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elamimax · 1 year

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Update Time! New Book!!

You know, instead of spamming the people that follow me with updates about stories every day (in between my posts about agent 47), I've decided to just start doing a big chunky update from time to time :) Consider this my new intro!

First off: New Book!

I recently finished publishing Through Verdant Mirrors, which was previously only published as an epub, but is now also available in print!

It is the story of a young (trans) woman who wakes a sleeping, beautiful prince from a tower, covered in vines... and that just, like, the first three chapters!

What follows is an adventure that takes our heroes all across the nation, a confrontation with an ancient evil from a recent past, and some old-fashioned fantasy romance. For fans of classical fantasy as well as more modern works like Shadow and Bone! I'm quite proud and fond of it and the characters in it. We don't have enough straight trans girl rep (and the sequel has some gay trans girl in it too, dw), and TVM is the start of a trilogy that sees our heroine over a period of 10 years go from a young and scared individual to a true powerhouse.

Go check it out!

Up Next

I actually recently finished On Verdant Wings, the sequel! It's currently available for my Patrons but I have also started uploading it to scribblehub, where you can now read the first seven chapters for free! :D

On Verdant wings takes our story five years after the events of Through Verdant Mirrors, where, without getting into spoilers, things take a turn for the Stranger. New countries, new faces and old friends, and a minimum of one (1) dragon. Also this one's a lot gayer, has several transfem and transmasc characters, and sets things up for book 3, which I'll begin writing on first of next month :3

Thirbly: ACAB SPIDER-MAN

A few years ago I wrote a book called Penumbra, which answers the question "what if Eddie Brock was transgender and Venom was nonbinary," a question everyone has been aching to see answered. What followed was an exploration of depression and self-worth even I hadn't really intended that way, featuring several queer and trans characters.

ANYWAY THERE'S A SEQUEL NOW. New protagonist, same world. After the burning question answered by the first one, I ask a new question with the sequel: What if Spider-Man said ACAB?

Penumbra: Redshift is a story about radicalization and deradicalization, about the responsibilities and requirements of having strength to put someone through a wall, and how fucking cool it could be if you could turn into a girl and/or fly. Featuring an extremely bisexual and more than a little trans protagonist, it's a really fun story I'm growing increasingly proud of!

If my readership is anything to go by, it's actually also pretty good plural rep? Which I hadn't intended? I need to talk to my therapist I think. ANYWAY go check it out now! There are seven chapters for free to read on scribblehub and if you can't get enough, twenty-nine chapters over on patreon. (Also you can currently read the first Penumbra for free here for that sweet sweet sad wet loser energy)

You thought I was done??

I've also been working on some new things (not just sequels). Two stories (which don't have professional covers yet, I still need to paint them), called Clear Blue and Far Horizon.

Clear Blue is the narrative equivalent of a friend sitting you down on the couch, handing you a cup of hot chocolate, and spending the next hour telling you how important you are until you cry.

More specifically, it's about someone with terminal anxiety and fear over the way the world currently works who learns to accept that sometimes good things are allowed too by either falling into a painting or having the world's most vivid hallucination. It has food, dancing, the occasional panic attack, and learning to fall in love again. It's also, for obvious reasons, trans. It's short and sweet! Currently Patreon only, but it's going to come to scribblehub (and presumably print) at some point.

It's also getting a spiritual sequel, Far Horizon, which I have started the first few chapters on (also on Patreon) which is going to be a long-form new-adventure-every-chapter story that is all about learning to embrace your life, past, present and future, but all through living vicariously in the moment. Vibes heavily based on @pepurika's Tiger Tiger comic, with, of course, my own twist on things.

Okay now I'm d- SYKE

Another novel! Flipping Out! It's a modern fantasy story about six queer kids who find a magical coin that lets them change their appearance at a whim - but there's some rules attached. Taking place over a period of 15 years, we follow them as they grow closer together, have a falling out, and finally meet back up at a wedding.

This sounds like a coming of age drama.

It's a tense, bisexual, transgender, action thriller crime romcom where these six idiots plan increasingly elaborate heists. Imagine the Ocean's soundtrack playing throughout most of it and you'll get a feel for the vibes. It also has this bit of dialogue.

“Well,” Bee said, “you always did struggle to figure out who the fuck you were.” “You’re one to talk, Miss ‘I’m just a gay guy.’ You took a whole-ass battering ram to your sexuality and you’re giving me shit,” Lisa said with a chuckle. Hers hadn’t changed. Once she’d accepted that anyone could give her the tingly feelings, that had been kind of easy. Being bisexual was a wonderfully universal experience. “Hey, I could still be a faggot.” “What, like a girl-faggot?” “Sure,” Beatrice said, raising her beer. “Girl who is a faggot. That’s me.” “Woah.”

You know, to give you an idea. It is currently being uploaded to scribblehub where you can read the first 5 chapters, but there's sixteen already on patreon, with another estimated 30-45 (ish) to follow. I think it would be cool and sexy of you to give it a look.

Okay now I'm done

So yeah! Lots I've been working on! Check it out, I have a lot of works already finished as well (can be found on my amazon author page if you want a physical copy, smashwords if you don't (though amazon's stranglehold means it is always the most up to date) and on scribblehub if you don't mind clicking through every chapter).

Thank you for reading this far in. If you have, consider recommending some of my works to your friends, there's usually something in there they'll like. I'm pretty prolific, if I say so myself :)

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professionaljester · 1 year

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i was chatting with one of my future coworkers about horror games and the genuine SHOCK i felt when I named dropped Penumbra and he KNEW the games i was talking about

#ABC shut it #we somehow got on the topic of amnesia and i mentioned that penumbra was the first trilogy that frictional made and he was just #OH they made those games??????#and i was just BRO....BRO.... -GETS CHOKED UP- bro.....

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quasi-normalcy · 2 months

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#star trek deep space nine #ds9 #deep space 9 #benjamin sisko #kira nerys #jadzia dax #ezri dax #julian bashir #miles o'brien #worf #quark #garak #nog #jake sisko #gul dukat

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wanderingnork · 2 months

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Githyanki History Timeline

After MUCH research, I present: a timeline of the history of the gith! Starting from their earliest known appearances in history, spanning multiple planes, and ending at "the present day." Sources below the cut.

The subterranean empire of Zarum is founded on the Material Plane world of Oerth. The gith inhabitants, likely originally human, are highly religious, live deeply ritualistic lives, and claim complete control over many other peoples.

A patron deity of the gith dies and is buried somewhere under the material plane world of Pharagos. Presumably this, and possibly other deaths, are why the gods didn't intervene in what came next.

The illithids invade from a parallel, destroying the empire and enslaving the gith. The gith are forcibly dispersed across many planes of existence. Some are taken to the planet of Penumbra, where they'll remain and miss out on the rebellion, remaining in the long term as the "forerunners."

The great rebellion: Gith leads her people to shatter the entire illithid empire across every plane and leave it in ruins.

The githyanki relocate from the Material Plane to the Astral Sea.

The city of Tu'narath is founded on the body of a dead god and the gith begin forging their famous silver swords.

If Baldur's Gate 3 is treated as canon, somewhere in here Gith's son Orpheus is born.

Zerthimon objects to Gith's attempts to continue a war now that the gith are free. A civil war of the gith ensues and they split into the githyanki (children of Gith) and githzerai (those who spurn Gith). In some sources this is called "The Pronouncement of Two Skies." The githzerai depart for the plane of Limbo. A small splinter faction, the githvyrik, break off from both sides.

Gith and Vlaakith travel to the Hells to negotiate for aid from the archdevil Dispater. He denies them, but the dragon goddess Tiamat accepts a deal for the souls of githyanki rulers in return for the service of red dragons. Gith remains in the Hells as the first sacrifice. Vlaakith returns to the Astral Sea as regent in Gith's name, carrying the Scepter of Ephelomon as symbol of the pact.

If Baldur's Gate 3 is treated as canon, Orpheus tries to overthrow Vlaakith and is imprisoned, thought dead by the general public.

The extended regency of the line of Vlaakith begins and will last for 156 descendants. Vlaakith promises the githyanki the Material Plane as a "garden" for harvesting. At some point, Zerthimon disappears and it's unclear exactly where he went. Suggestions range from enlightened transcendence to death to lichdom.

The faction of the gul'othran, githyanki who seek total conquest and death of all aberrations rather than mere raiding and plunder, appears.

At some point after this, a significantly-sized githyanki ship breaks through into the planar-locked world of Athas. It's stranded there and all aboard are mutated permanently by psionic energies of that world, with no way to get back. The ship is considered lost.

The forge of Kamyn-Dhun, where the best silver swords were forged, is lost by sinking into the ocean. The githyanki remaining there undergo magical adjustments to allow them to survive underwater in their now-sunken city.

Approximately 1,000 years prior to the present day, Vlaakith CLVII (157) undergoes a transformation to become a lich. She will reign unchallenged until the present day, when either the events of The Lich-Queen's Beloved will take place or the events of Baldur's Gate 3 will take place, depending on the setting.

Baldur's Gate 3, Larian Studios, 2023 Chainmail Miniatures Game: Blood and Darkness - Set 2 Guidebook Dark Sun Campaign Setting, 2nd Edition Dark Sun Creature Catalog, 4th Edition Dawn of Night (Erevis Cale Trilogy, Book II, 2009) Dragon Magazine #294 - Underground Scenarios Dragon Magazine #298 - Vault of the Drow and Wizards' Workshop: Chainmail Dungeon #100 - The Lich-Queen's Beloved Dungeon #116 - The Death of Lashimire Dungeon #125 - Seeker of the Silver Forge Dungeon #168 - A Tyranny of Souls The Illithiad 3, Masters of Eternal Night The Illithiad 4, Dawn of the Overmind Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, 5th Edition The Plane Above, 4th Edition The Plane Below, 4th Edition Planescape: Torment, Black Isle Studios, 1999 Polyhedron #159 - Chapter 5: The Invasion of Pharagos

#githyanki #baldur's gate 3 #d&d #this leaves out some of the later stuff #like what happens AFTER lich-queen's beloved #if you wanna know that #get into the scales of war adventure path #utterly bonkers stuff #and this is just the stuff that runs up to the current vlaakith #her reign has had some WILD things going on

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murderandcoffee · 4 months

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hi i'm josie and i post about podcasts

podcast(s) I am catching up on: hello from the hallowoods (paused), mabel (paused)

podcasts I am up to date on: the penumbra podcast, malevolent, the magnus protocol (hi I'm the person who named gwen x alice "dyhard" lol), the white vault: goshawk, here lies withered lilies, red valley, derelict, tower 4

podcasts I've listened to fully: the magnus archives, the white vault, wolf 359, the bright sessions, the black tapes, archive 81, the deep vault, the six disappearances of ella mccray, deviser, the very worst thing that could possibly happen, limetown

other things I'm totally normal about: the untamed/mdzs, brandon sanderson's stormlight archive, maggie stiefvater's raven cycle, d&d, taz balance, the dishonored games, until dawn, the mechanisms, kpop, homestuck (sorry), perfume/fragrance, languages/linguistics, art, writing

you can find my ko-fi here, my art insta here, and my ao3 here

my original post/interaction tag is 'bs.txt', my art tag is 'bs.art', and my writing tag is 'my writing' (yeah I don't have a creative tag for that one lmao)

I'm a writer! my current projects are:

-The King's Daughter (fantasy/adventure novel trilogy)

-Auspicious (science-fiction novel duology)

-Radioactive (dystopian science-fiction novel)

-Pages Unturned (fantasy/horror podcast)

please ask me about them. I could talk about them for hours (and have before) <3

I'm 26 and my pronouns are they/he/ae (have fun w/ it idc)

t start date: 4.4.24

if we're mutuals (or if we interact a bunch) feel free to ask for my discord

anyway that's it that's my introduction love you bye

#introduction #intro post #murderandcoffee #bs.txt #about me

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qpr-competition · 1 year

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alright, so i dont have the energy to make Information Posts for every contestant right now (i will try to draft several but its gonna take a while), but i do want to give you the list

in alphabetical order (including the "the"s) of the media theyre from:

Phoenix Wright and Maya Fey

Hideki Hinata and Yui from Angel Beats

Achilles and Patroclus from Aristos the Musical (i have been asked to emphasize that this is specifically the musical portrayal)

Chalco Yong and Ikora Rey from Destiny 2

Senku Ishigami and Gen Asagiri from Dr Stone

Hawke and Varric from Dragon Age

Edgin Darvis and Holga Kilgore from Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Joan Watson and Sherlock Holmes from Elementary

Peri Dubois and Abel Moreau from Entropic Float

Zagreus and Dusa from Hades

Polly and Yaretzi from Hello From The Hallowoods

Nepeta Leijon and Equius Zahhak from Homestuck

Serene-Heart-In-The-Chaos-Of-Battle and Luke Sunborn from In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan

Jay Ferin, Gillion Tidestrider, and Chip from Just Roll With It

Sakuko Kodama and Satoru Takahashi from Koisenu Futari

John Doe and Arthur Lester from Malevolent

Venus McFlytrap, Rochelle Goyle, and Robecca Steam from Monster High (the ghoulfriends book series)

Criss and Cross from Roleslaying With Roman

Anzu, Kazuki, and Junta from Romantic Killer

Zolf Smith and Oscar Wilde from Rusty Quill Gaming

Jas Emari and Sinjir Rath Velus from Star Wars Aftermath Trilogy

Blind and Sphynx from The Gray House

Camilla Hect and Palamedes Sextus from The Locked Tomb

Tim Stoker and Sasha James from The Magnus Archives

Jet Siquiliak and Buddy Aurinko from The Penumbra Podcast - Juno Steel

Moraine Damordred and Lan Mandragoran from The Wheel Of Time

Chongi-Re, Numeri, and Butler from Tropical Rouge Pretty Cure

Chance and Shadow from Woe.begone

Alana Maxwell and Daniel Jacobi from Wolf 359

Joe and Sasha from Wonderlab

Dairine Callahan and Roshaun ke Nelaied from Young Wizards book series

Joe Tazuna and Sara Chidouin from Your Turn To Die

i dont have any dates for you regarding either the introduction posts or the polling starts; i hope to be able to do the latter within the next week, but unfortunately for all of us i have adhd

#qpr competition

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totally-correct-star-wars · 10 days

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Hello lovely followers! I’m working on some more quotes to throw into the queue (eventually) and thought I’d get some feedback. No guarantees, but I thought it might be fun

Disclaimer for those selecting the “other” option: Mod is primarily interested in OT/PT era Star Wars, and then mostly movies/shows and select canon novels. The only things I know about Legends, comics, video games, most novels, or things like the High Republic era are what I’ve absorbed through fandom osmosis. It’s also been a hot minute since I watched the sequel trilogy and although I keep up on The Mandalorian and other shows in that era, I’m not super invested.

That being said, I’m still willing to do quotes from these categories! I’m just not as familiar with the characters so the humor will probably be hit or miss.

#obviously there’s a lot of overlap but hey #and if you’re impatient with me for not getting around to doing characters you like you can always submit something lol #not a quote #mod luminara speaks

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totallycorrectjediorderquotes · 1 year

Conversation

Tholme: Are you okay?

Quinlan, laying facedown: I'm sad.

Tholme: damn me too

Tholme: No wait, hi sad, I'm dad

Tholme: I mean, what's wrong

#Tholme: hold on let me call t'ra she's much better at this than I am #Tholme #Quinlan Vos #Penumbra Lineage #star wars #star wars: the clone wars #star wars the clone wars #tcw #incorrect star wars quotes #Star Wars the Expanded Universe #Star Wars the Prequel trilogy #source: unknown

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throuple-tournament · 1 year

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Throuple Tournament Info

Rules

Submissions are closed.

Polls will run for a week and I will give you at least a days notice.

I will not answer asks while a poll is up unless it's propaganda or a question about the polls.

I will not answer asks about discourse. I might think about what you said but I don't want discourse on this blog.

I will also not respond to rude or mean asks.

Please send asks that are propaganda. Also, please send asks with your fan art or your favourite screenshots that you wouldn't mind me using for polls.

Please send in a description of your favourite throuples if you want to; these will be used in the polls.

Please do not be rude about other people's interests or the other throuples in the tournament. You can talk about your preferred throuple without talking badly about the other/s.

Please don't jokingly threaten others or joke about suicide. I've noticed that some polls I follow have had this issue and I don't want this to happen on my blog.

I don't know when I'm going to have the first polls ready as I'm going to be getting busier from this week onwards but I'll let you guys know.

Match Ups Under Keep Reading

Group 1

Marco/Star/Tom vs Marco/Janna/Jackie from Star vs the Forces of Evil

Adaine/Fig/Ayda vs Em/Sofia/Dale from Dimension 20

Kala/Wolfgang/Rajan vs Lito/Hernando/Daniela from Sense 8

Willow/Luz/Amity vs Willow/Hunter/Gus from The Owl House

Raz/Lilli/Dogen vs Ford/Lucretia/Otto from Psychonauts

Finn/Rey/Poe vs Rex/Anakin/Padme from Star Wars

Makoto/Sayaka/Kyoko vs Hajime/Nagito/Chiaki from Danganronpa

Ryunosuke/Barok/Kazuma vs Clay/Apollo/Klavier from The Great Ace Attorney

Jason/Roy/Koriand'r vs Dick/Barbara/Koriand'r from DC Comics

Marius/Ivy/Raphaella vs Orpheus/Narcissus/Eurydice from The Mechanisms

Group 2

Selina/Harley/Ivy vs Tim/Bernard/Kon from DC

Sam/Tucker/Danny vs Vlad/Jack/Maddie from Danny Phantom

Rose/Lissa/Natalie from Vampire Academy vs Bonnie/Caroline/Elena from Vampire Diaries

Jay/Nya/Cole from Ninjago vs Red Son/Mei/MK from Lego Monkie Kid

Rilla/Arum/Damien from Penumbra Podcast vs Howard/James/Cel from Rusty Quill Gaming Podcast

Haru/Legosi/Louis from Beastars vs Ranpo/Poe/Mushitarou from Bungou Stray Dogs

Adrien/Marinette/Kagami from Miraculous Ladybug vs Anne/Marcy/Sasha from Amphibia

Ichika/Nene/Kanade vs Rui/Mafuyu/Tsukasa from Project SEKAI

Parker/Hardison/Elliot from Leverage vs Neal/Peter/Elizabeth from White Collar

Yamato/Ace/Deuce from One Piece vs Arthur/Lancelot/Guinevere from Arthurian Legend

Group 3

Ichigo/Minto/Retasu from Tokyo Mew Mew vs Hikaru/Lala/Yuni from Star Twinkle Precure

Kyle/Rogelio/Lonnie from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power vs Pearl/Rose/Greg from Steven Universe

Rapunzel/Eugene/Cassandra from Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure vs Zuko/Sokka/Suki from Avatar: The Last Airbender

The Doctor/Rose/Jack from Doctor Who vs James/Bones/Spock from Star Trek TOS

Nancy/Steve/Jonathan from Stranger Things vs Merlin/Gwen/Arthur from Merlin (2008)

Rachel/Chloe/Max from Life is Strange vs Thanatos/Zagreus/Megaera from Hades

Vincent/Victor/Albert from Vincent: The Secret of Myers vs Rinne/Himeru/Niki from Ensmeble Stars!

Jack/Kirtash/Victoria from Idhun's Memories Series vs Qibli/Winter/Moonwatcher from Wings of Fire Series

Ludivine/Rielle/Audric from The Empirium Trilogy vs Vlad/Nathan/Ursula from Hunger Pangs:True Love Bites

King Kelp/Lord Cabbage/Bagel from Cucumber Quest vs Camilla/Nyra/Dendro from Muted

Group 4

Neptune/Uranus/Pluto from Sailor Moon vs Aira/Rizumu/Mion from Pretty Rhythm

Mickey/Goofy/Donald from Disney vs Pepe/Sylvester/Penelope from Looney Tunes

Draculaura/Clawdeen/Frankie from Monster High vs Ruby/Weiss/Penny from RWBY

Nathan/Annalise/Gabriel from The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself vs Quentin/Eliot/Arielle from The Magicians

Leon/Claire/Ada from Resident Evil vs Jaskier/Yennefer/Geralt from The Witcher

Abigail/Sam/Sebastian from Stardew Valley vs Candy/Sapphire/Zack from My Sims

Sweet/Capn/K_K from Deltarune vs Shiver/Frye/Big Man from Splatoon

Chris/Millie/Conrad from Chronicles of Chrestomanci vs Sadie/Walt/Anubis from The Kane Chronicles

Rah'oxah/Legzi/Ryjnah from Drawga: Dungeons and Drawings vs Grendan/York/Rose from Drawtectives

Jean/Scott/Logan from Marvel Comics vs Wu/Li/Gao from Iron Widow

Group 5

Yuji/Megumi/Nobara from Jujutsu Kaisen vs Misa/Light/L from Deathnote

Lucy/George/Anthony from Lockwood & Co vs Louis/Lestat/Armand from Interview With A Vampire

Chel/Tulio/Miguel from The Road to El Dorado vs Manolo/Maria/Joaquin from The Book of Life

Henry/Charles/Ellie from Henry Stickmin Collection vs Steve/Alex/Herobrine from Minecraft

Soldier/Demoman/Zhanna from TF2 vs Susie/Magolor/Taranza from Kirby

Morgana/Launchpad/Drake from Darkwing Duck vs Yoo/Han/Kim from Omniscient Readers Viewpoint

Isabela/Merril/Hawke from Dragon Age 2 vs Dorian/Orym/Fearne from Critical Role Campaign 3

Vivi/Arthur/Lewis from Mystery Skulls Animated vs Aizo/Yujiro/Hiyori from Honeyworks

June/Dave/Karkat from Homestuck vs Trevor/Sypha/Alucard from Castlevania

Elizabeth/Jack/Will from Pirates of the Carribean vs Cyrano/Christian/Roxanne from Cyrano (2021)

#throuple #tournament #polls

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vintagerpg · 8 months

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Dawn of the Overmind (1998) is the final part in the mind flayer adventure trilogy and the last Monstrous Arcana book. The cover depiction of a cthonian (Credited to Jeff Easley? Surely that is not Easley?) is a clear reference to the original cover of Brian Lumley’s The Burrowers Beneath, which inspired Gygax’s creation of the flayers. Anyway, strap in, because this one is all over the place and I probably don’t have room to explain it all.

This is a Spelljammer adventure. It is also, sorta, a Planescape adventure. But primarily Spelljammer. Using their nautiloid ship, the players journey to Penumbra, the homeworld of the mind flayers, which is a weird sort of ringworld or partial Dyson sphere. There they commence a wilderness adventure that feels like Larry Niven’s Ringworld, but filtered through the barbarian stylings of Frazetta. They’re looking for a macguffin artifact in a ruined illithid city, but they also uncover the history of the flayer’s conflict with the githyanki and githzerai. Artifact retrieved, they wind up going to destroy the Overmind, an arcane engine that will extinguish ALL the suns in the multiverse if it isn’t stopped. There are also red dragon-riding githyanki and a chance to kill a dead god deader. So much! It really feels like a wrap up not just of mind flayers, but of the Spelljammer and Planescape settings (the dead god is part of the Dead Gods Planescape adventure). It is sweeping and effective (the construction is very open and free form) and kinda wrecks the joint on the way out in a satisfying way. I don’t want to claim that you can’t do anything with mind flayers after this — you can! — but it is definitely a crescendo that ties off a lot of threads in a so satisfying a way I’d be loathe to pick them apart again.

#roleplaying game #tabletop rpg #dungeons & dragons #rpg #d&d #ttrpg #Monstrous Arcana #Mind Flayer #Dawn of the Overmind

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anneapocalypse · 6 months

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🎇20 Questions for Fic Writers🎇

Tagged by @dreadfutures 💙 Thank you!

Tagging @chocochipbiscuit @farfromdaylight @rakshadow @skyeventide

Blank questions for your convenience! My answers are below the cut.

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

2. what’s your total ao3 word count?

3. what fandoms do you write for?

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

5. do you respond to comments?

6. what’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

7. what’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

8. do you get hate on fics?

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

10. do you write crossovers? what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

14. what’s your all-time favorite ship?

15. what’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? T

16. what are your writing strengths?

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

19. first fandom you wrote for?

20. favorite fic you’ve ever written?

Answers!

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

If I count everything, 181. If we're not counting meta pieces, 163.

2. what’s your total ao3 word count?

802,674

3. what fandoms do you write for?

I've written for quite a few, but my big ones have been Fallout, Red vs. Blue, and Dragon Age. I've also written for The Penumbra Podcast, RWBY, Mass Effect, Person of Interest, and The 13 Clocks. (And now I'm also writing for Final Fantasy XIV, though I haven't posted anything yet and probably won't until after I'm caught up with MSQ.)

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

Homecoming (Red vs. Blue, Tucker & Junior, rated T)

Juno Steel & the Fox's Teeth (Penumbra Podcast, Juno/Peter, rated E)

Sensibility (Penumbra Podcast, Juno/Peter, rated E)

Respite (Red vs. Blue, North/Wash/York, rated T)

Home Front (Fallout 3, Amata/F!LW, rated T)

I was genuinely surprised and charmed at how well-received "Homecoming" was (and continues to be), as I considered it fairly niche at the time of writing, but then, Tucker is a popular character. The response to my Penumbra fics certainly caught me by surprise, in the manor of, "OH, this is what it's like to write the popular pairing!" "Respite" was one of my very early RvB fics and it's not one I'm particularly happy with now, as I think I would have done certain things differently had I written it later, but nonetheless it was well-received; not a lot of people were actually writing North/Wash/York at the time. "Home Front" is one of my favorite Fallout fics I've written; I'm still proud of it.

5. do you respond to comments?

Yes, I try to! Sometimes I take a bit longer these days, but I do try to reply to every comment, barring the odd rude one which I'll just delete or ignore.

6. what’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

It's maybe cheating to say The Fall, given that it's the second in a trilogy so the story isn't actually over at the end of that fic. But that fic is a downer the whole way and ends with the main character's probable death, so. It's pretty angsty. After that, I'd say "Please (Don't Leave Me)", an RvB South/CT fic where CT doesn't live and South is dealing with the aftermath, poorly.

7. what’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I'd say I've written quite a few--I'm a big fan of the hard-won happy ending. I'm going to distinguish happy from fluffy here--I could pick any number of my one-shorts for fluffiest ending--and say The Landing, because relative to what comes before, and also canon, it's an incredibly happy and optimistic ending for Maine.

8. do you get hate on fics?

Rarely. The vast majority of my readers are perfectly sweet and kind. For some reason, my Mainelina fic has drawn the most bad commenters out of any. I wouldn't call those comments hate, but I have gotten a few that were pretty rude and/or backhanded. My guess is that I hit a particular unfulfilled niche with a long Maine-POV fic that happened to appeal to a particular kind of RvB fan, a kind who like Maine and like the fic but also felt the need to like, flex on me about it. Most of them have seemed not overly familiar with fandom etiquette and transformative fandom culture in general. Embarrassing for them tbh. I just ignore or delete them.

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

Whatever kind I feel like! Less in recent years perhaps, but that's less a lack of interest and more that I get bored easily if I feel like I'm writing something repetitive, and writing non-repetitive smut can be genuinely challenging! We only have so many words, descriptors, euphemisms, and slang terms that actually sound appealing when you're trying to write erotica, so I think writing good smut requires no small amount of creativity and resourcefulness, and I always admire those who do it well.

Bondage is a theme I've explored repeatedly. I would say that I enjoy writing established relationship smut the most because it can be assumed that the characters already know each other's likes and dislikes. But first-times can be fun too. I think I most enjoy writing smut between characters who trust each other and have a high level of emotional intimacy, whatever the specific activities involved might be.

10. do you write crossovers? what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

To be honest I'm just not really a crossover person. I can find the idea of a crossover interesting, but at the end of the day I just don't enjoy transplanting characters out of their home setting as much as I enjoy exploring who they are within that setting and how it's shaped them.

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yes. I had a kink meme fill straight up plagiarized once, very obviously, such that when I took it to the mods it was an open and shut takedown.

I've also had less cut and dry incidents, and those are much harder to know how to deal with. I have had people basically rewrite a scene that I wrote, using pieces of the same dialogue, almost as if they thought we were both interpreting a scene from canon when we were not, it was something that I had made up. And yet it's not really plagiarism strictly speaking, and it wasn't worth the social fallout of calling them out on it, so I never did more than grumble vaguely about what happened. I've also had things where like... I ran across something pretty distinctly inspired by a fic of mine that I know the author had read, without bothering to give me a shoutout. That's not theft, but it is a bummer.

In every such case if the author had just asked me, "Hey, can I borrow your idea here? Can I post a remix of your fic?" I probably would have said yes without hesitation. Hell, even if they had not asked and simply given me a shoutout in their author's notes, I would have been pleased to have inspired them. But they didn't do that, and there's nothing I can do about it but I am going to be cranky about it.

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

I did have someone ask about translating a fic of mine once, and I gave permission, but I never heard back after that, so I don't know if they ever did. (This is something I have blanket permission for, by the way, so long as you let me know about it!)

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

Sort of? A friend and I did post a polished-up RP as a fic once, though we ended up not keeping it up. In general I think I'm a pretty solitary writer, though I wouldn't rule it out entirely, but I'd have to really feel that both my style and my writing process meshed well with my collaborator.

14. what’s your all-time favorite ship?

I'm too much of a multi-shipper to have a real answer to this.

15. what’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

If I want on any level to finish it, then I consider it still on the table. It might take me years to get back to it, but I still mean to. I still want to finish Small Blessings. I still want to finish Radio Silence. I trust that their time will come, even if it's not now.

16. what are your writing strengths?

Character voice, I think. Both dialogue, and getting inside a character's head and writing a plausible inner monologue.

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

Combat, always combat and action scenes, though I do think I'm getting better with practice.

Selfishness. As soon as I need to write something as an obligation to someone else, I don't want to do it, which is why I'd make a terrible professional writer, at least one who has to write to order.

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Just write it. You don't have to italicize it or put some kind of indicator marks around it. Language is language. I think it's fine to post translations as a footnote but I don't think it's 100% necessary all the time, when it's something the reader can easily look up for themselves. I know I'm willing to do that kind of legwork for a fic I'm enjoying. I suppose it depends on the reader, and what kind of reader you want.

There are also times when it's perfectly fine to just write it in English (or the default language of the piece) while indicating in the narrative that the character is actually speaking in another language, such as ASL. Again I don't think you need to italicize or use some kind of weird formatting. Just write "He signed," and what he said in quotes like you would any other dialogue. If you've firmly established already that a character primarily speaks in ASL, you might not even need that. The reader can keep up.

Things do shift a bit when you're writing in a fictional language, especially one that's very incomplete and not a true conlang. I'll go with the obvious example of Dragon Age's Elvish (and yes, canonically the language is called Elvish or Elven, it's not called Elvhen, that's the people, not the language). Even if I string the appropriate words together, the meaning might not always be strictly clear to the reader out of context because Elvish is a pretty simple cipher. It doesn't have conjugation, for example. Nonetheless, I think often context clues can be enough for an engaged reader, especially if it's a word we encounter a lot in canon. Where it might not be clear, and if it's very important to the story, I will usually simply work some kind of translation into the narrative itself. This can work particularly well when your POV character also has it as a second language. Example from my Briala/f!Tabris draft:

Gheyna and Cammen, having finished tending to the halla, stood aside, hand in hand, and Gheyna waved. "Dareth shiral, Keeper. Talith, Briala, dareth shiral. Sylaise ma ghilana vhenas." Cammen added solemnly, "Dareth shiral, Talith. Elgar'nan ma ghilana, lasa mala enasalin." At that, Talith's expression grew solemn as well. "Ma serannas, lethallen. Dareth shiral." Briala recognized a few words. Dareth shiral, "Safe journey." Vhenas, enasalin. And the names of the elven gods. Gheyna had bid the Hearthkeeper guide them safely home.

I personally prefer to stick to what we have in canon for Elvish (I'm not going to set myself up to be jossed if I don't have to), or if I ever really need an unknown word I'll make something up for myself. While there are some fanmade Elvish dictionaries out there, I'm not comfortable hanging too much of my own work on someone else's fanon, and also I inevitably disagree with some of their decisions on ambiguous canon words. (Ma does not mean "my," it means "you." This is consistent with every canon use of "ma" except one, and that one is in DA2 and is thus really, really likely to have been an oversight due to rushed development; every other instance of "ma" supports it meaning "you." Sorry, that has been eating at me for ages and I needed to get it off my chest. 😅) That said there are multiple fanmade Elvish dictionaries out there at this point, so if you're going to use someone else's, in this case I would strongly recommend supplying the reader with a link, both to credit the author and so the reader knows where to go to look up the words if they choose to. Don't assume that everyone knows you're using so-and-so's Elvish dictionary; I had never even heard of the big popular one until a couple years ago.

That was a lot, but at the end of the day, it's all about making a judgment call on how much you need to hold the reader's hand, as with anything; I personally tend to err on the side of trusting my reader, and if I assumed too much, well, maybe that's my mistake and maybe that reader wasn't my target audience anyway. 🤷🏻‍♀️ You'll figure out what's right for your work.

19. first fandom you wrote for?

The first fandom I wrote for was actually Dragon Age, but that early writing never saw the light of day. First fandom I posted fic for was Fallout.

20. favorite fic you’ve ever written?

OH MAN. That's hard! I referenced The Drop, my Mainelina trilogy for RvB, multiple times in this post so obviously I'm still pretty fond of it. I'll add to that Inroads, my Kimbalina series. For Fallout, I'm real happy with Home Front (Amata/F!LW) and Cast Your Bread Upon the Water (Dr. Li/Star Paladin Cross, past Dr. Li/Catherine/James). And for Dragon Age, my current faves are No Woman Rules Alone (Anora/F!Tabris) and A Pot to Piss In (Sera backstory fic).

#tag meme #writing #fanfiction #this was a fun one

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