#gonna tag as many magic users as I can so this post gets around!!!
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Elena of Avalor is a really solid show. There are like, almost no flaws in the narrative that I can find, and the ones I DO find are all minor and don't really effect it in the grand scheme of things, which is really impressive!!! But if I have one major complaint, it's with how the show handles it's magic system.
Not counting any contradictions between EoA and StF, the lore isn't so much inconsistent as it is vague. There's a lot I wish they elaborated on, mostly about Elena's powers, that they just didn't. So here's a bulleted list of all the things I wish got dug into a little deeper :D
The difference between normal wizards and malvagos. All we get on that front is that malvagos use dark magic that wizards are incapable of using? And that you become one by getting a spell cast on you??? And they have animal motifs?????? Like wtf is up with that.
How much magic Elena gained from being in the amulet. She was literally marinating in magical juices for 41 years, which you'd think would have deeper effects then just seeing ghosts and being able to use a cool scepter??? But she doesn't get any powers independent of magical objects until Takaìna, which is kinda weird and leads into my next point...
How the magic Elena gained from the amulet effected the magic she gained from Takaìna!!! Obviously Takaìna is a MUCH more powerful source of magical radiation then the necklace, so falling into that gives you more magic, but did the stuff Elena got from the well just get added on to her amulet magic? Did it enhance the already present magic?
Also, how does Takaìna even work? Is it like radiation but not deadly? Does falling into a well full of crystals hurt? Because I bet that would fuckin hurt. Why does falling into a well of crystals even give you, or the stick you're holding, powers in the first place? Does it actually even GIVE humans inherent powers or does it just give them the ability to use magical items? Is Elena's DRESS the actual source of her mood magic??? I mean we never see her use the mood magic WITHOUT her color changing dress so like-
On an unrelated note, why is Zuzo the only chanul Elena sees consistently? Is it because he's her chanul? Is it because she's just coincidentally never in the same room as anybody else's? Given how chanul's powers work being pretty similar to the way spirits come to the living world on Dia De Los Muertos you'de think she'd be able to see all chanuls all the time. Also cAN ESTEBAN SEE GHOSTS TO???? LITERALLY WHY HAVEN'T I SEEN ANYBODY EXPLORE THAT POSSIBLITY THERE'S SO MUCH POTENTIAL THERE-
How the fuck does the Scepter of Light work? Elena's the only person who can use it at the beginning of the series, and up until the Scepter of Night is introduced I just kind of assume it was because the amulet gave her a Very Special type of magic. But then Shuriki uses the Scepter of Night with no issues whatsoever???? What's her source of inherent magic??????? And then ASH can KIND OF USE THE SCEPTER OF LIGHT????? IS IT BECAUSE MALVAGOS HAVE INHERENT MAGIC IN THERE SOMEWHERE?????? BUT THEN ELENA SAYS IT ONLY RESPONDS TO GOOD MAGIC WHICH IS CONFUSING BECAUSE I WAS UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT AT LEAST ELENA'S MAGIC WAS PRETTY NEUTRAL!!! THEN ESTEBAN CAN'T USE IT UNTIL HE SWITCHES SIDES BUT WHY???? WHAT MAKES MAGIC GOOD VS EVIL!?!?!?!?!? WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!?!?!?
Okay this one's kind of just a nitpick but there are several spells that just. Do the same thing. Like the turn somebody upside-down spell is just Levaluke with extra steps 💀
Why is Esteban's hair like that after he falls in the well? We know it isn't stuck like that forever because he manages to get it under control during the coronation. Is making the users hair stick up his staff's version of the scepter glowing to signify somebody can use it? If so WE WERE ROBBED OF ELENA'S HAIR STICKING UP LIKE THAT IN THE FINALE THAT WOULD'VE BEEN SO FUCKING FUNNY-
Okay those are all the things I can think of right now. Tbh I'm kind of just posting this to open up a discussion? I wanna rally together what little is left of this fandom to try and piece together a coherent magic system!!! It's what this show deserves!!!!!!!!/pos
#elena of avalor#sofia the first#gonna tag as many magic users as I can so this post gets around!!!#so basically just the same people I tagged in that post abt concussing ppl with magical objects...#elena castillo flores#mateo de alva#esteban flores#shuriki#victor delgado#carla delgado#ash delgado#zuzo#eoa zuzo#how tf do I tag zuzo-#zopilote#fiero#eoa fiero#FUCK idk how to tAG HIM EITHER#alacazar#eoa alacazar#I hate tags actually#long post#gal overanalyzes random shit
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hii so in a post you wanted someone to talk abt their mlp headcannons, i’m getting into mlp rn so id absolutely love 2 hear them! (also just a question from a new tumblr user, can you see my asks on my page?) feel free to message them or whatever tumblr response mechanism there is! ^ω^
-not forcing, Moss ^^
AH HI MOSS !! THANK YOU FOR THE ASK :] 💖
first off , yes i can see your ask button !!! and welcome to tumblr :)
i tried to respond to this 4 times and i lost all my text and almost cried so im gonna make this much shorter than it was supposed to be (8 paragraphs) 😞 PROBABLY A RELIEF FOR MOST OF U THO LOL i have too many headcanons but here are some of my headcanons and /or “perfect world” scenarios for mlp g4 :)
i cant put all of my hcs here but im gonna put the ones i tell most ppl !!! ALSO NOT ALL OF THESE ARE IN THE SAME UNIVERSE!!! (if anybody wants more, ask me something specific .. >:3 nyeheh)
💜 - the mane six minus twilight have all been friends their whole lives, but not as a friend group until twilight came along!!
🩵 - branching off of the last one, rarity has made outfits for ALL of the ponies before !! but pinkie pie has been by far her most loyal customer because yk she throws parties like triweekly !! rarity mostly specializes in dressmaking but can also make other types of stuff . :) pinkie pie and fluttershy both seperately have taken some sewing classes from rarity cuz they alwayss loved her stuff :)
💛 - fluttershy runs/works a petshop/veterinarian clinic
💖 - at some point , pinkie pie moves out of sugarcube corner and runs her own nightclub !! (but like its not a naughty club, this is ponyville we are talking about here !! just lots of candy and soda and DANCING AND GAMES :3) and pinkie pie would be the funnest momma evr >w<
💙 - rainbow dash becomes a coach for the wonderbolts / some sort of coach :)
🧡 - applejack would grow up and continue to just run her family business and have a family of her own !! applejack would be a very caring mother but also she wouldnt take shit from anypony!! if anybody bullied her kid she’d have to try so hard not to kick anypony that bothers her and her kids
🩵 - rarity never expands her business or gets big, but she’s happy with it! her store is independent and a gem that many talk about all around the nation. :) she would be a fun mom but she would spoil the kid a lot lolz
💜 - twilight works at a school as a science/math/magic teacher, book author or a librarian! she would be a pretty average mom IN THE NICEST WAY POSSIBLE just saying she’s just your average girl!! but she has lots of knowledge to share :3 !!
🩷 - either:
-mane six all are alicornized. you cant just give the order keepers of the nation some fancy crystals and tell them to go on with their day while one friend who happened to be a rich unicorn who went to a unicorn school and got hit with a rainbow beam turns into a goddess and you have to watch her outlive you, you make them all goddesses or none of them. especially if the gifted unicorn never asked to be alicornized.
or
- twilight and cadenza rule together. cadence was done so dirty :( she was given goddess powers just to be sent to a Far Off Land and the Twilight was favored to just RULE A WHOLE NATION ALONE. insanity. also they have been friends / chosen sisters for the longest time. this scenario would not only give cadence a better storyline, but also spit in the faces of “theres already 5 alicorns” ❗️
~
there was nothing about vamp rarity because i havent expanded on her yet <//3 and also you guys have yet to see my whole cross-race breeding chart.. >:P
but thats all for now TwT sorry it still got long , i hope you or somepony enjoyed !! if anypony draw/write something off of these PLEASE tag me just cuz i NEED content with these !!!!!!! :33 plzplzplzplz and tag me in any pony art/writing/ etc :3 anybody feel free to ask for more !!! bye bye <33
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Last Line Challenge
Rules: Make a new post and post the latest line in your WIP & tag as many people as there are words (or as many as you feel like).
I got tagged by @shootingstarpilot for this, which is very neat. Never actually done one of these before properly, so I'mma share two different last sections; some from my current in-progress Big Fic, and then some from the last thing I actually wrote.
(Under a cut because two snippets is gonna be long.)
So first off, the last thing I actually wrote;
'“Jesus.” Tim muttered. “I sort of wish I hadn’t asked, now.”
Phantom flushed, going slightly green. “Sorry.”
“Hey, better to know than not, isn’t it? If there’s a chance of running into stuff like this?”
“I- well, yes, but it’s not your job to deal with them.”
“Yeah, well, the magic users in the League aren’t always gonna be around, and even if it’s your job to come grab them, they might still need delaying or whatever.” Tim shrugged. “So I’d rather know.”
“That’s fair.” Phantom admitted, shifting to lean back in his seat. “So. Anything else you want to know?”'
I'm not 100% sure what's going to happen to this, admittedly, but this is the end result of my attentive deficit muse getting into two new-old fandoms recently so there we go. It's DC/Danny Phantom.
Anyway, second off, the last little bit of my current main project, which has been going on-and-off for a while;
'
“Huh.” Fox says, after a few attempts that die before he manages to get a word out. “Ok. Right. Ghost let me go so I can go hug my vod, please.”
Ghost does not let Fox go, and instead after a moment the entire mass of darkness lifts up into the air and floats over the group to place Fox down next to Ponds. Then it vanishes, and Fox promptly grabs on to him while the rest of the batch crowd around.'
This one's a crossover too, the end result of me just deciding that Weird Eldritch Things Are Neat, Actually and starting writing without thinking. It's now 15 chapters and like, 60k words, not quite done, but also hit a roadblock recently in the form of the aforementioned 'falling into new-old fandoms again' thing. It's Star Wars/Hollow Knight.
checks my people list uuuuuh right I don't have many people to tag really... @kalicofox is my main writing buddy, so here you go, and then I guess anyone else who sees this and feels like doing it can go ahead as well? No pressure, of course, there's a lot going on.
#writing#fic writing#the development of fic#tag games#fandom tags are;#star wars#hollow knight#dc#danny phantom#snippets#i honestly really like both of these fics#the SW/HK one has been a ton of fun to work on and it *is* actually going fairly well in terms of 'being written'#i've just been busy recently#but it's all planned out and everything so all i need to do is not be too tired to type#meanwhile the DC/DP stuff is a bit weirder#mostly because i don't know DC canon well at all#and barely know anything about DP (aside from slowly watching the show)#but it's still a pretty fun thing to be poking at and i think i will expand it more when i have time#at the minute it's basically just concept + half an ending but i'll get there
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^ emphasis on the sometimes.
FIC REC MASTERLIST
here are my favorite h fics/blurbs/series/oneshots (in no specific order)
i havent been writing in a while bc im insecure lmao but here are a list of extremely talented people that always hit the spot <3
••••••••••
scorpio season (series) - @trulymadlysydney
rating: M
tags: fluff, smut, angst, ghost!harry, supernatural
love this series so much! as a scorpio i felt v special and this series made me laugh, cry, and thirst wow
plot: Harry is the ghost that haunts the sorority house, Misty is the only one who can see him, and Scorpio season is far too short.
••••••••••
citrine (series) - @moonchildstyles
rating: M
tags: fluff, smut, supernatural, witch!harry
changed my life wow i’m a witch myself and witchcraft was depicted very beautifully and i live this series so much!
plot: harrys a witch and he hasnt really been around people in a long time and the one day this girl stumbles upon his house and harry’s pretty sure hes fucked
••••••••••
a series of firsts (series) - @harrywritingsbyme
rating: M
tags: smut, some fluff
plot: a series of firsts between harry and y/n
HOT JUST HOT (; ANYTHING WRITTEN BY THIS WRITER IS JUST HOT <3
••••••••••
love you, that’s all (oneshot) - @hsluna
rating: PG
tags: fluff, very fucking cute
made my heart go boom
plot: Y/N and Harry have only been dating for a little and he tells her that he loves her for the first time.
••••••••••
bratty (blurb) - @haroldloverboy
rating: M
tags: SMUT
one of my go-tos for smutty blurbs it was really hard choosing one cause she has so many!
plot: in which Harry doesn’t like bratty girls and Y/N can be quite the beggar
••••••••••
panic attack (oneshot) - @muffindaddystyles
rating: PG
tags: angst, fluff at the end
i loved this so much!! very heartwarming
plot: Where you got a panic attack while attending a lecture at University and Harry’s out of reach.
••••••••••
tarnish (series) - @hes-writer
rating: PG
tags: angst, mentions of vomiting
anything written by this user is simply magical! i always feel in the story when reading their work. so good that i subscribed to the patreon even tho im broke lmao
plot: y/n finds a letter with a heartbreaking revelation
••••••••••
so… the weather?’ (oneshot/blurb??) - @perksofhs
rating: G
tags: fluff, cute
i love reading things with famous!reader soo this hit
plot: (ask) harry and famous reader are in a talk show and he has a crush on her. Maybe he accidentally hurts her while playing a game and he feels awful about it orrr maybe the host put a video where harry says that the reader is his crush and he gets nervous and embarrassed.
••••••••••
you get me closer to god (series) - @darthstyles
rating: M
tags: smut, dom!harry, mentions of guns/blood/violence, dom/sub dynamics, daddy kink, rough sex, various edgeplay
LOVE shit like this sm!! reminds me of the older wattpad days but this writing is actually good lmao. twelve parts so it’ll last you a good week and tht also means it’s rereadable (im gonna do it tn!)
plot : the daughter of a mob boss, after unrest in the underworld of america, moves to london under the protection of one of her father’s english associates, harry, head of london’s largest crime family.
••••••••••
demon harry oneshot - @jawllines
tags: demon!harry, smut in pt2
anything that this user posts is gold!! definitely posting more of their work on here because they come up with such unique and well-rounded concepts which is hard to come by in my opinion.
plot: harry is a demon and y/n is cute
••••••••••
hades!harry (series) - @adashofniallandasprinkleoflunacy
rating: M
tags: au, hades!harry, smut, fluff, angst
love aus so much!
plot: kinda self explanatory. hades!harry masterlist with different concepts that you’ll love!
••••••••••
feel it (oneshot) - @harrywritingsbyme
rating: FILTHY
tags: pain kink, degrading, spit, choking, daddy kink, size kink, more lmao
IM SWEATING. THIS SHIT WAS POWERFUL.
plot: y/n wants h to fuck her shit up and she gets just that. amen.
••••••••••
the tipping point (oneshot) - @floralsatin
rating: SAD
tags: angst, ANGST, ANGST.
tw// death and grieving
so well written and so fucking heartbreaking. i decided to put this in this list mid-read so you know it’ll fuck u up.
plot: “The final shove off the cliff of sanity.”
DEFINITELY MORE TO COME I READ A LOT! I’LL ADD TO THIS LIST AS I READ AND YOU CAN SENS SUBMISSIONS IN MY INBOX AND I’LL REVIEW!!
#smut#harry#harry styles#harry blurb#harry blurbs#harry masterlist#harry fluff#harry imagines#harry smut#demon!harry#witch!harry#harry imagine#oneshot#angst#harry angst
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Fic writer tag game
Tagged by @esther-dot Thank you!
How many works do you have on AO3? 5
What’s your total AO3 word count? 107,402
How many fandoms have you written for, and what are they? Only one, and that’s Jonsa/GOT .
What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
Lol because I only have 5 😭 but here they are
1. Pretty Wings with 503 kudos. This fic is canon divergence, and heavy on the magic, dreams, and prophecies.
2. Post Tenebras Lux: After Darkness I Hope For Light with 279 kudos. Another canon diverge in which Ned Stark lives. It’s co-authored by the one and only @notbloodraven .
3. Resentment with 85 Kudos. This was a modern au user request posted to a Jonsa blog. They wanted a fic inspired by Beyoncé’s song Resentment.
4. How She Stole His Heart. Another user submitted prompt inspired by The Police’s Every Breath You Take where Jon is a Barista by day and in a cover band at night.
5. Imperium In Imperio 37 kudos. A modern mob style fic.
Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Yes I do. Listen, there’s this feeling I get, part excitement part terror whenever I get an inbox notification. Positive feedback and constructive criticism really validates my efforts. I’m humbled that people read my work, and that it moves them to leave their thoughts, good or bad. There have been many nights when I posted a new chapter that I abused the refresh button, stalking my own comment section.
What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? That would have to be Resentment, although the ending wasn’t as angsty as the plot overall.
Do you write crossovers? If so what’s the craziest one you’ve written? I haven’t written one yet, although I have some ideas floating around in this brain of mine.
Have you ever received hate on a fic? Lmao. Yes.
Do you write smut? If so what kind? Well yes, yes I do 😏 I mean I haven’t written anything too off the wall. Just the regular degular sex. The descriptions are pretty detailed but my kinda smut aren’t pornhub tags.
Have you ever had a fic stolen? Nope
Have you ever had a fic translated? Nope
What’s your all time favorite ship? I Stan Jonsa 😊
What’s a WIP that you want to finish, but don’t think you ever will? I’m gonna say my highest rated fic Pretty Wings. I just don’t know what I want to do plot wise at this point. It’s driving me crazy. Some days I wanna rewrite it, other days I talk myself down from deleting it.
What are your writing strengths? Good question. I’m gonna say dialogue and inner monologue and making scenes heavy with emotion.
What are your writing weaknesses? I think my weakness is consistency and plot. I tend to have these periods where I’m super motivated to write and I can write two or three chapters in one or two days. Then there are times where I can’t write at all. Also second guessing myself. I do that a lot and I talk myself out of writing too.
What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? Sadly, English is my one and only.
What was the first fandom you’ve written for? Jonsa/GOT
What’s your favorite fic that you’ve written? Hmm 🤔 I love them all but since I have to pick one, I’m gonna say Post Tenebras Lux
This was fun and it kinda has me inspired to pop open my laptop and stare at the cursor for a while until something happens.
I’m tagging my friend @notbloodraven to do this game. An amazing author with great fics on AO3.
#jonsa#jonsa creatives#actually jonsa#jonsa fic#asoiaf#sansa stark#jon snow#ao3#game of thrones#writing#tag game#authors
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2020 Creator’s Self-Love Extravaganza/Creator Tag Meme/8 Favorite Works
Tagged by @tarisilmarwen - Thanks for the tag, gurl! <3
Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 8 favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!
Well, shit. I have uploaded practically nothing in 2020 LOL. Like... I’m cheating with my answers but hey, we’re gonna count my favourite robstar week oneshots as individuals cos otherwise, I don’t even make half of the 8 lmao.
1.) Subscribe
Ahh, my current main multi-chapter AU fic that I actually started in August 2019 but I reckon it has seen most updating this year, tbh. It’s honestly one of my favourite AU concepts that my brain has ever birthed. A YouTube AU with Gar as the channel owner just feels like such a Gar thing and I’m so excited to keep going with it in 2021.
2.) Nova
I actually love this oneshot that was completed and submitted as part of my involvement in the dickkory zine that was created early 2020. I only posted the excerpt on tumblr which you can find by clicking ‘Nova’ as I thought I’d keep the whole thing just as an exclusive thing for the zine. But, I really loved writing that and felt my final piece was pretty great considering there’s a word limit and a specific theme to follow and it was such good fun, all in all so loved that one.
3.) Simulation
I actually forgot about this oneshot until I was scrolling through my tumblr tags like ‘wtf did i even write this past year??’ and I remembered the atrocity that was JLD: Apokolips War and how the burning need to write a fix it fic for all my dickkory pals was literally overwhelming. I was actually pretty happy with the final product, despite it’s length. And also, it gave me the dcamu dickkory ending that I wanted lmao.
4.) Robstar Week - Day 1: Star-Aligned/Destiny
I think I was actually pretty negative about this when I initially posted it for Robstar week but since then, I have come to appreciate that writing anything during this last shit show of a year is a miracle so y’know, we’ll take it as a win lmao. I actually really did enjoy writing a oneshot that’s mostly between Dick and Wally and talking about Starfire cos it makes me smile.
5.) Robstar Week - Day 3: Tamaran
Another addition for Robstar week that I actually really enjoyed reading as I love writing little moments such as these between the two dorks. Anything that is remotely adorable and intimate in a fluffy way is like heaven to me; whether I’m reading it or if I happen to be writing it XD.
6.) Robstar Week - Day 4: Fantasy AU
My absolute faveeeee for Robstar week, to the point, I am now in the midst of planning a whole AU multi-chapter fic around it. I fell in love with the idea of Dick basically being akin to a Witcher and being paid to ‘deal with’ Kory, a magic user which is prohibited in the lil made up world. I honestly vibed with the idea so much and even now, I love it. There’s so many more details and plot I wanna add into it so it will eventually be a whole fic but... it’s been shelved for a little while til I get Bound and Subscribe updated to where I want them.
7.) Robstar Week - Day 6: Wedding Bells
I may start to sound like a broken record but this happens to be another submission from robstar week that I really smiled at whilst writing. It was great to take a fairly common prompt and just do an actual wedding so it was fun to slightly spin that around for how I wrote it instead.
8.) Robstar Week - Day 7: Constellations
I already mentioned how I love writing Robin and Starfire in these little cute and intimate moments that are filled with sugary fluff. This is kind of another one. I really do believe they would have these little games or things between them such as a game revolving around constellations and guessing. Idk I just really enjoyed this one as well.
________
I honestly did not think there were gonna be 8 to list lmao. I wasn’t overly active in 2020 due to... *gestures around me* the state of the world for the majority of the year. I’m hoping 2021 will be a more productive year for me in terms of updating current projects as well as bringing some new things to the fic table.
I taaag: @fireflyxrebel-writes @loubuggins @stefanotis @ships-bynoa and @spaceprincessem + anyone else who wants to jump in on this!! <3
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How to center and nice-size an image in an AO3 fic using a work skin
Maybe someone can use this? In my fic for the DIWS Good Omens Mini Bang, I embedded some images from my wonderful illustrator. The centered images will never be wider than the text, no matter the screen size, but they also are never stretched larger than their native size (I resized ‘em to 800px wide in my trusty paint program for faster downloading). Here’s how one looks on my giant monitor and on my phone screen:
If you have never done AO3 skins before then I promise they are not actually scary! You have the option of doing relatively complicated things with them, but this thing is simple.
Anyway this is how I center my images.
Step one: make a skin.
In your AO3 dashboard, click “Skins” in the menu (left or top of page, depending on if you’re on a big or small screen). This takes you to the Site Skins page, which are for if you want to make all of AO3 look different to just you. You want a Work Skin, though, which makes your fic look different to everyone, so click My Work Skins.
Click Create Work Skin in the top right and you’ll get an editor that’s similar to when you’re posting a fic! You only need to set two things. One, give it a title that makes sense to you (the title won’t be visible to people reading your fic). Two, paste some stuff into the big “CSS” box.
This is the stuff to paste:
.centered {
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
text-align: center;
}
.centered img {
max-width: 100% !important;
}
That was the stuff to paste! Just toss both of those two blobs in the big editor and click Submit. Now you have a skin!
Step two: use the skin in your work.
Open up the work you want to do this in. Find the Select Work Skin box (just under the Choose A Language box) and select the skin you just made. Yay! Sorry, the Homestuck and Undertale ones are just there for everyone and that’s how it is. (Nothing against Homestuck or Undertale. I just don’t like unneeded entries in lists.)
Step three: center your image.
This is the most complicated bit, only because I can’t give you an exact thing to copy-paste. But I can give you a basic template! Don’t try to paste this into Word or a similar word processing program. The quote marks could get turned into “smart quotes” (like the ones I typed there, just now -- see how the opening and closing quotes are different from each other?). If you need to save it off for later, Notepad or another very simple plain-text editor will be perfect, because it will keep the quotes as not smart quotes.
Find the spot in your AO3 work where you want the centered image to be. It would be between two blocks of text which are wrapped with <p> tags, so something like this...
Into that space, you’re gonna hit Enter a couple of times (which I’ve already done in the screenshot) and then paste this block:
<p class="centered">
<img src="BANANA" alt="ORANGE" />
</p>
That was the block to paste. Before you’re done, you need to change two things!
BANANA goes away. Inside the quote marks where BANANA used to be, you need to put the URL of your image. This URL must start with http or https (preferably https), or else it won’t work. I can’t give specific instructions on how to get this, because it depends on where the image is hosted! If it’s only on your computer, or attached to an email, it can’t be embedded. It has to have been put somewhere on the web, like Flickr, Photobucket, or Google Drive. It will work to embed from Tumblr, but I don’t trust Tumblr not to change everything up and bork all the old image URLs, thus breaking your embedded images on an arbitrary date in the future. (Any image host could theoretically do this, but -- well. We’re all familiar with Tumblr, right?)
ORANGE also goes away. Inside the quote marks where ORANGE used to be, you optionally can (I recommend you do!) put a brief (200 characters or fewer) description of the image. This is text which is invisible when viewing your fic in a normal browser -- it’s there for screen reader technologies, used by people who are blind or otherwise have trouble seeing a screen. Their screen reader software will literally read out to them, so that they can hear it with their human ears, the description you put here. Don’t start it with “image of” or “picture of”, because the screen reader tells the human that it’s an image already. Here is a pretty user-friendly guide on how to write alt text! If you’re more technically-inclined, the W3C has more involved docs. Remember, the screen reader is going to say out loud whatever you put here, so don’t make it super long, or else you’ll force people who are using screen readers to wait through the long description for your story to continue.
A finished version of the banana/orange block might look like this:
<p class="centered">
<img src="https://www.my-nifty-example-website.com/prettypicture.jpg" alt="Two dogs having a tea party wearing fancy hats" />
</p>
Step four: do it again if needed.
If you have more images to center in the same work, just repeat step 3 for each! Step 2 has to be done once per work. Step 1 might be done once ever (and then you just keep pulling that same skin into many works), or you might do it multiple times (if you want other changes in the skin that are special to only this one work). I do a different skin every time I have a fic that needs a skin, but that’s because I do extra fancy things that are different for each fic.
You never have to do either step 1 or step 2 more than once per work, even if it’s multi-chapter. In future chapters of the same fic, just do step 3 again.
Step five: preview and/or temporary draft is your friend
I am an IT professional with a (technically expired but work with me here) Microsoft certification in HTML5/CSS and seven years of writing this stuff for pay under my belt. Even I don’t post without previewing. Preview and saving as a draft without publishing are both your friends.
Some fun(?) notes
What you are doing here is using cascading style sheets. The AO3 skin is a very simple stylesheet, which is a series of rules that your readers’ browsers will use to apply to text in your story. There are standards that all your normal sort of browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Edge, Opera...) are supposed to follow when they see these rules, so that no matter which browser someone uses, a webpage will look as similar as possible.
A skin created from the above steps defines a class named “centered” and tells the browser how “centered” should look. Then, in your fic, if you apply the class named “centered” to something in the big editor -- like, say, the <p>aragraph tag that wraps around your image -- then the style from your skin will be applied.
The magic of cascading style sheets is that you can define your class exactly once and then use it many times. If you decide you want to change all the places you used it -- maybe you want every centered image in your 87-chapters-long heavily-illustrated fic to have a green border? -- you have to change exactly one place: your skin. The change will bubble down to every single place you used it.
Skins do not allow all the features of true CSS (no media queries; I am sad), and you can’t put comments in your skin (the editor strips them out). Browser-specific overrides also do not work (if you don’t know what this means, that’s okay, you have to go to extra work to try to use them in the first place). But they’re still pretty cool.
A lot of people will just put <center> tags around their thing, and use width=“100%” or some other number, but that is technically not standard HTML, hasn’t been for a very long time, and sooner or later Chrome is going to get clever and stop respecting it. (Google’s developers like to make Chrome very clever and change how it does things just because they feel like it. It makes my day job rather more difficult. Ask me about SameSite cookies!! Actually, don’t. Never ask me about that thing.)
For portrait-oriented illustrations -- taller than they are wide -- I like to float the image to the right of the text and have it take up no more than 50% of the width of the screen (as seen near the end of this chapter). But that is a more complicated thing than this one, and I am keeping it simple today. Maybe I’ll show how to do the nice floaty at some point.
For any-oriented illustrations, you could have a small resized version which links out to a larger version as a click-to-zoom thing. That is also a little more complicated, so it isn’t in this post.
Questions and clarifications welcome.
That is how to center and nice-size an image in an AO3 fic using a work skin! I hope you are having a good day.
#ineffablefool original post#man idk how i would even tag this thing#i'll worry about that later#not good omens#look you don't understand i love html and css this is fun for me#i don't get to do it very often at my job since they promoted me so i hafta get my kicks where i can
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WHG Post Games Nesri Part 2
Tagging: @ratracechronicler (also thanks for Rebecca!), @maple-writes (also thanks for Cirrus!), @nightskywriter, @rhikasa, @pen-of-roses, @aeslin-writes, @the-moving-finger-writes, @knmartinshouldbewriting, @makeitmonstrous, and @timefirewrites!
I pounded my fist on Zenith’s door. He had been in there for two days now. It was time to make him leave. Cirrus and Rebecca had decided to join me.
When there was no answer, I growled and knocked harder. “Hey, you loser! Stop hiding in there and tell us what’s going on! Why did you sneak out, and what happened that made you ask Asher to knock you unconscious? What kind of reckless shit did you get into?”
There was a groan on the other side of the door, but that was it. I scoffed, crystallized water from the drink I was holding, and cut through the hinges with it (the crystals are stronger than diamonds). I kicked the door open and walked in with my hands on my hips.
Zenith had been lying down, but he scrambled up when we walked in. He glared at me. “Leave me alone.”
I grabbed him by his shirt collar. Why was his seclusion making me so pissed off? “Like hell I will! Tell us what’s going on!”
Rebecca spoke up. “Yeah! We’re not getting any younger here, and Lynn and Lynne aren’t getting any freer!”
He bowed his head so that his eyes were shadowed. “I went to go see my old team.”
Before he could continue, I tightened my grip on his collar and shook him. “You fucking idiot! Did you sell us out to them? Do they know where we are?”
Rebecca looked around as if she could see hidden cameras, and Cirrus crossed his arms. “How do you know they didn’t follow you home? Clearly they aren’t on our side.”
Zenith took a deep breath. “I was able to convince them to trust me, at least a little. And I would have been able to sense them following me. I’m not that incompetent. I sought them out because they had already sent me a message saying that they were looking for me. If I hadn’t met with them, I know they would have found us. So, I took the chance.”
I still didn’t let go of his collar. How many supposed friends who had the magic had promised me that they wouldn’t hunt me after I ran away? And they did anyway. “Forgive me for not having as much faith in these Capitol idiots as you do. I guess I can trust that you would have been able to sense anyone following you, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t still looking for us, no matter what they told you. That was such a stupid fucking move.”
Cirrus nodded. “And what if it hadn’t worked? If Asher hadn’t managed to knock you out? If something went wrong?” His voice dropped low. “Don’t think for a second I wouldn’t have killed you if it came down to it.” Despite the anger I felt, a rush of excitement passed through me. I had to get him to spar with me. Rebecca’s eyes widened, and she tried to stay out of Cirrus’s line of sight.
Zenith looked him dead in the eyes. “I would have wanted you to.”
I let go of his collar. He had done something stupid, but yelling at him wouldn’t really help. Even if it did make me feel better. Instead, I grabbed his arm and started pulling him out of his bed. “You’re going to make it up to us by watching the special program the Capitol is hosting. You even have to make the popcorn for us.” I tried to make my voice sound happy, but I couldn’t keep out the anger that I still felt. Hopefully, no one noticed.
“And keep your senses sharp for those possible, y’know, spies,” Rebecca added.
Zenith didn’t say anything as I monitored him while he made the popcorn and drinks for us. Hey, since we had someone to bully, we might as well make the most of it. So, we just settled down to watch the program, and when Zenith tried to retreat, I glared at him until he sat down next to me. I did text Shine to keep an eye out for any hidden devices that could spie on us.
The TV flickered, and a close-up of Caesar Flickerman’s ugly face showed up, but I didn’t even have it in me to throw popcorn at him. My blood was still boiling.
He laughed at us. “We have a special program for our dear watchers tonight! A special division of the Capitol is pleased to announce a new recruit to their ranks. She even received the prestigious magic as well!” He gestured to the side, but I didn’t even react as Lynne walked on stage. I was frozen. No. No, no, no. This couldn’t be happening. The Shades. They had gotten to her. It was obvious in how she walked, even with a radiant smile on her face. She was still in pain from the “ceremony”.
I barely heard Rebecca say anything. “Magic? Isn’t that maybe a good thing? Or…” Zenith glanced back and shook his head. But I couldn’t tear my eyes away.
Caesar clapped Lynne on the back, and she almost fell. Another sign that she was in pain. She should be fine in high heels. “How has your time with the Shades been? I bet the magic is amazing!”
She laughed, and it was clear that it wasn’t genuine. “I have not been able to practice with the magic much yet, so I cannot say for sure. But I did meet someone because of the Shades, and for that I am happy. The victor, Hugo Atwater, was a lot of help. I want to thank him, personally, for his help.” She winced, and her hand went up to where the shocker was.
Caesar just laughed and gestured for something else off-stage. Churi (with his usual long, silver hair and red eyes) walked up as two Avoxes lugged a basin of water toward Lynne. I clenched my fists so tightly that my knuckles turned white as I stared at Churi.
Caesar grinned at him. “Could you give us some more specifics on this brilliant magic while we get set up?”
Churi nodded, smirking. “This magic is difficult to transfer and can cause severe pain during transfer, which is why we usually use children for the transfer, since their bodies are normally more willing to take the magic. It is a testament to the strength of Ms. Marne that she was able to withstand the transfer. The magic allows the user to create crystals that are harder than diamonds out of any liquid that is within a certain radius from the user. Activating the magic allows the user to glow and float because of the outrush of power. It is a strong power, as you will see from this demonstration.” He gestured over at Lynne as the Avoxes set the basin down in front of her.
“Wait, that’s what you did—with the hinges,” Rebecca said. And then a delayed, “Are you okay?”
Zenith was eyeing me, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the screen, couldn’t even respond. Churi snapped his fingers, and Lynne flinched. She raised her hands, and she started to float, while multi-colored light danced on her skin like fire. She gritted her teeth and waved her hand, and some of the water in front of her jumped up and transformed into sharp pieces of crystal. Tears started streaming down her cheeks as she waved her hand again, and the shards slammed into the Avoxes’s arms, and they fell down, their expressions twisted in pain. She deactivated the magic as the audience applauded, and the camera turned back to Caesar and Churi. In the background, Lynne was running to the Avoxes, crying even more, but then she collapsed with a whine and curled up on herself.
Churi looked fake concerned. “Unfortunately, the magic can be overwhelming, but I think that was a good demonstration, don’t you, Caesar?”
He laughed. “Simply magical.” He grinned at his own joke as the audience actually laughed. “Ms. Marne should be applauded for her bravery in volunteering to receive this magic. That’s all for—” I shut the TV off, cutting Caesar and his stupid laugh off.
“She should’ve just hit Caesar with it if they were gonna make her do it anyway!” Rebecca.
Cirrus was hissing under his breath.
And I just sat there, staring at the blank screen. How? How could they? I closed my eyes, but screams and fear and pain and bright rooms that they swore weren’t for torture but totally were and dark alleyways and rain and lightning and panic and…
I opened my eyes, breathing heavily. I…I had failed. They had hurt her. I clenched my drink too tight, and power rushed through me, and all of the drinks in the room crystallized. Zenith put a hand on my shoulder, but I just shook it off.
“Those bastards hurt her.” A whisper first but then louder. “Those bastards hurt her, and we let them do it!” I was shaking. “I…I’ve been so scared to go back to them, but they took her, and they’ll probably take us, and there’s nothing we can do about it.” People sneaking up and pointing guns at me, just saying that they wanted to keep me safe from myself. “There’s no running from them. No escape. They always told me that, and like an idiot I didn’t believe them. They’ll never let up. They’ll—”
“Nesri!” Zenith. I gasped and shut up.
Tears fell down my cheeks and a sob wracked my body. “I can’t go back to them! I won’t! And they have Lynne, and I can’t imagine what they’re putting her through!” Churi smirking at me as I screamed. “I…I can’t… Not again.” Someone put a strong arm around me, and I sobbed into their shirt. It was too much. And I condemned Lynne to the same fate.
When I opened my eyes, Cirrus was handing me a glass of milk. “They’re not going to get to you, you’re safe here, okay? If they want to get to you, they have to go through all of us.”
I sniffled and took the offered glass. “I need to spar you now so I can let off steam.”
He scoffed. “What you need is to sit down. You can’t kick my ass if you’re crying.”
I sighed. “Later then.” I glanced over at Zenith. He looked baffled about what happened. He must not have been used to dealing with something like this. “You’re my witness that he agreed.”
He grumbled but stayed close as I took deep breaths and relaxed. Rebecca spoke up. “Hey…those people…I’m sorry about what they did to you. And Lynne. But we’re gonna set this right. It’s gonna get better, okay?”
“Thanks.” I sighed and closed my eyes. I was safe, and I was around friends. Everything was fine. We just had to make sure we stole the Lynn(e)s from the bastards now.
*
I sat on my bed, my head in my hands. If I tried to fall asleep, I would just have nightmares. Whenever I closed my eyes, I could still see flashes of my time with the Shades.
There was a soft knock on the door, and when I didn’t say anything, the door opened to reveal Triel. She didn’t have her hat or coat on, and she walked lightly over to me. She had a blanket and two mugs of tea balanced in her hands. She handed me one of the mugs, wrapped the blanket around me, and snuggled under it with me.
She leaned against my shoulder. “I heard what happened this evening. I’m sorry.”
I took a sip. “I should have known that they would take her. What if they can control her better than they can control me? What if she is not able to fight their control? Will we have to keep her locked up the whole time?”
She kissed me on the forehead. “We’ll figure something out, love. But I wasn’t talking about her. I was talking about you. I’d prefer to not see you stay awake all night.”
I took a deep breath. “I’m fine. I just can’t get them out of my head…”
Triel hugged me tightly and kissed my cheek, lingering and snuggling her nose into my cheek. I closed my eyes and leaned into her embrace, but then Churi’s face flashed in my mind, and I tensed and sat up again.
Triel kept hugging me. “What are the laws the Capitol, in all its wisdom, came up with after the Shades pushed them to?”
I frowned over at her. “Are you trying to distract me?”
She smirked at me. “Could it work?”
I shrugged. “The Capitol made laws to control the people who got the magic. They can’t use their magic except when they are contracted by a citizen or at the command of the Shades. They actually can’t do anything except when a citizen contracts them to do something. And they can’t have children.”
Triel nodded. “Well, I thought I could distract you with my backstory.” I frowned. She had never wanted to tell anyone, even me, about her past. “The Shades are concerned that people born of the ones with magic will inherit the magic. My mother has the magic. The person she loved didn’t have the magic, but they were able to meet in secret, and she hid that she was pregnant. But when she had me, the Peacekeepers came and took me away from her. They put me in a small boat and put me out to see as an infant. I guess they couldn’t bring themselves to kill an infant, for some reason. I was supposed to die, but Nora, Captain Skeates, found me and took me in. All I have from my mother is this necklace.” She pulled out the necklace that she always wore from under her shirt. It had a tiny crystal in the shape of a heart attached to it.
I stared at the necklace. It was a very intricate use of the magic. “I’m so sorry. I never knew.”
She scoffed. “I wasn’t telling you this because I wanted you to be sorry for me. I knew you had been curious about my past for a while.” She winked. “And they were right. I do have a diluted form of the magic. I have a smaller radius that I can use liquid to make crystals, and I can’t float, but I can glow. I haven’t showed off my magic since I don’t want the Shades to know about me. But I have enjoyed experimenting with it in secret.”
I grimaced, flashing back to the Shades. Triel snuggled closer to me, and her movement snapped me out of it. I took a shaky breath. “The Shades have hurt so many people. And they continue to hurt more people. And they give us this cursed magic.”
Triel set down her mug and held my face in her hands. “This magic can be passed down. That means they can’t control it. And we’re out of their control too. We have defied them, and we won’t let them take us back. They’re not as powerful as they seem.”
I nodded, and she let go of my face and leaned against me again. I closed my eyes, but instead of seeing the Shades, I just focused on Triel. We sat together until I fell asleep.
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Happenstance Encouragement - Bragi x Reader
Hi...I did some people dirty...Namely Mr. Fluffcoat and the sweet Anon who made a request for him. So please accept this fic as a token of apology. I know it’s not entirely Smarmy-central, but it’s actually the first in a random series I’m having fun with. Hope these fulfill some of the fluff you were looking for.
Also tagging my Xeha-non since they asked for some Bragi-fluff too.
~~~~~
Becoming a Master Mage is kind of a grueling process; that’s why there are plenty of people who dabble in magic but not a ton of masters. It doesn’t help that most people tend to lean towards a specific kind of magic but the masters have a good grasp in most areas of magic before they become experts in specific fields.
I always had an affinity towards magic, which is what got me into this harrowing occupation. My first taste of real, structured magic had me hooked and I instantly became dead-set on becoming a Master Mage; this goal is what brought me and my classmate to follow our master to Scala Ad Caelum when they offered him a teaching position—not that the location made the task any easier.
Feet drag as I trudge up the steps to the citadel—it’s just one of those days. I don’t want to be here and question why I am. These last few weeks have been particularly taxing in preparing for the Master’s Exam with extra lessons from the Master, including tests for each section of magic. Up all night studying brings with it a fatigue and no guarantee I’ll pass the test today. Inside the castle, I pause to lean against the wall in an attempt to give myself a second to pull myself together.
Something plops on my head and flutters to the ground looking like a folded paper. Unsure of whether I should, I scoop it up, unwinding the note to see a scrawled message.
‘Don’t look so glum. You’re gonna do great today.’
Perplexed, I look up. Leaning over a railing several stories up is a young man. With a smirk across his face, he gives me a thumbs-up. My gaze drops back to the paper, honestly feeling somewhat lighter. I look back up but the smile slips from my face—he’s gone. One last look at the note puts my gloom in its place and prepared me to take on the day.
Admittedly, the day gets significantly better: I’m confident in my test answers and I’m not nearly as tired as I thought I was. It only takes one thought of the note in my pocket to fend off the depression. The day turned out so pleasant thanks to some stranger’s note that it gets posted in my room in hopes of it getting me through the next couple months until the exam.
I wander into the castle the following day, a little bit preoccupied until I see the airplane floating through the air. My gaze immediately shoots up to see the boy from yesterday wearing another simper. Some internal compulsion drives me to retrieve the note and pull it open.
‘You got this.’
A smile tugs at the corner of my mouth as I pull a pencil from my bag and hastily scribble back: ‘Thank you.’ I’m glad he’s still standing there when I’m done and an aero spell carries my gratitude back up to him. There’s surprise on his face at first but only for a moment.
Unfortunately, the warning bell tolls and we part ways to class.
~~~~~
It’s a strange occurrence to go through two whole months trading notes and glances without ever actually meeting each other. We pass in the halls, giving friendly waves and smiles, always moving in opposite directions. I find notes falling from the sky frequently or waiting for me on my usual places; I’ve even found new ones in my pockets—he’s a sneaky one. Don’t get me wrong though, I’ve had my own fun finding inventive ways to use magic to return my replies. Words of encouragement and tales of keyblade-training adventures keep me afloat in my chaos and I owe him more than I could write out. I haven’t gotten a name from him yet—that seems less important than the messages we’ve been passing. I have, however, heard the term Smarmy Fluffcoat thrown around from people talking about him; it makes me giggle every time I think about it.
Somehow, I’ve managed to end up completely enamored with my pen pal. Thoughts stray to him if I don’t keep them in check and I’ll die before I let slip he’s been in my dreams. It’s kind of embarrassing to think I’ve become infatuated with someone I’ve never met but every day with a new note or a smile becomes a day that can’t drag me down thanks to him. Still, the little things of daily life keep us from meeting; it’s annoying but—I must be hanging out with my classmate too much—rationality keeps telling me it’s better this way. Anxious thoughts worry that he’s not the same person he is on paper or in my head. On the other hand, maybe I’m not who he thinks I am; maybe we’re just long-distance friends to him and then my little crush becomes really creepy. I’ve only cared about magic before and there’s not a spell in my arsenal that could’ve prepared me for a situation like this. So things between us stay separated.
~~~~~
My heart is pounding in my chest, spurring the tremble in my fingers. Most of the residents of the school, if not all of them, are here to watch. Students are here to learn from my success or mistakes, professionals are here to judge whether or not a mage can really match a standard key bearer, and others are here to awe—it’s unnerving. Not only that, but mages don’t become masters very often and, being the youngest in history to take the exam, we’ve become a spectacle for magic users across all the worlds.
“Are you ready?” asks my classmate. His ridiculously-intense eyes watch patiently. I have no idea how he can be so calm; this is our Master’s Exam—everything we’ve been training for. I can’t help wishing I’d gotten a note of ‘good luck’ today.
It doesn’t matter that I feel like I’m drowning in my anxiety; I have to go out there. Ignoring the fact that I might faint, I nod and join him in entering the stadium.
Bright sunlight floods through the doorway and I’m immediately hit by the chatter of the crowd. My body initially protests walking into the spotlight but I force myself to move on. Against my instincts, I let my gaze wander the audience.
Then I spot him: Smarmy Fluffcoat. He’s perfectly comfortable slouched in his seat, not adding to the blaring—I wouldn’t be able to hear him anyway. Nevertheless, once he realizes I’m watching him, he gives a smile and waves.
Immediately, courage swells in me, remembering the wall of notes pinned in my room. Of course I can do this; I’ve been practicing for ages for this very moment. A smile works its way across my mouth.
The exam begins with displays of our ability. With each successful cast, I grow more and more confident, even able to cast the more complex Holy magic with relative ease. Test two is fending off several volunteer keyblade wielders without their magic. I could’ve made a few improvements in some places but I complete the task.
The third test—a magic duel with my classmate—is where I find my nerves creeping back in. We’ve been training together for years so of course he’s going to know all my quirks and go-tos. His biggest advantage is that stoicism of his—he’ll be able to keep his head straight if I stumble and panic.
There are too many close calls and nearly half my spells are deflected or dodged. I catch the luckiest break using reflect against his thunder. That brief opening gives me a chance to encase him in ice. It holds long enough that, when he finally breaks free, it’s just in time for me to complete a silence curse. Without magic in a magic duel, the game is over. Still, overall, he played better than me; I could’ve chosen better spells or casted faster and those facts worry me—there are still improvements to be made.
Eyes inadvertently flicker to the audience. He’s still watching with that smirk. I can’t bring myself to smile back this time.
Chest still heaving, I join my ally to stand before the Master and the judging council members. I pray they can’t see my nervousness but I’m probably kidding myself. Nevertheless, I’m standing here before them, exam complete and awaiting my verdict.
My master stands. “You both have performed admirably—both in your skill and judgment. It is with great pleasure-”
Don’t get your hopes up! Don’t get your hopes up!
“That I announce Yen Sid a Master Mage.” My heart twinges but I can’t help smiling at the young man who, for the first time since we met, looks beside himself. “Yen Sid, while you still have a lot to learn in being flexible, you have shown the true power of knowledge and a keen ability to focus under pressure; for that, you have been deemed a master. ______.” I straighten up, refocusing on the Master. “You sometimes let your nerves play into your magic, but once your confidence hits, your ability to react and adapt is hard to compete with.”
Did I…?
“It is an honor to announce that you too have become a Master Mage.” He smiles and I could explode if I didn’t remember that this is a formal ceremony. “You’ve both worked hard for this. Congratulations.” I follow Yen Sid’s lead, bowing to the man we learned everything from. “Remember, even as Masters, there are always things to learn and improve—never forget that.”
“Yes Master,” we answer.
“You did splendidly.”
I straighten up, finally able to wear the smile I had when this started. Many other mages come to greet and congratulate us. Of course, I get in a little ribbing at Yen Sid’s expense for his bafflement before the Master and he chastises me for using the reflect spell at the last second instead of a safer alternative. That’s when I spot Fluffcoat, chatting among his friends at the bottom of the steps.
My jubilation manages to douse my nerves, carrying me down the steps in haste. I just attained my dream of becoming a Master Mage so confessing to this boy should be no trouble—let’s just keep common sense out of this. It’s because of him that I had the courage to press forward. I’m not sure I would’ve handled the pressure at all if not for his words; I could’ve cracked beneath it and mucked up my exam. I won’t go on a moment longer without knowing who he really is and he needs to know how grateful I am.
His amber eyes catch sight of me just before I crash into him. He’s sturdy enough not to let us fall over but he definitely wasn’t expecting me to kiss him so forcefully. Cinnamon and spice roll off him and even in shock, his smooth lips comply with mine.
His laugh is music I’ve been dying to hear, even if it breaks the kiss. “Well nice to meet you too.”
I can’t stop smiling even if I wanted to. “Thank you.”
#bragi#khdr bragi#kh bragi#bragi x reader#smarmy fluffcoat#xeha-non#smarmy nonsense#gender neutral reader
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This week’s episode of the podcast! It’s fully subtitled, but here’s a transcription under the cut.
HEWWO
Hello everyone, welcome to Royal Magic Academy Radio, a podcast about Wizardess Heart. I’m your host, Mari. Despite the fact I skipped last week, not a whole lot happened so uh. Yeah. Guess we’re just gonna wing it and this will be a short episode.
GAMING NEWS
We got the CG portion of Yukiyamore for like a week. So yeah. That’s over and done with. In terms of events still going on, we have a new collection event, A Kiss in the Rain, and a brand new spin-off, The Nobility.ANIME EXPOSo we have two more pieces of info for Solmare’s booth at Anime Expo. They announced they’ll be demo-ing their new RPG in the Moe! Ninja Girls series at AX, so I guess there’s hope to get some more content of the other Shall We Date? games.They also said they’ll have a little booth where you can take a picture with one of the characters from Obey Me!, so I’m guessing it’ll be like. A cardboard cut-out, kind of like the ones Bushiroad. I think it’s Bushiroad or Klab... always have for Love Live! But anyway, they did finish off this second post saying “Visit us at AX to see who shows up!” so I kinda wonder if they’ll have other cut-outs to take pictures with. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
FANDOM NEWS
In fandom news, @whevents is holding a telephone game right now with writers and artists! Sign-ups are closed, but the event is well under way with everyone participating working on their parts, so that’s something to look forward to.
CALL AND RESPONSE
So, I thought of this new segment, and I thought it over for 3 seconds and decided that it was a great idea, so we're just gonna go for it. Um, this is Call and Response. So basically, I will post a prompt, or like a question, or something, on Twitter or Tumblr, and ask you guys to respond to it and then I'll... go off-script and read the responses on the podcast and um... I really did not think this through and I did not realize what I was doing as you guys will find out 'cause I have re- like, I've read the responses so I know what you guys have said, um, I didn't think some of this was gonna happen, so... *laughing* I really... In hindsight, I really should have, considering... like, considering I'm friends with a lot of you guys so I really should've, you know, seen this coming, but I did not because I'm oblivious and I'm a fool and naive. And also I can't hold my microphone right right now. Anyway um... The initial post I made said "give me hilarious and overly specific wizardess heart-themed asmr ideas it’s for science i mean the podcast."
So the first response I'm gonna read is from someone I considered a dear friend of mine, @nadia-the-wizardess, and this is someone who I love very much, and somebody I thought I could trust *laughing* and... she said, "Asmr idea? How about Sigurd slurping on them noodles." And... I don't like that.... I don't like that at all. I thought we were friends and I thought I could trust you, but clearly not. And clearly I couldn't trust other people like you because someone else said something spaghetti-themed *giggling* And anyway, this was a bad segment idea, we're never doing this again *laugh* No, we probably will, 'cause I'll be like, "Oh, this will be fine," and then alksjdfh you know, it falls apart.
So, somebody who decided to be normal and not make a fetish joke, put in... this is user @dandelionpaint on tumblr, "You are in the school's library at very busy hour. Every once in a while you can hear smack on the head, someone saying "ow" and different person saying "you cant do that"/"stop saying that"/"ugh"/"you are such a pain in the ass"" and honestly? I kin tha- I kin this. I kin that response. I would actually love to hear that, that would be pretty funny.
So the next response is from another person I considered a dear friend of mine who betrayed me so terribly. And *laughing* said... *inhale* God. This was the worst idea to start the segment off. So @sigurdcurtisholdsmegentle said, "You in the dining hall. Sigurd is there. You can hear him slurping his pasta. A never ending bowl of pasta. Just. Sluuuuuuurp." So many of my friends today have betrayed me. I have done nothing wrong ever in my life before, and it hurts *giggling* Okay.
Next response is from @swagmura, who says, um, "Klaus drinking tea with 47 sugar cubes" and then in the tags, "the spoon clinking against the cup as he stirs" and then "#god i love him" and I feel this and honestly I think I would actually listen to this, I'm not gonna lie. I don't like tea, but I'm like, that would be like, a soothing sound. Although the 47 sugar cubes is a little concerning, but I mean... eh, yolo, right?
Um, @theinvisiblefriend-blog suggested a few. And she said, "Randy eating candy. Unwrapping the candy. Chewing the candy. Vincent and Glenn sharpening their knives" ... sharpening their knives their BLADES "before practicing swordfighting." I can't read even if something is right in front of me. Is anyone surprised at this point? And then the last one is, "Or Leslie cutting loose with some archery practice." Now that one would be super, like, therapeutic, and stuff. I would like that one.
Uh, @stephdaninja said, "Okay I got one:" and then she listed a few. Uh, "Sigurd pillow top-" ... *noises of mic sadness and exasperation* Oh my *laughing* UGH. GOD. NOT TOPPING. Uh, "Sigurd pillow talking with you about your day, Amelia brushing your hair, Elias reading a story for you, Alfonse taking care of you when you're sick in bed, and that's all I've got for now." See?! These are so good! Other friends of mine, these are so good! Although I have to admit, the Alfonse one makes me think of, um, that one ASMR that was going around a while ago and it was like, "16th century nun takes care of you" and then in parentheses, "(you have the plague)" like, I don't know, that kind of... that's kinda what it makes me feel like. Like, "Alfonse takes care of you in his free clinic" parentheses "(you have the Black Robe Plague)" like... I would listen to that, though. I would listen to that.
So yeah, that's the Call and Response segment. I'm never doing this again! *laughter* No. I'll do it again some other time. It won't be ASMR-themed, it'll be something else.
BYE BYE
Yeah, the game’s honestly been slowing down a bit. I kinda wonder if it’s because of Obey Me!, since that should be out fairly soon and it’d make sense to have the other games be a little quiet to entice players to come play the new game. But anyways. Despite not having a lot to talk about, thanks for listening in this week. This is Mari, signing off.
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Hello! Just about to sit down and read your newest fic, so excited about it! I had a question for you (you very well may have answered this already, so sorry in advance!), but do you have advice for writing? Advice in terms of getting start, plotting out stories, helping get the creative juices flowing? I have all these ideas but seem to lack the drive to get things written out. I know the best advice is to just write, but I'm having a horrible time starting. What do you do in those moments?
Hello my dear!
Sorry for taking so long to get back to you. The lord has blessed me with a head cold and ruined all my plans of productivity for the day, so I can finally answer this ask! I’ll talk a little bit about both how to get started with a story and then some little things that help me motivate myself.
I have started a tag for writing advice here: http://deniigi.tumblr.com/tagged/writing-advice
This is going to be a long post, sorry mobile users.
I am going to preface all of this with the understanding that I am technically a professional writer in terms of like, a handful of ways, but I have absolutely zero training in creative writing, so take everything I say with a grain of salt!
So, I personally find that, on the whole, that psychological hurdle of getting started comes a lot from the anticipation of the kind of response a story will get (how many hits, how many comments, how many kudos) in addition to a bit of anxiety or fear over theloss of sustained interest in that story (by yourself and/or by your audience). I find that this can be alleviated by really, truly internalizing the understanding that you are allowed to write your work however you damn please, for whoever you damn please.
There will be work you write for others, and there will be work you write for yourself. Not all work needs to be published; sometimes, it is really nice to just write shit for yourself; it is a plus for humanity if you decide to share it with others, but you do not have to do that.
Furthermore, I would like to present you with this:
This is what my current folder for under fire looks like. And you might notice that there are almost always multiple drafts per chapter. Yes, I did in fact rewrite chapter four 5 fucking times, you bet your ass I did. And I’m not ashamed of it. I think the story is better for it. And that’s the important thing here: you do not need to produce a perfect draft the first time around. You will not produce that perfect draft. Accept this. Embrace this. Embrace it and your cat at the same time to really ingrain it as a warm, fuzzy feeling.
Liberate yourself from the pressure of needing to produce the perfect, most right draft and you may find starting the piece overall to be a much easier, more pleasant experience.
And along with this beautiful, uplifting spiritual advice, I also bring a practical thought: when it comes to getting started, a lot of times, people feel like they need to set the stage, yadda yadda yadda. Ha. No. Fuck that.
That’s a surefire way to bore the shit out of yourself. Start right in the middle of a scene that captivates you if that’s what you want to write. It’s a free platform. No one’s gonna arrest you if you stick Spiderman upside down in trash first thing. They might even applaud you actually, because you didn’t make them slog through some of that ‘It was the evening of the 25th and it was cold out in the streets” bullshit we all learned from Dickens.
Alright. Now let’s talk about actually getting started making words appear on paper.
So, from my knowledge there are generally two ways that folks write creatively. You have what I’m going to call the planners and then you what I’m going to call the monsters (I call them this entirely affectionately, I’m sure there’s a better word for these folks, but I don’t have it atm, all I have is a headcold). Planners are folks who sit down and work out their major plot points, who write outlines, and who create the scaffolding of their work before they set out on their magical journey. I think of these folks as architects.
And then you have the monsters and these are those fuckers who just sit down and write stream of consciously like the heathens all our high school teachers tried to teach us not to be.
I am both a planner and a monster. And a lot of that depends on the length of work I’m going for. I have never in my life planned a one-shot, for example. I just attack that as it is. I follow my heart, if you will. But when it comes to longer chaptered fics, I really do think that some outlining is super helpful.
You might find it useful for one-shots, though, I dunno. Maybe give it a try and see what happens?
The two main fics I’ve done proper outlines for are Inimitable and under fire and I actually find outlining to be immensely helpful in psyching me up to write the story (I go through and re-read my outlines when I start to lose interest or diverge too much from the plot outlined there in the actual writing. 9 times out of 10, re-reading gets me stupid excited to write all over again) and it also helps me keep momentum going throughout the plot.
Here’s a pic of some pages of under fire’s outline.
Physically writing the work is really important for me because it forces me to only put down key points/feelings/ideas I want to include, whereas typing gives me far too much room to get lost/distracted by extraneous detail. And since my handwriting is a teacher’s worst nightmare and I cross out shit and write huge with emotion, I’ll give you a little bit of what the middle page here says:
Miles-
there’s something thrumming
vibrating in his ears wherever he goes
-closes his eyes and somehow enters blackness- emptyness (Stranger Things style)
beat
beat
beat
“help.”
–BACK - everything is gone
closing his eyes doesn’t bring the space back
–it makes him panic. He doesn’t know why. His heart is pounding. He’s sweating He has a horrible feeling of doom.
beat
beat
beat
its gone.
he goes home anxiously. Pretends everything is normal.
his neck crawls
So basically it’s less of a formal outline and more of a collection of stream of consciousness feelings and screenplay directions which I’ll flesh out in the actual story.
Personally, I love writing these kinds of things because they get me pumped for the story I’m about to tell. I get to write out the key scenes and work through all the hard parts first, and then, while I’m writing, I work through the little fun details and banter and I have to write to figure out how we get from one scene to the next and I love the challenge of having to fit those pieces together. I very rarely stick strictly to my outline, (as anyone who is currently reading under fire can tell you right now), but I do try to stick to the main plot points in it and my writing is certainly better for it.
So yes. Outlining is very good, but it is even better when you do it to some kind of music. I listened to What’s Up Danger from the Into the Spiderverse soundtrack on repeat while I wrote this outline to kind of transfer some of the relentless pace conveyed in that song to the piece’s plot.
I highly recommend using music to set the mood of your piece while/before you write a piece of any length. It helps get you in the right headspace (excited or somber or angry) to write. You need emotion to write creatively. You can’t just make that happen sometimes; you need a little help.
A couple other things which might help:
1. Leave your house or the space you’re normally in. Go to a cafe and find a nice corner and have a think and a try in there. Sometimes moving to a different space helps you escape cyclical thinking patterns.
2. Write what you want to read. Don’t bother writing for other peoples’ interests; that’ll just bore the shit out of you all over again.
3. Find an atmospheric mood sound to listen to on Youtube or smth (I personally like Rain on a Car Windshield for slightly somber fics, but you might be into ocean storms or dripping caves or whatever).
4. Heat your feet. I don’t know why but I am entirely unproductive when my feet are cold. Maybe this one is me-specific, but whatevs. Heat the feets!
5. If you’re still having trouble just sitting down and pounding the story out, that’s okay! Maybe it’s not ready to be written yet. Maybe you’re not in the right headspace yet. Sometimes that’s just how it is. One story makes its way out in like, a hour, and the next one takes like, months to finally be written. We all work at different paces. We all write for different reasons.
It might help to figure out why you want to write a story before you write it. Like, if its for attention, it’s gonna be hard as hell. But if there’s an idea that you feel like is important or if there’s a mood you’re trying to work yourself into or out of, then that might be a little easier. For example, I wrote a piece called make it work which is about Fogs finding his motivation to be a lawyer and fight for justice when Kavanaugh was confirmed and I felt super helpless in the face of our present justice system. That story kind of wrote itself and it needed to be written, I feel, not just for me, but for others who were feeling just as helpless.
Writing is catharsis in that way. Maybe you just need to find out what you need to wring out of your soul.
Sorry that got very metaphysical. But I do want to stress that getting started and ending a story are the hardest parts of writing them, so you are definitely not alone if you feel like you’re ramming your head into a wall here.
I hope something here helps you, my dear!
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15 Questions for Your OC
Rules: Pick a character from your WIP, and have them answer these 15 questions, then tag 15 people!
I was tagged by the lovely @fictionshewrote to do this tag game (twice!!! because I am so behind on ask games!!! gah!!! so I’m going to put them both here). Thank you! I’m so excited! I’m going with Maddie Leonard, the most chaotic child in the Mystic, CA series, and her brother Sam Leonard, now that their intro post is up. I love the Leonards. Maddie is fully just who I want to be when I grow up.
(tw: mention of suicide)
MADDIE LEONARD
1. What is your full name?
Madeleine Emma Leonard.
2. What does your full name mean?
Madeleine is from Magdalene, which means ‘woman of Magdala’. But Magdala means ‘elevated, great, and magnificent’, as well as ‘tower’. Emma means ‘universal’. I think that’s appropriate.
3. What are your nicknames/other names?
It’s Maddie. Please do not call me Madeleine.
4. What’s your gender?
I’m a cis girl.
5. What’s your sexuality?
I guess you could say pansexual? Gender really just isn’t a factor for me. But dating is also pretty weird anyway, thanks to my magical abilities. Being able to poke around in someone’s emotions doesn’t really make it easy to have boundaries, which I’m working on.
6. Where are you from?
A little house on the cliffs of Mystic, California.
7. How old are you?
I’m 16.
8. What is your magic form/What species are you?
That’s up for debate. Both of my parents are human, my brother’s human, but I’m a magic user. Something about growing up over the opening to the magical world affecting my DNA. I can manipulate people’s emotions and affect their consciousness; so basically, I can make them feel what I want them to feel and put them to sleep. Also, I can see the Trizellis’ future, and I’m mentally connected to them. I thought I just had a really vivid imagination growing up.
I certainly look human, though. But I’m not really anything.
9. What does your human form look like?
Short, freckled, long red hair. I’m a soccer goalie so I’m also pretty ripped.
10. What’s your aesthetic?
I’m a big fan of crop tops and I have a really beat up pair of high-tops. It gets pretty cold in Mystic, but I don’t really get cold. I’ve got a couple of team hoodies and a polka-dotted sweater, but other than that, I show a lot of skin.
11. Who’s your best friend?
My brother. Sam’s my number one ride or die.
12. Would you ever get a piercing/tattoo?
I’ve got ear piercings. I might get a nose piercing, but I don’t know how my mom would take it. I don’t think she’d stop me, but she’s seen too many cases of infections at the hospital so I know she isn’t the biggest fan. Tattoos seem like too much commitment, frankly.
13. When are you happiest?
I’m probably happiest with my friends; I never really had a tight-knit group until they showed up, literally out of nowhere. I’m calmest when I’m asleep though, which doesn’t happen often. The problem with having a bunch of magic kids in your head is that you really never get any peace.
14. What’s your biggest secret?
I’m the reason my dad left. I told Tres, but my mom and Sam don’t know.
15. What was your first impression of Tres?
He’s too smart for his own good. He’s also kind of a dumbass.
SAM LEONARD
1. What is your full name?
Sam Logan Leonard. Well, okay, my full name is a little different, and I haven’t legally changed it, but... I just like this one better. So that’s the one I use.
2. What does your full name mean?
So Sam means “name of God,” which would be cooler if I was religious, I think. Logan means “hollow.” That’s funny because technically my house is in a hollow. I’m the God of the Leonard hollow.
3. What are your nicknames/other names?
I really just go by Sam.
4. What’s your gender?
I’m nonbinary. I use a few masculine descriptors, mostly because I can’t imagine Maddie calling me her ‘sibling’; it just sounds so formal and distant, and my family is really important to me. I think if I dated anyone it’d be boyfriend too, because... same thing with ‘significant other’. But please only use they/them pronouns to refer to me.
5. What’s your sexuality?
I prefer guys.
6. Where are you from?
Mystic, California.
7. How old are you?
17.
8. What is your magic form/What species are you?
I’m just human. I don’t have any magic like Maddie does.
9. What does your human form look like?
Sandy blonde hair with the usual Leonard freckles. I’m a lot bigger than Maddie, but I don’t know how much that says since she’s tiny. I’m 5′9″. She’s also got a lot more muscle than I do, though.
10. What’s your aesthetic?
Anything pastel. I wear the Mystic Aquarium uniform polo and khakis a lot, though, since I work there.
11. Who’s your best friend?
Probably Maddie. We’ve never really had many other friends.
12. Would you ever get a piercing/tattoo?
I dunno, I haven’t really thought about it. Probably not.
13. When are you happiest?
Either when I get to sit alone in the backyard or when I’m surfing. I like being at the aquarium, but I also have actual responsibilities there, so it’s harder to chill out, haha. I’m usually pretty alright at my therapist, but that’s because I can let anything I want out without worrying about being judged or scaring anyone.
14. What’s your biggest secret?
Probably that I’ve attempted suicide, but Maddie and my mom know about that, so I don’t know if it’s so much of a secret as something I’d rather not think about. So maybe that I sometimes think I can actually do some magic.
15. What was your first impression of Tres?
I can’t say I had a first impression of him except extreme gratitude? Since the first time I met him was when I woke up after he healed me from a severe head injury. He seemed very anxious though. I thought he might’ve just been stressed from trying to figure out how to heal me, but I realized later that it was, you know, the anxiety.
***
Oh goodness, I’m the worst at tagging people, let me see:
@kainablue @writing-and-nutmeg @farrradays @fartistically @sleepy-and-anxious @elonanwrites @nouveauweird @wlwwrites @pythiea
We’re gonna go with that for now because I am a smol anxious child!
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Tagged by @dragonnan
1. At what age did you start writing fanfiction?
Hmm. Probably around 12-13? I think the original one I posted online was a very short one shot in the Magnificent 7 fandom (TV show from the 90′s) in response to a challenge prompt. That’s at least what I think was the first one I wrote.
2. Who is your favorite author?
Ohhh....this is entirely fandom related.
Endeavour: @hekate1308 and athena_crikey
MCU: @rohanrider3 - Sound of Silence and Peter and the No Good, Horrible, Very Bad Day for the win!
MacGyver: @amandagaelic (conveniently, also my favorite author in Timeless fandom, too)
Iron Fist: @sholiofic (Ward and Danny bro fic for the win!)
Daredevil: @beguilewritesstuff
Voltron: @bosstoaster (even if I never actually finished the series because it started going a way I wasn’t thrilled with, her stories of Shiro are better than anything canon anyway).
3. Favorite type of scene to write?
The “all for naught” escape scenes. Like, it really looks like the good guy is gonna escape, they’re sooo close and then nope. Nice try! I also like the feisty ones - I really don’t actually like the begging whump trope, or the ‘take me instead’ where they just sort of submit, because that’s just not a thing I understand - like, at all. My mind always goes with ‘you’re gonna kill me anyway, so you’re coming with me and we’ll see who gets to Hell first’. So like in Lucifer fic, my favorite scene that I wrote was when I got to play with Lucifer’s bad side with him as Samael, even though Lucifer is generally a super nerd who (depending one which season it is) would rather make friends than fight.
4. What is your favorite fanfic?
To read? Oh boy. Found Family. Don’t care which fandom it is, so it’s more of a genre than a specific one.
5. What tags do you avoid like the plague?
Non-con, non-canon romantic relationships, smut, PWP, underage, dub-con, all things related to those categories.
6. What AU do you wish to write but feel like you won’t manage?
A crossover between Republic of Doyle and Magnum, PI. OH - or one I discussed many a moon ago with @buckky for a now dead fandom for a show called Deception. In the AU, magic was real instead of all stage production and the twins that were the main characters were from a long line of magic users. It got way more complicated and in depth, but I haven’t seen the show since it got cancelled, which makes it really hard to come up with motivation to write in it.
7. Do you outline, or write as you go?
Outline - HA! As Jim Hawkins and Gonzo said in Muppets’ Treasure Island “Wherever the wind may take us!”
8. What has been your favorite story to write so far? Why?
Either Running Up that Hill (before I got too pissed off at Agents of SHIELD to avoid the fandom altogether) or Damnatio Memoriae (which I love enough I am having trouble finishing the final chapter because then it will be over) and Wrong Side of Heaven for Magnum. For all three, the reasons are the same: I get to play with a character’s background that hints at being much more than anything they show on screen, and fix what I didn’t like in the canon version.
9. Do you prefer to write one-shots or multi-chapters? Why?
To write? I’ve started getting back into one shots with Magnum, but I like the longer novel-length ones a smidgen-y bit more, because I like the detail I can get into.
10. What is your favorite kind of comment?
Any of them? :-) Actually, I like the ones that are mostly sound effects and people telling me they gave up sleep to finish the long stories, or tell me that I nailed the characters voices so well that the stories read like actual episodes.
11. Why did you start writing fanfiction? Why are you still writing?
Started because the shows I watched didn’t have the story lines I wanted - which were typically Found Family, longer story arcs, and because I felt compelled to write but was too young to effectively write my own stuff. Still writing for much the same reasons - I like telling stories that others don’t. So like one that I’m working on for original is (I guess) a space opera/pirate story where the two main characters are a guy and a girl who have been best friends since they were children and that’s literally all they are to one another. No romantic subplot, just platonic love (if you must label, they’re in the ace/aro area) and is almost entirely based around Found Family and “Unless I need a kidney, I don’t need my bio family” story arcs.
So now I need to tag people, eh? Hmm. Technically already tagged, but now: @rohanrider3, @buckky, @dickgrysvnwrites, @sholiofic, @beguilewritesstuff, and pretty much anyone else who wants to come and play
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Hey, if anyone is reading this!
Would anyone want to read my writing? I do just some of my own style of fantasy. It’s nothing special but I feel like I might want to get it out. I’m gonna post it anyways because what can I lose, so let me know what you think 😬😄
Ansley’s Books
Magnus Spears: a young boy in his twenties who loves a book store (aptly named Ansley books)
Leonard Ansley: an old, mysterious man who runs a bookshop that always seems to be closed.
The world is magical and Mr. Ansley has quite the secret...
****
Magnus Sears was walking down the surprisingly quiet city street. For being right in the middle of downtown, the cobble-stone paved road was relatively barren, just the occasional stray cat that skittered across the street and under haphazardly parked cars.
Magnus could feel the magic emanating from here, some houses giving off more energy than others, but magic was here nonetheless. Although most beings here knew magic, the modernization of the city blocked the feel of it; the rubber and concrete and heavy metal absorbing the reverberations that the spells put off. But here, with basic houses and more trees and plants than anywhere else in the city, the magic was able to easily permeate the air.
No house or shop looked alike; with a lack of major city funding, homeowners were free to build and decorate the houses as they pleased, something that always pleased Magnus. The well maintained, put together city always seemed disingenuous to him. To Magnus, magic was a raw, beautiful practice, but the rest of the world only seemed interested in making it as easily accessible and user-friendly as possible.
Alder street was one of the very few remaining places in Ohio that denied the oncoming slought of modern magic, and that is why Magnus spent so much of his time here.
He passed a few more earth-toned houses and brightly colored shops before he came upon his favorite; a run-down looking building surrounded by the most beautiful arrangement of flower beds on the street. The one small window rested just besides the front door, adorned by a small planter box filled with rosemary, basil, cilantro, and one plant that looked unfamiliar to Magnus.
This was Ansley Books.
Magnus walked up to the door, not without stopping to smell the fragrant lavender and the potent eucalyptus that lined the gravel walkway. Through the small and grimy window, he saw the faint outline of a closed sign. It was always up since the owner was a bit of a hermit. How he kept bringing in enough money to run the shop, no one knows. But nonetheless, Magnus walked up to the door.
He knocked. This was mainly out of politeness for the owner; for Magnus had been here a few times a week for almost a year now. He waited for a response, although he knew he probably wasn’t going to get one. The old man was likely lost in an old manuscript of some sort, oblivious to the young brunette man knocking at his door.
Magnus opened the door, which protested the action with a loud whine. The sunlight from the outside briefly lit up the dark room, illuminating motes in the air like little dusty fireflies. He shut the door behind him, and suddenly he was surrounded with the stuffy scent of old books.
His eyes adjusted to the darkness, revealing he was surrounded by hundreds of books. Each shelf was stuffed so full, the wood beneath the heavy bound paper was bowing with the weight. No book was the same, each title more obscure than the rest. There was a large amount of bookcases in comparison to the size of the building, but even with the intricate, maze-like pattern of them, it felt cozy rather than cramped.
Like the street, the store was eerily quiet, and Magnus could feel the magic in the air more tangibly than the air outside. Each book, he sensed, had some sort of spell, incantation, or hex put on it, and he swore he could feel each one separately. His skin tingled with the feeling.
How, Magnus wondered, was it possible for someone to have so many books?
After casually weaving through a few shelves, he made his way to the cluttered desk in the back of the room. Behind a rather large mess of papers sat an old man, looking to be around 70 or so years old. The wrinkles around his mouth and eyes were deep set, creased like someone etched the skin with the knife. Whether or not the man noticed Magnus enter or not, he did a great job at not showing it.
Magnus gently cleared his throat, the sound slicing through the silence the way a knife passes through jell-o. The man didn’t even look up to acknowledge him.
“Make me your best offer on a book, and don’t stay here for too long, I’ll be closing up soon.” The old man continued looking through the faded yellow papers scattered in front of him, clearly not interested in probably the only customer he’d have that day.
“What, no hug?” Magnus asked teasingly. The man didn’t think that was very funny, although the stony look on his face softened slightly at the sight of the young boy in front of him.
“Greetings, Magnus. I meant what I said, don’t stay here for too long. I have important things I need to tend to and I can’t waste my precious time.”
The man had said this before, many times, but by the time Magnus successfully roped him into an engaging conversation, all thoughts of the apparently high importance tasks dissipated into nothing.
I wonder how long I can keep him here today, Magnus thought. He never knew exactly how much time in the bookstore he would be granted, some days he managed to keep the man talking until late into the night. Most of the other times though, Magnus could only extract a few sentences before being shooed back onto the street.
“I was wondering if you have any books about ancient religions. Specifically Celtic?”
****
Let me know if you like it or want to be added to the tag list! I do admit, I love a busy life and also struggle with procrastination so I may not post consistently but I will try to post as much as I can!
#fantasy writing#romance writing#writing#writeblr#my writing#musings#short stories#validate me#read my stuff#Ansley Books#Magnus Sears#Leonard Ansley#bookshop#bookshelves#old man#tragic backstory
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Juicy, love ya to death but what the heck is this Arcane (????) Thing you've been going off about for a bit now?????
If it were not for the fact I read tags, I would have been confused yet honored by the name Juicy. Hope you’re ready for the long-post of a lifetime mate.
Okay, so “The Arcana” is a free to play visual novel-like game which is pushing out new updates every blue moon for phones with a lot of romance, mystery, danger, and all that fun stuff. This description is gonna focus mostly on the romance since the story is full of spoilers from the get go. There are currently three main possible romances including:
Julian [my beloved~] (male), Asra (who is Nonbinary [I just found that out from the wiki] and uses he/him pronouns), and Nadia (female).
Muriel [my cave husband] (male) has just been added for a chapter, and will likely get plenty of updates soon, and there is another two characters (including another girl) who appear like they will be romancable in due time.
A mechanic I adore is that you can pick your pronouns as he/him, she/her, or they/them as well, and change them and your name at any point in the game without issue.
On the website I used, it says it’s rated 12+ however I would estimate it more appropriate for ages 16+ due to the nature of the usual sexual tones and scenarios.
The story is a LOT to take in, and I’m still wrapping my head around it all.In the first so many chapters: There’s a magical kingdom. Count’s dead, been dead a while and it’s my boyfriend’s fault? Countess wants to kill him, I personally didn’t want to and am making choices against such. Heartbreak and shenanigans ensue (and by shenanigans I mean things I cannot explain without spoiling other things, which would spoil other things, which would…). So far I’m pretty sure I’ve been guessing in the right direction although I’ve been making almost every wrong decision possible this latest chapter I did [whoops].
Which, by the way, YOUR CHOICES MATTER. Characters can die later in the game if you choose too many wrong, as well as may be less likely to befriend you or more likely. There are also two endings in the works, however it seems like it’s pretty easy to change the course of the ending you’re on the path towards as you can just go back in a chapter and change your choices. However, the games mechanics are still a bit hidden behind the curtain as it’s always updating, and some choices repercussions from the first few chapters hasn’t even played out their purpose yet.
MAJOR WARNING! Some choices have time limits! I made a questionable decision in the beginning because I wasn’t expecting it.
The art is so gorgeous, the story is VERY intricate and has so many questions arising each and every tap of a page, and the characters are so delightful I feel a sting in my chest in how some of my choices may affect some others. However, I will comment that I went in almost completely blind and so I had no fucking clue what was going on for a good 5 chapters but just now understood a major plot thing and now I’m dying while waiting for my keys to recharge.
Recharge? Well, here’s the more boring and stressful (but understandable) details:
For each chapter, you must spend a “key” to read it (or reread it). These keys recharge every SEVEN hours, and cannot hold more than three at a time.
There are coins you can earn for free in game through a daily free spin and the “heart hunter” minigame, which are then to unlock bonus content and “buy books” which allows all choices in the book to be unlocked and unlimited rereadings, and you can also buy the coins and keys if you want, but ultimately you neither need them to complete the entire basic story, nor get most of the content. However, it can be quite frustrating as some of the choices are so insanely painful to click the opposition of as the alternative seems rude or even ooc for yourself to click despite not having any repercussions.
You can easily save up coins though with a bit of patience, even though I dropped some of my day 1 freebie coins on a dumb but very much appreciated scenario, I already have saved up about 200/500 coins for a book, so I imagine F2P only players might suffer a bit at first but can still enjoy it entirely. According to their tumblr page @thearcanagame , they are attempting a new method to allow users to get free coins through watching ads willingly, so it may become even easier for F2P only players to enjoy more content [however, if you’ve got the cash and enjoy the game you should support it! the devs are pouring their blood, sweat, and tears into this game man!]
Also, you can replay the prologue at any point! The choices affect later choices still (so be careful going back on your awnsers, as you may miss how such affected things and character development based on such), but that’s always an option.
Now for me to just swoon:
Julian is the biggest fucking edgy dork and I just relate to him so much and have fallen so fucking hard for him man, he’s so stupid yet so sweet? Like this idiot is out here isolating himself with all that “I DON’T WANT YOU TO GET HURT!” nonsense all dramatically and (someone) and I are just ready to beat his ass and take him down from his drama for five minutes to let him know he’s loved and needs to chill. He’s so energetic and fun, and just brings a sort of energy into the room when he arrives and shifts everything onto it’s side where things don’t really need to make sense anymore, as long as it’s dramatic, as long as it’s grandiose, it’s all good.
[But he’s also an idiot so don’t let him get himself fucking killed doing that]. Like, when I first saw the art and stuff of him I poked fun at him myself, but now I would honestly commit treason for this man. I really wanna look into the Asra’s route eventually as well, however his character seems far less relatable to me and somehow even more moody? That might be because I keep picking the wrong fucking choices though.
A final note, I’m trying to prevent this game from becoming my SpIn because there are SO MANY SPOILERS OUT THERE, but it’s obviously already taken over my life and I can’t stop thinking about it and how much I want to continue and all my questions, HOLY SHIT ALL MY QUESTIONS, and also I really don’t know who to trust or even if I shouldn’t trust anyone, as well as just I don’t want anyone to die ;.;
Honestly if you like dating style games, or love mystery games and can handle a nice romance on the side, I highly recommend this game. I’ll give it a 8/10, with the two points marked off mainly because I couldn’t fucking click “Kiss me you fool” on a thing where I fucking 100% would have said that in real life because I HAVE NO MONEY YET.
Thanks for dropping in, hope this answers your questions!
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Magic backfires. Everyone knows this.
Talking about that is another question entirely though. It's far easier to gossip, to tsk-tsk in haughty tones behind closed hands with every sad case that makes the headlines. 'Such a wonderful life cut short.' 'Why anyone would try is just beyond me.' 'Playing with such dangerous things, what did they even expect.' For those who survive to live with their burns, it can feel honestly damning at times.
Not for Oleander Thistle though! People can talk behind his back all they want. It doesn't change the fact that he made it out of his alive and that in and of itself will always be glorious. Besides, the pariah life suits just him fine. The less questions asked, the better, yeah? Yeah. So, of course, when his roommate come home with a half of dozen bland-looking flyers advertising some support group for people burnt by magic, Oleander can't helped but laugh.
'Because just as Icarus didn't die because of his mistake, neither did we for ours. We fall into silence though, biting tongues at everyone's opinions and we are shunned when we talk ourselves! Not anymore! Join us at the Small Hours Diner on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 12am-2am because it doesn't have to be that way. We can talk, we can plan and we can fix ourselves for the better!!'
It's ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous!! Still, the words keep finding their way back into his head without his permission as the week passes on. 'Fix ourselves for the better,' it says and Oleander wonders...
How bad could one meeting really be?
Hiya, guys! Today, let's talk about one of my passion projects, Icarus at Midnight!
Icarus at Midnight is a story about three twentysomething year old insomniacs that attend an informal support group for magical trauma as they try to come to terms with what happened to them. They also maybe might try to become gods. The wording is pretty unclear (and you can absolutely blame Kingcup for that~).
Set in a magic solarpunky version of Earth, much of our older history remains similar though not exactly the same (like Icarus not dying, he burns himself with magic instead and falls into the Inbetween) and the newer bits just don't flat exist! Magic itself has been known entity throughout the whole of history but it is absurdly temperamental to use. As a result, people have a strained relationship with it. For for small every-day practices, changing hair or watering plants when you’re just on the edge of too tired or just sweeping the house, it’s pretty common to use. Like, playgrounds and subways tend to be littered with small graffiti-sigils. But using magic for anything more significant then that? You’re not playing with fire, you’re playing with a lit stick of dynamite.
Magic will always backfire. If not today, then surely tomorrow.
Despite all the warnings though, all the strict lectures, all the corny psas, people still get hurt and society in most of the cases will just blame the user. Because they were warned. It’s not their fault they didn’t listen.
There's also many different beings that live within Earth: humans, witches, faes, werewolves, centaurs and vampires and you know, etc in that direction or so we'll be here all day. They all use magic in different ways but there tends to be a common thread throughout all communities that you need to be careful when using it.
Basically, it's a pretty modern-magic setting because I've always been way too into the idea of redcap blood-drives and 'do for vine' magical dares. Like, can you even imagine?! :D <3 I just love the idea of people being people and using magic for both fantastical and especially mundane reasons!
The actual story follows the lives of three members of Icarus as they slowly deal with their own magical trauma, learn about each other and the world at large and fall down that beautiful hole known as friendship. They also start changing their selves but for the better or for the worse, we’ll see~ ;3 ;3 ;3
Oleander Thistle, twenty two year old delivery kid. Reserved and snarky, Oleander is the main character of Icarus. As noted above, he's actually pretty okay with the whole magically burned thing. He has a bigger plans than getting down about something from his past, like sitting through all the worst b-movies he can find and thrift shopping!! \m/!! He joins Icarus mostly to shut up his roommate and stays because he finds Kingcup entertaining as all heck (and good questionable diner food too). That girl is something special~.
Datura Kingcup, twenty three year old archivist. Passionate and stubborn, Kingcup is a former child prodigy in terms of magical theory and practice, earning praise from many of the Academia Circles until one day, she suddenly quit magic cold turkey. It’s anyone’s guess why, but given she’s the sole founder of Icarus at Midnight… Well. It seems pretty obvious in retrospect now, yeah? She's very much the type of person to drag society kicking and screaming to her expectations though, not the other way around so she's not gonna let a societal taboo keep her down! This is probably why her and Olea got along like two peas in a pod~.
Thyme Oxeye, twenty one year old stage hand. Silly and empathetic, Thyme walks the tight line between being a blessed saint and a disaster of a trashcan fire. He moved to Dead Leaves by himself a few years back, supporting himself via lots of odd jobs while deeply missing his family back home in the Romneya Backwoods. It's very frequent to find him in the company of animals too, they're just so cute!! He joins Icarus mostly on an anxious whim, hoping maybe he can figure out a way to get back home while attending. So, fingers crossed!!
My plan is hopefully to do a major post a week, like on a character or a location within the world or Dead Leaves itself or just some concept in the world. I think that’ll be a bit fun. c: If there’s anything or anyone y’all are specifically curious about, shoot me a dm or an ask please! <3
Also! If people would like to added or removed from my tag list, please feel free to shoot me a dm or ask too. c: Now, I’ll off to change a few tags around! I can’t go on using Wormwood for Olea when every time my mind screams Thistle. I’m just gonna give in. :’l
@areixs @reeseweston @mirror-of-too-many-books @missrobinswritings @hiddswritingrefs @merigreenleaf @candlelitwriting @dreamvevo @fannistwrites @loopyhoopydrabbles @rain-likes-to-ramble
#icarus at midnight#writeblr#long post#i did a thing and i'm kinda panicking but hey!#i did it!#hope you guys enjoy it#since my summary on the writeblr list was a bit vague
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