Call me Aranea or Ara, a 24 yr old Aussie gal who is ever so slowly working on her novels. Not picky on what pronouns you use for me. I've been writing since I was 14, and been on and off tumblr just as long.
Working full time as a Dental Assisstant, and studying a few courses. Also practice witchcraft. Own a German Pointer named Millie, a boxer cross named Sandy, and a red cattle cross staffy called Tank.
Current interests: Dragon Age, Dragons Dogma, Mass Effect, Skulduggery Pleasant, and Vampyr. I also play the Sims 4, so might even post some of my characters that way.
Favourite genres: Fantasy, horror, paranormal, science fiction, and historical.
Other platforms: AO3
Personal tag: #ara rambles
⥉ About This Blog ⥉
Open to asks about my OCs, world lore, or just wanting to drop in and have a chat!
Mainly using this blog to share lore, snippets of my novels, things that amuse me and worldbuilding.
Current Novel WIPs:
Monstrum (Which, yes, is loosely based on my fanfic under the same name)
A God who never wanted to be a God, sea elves, sapphic dwarven Goddess, polyamory is pretty much the norm, cursed tome that exploded a temple, MC works out he's a transman... What more could you want?
Oh wait, there's one more thing: son of God who died multiple times and came back wrong each time, is currently possessing MC's meant-to-be-dead mother! Oops.
Quondam
Takes place centuries before Monstrum, when The Maker was only a sorcerer who wanted a better world... and now deals with the consequences of taking over as Sovereign of the World. Surely she can change her world without destroying it?
[Un-named]
Crash landing on a unknown planet, memories wiped... The A.I. with corrupted data, known as Thio, calls them Viator, but is that their name? Or a title? The only thing Viator knows is that they were thrown into a black hole... and now have a ship to fix, and to find civilisation.
Fun fact: many public libraries now have 3D printers that you can pay to use! We charge per gram of filament so something like this would probably be less than $10! Just a thought for anyone who wants 3D printed stuff w/o having to buy a several hundred dollar machine
anyway i looked up the post about seeing your grandma's boobs and tumblr has deleted the screenshot of the story where the finnish dude says that americans are "like that" because they haven't seen their grandma's tits
my comments on that post were (sorry for shamelessly copy-pasting them):
american attitudes about nudity are fucking wild, and the worst part is that because they're american, they just assume that everyone everywhere thinks the same. i will never forget seeing people on a left-leaning, progressive site saying that families bathing together is creepy and gross and clearly a sign that something is wrong with the family, that they'd never seen their siblings or parents naked and would in fact rather die. meanwhile to this day i bathe and go to the sauna with my sister and mother and have been bathing and sauna'ing with various family members - and even strangers! - my whole life.
but yes, can confirm, seeing your grandma's tits as a child does you good, and not just because it teaches you that "beauty is fake and temporary", but because it broadens your ideas about what beauty even is in the first place. my sister and i used to spend our summers at our grandma's house by the countryside and frequently bathed and went to sauna with her. we saw not just her breasts but also her flabby skin, her moles and liver spots, her body hair and varicose veins, and we didn't see any of that as weird or ugly because they were a part of our grandma who we loved very much. and when we see those things in other people - ourselves included! - we think "well it wasn't ugly on my grandma's body, so why would it be ugly on anyone else's body?". it makes you much more understanding and "forgiving", if you will, towards the completely normal bodies of strangers as well as your own body.
one time I went over to a friend's house and their housemate was making paper in the living room, and we saw this big tub full of water they were using to dissolve old scrap paper into a slurry, and everyone was immediately like "oh, you need scrap paper?" and started turning out their jacket pockets and producing expired coupons and bus tickets and crumpled receipts and old shopping lists and whatever else they'd been carrying round with them for no good reason, and passing it all to the paper-making housemate to make sure it was suitable before it got torn up and dropped into the tub, while people took turns stirring the slurry with a big wooden stick. it was strangely ritualistic, like presenting an offering to some kind of temple elder for inspection before placing it in a watery shrine to be devoured and reformed. pulp for the pulp god.
I ended up having a really interesting conversation with some people at the bus stop today. They were getting out of some sort of ‘clean and sober’ meeting and had starting saying how they were so bored because they didn’t have anything to do, and had to stay at home because all their old friends would pull them back. So I said something like, ‘So this is the time to do all the stuff your parents told you they didn’t have money/time for!’
“Whatcha mean?”
“You know, like when you were five and you REALLY wanted to have that toy or do that thing and you were like, ‘Please mom please I gotta have this I gotta go do this’ and they went ‘Hell no you think I’m paying for that do you want to goddamn EAT?’ “
And this light went on in their eyes. The lady is going to go check thrift stores for an Easybake Oven and I told her about Wilton cake decorating classes. The dude is going to Griffith Park and ride horses, because, ‘I always wanted to be a cowboy, and you can’t drink when you’re on a horse ‘cause you’ll fucking die!’
Fuck it. This is what being an adult is. Sure it’s bills and work and relationships, but damn it, it’s also time to do the things you LIKE.
I signed up for a free class/lecture on Water Gardens. I’m going. It’s time.
no joke, this is such an important aspect of overcoming trauma. I mean the trauma of abusive parents, the trauma of broke ass parents who got toxic because of it, the trauma of capitalism. Like fuck it. Go to Wrestlemania. Build a shit ton of terrariums.
not all of us can live in fantasy 100% the time like i see some people on here do and it's refreshing to learn something new. its been philosophy, essays, and history for me and i feel much more at home on planet Earth for it knowing that people have been struggling and wishing similarly for millenia.
its not that fiction doesnt have its place, its important and healthy to exercise the imagination, but non-fiction can do so much to boost and supplement that. if not for yourself, for your art or for the people you're around
this version of the post doesnt seem to be getting much traction but this is arguably the most important reason why we should be reading nonfiction in addition to fiction
everyone always surprised when you can learn bits of information about them from the characters they make... dearly beloved. you took a lump of clay with no form and shaped it with your hands and thought you wouldn't leave fingerprints? what hubris! you leave scraps of yourself in everything you make. sometimes it's a lot more than scraps but just for you i'll pretend i didn't notice
Mythal was the first to prove that power need not be enforced by fear. But once that point was made, she was quite happy to flex her claws.
Combining Morrigan (purple), Flemeth (maroon), and Elvhenan (gold, lyrium) in colors
Patterns evoking Elvhenan in its mosaics and frescoes, and the Andrastian Chantry in the train (because the Temple of Sacred Ashes is built over one of Mythal's temples)
Mythal wears her achievements openly, with the "eyes" on her belt inspired by the true form of spirits as well as the "flowers" she holds in her mosaic; the design on her belt's tassel, brooch, and overskirt, are the Titan heart fresco motifs, representing her dominion over the pillars of the earth
And of course, she’s not wearing vallaslin - she’s wearing war paint. after defeating the titans and building an empire, the war paint she and her family wore to protect the People became the basis of the vallaslin slave brands used to keep the People in line.
I thought I'd revisit my telenovela matriarch Mythal, but I decided I actually really like it and there wasn't much I wanted to change. I especially like how Andruil's #UnderArmor compression sleeve thingies kind of make it look like she's trying to emulate her mother's draconic, clawed hands.
One thing I love putting in my fantasy and scifi that so many stories I read don't have is superstitions that are just wrong. Astrology type shit. Wizards being assigned an elemental type that's supposed to determine their personality just because that's how it's been done for centuries because ages ago people believed in it and these days people are like "no of course it's a silly superstition haha" but still glance knowingly at your metal type tattoo when you're being headstrong. Societies who believe that the stars determine your destiny because see, this kid was born under the star that indicated intelligence so we pushed her in school and got her special tutors so she could live up to her potential and look, she IS more academically successful than her peers born under other stars! People talking about their religion in the far future and all the side characters are like "that sounds like fucking nonsense" and they're like "no it's TRUE" and the audience is like 'no that's nonsense'. I love inventing shit for characters to just be totally wrong about.
This is also a useful tactic for reminding readers not to trust characters' perspective too much. Like, yeah, that person did just give a very smart-sounding detailed analysis on the current situation and predicted to the month how long it will be before war breaks out, but they also believe (incorrectly) that the ghosts of previous captains live on in the hull of the ship and think humans invented dolphins by combining human and whale DNA, so don't be too surprised if they turn out to be wrong. The narrator said it's "the biggest spaceship ever built" but she's six years old and just learned what a sheep is, so. Might have a limited perspective.
I think making character playlists is good for you and connected to analysis skills in a very fun way and low investment way. I know its seen as quite trivial but to me it operates the same way looking at a lot of art builds ur skills passively. Yummy enrichment activity
I have to add that gender euphoria for cis people doesn't always come from like, conforming to your gender in a "stereotypical" way
I've always been very comfortable with my gender but I didn't Really Like being a woman until I cut my hair short and started dressing/presenting more "masculine."
When i realized that I could look "manly" as a woman I truly felt comfortable and really...more "like" a woman. I enjoy being masculine and it strengthens my connection to womanhood and it's just kinda cool
