Hi! For the ask game: 🌈 💞 🪄

🌈is there a fic that you worked *really fucking hard on* that no one would ever know? maybe a scene/theme you struggled with?

Hoo boy. Yeah. Three fics.

Fireside Dreams. The original was written in 2008 and this rewrite done in 2020. The rewrite was extensive and I DO MEAN EXTENSIVE. In 2008 I was well into adulthood already (lol) but I didn't have a great grasp of who I was as a person yet. I don't mean this in any sort of negative way, but Oscar as a character always spoke to me deeply and it wasn't until I rewatched and reread RoV in 2020 that it hit me square in the face why that was. In my rewrite of this story, I managed to convey a lot of themes I was incapable of putting words or solid feelings to back in 2008, and I wrote Oscar as asexual. I never outright stated it in the story or the notes (because I wanted my readers to feel they could kind of choose that specific for themselves) but that was where my mind was when writing it. Also, I very much wanted to hint at The Incident Scene being as complex as I view it, so I was able to do that too, something I could have NEVER put into words in 2008.

If It Takes a Lifetime. I was actually very happy with the original story, also posted in 2008. The original was more or less a cathartic love letter to the fans; it was my definitive proof that the author knew what she was doing by ending the series the way she did. When I reread it to work on, though, I found that the original was a classic example of what a friend criticized my writing for, once ("too emotional"). I reread it in 2020 as my first foray back into writing after some time away, and it was my first RoV rewrite. I found the story felt underdeveloped and a bit uninspired-feeling, and there was a lot of emotion that didn't really feel real or earned (which is something I've trained myself to notice; I did not have this skill in 2008). I also Get the characters in a way I did not in 2008 which helped a lot. In the rewrite I tried to mimic the manga tone more; the French translation (which is all I had until recently lmao) has this sort of...waxing poetic narration and I needed it for this story to work. I also had to retool basically the whole thing due to the PoV moving from omniscient to limited and the aforementioned issues. Rewriting this damn thing was a labor of love if ever there was one. I was so happy with this rewrite that in my notes I said it felt more like a Rose of Versailles fic than any other RoV story I wrote.

A Rose Is a Rose Is a Rose. I probably should not have labeled this a romance; it's more character study + friendship than anything but sometimes I'm stupid. Anyway, this was the first extensive rewrite I did since 2020 and it was pretty much a complete retooling of the original story, which had a fun premise but was way too short to make the idea work properly. This one was another serious labor of love; the story concept was good but the actual structure had to be tossed out, so I had to more or less just write a whole new story while still keeping the parts of the original that worked for me. And while I was at it I made certain it acted as a bridge to Raine's skit with Regal (where they agree that Lloyd surviving is of the utmost importance) as well as an easier segue into her ending, since I felt the game did a poor job of getting us from "she lied about her identity" to "she's so comfortable with it now she's out trying to end discrimination." (Not that the game did a great job with like, any of the character endings save a few, though lol.)

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💞what's the most important part of a story for you? the plot, the characters, the worldbuilding, the technical stuff (grammar etc), the figurative language

This is tough because it depends on the story.

Short pieces: Characterization > Metaphors Make Sense > Technical Stuff > Plot > Worldbuilding

Longer works: Characterization > Plot > Worldbuilding > Technical Stuff > Metaphors Make Sense

Like obviously if the technical stuff is dogshit people won't read the story at all, but if we're just talking a few nitpicky details, they matter a lot less in a long fic than in a short one. In a short story you're presenting a bite-sized (or like, cupcake-sized) piece for your reader, and the things that matter in the short-term have to be the most important (like, it's a short story...please edit it before posting, it takes a few minutes to look for typos). I think having a technically sound story is important no matter what but sometimes in long stories you do miss a small thing here or there.

I don't think a short story needs much or any real worldbuilding to be great. Obviously these details are nice in short bursts and fun to see, but they can also REALLY bog down a story if you include too many or the intention is to present something short & punchy. For a long story though, you DO need it, and depending on the canon you're writing for, you may need a lot of it to keep your readers engaged, to help your characters feel more grounded in the world, and/or to help the world feel real.

Metaphors making sense is ranked higher in the short story section because this is where they are most often encountered. It's very very noticeable if you make a terrible metaphor and that metaphor is the crux of the whole 2,000 word long story you're writing. In a long fic you don't see a lot of metaphors generally (and I find most of them just make the story a slog to read) so it's not that big of a deal because you probably won't even use them.

Plot ranks high with longer works because it's literally the second biggest reason people are reading the story. For shorter pieces it's quite low because there is always an audience for pwp and WAFF, which oftentimes have little or no plot.

Characterization remains #1 because nothing jolts me out of a story faster than characters feeling unlike themselves. I understand that sometimes people do drastic AUs and that's great, but if a character I love doesn't feel like the character I love anymore, then I'm out; it's just a personal preference for me. That said, in most situations, characterization makes or breaks any story. Plot matters a lot in a long story but the characterization will always matter more. I'd rather read a basic bitch plot with great characterization than a god-tier plot with mediocre characterization. Also, I do not think this can be overstated, but this is fandom and people are here for the characters; they should ALWAYS matter the most in this medium.

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🪄what is your post-writing/sharing aftercare? How do you take care of yourself or celebrate yourself when you've finished a fic?

I tried to take a break since I finished writing Break Open the Sky and I've just been bored out of my damn mind, honestly. Started planning the sequel because I can't take it.

Usually when I write something and post it, I just do something else for a while: watch a movie, play a game. I'm an idiot who can't stop working on things to do simple tasks like eat or shower (hyperfocus or die), so usually when I finish something extensive I go look at something that isn't a screen for a while and shower, put in eyedrops, do a load of laundry or vacuum, and get myself something to eat.

Also my biggest writing care tip is CUT YOUR FINGERNAILS. Especially if you're a fast typist like me or if you have arthritis—or there's a history of arthritis in your family (osteo or rheumatoid). Got this advice years ago from @kippielovesyou, I think before a NaNoWriMo; it had never really occurred to me before but now if my hands hurt too quickly I cut my nails and feel like a brand new person again. It's truly wild.

Most touch typists like me use touch so extensively that when our nails get too long we have to use more pressure to feel. To be clear, I'm worse off than most people because I have the aforementioned arthritis + nerve damage in my hands (I have very very little feeling in the tips of my fingers), so I notice the extra pain in my joints very quickly BUT!! It could be a gamechanger for anyone, so I like to pass the knowledge on.

If you DO have the start of carpal tunnel or arthritis or tendonitis PLEASEPLEASE for the love of God don't overdo it. You WILL NOT get your hands back. Please. I'm literally begging. I fucked up my hands and arms in a factory years ago and I am not even 40 and have the hands of a 70 year old woman and permanent restrictions to keep my tendons from rupturing. Don't push through pain; it will not get better. I learned this the hard way and I am passing that knowledge on to you guys. Stretch, drink a lot of water, and give your hands a break when you need it!!!!

"Are you finished with my portrait yet? Show me!" "Cipacton, I can't draw you if you keep moving!"

i can't stress enough that outside of this one moment in rogue protocol when murderbot wants to kill a human for betraying its sort-of clients but settles for the next best thing of menacingly hovering a drone in her face for 26 seconds while she's frozen in place by her armor, for the rest of the first four books mb is really only using drones for security purposes and doesn't have the time or inclination to be performing close-range facial analysis:

in ASR it doesn't seem to be all that familiar with drones outside of maybe using them to set a perimeter. it exhibits several other uses of drones as events escalate, but they're all related to protecting itself and its humans and getting intel on EvilSurvey. at no point does it mention watching a human with a drone; it's all "using drones to draw fire" this and "sending drones flying off in the wrong direction as a diversion tactic" that. et cetera.

it has no access to drones whatsoever in AC from what i can tell.

in RP it uses Ship's drones to record conversations between wilken and gerth, but it's not a participant in those conversations and it doesn't even watch them in real time. it also forgoes getting a good look at their weapons via drone because it thinks they would notice. later it takes control of a station drone to watch (from afar) their first meeting with don abene & co., but miki notices the drone and almost catches mb because of it, which freaks it out. then it hacks the combatbots' drones, but other than the aforementioned 26-second intimidation of wilken, it's too busy doing actual security work to use them to look at people.

in ES it accesses drones many times, including to observe its humans, but it only seems to actually control a drone to look at something one time, and only in order to zoom in on a suit logo. so at no point could it conceivably be directing a drone to get up in somebody's face, since it's just piggybacking on drones as they go about their normal business.

it does use cameras to watch people in the first four books, but in a much less obvious way: either it's using fixed cameras that are built into habitats/hoppers/whatever, or it's accessing mobile cameras (suit cams, station drones) but not controlling where those cameras go or what they're pointing at.

it's interesting, because while drones can be startling or intrusive, on the flip side, cameras that don't move don't draw attention to themselves and thus may make it easier to forget you're being watched (plus you have no way of knowing if that particular camera is being monitored at that moment or if it's just recording for later analysis). so in a way, having a drone in your face actively signals to you that mb is paying attention to you. it's making mb's gaze visible in a way it might not otherwise be. this changes the dynamic from "passive surveillance for datamining and threat assessment purposes" to "person actively choosing to pay attention to you in real time". one of these is covert and the other isn't; one of these holds the possibility of interaction and exchange and the other doesn't. maybe it puts a drone in your face to show you it cares.

well what family doesn't keep a secret vampire family member hidden deep in in the basement /s

EDIT: Rest of the comic is now under the cut!

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BONUS:

Don't talk to me; I'm still recovering from the fact that the first computer-synthesized voice to sing in 1961 - the IBM 704 - sang Daisy Bell, a love song.

always fascinated by people's different takes on the language barrier between kaz and the ghafas.

I think my personal opinion is that kerch, being the language of the center of commerce and an overall neutral party in the war, is kind of like english - in that it's an internationally spoken language, but certainly not by everyone. considering jesper spoke it well enough to go to university in ketterdam, even though he was a farm boy, it must be pretty widespread. matthias didn't speak it until hellsgate, but he also grew up very sheltered.

inej didn't speak kerch when she was taken, so it's reasonable to assume her parents didn't either. but maybe they spoke a little of it, like in some countryside places in europe? or maybe they learnt in their efforts to find her? or perhaps they focused their efforts inside ravka, and never learnt a word of it.

it's always suspicious to me that kaz never bothered picking up ravkan, being the strategic businessman that he is. I think he wouldn't hide that ability during the ice court/van eck mission if he had it, so either he can speak very little, or not at all; if not at all, it supports the assumption that kerch is the international business language, which is why he never bothered picking up a second language.

so would the ghafas learn enough kerch to communicate? I don't doubt that using inej as a translator would frustrate kaz to no end; words are his strongest weapon, so he'd definitely put effort into being able to communicate with them. but would he learn suli? or ravkan? suli would be a more personal gesture, which he'd see as a leverage to get the ghafas to like him. ravkan would be more useful in other ways, and we know how much kaz likes having more than one reason to do something.

Actually guys let me ramble (read: shout over text) a bit more before I sleep (because I am hyped but it's 2AM-)

BNHA 422 spoilers ahead!

THAT IS MY FAVORITE MAIN CHARACTER RIGHT THERE HE IS THE MOTHER FRICKING MOMENT

HIS FRIENDS? SUPPORTING HIM WHATEVER IT BRINGS. CRIMINALS? PSSH, THEY'RE HIS ALLIES NOW. NON-BELIEVERS? THEY'RE ALL CHEERING ON HIM NOW. THE WORLD? HE'S CONQUERED THEIR HEARTS LOOK AT RODY AND MELISSA. THE SYMBOL OF PEACE? DECLARED THAT'S HIS HERO. HIS MOTHER? SHE'S 100% SO PROUD OF HER KID.

THIS KID IS THE EMBODIMENT OF "FALL EIGHT TIMES, GET UP NINE"- THAT'S THE SYMBOL OF HOPE RIGHT THERE- WHO CARES ABOUT THE QUIRKLESS ENDING OR NOT LOOK AT HIM GO!

THAT IS THE TRUE CRYSTALIZATION OF EVERYONE'S HOPES-

MIDORIYA IZUKU IS THE WORLD'S GREATEST HERO AND HE'S GOING PLUS FUCKING ULTRA!

... Oh yeah also I know who we were expecting but psst he'll be back I promise Horikoshi-san is saving his favourite boy for later yes he's too relevant to not show up think of him as the here's own surprise trump card later- this is Izuku's moment right now let's focus on that for a bit this is his Rising chapter the moment the narrative has been building up since the title of Chapter 1, the other little guy will be back soon-

Been noodlin' with some doodlin' trying to figure out how I want to draw these nerds

I am obsessed with how narratively convenient Lark's divinatory abilities are. She's the only one of the protagonists who is both pragmatic and has a working sense of self-preservation, so having some internal impulse that is actually the guiding hand of the cosmos pushing her into doing the REALLY stupid shit is both necessary and really useful.

Like, I am the type of writer who kind of scoffs at the idea that characters are beyond the writer's control and will completely screw over your outline, because on one hand, a sensible outline will follow the characters' personalities and tendencies anyway. Obviously in an ensemble cast you will need to do some wrangling, but in theory your characters are responding to varying degrees of stimuli in order to maneuver them into the places you need them to be for things to all come together in the end.

But more importantly, "curse from god" is the funniest and easiest way to push any character to do things beyond the realm of reason when necessary, and frankly, what the fuck is the point of playing god if you don't embrace that?

Happy Halloween! Trick or treat?

Hee hoo thanks for the ask, anon! Happy Halloween :3 A silly supernatural jaytim 3 sentence paragraph (lol) fic for you:

"For the last time, I am not getting in the damn coffin with you," Jason huffs.

Tim leans out over the polished wood and satin lining, his fangs flashing as he pouts, winding his arms lazily around Jason's neck and burying his fingertips in Jason's hair-- because he's a dirty cheater and he knows that Jason's willpower is brittle as old bone this close to the full moon. He resolves to stay strong, because if you give Tim an inch then he'll take the whole damn continent.

"You don't have to, I suppose," Tim sighs, red eyes flashing from under his eyelashes. "I'll just be here...cold. Lonely. Wanting." He breathes the words against Jason's lips, and Jason whines. Christ. The things he does for this bloodsucker.

DON'T KILL ME PLEASE!!! i think i have some unpopular opinions in there so-also i don't hate any ships (aside from the ones listed) at worst i feel neutral about them!!

another big disclaimer: I do realize this could be very wrong haha i don't know everything about these aus and I don't claim my opinions to be correct or in anyway canon.

i would love to explain the reasoning for all of them heheh (also ngl only know like... maybe half of these aus more than surface level so most of this was based off vibes alone. im not doing research for all the aus just for this chart im sorry LMAOO)

sorry bad sanses enjoyers 😭

Ship chart from:

Blank chart:

(remember to credit or ill skin you! joking but do credit)

Will probably delete later but genuinely WHY do so many ppl hate uf papyrus. "He’s horrible and a bad brother and abusive >:(((" my guy. YOU made him that way

Grrggh...good morning everypony = w = I rewatched the episode of the ppg reboot where Utonium gets a girlfriend...

‘If none can release us,’ said Maglor, ‘then indeed the Everlasting Darkness shall be our lot, whether we keep our oath or break it; but less evil shall we do in the breaking.’

- Of Earendil and the War of the Wrath

Hello.

You and gay-jesus-probably have successfully made me question everything with your view that Tears of the Kingdom is imperialist propaganda, so that's been fun.

Anyway, I decided to share this discussion with the Zelda fans on reddit, and perhaps unsurprisingly, a lot of them disagreed. Here is what they said (I'm Alarming_Afternoon44):

So what do you think? Have I and all these other people just been duped by the game's manipulative framing? Or do they actually have a point?

And if you'd rather not answer this, or would prefer if I censored the usernames, just tell me and I'll delete this.

Hey! Thanks a lot for reaching out, and I'm glad it made you think stuff through!!

Honestly, as I mentioned in this post, I am not super interested about in-world conversations about who oppresses who, because what can be assessed from the game is super vague and more vibes-based than evidence-based. Within the text, of course that the Good Zonais are good and the Bad Ganondorf is bad! But that's my whole point! The narrative has been deliberately crafted so that the zonais and Rauru (and Hyrule) are as blameless as possible (and it's not doing a great job at it overall to be frank; we would not be having these conversations about how offputting it all feels for a non-zero number of people if it did do a great job). More importantly, I want to focus on what sort of real-life narrative it all parallels. Because people make stories, and people live in the real world.

Not going after everyone's throat here, gamedev is hard and the hydras that are AAA game production do end up doing super weird stuff, especially since the thematic ramifications are absolutely never prioritized (and it's also always the same kind of people who make the final calls and push out what can and can't be talked about also). And as fans, we tend to have trouble stepping outside the lens of lore and take a look at the bigger picture sometimes; not as an attack on any individual part of that decision-making process but to just pause, stop, and question our standards, our priorities and the kind of reality (or skewing of reality) the stories we tell each other reflect.

Again: do we want to take videogames seriously or not? If we do, then we need to accept they are a vehicle for ideology, just like any other artform. And sometimes, you push out questionable ideology, sometimes without meaning to, because you didn't unpack your own biases as you did. And it's even fine to do it, nobody is perfect, a 300+ people team spread over 6 years certainly will not be that. But that it wasn't prioritized is, in my opinion, a problem. As a narrative designer, I want games (at least the narrative side) to be held to a higher standard than this. It's literally my job to work with the industry so it can hold itself to higher standards of quality --so the whole TotK situation is quite frustrating to witness from a very pragmatic, work perspective where I already spend my days trying to convince people that things mean things. I have a vested interest here in not having the companies I work for being given a free pass by gamers to do literally whatever as long as it's fun, especially when we're talking about a billion-dollars company suing its own fans left and right for any perceived slight. Nintendo are not underdogs here. It's fine to point out they cut corners and maybe promoted messy ideologies, voluntarily or not.

So long story short: no I don't believe anyone here has a point in regards to what I think is actually important, which is why these choices were made in the first place. If you look at an imperialist text expecting the text to tell you that it's imperialist instead of recognizing a framing used for propaganda by yourself, you're never gonna find any imperialist text ever, obviously not!! I'm sorry if I sound a little gngngn here, but I don't know why audiences have, at large, this feeling that lore and story beat decisions materialize themselves already formed and without any human bias, meddling, intervention, internal politics or approximations (it seems that people can only conceptualize this part if they have actual names to attach to the story, but without clear authors it's like there are no authors and so no bias, which is... a very strange bias in itself). I can promise you that it does not work that way in practice: every narrative department on every big game is a battlefield --some nicer than others, but all of them very emotionally draining either way.

So yeah, I guess that on these grounds, I disagree with every point raised here. Sorry Reddit :/

But thank you for the ask and sorry if I didn't go more into details as to why. The big Why I Dislike Rauru Post and the Gerudo Post might have some more specific rebuttals, but I am not super interested in debating small detail stuff tbh. I feel like it's no use if the frame of reference isn't being understood in the first place.

I’m fascinated about the oc stuff you mentioned! I only recently (within the last year) started creating oc’s so I’ve not really thought about creating images of them. I pretty much just save stock photos and photos of celebrities that resemble what I’m imagining, but that can be a pain. I’d love to hear more tips (as well as hearing about some of your oc’s if you’d like to share!)

A beloved mutual, hello!!

It's cool to hear that you're getting into oc stuff, making up little guys is so much fun! You'll have to tell me about yours sometime! I gotta admit though, saving stock and celebrity photos sounds like a hassle :/ I can't imagine what you'd do for a non-human oc…

If you're interested, I have a ton of picrew links I can share (and obviously I can give you ones with more specific aesthetics if you have something in mind, versus just dumping a truckload of random links on you).

I also really like using Heroforge (D&D Minifugre website) to make ocs (D&D related or not). They update pretty regularly so there's always better options (especially for non-human ocs) and colors for more specific customizations. It's especially cool because if you decide you really like it, you can buy your oc as a minifigure (but you can still use the site/save your oc even without buying anything)! I love free websites :3

Lately, I've been focusing on my batch of Minecraft ocs. I was supposed to join a big rp server, but that fell apart so now I'm just 'writing' it all myself. It's been really fun, and I like being able to build an intricate story and characters from a pre-set template that comes with making ocs within a pre-existing world/ruleset (It's just much easier on my busy brain for when I'm not working on my actual original writing or whatever XP). But because of this, I've also been making full Minecraft skins for those ocs. It's pretty much just pixel art, and I am nowhere near the levels of some of the proffesional skin-makers out there, but I've made some pretty cool stuff if I do say so myself!

TL;DR I am not good at art, but my imagination is very hyperactive, so having some of these online resources has helped a ton in just getting something out into the world. I am more than happy to share site links and answer any questions you have about navigating them if you wanna dm me! I'd also loove to talk about all my ocs more, but I know that can be a lot for a tumblr ask…especially if tumblr keeps eating them >:(

Thanks for messaging me, hope this helped some!

(Also, sorry for the weird formatting of this post tumblr is being dumb and I can't fix it for some reason...)