#folkloristico

[songs-of-the-east]

 Traditional Costume from Lunxhëri, Albania

[darkpoisonouslove]

🩷 Pink and 💛 Yellow with characters of your choosing

Thanks for the ask!

🩷 Pink: Do you find a certain character (or characters) easy to write? More difficult -- and if so, do you avoid writing that character (or those characters) when possible?

Griselda is such a hard character to write. You have to tread very carefully the line between making her a stereotype and keeping her in character. What we got on the show does not help with that at all. There are a few moments that keep her from being flat and falling too hard into the stern teacher archetype but overall we don't have much to work with. I don't exactly avoid writing her but I certainly make her presence in a story somewhat sparse compared to all the other characters that are in the story. I do have certain headcanons to help flesh her out but I haven't exactly figured out what I want to get out of her inclusion in a story so I always feel like she ends up as more a plot device and/or accessory rather than a character in her own right... and by god, she deserves better.

💛 Yellow: Do you ever alter, highlight, or de-emphasize certain canonical traits in a character? If so, why and describe how.

Well... I did Griffin and Valtor so I have to go with Faragonda for this one. They are my main trio, after all.

Hm, this is going to be a little hard to explain but what I do is take her incidental "shady" behavior in canon (which is definitely the result of the writers trying to shape the plot so that Winx are always front and center no matter how much sense that makes or how it affects other characters) and then I make it a learned trait that she picked up from her mother (and somewhat from Marion). By that I mean that I have given her a sense for politics as well as somewhat a manipulative streak although that may not be very apparent from my body of work so far as I tend to write her more interacting with Griffin where those things hardly ever come into play. But the idea is that she absolutely learned how to navigate politics from her mother and well, if she ends up manipulating people outside of that sometimes, nobody's perfect. It's not in any way meant to make her a villain or questionable but rather to highlight her choices in regards to her heritage.

I am definitely working with the idea that she used to be a witch but her dark magic was out of control so she decided to become a fairy for her own sake and everyone else's. In doing so she ended up creating a big rift between herself and her mother and so watching her choose when to use what she's learned from her mother and when to act in a completely polar manner is a means to afford her more opportunities to state herself. It's a way to show her being her own person - not just through rejecting her mother's influence out of spite and a bid to differentiate herself from her but also through embracing it on her own terms. It helps flesh her out as a character when her family and childhood have shaped her so thoroughly but she's still the one defining herself in regards to them. Plus, I live for the irony that is my headcanon that the only reason why the previous headmistress of Alfea chose Faragonda as her successor instead of Griselda is Faragonda's intuition for politics. You know, the thing she picked up from her mother, who is soooooooo unhappy that her daughter ended up heading the most prominent fairy school in the universe.

[mari--lace]

1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 13 (👀) e 19 per l’ask game <3

1. What is your favorite trope to write? I don't really know bc I rarely reason in tropes! Might be found family 💜 I'm not sure I've written it a lot, but I love it

3. What is the main program you use for writing (google docs, the ao3 writing text box, etc.)? I'm a basic Word girl!

5. The fic you’re most proud of writing? This is a hard question ç.ç Right now I'd say "Filling the voids" (Riempire i vuoti), I'm still not sure it makes sense for anyone that's not me, but I've wanted to write it for a loong time and I'm happy with it! (Also like every fic I've written with aspec rep!)

7. Favorite ship to write? Right now it's Matt/Nat! It changes with my obsessions 🫶

10. Best/funniest comment you’ve ever gotten on a fic? Okay but how can I pick? There's a few comments that come to mind. I'll mention one on the first fic I ever wrote about asexuality (Significa me/It means me) saying "if I were a teacher I'd read this in class", I was really touched. 🥹 Funniest comments, those ranting under my fics are pretty fun and always greatly appreciated!

13. Latest fic written/latest WIP? Okay, full disclosure: my latest wip is a crack fic I "have to" write because I lost a bet XD. It involves Matt exploring the magical world of Daredevil fanfictions, lol. That's my only current wip, I've got another idea but I didn't start writing it down yet. Latest written fic is a style exercise: one flashfic about Matt in first person pov, one flashfic about Elektra in second person pov, one about them both in third person pov. It was a fun experiment!

19. Have you ever created an OC for a fic? It says "fic", so I'm not going to count my original works. I created minor OCs when needed, but I don't think I ever built a complete character for a fic. I have explored characters who are names or little more in canon and built on them, but that's not really the same thing.

Thanks for asking <3

[darkpoisonouslove]

Suddenly I feel so much better about having so many WIPs xD

I will take the Griffin x Faragonda Enemies to Lovers AU because that sounds interesting!

XD Glad I can be of service!

It's a more low-key one than most of my other WiPs but not so much that I could restrain myself from pursuing the idea at all.

It's set in a canon divergence where the Ancestral Witches and Valtor have already been defeated with minimal involvement from Faragonda in the whole thing. Griffin has never been involved with either the Coven or the Company and yet... She's not having a good time, not even a little bit.

Faragonda's mother sent some hired paladins to invade Griffin's home and take possession of all of her mother's work (she was translating and restoring spells for her clients). The only reason why Griffin is alive at all is that Faragonda made some kind of deal with her mother that leaves her the one to deal with Griffin.

She remains to live in their mansion because she doesn't want to leave behind her mother's work and she's planning revenge. In the meantime, she's looking deeper into Faragonda, trying to figure out what exactly she sacrificed in that deal with her mother for the sake of keeping her alive and any weaknesses she could use. That's how she ends up meeting Saladin, Marion and Oritel and also Faragonda's father.

Faragonda herself revealed to her that she's an Enchantix fairy, which Griffin is hoping to use to tank her mother's reputation since Faragonda's mother is one of the most formidable witches in the dimension. The news that not only has her daughter chosen to be a fairy, but has also been allowed to pursue it to the point of earning Enchantix will not look good for her. However, she has to figure out how to ensure she can get the information out before getting murdered for trying to reveal Faragonda's secret to the world.

During this whole process of chasing revenge, Griffin and Faragonda interact a lot and suddenly Griffin realizes she's catching feelings (if Faragonda didn't catch feelings when Griffin tried to use her life as a bargaining chip 3 minutes after meeting her for the first time, then she certainly did when Griffin was bleeding in her arms... currently in chapter 3). She tries to pretend that's not happening but that just makes things worse for her so she has to admit the truth, on top of certain discoveries about her mother's involvement in the struggle against the Ancestral Withes and Valtor. Plus, the emotional mess isn't the only obstacle between her and Faragonda as Faragonda's mother intends to fully make use of what Faragonda conceded to her for the sake of keeping Griffin alive.

I have a more-than-vague idea about, roughly, the first half of the story, give or take a couple chapters. I haven't really gotten further because this story isn't my priority right now but I've written down a good amount of dialogue for the chapters that I've already outlined. Here's a little snippet:

Faragonda goes to exit the room, "Are you still trying to rest or will you come with me to the library?"

"I don’t trust you to leave me alone."

"Well, for one, I’d have a much better chance of success if I know more specifics about what we need. And for two, I like spending time with you."

Griffin tries not to trip like she’s missed a step while walking down the stairs.

This is good news. If Faragonda is foolish enough to try to befriend her, maybe she doesn’t need to hide so hard what’s going on in her head. Maybe she can actually get something to help her stop having nightmares about her mother.

[darkpoisonouslove]

😂 and 😭 for the ask game!

For a person that's barely written anything new recently, I sure do reblog a lot of ask games about posting WiP snippets. 😅

😂 a funny or crack WIP snippet

From the Winx rewrite, 1x03:

They were interrupted by the commotion coming from outside.

Bloom startled half to death when Stella screamed and ran to the doors leading to their balcony.

She threw them open and almost launched herself over the balustrade. “It’s the boys!”

...

Griselda’s disapproval could be felt in the air when he told her his name but Bloom was distracted by Stella grabbing her and shoving her in front of herself as a shield.

“I’m assuming that’s Brandon looking at you?” Flora teased.

“Why are you hiding from him?” Musa scrunched up her nose. “He looks like he’s about to climb up the walls and serenade you. At least throw him a bone.”

Stella scoffed. “And let the darkness and the distance between us ruin his first impression of my outfit?”

Bloom couldn’t help but shake her head. She waved at Brandon and gave him a smile and a thumbs-up to let him know everything was okay.

😭 angst or sad WIP snippet

Also from the Winx rewrite, 1x03:

Stella lowered her gaze, fidgeting. “I made a little mistake back on Earth. When I was introducing Sky. You see, his identity is supposed to be a secret.”

Bloom’s heart pounded in her ears and she had to force herself to loosen her grip on Kiko. “Why, Stella? What’s going on?”

“Eraklyon is practically in a state of civil war and Sky’s parents are afraid for his safety. Which is the reason why he hides his identity. He has this little but powerful charm that changes his appearance when he’s in public so that no one can recognize him. Except, that apparently doesn’t work on Earth, and when I saw him looking like himself, I forgot I wasn’t supposed to tell who he was,” Stella squirmed, her head hung low.

“It’s okay, Stella,” Bloom placed a hand on top of Stella’s to still them. “I will keep it a secret, don’t worry.”

“I let it slip yesterday in front of the girls-”

“Don’t worry, we’ll tell them it’s an Earth thing to call your dream guy your prince. It’s not a lie anyway.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Bloom. You have to lie now.”

“Calm down, Stella. It’s not your fault. And it’s not Sky’s either. It’s a bad situation.”

That was a grand understatement. How serious was the threat to his life if he had to go through all this? Bloom’s stomach tied into a knot and she found herself wishing for the anxiety over dancing and making a good impression to come back instead of this.

“I take it the other guys know all of this?”

“Yes. Yes, they did before Earth. Saladin didn’t want them to be blindsided in case something... unexpected happens. He’s keeping a close eye on all of them. I’m surprised he even let them come get me back then. Maybe it would have been better if he hadn’t. How could I be so stupid?”

The words punctured Bloom’s rib cage like a white-hot iron. Stella’s self-deprecation was bad enough but there was also the outrage building slowly somewhere in her heart at the idea that her closest person in the whole Magic Dimension would have spent every second lying to her if not for a careless slip-up.

[darkpoisonouslove]

Spoiler for your Winx rewrite? 👀

How about some Daphne anguish?

Daphne is resurrected at the end of s5 but in the "movie" between s6 and s7 both her and Bloom fall victim of a spell cast by Politea. The spell pokes at inner insecurities to focus all of your mental and physical energy on protecting yourself because then it would be easier to steal. Basically, it forces you to gather all of your life force together and then drains it from you. Bloom and Daphne are linked together via the spell which means that it will drain the life force of only one of them who succumbs more to the spell's effects. Bloom is completely losing her mind with fear of dark Bloom showing up again and Daphne is desperate to help her. But that makes her focused on Bloom instead of herself so the spell starts draining Bloom. Daphne then gives into her feelings on having to part with the Dragon Fire (when she hid it in Bloom to keep it from the Ancestral Witches). She had to act back then but she still hasn't processed the loss. What is worse, she feels like maybe she failed in her duties as guardian of the sacred Flame and was thus punished by having to part with it since no other keeper of the Dragon Fire has had to give it away.* That's actually something that she struggles with during s6 and it's somewhat resolved by then but there's still doubt left in her. The main problem is that she hasn't allowed herself to properly mourn losing her birth power because of that. Becoming absorbed in her own emotions draws the spell's effect to her and her life force is drained. Politea uses it to make herself corporeal again and Daphne is left only hanging on to her life due to her willpower - just like when she was a spirit. Except this time she's still a victim of the spell and all the negative emotions that it unlocked in her and she becomes murderous in her search to replace her stolen life force with someone else's.

*The task to part with it actually fell on her because she was the only one who was able to accomplish it. Every other keeper (not including Bloom) would have failed where she succeeded.

send me "spoiler" and i'll give you a spoiler for a WiP my Winx rewrite

[darkpoisonouslove]

🥀 favorite angst quote from a published work

🌻 favorite funny quote from a published work

🍓 favorite poetic quote from a wip

for the ask game!!

Thanks!

🥀 favorite angst quote from a published work

There is a crack in Bloom's eyes, a piece missing from her stained glass that Icy took and stuck in her own heart so that Bloom could see her through the hole in her perfect world even as she turns and runs away from her without a single word.

For that Icy will spill all her blood. It is hers to give. It might even have the strength to break through the spell Bloom has caught herself into.

A spellbound fool. She has been ever since she first touched magic while Icy was on the other end of the universe busy breaking her own heart.

- from Broken Eyes

🌻 favorite funny quote from a published work

Griselda caught Faragonda's gaze, her expression grave. "We will regret this."

"I thought you already did," Ediltrude sounded offended at the implication that her presence wasn't an absolute bother already. And she looked like she was sifting through ideas about how to best fix that.

- from Witches

🍓 favorite poetic quote from a wip

Featuring Vanessa - bestest mom to ever mom:

“Bloom, being different in some respect does not mean that you don’t belong. Think back to helping me in the shop. If we were to only make our bouquets with one kind of flowers, it would hardly pique the interest of potential customers. You need different flowers arranged together to make for a truly beautiful image. All the unique kinds of flowers are essential to that result.” - from the Winx rewrite, 1x03, "Draw Your Wings"

[mari--lace]

🥀 favorite angst quote from a published work

🌺 favorite poetic quote from a published work

🍎 favorite angst quote from a wip

🍌favorite funny quote from a wip

🍓 favorite poetic quote from a wip

(🩷)

💜💜

🥀 I was pretty undecided for this one, but this is the fic I think about for angst, so... yeah. Chapter 15 of my writober collection, it's set during the Blip. Matt doesn't take it well. :)

Later, Nat makes him sit and gives him a plate with some eggs and spinaches. He knows she won’t leave him alone until he eats, so he does. Slowly. She’s got a plate for herself, too, so they eat in silence for a while. “It’s been six months.” Matt turns his head to the floor. He doesn’t want to have this conversation. “What happened today?” Nothing. He met Anna Nelson, so what? It doesn’t matter. It’s not like not meeting her changes the fact that Foggy vanished along with half of the universe. Matt was spared, because of course he was. Anna said she was happy to see him. She shouldn’t have been. Matt isn’t.

🌺 I rarely think of my works as poetic, and I'm not exactly sure what I'm about to quote fits, but I do think "What's in a soul?" might be my most poetic work—in a broad sense. Anyway, I'm pretty happy with this dialogue.

“Who are you?” Her heartbeat quickens; this might be the first time it's done that since he's known her. “I'm the ghost of a sister. I'm the ghost of a friend. I'm the ghost of a killer and a hero.” She pauses. Her heart slows back to its usual steady rhythm. “I'm a shadow who is more comfortable talking and fighting with a vigilante than surrounded by people who say they love her.”

🍎 this was tricky because I don't actually have many wips? And the majority of them aren't angst. I did find an old one I'd forgotten (rip) that I think fits well enough; I received a prompt asking for "an angsty blurb of Matt telling Jen about his past with Elektra that ends on a happy/hopeful note" and started to fill it, then life happened and I never got the chance to work on it again. I'd like to complete it in the future. Anyway, here it is (please note that I don't hate Elektra, I actually quite like her):

“I mean. How is it even possible to be this unlucky with dating? My exes are the worst,” Jen slurs the last word a bit and reaches for her cocktail. Matt takes a swig of his beer. Exes, huh. “Like, one of them was paid to go out for me. To take a sample of my blood. How is this even real, Matt? It shouldn’t be.” She downs the last of her appletini. “If there was a contest for the worst exes, I’d win hands down.” She turns to face him and, guessing from her tone, she smiles. “Maybe that’s why I got to meet you then. Karma or something like that.” “I don’t know,” he says, fidgeting with his glass. “I was my ex’s literal mission, so I think I could compete.” “Mission?” Matt drinks. He’s been looking for the right moment to tell Jen about Elektra for a while, but bringing that out now was probably a stupid move. A night out to vent at the lawyer bar isn’t the best context for a serious conversation. Is it? “Matt?” Jen sounds different now, and oh, he realizes after a moment, she’s hulked out. If he understood her metabolism right, she should be sober in this form. He smiles at her. “Yeah. It’s kind of complicated. I meant to tell you about it, but I’m rethinking the timing a little.” “I’ve had enough alcohol anyway,” Jen says. “Want to go back to my place?” Matt takes one last swig, then nods. “Sure.”

🍌 so what I'm about a quote isn't "from a wip", it's the whole wip. It's a brief exchange that came to my mind a few nights ago and I'm not sure if I'll ever develop it further than that. It's stupid, but I guess I find Italian stereotypes funny, so... Here we go with an outraged Frank Castle:

"What are you doing?" "Pasta." "That's not how you cook pasta, Red."

🍓 the ending of a very recent (like... today-recent) mlb wip came to mind for this 👀 Again, poetic is relative, but yeah. Go Chloé:

One week before, it felt like her world was falling apart. It was, in a way. If something breaks, though, you can put the pieces back together. Chloé did just that: she built herself back up, making space for new pieces beside the old ones. She’s still Chloé Bourgeois. A new adventure is calling to her, and she’s said yes.