I love when I'm doing research for an assignment in my conservation biology class and I come across something that was clearly written with barely-contained hatred. Like this paper about Oahu Tree Snails:

(Obviously the fact that the snails are so threatened is not funny, but I must admit, the simmering rage behind these words did make me laugh while reading this.)

here's the link to the paper if anyone's interested. (It's quite old now, published 1990.) Should be accessible without university access or anything, as it's a pdf from a museum collection.

(also, tagging @great-and-small because I feel like this is up your alley.)

I really want to see more low/no empathy characters (NOT antagonists/villains) in books. Especially as protagonists, rather than side characters. I want to see characters who react with practicality after a tragedy. While everyone else is mourning, they're immediately thinking "how can we fix this / how can we make sure it doesn't happen again." Or alternatively characters who don't even react "reasonably". Who see tragedy and their first thought is "Well, at least we don't have to worry about X anymore." Or who sigh in relief that "at least it wasn't worse" while looking at the worst thing that's ever happened in their life.

I want to see characters who don't know how to react when their companions are experiencing strong emotions. Who try their best, but sometimes their best is a really awkward pat on the back or thumbs up. Or alternatively characters who avoid people who are experiencing strong emotion because the awkwardness and uselessness they experience is so uncomfortable for them.

I want to see characters who misread the room and crack a joke too soon, or try to offer a distraction when people don't want to be distracted. Characters who mean well, but act outside the "norm".

And I want to see characters who aren't villainized for it. I want to see characters whose friends say "It's okay, I know you're not good with this stuff." Or who make sure that their low-empathy friend has an important job to do to keep their mind busy, because just because they don't have empathy doesn't mean they can't be traumatized.

To be perfectly honest, there were some things about the Nimona movie that I actually liked better than the graphic novel. For example, Ballister and Ambrosius’s backstory and relationship felt a lot more fitting for their characters. Also, the repeated implication of Nimona being non-binary/gender fluid. (“What are you?” “I’m Nimona.”) And the way we got to see more detail on the fact that Nimona was the monster. (Though it’s wild to think that they’ve been around for a thousand years.) And I liked the ending. The confirmation that she found her way back to Ballister. (The “holy shi-“ made me laugh.) (though I do still love the last line of the original graphic novel.)

I loved all the little nods to the graphic novel though. The World Domination scene, the arrow scene, the Antlered Snake for example. They felt fitting to the new movie. I do wish we had gotten the [*unclips cloak to cover sleeping Nimona*] scene.

Okay, inspired by that post about how USAmericans take swearing much more seriously than other countries, here's a poll: (I'd love to add more nuance to this, but 12 options is the max, so I can't include as much detail as I'd like.)

If you're non-USAmerican, please feel free to leave your country of residence/origin in the tags, along with your answer!!! I'd love to see if there's a correlation between certain countries aside from the U.S., but I was limited by 12 options.

(*Also, as for what counts as "casual swearing", that would be swearing that happens in any conversation or context aside from a strong negative. So swearing when you're in pain doesn't count, and neither does cussing someone out or shit-talking someone when you're angry.)

(for the purposes of this poll, casual swearing aimed at a person would be any non-malicious swearing directed at a person, where they are aware that it's non-malicious. Something like a lighthearted, joking with friends. For example, your friend tells you something shocking and you say "fuck off, you're kidding me". Or even something like "you devious motherfucker, I love it!")

(for the "certain swear words" option, as an example, you might be okay with hell/shit/damn, but not things like bitch or fuck.)

And as always, please reblog for sample size!

Example of a "true AU" would be something like "Star Wars, but set in a high-fantasy setting." (For example, all the lightsaber duels have been replaced with sword fights or magic duels, and the space fights with magic-powered airships.) So the plot and characters remain the same, but the story is transposed to a new setting or genre.

An example of a "what if" AU would be "Star Wars but Luke and Leia were raised together." So it's the same setting, but some key plot elements (character dynamics or roles, events, etc.) have been changed.

Btw, when I exclude fanfic from this, I don't do it because of pretentiousness or anything. Fanfic is fucking awesome. I just exclude it because AUs are already such a defined part of fanfic and fanfic culture. I'm curious to see if people who don't write fanfic (though there is a lot of overlap, I know) also come up with AUs for their characters, and to what extent.

Having just finished Supernova, I forgot just how balls-to-the-wall that book is? And I mean this in the best way possible. But like, Nova gets arrested, Nova gets out, Ruby and Simon lose their powers and a third of the council gets killed, Callum dies after living up to his alias in the most spectacular way possible, we find our Adrian made Phobia, Ace dies, every single person on the planet loses their powers and the regains them in the span of 5 pages.

And then there’s the fact that in the epilogue we find out Magpie is Evie??? Ms. Meyer, I love you, but what???? Why did you tell us that in the epilogue of the last book????

The fact that Grog found the Deck of Many Things and Travis was the only person who didn't know what it was is killing me. Liam was having a heart attack and Travis is just hella confused.

So I saw this post, and I thought "hey, I can make that!" and spent 15 minutes dicking around in PS, and this is the result.

Feel free to do whatever with these, I don't care. (Post them to other sites, use them as reaction images, whatever.) Just don't remove the credit at the bottom of the image.

(Image descriptions under the cut)

[ID: A set of four images of black text on a white background. They all are formatted the same, to look like the header of an online news article, but each has a different headline. Above the headline it reads "Writer's Weekly" in all caps. A red vertical line separates this from the next phrase "March 14, 2024". After each headline, written in small italic font it reads "By Morrigan", then the tumblr "t" icon, then "@six-improbable-things". The first headline reads: "Person Fantasizes About Hurting Their Favorite Character Until They Fall Asleep". The second headline reads: "Woman Fantasizes About Hurting Her Favorite Character Until She Falls Asleep". The third headline reads "D&D Player Fantasizes About Hurting Their Character Until They Fall Asleep". The fourth headline reads: "Writer Fantasizes About Hurting Their Characters Until They Fall Asleep". /End ID]

Oh, btw, happy autism acceptance week to all my fellow autistics out there! (Whether you have a formal diagnosis or not!) You're all amazing, and deserve the best.

some lyrics that make me feel shrimp emotions.

(Blood Runs Red - Matt Maeson / Cast The Bronze - Raynes / Easy Dreamer - Young Rising Sons / Easy Dreamer (again) / The Good Part - AJR / Turning Out pt. iii - AJR / The DJ is Crying for Help - AJR / 2085 - AJR / Amsterdam - Imagine Dragons / Glory - Bastille)

Screaming and crying over Yasha's pit fight. And Caleb's reaction. It's so obvious (to me, and Caleb) that's she's punishing herself for everything she did under Obann, and getting her anger out but also not fighting back.

She's taking all the damage she never did while she was under his control, because she never lost a fight with him. And now she gets to lose a fight, finally, and on HER terms. Because she's tired of hurting people, especially people who didn't ask for it. Hurting her friends.

And of course Caleb understands, because what else has he been doing for the past few years (up until he met TMN) but punishing himself. Even if it wasn't as intentional and obvious as Yasha.

And he knows the feeling of acting not entirely under his own will. Both under Trent Ikihon and also under the well, with the succubus. Of hurting people, people who didn't deserve it, didn't ask for it. People he cared about.

But he also understands not wanting to talk about it (because why would you?), so while the rest of the group tries to ask for answers, he just offers silent understanding and a drink.

Essek: "Caleb, are you okay?"

Caleb: "No."

Essek: "Me neither."

What a fucking mood.

Compilation of the ways Rook has told his mentor that he literally fucking died:

and

Keyleth's feeblemind against Raishan might be the most clutch spell success ever. (or at least in Campaign 1) It was genuinely worth falling off a bench in excitement over.

Episode 17 of Black Sails (S2,E9) is so fucking insane, I'm losing my mind. (major spoilers ahead!!)

Ashe fucked over Flint and betrayed Thomas, Miranda, and Flint, Miranda's dead, Flint's in jail and set to be hanged, but fucking VANE of all people is going to get him out???????? Presumably so he has leverage over him, but STILL. Oh and the fact that Vane attacked and killed over half of the Walrus crew and Flint doesn't know. And Silver tried to save the whole crew even though he usually only ever does shit for himself. But it kinda backfired bc they're gonna need to get out of there in a hurry, and if the forestay's not repaired, they're in for an... interesting sail back to Nassau. (aka, one that's not likely to get them back there) And when they get there and they find out that Eleanor's been captured and sold off for pardons by Hornigold and Dusfrene of all people. AND Anne and Jack are sailing for the Urca gold... (Which Silver is gonna have to answer for when Flint inevitably finds out...)

This is the most clusterfuck of all clusterfucks and it's KILLING ME. (in a good way, I swear.)

notion shit

I spent like 4-5 hours messing around in Notion last night and today. This was the result.

Pics 1-3 are the main page, and pics 4-6 are the character template that would be for the character pages in the table in pic 3. (The character page section was HIGHLY inspired by @lockejhaven 's character masterlist, which you can find here.)

A bonus peek at what's under those toggles (and also the potential cast of this wip) under the cut:

These are the toggles on the main page.

and these are my notes on the cast for this WIP. You can definitely tell I wrote this at 4am based on how inconsistent they are, lmao. (Why does only one character have an ethnicity? why so many questionmarks??)