#such a drastic shift

[caxycreations]

You can all have a little WIP, as a treat

Super happy, so I'm gonna give y'all a snippet of the newest draft of Tylvinian Tales: The Wolf's Den.

Enjoy!

Tylvinian Tales: The Wolf's Den

Chapter One, Paragraphs 1-3

The crowd before me cheered, bodies jumping, moving, writhing in time with the beat of the music pouring into the room. As the bass thumped, feet stomped, and the thrum of the dance floor could be felt all around. At the center of the crowd, with people on all sides of him, dancing with wild abandon and not a care in the world, there amid the excitement stood David Seltz. He was my best friend in the world, the man I’d grown up with and spent the better part of my life with so far. Entirely platonic, of course. We were friends, and even with our jokes and the games of chicken we would play, it never went further than that.

My name is Ryder Trayson, I’m a Grey Greatwolf. I live in Tylvin, the capitol city of Ferus, where I work as a freelance musician. I’m pretty tall, standing a little over seven feet. My fur is a greyish blue color, and my eyes are amber orange. Most of the time I work as a DJ for various clubs around the city, but tonight I was working for free. It was worth it, given I was playing for one man’s most important day of the year. It was the twenty-third day of Fina, year four thousand and nineteen. David’s twenty-first birthday. He had asked me to play for him tonight, even offering to pay me, but I couldn’t do that to him.

I was honored he wanted me to perform for his birthday and the idea of making him pay me for it left a bad feeling in my stomach. The music swelled, and the crowd lost themselves in its ebb and flow as the melody played. I had a buffet of stimulation before me. Sights, sounds, smells, textures. But my eyes kept drifting back to the hybrid dancing in the center of the crowd. David. He was a caxy, a hybrid between fox and cat species. He was half snow fox and half Maltese, a blend that worked well together if he and his sister’s physique and fur patterns were anything to go by. They were all monochrome shades. Greys, whites, blacks. The only splash of real color they had on them was their hair and their eyes.

End of Preview

Oh! And just so y'all can see the difference? I'll throw in Chapter 1, Paragraphs 1-3 below!

A Cat in the Wolf's Den

Chapter 1, Paragraphs 1-3

The bar was crowded tonight. I didn't usually do work for places like this, my music was more fitting for the clubs and dance halls around town. But tonight was a special circumstance. My best friend, David, was having his 21st birthday party here and had asked if i'd DJ for him, even paying off the bar owners to let me bring my own gear here. This place was special to him. It was where he found his first real love, before they had left him and moved off to god knows where. I couldn't really fault David for wanting his birthday party here, and who am I to turn down a request as simple as this for a friend?

My name's Ryder. Ryder Trayson. I'm 22 years old, and I've been a DJ ever since I was 14. I've known David since I was 3, and we've never been any less than best friends. There's not a lot to say about me. I like music, I work out now and then, not that I need to. Being a Great Grey Wolf has its perks, including a healthy dose of muscles that most would kill for. Of course, it also comes with a massive appetite. I can eat just about as much as the hungriest hog and still want more. But hey, you're not here to listen to me go on about myself forever. Let's get back to the story, yeah? One more thing about me is that I don't care much for talking about me.

The music blared throughout the building, and I could see some of the patrons getting irritated and complaining to workers. Probably regulars that weren't used to people having fun. I felt my phone buzz in my pocket and, after setting up the next couple songs to play on their own, I checked it. David had texted me saying he wanted me to play Digging Alone, a pretty upbeat song that I had promised to play before the night was up. I cancelled the other two songs in the queue and, as the current song finished, I gave my best wolfish grin, turned off the music, and grabbed my mic. "Alright everyone, we got a request from the big man himself! So you can thank him for the next beat!" I let out a howl of excitement as I turned on the song, and heard a chorus of cheers from the crowd below as the music began.

End of Preview

My writing has changed so, so much, and I'm honestly so much happier with the new version. The old one is outdated and painful to read cause like, WOW there's so much stuff that's just a result of the inexperience.

But

Yeah

Thank you all for reading this far, ha

@heavensfallenfaction @stesierra

Tagged folks I thought might be interested to read it

[rmbunnie]

I see so much of "is post-crisis Robin Jason an innocent little sweetie-pie or a mean aggro delinquent" and after reading through all of his batman and detective comic issues post-crisis I think i can safely say he's... an introverted and distrustful, but altogether friendly teen boy who has convinced himself to the deepest level that he is an Adult Man, and also does not hold a particularly good view of adults.

The sweet little babypie characterization falls a little short (assuming we aren't being too silly with it, there's plenty of that in the comedy issues of tec) because it disregards the part where he's a jaded teenager who is constantly going off and trying to take care of his own problems like "his own man" and reacts negatively to any breach of trust or move to take care of him. But negative doesn't mean "violent and rageful." The delinquent angle is incorrect because not only is his disposition peppy, silly, and agreeable most of the time, but assuming the problem upsetting him isn't a predator or the guy who killed his dad (and three out of four canon instances it is a predator to be clear) he reacts to emotional turmoil with Bruce by bedrotting, sulking, communicating through notes, and overall being avoidant. The only times he lashes out are when Bruce is calling him out or after Bruce told him to his face that he chose to look for the Joker over looking for him, and that case of "lashing out" is just getting a little snarky.

More than anything his main personality trait (besides being silly, a robin staple) is kinda coming into this parentified as fuck. Not that it's Catherine's fault, but it really shaped his character, like one of the first things he says to Bruce (after he promised not to turn Jason in to the foster system) is that he kept her fed and warm as long as he could like he wasn't her ten year old child when he started. It's why he views himself on the same level as adults and why he gets all closed off at any insinuation that he needs to be taken care of, both of which heavily inform his dynamic with Bruce. He's constantly checking in on Bruce's wellbeing, like half of Batman: the Cult is just him taking care of Bruce while he recuperates from being brainwashed. (Side note, he's also constantly asking Bruce stuff like "what's your relationship like with this woman or this rogue or the concept of religion, how did that play out, how do you feel about it?" he is Very chatty like that.) The first thing he does when Sheila tells him her (revised to exclude medical malpractice) life story is hold HER and try to affirm her struggle. After a while he starts to act more childish with Bruce (although he doesn't really stop trying to brush off attempts to care for him) but as soon as Bruce admits he prioritized crimefighting over Jason and didn't show up to look after Jason like Jason assumed he came there for, Jason snaps back to acting very independent and rejecting any attempts to be looked after on any terms other than some kind of "equals" thing, which he isn't, as he's a 15 year old boy. Like. He's very sweet to his former neighbor, but also he refers to being a homeless child and the sole provider in his condemned building living situation as "getting by" to her.

He's definitely not. some bloodthirsty delinquent, at least to anyone who's not an uber-misogynistic predator, and he like demonstrably is a pretty sweet kid. It's just that when people say he's a sweet kid they kinda just jump to "untraumatized eight-year-old who grew up in a loving family and just got a new puppy from Santa" instead of "good hearted and curious teenager who has trust issues and is deeply uncomfortable with being taken care of, so kinda just compromises by pretending his dad is a Friend Doing him a Solid and acts like his kid only when he has plausible deniability so he can't get the rug pulled out from under him." Of course. He does kinda get the rug pulled out from under him despite all that. So there's that.

[thedevilscarnival]

on book 10 of wheel of time 👍 it has taken me nearly 2 years to reach this point. i feel like i'm the only person in the world enjoying myself because i love stupid and complex political intrigue

[anendtopursuit]

genuinely sincerely never noticed how animated and mildly insane max's speaking voice was until i found myself Genuinely Taken Aback by the sound of will branner speaking calmly

[platoapproved]

You've remembered... what you did to yourself in San Francisco. And you're angry that I erased it.

[chiarrara]

One of the most important things to practice in analyzing or even appreciating media is placing that media in the appropriate historical context.

For example, it is incredibly short-sighted to criticize Revolutionary Girl Utena for being formulaic and reusing animation sequences based on preferences and standards from the 2020s, but it's also incredibly short-sighted to only rebut that the repetitiveness is thematic when it was animated in 1997 and directed by a guy who worked on Sailor Moon.

[lupinescribbler]

Thunderbolts comic thing :) John Walker is a very interesting character to me and I like theorizing about his psyche

[doomguy]

doodles. take em while they're hot

[blighted-lights]

thinking about them again,,

(this post by @weapon-up-wallflower had me thinking about rodimus' apology towards drift in dying of the light again, and,,, yea. not Fully related to the original post but it got me thinking)

ive always thought drift accepting the apology was one last form of appeasement towards rodimus- or at least less of a genuine acceptance and more of a, "we're probably going to die soon, do i really want rodimus to die thinking i hate him?"

but then they both lived 🤷‍♂️ and it was just easier for drift to fall back into his old role than try to change things. surely this will not cause a build up of resentment in the long run. surely.

[copepods]

divine art of creation

[zero-is-nebulous]

Sonknux week day 4! Spooky/Halloween

Hm...something about this feels familiar

[asurrogateblog]

nothing will ever truly capture the feeling of being a long-time fan of the wall but without any actual knowledge of pink floyd and then deciding on a whim to listen to piper at the gates of dawn. the tonal disparity felt like realizing for the first time that the desolate landscape you've been living in for years used to be a meadow and now all you can do is touch the scorched earth and wonder with horror what happened here. and the answer is. roger

[d-butler-at-your-service]

Always remember; if you can’t find a threat, it’s hidden in plain sight!

[descendant-of-truth]

I love Chain of Memories for a lot of reasons but the real cherry on top is the fact that it's the second KH game to ever release. like. what other game series starts you off with a fun, epic, emotional adventure where you travel to a bunch of different whimsical locales and then IMMEDIATELY follows it up by trapping you in the freakin. Insanity Castle

[rachelsimson59]

A CJC comic I did for reaching 1.5k on IG. Forgive me for the wonky panelling I should've used a ruler.

(Left -> Right)

[roydick]

"Writing chronologically is the idea killer," I say to myself as I continue to write chronologically when I sit down to write.