astarionbraiinrot

[astarionbraiinrot]

Yet again I somehow find myself unable to create a chapter of a reasonable length. I'm (maybe) halfway-ish done with Chapter 11, and have just hit 9400 words exactly. So, like last time, you guys are just getting an extra long chapter, because I am not splitting this one again

I claim no fault in this. The characters decided to have emotions, and who am I to stop them?

I will say though, we will be earning those angst and hurt/comfort tags this chapter, and the "non-graphic description of injuries" tag will be dropping the "non" because it will NOT be applying anymore lmao

Congrats, you guys are gonna get to see what it feels like to be a player in my D&D games

[astarionbraiinrot]

The point of fiction is actually to put that guy in a situation™️, and he might try to tell you the point is to then get him out of the situation, WRONG, second situation

[astarionbraiinrot]

Please enjoy this Series of Events between Astarion and Daughter #4, set at a nebulous point in the future, probably during a hectic family vacation or another Biannual Former Worm Host meetup hosted by Withers, wherein he is mocked by his own flesh and blood for being "an old man."

Alternative Headline: Bicentenarian Bullied by Twenty-Something for Sucking at Ballet, quote "You literally threw out your back in the first five minutes of the warmup, Dad, are you sure you used to be a famous adventure?"

[astarionbraiinrot]

Please enjoy this Series of Events between Astarion and Daughter #4, set at a nebulous point in the future, probably during a hectic family vacation or another Biannual Former Worm Host meetup hosted by Withers, wherein he is mocked by his own flesh and blood for being "an old man."

Alternative Headline: Bicentenarian Bullied by Twenty-Something for Sucking at Ballet, quote "You literally threw out your back in the first five minutes of the warmup, Dad, are you sure you used to be a famous adventure?"

[astarionbraiinrot]

You should get an AO3 account

With the rise of AI and the well known epidemic of AI companies scraping Ao3 for training data most authors on Ao3 have locked down their fics to logged in users only. This is unfortunate for authors and readers. As an author I've noticed a steep drop in readership on fics restricted to logged in users and when recommending fics to my friends I've noticed that the folks without an account can't find the fics. The logged in users only toggle, not only keeps people without an account from reading a fic, but also from seeing its listing at all. More than 50% of fics I come across have this setting turned on. So, you should get an AO3 account. I know this seems daunting and unfair because it's an invite only system but, you can invite yourself through the homepage if you don't already have one, and in the past few years I've never heard of someone who requested an invitation through this method, not getting one. And for those of you who are hesitant because you don't write, that's okay. It's not weird at all to click on a commenter username and find that they have 0 works and 10,000 bookmarks. It might take a week for the invitation to actually show up, but I can almost guarantee you will get one, just keep an eye on your email. It's free to join and donations are optional. You'll have more to read if you have an account and maybe give your favorite author the chance to protect their work from AI without a loss of readership and feedback.

[astarionbraiinrot]

it may take me a month to put out a chapter but at least im not using ai to write it.

it may take me a month to put out a chapter but at least im not using ai to write it.

it may take me a month to put out a chapter but at least im not using ai to write it.

it may take me a month to put out a chapter but at least im not using ai to write it.

it may take me a month to put out a chapter but at least im not using ai to write it.

IT MAY TAKE ME A MONTH TO PUT OUT A CHAPTER BUT AT LEAST IM NOT USING AI TO WRITE IT

[astarionbraiinrot]

Every writing advice ever: If you’re having trouble with a scene, skip it and write a different part of the story.

Me: If I don’t write in chronological order, I will die

[astarionbraiinrot]

By popular demand (by which I mean for @allonsy-gabriel, specifically), I present: The screenshots from the Sims.

Getting the two group shots took ACTUAL REAL LIFE HOURS because I could NOT get a good screenshot of them that wasn't blurry af, so I went down a google rabbit hole in order to learn how to install mods, find the mods, install the mods, and then despite the mods being installed correctly and working fine spend more hours failing to get them to actually pose correctly.

And then I remembered I could just screenshot the main menu where it will show you the most recently played family all posed together with a nice backdrop and therefore wasted quite a lot of time that I didn't need to, so I had to go lay on the floor for an hour in order to suppress the urge to scream violently.

Actual footage of me realizing I could've just screenshot the Main Menu the whole time and didn't actually need to do any of that shit:

Anyway, I did my best with these guys, but they ended up looking more "modern AU" than actually being accurate. It's as close as I could get, though. Also, the youngest's hair is the wrong color, because silver isn't an available hair color for infants or children for some reason, and the second-youngest's eyes are the wrong color, because the Sims doesn't let you give them heterochromia.

This first version would take place about two years after the birth of their 6th child. The girls would be 10, 8, 8, 6, 3, and 2 here, so Astraea wouldn't really be a teenager yet, but there's no pre-teen option and it looked weird to have four "child" age sims at the same time.

This second version would take place a few months before One for the Road, August-ish of the year the 7th is born, so from oldest to youngest the girls would be 18, 16, 16, 14, 11, and 10 (also, Tav would be five months pregnant with Baby Boy here, but they don't know that yet). If you squint, you might notice that Tav's and Astarion's personal styles have changed from the previous image. This is because 1. I adamantly believe that, given enough time to breathe and heal, Astarion and Tav would become the sort of people who dress the majority of the time in Cozy-Chic because Fuck Yeah Chunky Knit Sweater, and 2. They have four teenagers and two preteens, they have been raising children for 18 years, they are Tired, and they Do Not have the emotional fortitude anymore to spend time and energy dressing up just to be the hottest bitches at the farmers market.

For the record, I made these picrews of the kids months ago, long before I attempted to make them in the Sims, which are based on these, so these are much closer to how I imagine them and what I would consider to be canon for their appearance. Here they are arranged from oldest to youngest, including Baby Boy from One for the Road. There's a child picture and a teen/adult picture for each, but specifically for the period when One for the Road takes place, the most accurate grouping would be the teen/adult version for the four oldest girls and the child version for the two youngest girls. If you're creative, you might be able to take a guess at what their classes will be. All of them have one, as well as a subclass. No points for guessing Astraea's though, that one is explicitly stated in OftR lol.

Bonus Tav and Astarion from the easy days when they only had to worry about the potential for suffering the indignity of a horrifying and slimy death via Brain Worms and didn't have a horde of feral little goblins intent on spending their every waking moment dedicated to turning them prematurely grey.

So I've gotten roughly 2k of the next chapter of Last Call written, but unfortunately that has been delayed for the last several days by my having to bust out a crocheted baby blanket as a gift for my coworker's baby shower.

Which I have not yet completed

And the shower is tomorrow

One of these days I am going to have a project that just actually gets done on time with no issues, and then I'm going to cease existing purely out of shock

[astarionbraiinrot]

it is honestly amazing how much of writing and editing is just. logistics. like... do i use a name here or a pronoun? if i move this dialogue tag to the middle of this line and break it in half, does the end of the line hit harder that way? what if i move the tag to the front? what if i remove it entirely? ...wait, whose point of view am i in; can i reasonably say this character is appalled, or must i say they look or seem or sound appalled? is this a deliberate action or a step-removed one; is her hand closing on his shoulder, or is she closing her hand on his shoulder? environment environment environment, we need to break all this dialogue up with some narration, the scene is coming untethered. what! are! they doing! with! the rest of their bodies that are not hands! fuck fuck fuck FUCK i forgot we covered this two chapters ago and now i either need to cut this whole chunk or find a reason to reprise the conversation from earlier. name or pronoun? name or pronoun? name or pronoun? move this clause around in this sentence? oh i'll add this phrase-- nope, never mind, past!me added the same phrase two lines down. okay, if i add too much environmental narration it's going to take away from this bit, but not enough and it won't feel grounded. what if i move this to its own line? where the FUCK are their hands?

[astarionbraiinrot]

The baby blanket did NOT get finished on time, but luckily I had a different one already made for something else that I ended up not needing for that thing, so I just subbed that one in. And it was a big hit! Everyone loved it, which was great because I was nervous everyone would think I was Weird for making something (I did also buy something off her registry, but ever since moving to this side of the country I've learned that people over here can be weird about homemade gifts, thus I was Anxious)

Unfortunately, on Monday, I remembered that I own the Sims 4, and since I can't draw Astarion, Tav, and Their Spawn, I thought I would just try and make them in there! And I did! And then every time I tried to use my laptop for something else, I'd end up playing Sims, and so I got sucked in to playing Sims nonstop for like three days straight because that's what happens when you even THINK about turning that cursed game on.

The results were... fine. I got as close as I could with the kids, but they're not really what I was imagining. I'll share a screenshot if anyone wants to see, but only if everyone promises to take it with a healthy amount of imagination lmao

So I've gotten roughly 2k of the next chapter of Last Call written, but unfortunately that has been delayed for the last several days by my having to bust out a crocheted baby blanket as a gift for my coworker's baby shower.

Which I have not yet completed

And the shower is tomorrow

One of these days I am going to have a project that just actually gets done on time with no issues, and then I'm going to cease existing purely out of shock

[astarionbraiinrot]

[astarionbraiinrot]

I need someone to do a video essay-length deep dive into how 75% of the BG3 fandom fell so hard for Astarion's manipulative seductor act that they believe that's his actual personality. This man has to practice his lines and still fumbles them constantly. He flat-out says it's all a front because he believes his sex appeal is the only reason anyone would keep him around, which is tragic. When he drops the act, he becomes this kind of silly man rediscovering what it means to be himself, and what it means to both love and be loved. He says "I'm all pointy ears, love." while turning his head to show off those pointy ears. Let him be silly, let him be awkward! It's so much more authentic then him being a walking innuendo.

He has a mid charisma stat with a bonus for deception and rolled a nat 20 on all y'all.

[astarionbraiinrot]

Fanfiction is so silly. I am playing with my dolls and people are coming over to watch. Some of them even clap and give me compliments. And when I'm done playing, I can go and watch other people play with their dolls.

[astarionbraiinrot]

[astarionbraiinrot]

Being a pro censorship ao3 user is so insanely cringe. Either use the (incredibly effective and well designed) filtering system to avoid seeing the shit you don't like or stop complaining. Leave the pro censorship rhetoric to Wattpad or smth

[astarionbraiinrot]

Yeah, so this fella represents EVERYONE on AO3

Like literally the icon of all

[astarionbraiinrot]

So I've gotten roughly 2k of the next chapter of Last Call written, but unfortunately that has been delayed for the last several days by my having to bust out a crocheted baby blanket as a gift for my coworker's baby shower.

Which I have not yet completed

And the shower is tomorrow

One of these days I am going to have a project that just actually gets done on time with no issues, and then I'm going to cease existing purely out of shock