Freyja

vampire connoisseur // ao3: EndymionAtLatmus

[anae-art]

[theinternetarchive]

from 'bird by bird: some instructions on writing and life,' anne lamott, pub. 1994.

[toroimage]

truly a spectacular essay for writers

[foolforshera]

I was thinking about the whole "fandom moves on to something else" thing and it made me think about my annual picnic. Every year, I have a big picnic in early November and invite a bunch of people. I rent out a pavilion at a local lake, have people bring food that I grill for them if they want, have some games for the kids in the group, and just generally hang out.

Now, the way this goes is that I have everyone show up around 4:30pm. People show up, it's a big crowd, it's pretty warm out because the sun is still up and the mingling is great. People eat, share food, the kids run around in the trees and check out the lake, and we all just generally enjoy ourselves and catch up. Then the sun starts to go down.

People start getting under the pavilion, it starts getting a little chilly, and maybe those with really young kids start to pack up and say good-bye. This is usually when I light up the fire in the pavilion's fireplace and people will begin gathering around there. I let the grill burn down and sit down with everyone as everything gets a bit more mellow. Maybe we make s'mores or have cookies or something but this is usually were you start having more people say their good-byes and head out. That's how it goes for the next couple of hours, little dribbles of people winding up and heading on home until it's 9:30 at night and there's just a few people left in the pavilion in the woods sitting around a little fireplace quietly talking.

You know what? That's the best time at these things. Some years we'll be out there until almost midnight, just chatting quietly and staring into the coals. You learn things about people then, you hear interesting things, and you just feel closer.

So what does this have to do with fandom and moving on? Well, I see it like this. The show is still on, that's the early part of the day. Plenty of people around, lots of activity where art gets made, headcanons and meta fly fast and furious, and tons of fic gets written. Then the show ends, people are still creating but a few peel away, they have other things they have to do or just aren't interested in sticking around. Slowly but surely it goes until it's just a few people left.

That's when the interesting things really start coming out. You still have the other stuff but you start to get off the wall headcanons and wild meta, you get odd art, you get fic the person finally decided to write, and it's good. And hey, every once in a while, someone shows up late and you grab some food out of the cooler for them and warm up a burger for them over the coals while others grab a chair for them and you get them up to speed on the conversation and maybe show them some pictures from earlier in the night and they get to have some of that glow from earlier even if they missed the original.

That's fandom to me. As long as a person is still sitting around that fireplace late into the night, ready to chat, the fandom is never dead.

[liebelesbe]

attaching something to an email is so scary. what if i accidentally put hard-core porn in there. i don't think i have any downloaded but what if i do and i attached it to the email. what then.

[cursed-curse-of-strahd-ideas]

Curse of Strahd campaign where Barovia has a profanity filter. None of the horrors of Barovia are censored, just the language. Any attempt at saying a forbidden word just results in a redirect to something vampire related. Fuck usually gets turned into fangs, bitch turns into bat, etc. This is, of course, somehow Strahd's fault.

[bedpolls]

daud from dishonored (2012)

Is Daud the Knife of Dunwall good in bed?

Yes

No

Voting ended onJul 29, 2024

Please reblog for a larger sample size.

[that-student-that-has-homework]

do you guys ever follow a writer and go: man I wish they'd write for [insert character name here]?

writers are you ever curious what kind of writing your readers would want to see more of from you?

Readers: Go on anonymous (or don't) and let writers know what characters / genres

"Hey! I thought it would be really cool if you wrote for [insert character / genre name here]"

Writers: reblog if you've ever been curious!

[waestlandbaby]

When you accidentally say the q word (quest) and your knight starts gently clanking from their happy wiggles like now you've done it, you have to send them into the dragon's lair or their helmet ploom will droop and they'll start waxing sad poetic in the moonlight

[mpsgds]

[artnyuta]

[kiramartinauthor]

WHY YOU SHOULD WRITE HORRIBLY:

1. You’ll never write anything if you don’t

[mortalityplays]

This is a dangerous sentiment for me to express, as an editor who spends most of my working life telling writers to knock it off with the 45-word sentences and the adverbs and tortured metaphors, but I do think we're living through a period of weird pragmatic puritanism in mainstream literary taste.

e.g. I keep seeing people talk about 'purple prose' when they actually mean 'the writer uses vivid and/or metaphorical descriptive language'. I've seen people who present themselves as educators offer some of the best genre writing in western canon as examples of 'purple prose' because it engages strategically in prose-poetry to evoke mood and I guess that's sheer decadence when you could instead say "it was dark and scary outside". But that's not what purple prose means. Purple means the construction of the prose itself gets in the way of conveying meaning. mid-00s horse RPers know what I'm talking about. Cerulean orbs flash'd fire as they turn'd 'pon rollforth land, yonder horizonways. <= if I had to read this when I was 12, you don't get to call Ray Bradbury's prose 'purple'.

I griped on here recently about the prepossession with fictional characters in fictional narratives behaving 'rationally' and 'realistically' as if the sole purpose of a made-up story is to convince you it could have happened. No wonder the epistolary form is having a tumblr renaissance. One million billion arguments and thought experiments about The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas that almost all evade the point of the story: that you can't wriggle out of it. The narrator is telling you how it was, is and will be, and you must confront the dissonances it evokes and digest your discomfort. 'Realistic' begins on the author's terms, that's what gives them the power to reach into your brain and fiddle about until sparks happen. You kind of have to trust the process a little bit.

This ultra-orthodox attitude to writing shares a lot of common ground with the tight, tight commodification of art in online spaces. And I mean commodification in the truest sense - the reconstruction of the thing to maximise its capacity to interface with markets. Form and function are overwhelmingly privileged over cloudy ideas like meaning, intent and possibility, because you can apply a sliding value scale to the material aspects of a work. But you can't charge extra for 'more challenging conceptual response to the milieu' in a commission drive. So that shit becomes vestigial. It isn't valued, it isn't taught, so eventually it isn't sought out. At best it's mystified as part of a given writer/artist's 'talent', but either way it grows incumbent on the individual to care enough about that kind of skill to cultivate it.

And it's risky, because unmeasurables come with the possibility of rejection or failure. Drop in too many allegorical descriptions of the rose garden and someone will decide your prose is 'purple' and unserious. A lot of online audiences seem to be terrified of being considered pretentious in their tastes. That creates a real unwillingness to step out into discursive spaces where you 🫵 are expected to develop and explore a personal relationship with each element of a work. No guard rails, no right answers. Word of god is shit to us out here. But fear of getting that kind of analysis wrong makes people hove to work that slavishly explains itself on every page. And I'm left wondering, what's the point of art that leads every single participant to the same conclusion? See Spot run. Run, Spot, run. Down the rollforth land, yonder horizonways. I just want to read more weird stuff.

[bromdebus]

gormenghast. a beautiful piece of classic fiction that utilizes prose poetry in such a way as to fundamentally alter the perception of the reader. its TRUE fantasy, without the set dressing and the crutches. fantasy as DAYDREAM. fantasy as reality, not as science. you can tell Peake was primarily a visual artist the way he paints with words.

[bromdebus]

on a related subject, i am of the opinion that what the average reader calls "realism" is less related to reality than the most abstract poetry. reality is not made up of color coded spreadsheets and neatly arranged dioramas where all motivations are clear and all plans are clean and efficient. reality is a series of messy disjointed dreams that barely form a narrative. if you want REALISM read ulysses

[heatherwitch]

Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” that was written in 1950 is set on the day of August 4th, 2026 (tomorrow)!! Now’s your chance to read it around the time it’s based in!

Audio: A recording of Leonard Nimoy reading it on Internet Archive.

Text: A PDF version.

Graphic Novel: On Internet Archive.

[noqualitycheck]

drawing otasune yuri again for anon and otacon being a loser failure girl who get hot butch but ALSO the butch is actually also loser failure but together they are awesome is so so important to me there needs to be more rep for loser girls world wide

also mgs4 otacon would still be fujoshi loser girl but shes just better at hiding it but then the camera pans over to her desktop and it's BL that's my vision

[frownyalfred]

Hi Res! I've been thinking about your Patrol Guide fic and you cited that it was inspired by No One Will Come Back For Us by Premee Mohamed. Do you have any other horror recommendations in the same manner of it? I seldom read horror, if at all, but it sort of inspired me to branch out my reading habits and since I really liked the overall feeling and atmosphere the fic created, I thought I could ask.

And I know you've been asked about how much information can/should be revealed to the reader for it to make sense but I wanted to ask in terms of setting a certain mood; At what point does/can information serve as a thing to dread/to be afraid of and when does leaving it out serve the same purpose? I think you really walk a tightrope in the Patrol Guide fic and I keep scratching my head at how you did it

Also: Mizpah feels very horror-esque to me too! The dialogue, the narrative framing of the mission and the overall lack of information for the reader work really well to inspire a sort of helplessness/fear for the characters in me (even though I know that they're fully able to fight), if that sounds reasonable...

And lastly I hope you have a nice day <3

Thank you so much for this lovely ask!!! And thank you for reading 💜

Do you have any other horror recommendations in the same manner of it?

Good question! Isolation horror is what comes to mind first. It’s always easier to create “rules” and certain routines when cut off from the rest of the world in some way. Think Shutter Island, the VVitch, etc.

As for the specific tone — I haven’t entered the fandom but I’ve heard similar things about Welcome to Nightvale (sp?) the book I mentioned too, there are similar videos on TikTok (the majority of them ai generated sadly) that give a set of “rules” or superstitions that keep one safe.

I think Constantine is also a really good example - the movie and the comics. He has a ton of rules that keep him safe that aren’t always explained to onlookers. War movies also hint at this, especially the ones with more supernatural elements.

Movies or shows where the town has to keep itself safe - like “From” on MGM which I love a lot, or ones where there’s some monster or deity to be appeased, like the movie (I’m blanking on the name - the ritual maybe?) where a group of hikers enter a forest while healing from their friend’s death and run into a creature, or even Midsommar, where you’re not sure if the rituals are real or not, but following them does benefit the main character overall.

I love horror movies and shows that focus on more of that thriller/mystery/slowly unfolding magical realism. I’m not one for jump scares, but dread? I find that so much more enjoyable. It makes me want to write things that create that same kind of feeling. Like Mizpah, as you mentioned! The dread is made up of uncertainty and fear but also the feeling of isolation from anyone who can save you.

Event horizon is truly what inspired mizpah for me. Terrifying movie with a ton of jumpscares, but before it tips into that part, the dread is unreal. Juxtaposing that with the Bats, who feel fear but disregard it, was fascinating. They’re more terrified of losing Bruce than of dying or being caught.

In Gotham, it’s easy to create those things with its rivers and bays, its history, the fear outsiders have of the city, etc. the feeling of knowing the only way you’ll survive is through sheer will and wits…it makes everyone ask the question “could I do that?”

At what point does/can information serve as a thing to dread/to be afraid of and when does leaving it out serve the same purpose?

You nailed both mechanisms with this question! Sometimes more detail, more rigidity of rules makes something even more terrifying. Do you want to know how to pull your cord when skydiving, or do you want to know every single way it could go wrong and how to address each? Exactly.

And as you also identified, sometimes the missing information is scarier than any info at all. I tried to highlight that in the fic — the bit with Martha that just says “RUN” is a great example. Why run? Where? How do you know it’s her? Etc. But the guide knows those questions will slow people down, so it doesn’t elaborate. Especially since the implication is that running is the only option with a chance of survival, and even that isn’t guaranteed.

I think the odd rules or counterintuitive rituals provide information that on its face doesn’t feel helpful or logical. Why can’t you let a teammate bleed on you? Why can’t you cross the river if you see Alfred? Why is Bruce Wayne sometimes an ally and sometimes not? It reminds you of all the questions you have and all the new ones that spring up when one is finally answered. It all hinges on belief - do I trust the guide when it tells me to look at Batman’s brand, or do I ignore that as a silly superstition, or something that’s impossible? Typically in horror movies you see side characters get picked off this way when they don’t trust the advice given and realize their mistake far too late, making an impression on the other characters. But what if you’re on your own? What if you’re that person who’s tempted to test the waters? What happens if you fail?

Another big implication in the guide revolves around those missing bits of information. Does a gap in instructions mean Bruce/Batman has no advice? Does it mean the situation is a death sentence? Does it mean he’s never seen it? Does it mean he won’t tell you because he knows it’ll throw you off and it’s already certain you’ll be dead at that point? And finally, of course, does it mean that Bruce is an unreliable narrator too, given his connection to Gotham? Can we actually trust his guide? Can we trust fragments of it? How many of these rules were learned through blood and death, and how many are hypothetical? “If you do X, Y will happen” is a simple mechanism, but depending on how he knows Y will happen, it can become terrifying. Did Gotham warn him? Did someone die in front of him? Was he badly injured or almost possessed? Etc.

There were several times while writing that I ended up deleting a whole page to add to the dread, and places where I added in even more detail for the same purpose. It definitely took a few tries to get it right, but the balance is the most important part in my opinion. An overly prescriptive version could have too much detail to keep straight without gaps for imagination to fill in. Similarly, a guide that speaks only vaguely of warnings and in hypotheticals could make danger seem like something far off or unreal.

I think mixing in the neutral or neutral-good elements provides contrast as well. There are allies in the guide — Batman, sometimes Bruce Wayne, Alfred (the right one), and even Thomas Wayne, who doesn’t help, but doesn’t hurt either. The dead or cursed civilians looking for help, who are more like drowning people tearing you down for a gasp of air rather than to kill you.

The uncertainty of WHO to trust plays off of that, so without those bits, you can’t provide fuel to that particular kind of dread. Can you trust Bruce, this sacred figure who should always protect you? Can you trust his allegiance is still with you instead of Gotham? Is this Alfred the real one, or is he just trying to convince you he is? How do you tell the difference? What if the rules in the guide aren’t enough? What if the creatures and forces evolve?

It was such a treat to play with these concepts in the fic. I really only dipped my toe into writing horror, and I can feel the need to improve while also being proud of the guide and Mizpah. Dread is a seriously underrated trope.

[spider-artdump]

[amongthejumbledheap]

Ben Whishaw and Kit Connor behind-the-scenes in the Elden Ring movie.

I think we can all agree now that Ben is playing Sorcerer Rogier by his attire. Kit is actually the star of this movie so do you think he is playing Vyke?