ValleyShrike

She/her. A chronic lurker slowly learning to post and interact. I plan to put my own writing here someday

[valleyshrike]

Masterpost

Hi everyone! I’m ValleyShrike, or Shrike for short. I am an adult though my true age shall remain a secret.

I tend to overthink a bit when posting so I won’t post much unless I think I have something good to say. I’m also very shy with reblogs but I’m working on it!

To everyone who’s liked/reblogged my stuff: THANK YOU! And to any lurkers out there, I appreciate you as well. Even if I have no clue who you are.

Stuff you’ll find here: Posts regarding whatever fandom I’ve been swept into lately, currently it’s Vampires SMP (VSMP) and Project Hail Mary (PHM). I’ll also be reblogging my sibling @mandragora-metalloidal ‘s stuff, and maybe someday I’ll have the courage to post some of my original writing.

Taglist: 

#reblog (reblogs of other people’s stuff without adding much to it)

#artrb (art reblogs)

#writingrb (writing reblogs. Includes stories, analysis, head canons etc.)

#other peoples writing advice (what it says on the tin, basically stuff I’ve saved for personal reference)

#asks (answers to any asks I get)

#metal writes stuff (my sibling’s writing)

#vsmp (my VSMP-related posts)

#phm (my PHM-related posts)

#shrikechirps (My rambles that are not related to anything in particular)

#shrikewrites (my writing, original or fan content)

I will add more tags later as necessary! 

[lorefulgood]

ngl I do still kinda think it’s awesome that scott goldsmith got away with all that

[lorefulgood]

that man killed people! he hunted them down and assaulted them and killed them and ate them, turned them into vampires without sparing a thought for whether they wanted it. in fact, if they wanted it, he wouldn’t give it to them, because he preferred when they fought back and he could overpower them. he both emotionally and physically abused his fledgelings and openly admitted to enjoying tormenting the human residents of oakhurst. he coerced apo into consenting to him assaulting her. and then he manipulated the majority of town into believing he wasn’t that bad and had changed his ways and should be allowed to walk away unharmed. and he did! he got away with it! they let him go!

and isn’t that great? the ending of vsmp mirrors real-world examples of powerful men who get away with abuse and assault and anything they want really, just because people think they’re more likable than their victims. doesn’t that make you want to die? isn’t it just soooo fun?

[rhynnjoy]

"You actually remind me a lot of me when I was younger... The constant crying out for attention, having to grasp at any amount of success you can get while no one gives you a word of notice. I understand..."

I should probably remember to actually post here more

[brysbeddixt]

Absolutely love that in any other story and any other fandom, there would be a slew of posts talking about how Eva Stratt is a “very complicated character with a lot of hidden depth;” but instead it’s actually like, no she isn’t complicated at all actually. She sends Grace to die to save humanity. Maybe she feels bad about it, maybe not. But she makes that choice knowing it’s the RIGHT choice, because it IS. It’s a SIMPLE choice. One man or billions of lives? There is absolutely nothing complicated about it.

And her depth isn’t hidden. It’s right there in the open. She’s pragmatic and uncompromising and ruthless, because she CARES. She cares about humanity. She NUKES ANTARCTICA because she’s not willing to compromise millions if not billions of lives just to maintain the planet’s ecosystem. Again, a very simple choice: billions of lives, or a planet that won’t support life in 30 years anyway if she can’t figure out how to stop that from happening. The RIGHT choice. An easy choice, for someone like Stratt who knows she will be held solely responsible for her crimes, but there will be people alive to do it.

[luna-azzurra]

Tips for Writing Trauma!

i love you all and i need you to stop writing trauma as a single breakdown scene in the rain after which the character is Healed and Ready to Love Again. that is NOT trauma :(

⊹ Trauma doesn't announce itself. it shows up as your character suddenly not being able to eat a specific food, or going very quiet in a loud room, or laughing at the wrong moment because their nervous system decided that was the appropriate response. it's mundane and weird and it makes no sense from the outside. the dramatic flashback sequence is the least realistic part. the most realistic part is your character suddenly needing to leave a grocery store for a reason they can't articulate.

⊹ The body keeps score and it keeps it in the strangest places. a particular smell. the quality of light at a certain time of day. a tone of voice that sounds like someone who hurt them. your traumatised character doesn't think "this reminds me of the bad thing." their heart rate spikes and they don't know why. they feel wrong and they can't locate the feeling. they're irritable for three days and only later, if ever, do they make the connection. write the disconnection. it's more honest.

⊹ trauma also does not make people universally sympathetic and wise. it makes some people controlling. some people funny at inappropriate times. some people very good in a crisis and completely unable to handle a normal day. some people are generously kind to strangers and absolutely terrible to people they love. trauma shapes behaviour in contradictory, inconvenient ways that don't resolve into a lesson. your traumatised character can be difficult to like. that's not a flaw in the writing. that's the WRITING.

⊹ Healing is not linear and it is not a destination. your character does not get better and stay better. they have a good month and then something small undoes two years of progress and they have to start again with slightly more tools than before. that's the actual shape of it. the spiral, not the arc. the scene where they finally open up and cry is not the end. it might not even be progress. sometimes it just means they were tired that night.

[pinkminecraft]

oh, tragedy is born from the lover,

[luna-azzurra]

Tips for Writing Grief! (AGAIN)

the five stages of grief were never meant to be a checklist your character moves through in chronological order across three chapters. Let me save you from writing a grieving character who is simply having scheduled emotions:

⊹ Grief is not primarily crying. i know that sounds wrong but hear me out. a lot of grief looks like doing laundry. cooking something the person liked and then not being able to eat it. watching a show they recommended and never told anyone you finished it. grief goes very quiet and very domestic for long stretches and then ambushes you at completely unreasonable moments like a petrol station or a Friday at 4pm for no reason at all.

⊹ people who are grieving often seem fine. not because they're suppressing or being brave or in denial, but because humans are genuinely capable of functioning and being devastated at the same time. your grieving character can make jokes. can go to work. can have a good day. can feel guilty about the good day. can feel guilty about not feeling guilty. grief has a very active internal bureaucracy that has nothing to do with what's visible on the outside.

⊹ Grief also changes shape over time in ways that aren't necessarily about getting better. the first year is often adrenaline, there are things to do, people around, ritual and structure. year two is frequently harder because the adrenaline is gone and the world has moved on and expects you to have moved on with it. your character being more visibly undone eighteen months later than at the funeral is not a pacing problem. it's accurate.

⊹ The relationship with the dead person doesn't stop. this is the one writers get most wrong. your grieving character is still in a relationship , still arguing with the person in their head, still updating them on things, still furious about something left unsaid, still finding out new things about them from other people and having to integrate a version of them they didn't fully know. grief is not the end of the relationship. it's the relationship continuing without any new information coming in.

[thegremlininyourcloset]

things happened please give me a comprehensive guide to apo please

okay so!!

I think the core of Apo’s character and story is “what if you did everything right and it wasn’t enough”. Like, this might not make sense because Yes, she is flawed!! She does bad things! And yet it’s still abundantly clear that Apo is the bigger person, who’s been victimized over, and over, and over again. She’s the cathartic tragedy of wondering “if I was kinder, smarter, stronger, would I have prevented it all? Is it my fault?” and knowing that no, it wasn’t. No, you couldn’t. And yet simultaneously, her story is about reclaiming agency. It’s about clawing your way out of hell and emerging bloodied and broken but alive. It’s about never getting justice, and it’s about surviving anyway.

here’s some of my apo stuff, also:

insane ramble that honestly sums it up pretty well: here

analysis(ish?): here, here, here, here(?), here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here

relationships(platonic romantic and everything in between): here, here, here(?), here, here, here, here, here, here(?), here(?), here, here, here

shitposts: here, here, here, here, here, here

miscellaneous: here, here, here, here, here, here, here

[floristquills]

Joy and whimsy!

[valleyshrike]

WAIT WHAT?! SINCE WHEN?! HELL YEAH!!!!!

[valleyshrike]

Oh wait it’s just all of Scott’s POV lmao. Still great to have but I was hoping for more of like what echoweaver’s making… why did I think that would be only 10 hours??? Yeah this one’s on me.

hope y’all enjoy tho!

[valleyshrike]

Wait what

HOW many times am I going to join the bandwagon for something and then get whacked in the face by some sort of controversy with a creator. It happened to me for a comic I really really liked too. It’s kind of not fun, man…

Okay to be fair it’s only happened like… three times total. But still.

To be clear, yes this is abt vsmp, no I don’t know exactly what’s going on yet. Gonna go read some stuff and come back to this post once I know what the fuck I’m talking about.

[valleyshrike]

WHAT THE FUCK.

ok first and foremost this person has details.

Very grateful to them as I don’t have Twitter. I doubt that my post is the reason anyone finds out given that I have exactly 1 follower (my lovely mutual) but just in case.

Yeah so that was a lot worse than I expected. I’m NOT leaving VSMP tho. (I might be posting less VSMP but not because of this, timing’s coincidental! I’m just getting really into Project Hail Mary!) If I ran from everything I liked with a toxic fan base I’d have nothing to enjoy. Creators are a bit different, but there’s 13 other YouTubers who put their heart and soul into this series, not to mention all the fans. I love this fandom, it’s so welcoming. Y’all gave me the courage to stop lurking and actually interact.

That’s all I’m gonna say, I’m not gonna speculate or crash out or anything. I hope the fandom’s able to bounce back from this, though. And I hope all the creators will be okay.

[valleyshrike]

Wait what

HOW many times am I going to join the bandwagon for something and then get whacked in the face by some sort of controversy with a creator. It happened to me for a comic I really really liked too. It’s kind of not fun, man…

Okay to be fair it’s only happened like… three times total. But still.

To be clear, yes this is abt vsmp, no I don’t know exactly what’s going on yet. Gonna go read some stuff and come back to this post once I know what the fuck I’m talking about.

[floristquills]

Joy and whimsy!

[valleyshrike]

WAIT WHAT?! SINCE WHEN?! HELL YEAH!!!!!

[allynabean]

He just can't resist toying with those silly humans, can he?

Based on a scene from Vampires SMP Ep 1, in Owen's pov!!

[edgebug]

"grace. grace! grace give attention. rocky perform human ritual of escape closet now. statement."

"come again?"

"i learn more from thinking machine. human gender preference. attraction to same gender, means word 'gay.' all eridian same gender." rocky stands straight up. "rocky come out to grace now. all rocky plural gay, statement."

"...wow, that's... rock, i'm not sure it makes much sense to apply human ideas of sexual orientation to a monogendered species."

a long and judgmental pause. then:

"grace HOMOPHOBIC, question????"

[shrugsinchinese]

Immense gratitude

[thepagemistress]

You know, one of my favourite things about Ryland Grace is how sociable he is. How easy it is for people to fall into his orbit. They show it time and time again. How much his students obviously love him, how he manages to hype up the dour suits whilst he's testing the astrophage, Carl playing with him in the Home Depot, the other government people eating his Skittles, Eva Stratt dragging him around everywhere and allowing herself to be just that little bit more vulnerable around him, Rocky and the Eridians embracing him as not just as a savior but family.

I know it's not explicit that Grace is aroace but so often, aroace people are portrayed as distant and independent and happily isolated. Sometimes even to the point of misanthropy. It's so nice to see a character like this who loves connecting with people. He's a rambler, he's excitable. So what if he doesn't have a family or a dog. He doesn't need them because he has everyone he meets and that's enough.

[applestruda]

Burning up