVENTEEN - I wrote 2 fics for Yuletide 2022 about this video, superficially it seems like the narrative is so clear, it's not trying to do too much, and yet there is a fascinating ambiguity about what is actually going on. Jeonghan fallen steampunk angel spinoff TV show when?

Advice by Taemin - has anyone noticed how Taemin is quite good at dancing? And THAT croptop. Seen it called 'gender final boss' and yes.

Because by Rie (OnlyOneOf) - this band gave us 6 linked solo songs in 2022, all gay love stories, and this is my favourite. In a strong year for emotional moments in kpop swimming pools, this wins.

My I by Jun and The8 (SEVENTEEN) - I mean who DOESN'T ask their friend to do a super-intense choreo triumph in which friend will play past, unsuccessful version of you and you will play a future, splendid of yourself to which they yearn?

Butter (Hotter Version) by BTS - it was 'Boy With Luv' that lured me into BTS (the opening is glorious), but THIS - this is what I'd send someone if I was trying to convince them in a tight 3 minutes why to fall in love with this PILE OF GREMLINS, HOW are they so smooth and yet SO dumb, and they love each other SO MUCH??

top three leaders? ☆ ATZ Hongjoong, BTS RM and Enhypen Yang Jungwon

how many albums do you have? ☆ 2. 'BE' and 'Gasoline'

do you have/share a close birthday with any idols? ☆ Not that I know

fancy date w/bias or at home date w/bias wrecker? ☆ I do not like screaming or alcohol half enough to spend much time with most idols

mvs or live performance? ☆ As watchable videos? MVs. But MY GOD I WANT TO GO TO MORE CONCERTS

favorite album + song of your group? ☆ I could answer this so many ways but let's say 'Face the Sun' and 'HOT'

three favorite maknaes? ☆ Le Sserafim Eunchae, BTS Jungkook and SHINee Taemin

rap or vocal line? ☆ if it's good? Rap

what song got you into kpop? ☆ 'Boy With Luv', with a side order of 'Daechwita', 'Ego' and the 'Seoul Town Road' Grammy performance

album you have on repeat? ☆ That's not how I listen to music, I'm a singles-on-homemade-playlists philistine

if you were in a kpop group, what position would you have? ☆ Leader. That's why I'm weird about them.

Tagging @spacewitchbot, @distantbluesky, @aliascelli, @knight-tracer - only if they would like to :D

#meme

[showtoonzfan]

I’ve said this before, but man.....I really don’t like Sir Pentious, and I’m certainly NOT stoked to know that he’ll be in the actual show, judging by his blimp being apart of the Hotel now in the promo picture.

For those who don’t know, it’s was confirmed by Viv at one point that Sir Pen was ONLY going to be a character for the pilot, and that was going to be it, but since she liked him so much, she decided to keep him around. At first, I did like his character. I think his concept is interesting, a steampunk snake demon from the Victorian Era sounds really cool, but of course since he’s written by Viv, he’s this edgy loud cursing wannabe evil dude. I said before that I don’t like how his character wants to be “hip” and “cool” as well, it feels more like an excuse so Viv could just NOT do the research of the time period he’s from and just have him talk and act like all the other characters do. (Meaning her.) The funny thing is, he’s supposed to be that goofy stereotypical wannabe villain character that always fails, and I actually LOVE that trope. For example, Ludo from Star Vs The Forces Of Evil, Ice King from Adventure Time, Mr. Crocker from Fairly Odd Parents, Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb, Boxman from O.K KO, they’re ALL goofy villains who I LOVE to watch. They’re funny, likable, and I always have fun with them, but.....Sir pen? This is just for me, but dear GOD did Sir Pen come off as really annoying to me. Like I said before, he’s just your typical edgy annoying vivziepop character, and it doesn’t help that he screams 90% of his lines. And yes, before people jump at me, I KNOW his character is that he thinks highly of himself and he’s supposed to be over the top, but I don’t care, he’s loud and annoying. Another gripe I have with him is that he’s literally useless. He’s not a threat, and while I know not all characters need to be threats, he serves no purpose to the plot or characters. His whole thing he has going for him is that he’s trying to take over Hell, and we as the audience obviously know that he’s NEVER going to accomplish that. He’ll pop in, get defeated, whine, and try again, and that’s it. There’s no need to really have him. He only existed in the pilot to introduce the turf war subplot, and I don’t know about you guys, but to me he was EXTREMELY forgettable. Like seriously, he’s more forgettable than Cherri I dare say. He appears in the beginning, isn’t in the middle, then pops up randomly at the end at the last minute, and you’re just sitting their like “oh....it’s snake dude”. He leaves no impact on me, his design is god awful, and I honestly wish he was scrapped.

#vivziepop critical #spindlehorse critical #anti vivziepop #hazbin hotel critical #vivienne medrano #vivziepop #hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel sir pentious #Hazbin hotel rant #Hazbin hotel character rant #my opinion #if you like him that’s fine but me? #a24 films