Songs and Magic

Plays flute and sings video game music. Leader of the Returners. Writes stories. Draws pictures. Has big feelings. Random streamer, enthusiastic baker, loves her cat. Occasionally whiny life posts. :: she/her

[shrubfriend]

I love you Martha Wells. I love you and your beef with privatized transit and whatever happened to you at Rainforest Cafe.

[laurentheflute]

The universe needs stupid fun right now, so I posted another chapter of my Murderbot shitpost fanfic (in which ART is writing about its OCs and posting its fanfic on AO3)

If you could use a little chuckle, I hope this brings you some enjoyment.

(Genuinely I have never figured out how to post on Tumblr despite being here for years, I mostly just reblog stuff, but I'm putting this out into the world because Tumblr Murderbot fandom has brought me a lot of happiness in a particularly bleak time and I want to give something back to you folks)

___________________________

At the sun’s zenith I will find ye, verily, my love

Leaping Between Worlds, soror_navis

Chapter 2

Notes: Apologies for the long delay! Leaping felt some pressure to deliver, given the unexpected readership of Chapter One. This work is now a collaboration between me and Leaping, so if there's anything you find objectionable, you can blame me instead! - soror_navis

https://archiveofourown.org/works/84677851/chapters/235447406

[tio-trile]

@scorpling: *galaxy brains* someone should draw the TLT necromancers as their corresponding Sailor Guardians

Me: Oh that sounds like a great idea. Too bad I've actually never watched Sailor Moon tho

Me:

Me: Palamedes in a miniskirt tho.

[glowcowboy]

does anyone wanna hold hands until we feel a little braver

[its-your-mind]

the reblog map is all of us holding hands btw

[beautifulterriblequeen]

We are each other's night sky. No one is alone here.

[dear-ao3]

night sky continues to get brighter. theres always people here for you

[shinigami-social]

Made a painting of all of us “Holding Hands” <3

[cbk1000]

So, I lurk in some writer subreddits, and a frequent topic of discussion is prose: what constitutes good prose, how do you write it, how do you improve it, etc. And yesterday I stumbled across one topic about the difference between good descriptive prose, and purple prose. OP asks people to share some of their favourite authors who they think write beautiful prose without tipping into purple. No problem; people are happy to oblige.

One person says that Steinbeck is one of their favourite authors for prose, and then they share an example of what they would consider purple prose. It is so violetly awful that I think the poster must have written it themselves as a kind of parody of purple prose. Other people assumed the same.

But as it turns out, they are quoting from a book written by a YouTuber whose channel ia dedicated to talking about writing (namely, their own writing, which is genius, but often not comprehensible to the drooling plebs).

Naturally, I read the free sample of their book in awe and horror, and I'd like to share some screenshots with you. If you also have trouble defining or understanding what purple prose is, it's this.

Yes, every single fucking page is written like this.

[cbk1000]

Reading some more of the preview for this book, and I realise this is by far not the biggest problem, but I'm begging this guy to just use 'shadow' instead of 'umbra'. I promise I will not accuse you of being a philistine.

[cbk1000]

'Noctilucent orbs'. Even fanfic written by a 14-year-old wouldn't dare.

The author is a man in his 30s, btw.

[the-pen-pot]

*throws this in the face of everyone who has ever accused me of writing purple prose*

[laurentheflute]

Wow, I think of myself as a fairly purple writer, but this is a whole different level. Maybe I'm not so bad.

[nanaluvbug]

11. Selkie + Happy [commissions open ✨ patrons get early access and discounts] patreon * twitch * shop

[reksigh]

maria

[inkskinned]

Every day I handle more money than I will ever make. Every day.

At the start of my employment, my boss showed me videos of people stealing, and we both had a chuckle about it. How silly they were! There was a camera overhead, and it’s not to watch the shoppers. See, we can’t actually stop shoplifters. They get away with it maybe nine out of ten times. But we, who are watched and tallied and witnessed? We are always caught.

At first it was hard to hold one hundred dollars bills. An amount I had never seen before. An amount that didn’t exist in my household. It’s normal now. Here is something that is not for me.

“What the hell, I’ll take another,” says the man, pondering our 200 dollar watches. What the hell. Total comes to 580 and not even a flinch in his face. I have been working for 11 hours today and made only 110 dollars. It will go to my rent. Today I work for free, it feels. When I get my check, I will have 35 dollars left for food and saving.

The six hundreds he hands me go into the cash register. For a moment, I imagine having money. Then I put it away, counting out his change.

I know for a fact we sell our products for double what they are worth. That I could be making commission. That they could hand me those 580 dollars and change my life and not even mark the difference in their checkbooks. He’s not the only sale they make today, but I am the reason they made it. He’s not the only one spending 600 dollars, but if I hadn’t spent two hours with him telling me about his life, he wouldn’t have spent any. I go home. I don’t own a watch.

I have watched and rewatched a video on how to make salmon four ways. My shopping list is always the same. Pasta. Rice. Tuna. If I can afford butter it was a good week. I dream of the world I will never walk in, where I can throw the best fish fillet in the cart with a shrug. I hold hundreds in my hand and look up at the camera. I put them under the cash drawer.

I go to work. I scrap together my savings. I eat my bowl of rice slowly. My manager takes a paid week off from work just for his birthday. He owns a yacht. 

I’m not worth the cost of a watch.

[inkskinned]

i wrote this while i was working at orlando’s walt disney world parks.

i was part of their college program. i moved to the state for it. they legally owned the building i was living in and still charged me rent. i ostensibly was being charged to work for them. it was a 2 bedroom apartment and they placed 6 adult women in it in forced triples.

as many as one in ten disney employees have experienced homelessness while working for the company. despite huge efforts to unionize, strike, or otherwise demand fair treatment; disney has refused to increase employee quality of life.

disney admits publicly that a good portion of their success is because the employees (“cast members”) are dedicated, passionate, and selfless. this is never reflected in pay. even “face” characters (ie those that are princesses etc) make barely above a minimum wage.

at the time that i worked there, i made $8.50 an hour. at one point i was asked to create a human shield around a bag because a bomb dog had alerted to it. for eight fucking dollars an hour.

i now work a very cushy office job. i have bought the salmon and cooked it all four ways.

i go to the store. i am nice to the person behind the counter. she looks up at the camera while she counts out my change. there is nothing fundamentally different about her and i.

we are both worth more than the watch, anyway.

[elencaart]

A beautifully self-indulgent repaint of a repaint of an old kiriban reward request for a friend first received in ‘07. Celes and Locke—finally free of having to save the world—enjoying a quiet evening in a port town, sitting out upon the pier and listening to the waves while Locke strums a guitar.

Close-up crops from the full quality image and a special bonus scrungly progression gif (the compression is hilariously bad) under the cut

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

they seriously expected us to worship cops & soldiers when street cleaners and sanitation workers exist? fuck off i know who my heroes are

[josilverdragon]

Saved this because it is so true.

[marta-bee]

Also, speaking as a once and hopefully future fanfic author: all I really wanted was to see people reading and enjoying what I wrote. If I was exceptionally bold I might hope they'd talk to me about that. You all have no idea how valued people who "just" read and reblog and recc and whatever else are to those of us doing the creating thing. If anything we need more of them.

[vergak]

[shadow-posession-jutsu]

for those interested in cowboy hat pet pics

[animentality]

[poppyseed-art]

[bakadeshi]

I highly recommend watching @laurentheflute play through Mother 3 (on Twitch and Youtube). She is revolutionizing anti-tank warfare. 

[laurentheflute]

GUYS THIS IS THE VERY BEST THING

SOMEBODY DREW FANART OF MY TANK BATTLE

unfortunately shortly after the banana incident my team got wiped out and we had to try again

but it was still glorious and so is this

[laurentheflute]

Happy tenth anniversary to the most epic battle in the history of JRPGs starring yours truly

[elencaart]

Local biological experiment and recovering child soldier’s magical augmentation cannot distinguish between various adrenal responses and glows even outside preparing spell work, more at 11

(Bonus points for everyone who figures out the inspiration for their bedroll designs)

1) Late game smooches while out camping

2) Gratuitous uncontrolled eye glowing

3) Profit 🙌🏻

Face close-up crop under cut because the canvas was huge whoops 👍🏻

[eurig-morgan-deactivated2017121]

Baby armadillo plays with his toy

[puppy95]

Are you fucking kidding me

[figpal]

i have never been happier 

[sizzlingsandwichperfection-blog]

i was hanging out with my brother internet sensation hank green tonight, and he was like, "If you spent more time on bluesky you'd be so popular," and i found out he has like 800,000 followers there.

and then i was like, "But I'm on tumblr, which is like the Marines for the Internet. Do you know how fucking dangerous it is there? I am putting my goddamned life in my goddamned hands every time I log in. Bluesky could never."