#approximately20eggs

[dissociationswagcompetition]

the shallan vs mob poll is to me as football is to 50 year old men. I am sitting here constantly refreshing the page and yelling every time the notes or percentages change jgshdgsbsgs (#shallansweep)

Late to answer this one OOPS but I do love that blorbo polls have become the equivalent of sports on this wonderful hellsite

[yourlocal-lichen]

hello hello friend I don't know if I have any coherent infodumps for you but! hello hi I hope you're doin well besides the boredom

I'm doing pretty good! you know, left unsupervised for several hours, watching the legend of vox machina on my dad's prime account 😏

[skitzo-kero]

!!

!!!! You're gonna get a two for one because I legally cannot separate these ocs!

These are my primary dragon ocs Ko and Mai!

[Image description in Alt Text]

So I've had these ocs for years and they've gone through several redesigns.

They're sister dragon spirits belonging to a shrine maiden named Hikaru (who doesn't have a proper design yet </3).

While representing pieces of nature, they also embody different parts of Hikaru herself, parts that she honestly tries to keep at bay due to her duties.

Ko is a tree spirit, specifically a peach tree. She's just a happy little dragon who wants endless amounts of affection no matter the person or place. She has a small nick in one of her ears due to a small scuffle with Mai when they first manifested, but that was because Ko took her snack.

Mai is a water spirit, specifically the pond that feeds the tree Ko is attached too. She's much more vain and focused solely on her duties to ensure Ko is nurtured. She notably only has a singular antler (more akin to a Kirin) and is smaller than Ko.

[crimsonshadetress]

happy STS!! is there a specific process by which you incorporate themes into your wips? may I hear about it if so?

You too! <3

Huh, I'm not sure I do have one? Mostly because I don't choose themes before I start writing, to be completely honest. I usually come up with an idea and when it's developed enough to start writing, then I might recognise what themes I put into it. I struggle with being conscious of some stuff while writing, because most of the things I do, I do it instinctively and when I look back at it while editing I realize what I actually did there lol.

It's a very interesting question tho! Do you have a specific process for this? <3

[oc-culture]

some positivity regarding my favorite part of writing/oc making:

You know, I really like watching my characters develop from a concept into someone who feels real. sometimes they turn around and become entirely contradictory to the people I intended them to be, but often that was a mistake on my part, like I came up with a concept that was inherently contradictory and so they developed one way or the other, but couldn't go in both directions. I love getting to understand them more and more deeply over time as I think about them more and put them in different situations and flesh out their backstories. the process is very oddly passive in a way, in that they almost seem to develop themselves in a way that feels natural and fitting to the story, and I don't really force them into roles if I can help it. it's sort of like planting a seed and I may water it often and make sure it has sunlight but the plant is the one doing the growing.

I hope your feel better soon!! 🤍🤍

Yes, yes and yes! Everything you said!

(And thank you. Slowly getting there.)

[transmasc-wizard]

happy blorbo blursday!! can I hear about the cast of GFS if it is not too much trouble? I read some of your worldbuilding posts and it sounded super interesting and Hope in particular sounds like such a neat character

its saturday--blaterday?--now, since i do not answer Things on time, but who cares. yes!! u can hear!! i will just. list some facts. yeah ok

the main cast is Angel, Oliver, Corey, Bea, & Hope, with an honorary mention toward Rowan

Angel has intense social anxiety because i am projecting

Hope is, as mentioned, a fallen god! They fell because they were tricked into a deal by a more powerful god and when they could not fulfill their end of the bargain, they were cast out

Corey is a scientist!! specifically one that goes "hm, i should do this thing" *commits minor atrocity*

Bea is, on the surface, the most Hinged of the characters, but actually if you look deeper she is like. on the edge of just snapping (she gets to snap. it's therapeutic and she becomes somewhat of a loose canon, except like. if there was a good kind. that's Bea)

Oliver is the most academic of the bunch but he is also the closest thing they have to a theatre kid

The group's perception of Rowan goes from "oh, she's so dangerous and frightening and we should try to never come across her" to "haha yeah that's Rowan. she's kinda pathetic and does arson a lot but we love her"

Hope really likes birds! They used to be a god of winged things and while that has obviously changed in many ways, they are still fond of birds in particular

Angel's arc is kind of two arcs in a trench coat. one is "learning that they are not the only thing they can care about" and the other is "learning to accept the type of magic they're good at" (death)

[multi-lefaiye]

2, 3, 7, 8 for the ask game? you don't have to answer them all if that's too much!

Nah you're good, thank you for the ask! :D

2. Is there a trope you’ve yet to try your hand at, but really want to?

Y'know, I've really wanted to try my hand at a story about a character living some kind of double life that their closest loved ones (whether they be romantic partners or otherwise) are unaware of. I'm talking something extreme, like one character being a serial killer or something. I'm aware that that's a recipe for disaster, but I think it'd be interesting to explore a conflict like that--it just doesn't work with the WIPs I'm focusing on rn.

(I did try to write a fic like this when I was still into YB, but tbh I might delete that fic because I'm trying to avoid that fandom now)

... Now that I think about it, this conflict is at the heart of Femurs and Feelings, but I want to explore it More and In Other Fun Ways.

3. Is there a trope you wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole?

Okay I finally thought of a trope I actively hate aside from ones that are just blatantly offensive- anyway I don't think I'd ever want to write a hanahaki fic. I'm sure that there are many amazing stories featuring it, but honestly it just makes me uncomfortable nine times out of ten when I see it. I don't mean this as a diss to those who like it!

However, personal experience with a person guilt-tripping me about me not reciprocating romantic feelings just makes the whole concept of "this person will literally die if their crush doesn't return their feelings" not sit right with me personally. Again, no judgments to those who feel differently! You do you! It's just not for me!

(I'm aware that this isn't all there is to the trope and I apologize for oversimplifying it, but honestly I just don't like how it's been done whenever I've seen it and I just... no, I'm good, thank you.)

7. Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

OOOH THANK YOU,,,, bragging time- (I'm kidding)

Anyway one of my favorite pieces of prose that I've ever written comes from Femurs and Feelings, a collab fanfic that my friend Spoods and I have been writing since... oh god since my sophomore year of college wait-

Anyway the excerpt I want to share is from one of my chapters that I have posted on here somewhere but I don't feel like digging up the link to that <3 Also, don't worry about the fact that one of the characters here is named Xavier. He's not a self-insert or anything, it's a fun coincidence <3 He's my friend's OC.

This excerpt is violent so I'm gonna put it under the cut actually- But I'll say that what I like about it is that I think I did a good job here portraying how Addison's trauma throughout their life has affected them and continues to affect them even long after the events happened. As we all probably know, writing about the long-reaching impact of trauma is MY SHIT.

But, yeah, if you're not comfortable reading a description of a character being choked to death (in a nightmare, but still), tread lightly!

At first, they saw Jackson’s face, screwed up in a snarl and bleeding from several scratches. Then it morphed into the face of the scarred parts pirate, smirking as though he was enjoying every second of choking the life out of them. Then, the eyes turned a bright emerald green, and the scars faded away to reveal Xavier.

Xavier, who was looking at them completely impassively, as though this was simply business as usual. He was unaffected by their frantic thrashing, and at most they saw a flash of annoyance in his eyes. As though they were a burdensome pest, an annoyance that he was glad to be rid of.

He seemed to grow bored of Addison’s struggles, then, and turned their head sharply at an angle. Addison felt it as their neck snapped, and they let out one last strangled gasp for air as the life bled out of them and onto the cold concrete.

That was when they’d woken up, screaming and clutching their throat as if that would stop the phantom hands from strangling the life out of them.

Man I really wanna talk about this more now whoops-

8. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

Okay I was going to share some dialogue from Femurs and Feelings or Twelve Years, but honestly I think this dialogue from a different fic I wrote and never posted is one of my favorite bits I've written.

The context being that one character is attempting some necromancy <3

"Why are you doing this, again? You know he was an outlaw, right? Like. A murderer."

"Well, we all have our flaws. And I wanna see if I can do it."

"And, like, wouldn’t it be rude to bring him back to life? What if he was enjoying the afterlife or whatever?”

“First of all, there are multiple afterlives. You have to be more specific. Second of all, he’s not going to remember whichever one he ended up in.”

“And, I gotta ask, why do you have to do this in my apartment?”

“Because my landlady doesn’t like it when I do rituals inside.”

I like this dialogue because I think it introduces the characters' personalities and dynamic pretty well? And also it very quickly establishes a bit of worldbuilding for this story without going into too much unnecessary detail. I might go back to this one at some point actually-

[dissociationswagcompetition]

hi op! I saw your post about not using art for Shallan's system anymore and wanted to suggest using this instead! this is a canon, author-backed depiction of Shallan from the stormlight archive miniature kickstarter. there are other versions of the mini floating around online as well if this doesn't suit your needs! of course, you don't have to use this, but I wanted to offer it as a suggestion :)

I'm having a lot of fun with this bracket btw!! thank you for putting it on!

PERFECT! I'll probably use either this one or one of the ones from the other ask I'm about to post, thank you!!!