#looking for thoughts

[lime-kiln-lake]

Tossing a story+world concept that came to me in a dream (thoughts welcome and invited)

(pinned for accessibility and so I don't forget)

Spending more time working on my shapeshifter character concept, and I think it's key to share the 'rules' of this race in my world.

The planet in my (high fantasy-ish) world is in a sphere (sun orbits earth style), in a self contained oort-cloud sized bubble. This bubble is one of many that float in the sea of ethereal essence, basically just a fucking background radiation nothingness.

Every one of these "spheres" is the will of a god/deity, shaping said world and its inhabitants into their image. The main world, Galm, is the result of a Deity self-immolating out of love for its denizens, granting them free will, cut loose from their deity.

Magic in this world is tearing "shapes" into the fabric of the world, and letting the ethereal through. The "shape" determines the effect.

Shapeshifters in my world are the result of a bigass tear in the world, through which a mortal ascended to de-facto godhood. The fallout from this simultaneously created my parasitic jellyfish (another time), AND these shapeshifters. Both operate through the instability of their physical form being MUCH higher due to their flesh being suffused with the ethereal.

Now; shapeshifters were created from a disaster, which this new god would very much like to NOT have associated with him, SO he blames the shapeshifters for the disaster, and gets them exiled to small island fiefdoms.

It's been a LONG time since then and shapeshifters now have their own concept of gender, their own social customs, their own language dependent upon real-time shapeshifting of their voices. They're ostracized by all nearby (due to the faith continuing there) and more-or-less unknown in farther reaches of the world. Their abilities naturally lend them to espionage, and they're highly sought after by spymasters everywhere.

My STORY concept to explore this, is the child of traveling shapeshifters, lost at sea, and saved by some rural farmer humans in a random village. Our protagonist, naturally, is raised with the belief that he's just a cursed human. His family knows nothing about shapeshifters, and they just assume he's a boy because of the form they found him in, giving him a boy name.

He has little shame about his base form, and follows human conceptions of gender, happily working in his village using his "curse" as a party trick. He meets a girl. (Maybe) Has a kid. Learns to write.

Eventually he ends up a clerk for some local magistrate. A local magistrate that a proper shapeshifter is hired to steal from.

So, imagine, our protagonist is working late, relaxed, in his 'baseline' shapeshifter form. Another shapeshifter disguised as a guard comes in, and is just blasted by this human-acting shapeshifter doing paperwork at 11:00pm, not bothering to hide his form.

They try to communicate to him, but our protagonist doesn't know their language. The subtle codes of the shapeshifters. He's married to a human woman and has a job for pete's sake.

Anyways, this new shapeshifter sticks around, trying to figure out just how the hell this guy got here, and trying to get him to hide his nature for their species' safety. He doesn't even believe them. Until, of course, hero's calling. Someone higher up hears about him, and he is hunted for his value to their local queen. He is separated from his wife. On the run.

The proper story is this man needing to find a way to reunite with his family, all while being in the shapeshifter underworld, stuck in a world where gender/sexuality/language/social customs are both more complicated, and more alien to him.

Naturally, the actual plot is that journey to save his reputation (and perhaps that of his race), but CONSTANTLY throughout I want to have him suffering from cultural embarrassment. Older shapeshifters offended by his lack of manners. Him not understanding wildly different modesty protocols. Him grossed out by the complex cuisine of his people. Meeting his TRUE parents, and them being mortified that their child has the cultural knowledge of a toddler.

I think it'd be peak. And tbh would be fun to write, as in DnD I'm the one cishet guy who plays changelings lmfao. I've got a long experience of playing with groups where I'm playing THE noncishet race, but I'm playing him as "just a guy".

[n1ghtm4r3-p01s0n]

JEWISH FOLKS, NEED YOUR THOUGHTS

I'm planning a bunch of events for the server I mod (Scemo Kidz) and have a movie event happening on the 8th (y'know, when Hannukah is happening this year) and thus I'd like to feature a movie focused on Hannukah. I've already done a bit of Googling, but what movies would you recommend?

[bonefall]

While we’re on the subject of super edition, what plans do you have for Bluestar’s Prophecy if you have any?

That's a good question because I'm trying to make sure my rewrite of Bluestar's Prophecy doesn't become redundant with the more important overhaul of Spottedleaf's Heart, which is becoming Thistleclaw's Law.

Thistleclaw is THE most important villain in my rewrite. He never murdered anyone in ThunderClan, but he inspires both Tigerclaw and Brokenstar and founds the ideology that shapes the conflict of all future arcs in a way. Almost EVERY political conflict in the later arcs, from Mudclaw's rebellion, Bramblefake's tyranny, and even Berryheart's radicalization directly trace back to Thistleclaw.

SO ANYWAY, back to Bluestar's Prophecy. Because Bluestar is the antithesis of Thistleclaw, I'd change events around to emphasize how she comes up with HER ideology. She is the reason Firestar leads the way he does

Here's the big change 'fragments' I know I WANT to work with, but haven't fully committed to yet;

Adding or shuffling events to show her being particularly gracious with cats of other clans; we should see her develop her philosophy

Bluestar is NOT the prophesied leader of ThunderClan; Thistlestar is. She is "meant" to raise three powerful ThunderClan warriors.

I don't want to make StarClan TOO horrible so I'm thinking that this is more of the inevitable sort of prophecy, not necessarily one StarClan wants.

I'm thinking this prophecy also foretells that many will die when Thistle becomes leader, but Mosskit was MEANT to be the hero who eventually ended Thistle's reign

Goosefeather, ever-committed to destiny, will do what he can to put Thistlestar into power.

Goose actually got Moonflower killed on purpose. He follows his visions to the letter, and resents those who try to defy destiny.

Bluestar's kits weren't in the way of deputyship just because she was in the nursery with them. They were in the way because it was suspected they're half-clan.

It IS her right to not reveal their father, and Thrushpelt jumps in to take the heat off her by claiming they're his

But Thistleclaw is drumming up anti-RiverClan sentiment, doubting her loyalty, reminding everyone about the Mapleshade incident (from which the law was born)

Bluestar can't let sooo many cats die for Thistlestar's rule. She would do anything to break prophecy. She HAD to become leader. There MUST be another way...

So... she brought the kits to RiverClan. Mosskit, the foretold hero, dies in the process.

With Mosskit's death, the thread of fate is broken. Goosefeather never has another vision again.

I know that I would also like Thrushpelt to die as a result of Thistleclaw's actions somehow; but Thistleclaw does not die shortly after Bluestar becomes deputy.

He MUST live at least until her early leadership for other parts of my rewrite to work.

Part of me wants him to be deputy for a short, bloody period of time, during which he gets several people killed, but it already feels like I'm bloating the story tbh

It's a long list exactly because I'm not super committed to anything yet. It's hard to rewrite one of your favorite books so much; Bluestar's Prophecy is one of my favorite warrior entries as it is, but changing Thistle means that BP has to change equally.

[raptors-drawblog-of-awesome]

I’ve sketched a few gym leaders for my Fakemon region (designs arent final, i just wanted to share some of my ideas)

                                                  The Region:

So this is a rough map of the Canoha region, largely based on the Lake Erie area of Ohio and Canada. The star is the starting town, the blue circles are towns without gyms, magenta are towns with gyms, yellow are important dungeons/areas, and black are postgame.                                                       The Fakedex: https://www.deviantart.com/chrysomal/gallery/61568858/the-canoha-region

                                                  The Gym Leaders: So the first gym is an Insectarium, and the gym leader is of course then a bug specialist! They’re an entomologist and act as both a tour guide and gym leader.

The second gym is found in a big city! In the most well known hospital you’ll meet the next gym leader, a microbiologist and specialist of poison types. Her pokemon help her with her studies.

The third gym is found deep in the woods, in the dark many travelers get lost and turned around. Still, as many of the pokemon here will play trick on the unaware, theres an equal amount who will show the way to safety. A ghost type specialist, this gym leader lays in wait at the deepest spot. 

[marshmallow-phd]

Real quick before I pop off again to continue working on the update:

So, I’m still completely undecided on how Nine Little Letters is going to end (what have I done to myself?!). I figured that if I STILL can’t get it together in the next few chapters, I have 2 options:

Option 1: Write multiple endings and let you guys choose which one you want to read that way everyone wins (which I’ve seen done well and not so well so I don’t know if I’d be able to convincingly execute it) 

Option 2: Put it to a vote and write the one ending with the boy that gets the most votes. This could backfire in the sense that I see one boy win and suddenly I’m disappointed and want to write the other one. (I have done this in different scenarios so many times in my life, I would not put it past me!)

I’m just curious as to what you all think or what you like to see. I’ve never been this indecisive before. Even with Experiments, I was able to figure out. So please, let me know your thoughts. If you all need a few more chapters (which I’m sure you will because things are about very messy), that’s fine. I’m just curious as to where your guys’ heads are currently at. 

Thank you! 

[delirious-donnaarchived]

What do I write next my little darlings?

Which fandom? What character(s)? What's the topic? Do I go for men in ‘x’ fandom react to ‘x’? Do I do something character specific? A specific kink to explore further?

Tell me..!

[ketchuplaser]

Looking for Character Input

I have an idea for a Shadowrun Ranger. He’s a former Park Ranger (aka, save tourists from dangerous animals) for the UCAS, but realized that he liked the animals a lot better than the people.

He now runs the shadows (of course) and uses his funds to free conserve wild spaces.

So the big question is: What sort of weaponry should he use? Shotgun? Rifle? SMG?