#grey brain matter | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dice-n-antlers · 7 months

Text

Another rough fic concept that I don’t have the focus or mental fortitude to write. Honestly if any of y’all are inspired and want to actually flesh it out, be my guest, because I can’t wrangle my brain into doing it.

Post-game story where Astarion and Tav are on the hunt for a way to help him walk in the sun again.

They are on the trail of a possible solution. Maybe a MacGuffin item that will protect him or maybe a full-on cure for vampirism.

Astarion x Tav cross paths with a powerful vampire. Maybe this entity has the item/cure they are looking for or maybe this vampire is also seeking it.

They don’t have the rest of the party to help them so shit is gonna go sideways in the worst way possible.

There is a confrontation in a fortress or ruin by the sea. During the fight, everything that can go wrong does go wrong and worse.

Astarion gets pushed or blasted off the tower/battlements down into the dark water below, leaving Tav alone with the vampire.

Astarion survives. Barely. By the time he makes it to shore, clinging to unlife by a thread, dawn is fast approaching.

He’s a survivor. He has no choice but to seek shelter. Besides, he can’t help Tav if he’s a pile of ash.

Our favorite spawn spends a miserable day, unable to rest, full of self-loathing that he had to flee, horrified at the possible fate that he has left Tav to endure. Are they even still alive?

As soon as the orange eye of the sun dips back down below the horizon, Astarion leaves his makeshift shelter to find Tav.

He sneaks back into the fortress…

It’s easy. Too easy. Everything is eerily quiet.

In a courtyard, something catches in the corner of his eye: an area of freshly turned dirt.

As he looks dumbly at the person-sized patch, he realizes what he’s smelling. Dirt and blood. Tav’s blood.

They’re dead.

But amid the rising despair, another thought occurs to him. Would a vampire waste the opportunity to create a perfectly good spawn? He’s not sure which is worse; that Tav is dead or a spawn.

Astarion falls to his knees and begins clawing at the dirt. Nails be damned, Tav is down there.

It’s massively re-traumatizing for him. Instead of digging up out of his own grave, he is digging down into the grave of the first person he truly cares about, unsure of what state they will be in.

His nails are broken, hands bloodied, face smeared with dirt and sweat and tears when a hand bursts free from the dirt. Tav’s hand.

He pulls them free, coughing and retching up dirt. Tav is wild-eyed and terrified by what has been done to them and the changes they have felt in their body.

Astarion can see Tav’s eyes have gone red and shine with a dull glow. Their canines are pointed, skin no longer bright but with a greyish cast to it. The fresh wound on their neck no longer bleeds, but stares at him like an accusation.

There is stillness for a moment after the frantic scramble. A traumatized Tav clings to Astarion. Maybe he tries to comfort them. Maybe he’s frozen, trying to figure out what to do next. Maybe a horrific guilt is starting to eat a hole through him… they were here to help him after all.

But then…

Tav goes rigid in Astarion’s arms.

Tav jerks back out of Astarion’s grip and struggles to their feet. The red glow in their eyes has brightened and their face is a mask of confusion and fear as their body moves against their will.

They stumble past Astarion…

…and into the waiting arms of their new master.

This vampire is powerful, of course, and not alone. Perhaps they have other spawn or minions now stepping out of the shadows into the courtyard. Astarion is outnumbered and outgunned.

Does Astarion fight (and certainly die) or flee?

Perhaps this vampire looks down at this spawn-of-a-dead-master that they cannot control and decides killing him is too boring. They’re a sadistic bastard after all.

The vampire tells Astarion to run. Run and never look back.

They tell him that if they ever catch his scent again, they will make Tav greet the dawn.

So Astarion flees. Ever the survivor.

He abandons Tav to a cruel sire and a fate he knows all too well.

If you’re an asshole, you could end the story right there. But as much as I enjoy angst, I love happy endings more…

So a bloodied and shell-shocked Astarion turns up on Gale’s doorstep one night. They get the gang back together. You could skim over this or turn it into a multi-chapter found family bonanza about breaking Wyll and Karlach out of the hells and getting Lae’zel back from the astral plane.

The point is, the cavalry comes to save Tav for once.

You could end it any way you like… Maybe both Tav and Astarion are cured or maybe only one of them is. Perhaps there was no cure at all, their lead was a dead end, and Astarion and Tav both end up as masterless spawn, still on the hunt for a way to walk in the sun together. Tav has to learn how to deal with being a vampire and they both have to deal with this new trauma, but they are free and have each other.

#astarion ancunin #astarion x tav #bg3 #baldur’s gate 3 #fic ideas?#this has been eating away at my grey matter for days now and I just had to get it out #I wish I could write it but I know myself well enough to know I can’t make my brain do it #tw for angst?#for the record this is NOT how I see Amity and Astarion’s post game story

52 notes · View notes

actual-changeling · 4 months

Text

*gritting my teeth and sweating blood* i am stronger than my brain and will brute force myself into becoming better which is a normal thing to want and possible to achieve

#alex yells at the void #i am TIRED and i am FRUSTRATED get me a brain that does what i say #like ok if you cannot do this without getting bad trauma reactions we will do it while having them how about that huh #you cannot panic attack your way out of this anymore stupid grey matter i'll keep going until i die

18 notes · View notes

xmas-kids · 2 months

Text

1/2/3>4/5/6>7/8/9>divider

"bottom" by McCafferty stimboard, based on the album cover! ^_^ a stimboard based on the lyrics will be out tomorrow

DISCLAIMER; i don't support what happened with the McCafferty band. i just like the music :3

❝i'm sorry the last recording cut short! ,,, i ran out of room on that tape. i- ,,, it's in here. oh dear heavens it's in here,,,❞

11 notes · View notes

rubywingsracing · 11 days

Text

What I’m supposed to be doing rn: Writing a paper for my Henry James class

What I was just doing: Writing an essay of a comment on a fic dissecting the complex romantic relationships between the characters like the little freak I am

Someone needs to either take my phone away or hold a gun to my head till I get my work done

Also go read the fic rn or I will burrow into your walls!!!!!

11 notes · View notes

the-darklings · 2 years

Note

Hello, I love your fics and I've noticed that a lot of your stories despite being reader fics are very character driven. Not just for the og characters but for the OC themselves.

It's done so well that I wanted to ask if you have any steps for writing such enticing character driven stories or does it just come naturally?

It comes naturally, and stems from the fact that, at my core, I'm an absolute character-driven story writer and reader.

I can put up with okay writing and a mediocre plot, but you have to have good characters for me. It's a deal breaker. I always joke that my favourite thing to do when I write is simply have two characters sit and talk - that's it. If the characters are interesting and compelling, it doesn't matter if they're not doing anything "exciting" it will still be engaging to read about.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that plot, prose, and world-building are not just as important - they are! - but for me, characters are key. And that's because, for me, at least, stories are for people by people. Therefore, characters will always be the thing people remember. Think about your favourite stories for a moment - no matter what the medium is - what comes to mind first? I would bet 9/10 times it's the characters. If I say Star Wars, chances are that even if you've never seen a scrap of those films/shows etc, you still know Darth Vader. You know Luke Skywalker. You know Batman. You know the Joker. That's because we identify with people, aka the characters. They're the reason we love storytelling. The best stories in the world are so popular because they have characters that outlive or/and outshine their own canon.

I guess for that reason, it's always funny to me when I see people get snobby about people's OCs, especially canon/OC ships. And even more so, x reader fics. As if they're somehow "lesser". But take a second to remember something important: every single character you love is someone else's OC that's been given a wider audience. That's all.

#basically to anyone fearing they're being cringe or their original voice doesn't matter: don't listen.#it absolutely does.#i just love people!!! and i love characters!!! i especially love really grey and morally corrupt characters!!!#i love it when characters are messy and irrational #when they frustrate me and compel me #i like it when there's friction and overlap with people #i love it when characters make me question myself.#and i know a lot of people aren't like that #they care for plot/writing more etc.#but for me every character is a piece that can/should be utalised #think about why side characters are often so popular #it's because we want to know more. because we - as readers/viewers - project ourselves onto them #that's also why books tend to be better than movies usually. because it takes a rare talent to translate intimate thoughts onto screen #visual mediums are limiting!!! as someone who works with visual storytelling let me tell you:#prose is a gift because you can create such a bond and connection with readers. with prose you get to burrow into character's brain #with prose you are letting readers in on characters' most intimate feelings/hopes/fears/frustrations aka things WE feel and relate to #asks

121 notes · View notes

gimmethatagustd · 8 months

Note

Hi jaiii🫶🏼 for the ask game jiji

3. Is there anyone in particular you'd want to kiss gently on the forehead?

4. Who do you think would give the best hugs?

15. Do you have any bias wreckers?

24. Any favorite funny moments of a bias?

💜💜💜💜

hi bby ily

Is there anyone in particular you'd want to kiss gently on the forehead?

pls don't make me be delulu about this 😭 let me get on my tiptoes to try to give taehyung a forehead kiss that he'd still have to bend down to let me reach cuz he's all legs and i'm below average

Who do you think would give the best hugs?

taehyung, 100%. after i saw the dingo episode i knew

just look at that hug !!! tell me it wouldn't solve all your troubles

Do you have any bias wreckers?

for bts, my wreckers are yoongi and jimin! jungkook tries to sneak his way in there too and i have to beat him back with a shoe

Any favorite funny moments of a bias?

BTS struggling to understand “Tae-tae language" is probably my favorite fanmade video. i love it enough that i wrote it into Who's Your Bias? lollll i just love that taetae language exists because i also don't know how to speak properly and i rely on everyone to figure out wtf i'm trying to say

( send me questions about my bias line if you want while i procrastinate writing ?? )

#i really don't shut up about this man do i #sigh #taehyung worm in my brain #munching away at my grey matter #jai asks #ask game #all that jaz #simp47koreancrackheads

16 notes · View notes

truespectros · 7 months

Text

Grey Matter

#art #fanart #fan art #ben 10 #grey matter #classic #os #omniverse #ov #ben 1o omniverse #ben 10 classic #albedo #green #red #frog #alien #monster #brain #brainfrog #brain frog #omnitrix

13 notes · View notes

faebriel · 5 months

Note

hgs brainrot has returned due to tbosas .. speaking of hgs here’s an ask abt the hgs au: if things were totally different, and Wilbur were to be a 12 victor, what do you think a possible mentor-tribute dynamic would look like between him & Niki? I feel like it would be similar to Snow & Lucy in the way that he’s just going out of his way to cheat n help her

anon u have in fact struck jackpot because this is a concept i was spinning some thoughts abt before bee mentioned avoxes and we went OOOOH at that!!! so yes i have considered rainduo as a mentor-tribute dynamic and would love to talk about that concept too :]

so for this concept i think wilbur and niki would be close friends throughout childhood from 12, and then in their teens wilbur is reaped and, well, no one has particularly high hopes (he's a writer and a musician at heart, not a fighter) but through sheer trickery and dumb luck, he makes it to the end of the games. wilbur pulled some pretty fucked up tricks to win - when you can't use brute force, you have to use your brain - and partly due to the trauma of the games, partly due to his shame and survivor's guilt, he sinks into the capitol and relishes a new life there as a socialite. to him, the old wilbur died in the games and the new one has taken his place - to niki, and to his other friends in 12, whatever the games did to him made him into every vapid heartless capitol victor there is.

or. niki has her doubts. they all saw how horrible the games were, but surely there is some part of him left, some part that's hurting, even if it's buried deep?

anyway.

like og spin of the au, niki is reaped and this sucks - this time she does expect wilbur as her mentor on the train, and she expects some kind of warm welcome (maybe even an apology for leaving them so suddenly and silently? an explanation?) but she gets jack shit. wilbur is jaded and cruel and unrecognisable and niki entirely hates it. this is the part where i REALLY WISH we got some time of those two beefing with each other directly in canon (or at least interactions while niki was So Mad at him) but it's okay we fly blind. niki feels abandoned, lonely, thrown off of her kilter - she expected an ally in this place, but she doesn't recognise the person wilbur has become. she doesn't recognise his shallowness (...much), his ruthless advice for the arena, the way he doesn't seem to care for anything. she's scared and now she's lonely and it pisses her off - their mentorship is fraught. here are some thoughts from discord on that:

i tend to think of niki as a bit naïve before l'manberg or even doomsday - i think this is an au where this streak would come out real strong, and niki is stubborn that she can get through the games without losing herself. stubborn that she can stop things, that she can protect people. i don't think wilbur is cold enough (or, really, can bear to say aloud) to say that her odds in the arena are slim enough as it is, but he definitely tells her that she's making enemies and that her odds of survival dwindle with the more trouble she causes.

beyond that... hm. niki's trust in wilbur is almost unshakeable until nov 16, even when she outright says she doesn't recognise him anymore. i think she'd reluctantly listen re: don't burn down any buildings, but she would grow bolder each day she had to stay in the capitol. she gets more honest in front of the cameras. she makes more friends in training, and not the ones wilbur recommends. she throws barbs at him every time he makes one of those callous, cold-hearted comments about other tributes and rankings and odds. and besides, she's going in the arena this time, not him. she needs to practice her bravery.

it's like... she hasn't given up on him. she thinks the old wilbur is in there somewhere. (she is wrong. that is not how trauma works.) but she won't hold her tongue just because she

for extra angst points could definitely play up the whole 'feeling abandoned' angle between them as niki goes into the arena - probably due to how fraught their friendship gets leading up to the games. niki wants to focus on them and their friendship, wilbur has stringently cut off (almost) everything from 12 and refuses to let her in; he tells her to behave for the cameras, she tells him she never will. i think the last point in that screenshot would also make for a super tasty argument where niki feels wilbur has gone astray, that he's abandoned 12, and that he'll probably do nothing but sit on his ass and watch her die and he can't even bring himself to care about her anymore, can he? just more fodder for the arena. and honestly, i think wilbur would passively agree with most of that - he values niki's opinion, after all, even now, and if she says he's rapidly descending into a lost cause then she must be right. and it's niki, so she will be fine, and he goes to his bedroom that night and tries to pretend he is sleeping perfectly fine instead of feeling paralysed with fear.

okay now onto the games - YES HE SO WOULD. or at least i think he would go out of his way to help. as for cheating - he's a recent victor for 12 and i think he would value tommy (no doubt a link to him... i think they'd be in touch in this au also) too much to risk the punishment falling onto him as well. i get the vibes this is a games closer to 74th than 10th, so there are far fewer opportunities to cheat and the consequences of getting caught are higher. but schmoozing up sponsors? making stupid ass radio interviews or whatever to talk up niki's odds? sharing anecdotes from their childhood - some real, some entirely fabricated - across capitol airwaves to stoke their sympathy? 100%. with less to lose in this au, i think niki would be far less inclined to play nice for the cameras - i hope you starve, she spits at one of them, and wilbur appears on a talkshow two days later as she scrambles for survival in the arena to talk up how she always saved loaves from the bakery for the poorest mothers and children in 12. he borrows and begs and swindles to the point where it feels like cheating. but hey, this new wilbur is capitol-branded. he knows how to play the game.

if anything he probably sinks into the game a little too much. self-preservation is not his forte. probably wracks up a few heavy debts and favours to owe, but those are not priority until niki is out of the arena, alive. as long as she wins, and as long as the family he has isn't in danger, he will manage. wow it would suck if at some point those two goals became impossible to co-achieve. anyway

i kind of see niki's victory in the arena being similar to the one in the main au - if only because planning out an entire games is hard for meee >-< . she walks in bolder and braver for sure, and with a less strategic pick of allies, but they all get picked off and she spends a few weeks so terrified she can barely sleep and then she ruptures some fuel line and sets the arena alight with a fire that burns brighter and more ravenously than it should. but she wins, and she's airlifted out of a filthy, muddy creek she had resigned herself to die in, and wilbur barges his way through as many peacekeepers so that he can actually see her with her burnt skin and hair and unfocused eyes and trust that what was on the screens wasn't a fluke, and that they made it. and then it's just a matter of surviving the after.

i'm sure there are some other random quirks or tidbits i can think of re: this take on a c!rainduo hunger games au but these are my base thoughts!!

#can i just say whatever the hell lucy grey n snow had going on in part 1 made me so berko btw. like congrats ur my means to an end youre my #symbol youre my buddy? should we kiss? i'll get you out of here / don't make me leave these people behind #BRIDGING OFF OF THE TBOSAS DISCUSSION. i think the thing with crainduo (or at least how i like to depict them) is that they care about each #other extremely deeply and value each other... without being each others number one priority at all times.#i don't think niki plays priority with people she cares for like that; see her relationships with like wilbur and eret in lmanberg #even her friendship with and offering ponk a place to stay in her city after manberg even tho manberg hurt her #as for wilbur: his priority is tommy. like always. if it was just him on the line he'd do anything to get niki thru but it's not #asks #hunger games au #they would truly be such a nightmare in this au like. wilbur's self loathing is SO HIGH due to survivors guilt and trauma and mental illnes #he thinks that niki is So Good and Has It Together meanwhile he is So Bad #and is a mess that she cannot possibly rely on him. she can't possibly need him. she can't possibly want him around #<- and this shit is INGRAINED like. it's not even an active thought pattern anymore it is carved into his brain like a groove #and so shes like. do you even care whether i live or die??#of course he does. but this is the capitol. he cant be vulnerable in a way that matters #and that alienates niki further and this rage and heartbreak is building in her with nowhere to go. and in the arena she thinks it erupts #nah uh. i think its AFTER the area when she has to face wilbur again that she would go full screaming meltdown #ANYWAY !! i really like aus where they have this friction esp because i think like.. idk i think sometimes our views of rainduo are too ros #wilbur kind of forgets about niki sometimes because his self hatred is that bad. niki doesnt get wilburs mental illness and takes it both a #a burden/blame AND a direct rejection of her and her friendship #and they hover just outside of each others spaces anxious and angry and almost self flagellating. GOOD FOR THEM !#anyway Yes this did unlock something within me. thanks anon feel free to add on if u had more thoughts esp re: tbosas and such bc i had suc #a good time watching that movie

8 notes · View notes