and btw im in my hater arc rn. as time goes on the more i find a lot of 'fandom' stuff insufferable (i like art n stuff. just the way that fandom refits every media to fit a single mold and set of boring archetypes is exhausting.)

i just get really easily annoyed lately. and have been unfollowing people on a whim a lot. its not personal i promise

In the last salty asks post I unintentionally went on a tangent in the notes about how JRO wrote religious characters which is like actually something I want to bring up on its own so like

Is it just me or does JRO have some real misses when it comes to writing religious characters? Not like every religious character is badly written or evil, but like... several of the ones that are fall into really bad or unflattering/shallow stereotypes? It's hard to put my finger exactly on why I feel that way bc he does write some actually good religious characters (aka Cyclonus).

For example, characters like the Functionist Council and Star Saber are fine to me because I'm like. Well Functionism being religious in origin makes sense, it's an interesting interplay of how religion influences the state/how the state leverages religion to bend the populace to its own whims. Religious bad guys =/= all religious people bad. Star Saber is just some random zealot that wasn't meant to be that deep at all, and eh the Inquisition-type religious zealot can be cool even if it's just the vibes of it.

But then there's stuff like... Tyrest being a normal, rational, not particularly religious guy until he gets shot with a bullet that gives him brain damage, causing him to start ranting about Cyberutopia and thinking God is personally talking to him in his brain...? Like, idk, was it really the best idea for an antagonist to go "he is evil because he got brain damaged against his will w/o even knowing what really happened to him and also because he's brain damaged he's now literally delusional and became a religious (and genocidal) maniac." It comes off as really bad taste/not thinking the implications through as far as how it reflects on religious people (bc the whole "religious people are literally delusional and stupid to think that their gods could possibly exist" thing is tired and offensive). Not to mention kind of ableist w/ the whole "oh he became evil bc he got shot in the brain and now there's literally something wrong with his mind."

(Doesn't help that the MTMTE logbooks revealed that the original idea for Tyrest was to have his killswitch be about trying to identify and execute all of the criminals/"guilty people" on Cybertron, basically an extension of his role as Chief Justice which makes so much more sense and is way more interesting and compelling???? Certainly better than (gets brain damaged) "Ah I'm now going to genocide all cold constructs because God told me to")

And then Drift with spectralism which...which... basically the extent of that whole religion is the name of a single festival (the Lost Light festival the eponymous ship was named after), and some stuff about face/body paint and colors having spiritual symbolism, then the Guiding Hand/Primus stuff that's also shared with Primalism. But then you have Drift who's the main representative of this religion basically being written as a phony who doesn't even believe in the shit coming out of his mouth. Or if his beliefs are sincere, the way he acts is basically just "oooooh, I sense unclean vibes and read into the energy of the universe" which is played for laughs or mocked by the other characters most of the time. And Drift's character is written so inconsistently (and the general religious worldbuilding so one-dimensional) that it's hard to tell if Drift is supposed to be read as some kooky fake hippie type or if he's genuinely a representation of Spectralism in general. Like, idk, the best JRO could come up for for building a religion was "they wear certain colors and patterns on them and vaguely talk about sensing energy from the universe?" It literally feels like baby's first fictional religion or like, religion as understood by a non-religious/atheist person who sees religion as nothing more than an aesthetic or some quirky rituals.

I'm not saying the story had to be about religion or have religion be brought up in every conversation, it's just...... the way he wrote/did worldbuilding for it comes off as as very "non-religious person who doesn't have any particular understanding of religion/why people are religious tries to write what they think religion is about" and most of the time it's kinda cringe.

please tell me more about the stuff in the tags of your last fic, I love xenolinguistics! What if brother and sister were just correlated do to our gendernorms? What is sister in Alternian?

I mean, to be clear, that post is an excerpt, and far from the full fic which is still in process! But uhhh let's see. So in the tags you're addressing, I said

"what if 'motherfucker' and 'brother' are translated different but they're related words in alternian…. #what if 'brother' and 'sister' aren't different words theyre just translated in english based on gender but there's no distinction actually #it's all the word I tend to translate as 'kin'/'family'/'fam' but gendered by english-speakers for comprehension"

My thought wasn't that there was a word for "sister" in Alternian, any more than a word for "brother"! In keeping with the minimal amount of gendering I try to do when I write trolls, I was thinking there could be a single word that just basically means "troll who is part of my 'family'", (although "family" here is its own kettle of fish on Alternia, more on that later). To a conversational learner of Alternian, it would be fairly natural to translate it according to the gender of the person being addressed, since calling someone "brother" or "sister" has more linguistic precedent than the gender-neutral address I've used in clown-fics before, which is "kin".

(I don't think I got that from canon, as far as I remember I came up with that because I wanted more queer characters and needed a gender-neutral church term of address for them, lol).

Bear in mind my worldbuilding is also partially predicated on the way I tend to write the clown church, which is a little more based on real life juggalos than some clown churches I've seen written in fics--I like the idea that purplebloods are still violent assholes to each other, but that they have a weird kind of cohesion, a default allyship with each other via the church that isn't quadranted and isn't necessarily in cahoots, but just expects a certain amount of kinship. "Family", or "troll-closer-than-friend", something that's not quite a quadrant but is closer than the average troll gets to have with other trolls, usually. I like the thought of other blood castes finding that deeply unsettling--and I also feel like it makes a certain amount of sense; both for the sort of weird troll equivalent of an ethnoreligious group and also for a comparatively smaller ruling class that has to keep the much more numerous, psionically-gifted masses in line.

But also as individuals they will certainly still challenge, undercut, and murder each other sometimes haha. They're Alternian trolls after all. ANYWAY

Terms of address in Alternian are actually a really fun concept, especially if I was playing around with the concept I talked about a little in later tags on that same post--that you can present yourself as a superior, inferior, or intentionally give zero inflection either way, which is risky in its own way if the person you're speaking to doesn't agree that you're equals. That actually meshes nicely with one of the few bits of xenolinguistics we do get in the comic, which is that apparently the troll word for "friend" is the same as the word for "enemy"! Which you could work in a couple of ways!

the word just essentially does mean "friend"/"troll I'm close to"--if you are actually friends, then cool. If not, it becomes more like a guy in a bar calling you "pal" and stepping into your space. Humans have their own dominance and submission tone indicators, and imposing closeness or familiarity on a person you aren't familiar with to that degree can be a threat in any language, so it would feel right to me if Alternian had the same thing but much more aggressively codified.

The word is understood as "friend" when it's said in a submissive/friendly/fawning stance, and "enemy" when it's said by a superior or dominant troll. This is actually also fun because it means that unless a highblood is explicitly lowering themself to use a less dominant tone, they're speaking to their social inferiors with pretty overt hostility.

To bring it back around to the original topic, I honestly like option two a little better--if any term of address can be dominant/hostile, submissive/fawning or neutral/equal, then Gamzee when he's introduced using the "equals" inflection of "brother/sister/etc" would carry on his canon vibe of not really acting like A Real Highblood. And then when murderstuck hit, he could drop all the way to a supposedly super friendly and harmless inflection on the "it's me :o)" sentences and an aggressive one on the "AND ALSO ME :o(" sentences.

"Motherfucker" is a fun one because carrying on the thought I was having in those tags, I was imagining "motherfucker" would be a very similar word in Alternian to "kin"--but smushed together with the Alternian for "fuck" and used in all sorts of ungrammatical ways. "Motherfucker" would make sense to me as an Anglicization of a word that in Alternian might mean something more like "(friend-closer-than-friend)fucker". After all, trolls don't have mothers--I think I've written before with the alternate headcanon that it refers to the Mother Grub, and is kind of profane/gross in that sense, but I also like the concept that part of the reason that we see so many purplebloods throwing "motherfuck(ing/er)" around is because they're also the ones who have a concept of "family" via the church, and a nonexistent translator was like "for readability I have not translated this literally but have instead used the nearest human equivalent" lol.

hey!! I've read a few of your Motorcity fics and I love them, but I have no idea if I'd be interested in the source material! would you be kind enough to give an overview of the things you like (and dislike, maybe!) about the show, so I can give it a try? :O

Ahaha ohhhh boy XD

This is a very reasonable and canny request! In response I will do my best to be... measured and rational... about this show, instead of ranting about all my pet peeves.

tldr: it's a fun show with some excellent highlights, so long as you don't expect too much.

Motorcity has a ton of really fun characters that you can get your teeth into, the hero and villains are EXCELLENT, and the implied worldbuilding is very cool (from the flying buildings in Deluxe to the spore/mushroom-based weapons of the Terras). It's got a great art style, very dynamic and colorful with gorgeous backgrounds. The shots of the darkness of Motorcity with the little blue stars scattered across the ceiling, holes in the Deluxe dome, are atmospheric and stunning. The music is good and so is the humor - most episodes have several moments that make me snicker aloud.

As far as the show's problems, well... the racism and ableism is (or at least was in 2012), I think, fairly standard kid's cartoon stuff. It's also mainly contained in the Terras, who are American Indian ripoffs with (spoilers) facial mutations (which get revealed at the exact point where they stop hiding their villainy. REAL classy, writers). The part I have most trouble with is the writing, which is spotty in quality. Some episodes are great! But others have bad pacing, or a disjunction between the setup and the payoff of an episode, the problem and the solution, which I find grating.

But! Watch any episode with the Duke of Detroit and tell me he's not the most delightful villain, oh my god. He's voiced by the lead singer of Twisted Sister, I believe, and flamboyant, dramatic, and hilarious to watch. Mike's backstory is extremely tasty, Julie's double life and relationship with (and similarities to) Kane is juicy, and there are way more excellent female characters than I would've expected in a show intended for boys! Claire has a lot more to her than initially shows, and her relationship with Julie actually gets an episode of its own! And Tennie is great, I adore her.

If you want to test the show out, consider watching the first episode and the last two, (if that won't keep you from watching the rest of the show, that is!) because the finale is quite good!

And if for some reason you want more detailed opinions from me on various episodes, check my tag "episode rewatch"! XD

Thanks for the ask! I enjoyed attempting to answer it, haha.

Hello I saw your tag PLEASE tell me about Annabelle Von Gears she seems right up my alley

OUGIYGH OH BOY LET ME RAMBLE ABOUT MY OC, THIS IS PROBABLY GOING TO BE STRUCTURED HORRIBLY LMAO—

So! Annabelle von Gears is my character for an upcoming homebrew campaign my friend's been wanting to run for about a year; She's put so much work into it, it's fascinating! (So sorry if u weren't expecting ttrpg stuff, but the floodgates have opened, and as a man with a special interest in ttrpgs I'm not going to shut up now—)

In very simple terms, Annabelle is a porcelain warforged/robotic wizard (bladesinger, specifically) who grew tired of her life and runs off to go adventuring. I adore her and this WILL be an infodump under the readmore!!!

[Art by @teefs_art on twitter!]

Augh okay I have no idea if I'll be able to get everything down, especially her thoughts on her family and herself, but here we go-

In terms of personality, I've been keeping it a bit vague; I'd like to have some room to build upon it when we finally play, and I've found it's easier to go off a general vibe.

So: Annabelle, at the start, is really just trying to do her job as a secretary and is very bored over the whole thing. While disruptions in the day can annoy her, she secretly delights in a few of them, because hey- that's another break in monotony, baby! After discovering free will later on, she's a lot more impulsive and upbeat, but still attempts to maintain her air of formality and fanciness. She most likely has a very strong sense of what's considered "fair." Due to Annabelle's upbringing, she'll probably be a bit rude and insensitive to others and their plights at times- and despite her sarcasm, she seems unable to detect it in others?

I definitely need to think more about how to include some knightly traits for her, and yknow, the whole thing of self vs duty, but... eh, yknow. Just vibes so far ☆

Anyway, the fact she's not literally built for a life of adventuring does nothing to dissuade her, btw; she'd rather do this than go back to a boring job.

Fun(?) facts:

Annabelle was based off the idea of "hey, what if a porcelain robot got hurt a lot and had to be fixed up with gold? Wouldn't that be cool or what"

Annabelle has programmed codes! Some of them include not being able to enter certain parts of the Von Gears manor, and being physically unable to harm her father figure (She can certainly try, but it's extremely difficult to break through those instructions)

She can sleep standing up, and yes, this probably will unnerve her party members very much ☆ (She can also stand completely still! More than once she's startled a foreign diplomat by blending in with the various statues and automatons in the manor, and so she's not allowed to go into those rooms anymore lmao)

Annabelle would really like collecting vinyls <3

She has the emblem of her home kingdom painted on her shoulder blades/upper back (it's an eagle with its wings outstretched!)

She can remove her face plate, and getting fixed by an artificer or mechanic is a bit uncomfortable :-/ It's like going to the dentist.

Annabelle is supposed to have a German accent- but I'm unable to do one. 😔

Her favorite term of endearment is to call someone "butterfly"; but so far she exclusively refers to only her sister with it.

She's unable to cry; she's not built with tear ducts! :-(

She's probably got a list full of silly little things to do while adventuring- like sneak into a building, or take part in a bar fight.

Taking heat damage is flavored as such: Her porcelain coverings are actually pretty heat-resistant! However, her insides aren't. It almost acts like an oven... (good luck venturing the kingdom of Helosh, love! ouch)

I'm absolutely going to find out how she can stim with her magic. No one can stop me /lh

And now for her general story: (note: I'm only putting in the most basic information for this. There's so much worldbuilding, but I sadly don't have time to ramble about all that. Again, sorry if this is incoherent, augh)

On the continent of Mysterra, most warforged reside in the country of Tectonica, which is ruled by Warrick von Gears (I forget his exact official title), a warforged who's been around for a very long time- definitely more than 100 years.

Following Mysterra's calendar, in 1835 Warrick decided he wanted a family with his wife Eleanor (also a warforged), and on the 19th of the Month of Talis, he commissioned the construction of Aria as his daughter– Annabelle was then added as a sudden addition. It took a year to complete the both of them, at which point artificial souls were placed inside their chests, and they were taken home to Tectonica's capital of Skysummit.

Despite being awoken at the same time, Annabelle is considered the more mature out of the two- mentally being in her 20s, with Aria being around 12- and primarily functions as Warrick's secretary. She arranged meetings, schedules, etc, and traveled along with him to diplomatic meetings to the capitals of other countries- along the way she picked up how to speak Gnomish and Draconic, as Windberg and Balaur do frequent dealings with Tectonica.

But eventually, she got bored with... well, just about all of it. It all began to seem monotonous, with only traveling for meetings, chess games with Warrick, and the shenanigans of Aria to break it all up. (She cares very much for her sister; it's almost the energy of "If this one favorite coworker wasn't here I would've quit a Long Time Ago" /hj). She wasn't really allowed to leave the estate without permission- and the thought to do so anyway had never occurred to her- so she had to find a few ways to avoid completely losing it.

Despite the fact she was built with a variety of coded spells to ensure self-defense, Annabelle began to study the variety of spellbooks and fiction in the Von Gear estate to stave off her boredom and restlessness- as well as daydreaming, becoming a lover of gossip, practicing swordfighting with some decorative blades hanging up on the wall, etc; all while wondering if something was wrong with her. Because she was built for this job, so surely she shouldn't be dissatisfied, right? [And what's with that strange tugging in her chest sometimes..?] But nothing ever seemed wrong when the mechanics showed up for yearly checks, so she didn't really ever bring it up in conversation to Warrick.

[While she loves the other Von Gears, her discontent with her current life makes her feels separate from them. Combined with her job as a secretary, she tries to be formal towards them and keep a distance– but she makes a few exceptions. She has fun with Aria, and despite her insistence she's really not part of the family, she does participate in family game night, and has accidentally called Warrick "dad" more than once. Anyway...]

And so, in the year of 1842, Annabelle von Gears is still the secretary of Tectonica's ruler— that is, until a famed Artificer is late for his scheduled meeting with Warrick. This catapults the events of the campaign, as well as Annabelle meeting her future party— an artificer searching for her missing father, a barbarian seeking revenge for the destruction of her town, a ranger with the last known dragon egg, and a paladin trying to prevent his kingdom from being destroyed by a volcano.

She’ll be sent by Warrick to join them for a quest, much to her surprise, and will discover that adventuring is just what she needs in her life. She runs off to join them, promising her sister she'll write to her.

Being an impulsive woman once she's discovered she has free will, Annabelle's bound to get into trouble and gain all sorts of scars- and probably a lot of them, since she literally isn't built for adventuring– as well as probably gaining... odd visions? And passing knowledges of skills previously unbeknownst to her? Strange...

While adventuring, Annabelle will occasionally feel guilt for leaving her job and family behind.

And oh, the Reveal! During her journey, Annabelle von Gears will eventually discover the truth that her soul isn't artificial like she was told: She had been a flesh-and-blood person whose soul had been ripped out (either from a living body or the afterlife) and rewired, just like every other warforged.... Which would explain all the odd memories and possibly even her want for adventure- she had been a person before. And surely Warrick must've known this whole time, right? (cue, hopefully, a climactic daughter-father fight)

(There's also an idea the DM and I have where Annabelle encounters the "resurrected" body of who she used to be, possibly leading to the body attempting to kill her so it can get its soul back. We're going to have so much fun with the horror elements)

Anyway augh this was A Lot, thank you for showing interest and allowing me to Ramble ;-;✌️🫶💕

tell me a bit about sophia (i mean if u want) im interested

gladly. i love talking about her

shes a 20 something year old german trans woman living in nz. shes 5'10" (somewhere around like 177.80cm) and a lesbian. she uses she/her pronouns but is fine with being called a guy or people using he/him for her as long as she know they believe her when she says shes a woman (like they dont mean it in a transphobic way). she has a deep voice and a german accent i havent really got much of the worldbuilding down yet but i do have most of her personality down. also her story takes place in some vague year between 2000 and now

shes kinda a huge loser like in the sense that she spends most of her time just sorta sitting around at home drinking beer and smoking while listening to industrial and hardcore and metal and shit (shes almost definitely depressed but im yet to explore that side of her lmao). she drinks and drives, shes incredibly wreckless. she kinda doesnt care that much about others but more in a way where shes just kinda always in her own head only thinking about herself and what she wants but when it comes to the people close to her shes incredibly protective like a guard dog. she acts like kinda a silly idiot around her loved ones but as soon as someone even looks at any of them wrong, shes fully ready to kill them. she clings onto her friends and stuff like theyre the last thing she has left. less in a desperate kinda codependent way and more in a "i could not live without you i will protect you with all i have trust me please stick around and keep me in your life i will make my existence worth your while" kind of way

shes a wannabe badass but also just is a badass. like she acts all cold and stoic but laid back, i guess in a way trying to seem all mysterious and cool but mostly just comes off like a bit of a jackass (cause she kinda is a bit of a jackass but she means well. sometimes.) i havent got to this part of the worldbuilding so i dont have an explanation for why she is this way but im planning that theres something she has to fight against or something like that. i have a bit of a vague idea of what i want but no specifics but she has a side to her where like shes actually kinda badass. she wears a wolf mask and carries around this baseball bat which the tip is like covered in nails and shit. im planning she gets covered in blood often because women covered in blood is awesome. im planning a theme with the group of characters she hangs out with where they all wear some kind of animal mask and each have their own weapon which like reflects their personality and whatnot

she works in a fast food restaurant which i feel like explains a lot about her

she mostly wears the mask to hide her identity but also to just hide her face in general. shes not insecure about how she looks but more just worried about what other people think of her. shes on hrt but she wants to keep her body hair cause she likes her body hair which includes her facial hair though she does regularly shave it cause she knows it gets her misgendered. she also wears a spiked collar and sometimes a leash (if shes not wearing a leash shes wearing some kind of bondage harness thing) both to continue the whole wolf dog thing shes got going on and also for sexual reasons of course

she has a romance thing going on with another oc of mine called blair (the name is a placeholder im so bad at picking names). blairs tiger/big cat coded shes more of the happy-go-lucky chaotic type. sophia goes incredibly soft for her like the whole trying to be a stoic badass thing completely drops around her she would sacrifice herself in a heartbeat if it meant blair was kept alive and safe which worries the fuck out of blair cause half the time she does not need to sacrifice herself but she puts herself in danger for blair often times for no reason cause she believes its what she needs to do to keep her safe. like her life is meaningless without blair so she'd rather be the one to die than live without blair. which like yeah theres a flaw in her logic cause like if she dies shes still without blair and now blairs sad but yknow. maybe she'll figure that out someday not sure tho shes a little stupid

idk what else to write so ill just add little tiny things i added to her for fun her favourite movie is evil dead 2 (this is me projecting onto her), she moans when she pees, she would give everything to be a werewolf, she had her drivers license taken from her she still drives tho. she shouldnt but she does, she hates beer but drinks it anyways. i think she doesnt know theres other kinds of alcohol. no idea how she doesnt know maybe she just hates herself and wants to drink shit that tastes bad for fun,

shes all i have left im going crazy

i also have a playlist for her if anyone besides me cares i care so fucking deeply. also my tag for her i feel also illustrates her personality well

media roundup jan 2024

hey whats up!!! its me again!!! happy valentines day :3 finally caught up to patch. and by patch i mean "talking about things that i remember reading." finally got around to reading/playing a bunch of things that were really hyped up!! that ive been really looking forward to :3 yippee also, one of my new years resolutions was to play all of umineko? which according to most people ive seen, does in fact take An Entire Year due to being 1. fully voice acted 2. a little over 1 million words. so uh, please look forward to that.

books:

camp damascus by chuck tingle: horror ya. a girl on the cusp of adulthood belongs to a strict and isolated christian sect, living in the town with the us' most famous conversion camp. things get weird quickly.um ok i was really hyped about this! its the first chuck tingle thing that ive actually read (lol) but ive been following his stuff for a while. its an interesting look into what its like to be uh, really christian and also (SPOILERS) gay, but the whole time i was like man i wish i was playing [we know the devil]. which is a really good game please play wktd :3 there were some really cool and chilling body horror parts!! which i liked a lot!! but overall it was more inspiring (?) than scary, which wasnt really what i was looking for personally

the way spring arrives and other stories: translated chinese scifi/fantasy anthology, written and translated by a team of women + nb writers. really solid!!! took me a while to get through, but theres such a wonderful variety of stories here--some are creepy, some are heartwarming, some are silly, some are elegant. i particularly enjoyed some of the essays about translation itself, as well as the titular stories and A Brief History of Beinakan Disasters as Told in a Sinitic Language. definitely check it out!!

spark joy by marie kondo: an appendix of sorts to marie kondos super big book the life changing magic of tidying up, with a couple more practical tips and some anecdotes. ok to get kinda personal, konmari stuff appeals to me bc i grew up surrounded by detritus. from where i sit in my childhood bedroom, i can see a stack of floppy disks, old checkbooks, and a copy of The Lost Treasures of Infocom--a game from 1991. almost none of it is ever touched. so the idea of having a space full of only joyful things is really appealing.. honestly i think the best bit of advice from the book was that if you have things that are necessary but dont necessarily elicit joy (eg screwdrivers, coffee makers, whatever) that you try and take a bit to appreciate/praise those items and what they do for you? and they may become more beloved :3 anyways probably not worth reading unless youre already into the whole konmari thing

ninefox gambit by yoon ha lee: space opera. kel cheris, a freshly promoted general, has been sent to suppress a rebellion lodged in a fortress. but her greatest enemy is also her greatest asset: the implanted consciousness of the prodigy traitor-general, shuos jedao. famous for winning impossible battles--and infamous for killing his entire fleet. its kind of in a trio of "lesbian sff about empires and stuff" with machineries of empire and traitor baru cormorant. well for one i really liked it. i do have a lot of hours in um games like civ 5 and starcraft but i usually dont like Reading books about military stuff. this is obstacle number 1. obstacle number 2 is that ninefox gambit has some really intricate worldbuilding, and unlike some other lesbian bodysharing scifi novels out there, our protagonist is not a newcomer. you dont get the assist of getting to learn about the world as the same time as her. but the thing is that ninefox gambit makes you Want to pick apart everything thats going on and get into it, and once you have a good idea of all the factions and stereotypes and tensions, etc it feels really rewarding :3 and the world is grounded in how you get to see what feels like every single level of this one infiltration/siege, from the general at the top to the infantry at the bottom even to the servant robots who clean! yay robots :3 when youre jumping to someone completely different, doing something totally unrelated, its pretty easy for that to be… super jarring? (hi sanderson) but it was not that <3 although it took a bit for me to get it, i also liked the intermittent correspondence that we get to see from the enemy side as well. how humanizing! it also balances a large cast of characters very well. characters with bit parts still feel memorable to the extent they need to be? idk how to say that correctly. obviously between cheris and jedao, jedao has the upper hand conversationally pretty much always but they have a good dynamic and its cool to see her strengths come through in other ways i think one of its strengths/weaknesses is that its very focused on this One siege in One point in time. i would love to hear about the anden in the sequels for example. also like does everyone have to be in a section or are there real (non conquered) civilians. how do yall grow food. also yeah sorry democracy beign the ultimate heresy made me laugh ninefox gambit is kind of a tricky read; its probably not a good idea to try reading without a stretch of uninterrupted time + brain energy but i liked it 👍 i thought it was good 👍

raven strategem by yoon ha lee: sequel to ninefox gambit! yoon ha lees ability to balance lots of different povs works really well for this book :3 it really ratchets up the tension! i also really liked seeing all of the exotics lol (magic wepaons that do crazy stuff). unfortunately the tension didnt pay off in a way that was really satisfying to me personally, however.. it didnt really help that i didnt like one of the main pov characters (brezan.) the first book is still worth reading though as a standalone!

comics/manga:

mitsuya sensei no keikakuteiki na edzuke: m/m series about a cooking writer (older man) and his editor. ok i talked about this last time but im a big fan of romance with older people in it. the baggage comes preattached!! also the protag in this kinda looks really similar to shinji from kamen rider ryuki?? has some Extremely Delicious looking food art, as well as some really nice like. food + desire + eroticism type thing going on. (i started reading it bc tumblr user stella obstinaterixatrix was talking about it as an example of non explicit eroticism!) yay i love food manga :]

sonna me de mitekure: aka look at me with those eyes. m/m romcom that parodies a lot of common BL tropes (overbearing prince of the school falls in love with some rando!) but also has a lot of heart :3 definitely only worth reading if youre like. already sort of in the soup of romance manga though lol

ouji-chan no sukina hito: suuuper cute f/f oneshot about baby prince idolization

catch you catch me: another cute f/f oneshot :3

botticelli drawings exhibit: ok i just thought this was neat. it was an exhibit about some of the preliminary sketches that were made for some of botticellis famous pieces (he was a famous painter during the florentine renaissance in italy) i like how you got to learn more about how the Workshop Style worked like how a lot of paintings were actually made by lots and lots of apprentices.. also how botticelli apparently got really into this one super duper intense monk type guy and started making some kinda weird shit

movies/tv shows:

pokemon concierge: lighthearted family show about a stressed office lady who quits her job to work at a pokemon hotel. super cute!! very short!! you can watch it with your parents or kids or whatever its really not that deep but the stop motion was just soooo cute. slightly concerning in like idk the level of 'escapism from office culture' but you know how it is

dear ex: slice of life/drama? taiwanese movie. after his father's sudden death, song chengxi and his mother meet his fathers hidden male lover. dudee this movie is so fucking pretty and so sad. i almost cried and blew up and died. all 3 main parts of the cast are such good actors and the way it does grief and like the seamless sliding between memory and the present AUGH. so good

sousou no frieren anime: also known as frieren of the funerals! a slice of life/fantasy anime about what happens after you save the world. frieren is a long-lived elf who saved the world with her companions--but many decades afterwards, she still wanders the world the same as ever. bro this show is so freaking gorgeous and well made. it really makes me wish going outside was real. has a really nice sense of melancholy too.. its just a really solid adaptation :3

dungeon meshi/delicious in dungeon anime: cooking/slice of life/adventure anime set in a dnd-like setting that digs into a lot of fantasy worldbuilding. mainly about: can you eat the monsters!!!! i finished the manga a couple months ago so i was really hyped (and a little bit nervous) about this anime but studio trigger is doing a really good job!! its just a really good show ok please watch it

marry my dead body: straight police guy gets ghost-married to a dead man, and then is tasked with solving his murder. um ok so i watched this bc i misread neils text and thought it was by the same director as dear ex. spoilers this is very much not true lmfao its more lighthearted with a side of feelings about death and stuff. very silly! i think the gulf of expectation was so wide that i couldnt enjoy it that much.. also cops. why. some of the jokes didnt really hit for me esp the whole like ahhhh slag straight guy doesnt understand anything type thing? but its like not a bad light movie

percy jackson and the olympians: remake of the first percy jackson book. yeah this was fine i watched it with my mom while playing solitaire the whole time. the actors are very charming and the show is solid, but i think it really deserved to be like. a 20-episode series with 20 minute episodes, or something like that. like its oestensibly for kids but its Really trying to make that nostalgia cash grab so it exists in a slightly uncomfortable middle (writing is very basic and friendship-y which isnt necessarily bad but its not like That Deep, but also who is making a kids show 40 MINUTES LONG). anyways i think a longer pacing like that would have given more time for filler and replicating the road-trippy vibe that the original books had. its still solid though!

games:

umineko episode 1: its the classic murder mystery setup: a wealthy man on his deathbed still hasnt resolved the issue of his inheritance. he, his hateful children, and their own children are cut off from the world on a remote island. but the man still has unsettled debts….and something is deeply wrong on the island of rokkenjima 🤯ok umineko is infamous for 1. having fans who wont shut up about it 2. something something metatextual? 3. a very high bar for entry, featuring near-required modding, several hours of expository setup, and the fact that. well. its a visual novel. that aside, i enjoyed the first episode way more than i thought i would :3 the uroshimiya family is so rich and alive and shitty it felt like i was watching succession again lmfao. battler is a very endearing (if slightly stupid) main character, and there are some really strong characters laid down that make you excited to get into All That in the future. plus, once i got to the murder part it was genuinely so hair-raising? theres some phenomenal voice acting.. the scene with maria was so memorable i thought i was going to dream about it. also i loooove beatrice <3 anyways i would recommend but its not for the faint of heart. 99% of umineko-ers stop reading right before the love lets them see it, and so on.

off game: wow im so happy to have finally beat off. i mean. hey whats up. off is a weird, abstract game about a 4th-wall breaking "Batter" whos self proclaimed goal is to purify the world. its often viewed as a spiritual predecessor to games like undertale :3 …actually, i played off a long time ago and then got stuck/intimidated by the very last set of puzzles so i Just Now gave up on actually finishing and just watched a letsplay lol. honestly one thing that ive figured out over time is that actually?? im really not that much of a fan of pokemon-style rpgs like this 0_0 i mean, the gameplay is just. not that fun? and the typical random encounter type thing is just not that nice. i think this is something that a lot of jrpgs/rpgs have figured out recently, but off is an older game without those QOL improvements lol. (also random encounter is easier to code probably) anyways!! the writing in off is so compelling…its so weird in a way that invites you to pick apart that weirdness, but also makes you feel like some mysteries might remain unresolved forever. its a video game that actually Has Writing In It. its one of those (free!) indie classics thats definitely worth checking out. also i love drawing the judge and valerie. weird cats for the win ok now im just going to talk about my theories about the game. so we know that the only real humans in the world are sugar, zacharie and the baby. however, the queen and the batter are parental figures for the baby. the wardens of each of the levels were created for the baby as it (in the absence of its parents?) longed for companionship, but they warped over time. whats healthy becomes sick and whats sickening becomes necessary etc. possibly mimicking how the baby, sick and alone in the hospital, also warped over time? becoming warped caricaturizes the babys creations and makes them cruel and so the batter becomes the ultimate heroic figure, who purges whats evil and rotten. but if it lives where i live then i guess the whole world has to go?? well idk

music:

take my hand by zerobaseone: ok whenever i listen to this imlike this is one of gods perfect songs. the production is like chefs kiss and theres just some really beautiful sounds in here? its so warmly dreamy and delicate feeling.. just like first loves… or whatever lmfao the fluttering hook-y thing at the beginning is just too good i ended up looking up a bunch of the producers. also big pop is nice bc you can tell they mixed it so it sounds good in a car OR in headphones lmfao

1,000,000 by nine inch nails: i forgot what genre nin is supposed to be ok this song came up when i was playing hifi rush (rhythm based action game!! so cool so stylish) and me and neil were like NINE INCH NAILS?! it was like that one comic you know. anyways i like this song its very adrenaline feeling. i looked up the real lyrics recently but to ME its about trying to escape emptiness thru adrenaline and danger and sex and stuff :P not that i do that but its still a fun song!! yippee

dark red by steve lacy: ok i found this song bc of a tumblr post i did not know he was the "i wish i knew" guy lmfao. honestly if people only knew like a 5 second songbite from my works id be so mad. but anyways its progressive rnb apparently? i just like this song :3 when you are kind of pathetic but basically chill with it but what if.

anyways if youre reading this: hi!!! ive been spending a lot of time recently doing the hard fisher quests in final fantasy 14. guys never do beast of brewers beacon ok the school year is just starting up but having to wake up early is kind of doing a number on me…… other than that i actually totally have my shit together! yay :3 if you read to the end (or even skimmed) thanks <3

Imaginary Review

I'm starting to get suspicious of movies we don't get any marketing for. Imaginary, say it with me now, got absolutely no trailers or posters before it came to theaters. When I saw it on the coming soon whiteboard at work I thought someone had misremembered the title of IF, the John Krasinski movie that is also about imaginary friends, but nope. This is a horror movie from Blumhouse. (IF comes out in May.) All I knew going in is that it has been getting trashed by reviews. But the premise seems interesting, maybe I'll like it despite what other say?

What's The Movie About?

Jessica is a children's book author who moves her new family into her childhood home. When her stepdaughter makes an imaginary friend, the family deals with some spooky shenanigans while trying to navigate past trauma and moving forward together.

What I Like.

I really like Jessica and the little girl Alice. I think making the main character of a movie about imaginary friends a children's book author is genius. And Alice is very cute and never got cloying. He's not in it much, but the dad in the movie was also pretty nice and sensible, which was a good change of pace. When eventually we get to see some creature designs, I thought they looked pretty freaky and the effects were good. There's a land of imagination that I also liked the look of. The monster also had a power where it could project the collective imaginations of all children through its eyes, and adult brains can't handle the strain of looking into them. That's really fucking cool idea. It's like unrestrained children's imagination is a Lovecraftian entity. The plot as a whole I rather enjoyed. There is themes of parenthood and protecting the innocent even if that means sacrificing yourself, and the moments when they touch on darker topics like self-mutilation are pretty unsettling. I also really like that Jess is the kids' stepmother and she actually loves them and is willing to put her life on the line for them, even though they don't always appreciate her efforts. I've heard this movie described as cliched, and while that is true, I also feel like they do some interesting twists on those cliches and I enjoyed it. There also quite a few plot twists that did take me a minute to fully appreciate, but I came around on them. The few moments of humor I thought were pretty good too. I liked the worldbuilding and how the imaginary friend operates, but admittedly that may be because it reminded me of two TTRPGs I think are cool. (Monsters and Other Childish Things and Little Fears, if you are interested in checking them out.)

What I Didn't Like.

I only have two substantive issues with the movie. One, while I liked the designs of the monster and the imaginary world, it felt constrained. Like if I told you a form the monster takes is of a spider-humanoid, the first thing you think of is probably exactly what it looks like. There's nothing too crazy in terms of the supernatural aspect of the movie, brain-melting imagination projection aside. (And that being said they don't really show any of the brain-melting stuff. It's just the monster projecting swirly lights from its eyes.) Two, I really fucking hate Taylor. She is the elder step-daughter and basically the secondary main character, but she a rude bitch to Jess the entire movie, causes a bunch of problems, and even when eventually getting on the same page as everyone else she's still sarcastic and barely helpful. At least the douchebag boy next door she flirts with ended up being so pathetic it was funny.

Final Summation.

I did like Imaginary despite the poor reviews! Maybe it's just something that appeals to me personally (I like kids and monsters together for some reason), but I was ruminating on why I liked it when no one else seemed to. I have two theories.

One, while I think Imaginary is a good movie, I don't think it's a good horror movie. It's not that scary. Shocking, I know, the movie with a stuffed teddy bear as the main antagonist is not the horror masterpiece we were all expecting. It wasn't as scare-less as Night Swim, but it's definitely not gonna be keeping me up at night. I can totally understand why someone walking into a Blumhouse would be annoyed that they aren't getting nightmares from it.

Two, I think maybe people misinterpreted what the movie was trying to be. Imaginary is not a serious movie. It does touch on some darker subject matter, but it still airs a bit on the fairytale storytelling method. The main villain, besides angry imaginary friends, is not trusting the adult. It isn't the most complex moral situation in the world but I don't think it was trying to be. I also think some of the goofier parts were intentional. The only death in the movie made me laugh, but it could have used one more comedy beat to make it completely clear I was supposed to be laughing. Honestly, maybe that's the best direction for a PG-13 horror movie to go. If you're already limiting how dark you can be by not allowing certain imagery, it might be best to just shoot for a lighter tone all together. I didn't watch it, but that what it seems like the Five Nights At Freddy's movie did. (Interestingly, the other movie title dropped on the poster is M3GAN, and the only thing I know about that movie is that the robot danced in a silly way. Maybe the filmmakers were trying tell everyone what kind of movie they were making and no one paid attention.)

In conclusion, give Imaginary a chance. Maybe you won't set your world on fire, but I had a good time.

hey! hope you're doing good! if you don't mind me asking, what made you want to start the voltron rewrite?

I absolutely don't mind u asking!!!!!! will always ramble abt shit here on scattered winter dot com

its....kind of a long story. see I was caught up in the voltron hype a few years ago, and was obsessed with it from day one. I feel fairly confident in saying that it was my first fandom-related hyperfixation that lasted for quite a long period of time. I had mutuals and friends, and wrote fic and generally just participated in fandom and had a BLAST despite the source material being. less than stellar. but well the voltron fandom is notorious for being absolutely batshit (derogatory) and eventually the negativity from the fandom kind of drove me out (it was also just bitterness and anger on my part from the way the show ended because man.) but regardless the voltron hyperfixation went dormant for a really long time as I moved onto other things. but the concept kinda stayed with me (because let's be real its an AWESOME concept with sooo much cool worldbuilding potential that was never tapped into) and I played with the idea of an all-oc cast with my own story as the years went by, but never really went farther than daydreaming and making picrews lmao. but in the last few months the voltron hyperfixation has been flaring up as I've started rereading some of my fav fics and remembering why I liked this show in the first place, negativity and disappointment aside. and voltron is the perfect combination of worldbuilding potential, fascinating characters, and stupid fucking ass writing decisions that fuel me with enough spite to just write my own version. I've played with the idea of a voltron rewrite for a long time as I've thought about the characters more and what I would have done with them and the worldbuilding if I were in charge, but I didn't really actually start thinking about it seriously until I started rewatching the first season and remembered all the REALLY cool stuff it had. so long story short, now that most of the negative people have left the fandom, and now that I've had time to be in a better mindset abt the show, I'm doing this rewrite both because I'm frustrated by the dumb directions the source material went, and because I genuinely love the source material. at least, the core of it. AND as a bonus I'm genuinely having sooo much fun thinking about and planning the rewrite !!!! every single character got absolutely butchered after s2 and I want sooo badly to do them justice, because I love them all so much and they're all really close to my heart and I'm literally just having the time of my life out here <3 I don't even really mind that the fandom is practically dead nowadays and so my rewrite probably won't get that much attention because 1) I have soo many friends and bestiemutuals enabling me and cheering me on 2) I'm GENUINELY having so much fun. like it's been sooooo long since I've been this motivated and inspired and excited for a writing project and it's an amazing feeling to have

you know…. I wouldn’t mind if you talked about Zipp in your rewrite idea that you mentioned 👉👈

...You will live to regret what you have just unleashed. Not only are you asking about terrible built up brainrot, you are also asking about my second favourite in the rewrite.

(P.S I am working off the movie and Make Your Mark here since my little sister refuses to watch Tell Your Tale and doesn't know about the comics and can barely even read, and I only watch MLP with her)

Anyways, LONG ANSWER INCOMING.

Before beginning with Zipp, I need to fix up some wordbuilding so bear with me!!

I won't go into full detail because that needs its own post but I will go basic overview of Maretime Bay, Zephyr Heights and Bridlewood.

So, in the movie Izzy mentions how unicorns thought all Earth Ponies were dumb asf. And we also saw Canterlogic tech to counter that.

Well, in my rewrite, earth ponies (being extremely paranoid about unicorns and pegasi and having no magic ever) advanced themselves and made a lot of technology basically to combat them. Eventually, the became the most advanced of the ponykinds, and they are the only place with WiFi and stuff (if I am forced to keep it).

For Bridlewood, I will lean HEAVILY into the superstitious stuff. I imagine unicorns will fall into stories about magic being evil and start living with nature and not really advance much due to the amount of fear generated by them losing the main thing that helped them everyday.

Now: Zephyr Heights. I don't like that it is in the clouds. I barely remember G4 (I was a little kid when it came out and I won't rewatch it). However, I remember vaguely that pegasi had a special type of magic that allowed them to walk on clouds and live on them.

Since G5 is a direct sequel where they have no magic- that literally wouldn't make any sense. Instead, they will live on the mountain in the movie and somewhat adapt to it.

And for how it is I want it to be a 70s and early 2000s mashup, because I think that would be cool (seriously no other reason sometimes you gotta pick aesthetics over logic, that or lean heavy into medieval royalty shit. nothing is set completely in stone with the worldbuilding)

Still sorta figuring out how the "only royals can fly" lie stuff will work out but whatever.

Anyway, ZEPHYRINA!! I love her omg.

-> Her Role as A Princess:

Definitely hates it. Not to borrow too much from Dash, but she is definitely a free spirit. Unlike her mother and sister, she doesn't like the spotlight and doesn't make many public appearancs, so the kingdom views her as a mysterious enigma, and she is the subject of MANY conspiracy theories (which are amped up to 1000 after their lie is exposed and the whole thing about working with other ponykinds to restore magic comes up).

She definitely reads all the conspiracies about her, out of pure curiosity and to see how accurate they are.

I sadly don't have this part fully fleshed out as I am conflicted between having her family permanently dethroned or not (on one hand, great drama. On the other, it wouldn't feel right not having Pipp as a princess) so moving on-

-> Detective Zipp Storm! (Also bit of backstory)

I am so excited to talk about this!! (I am an Ace attorney, Danganronpa, Detective Conan and Ahmed Khalid Tawfik fan, of course I am excited abt mystery)

[Pre-Make Your Mark/Movie]:

You know how Izzy got Sunny's lantern and that's why she went to Maretime Bay? Well, why the fuck doesn't Zipp get one too?

Basically, after Izzy recieves the lantern, she is beyond excited to have new pony friends! So, she makes her own lantern with its own letter and sends it off.

Only this letter reaches Zipp, who was sneaking out of the palace trying to practice a way to fly.

And that one letter leaves Zipp confused. She was sheltered her whole life thinking unicorns and earth ponies were evil and wanted to kill the pegasi and she was skeptical of the letter, even as a child.

She hid it away and would reread it every once in a while, thinking over the message inside about how she had friends in Bridlewood. She was sheltered and kept inside the Palace almost her whole life, she didn't really have any friends. The letter made her feel less lonely, somehow.

That tapped into her ever-growing curiosity and she wanted to research more about unicorns.

So Zipp would spend hours in the Royal library (which will definitely be bigger in my rewrite) digging up old books on Equestria before losing magic (since most newer ones were about her pegasi ancestors exclusively). Her main objectives were to find out more about the other ponykinds and to find a way to restore the pegasi's ability to fly and return to living on the clouds.

She would also stare at old murals and statues at stuff, analysing the shit out of them.

That's why she wouldn't be very scared of Sunny and Izzy when they wind up in Zephyr Heights (I am planning to keep the movie's general plot similar).

I wanna avoid spoiling too much of the movie and the series' plots and we're moving to "still unsure of this/planning" territory.

So we're gonna do this part with bullet points

Zipp definitely gets a design shift between the movie and make your mark. I am still planning out both of the designs (mainly as gijnkas cuz I can't draw horses)

Zipp and Misty's relationship will probably be the most fleshed out. They had so much potential. Zipp starts out being skeptical, starts trusting Misty a bit after realizing she's just awkward, they have a few heart-to-hearts, they become really close, then BAM! The reveal happens and Zipp is just feels absolutely betrayed and stupid and maybe cries a bit. And afterwards they start repairing their relationship bit by bit, but it takes a while since Zipp isn't really willing to go back to being close friends again.

I want Zipp to develop a stronger friendship with Sunny and Izzy, since they were both technically the reason she started breaking away from the prejudice against other ponies ingrained into her as a kid and made her feel less lonely. Zipp and Sunny could easily bond over research about Twilight and the old Mane Six and cross reference eachother.

For Zipp and Izzy, I imagine that Zipp would generally be very stressed all the time, and Izzy would always try to get her to relax a bit (and maybe get her to do craft projects with her). They just kinda hang out, yknow? Idk I just want more platonic fluff.

Pipp and Zipp's relationship- well, you'll see once I start posting about it 😈

Hitch and Zipp will probably have the same relationship in the show and movie, I can't really find any way to improve it, honest.

Anyways, I am so sorry this took so long to answer, nd sorry if the answer isn't satisfying I've just been very busy.

Hopefully I will get to talk more about it soon <3

@cringelordofchaos

Hey Frank, a quick question for you. I'm making a fantasy world and I've been turning some ideas for fantasy cultures over in my head to add to it. Naturally I want to make my world and its cultures unique, but I but I've not settled on any particular ideas yet on what cultures to put in my world. What do you think we need to see more of in fantasy or science fiction?

Hey there, undeadcorvid!

For a long time I have thought that one thing we need to see more of is "magic." The world needs to be full of stuff that isn't magic, stuff that's real, science-y. "We've got a wizard and she works with magic but not only that she has magic powers and she is a wizard." No, that would be weird.

Also, some more things I thought were cool:

Anthro animals (cf. this, this)

Dinosaurs (this)

Space travel and aliens (this)

Coral reefs (this)

Anthropomorphic animals (cf. this)

Anthropomorphic robots (cf. this)

Robot detectives (this; cf. this)

I'm pretty sure I could think of more, too -- I'm just trying to give you the examples that came to mind. You're probably going to hear more about these things as I go. I'll tag posts about them with "#worldbuilding" to help people who don't follow me read them, too. (Also, for convenience in keeping track of them, I've put all the posts in my Worldbuilding tag.)

"Science fiction" is a weird label here -- "science fiction" was used by people to refer specifically to stories that take place on other worlds. The word's meaning has shifted over time, but if you really want to include some non-earth stuff in your story, don't call it science fiction (though you certainly can, if you're not referring specifically to the Earth in your story).

The problem with non-earth stories is that the reader will expect some familiarity with the non-earth elements. We have read all about our Earth's animals and places, we've seen their pictures in our books. We expect that the things we read will, in some general way, be similar to the Earth. So if we are reading about a giant squid, for example, we expect that its anatomy would be roughly similar to what we see in a picture of a squid or a cephalopod: tentacles, body plan, etc. We expect that it would have a mouth, because that's typical of an animal with the same general anatomy.

The way this works is pretty simple. The more different we expect the planet to be from the Earth, the less likely we are to accept some of the most familiar "facts." The reader would be less likely to accept that giant squids and octopi look roughly like they do -- that is, we think of squid and octopus, not giant squid and giant octopus. This happens all over the place. At its most extreme, it would be quite hard to accept the idea of dinosaurs as long as we had never seen a picture of one, or had only seen pictures with very low resolution. But it's not only that. If I were trying to write an alien planet with a biosphere very different from the Earth, even a distant one, I might make a big deal out of the fact that the continents were reversed on the planet. I wouldn't, say, write that the oceans were in the middle and the continents on the outside. I would write that the oceans were on the outside and the continents at the middle, because this would be much less familiar. The "surface" of the planet would be totally alien to us. We could think of it in the same way that we think of the surface of the sun in our minds: a huge, complex, dynamic thing that we would need to learn about in order to get a handle on the system, but not something we're immediately familiar with in our everyday lives.

So, we're not sure we can accept a planet in our story that is fundamentally different from the Earth in some way that goes beyond "some non-earth stuff" -- that is, we'd expect the non-earth stuff to look like it does on Earth, because we'd have seen the pictures and the drawings that made us expect that sort of thing. (On the other hand, it is hard to picture a planet with no pictures. So maybe we have a non-earth planet in our story? But I'm not sure what to do if the worldbuilding does not suggest any pictures.)

Anyway, here are some other things I want to see more of:

People with unusual senses and/or other unusual faculties (cf. this)

Coral reefs (again)

Space travel and aliens, especially if it's not a planet

Dinosaurs

Hey! I am the anon who ask for an alternative for "grisha", and, as someone who don't know Russian culture or language, I want to ask your opinion on what I thought.

What do you think of "bditel'nyy" (which should mean awake, vigilant, according to an English-Russian dictionary I found online, but this could be wrong) as a substitute, at least as a formal title, for "grisha"? I was inspired by the "egregore", especially Frater Tenebris' definition: "[…] an occult term for an independently functioning spiritual entity created by one or more magick practitioners. Many egregores begin as thought-forms but then become capable of operating independently of the practitioners", with "thought-form" being "an esoteric entity created by magick […] or from worship and prayer by generations of believers". The definitions of Gaetan Delaforge and René Guénon respectively also seem interesting in this sense: "egregore" is "a kind of group mind which is created when people consciously come together for a common purpose", "possessing a subtle force made up in a way of the contributions of all its members past and present, and which is consequently all the more considerable and able to produce greater effects as the collectivity is older and is composed of a greater number of members".

In other words, it would be related to: 1) an elite spiritual group, who maintain traditions and are vigilant; 2) a group mind; and 3) an independent magical being arising from the collective mind.

PS.: Thank you for answering my first question! And, by any chance, do you think it's offensive to take a Western concept for a group that is part of a country inspired by Russia?

ah my apologies! I took your previous ask to mean a canonical replacement for grisha instead of a fictional exercise in creativity.

if you're searching for answers about russian culture and language, I'd recommend asking the slavic members of this community, of which there are actually many. I believe @stromuprisahat could help you out, if not with your question then just to recc others with more knowledge on the subject.

bditel'nyy is actually fun! and I'm sure there are many russian words or phrases you could use in your writing to replace the word grisha, especially if you came up with the lore for why the phrase exists and where it does and how it's dispersed throughout the world/who uses it/how it affects grisha culture and all of that other worldbuilding stuff which is incredibly fun. so I say go for ideas like that! it's cool and interesting.

I'm going to give a bit of a neutral reaction to frater tenebris and the term egregore in general, however. again, I'm by no means an expert on the subject, but I think you should be wary of how you incorporate what seems to be american centric paganism into a tsarist russia built on what appears to be a mixture of slavic paganism and the russian orthodoxy. while I think the meaning of the term itself could be fun to play around with, I'd give it some thought and maybe ask around more. I'm also not partial to the "elite spiritual group mind" aspect of it, personally, but a name doesn't have to be logical or strictly defining of its members, so that's really one of my own hang ups lol. you could have real fun creatively with that if you used it right.

I love this creative peek into sab lore too! it's neat to explore rewriting it, considering the canonical lore is so lacking, and even sankt grigori is a shallow excuse for worldbuilding when it comes to the true naming of a whole people, imo. there are so many aspects of the grishaverse that could be built on lore wise in much more rich and complex ways.

and you're welcome! I'm glad I got to answer your first question, even if I maybe didn't get your point 😭

last note: I do think it's probably not a great idea to use a western concept for a group of people within a country inspired by russia. but at the same time, the grisha themselves take heavy inspiration from western jewish persecution and ghettoization. so in general, I'd be careful of both russian culture and your interpretations of the grisha and how they're named/treated in your world.

anyways, good luck on whatever you're working on! let me know if you have any more questions!

5 Pieces of Fiction that Influenced You as a Writer and Why?

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin Really, anything written by Jemisin, but particularly this book because its plot sort of resembles Hetalia -- avatars of lands (major cities and boroughs in this case) who develop immortality and coming together in a war. However, there is just soooo much going into this story, like an alien creature who uses white supremacy and gentrification to try to defeat the heroes, awesome superpowers, and tiny elements of hip-hop sprinkled in. Overall, there's this magical realism to this story and a lot of Jemisin's works because of her incredible worldbuilding.

Bojack Horseman Yeah, this show fucked me up, so much so that I'm almost too afraid to give it a rewatch despite really wanting to. It's such a silly premise -- a (literal) one-trick pony becomes a miserable has-been celebrity drowning in booze -- but somewhere along the way, the writers thought, "This show could be so much more" and never looked back. It went from funny horse puns, slapstick comedy, and really uncomfortable bestiality scenes (does it count if the animals are anthropomorphized?) to realistic and even controversial topics like the heartbreak of being infertile, of the public opinion about abortions, and living with depression and other mental illnesses. Then the show dove even darker: generational trauma, the results of untreated disorders, childhood sexual abuse, and drug overdoses.

(So many people failed Sarah Lynn for her entire life! So. Many. People!! And I don't care that they're fictional, I will never forgive any of them!!)

God, did this show hurt, but it showed that people's tics and flaws came from somewhere, and it made me ask myself: so, what made Peter tic? Before this blog's remake, Peter was just a weirdo guy who got into bad moods and wasn't the type of muse to jump into bed with anyone. At first, it was just funny, having this sex-shy but foul-mouthed guy, but then I realized that this had to have come from somewhere. So, I had to look at some of the canon stuff with a new eye, seeing how would being semi-abandoned in a fort miles away from land for most of his childhood affect him as an adult. Why would a person who grew up in a religious setting choose to not only turn away from religion, but hate religion as a concept vehemently? What are the things that happened in the decades that Peter grew up in that broke him and shaped his worldview? The show made me think: which parts of Peter are his eccentric self, and which parts are a cry for help?

Most of all, this show raised the question: what are you going to do about that? Some people delve deeper into addictions, some give up, some find healthier ways to move on from the hurt and start their lives over.

The Invisibles by Grant Morrison It's more like bits and pieces of this series had influenced my writing, rather than the whole story. I mainly borrowed from Lord Fanny (her unabashed love for wild styles and femininity) and Jack Frost (wild child with a love of hip-hop and many other American-centric media). But mostly from Jack Frost, because I love the idea that Peter, who is this personification of rebellion, an underdog, would absolutely love the most counterculture thing in Western society: anti-government, anti-white supremacy rap that makes the upper echelons clutch their pearls. This music that speaks of The Struggle that punk rock simply can't (which, I imagine, is why Jack Frost, a "chav" street punk from a fatherless home who is introduced to readers while he's being arrested and charged, is drawn to the likes of N.W.A).

There's also the fact that, in some way, this series "gave" me permission to go absolutely bonkers with my writing as I want to or see fit. If a guy can write a story about a government/church/alien conspiracy villains poisoning the globe, and the too-cool-for-school counterculture freedom fighters, which includes a genderqueer witch and the reincarnation of Buddha, fighting them, why can't I write something just as off-the-walls wild?

Dessa's discography I'm cheating by saying that, technically, there are stories being told in Dessa's songs. Some of the songs are based on her real life, like "Call Off Your Ghost" and "The Lamb", and others seem to be fictional, like "No Talking Business" and "Sound the Bells". But no matter what, I always come back to her songs when I need inspiration or emotional fuel while writing. Honestly, Dessa's songs had partly inspired The MizFists arc, because I wanted to know what happens if Peter stops self-destructing and uses his love of hip-hop for good? Apparently, a lot happens.

Hetalia by Hidekaz Himaruya At first, I had debated adding this onto the list at all; sure, it's the canon source for the very blog's existence, and one of the reasons I had made an adult!Sealand muse was because I was fascinated by all the potential there could be from the snippets of aged up Sealand Himaruya gave us, but a lot of the time, I feel like my character's deviated from his canon characterization (both his normal age and the bits of his adult portrayal) so much that sometimes, he feels like a whole new character. I had still added it because sometimes, I still draw from the canon to write him as I do now. His canon love for Broadway is why my muse is a performer; his canonical strength of steel is why Peter is able to "tether" to his fort and draw power from it for himself and his daughter. And the way Arthur keeps turning him away and "shooting him down" in canon is why my muse had decided to completely step away from the Kirkland family and lean into the Nordic family even more.

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tagging: @paralianprince @cryingyetcourageous @the-expatriate

ello

i have a question actually if ya dont mind, how do you go about writing? just like in general, do you start before having a WIP intro, how soon do you start talking abt it/writing it, how much do you prep, literally all and any advice would be appreciated tysm <3

Hey, buddy!

I'm gonna preface this with the usual disclaimer of "what works for me might not work for you because human brains are squishy and cool" and all that good stuff. Pick and choose or completely disregard, as with all writing-related stuff, the choice is yours!

This is long, so hold onto your boots and here we go.

The concept stage is normally pretty straightforward for me. I'll be trying to take notes in class, at work, whatever, and my brain'll wander off and go "okay, but--but what about a giant pack-moose?" and bam, off I go (re. Prince for Hire). In this stage I'll normally develop the main character(s) or the situation/setting--whichever the stray thought fairy didn't grant. That'll usually take the form of scribbling out a few characters' names to get a sense of the time period/language-base (Kiris was the first character, but Iiriok Nelovskevouk of Dargoulvga was the first named character, and his name accordingly set my naming practices for the Novgor Plateau). If I had a character first, I'll come up with a setting/situation I think would challenge them. Once I have an idea of a character and situation (and realize, when I say "idea," it really might just be a name) I'll scribble out a page with that person/setting. So, for Prince for Hire, that makes the first scene I ever wrote for it Kiris escaping in a queen's bathtub across a giant lake because the queen just discovered he was a conman. Did I keep that scene? Myeh.

Nominally from there I'll try and rough out a plot. Having spent considerable time reworking Attenuate/Reverberate because I didn't rough in a plot, this is the one step I really would recommend you consider doing. By "rough out", I mean I came up with a few vague plot points. For Prince for Hire, there are only four I'm working with: 1) Kiris enters the competition to rule the Plateau; 2) Kiris teams up with Batar and eliminates the competition; 3) Iiriok is accused of being an imposter, convinces the empress otherwise, and Kiris volunteers to help Iiriok find the imposter; 4) Iiriok wins. Not much of an outline, really. But I've found that if I try and get any more specific than this, I won't end up writing it because I'll have tricked myself into already knowing what's going to happen. That said, I absolutely recommend you choose yourself a favorite plot structure (Save the Cat, Three Act, Five Act, whatever) and keep its major scenes in the back of your head. Vaguely adhering to a structure will make drafts two and three a helluva lot easier.

Once I've got a vague direction for the plot, I'll jump in and start writing. I personally use Word with default settings, as that's what I've been writing in since elementary school. I try and start near the front of the story, not caring much about the opening chapter, because I figure it's free words and the opening chapter will change. TBH not worrying about making the opening chapter at all remotely interesting helps me make everything behind the "opening" interesting. As I start to figure out the characters, maybe doing some more worldbuilding on the side, scenes I actually want to write start rolling in. I'll divert to go write those in what's usually a separate document (like an AU). After about 10k in the original document, I'll have a pretty good idea of whether or not the story is going where I want it to go. In the case of Prince, it wasn't, so I shelved the very first attempt at it and then started adding directly to the "AU" doc with all the changes I wanted to make.

I find I write best in the mornings or the evenings, and that afternoons are slow AF unless there's something else I should be doing, in which case, we're good to go. Depending on how fascinated I am staring at the blinky cursor, I'll handwrite. Handwriting for me also works well because it takes effort for me to read my own handwriting, so there's no chance of self-editing while I'm going for it.

On the topic of self editing, for first drafts what I like to do when I know something is going to need reworking, or need a hint input before, or is missing something, or I just really want to skip to the next scene ('cause again, I prefer the linear thing when possible), I'll stick it in <<>> triangle brackets. It's easy to search. Some people I've heard use a word, like elephant. Others use square brackets. Whatever shape you like best, just the key is that you want it ctrl-f -able. Putting things in brackets makes it so editor me doesn't butt in on creative me's time. It's gotten to the point where I even do it while handwriting, as a note for when I type it up to consider dealing with it (or, again, pass it off to draft two future me. I owe future me several coffees for all my little <<triangle notes>>).

Somewhere in here I'll try and come up with a synopsis type thing. TBH these usually turn out more as query-letter type things for me, but whatever. That's what the WIP intros for Attenuate and Prince for Hire are. These I've found help guide me, and keep in aligned with the general tone of the piece. If you'd like, I'd be happy to try and wrangle up the advice I used for writing those.

If I realize I'm having some trouble wrangling the character (mostly apparent to me by the 15k mark), I'll pause, break out the notebook, and play arm-chair psychologist with them. What I'm looking to find in these sessions is a version of the classic "goal-want-need." I don't like being that structured though, so for me I go with Goal 1&2, Surface Belief 1&2, Actual Belief 1&2, and Need. At the bottom are the pages I did for Madison (Attenuate/Reverberate) and Kiris (Prince), and what that looks like in my OneNote. Their need--and the beliefs they need to overcome to get there--will give me the overarching emotional direction of the plot.

TBH I'm pretty sloppy on my worldbuilding. I usually figure it out as I write the first draft. Did I know that tea was going to be a very important, entirely truthful ritual for the princes' competitions? Nope. Not until I needed to kick the plot into gear and hit Kiris with the inciting incident, then bam, Prince Nazvili was ordering him to tea and he was freaking out because that isn't the way things are done.

Throughout this entire process, I'll also keep a running checklist of things to-do. These are things I'll usually <<note>> somewhere in the actual first draft manuscript, but which apply to the manuscript as a whole rather than that one specific section. Basically, if it's going to require a major change or continuity for longer than three paragraphs, it gets a to-do box.

Sometimes, I'll find that what I have just isn't working. That's what the "stuff I 2022" document is for! It's a hodgepodge of ctrl-x'd things from every project I've worked on this year that just weren't working in the main manuscript. Like a shipyard, I guess. All the words still exist if it turns out I want to add them back in or need to reference something, but they're basically in the recycle bin. The things added here vary in length from a sentence to a 30k segment (although the longer items generally only happen during later drafts).

Finally, the real way I keep the ball rolling? Work on it every day. Sometimes "work" will be that one miraculous 5k day. Sometimes it'll be half a word (actually though. There was one point in Reverberate where I just didn't have the mental energy to really work on it, so I tapped in the "Th" of "this" and that was it). Sometimes "work" will be coming up with characters, or figuring out worldbuilding, or dealing with some of the <<notes>>, or even just adding a comma. If it somehow progresses the WIP, it's work.

Anywho, like I said, that was long AF. I hope it helps, and never hesitate to ask questions :)

The armchair studies for Madison and Kiris. If you can read these, I salute you.

[image IDS: two graph paper pages full of scribbly handwriting. Both begin with Wants… Believes… Believes… sort of in columns. They continue, with white space, answering back and forth questions which grow increasingly personal. End id]

Hey! I read All Manner of Thing a little while back, and I was trying to think of what feedback I could offer. Feel free to take it or leave it, I'm not really a writer so I might not be analysing things correctly.

I really liked the different kinds of speech and the way that Maybe is kind of thrown into the deep end, it makes it fun to try and pick up stuff over time. And the worldbuilding is really cool. I'm so interested just by the one off mention of whatever anhedonic wolves are, haha.

One quibble I have is that the pacing feels a little inconsistent in some parts. The bit where it timeskips from the crew dealing with the union on Winnipeg to getting to the next destination and dropping off the chosen one felt a little unclear to me as well, I had to read it a couple times to figure out the order of when things were happening.

There were also a few parts where I felt like the conversations were taking place in a Nondescript Location - I feel like there's the opportunity to add a bit more interaction between the characters and the space they're in, and it'll be easier to visualize what's going on as well.

Overall, I felt like I wanted to know a bit more about the Constabulary - we kind of get hints of it from Em and Parousia's perspective, but I was curious to see how their viewpoints matched up or differed from the mainstream. Are there a lot of people who get exiled for dissent or non-conformity? How does their culture and veneration of Earth work in practice? What would life be like for the residents if they fully pacified Winnipeg? Etc. A lot of the plot focuses on their hunt for Earth, so I was curious to know more about what finding it would mean for them.

I think I feel the same way about the corporate planets - when it was mentioned that they use memories as currency, I thought that was interesting and dystopic and would lead to some really odd societies, but it never got expanded on much.

The one other note I have may just be me, but when I got to the part where they mentioned corporate wizards routinely taking/transferring memories between people, I was like "ok, Maybe has to be some kind of transferred memory from Jay combined with an alien, right" and then I was like "No! Shake him upside down till he talks!!" whenever she talked to Thrinitie after that without mentioning it, haha. This isn't really a flaw, but maybe something you can keep in mind, depending on how you want the mystery aspect of that to play out?

I hope this helps! Good luck on getting it published, I really enjoyed reading it. :]

I will absolutely take it, thank you! I got some feedback asking for more interactions with the knights, and I may combine it with yours to have a scene between Winnipeg and the union base, to hopefully make that all make a bit more sense, and give a bit more detail. And yes, there is a LOT of worldbuilding that is only hinted at, which I will try to work in a bit more but I also have an upper limit so it may only be implied! But the short answer to "what life is like on corporate worlds" is "hell" and the short answer to "what life is like on Constabulary worlds" is "Either you are in the Constabulary and one of their cloned soldiers or you are dead." I have no idea what the anhedonic wolves are though! Or Her Angelic Highness! Or so so much! I just like details! Ask me about details and I will tell you or at least make it up! And I want to write more set in this weird, weird world. I will def try to flesh out some of the dialogue scenes and make them seem less like they are taking place in a featureless void (except for the one that literally takes place in a featureless void.) I am so glad you loved the language its told in! I know it's weird and can be off putting, and I am so glad it had its intended effect of making you empathize with Maybe also piecing it all together. And I am just glad in general you read and enjoyed it AND that you gave me super useful feedback Thank you so, so much!

HOW  I  RUN  MY  BLOG.

copy and paste into a new post.

SPEED:

ultimately just depends! sometimes i can reply like within the same days sometimes it takes a little longer to come up with something that i think is a) fitting and b) actionable (so the other person has something to write about!). i'll never cold drop a thread tho so if its taking me a second to get something im probably working on it or got busy with irl! i work full-time for local government so my days can get hectic 😭

REPLIES:

im pretty flexible but i usually prefer mutli-para because i feel like i have more room to explain/describe things outside of dialogue (and i always write grumpy characters so sometimes they don't explain the fun stuff necessarily word for word)

STARTERS:

sometimes! like everything it just depends; i usually like plotting something out a little more before hand but yeah just depends

INBOX:

oh its always open, feel free to send me stuff!

SELECTIVITY:

usually i follow people that i can see our characters interacting. that's kind of the baseline i guess!

WISHLIST:

Crew / Employment ?: I really want Cross to get connected with a crew of confidants or a repeat employer! I love love the idea of Cross being like the Silvio Dante to someone's Tony Soprano or the Riker to someone's Picard LOL. Or Sevika to someone's Silco -- you get it. Especially since she's kind of hit the reset button after leaving Militech and there's a lot of directions she could go character wise!

Old Rivals/Friends: I know it's not everyone's favorite but I love this trope. I think it'd be super cool for Cross to bump into like idk an Arasaka agent they used to cross paths with or a NUSA vet who also was involved in the Unification War.

Longer-term Worldbuildy Plots: I guess this goes with no.1 but I think the idea of multiple characters being involved in some sort of in-universe 'group' forming ( like a gang, task force, ect ) is super cool. Especially when its heavy on the worldbuilding (history, organization, ect) of the group!

Let Cross Have Friends 2022: She's definitely super closed off (largely due to past events + chromed up) and a little egotistical but eventually i'd love to write her establishing some more casual friendships! (once she warms up to someone)

HONEST NOTE:

My messages/inbox/discord (jamie#3904) are always open to chat and plot! I love hearing about and brainstorming ideas of our character's interacting and what trajectory their relationship (friends, enemies, rivals, business partners, employer/employee) can take! and i love heraing about everyone's characters and their ideas they have for them :D

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