#Creative Writing Programs

[blumoonfiction-blog]

National Writing Project (NWP): Empowering Young Writers Through Camps and Workshops

National Writing Project (NWP): Empowering Young Writers Through Camps and Workshops The National Writing Project (NWP) offers young writers opportunities to explore their creativity and improve their skills through writing camps, virtual workshops, and contests. With a focus on various genres, NWP supports young authors in finding their voice and honing their craft. Recommended Reading and…

[tsuchinokoroyale]

Love putting on this cheap ass robe it makes me feel like I’m the emperor’s only male concubine that gets assassinated by the court for taking up all the emperor’s time without being able to produce an heir which results in a retaliatory culling of the noble houses by the grieving emperor, tearing apart the political stability of the nation resulting in an influx of foreign influence vying for control over the region due to the presence of a rare mineral endemic to the nation alone which can be refined to produce a potent panacea or turned into the component of a deadly weapon which turns into a large scale international stalemate as the emperor would rather stay in his room producing tear-jerking paeans about the goodness of my nature and the warmth of my embrace that future queer historians would discover held treasure troves of double entendres that would become commonplace slang in the peaceful future secured by the long-term cohabitation of these foreign nationals, themselves away from home and seeking human connection, which fostered cultural exchange and later mutual understanding and the establishment of permanent armistice that would later be attributed to me through my death and immortalize me as a symbol of peace through noble sacrifice and establish my life story as the base archetype for all doomed romance stories for millennia, even tho in reality I was just an errant washing boy with poor impulse control and a breeding kink that wouldn’t quit

It’s also pretty soft !

[aeolianblues]

I don't like that the dev community picks on people who are most fluent in Python, when the ChatGPT-using "vibe coders" are right there. At least Python babies are coding. Bully the non-coders instead.

[starry-bi-sky]

Danyal Al Ghul's missed potential - this kid is not gonna behave like his canon self if he's with the league of assassins until his late formative years, and my reasoning why

(feel free to take this all with a grain of salt this is just my thoughts on it, this is all mostly amusing to me and isn't trying to be negative towards anyone else)

similar to how i was talking about how danny growing up in crime alley would affect him, demon twin aus with danyal al ghul make me laugh a lot (affectionate) because... whose teaching danny to unlearn all the ecofascism he picked up from the league of assassins? whose teaching him to be kind? to be gentle? Not the LoA thats for certain.

(you could plausibly say Jazz but she's only 2 years older than Danny and do you really expect a fellow child to properly explain why X is wrong to another child and have it be 100% effective? i don't doubt it'd help to an extent, but not in the same way an adult explaining it would)

plus a ton of other things, like whose teaching him to value human life? not the LoA. Whose teaching him how to adjust to living with American society after he ends up with the Fentons when he's 8-9-10? Who teaches him that killing is wrong, whose enforcing that?

(not the Fentons if you're going the neglectful parent route, and Jazz can try but i really don't think Danny is going to listen to her, a stranger who isn't even part of his grandfather's league)

How do you teach a child to value human life when the greatest development window for that opportunity has closed and he's already formed his own opinions?

You're not gonna get a Danny whose exactly like his canon attitude if he's staying with the league during his formative years (0-8 years old). you're not. You could get someone LIKE it, potentially, or someone who has traces of it or is similar -- like danny's wit and jokes and sarcasm, and on some level his kindness. but you're not gonna have a carbon copy. Development doesn't work that way. "nature" can only do so much in the face of nurture.

If anything, it doesn't even have to be a major change -- in the league he cans till be kind, but it's probably going to manifest in a different way than what is considered normal. Tough love, for one. But there's gonna be something that affects him negatively. Why make him 'always good/kind' when you can make him a brat who develops into a kinder (if spikier than in canon) person?

TLDR: Danyal Al Ghul would not be like how he is in canon if he's with the league until his late formative years -- not without any lasting pr permanent impacts from the league at least. Missed potential to make him an absolute nightmare like damian was -- especially in his early years when he first arrived to the Fenton house.

(this doesn't apply to danyal al ghul aus where he's either given to the fentons as a baby/is reincarnated/etc. this is mostly aimed for danyal al ghul aus where he fakes his death at like, 7-10 and somehow ends up, personality-wise like his completely canon self by 14 without any differences.)

(and even then if he's five or four, or even three, he would still be traumatized and influenced by the league. he'll just have more time to adjust. the sooner he leaves the league the more likely he is to be like his canon self, but not like an exact copy)

(more under the cut)

Anyways what I'm saying is that there is prime missed Danyal al Ghul potential to make him an absolute NIGHTMARE to the Fentons however way he ends up with them, just like Damian was with the Waynes! Cuz why does Damian get all the fun? Danny got the same training and endoctrine as him! He is also an ex-assassin! Why is Danny the only one who is 'well adjusted and non-violent' hm? Hmm?

Why can't he also be mean, and stabby, and a total stuck-up in some way or another? Have fun with his characterization, its prime opportunity to play play-doh and clay with him! If he starts out as X how does he get the personality traits of Y, and thus become XY?

Like take this with a grain of salt if you will, but make him arrogant. Make him an asshole! Make him a bad person at first! Because he will be! He's the blood son of the batman and you mean to tell me that damian is the only one arrogant about it at first? Make him stabby and mean even at 14 when he's begun to chill out! Have fun with it! If he's with the Fentons at any point past the age of four or five then he's gonna be a nightmare to handle because he still remembers the league and his time there.

(and while it gives him more time to chill the hell out, his time at the league is still gonna leave an impact on him.)

also what im saying as well is have him and sam potentially get along like a house on FIRE. Again, Danny grew up under the views of an ecofascist cult and nobody to challenge those views to him until he got to amity park at whatever age in late formative years he was at. He could be about as intense or even MORE intense about environmental awareness/rights than Sam is!

(also him being supremely unimpressed with Sam's wealth. he gave up a palace in the mountains for this town. because that's funny to me - like let his past have more influence on him! it'll be fun!)

you could have a danny who doesn't kill but doesn't fully understand the value of human life because jazz is like two years older than him and isn't that good at explaining why people's lives are important. he won't kill but he's not morally opposed to it. there's very little chance he actually gets bullied at school because he nearly killed Dash the first time he tried anything.

Danny could have scars, physical ones, because its implied in multiple canon that training starts at toddling (my best bet is 3 at minimum and ~maybe~ 2 but only on the later side of 2. Good fucking luck getting any infant under 2 to do anything you ask, ESPECIALLY assassin training. They're gonna stick the weapon in their mouth sooner than they're gonna do katas. This is coming from a daycare teacher.)

there's more examples of how danny being at the league during his formative years would affect him, but those are just some of them. he could have a sword! An appreciation for weaponry and nature. Maybe he still speaks all shakespearan and formal, does he still make bodily threats to people? If Damian is still threatening people at 14 why can't danny?

[pan-fried-kirke]

a frustrated PSA to any and all artists out there: don't ever take a class to improve your skills of something that is just a hobby to you, and that class is very centered on rigorous perfection and realism. even after just a few weeks of a class I took for that very reason, I was glad that covid cut it short by the last 1/4 because I was severely burnt out. so burnt out, in fact, that even now—years later—i cannot for the life of me draw. I don't enjoy it anymore, I can't do anything that I set out to do, and everything I used to be capable of is just. erased. and let's not forget that little niggle of a voice called Perfectionism that has been installed into my brain ever since.

so, do yourself a favor. take easy-going, not that serious classes. watch a YouTube video or three. steadily grow your skill instead of speedrunning it, because you'll find yourself barreling into an invisible wall and shattering instead of reaching the finish line.

or maybe I'm just in my feels and frustrated. idk. cheers ig

[professorfcknmoriarty]

Oh gosh, am I too late for drabbles? I'd love Evan and whoever you'd like with the prompt "I've got you, sweetheart."

“Like this,” Evan says patiently. Like they taught him a lifetime ago when he was at Gowpenny, he gently redirects the broom, enough to get them back on course.

There’s an excited squeal in response.

“Am I doing it?” a tiny voice asks. “Am I flying prop-properly?”

“You’re doing perfect,” he answers honestly, leaning forward to kiss her on the top of her head. She starts to lift her hands up from the center of the broom and he goes, “ah, ah, hands on the broom, sweetheart.”

“Sorry!” she cries, her knuckles going white with how hard she’s grasping it. After a second, she asks, “why can’t I fly with just my knees, like everybody else can?”

“You’ll get there,” he chuckles. “But don’t you dare try flying without your hands before you master it with them first.”

She’s facing forward so he can’t hear it, but Evan knows she’s pouting. “Alright,” she says, a little sullenly.

“You ready to go down?” he asks, sensing that she’s getting tired.

“No,” she whines, “I wanna keep flying.”

“Okay,” he says with a smile. “How’s this sound- let’s fly like old times.”

“Oh! Can we? Can we? Pleasepleaseplease!”

Evan chuckles, wrapping one arm around her middle to lock her firmly in place against his chest. The carabiner has her hooked against him and the broom, but the last thing he wants is to have to catch her if they both go tumbling. “Okay, baby,” he says, “You can let go now. I’ve got you, sweetheart.”

She snuggles back against him, her tiny body feeling so small and fragile against him. He didn’t think there could be anyone in the world this precious to him, but the first time he’d laid eyes on her, felt her tiny fingers wrap around his thumb, his heart had been stolen permanently.

“Hey, look,” he points down at the ground. “You can see your mama down there.”

“Mama!” she cries, suddenly with enough energy to wave frantically down at the ground. “Can she hear us? Mama! Mama, I was flying!”

Smiling, Evan dips them down low enough so they can see Sam more clearly. They fly around her in wide circles, giggling when it makes her plant her hands on her hips and give them a mock stern look.

When they finally land, she’s full of energy, bouncing with it the moment he unhooks her. She goes flying at her mother, straight into Sam’s arms. “Mama, mama, I was flying!” she cries. “Did you see?”

“I did see, young lady,” Sam says, giving their daughter a firm smooch on the forehead. “Why don’t you run inside and clean up and help your papa set the table? Your mom’s gonna be home with dinner soon and then you can tell us all about your flight with your daddy.”

“Okay!” she slams open the patio door and forgets to close it behind her. In the house, Evan can hear her shouting, “Papa, papa! Did you see me and daddy! I flew him around!”

Evan carefully disassembles the broom and then walks over to Sam, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

“Hey, babe,” she says, smiling up at him. “You two have a good flight?”

“Perfect. She’s a natural,” he says. “Just like her mama.”

[raineandsky]

#73

(part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4) (part 5) (part 6) (part 7) (part 8) (part 9) (part 10) (part 11)

tw: blood

The late shift was never particularly kind to the villain. It’s when villains are the most active—and so the heroes are more so too. The cover of night is meant to make crime easier, but the heroes are out in droves at this time and the cover of night turns out to, actually, not cover shit.

Their front door clanks shut behind them, a relieved sigh slipping from their lips. Their eyes trace down the hall—to their bedroom, hell yes—and catch their kitchen door swinging shut.

The evening’s tiredness is evaporated in a second. The villain’s hand is inside their coat on instinct, the feeling of the well-loved knife hilt in their hand a much-needed comfort as they start down the hall.

They push the door open slowly, wishing that they oiled its hinges last week. They peer inside from the safety of the hallway—there’s… nothing in there. It’s just as they left it this afternoon. Except, no, wait—

There’s a handprint on their windowsill. Shiny, still wet, and crimson red.

Invisibility is a habit by now. They glide through the kitchen quietly, their footsteps practised, their coat blending them into the gloom, to glance down at the blood staining the wood. They look outside, back in, across the kitchen. What the– this bitch has been in their fridge.

They open it, letting the light blind them momentarily. Well, there’s a lot of food they’re going to have to throw out now. Specks of blood taint most of this. They glance back, the yellowing light brightening the room and their face, and they hear a very muffled, presumably very unintentional, “shit”.

The fridge slams shut and sinks the room back into darkness. There’s a red trail trickled over the tile floor, leading straight to their pantry.

The villain adjusts their knife in their grasp, creeping towards the little cupboard. They pause outside, heaving a heavy sigh in preparation before tugging the door out and thrusting their blade into the darkness beyond. 

“This is no place for a petty thief,” they say whilst their eyes adjust. It’s darker in there without the streetlamps outside invading. “I’m giving you a chance to get out before I cut you to shreds.”

Someone squeaks from inside. “P–Please don’t!” they cry, and the villain squints suspiciously. They can just see the figure of the person pressed into the back of their pantry.

They fumble for the light switch, showering the tiny room in dull light. Of all people the villain expected to rob them, well, they weren’t really expecting to see—

“[Hero]?” they demand incredulously, and the hero winces. They squeak again when the villain gets the mind to shove their knife against their throat. “How the hell do you know where I live?”

“I– I don’t!” the hero cries. “I didn’t know you lived here, I swear!”

The villain narrows their eyes disbelievingly. “So, what? You break into people’s houses now? Doesn’t sound very agency-friendly.”

The hero’s eyes nervously slip to the bloodstained fridge behind them. “I– I’m hiding.”

An admission of weakness. They’re hiding.

Sirens shriek outside. Blue and red dance merrily on the ceiling. “From what?”

“From [Superhero].”

From the superhero. The villain doesn’t doubt that they’re hiding. The hero looks terrified—though they do have a knife slowly drawing blood at their throat, they suppose. But from the superhero?

“Why?”

The hero swallows nervously. They won’t meet the villain’s eye. “I did something wrong,” they say quietly. “Really wrong. [Superhero]’s practically out for my blood now. I can’t be trusted.”

The sound that comes out of the hero is either a laugh or a sob. It’s hard to tell. “So you’re hiding from him,” the villain finishes.

The hero nods before they remember the blade resting on their skin. “Yeah.”

“And so you’re hiding… in my pantry.”

“... Yeah.”

“And you helped yourself to some of my fridge.”

The hero has the decency to flush in embarrassment. “I’ll replace it. I was desperate.”

“Give me one good reason I shouldn’t kill you right now,” the villain says lowly, “or throw you back into the street.”

Clearly the hero didn’t think this far. They lick their lips, their wide-eyed gaze finally meeting the suspicious squint of the villain’s. “I can– I could do something for you?”

“You dying would do me a great favour.”

The hero swallows again, and their stare turns nervously outward again. “I– I don’t know. I don’t have any of my weapons, I’m not dangerous.”

“You get in fist fights.”

“I usually lose those.”

The hero laughs, the sound taut with anxiety. The villain leans away from them slightly, letting their blade sit a little lighter on them. “I have an idea,” they say flatly.

“Yeah,” the hero says instantly.

“I need a maid.” The hero’s face falls slightly at the wording, and the villain grins ecstatically. “I have the clothes. You work on my whim, without snooping, and you can sleep on the sofa.”

“Isn’t there anything less humiliating I could do?” they ask quietly. God no, the villain thinks. The humiliation is part of the fun.

“I could let you stay in my basement,” they offer pointedly, and the hero grimaces, “if you’re so attached to the clothes you’re wearing.”

Sirens whoop outside. The villain glances at the blood trails on the floor. “I’m going to clean this up before your friends inevitably bust the door down,” they say. “We can talk business when I get rid of them. Stay in there. If I so much as hear from you, they can have you. Got it?”

The hero nods numbly. “Yeah.”

And with that, the villain flicks the light off and slams the door on them.

Cleaning is easy enough, though they’ll need to mop later—or the hero will. They turn over a few pieces of furniture, drag a few drawers open, and then they casually let themself out the front door with a giant, full backpack.

The police are exactly where they wanted them. They spot the villain halfway out of the garden.

“Thief!” one of them cries. “Stop in the name of the law!”

The villain turns on their heel and bolts for the back of the house.

This part is easy. Lose the police in the city, wait for them to clear out from their house, loop back home. They’ll never suspect that the villain lives there. God, they’d have some problems if they did.

The next part is the fun one. They have a hero to blackmail—and by god, are they going to use that to their advantage.

Next part

[mysharona1987]

Honestly, the real story behind the Cat Person film/short story sounds more interesting and chaotic than the movie itself.

So, basically how bad was real life Robert?

The original girlfriend, whom the author based it on, insists he was a decent enough guy, they dated for a few years. She says the bad sex and foul text messages never happened. She remembers him fondly. But acknowledges she was 18 when they started dating and he was 32. (red flag.)

But then the author, who also knew and dated him, paints him out to be a terrible guy, then based the story on the original girlfriend, who is reasonably pissed about it. And the author included every exact detail so everyone in their social circle knew it was about them. But then made up all the nasty stuff..

Original girlfriend says when the story went viral it sent real life Robert into a spiral of depression. He died suddenly in 2021. She never explains why, but the suggestion is suicide.

Creative writing majors be causing all the drama.

[cepetriwrites]

Me after taking another psychologically and emotionally devastating nursing test and going to clock in at my job at the fanfiction writing factory

[purplecowbell]

Libre Office: Come on baby, work on your stories, we've been with you for your entire life, why don't you finish us?

Fanfic and Original work: Come back to us! If you don't write us, who will?

Nonfiction: Don't you know how nice and professional you'll look with a portfolio of me?

Kdenlive: Portfolio? No one's hiring for that. Edit some videos, you missed doing that in high school. Let's work on a medium that hasn't been totally devalued yet.

Ren py & Twine: You know you want to work on interactive fiction. You've always wanted to make a game. Let's combine the best of both worlds.

Godot & Gamemaker: Sure those can be games, but we're the big leagues. You can learn a whole new set of skills and have full control over the systems designed to showcase your narratives. Don't you want to be a real game dev?

RPG Maker: I'm pure level design baby. The restrictions I give you force you to flex your creativity without making you bogged down by details. You want to design a game with some meat on it. not spend a year trying to animate a walk cycle.

Libre Office again: I thought you were a writer first and foremost? Shouldn't you spend more time trying to hone that craft instead of jumping into oversaturated fields? (Editor's note: The arguments cycle until the end of time with very little actually accomplished.)

[therentyoupay]

Hello, Kris! I think I might’ve already gotten the gist of it, but it’s been some time. What exactly IS Academia Mode? Are you still in school, or is this your actual job, and it just happens to be involved in the education system?

Many thanks!

hahah no worries!!! that is a good question 🤣😭😭🙏 for me, academia mode is currently finishing the 5th and final year of my doctoral program and includes (but is not limited to lol):

data collection, analysis, write-ups

writing python programs to support my data cleaning, data coding, stats, and data analysis/visualizations

applying for GRANT MONEYYYY

submitting abstract proposals to conferences (and applying for MORE GRANT MONEYYYY)

reporting research findings (writing journal article manuscripts, preparing conference slides)

writing my actual dissertation manuscript lol

supporting and instructing my research assistants

sharing my research with mainstream public audiences

writing my non-fiction book based on my ongoing dissertation research

teaching classes, grading papers, holding office hours, fielding emails, writing letters of recommendation for all sorts of students' fellowships/grad admissions/grant applications, teaching students how to strategize their personal statements, grant purpose letters, and other aspects of apps, etc.

peer-reviewing others' journal manuscripts, providing feedback to colleagues (blind review or not)

assisting with my advisor's research and textbook manuscripts (proofreading, copy-editing, internet sleuthing, finding more up-to-date citations, occasionally writing rough drafts)

writing chapters for edited volumes on various topics

READING. all the time. reading new literature and research articles constantly. ALL THE TIME. writing 1-pagers and mini-annotated bibs for future lit review use, etc.

WRITING. all the time. professional-speak, academic-speak, insructor-speak.

getting paid to travel to conferences to present my research (GRANT MONEYYYYYY)

by may 2025, i'll be a Ph.D.!!!!!! [screams]

academia mode! ✨🤣🤣🤣😭🤣💕 every day, i think about how lucky i am that i get paid to do what i do 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹 hope you are having a magnificent day, and thank you for the ask!!

[frameconfessions]

I hope the protoframes remain relevant even after this story arc for the Drifter concludes, but I also recognize how complicated things would get with how many characters they could keep trying to make stay relevant, leading to a Konoha 13 Naruto type situation where we have too many relevant characters from Umbra & Ordis all the way to Kaya Velasco.

.

[mitchell-nihil]

Pandora Program Introductory Post

The Pandora Program is a program run by the Canadian government to help superpowered teenage criminals with exceedingly long prison sentences work off their time quickly by doing dirty work for the government. It’s known about by the general population, but is believed to be a private school.

Their world takes in one similar to ours, but in which about 4% of the population has a special power. Different countries have different approaches to handling these powers, and views on them are varied. The Pandora Program, or just Pandora as I call it, focuses on Varen, a member of the program, and the missions and assignments he handles alongside other members, and about the different groups in the world that have formed from these powers.

This will be updated as more about the story is made concrete. Any questions, prompts or thoughts about my writing or characters is greatly appreciated and I will always love them!

Characters

Varen Voclain

As said, Varen is the main character. His power is complicated, and the higher-ups in the program have taken a special interest in his abilities, meaning he and his group get the harder missions and routine training, something they mildly despise him for causing. He’s roommates with Nat, and tentatively considers him a friend. He’s quite a recluse, and a very guilty person, so he fully believes he belongs in the program and sees it as a fitting punishment. He likes certain video games, sleeping, and is very protective of his long hair, which he had initially grown out to annoy his parents. Bad at picking up jokes and social cues, he often comes off as a bit off-putting to others.

Constant eye bags, a nasty scar across his face, and baggy clothes are his signature accessories. He also has a pair of simple earrings and slitted pupils similar to a cat’s, a semi-common feature in his world. They do get bigger when he’s in the dark and can make him look a little silly. He’s 18, and I haven’t been able to decide on his birthday yet.

Nathair Vaughan

He exclusively goes by Nat. He’s 19, and has been in the program since 16 after killing someone just moments after his power developed. His “power” is that anyone who makes skin-to-skin contact with him will turn into a stone statue. It’s not something that he can turn off, making it a very isolating power for someone as extroverted and physically affectionate as himself. It’s an unusual power, because almost no power’s sole purpose is to kill. To destroy or maim, maybe, but something only to kill is unheard of besides himself.

He wears a lot of clothing to protect others, and is put into an “active” group, one that does the physical work on missions, as an easy way to take someone out if needed. After the events of his sixteenth birthday, he is much more cautious when others get close to him and is very proactive about keeping them away from himself. This leads him to isolate himself despite being extroverted, and so Varen’s his first friend in a while. He takes great fun in annoying Varen, and isn’t someone who experiences embarrassment, being unapologetically loud and crude sometimes. He was involved in the “incident” that took place a couple months before the story starts.

White hair is similar to orange hair in their world, as unlike other unique hair colours it is passed down through generations. It’s a bit less uncommon than orange hair, but by far not the rarest hair colour.

Stelle Fraser

Stelle is a member of Varen and Nat’s group, with the ability to create and control the movement of light. She originally was placed in the Mayflower campus in Nova Scotia, but was considered a “problem case” and so was sent to the Trillium campus in Ontario so she could be better monitored. She’s a bit of a grump, but since being transferred seems to be in a better mood. The most honest of the group, she and Varen get along surprisingly well. She’s 19, and has been in the program for a while.

Atlas

Atlas currently doesn’t have any official art of him, for some reason. He’s able to create portals that can be travelled through and have very little limits in terms of how far they can be from each other, but I haven’t decided on other details like where he can make them. Hates the program and copes by making jokes about it, lied to Varen that the reason he was missing his leg is because the crimes he committed were so terrible that prison wasn’t enough. He was given the choice between having his power artificially suppressed or having a tracking chip put into his body, as his power was too dangerous to leave unchecked and he could easily leave. He has black hair, glasses, is 20, and is missing the lower half of his left leg.

He makes up stories about what terrible things he did with his power and how he lost his leg, but really he had it amputated as a child for medical reasons and it isn’t a cool story at all.

Charlotte

Charlotte is in the same group as Varen, Nat, Stelle, and Atlas, and in my opinion has the best power. While it’s not entirely decided on everything she can do, her main feature is obviously her six arms. She’s quite chatty and a very genuine and positive person, getting along well with everyone in the group. She and Nat can goof off together, she and Varen have a lot of nice conversations with each other, she and Stelle have a bit of a tendency to gossip, and Atlas is like an older brother to her, as she’s the youngest in the group at 17 years old. One of the people in the program where you really can’t imagine what got her put in a place like this.

Holds the world record for most limbs, spent a lot of her childhood in doctors offices and hospitals, and has signed about a million different contracts that no, she does not want to donate her body to science when she dies.

Kase

I’ve talked a lot about Kase, but I’ll do it as many times as I can. Kase has the ability to see into the future by using cartomancy, something similar to tarot readings but that he uses a deck of playing cards to do it. He can summon decks out of thin air and ask them any question, but the answers will vary and as card readings tend to go, the answers are always vague.

From the outside he looks pretty laid-back and relaxed, but really he harbours quite a bit of anxiety that his future-reading power definitely didn’t help. He’s developed a tendency to ask his cards just about any question that comes to mind, and those eye-bags aren’t just insomnia. You could almost describe it as an “addiction” to knowing; being able to know the answers to all these questions he has only makes him even more stressed out when he doesn’t know something.

A nice person who’s quite popular, nobody knows why he chooses to spend so much of his time with someone like Blaine.

Blaine

Blaine is the red haired one, and he is very rarely seen without Kase by his side, and despite his best efforts to make others think he finds Kase annoying, it’s obvious the two of them are close. I haven’t made any detailed/solo art of him, so besides this page of him and Kase no drawings of him exist yet. These drawings of Kase are older, he looks more similar to the drawing of Kase I have under his actual section.

Blaine has the ability to control animals by whistling. I was originally inspired by stories in Canada from Indigenous people, about whistling at night and creatures I won’t say the names of. I did more research on legends about whistling at night, as basically any culture refers to it as something bad and dangerous. Currently, Blaine can make animals do whatever he wants by whistling within range of them hearing. He grew up in Canada, as most of them have, and heard the stories about deer walking on their hind legs. This made him decide whenever he did his animal-controlling stuff that he would make all the animals walk around on their hind legs, to freak people out. That fact alone I feel sums up Blaine’s personality pretty well; he likes scaring people and pissing them off. It’s a hobby of his.

Blaine even being able to make a single friend is a surprise to anybody who has met him, as anybody could tell you five different times he was needlessly cruel to them or their friend. Nobody knows why he acts like this, including me. He’s a dick.

Angie

Angie is a member of the program, and enjoys being a nuisance to the staff there. She has control over her own radio station where she’ll plays songs and do little morning talks and announcements. It’s become a fun little thing that most members of the program enjoy, so staff aren’t too hard on her about it. She has the ability to create bursts of electricity and can travel through electrical currents. The program made the entire electrical system of the campus self-contained so that she couldn’t get out.

Vitri

Vitri is the leader of a group that I haven’t named yet, but is basically a collection of ex-members of the program who work together to have it taken down. He was in the first group of kids that the program was run with, a test batch to see how it would work. From 15-21 he was a member of the program, and quite a passionate one. For reasons unknown, he suddenly left the program and was nowhere to be seen for nearly 10 years, before suddenly reppearing and starting to look for people to join his cause. They believe the program is exploitative, manipulative, and abusive, and should be eradicated. When he first started this resistance, he and his members genuinely wanted to help the kids still in it, but as time passed Vitri became more destructive than helpful with his intentions.

Vitri has the ability to manipulate glass. There’s very little limits to what he can do, besides not being able to fuse glass together by himself. He lost a couple fingers when he was first learning to use his power.

Vitri takes a special interest in Varen, who he calls “one of the special ones”, a group of people with powers that go far and far beyond what a normal power can do.

Mirai

Ipvne oef poi nxppvpf xb pyeias xunvytd amza, hrq yseviz wua bwrz as oa htnna ss poi cnvkewt hrowmga alrnl freuk ak yipkyhf km lrn, kinz vv nhpzr.

Although I love all my characters, I think if I was someone reading Pandora instead of the one making it, Mirai would definitely be my favourite. She works alongside Vitri as one of the leaders of the resistance group, and is “one of the special ones” as Vitri says. She’s erratic, mysterious, and a little bit crusty. Seems to know a lot of things and a lot of people.

“J”

He currently doesn’t have a name, but is one of my newer characters and has the ability to duplicate other peoples powers. He does this by obtaining some of their DNA and dropping it into his third eye, which will change to look like that persons eye. It’s very temporary, and anything other than hair will only work for a few seconds, so he favours using hair over other items.

A jock is the best way I can describe him. He works for Vitri and was involved in the “incident” that happened a couple months before the story starts. He seems like a pretty normal guy, if gym bros can be considered normal, and is over-enthusiastic and I’m imagining horribly dyslexic. Carries around a fanny-pack kinda thing around his waist that he carries/hangs hair he’s gathered off of.

Some Basics

Powers are developed on someone’s birthday, within minutes of their exact time of birth. The vast majority of powers develop from 12-18, but there are some younger and older exceptions.

The other two prevalent groups in the story that I haven’t fleshed out much yet are a doomsday sort of cult, who believes the development of powers is going to lead to an apocalypse. The other group believes basically the opposite, that powers were given to special people who have a birth-given right to be leaders and think that they and other power-havers should be the one’s managing the world.

There’s about 360 members of the program at the Trillium campus, ranging from 15-21.

While it’s true that only teenagers are put into the program, some will be put in as a teenager and age into 20 or 21 and remain there. If someone commits whatever crimes and are 20-21 but haven’t been put into the program already, they’ll be advanced into the Agency.

The Agency is similar to the Program, but holds older and usually more experienced members. They are not put into teams like the Program kids are, and do a lot more solo missions and are allowed to live amongst society. The Agency, what they do, and what their agents have done, is well known to the public, and anybody who makes it known they are apart of it are usually avoided, because as stated someone getting put into the Program and Agency is done so because they committed some sort of crime bad enough to warrant going to prison, and all of them have powers.

People with powers garner mixed opinions from people. Some think it’s unfair to treat them differently, while others think that they hold a lot more potential power than the average person does and should be monitored regularly. People whose powers affect their physical form are often subject to scrutiny.

4% of the population has powers, but that’s only an estimate and is actually higher than the recorded amount of people with powers, because it’s estimated only 3/4 people with powers have one that is either significant or discoverable enough. About 1/4 of that estimated 4% have such mundane or specific powers that they are indistinguishable from other people.

Until only recently, in Canada, if you murdered multiple people you could get multiple life sentences. In recent year, that policy was abolished because it was categorised under “cruel or unusual punishment”. In the world of Pandora, this policy is still active.

Crimes committed using powers are taken incredibly seriously, and often a fine or prison sentence can be doubled simply because the person committing it might have used their power to do it. While it’s meant to be extra incentive to stop people from abusing powers, it’s often abused in the legal world.

Thank you for reading this far, if you have! I know this is a lot, but I talk a lot about this story and I want people to be able to learn some of the basic stuff about what I’m talking about. One thing I’ve always been open to but have never really mentioned is that if you ever want to send me a drawing prompt about my own characters, no matter how mundane or extreme, I’ll always try my best to do it! People showing that sort of interest in my stuff is super cool :)

[notsocheezy]

Brain Curd #319

Brain Curds are lightly edited daily writing - usually flash fiction and sometimes terrible on purpose.

Thanks for letting us be frank with you. Read the rest of The Frank Program here on Tumblr!

“Welcome back to The Frank Program -”

“Wait, Daryl, hold it.”

“What is it, Mike?”

“Last night, the phone wouldn’t stop ringing. I went to take it off the hook and I heard someone breathing. And shivering.”

“So?”

“He knows where I live, man!”

“Who?”

“You know who.”

Daryl rolled his eyes. “You’re paranoid.”

“Am not!”

“Well, it’s me he doesn’t like, so just let it go.”

“Oh…” Big Mike gripped his head on both sides. “Oh, man! You’re in danger, dude! I gotta call the cops!”

Daryl scowled. “It can wait. Ahem…” Daryl took a deep breath and put on a smile. “Welcome back to The Frank Program, where today we have another very special guest. If you’re the type of person who listens to this podcast, you’ve probably heard of her: Adult entertainer extraordinaire, Alaska James!”

She smiled and leaned into the microphone. “Hey everybody.”

“Thank you so much for being here, Miss James.”

“It’s a pleasure.”

“Speaking of pleasure, what’s it like working in your industry? Is it fun, or is it as miserable as some uptight folks might have us believe?”

“Uh… I’m sorry, aren’t you a teenager? I’m not sure I should be talking about this…”

“Oh, no need to be concerned. Calling in this episode is my father, the original host, Frank. So I’ve got parental supervision.”

“Howdy, Miss Alaska.” Frank’s fuzzy voice piped through the mixing board. “We’re both big fans. Can’t speak for Mikey, though.”

Mike blushed. “I, uh… I was married until recently. So I didn’t… partake in your form of… performance.”

“Christ, Mikey, ya can say the word ‘porn’. It’s an internet show. Now, Missy, you can stop actin’ like an ‘are you 18’ pop-up and start talkin’.”

“Um… Okay then.” She brushed her hair back. “Well, I will say a lot of people tend to look down on sex workers. They either think we’re dirty, or we’re taking the easy way out, but it’s hard work. We aren’t just having sex, we’re actors.”

Frank chuckled. “Not the best actin’ I ever seen if I’m bein’ honest.”

“Oh yeah? You try making it look like you’re having an orgasm five takes in a row. We have ten, twelve hour shoots some days. It’s exhausting. The money is good, but not great. You know? I live in an apartment with two roommates just like anyone else who works for a living.”

“Hot. Tell me, Missy, how often do ya ‘rehearse’ with your sexy roommates?”

She scowled. “My roommates aren’t in the business. They’re a cashier and a mail woman. And all three of us come home every day sore from work, but the difference is that I had fun doing it. Who’s really selling their body here? I may not be able to walk the day after a long, hard shoot, but they’re the ones who’ll be in wheelchairs when and if they get to retire.”

“Oh, shit, Daryl!” Mike laughed. “You caught us a live pinko, right by her pinko!”

Daryl sighed. “Quit the name-calling, Dad. She’s right. The economy is fucked.”

“Not just the economy, the whole system.” Alaska leaned on the desk. “I’m lucky that I enjoy my work. Not everyone does. And not to throw stones, but… Chuck Tangent just bought the website where I get half of my income.”

“VideoBox?” Daryl raised an eyebrow. “The subscription-based media site known mostly for hosting independently produced pornography?”

Mike leaned on his hand. “I’m pretty sure everyone listening knows what it is, kid.”

“The same,” Alaska nodded. “He says it’s not profitable enough as-is so he wants to turn it into a YouTube competitor for conservatives and ban all porn. He’s even changing the name.”

“Why’d he buy it if he doesn’t want to keep the user base or the name?”

“Because he’s an asshole, probably. And I’ve seen a lot of them.” She gulped. “Oops, sorry. I know you guys like him. But VideoBox is important to me and I hope so-called ‘VidBo’ dies a horrible death.”

“Hmm.” Daryl leaned back in his chair. “Maybe we should get Chuck in here and see what he has to say to defend himself.”

Alaska began breathing heavily. “Oh, oh god, is he here?”

“No…” Daryl looked at her with sympathy. “Did he do something to you?”

“Uh…”

Frank cleared his throat. “I think we ought’ drop this line of inquiry, son.”

“But…”

“Let it go.”

Daryl frowned and gritted his teeth. “Sure thing, Dad. I guess that’ll wrap up today’s episode.” He saw the pain hidden in Alaska’s eyes and grew determined to find the truth, regardless of what his father wanted. It wasn’t right to pull his punches and let jerks like that get away with their crimes. “This has been The Frank Program. Thanks for letting us be frank with you… especially when it counts. See you next time.”

Please comment, reblog, like, and follow if you enjoyed - I'd love to know what you think! See you again tomorrow.

[deepwaterfiction]

Deep Water Prompt #3114

No vet can agree on whether our cat is pregnant or not. They say it must be Schrodinger's Syndrome, and we need to report it at once to the Bureau of Space Time.

[repurposedmeatlocker]

On one hand, I agree that there should be a more diverse field of subject matter utilized in "adult animation". Not all "adult animation" should be used as an excuse to revolve around shock content and gratuitous potty humor. At this point in time, stuff like this being seen on prime-time television is no longer out of the ordinary. And, from my observation, is done well even less frequently. There should be more films that treat themselves seriously and explore an array of topics rather than just comedy with a middle-school idea of mature subject matter.

ON THE OTHER HAND. I don't think there is ANYTHING wrong with animated movies and shows with lots of drugs and boobies and sex and gross jokes. I think cartoon characters having freaky sex is funny af. Both have the right to exist together. Art should not be pigeon-holed through a lens of "respectability" in order to be taken seriously. Demanding adult animation be "palatable" for an "adult" audience ultimately strips it completely of what makes it a unique medium for expression in the first place.