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I think this will be hard for some people to hear, but Israelis who live in Israel, who engage with our neighbors, who protest our government, who fight for peace and change, have done more for Palestinians than western leftists ever have or will.

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When the session zero of age of umbra come to YouTube? I really want to watch it

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Emotional Walls Your Character Has Built (And What Might Finally Break Them)

(How your character defends their soft core and what could shatter it) Because protection becomes prison real fast.

✶ Sarcasm as armor. (Break it with someone who laughs gently, not mockingly.) ✶ Hyper-independence. (Break it with someone who shows up even when they’re told not to.) ✶ Stoicism. (Break it with a safe space to fall apart.) ✶ Flirting to avoid intimacy. (Break it with real vulnerability they didn’t see coming.) ✶ Ghosting everyone. (Break it with someone who won’t take silence as an answer.) ✶ Lying for convenience. (Break it with someone who sees through them but stays anyway.) ✶ Avoiding touch. (Break it with accidental, gentle contact that feels like home.) ✶ Oversharing meaningless things to hide real depth. (Break it with someone who asks the second question.) ✶ Overworking. (Break it with forced stillness and the terrifying sound of their own thoughts.) ✶ Pretending not to care. (Break it with a loss they can’t fake their way through.) ✶ Avoiding mirrors. (Break it with a quiet compliment that hits too hard.) ✶ Turning every conversation into a joke. (Break it with someone who doesn’t laugh.) ✶ Being everyone’s helper. (Break it when someone asks what they need, and waits for an answer.) ✶ Constantly saying “I’m fine.” (Break it when they finally scream that they’re not.) ✶ Running. Always running. (Break it with someone who doesn’t chase, but doesn’t leave, either.) ✶ Intellectualizing every feeling. (Break it with raw, messy emotion they can’t logic away.) ✶ Trying to be the strong one. (Break it when someone sees the weight they’re carrying, and offers to help.) ✶ Hiding behind success. (Break it when they succeed and still feel empty.) ✶ Avoiding conflict at all costs. (Break it when silence causes more pain than the truth.) ✶ Focusing on everyone else’s healing but their own. (Break it when they hit emotional burnout.)

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When Should You Describe a Character’s Appearance? (And When You Really, Really Shouldn’t)

It’s one of the first instincts writers have: describe your character. What they look like, what they wear, how they move. But the truth is — readers don’t need to know everything. And more importantly, they don’t want to know everything. At least, not all at once. Not without reason.

Let’s talk about when to describe a character’s appearance, how to do it meaningfully, and why less often says more.

1. Ask: Who Is Seeing Them? And Why Now?

The best descriptions are filtered through a perspective. Who’s noticing this character, and what do they see first? What do they expect to see, and what surprises them?

She looked like someone who owned every book you were supposed to have read in school. Glasses slipping down her nose. Sharp navy coat, sensible shoes, and an air of knowing too much too soon.

Now we’re not just learning what she looks like — we’re learning how she comes across. That tells us more than eye color ever could.

2. Use Appearance to Suggest Character, Not List Facts

Avoid long physical checklists. Instead, choose a few details that do double work — they imply personality, history, class, mood, or context.

Ineffective: She had long, wavy brown hair, green eyes, a small nose, and full lips. She wore jeans and a white shirt.

Better: Her hair was tied back like she hadn’t had time to think about it. Jeans cuffed, a shirt buttoned wrong. Tired, maybe. Or just disinterested.

You don’t need to know her exact features — you feel who she is in that moment.

3. Know When It’s Not the Moment

Introducing a character in the middle of action? Emotion? Conflict? Don’t stop the story for a physical description. It kills momentum.

Instead, thread it through where it matters.

He was pacing. Long-legged, sharp-shouldered — he didn’t seem built for waiting. His jaw kept twitching like he was chewing on the words he wasn’t allowed to say.

We learn about his build and his mood and his internal tension — all in motion.

4. Use Clothing and Gesture as Extension of Self

What someone chooses to wear, or how they move in it, says more than just what’s on their body.

Her sleeves were too long, and she kept tucking her hands inside them. When she spoke, she looked at the floor. Not shy, exactly — more like someone used to being half-disbelieved.

This is visual storytelling with emotional weight.

5. Finally: Describe When It Matters to the Story, Not Just the Reader

Are they hiding something? Trying to impress? Standing out in a crowd? Use appearance when it helps shape plot, stakes, or power dynamics.

He wore black to the funeral. Everyone else in grey. And somehow, he still looked like the loudest voice in the room.

That detail matters — it changes how we see him, and how others react to him.

TL;DR:

Don’t info-dump descriptions.

Filter visuals through a point of view.

Prioritize impression over inventory.

Describe only what tells us more than just what they look like — describe what shows who they are.

Because no one remembers a checklist.

But everyone remembers the girl who looked like she’d walked out of a forgotten poem.

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commission on vgen for @darklighter-konoha but its literally the blorbos so everyone look at them <333!!!

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Official poster, and tomorrow (May 8th) we will get the trailer of The Old Guard 2

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I needed this 🥹

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Project X Master Post

Project X is a Wild Life/Life Series AU where the Lifers were kidnapped and tested on like lab experiments, and through this testing, they gained superhuman abilities.

I'll eventually start writing for this, but at the moment, I just want to focus on designing all of the characters that will make appearances. As much as I want to drop everything and just work on this, I'm a college student, so please be patient with me, thank you! <3

Official Playlist

Project X: A Life Series Lab Experiment AU

Official Works

Project X on Ao3

Initial Headcanons (Original post about the AU)

Fan Works

Project X Fan Works

Subject Files

Subject 001: Grian Xelqua

Subject 002: Scott Major

Subject 003: Pearl Moonshine

Subject 004: Martyn Woods

Subject 005: Scar Goodtimes

Subject 006: Cleo Nekyia

Subject 007: Joel Smallishbeans

Subject 008: Bdouble “Bdubs” Hundred

Subject 009: Ren Diggity

Subject 010: Tango Tek

Subject 011: Etho Slabs

Subject 012: Impulse Vee

Subject 013: Skizz Hoffmann

Subject 014: Gem Taylor

Subject 015: B. “BigB” Statz

Subject 016: Mumbo K. Jumbo

Subject 017: Lizzie Shade

Subject 018: James “Jimmy” Solidarity

Scientist IDs

Xavier Void—Head of Project X

“Doc”—Head of Experimentation

Xisuma Void—Head of Data Collection

Zedaph Shepherd—Data Collection

Extra Characters

The Conspiracy Theorists

Q&A

Part 1

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Calling all fans of heavy rp actual plays, vampires, and good shows, new VTM chronicle and actual play Private Nightmares has two episodes on the Project Ghostlight YouTube channel -the third just aired but won’t be up until Monday. Alexander Ward serves as storyteller for the players, consisting of Aabria Iyengar, Luis Carazo, Xander Jeaneret, Mayanna Berrin, and Gina Devivo. The twist? They’re all Thinbloods.

They are knocking it out of the park! Easily one of the best things I’ve watched this year. Episodes are around 2 hours, airing every other Friday and uploaded the following Monday.

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Now that I know how deeply the world's hypocrisy goes with respect to Israel and its existence and how deeply the world's complete indifference to Jewish suffering runs, I see it everywhere and I can't ever go back to the naive ignorance I had before (not that I would want to).

Freed Israeli hostages testify about the absolute horrors they endured, evil beyond comprehension, and no one is listening, no one really cares.

At the same time, hundreds of thousands, millions of people are suffering and dying in Sudan, the Congo, Ukraine, China, Syria, countless elsewheres and do they get even the tiniest iota of the bandwidth of attention and compassion that Gaza gets? Where are the constant protests and social media 'awareness' campaigns for them? Nowhere, because they can't indulge the favourite pastime of demonising the Jewish state as the root of all evil ever.

Of course, Israel has its problems, like every other country on earth. No society is perfect or without it's bigotries, because that's just human nature. But it is far, far away from being the worst abuser of human rights even in that region, let alone the entire planet. Yet, no other nation on earth is as loathed, has its very existence questioned and its citizens dehumanised as incessantly.

And honestly, you really do have to be either incredibly thick or incredibly dishonest to say antisemitism has nothing at all to do with that.

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Making Garen, making MATT, the Allhammer...

Fuck. That got me. As a writer, that got me. Tears. The creator of Exandria in more ways than one. And having it be Liam who gave it to him, it might be parasocial of me but Liam. The man he made Exandria for as a birthday gift, on the tenth anniversary of sharing that gift with the world.

Stories abound indeed.

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I can't wait!

I heard Alexander Ward is gonna be storytelling a vampire the masquerade game that Aabria's playing in starting this Friday. I haven't seen too much vampire the masquerade content, but I'm probably gonna check it out to help me get over the inevitable sadness of divergence ending! Is anyone else gonna check it out?

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So, let me guess– you just started a new book, right? And you’re stumped. You have no idea how much an AK47 goes for nowadays. I get ya, cousin. Tough world we live in. A writer’s gotta know, but them NSA hounds are after ya 24/7. I know, cousin, I know. If there was only a way to find out all of this rather edgy information without getting yourself in trouble…

You’re in luck, cousin. I have just the thing for ya.

It’s called Havocscope. It’s got information and prices for all sorts of edgy information. Ever wondered how much cocaine costs by the gram, or how much a kidney sells for, or (worst of all) how much it costs to hire an assassin?

I got your back, cousin. Just head over to Havocscope.

((PS: In case you’re wondering, Havocscope is a database full of information regarding the criminal underworld. The information you will find there has been taken from newspapers and police reports. It’s perfectly legal, no need to worry about the NSA hounds, cousin ;p))

Want more writerly content? Follow maxkirin.tumblr.com!

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didn't watch live but rough spoilers for e3 I've got no context for:

unicorns

patias orb (saw the clip and now I want to rewatch calamity)

ents???

god sister??

maybe everyone's getting a vestige?

there's a strange goblin

crokas doesn't know how to swim

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One of the things that repeatedly pissed me off over the last sixteen months feels like it shouldn't be as impactful as it actually was. Specifically, I hate, hate, hate how the Hamasnik crowd on the Left forced so many Jews to unwillingly play Defense Attorney for fucking Benjamin Netanyahu.

I, and a lot of others, would have loved to play prosecutor against that piece of excrement, zeroing in on every bit of his overreach, political gamesmanship, and corrupt dealings.

But nooooooo. Rather than accuse him and Israel of the actual crimes that were being committed (excessive force, willingness to accept collateral damage, the occasional war crime by overzealous troops, etc), the Hamasnik crowd had to dive headfirst into Holocaust Inversion, virulent antisemitism, and active support for an explicitly genocidal terrorist organization of Islamist fanatics.

So we had to play Defense Attorney instead. We had to point out that it's not a genocide, again and again and again. We had to correct bad faith historical revisionism of Jewish history. We had to defend fucking Benjamin Netanyahu when these people decided to go full Protocols on him and just do full antisemitic canards and caricatures of him. And on and on and on.

And while all of that is just part of the whole issue from the last sixteen months, it's still something I'm stewing on with deep and abiding resentment.

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Every time Brennan sits at that fucking table he tears a hole into what it means to be human and to have faith and to love and to be in community.

The brass ring were so close. They were family. Family enough to send one of their own out to make sure he got to be a father again. Laerryn blighted the tree of knowledge for her best friend and lover.

Downfall was all about family. And saving family. All of their family. Aiden gave his faithful a meal like no other they've had before. Trust gave a sickly little boy 70 hit points because she could barely his suffering. Asha pouted because her wife wasn't there to be with her.

And now Nia will not leave anyone behind. The Stormlord bestowed life back to ruined land. Crokas took on two children that are not his and carried them on his back. Fiedra, although harsh, still risked so much to pour a little wine for the bleeding boy. Garden's first priority is the children who will inherit this world from them.

I think, in the current state of Exandria, the new age we witnessed the birth of, Brennan is giving us that "what comes next". Divinity is not gone, Lieve'tel still performed her miracle. But I think the lesson from divergence, where the gods left the face of Exandria, is that divinity comes from people, mortals. And it always has. The gods get their power from worship. They'd be nothing without their people. So in the absence of them, then and now, stories will be told of reclaiming and rebuilding. Mortals will understand they are divinity. And that together, their power is as limitless as the gods they said goodbye to.