Theoretically a Writer

Big fan of writing, can't get enough of it Also enjoy other people's writing, and sometimes pictures (moving or otherwise) God's most special boy

[hypotheticalprose]

My miniature kitbashing white whale is Prince Maesa. Such a cool character who deserves a model with the same level of detail as Gotrek Gurnisson. Unfortunately every time I look into it, the models I would need to create him are part of full unit boxes, and I can’t really justify buying $150 worth of minis for a project atm.

[mountpyro]

None of you are ready for this conversation.

But the true Dandadan was the horrifying polycule we made along the way.

[mountpyro]

Well well well.

Look what just became relevant again.

[hypotheticalprose]

Now I’m just thinking about what mtg color they’d all be.

[hypotheticalprose]

Something fascinating about writing fanfiction as someone who only recently became interested in the community is that you’ll write something, and it turns out you actually did A Thing with A Name, so now you have to tag your story with a phrase you don’t even know the origin behind.

Like, here’s my work of derivative fiction. Yeah, it’s a Big Wimple fic. Yeah, it’s part of the Simple Wimple subgenre. Gotta add that tag as well so people know exactly what kind of Wimple to expect. Wimple fans are gonna love this one,

[hypotheticalprose]

A very enjoyable opposite experience to this is being the first person to use a tag on Ao3. Ya boi is a pioneer in using the “Japanese Death Poetry” tag.

[hypotheticalprose]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Nothing motivates me to write more than a story with loose romantic ends. I really ought to start looking these up ahead of time, my sleep schedule is in dire straits as it is.

Summary: Azuma and Taira have been suffering from a complete and utter inability to actually admit their feelings. By the first summer break of college they’re both on the verge of insanity. It will take a minor miracle for these two to actually admit their feelings. Or at least a minor cold.

[hypotheticalprose]

Something fascinating about writing fanfiction as someone who only recently became interested in the community is that you’ll write something, and it turns out you actually did A Thing with A Name, so now you have to tag your story with a phrase you don’t even know the origin behind.

Like, here’s my work of derivative fiction. Yeah, it’s a Big Wimple fic. Yeah, it’s part of the Simple Wimple subgenre. Gotta add that tag as well so people know exactly what kind of Wimple to expect. Wimple fans are gonna love this one,

[hypotheticalprose]

Something impossible to ignore after spending enough time around fan communities is that fans become worse the closer they feel to the creator and the more ownership they feel over the art they consume.

Longtime readers will know, I feel ambivalent towards “creators” because as a writer I know I ain’t shit and creators seem to be more dysfunctional than the average person. Art is morally neutral and artists are only human. But a group of fans somehow seems to be more dysfunctional than the sum of its parts.

If you’re an artist and you think you might ever achieve real success, you need to prepare yourself for the reality that the eye of the collective fan consciousness is an Eldritch abomination that will drive you to madness without preparation. The human mind was not intended to exist under a microscope, you will be fucked over in ways you could never anticipate unless you create rock solid guidelines for engagement.

[hypotheticalprose]

If I wanted to really understand a novel, the last person I would talk to is the author of that novel. Authors rarely understand their own work, and even when they do understand it, they will never be able to articulate it better than they did in the work itself.

(Also, hearing an author talk is usually very disappointing. The modern obsession with authors being forward facing personalities is a huge mistake. Let them be cryptic weirdos!)

[hypotheticalprose]

Shocked and appalled at how little Warhammer Fantasy/Age of Sigmar fanfic there is on AO3. As someone who has really gotten into Age of Sigmar lately, it’s something I can’t abide. I’ll need to do something about it myself.

Luckily I’ve got a diorama I’m working on, and the lore behind it would be perfect for a story that touches on both settings. Now if only it were as easy to make dioramas as it was to write…

[scruffingmcguffin]

Oh shit why did this post im still editing it fuck ok i completed it still dont know how to add a non embeded link without half my text getting banished to the shadow realm though

Late to the party, but while i cant recomend a ongoing aos fic [i miss stormfall ) = ] i can recomend a really fucking good fantasy fic, like god damn its good. Its called Son of the Emperors The catch is that it is a 40k missing primarch fic, please hear me out.

I first read it when i was just like you, desperate for a fantasy fic. I saw it show up sometimes in the recently updated fics i never opened it because it was a missing primarch fic in fantasy, but one day i was desperate and i decided to check it out and im so glad i did.

First of all, the primarch isnt Sigmar thank god so the story actually takes place when the setting is fully formed. Second the story takes its time in the fantasy setting, by the time of writing it has around 35 main chapters and the author has said that they have a couple more main arcs before lesser E shows up. And this point leads directly to main selling point three: story is using that time to actually develop the protagonist, named Wilhelm, and set up what makes him truly different from all the other primarchs, and character development is fucking rough. He may be a primarch but he is in the old world he is not the hot shit that will conquer the world and take it over, some of it has to do with the fact that he is subcounciously repressing his primarch growth and partialy because the world of legend has people stronger than him in all the different possible meanings of strengh. He is just a great character all around and the rest of the cast is just as fun.

Other things i want to gush about: the author has this thing where he will cut between what is happening currently in the narrative to cut to things like art books or news articles related to the subject at hand, if you ever read dune its like when the chapters start with fragments of the historian book about the events. My favorite example is when there was a battle and in the middle of the action it would suddenly cut to a transcription of a recording of a museum tour guide talking about the battle that is currently happening, its was such a creative way to talk about the larger state of the battle i love it.

Second thing is that this fic is brutal, it gets the point across that this is a warhammer story ans ot will not let you forget it for long. This is also a content warning to the ammount of violence (both physical and in one specific case psychological) this fic has i dont want to spoil anything bit be warned. This also ties back to how while Wilhelm might be strong, but he isnt perfect, he does fail and he suffers for those failures. Best exemple is the formal introduction between our primarch and chaos, you will know the what im talking about when you get to it.

Something else about Wilhelm i like is how inhuman he is. The story puts the effort to show different he is from humans and how that impacts how he acts and thinks. Non spoiler example is how one chapter tells that he doesnt really "sleep", he lies in bed and rests sure but he is at all times aware of his surroundings and when he wakes up he has to pretend to be sleepy to not cause alarm and to remain in character. There are more things but they are spoilery so i wont tell.

And lastly for the points i want to elaborate is that the world building and set up is amazing. This ties back to the cuts from the current events and in universe writings about the events since the story does a great job of using pov's to show different perspectives and events related to what is happening. You can really see it when shit hits the fan becaus ethe story will start cutting between multiple characters that have equally interesting stories, and it also helps to sell the tragedy of the setting when these lives sometimes get snuffed out by the cruel and very attentive world. And to top it all of the story also uses these pov's to set up things in the future, we never get the full details but what we do see is both intriguing and dreadful, its a very smart way to tease for what will happen in the 30th and 40th millenium and im struggling to not reveal it right now.

I can go on and on about this fic but in the interest of not spoiling it i will stop now. I hope this story sounds interesting because i really love it, but if it wasnt enough i can tell one spoiler to help convince you.

Karl Franz is Bi

[hypotheticalprose]

That last bit did manage to convince me, I’ll need to check it out!

[lakemojave]

I've always been really confused about the world culture of Fallout, especially before the collapse.

Like it's my understanding that the timeline diverges from our own after WW2, with the United States entering a golden atomic age driven by relentless xenophobic and expansionist conquest, plunging the world into a fascistic death spiral that lead to the resource wars and nuclear armageddon. And to deliver that bleak premise with a satirical edge, it's canonical that American culture is, at least by the 2070s when the world ends, stuck in a sort of neo 50s obsession where the only music and art that's popular enough to survive the nukes is all stuff that originated more than a century beforehand.

Like I get that the criticism being made is that a culture obsessed with its own past is indicative of a bleak present crushed by imperialism and nationalism, but can you really expect me to believe that Fallout's American empire was so bad that culture and art and aesthetics were just. Frozen in time for more than 100 years? Addicted to their own past? That the American people were so embroiled in reactionary ideologies that they were incapable of moving forward and creating anything new?

Anyway did you hear they're rebooting Malcolm in the Middle this year? And the Mummy. And the Devil Wears Prada. And Masters of the Universe. And Meet the Parents. And a 5th toy story movie. And a moana remake.

Could mean nothing.

[hypotheticalprose]

I’m starting to think the Fallout 2d20 system might be one of the best systems to use for a West Marches-style campaign. It feels like just about the right mix of crunchy and narratively expedient.

[hypotheticalprose]

I’m so annoyed that Megalopolis is impossible to find anywhere. Let me watch the bad movie!

[writing-prompt-s]

A Genie offers you one wish, and you modestly wish to have a very productive 2017. The genie misunderstands, and for the rest of your life, every 20:17 you become impossibly productive for just 60 seconds.

[flavoracle]

“Well, it was a nice day.” You kiss your sweetheart gently on the forehead and sigh as the last remaining seconds of 20:16 tick away. “See you at 8:18,” you say. 

Then it happens. Every ounce of fatigue or hunger leaves your body. The face of your beloved is perfectly still, their expression exactly the same. The ticking of the clock on the wall has stopped. Once again, it’s 20:17. 

You stretch your arms and walk to the table with the homework for the three doctorates you’re working on. The work is mentally stimulating and enjoyable, but it’s finished far too quickly. You check your pocket watch and see that not even one hundredth of a second has passed. 

You knew it was too soon to be able to see any movement on the watch, but you can never quite help yourself from looking early on every 20:17. Time to move on. 

You clean your home, do your budget, then go outside and fix a noise that your car was making earlier that afternoon. (Oh how you already miss afternoons.) Then you go back inside, boot up your computer (which magically speeds up to keep pace with you as long as you’re in contact with it) and check for any new orders. 

You’ve set up a website for the small business you started called “Magic Elf Services.” People in your area can pay a modest fee on your site to have different tasks and odd jobs done by “The Magic Elf” at 8:17pm every day. It was a little slow to get started, but word has spread and these days you have a steady stream of clients. 

The money that comes in from the business is nice, but you’re mostly grateful that it gives you a clear list of things to do. You print off your updated list of clients, step outside, and start making your way through the neighborhood with your to-do list. 

There’s the apartments down your street where several neighbors have hired you to tidy up, do the dishes, and mop the floors. You do the windows too, just to see if they notice. There’s the large house across town that paid the “Magic Elf” to clean out the gutters. After the first dozen jobs are done, you manage to stop looking at your pocket watch. 

As near as you’ve been able to determine in the past, 20:17 seems to last for approximately one normal year. But it’s not exact. For one thing, it’s hard to keep track of “time” when everything but you has crawled to an almost total standstill. For another thing, time seems to move differently depending on how “productive” your behavior is. One time you tried to spend all of 20:17 sitting at home in your pajamas, but that was getting you nowhere, so you eventually gave up and got busy. (Though you defiantly stayed in your pajamas the whole time.) 

During 20:17 your body doesn’t get tired, hungry, sick, or injured. You’re essentially tireless and immortal for the duration of the “minute.” So sleeping or eating away your boredom has never really worked for you. 

One of the houses on your list forgot to follow the instructions and leave a key for you to get in. At first you figure you’ll just send them an email telling them to pay more attention and that you’ll do the job tomorrow. Then you decide to go home, get your locksmith tools, and come back. 

After finishing up all the jobs on your list, you go into several other homes and small businesses in the area, performing tasks you hope they’ll find helpful, and leaving a hand-painted business card at each one. (The business cards don’t contain your real name just in case somebody thinks “The Magic Elf” should be subject to breaking and entering laws.) 

Speaking of laws, you head down to the local police station to pick up your case file. You’ve been in contact with a detective who’s been investigating corruption within their department, and your ability to investigate unseen and get in almost anywhere between the ticks of the clock has proven invaluable. You see that they’ve also added five missing person cases to your file this evening, which certainly raises your interest in the job. 

You make your way through town gathering evidence, and start making your way to the outskirts of town. Since you happen to be out that way (and you’ve already solved three of the five missing person cases) you decide to swing by the stone castle you’re building and do some more work there. 

The castle walls stand about 20 feet right now, but you know they’ll be much higher when you’re done. You’re far from any roads and pretty safely tucked away, so for now it’s your little secret. You’ve been excavating and moving all the rock yourself, which has been much easier than you first expected since your body doesn’t get tired or sore. You’ve also got a nice system of tunnels going underneath the castle, and you dig and build more of that network for a while. 

All that time spent underground has left you feeling rather lonely, so you walk back home to see the face of your sweetheart. Their facial expression has moved ever so slightly since you last saw them, which is a comfort to you. Looking at them gets your imagination going and makes you dream up a story you’d like to tell, so you sit on your couch, plug in your laptop, and write a book. 

After you finish editing the last chapter for the third time, you finally allow yourself to look at your pocket watch again. Three seconds have officially passed so far. 

It’s gonna be a long 20:17. 

[stevishabitat]

Have we added this to the Tumblr Folk Tales masterlist yet?

[flavoracle]

That last comment put a big old smile on my face 😁

[nonbinary-octopus]

pretty sure I first read this shortly after it was posted. I still think about it occasionally in my day-to-day life. I hadn’t realized it was already eight years old.

[velvetvexations]

Weird Fantasy (1950) #18 written by Al Feldstein and drawn by Joe Orlando, with editor Bill Gaines

[velvetvexations]

So he said it can't be a Black. So I said, "For God's sakes, Judge Murphy, that's the whole point of the Goddamn story!" So he said, "No, it can't be a Black". Bill just called him up and raised the roof, and finally they said, "Well, you gotta take the perspiration off". I had the stars glistening in the perspiration on his Black skin. Bill said, "Fuck you", and he hung up.

Al Feldstein, Tales of Terror: The EC Companion

[iconuk01]

Just to add context for those not aware of the impact of this story.

The reason it was so important for narrative purposes, was that the plot concerns the visit of the Astronaut, in his completely opaque spacesuit, to a planet populated entirely by self-aware robots (originally from Earth) who have built their own society and are petitioning to be allowed to interact with Earth again as equals.

They have a democratic government and free choice of careers etc. as the orange robot serving as guide tells the Astronaut.

The Astronaut notices that there are two different types of robot on this world; the orange ones, who are in charge, gifted access to all information and facilities. and the blue robots, who are seen as more limited in function, have less access to information and resources, and are not allowed positions of power or as wide a choice of employment opportunities. Even transportation is segregated.

The Astronaut investigates further and discovers that the blue and orange robots are actually structurally identical, there is absolutely no difference between their potential or capabilities, and it is only because the orange robots are instructed by their Educator system to consider themselves superior, that the difference exists.

The Astronaut tells the robots they are not ready for re-alignment with Earth, until they come to terms with their own unfairness, and how Earth had had to deal with this issue themselves. When that time comes, the robots will be able to ally with Earth.

Then he leaves in his spaceship, and it's only in that one final panel that we see the Astronaut is black.

Not subtle, nor should it be, but for 1950 this was a breathtakingly powerful statement, perhaps the first of it's kind in the genre.

The black character was not a caricature, or comedy relief, he was a main character in his own right, a human who "simply" was black.

[xiaq]

When I was a professor I fucking LOVED teaching this comic. You can read the full thing here (and please read the letters to the editor at the bottom as well—including a message from Ray Bradbury).

[dessathealien]

I'm sorry, but since I'm the one going insane over Mr. House and Bobby Apartment suits, I must say that I was sketching a series of arts for the show characters and just now noticed a detail from Robert House suit that I had missed and I'm like "YOU'RE SO FREAKING EXTRA, HOUSE"

Bobby Apartment's suit has a classic Notch lapel. Two triangles, the way we usually imagine formal suits. Normal, traditional, common, exactly as expected.

Then Mr. House has a freaking Peak lapel, meaning the under side of it points upwards and away. This freaking diva purposefully goes for a suit that makes him even more bold than just the plain color combination does and that makes him look powerful.

ALSO just noticed that, apparently, Decoy uses shirts with common sleeves with buttons on the wrists, while Mr House, uses FREAKING CUFFS on the wrists. (God now I need to know if there's something specific in those cuffs symbol-wise)

Mr. House literally is a shut in that only walks around as a stranger, not as himself, and dresses as the most bold, "Look at Me" guy around, while his decoy is dressed in the most normal traditional way and I freaking Love this and the implications lol

[r2x2]

Fallout Season 2 + Onion Headlines

[roachliquid]

Thinking about when Maximus pulled Thaddeus from the Gulper's mouth, and when Thaddeus disbelievingly exclaimed "You saved me!" Max dismissively responds "You saved me first."

It's a fun line, if only because of what obvious bullshit it is.

Even before Max saved Thaddeus, he refused to endanger the guy like Titus had done to him. Thad had offered to charge the monster first - a move that would have undoubtedly gotten him killed - but even if Maximus was tempted, he didn't do that. He chanted "I am a knight of the Brotherhood of Steel" and sent Thaddeus back to shore.

It's unclear whether he was leaning on that phrase as a justification, or as a way to built up his courage, but either way it's clear that wasn't what really drove him. Because when the Gulper swallowed Thaddeus, Maximus charged up immediately to help him. That's just how he is - his instinct is to protect people's lives.

I've seen characters with those instincts before, and plenty of them, in fact. But in most stories, the trait is either depicted as an unimpeachable bulwark of moral courage, or else is a moral goal that the character reaches by overcoming their flaws.

Maximus is the first character where I've seen this depicted in a way that feels real - as an impulse that lives inside you and interacts with all of your other feelings. Because at this point in the story, Maximus pretty much hates Thaddeus. The guy was beating him up with his friends on the regular for... we don't know how long exactly. Potentially years. The first thing Maximus did when Thaddeus showed up as his squire was bully him the same way that Titus bullied him - a bit of harmless, but still perfectly spiteful payback.

But when they enter an active combat situation, suddenly that all changes. His grudge against Thaddeus doesn't matter - he has a job to do, and that job means protecting a vulnerable person. In that moment, Thaddeus ceases to be the person who hurt him, and is just a person in need of help. A person that Maximus not only must save, but wants to.

In the arc that follows, this becomes incredibly relevant. Because as he works with Thaddeus, who really warms up to him and starts showing his better side, Maximus realizes - not necessarily that he "misjudged" Thaddeus, but that his life is just as messy and complicated as Maximus's own. It forces him to rethink the way he sees Thad, and over time he even comes to see him as a friend.

Of course I'm sure we all remember that this relationship was fraught with complications. It took a rather horrifying turn when Maximus revealed his identity to Thaddeus, who refused to go back to the Brotherhood with him and lie about his identity - and Maximus is the one who escalates, so panicked about the thought of losing his life (and potential knighthood) that he decides he has to kill Thaddeus.

And again, in another story this probably would have been treated as a Huge Moral Failure, instead of what it was: a rash mistake made by a scared young man who was raised in a deeply toxic environment. I actually forgot until I went back and watched this how much I loved Maximus's season 1 fuckups, because unlike your average protagonist who is either Heroic and Perfect or Selfish and Impulsive But Learns Better, Maximus already knows he wants to do the right thing. He just has no framework for figuring out what that is.

You can imagine how strongly I relate to that, as someone who was raised by cultists and had to rebuild my entire belief system. It's one thing to hold onto beliefs like "care about other people" and "don't do evil things" - but it's a far different thing to put them into practice in a world that's infinitely more complicated than you could ever imagine, especially when you're also dealing with a lot of genuinely harmful and selfish desires that you never learned how to deal with because you weren't even allowed to have those feelings. Add to that the trauma of being abused and the fear of it happening again, and... yeah. You make a lot of mistakes. Sometimes really big ones.

And it really means a lot to me that the show doesn't outright judge Maximus for this. His actions are clearly wrong, and he does end up being taught some better values by Lucy, but it isn't something the story forces on him. He changes not because he's obliged to be moral, but because he wants to be.

This not only makes his S1 arc far more powerful, but continues into his storyline in season 2. His entire arc involves returning to the Brotherhood, seeing it for what it really is, and eventually deciding that his belief system doesn't have space for some of the things it considers justified. The fact that this arc is driven by his own agency, and not the demands of some Higher Good, means it carries the same weight as that decision would in real life - not only the immense power of sticking to your values in the face of pressure, but also the inherent risk that, even if you tried your best, you still could have gotten something wrong.

That last aspect plays a huge role in Fallout's exploration of morality, and why it works so well. A lot of stories fall into the trap of treating goodness (by whatever definition they use) as safe, default, or inherently positive/rewarding. And I think everyone who's spent any time in reality knows that isn't the case - sometimes doing the right thing feels absolutely terrible, or you have no meaningful feedback on whether you even got it right, or the situation itself is so complicated that the "right answer", if one even exists, would take multiple lifetimes to decipher. Real courage means sticking to your guns anyway, not because you have some cosmic or narrative cheerleader patting you on the back, but because to do anything else would be unconscionable.

While everyone in the story has their own relationship to this problem, I think Maximus is the one who really explores it with the most breadth - by showing how beliefs and decisions that you wholeheartedly believe in can be confusing and and even emotionally grueling to put into practice.

[gimmethatsweetroll]

Thinking about how the NCR use a bear on their flag.

And how one of the catalysts for Max going on his journey to rejoin/potentially rebuild the NCR... was a bear mauling a BOS knight.

Also the bear scratches covering the BOS symbol on the front of his original power armor was a nice touch.

[wirsagen]

OH MY GOD 😭😭😭😭