intrinsicepiphany - Tumblr blog

[intrinsicepiphany]

The Bird Place That Was is redeeming itself a bit more today.

[intrinsicepiphany]

Fun fact of the day

[intrinsicepiphany]

Also there are some great resources for learning the AO3 tagging system

Here is a good reddit talk about tagging

And lgr_02 gave a decent rundown of tagging on reddit:

Rating: understand fully what M,R,T... means. Choose the most accurate one and, in case of doubt, it's better to be extra cautious than too little/leave it as "not rated". Never EVER tag "General audiences" if they are not for general audiences

Warnings: the most important one. You could neglect everything else, but not this. Put whatever warnings you need and, if you don't want to, use "Creators chose not to use archive warnings". Never EVER tag "no archives warnings apply" if it's not like this

Categories: don't tag a type if this one plays a minor role in your story

Characters: only tag those who play an important role in your story. For special cases you could use "minor x character": try to not have a lot of those (and don't tag "x character" AND "minor x character", choose just one). For the rest of them "Background & Cameo Characters"

Relationships: only tag those who play an important role in your story. Keep this in mind. Don't tag the same relationship both with & and /. They are in a relationship or they aren't. And, in case it happens both (they start/end a relationship) choose the one who play a more important role in your story

Additional tags

Don't ramble. Anything you want to tell, use the summary, author's notes or whatever. Never the tags

Not everything that happens in your story needs to be tagged. If something doesn't have impact in your plot, don't tag it

Every time you can, use canonical tags. Only use not canonical tags when it's something important

Don't be repetitive. If there's several tags that mean the same, choose one. If one of them is canonical and the rest aren't, choose that one

Potential triggers are always a priority over everything else. Never overlook them, this is the only area that you should never fear to over tag

Tags explaining the connection with the original source are always appreciated: pre/post canon, season/chapter x, alternate universe, canon divergence, missing scene... Tags setting the tone of the story (angst, fluff, smut) and the type of ending are also usually welcome

@livixbobbiex - https://www.tumblr.com/livixbobbiex/172484586812/my-personal-guide-to-ao3-posting-and-tags-how-to

Has a rundown of how they personally tag on AO3 as well that I will quote some good bits here

"Archive warnings

 As it says on their website, these are essentially just trigger warnings. It doesn’t include all common triggers, but some that typically show up in fanfiction.  I don't LIKE to use these unless completely necessary, to be honest. Somehow, it comes off as a little spoilery. However, this kind of thing can really bother people, so I think it’s best to bite the bullet and add them, especially for a one shot. 

From what I've experienced, the one people tend to get most het up about is 'major character death', so I’d always tag that one, or at the very least make some sort of reference in your additional tags such as ‘tragedy’. 

You can use 'choose not to use warnings', as a 'read at your own risk' kind of thing, which is totally valid, if you really don’t want to give away any plot twists. However, if you’re doing that, I still believe it’s courteous to add ‘contains subjects that may be triggering’ to your chapter notes. "

"Relationships

Similarly, I wouldn't bother tagging every single relationship that gets mentioned. A lot of the time, it’s just irrelevant. If you're worried, just tag the main one, and then add the tag 'minor or background relationships'. That’s kind of like saying ‘this work contains other pairings, read at your own description’, in my mind. An exception to this, maybe, is if you have a pairing you know is pretty out there and controversial, but that’s more a courtesy thing, so long as you’ve added another warning."

Alright, to ao3's soon to be arriving Wattpad Refugees, a basic guide to general user culture:

1.) Unlike Wattpads vote system that let's you like each chapter, the ao3 equivalent kudos only allows one per work. Everyone is generally quietly annoyed about this. To engage with each chapter, you're heavily encouraged to comment. Trust me, it makes people's day.

2.) Ao3 has no algorithm. By default it's latest updated work first. You can find things to your taste through searches, filters and tags.

3.) 'No archive warnings apply' and 'user has chosen not to use archive warnings' mean two very different things. No archives warnings means the work is free from any content that could require a warning tag (character death, graphic depictions of violence, non-con, etc). User has chosen not to use archive warnings means it could contain any of the warning content, be it hasn't been explicitly tagged. Treat it like an allergen. No archive warnings apply is allergen free. User has chosen not to use archive warnings, may contain traces or whole chunks of the allergen. If you're likely to have a bad reaction, maybe don't take the risk.

4.) Speaking of warnings, ao3 has very few restrictions on the type of work that's allowed. Whatever your personal thoughts or feelings on that are, thats how the site is. You're likely to run across some dark subject matters and a lot of people are uncomfortable with reading that. You're well within your rights not like these works and have your opinion on whether they should be allowed, but harassing the authors of such works (or any works) is more likely to come back on you than them. Ao3 operates on a strong policy of 'don't like, don't read'. Use the tagging system to your full advantage to only engage with the kind of works you want to see.

We look forward to welcoming you all and seeing the fantastic works you create. Happy writing!

[intrinsicepiphany]

It’s hilarious how Vaggie made herself a ‘sinner’.

How that linked her up with Charlie is such a weird, round about truthful way, even when she was lying by omission about it.

And how amazingly dumb it all makes Adam and Lute look.

Thousands of helpless souls killed by her, but she didn’t do anything ‘wrong’ until she wondered if what she was doing was right. The divine powers in her life only took her wings and condemned her to hell after she doubted their orders, their idea of justice, and quietly chose not to completely follow them.

“You fucked up” they tell her “your mistake” she “left the band” “tried for a solo career". It’s so pathetic. They're so butthurt over the idea of one of their own having a mind of her own.

It’s also so funny, because they spin her simple act of whispering “Go, run. Now!” to demon kid she’d been holding at spear point like it was big defiant move- which makes it into one- even though she never challenged them openly, or threatened them.

Hell, Lute’s “You always were weak” plus exorcist Vaggie always frowning while her murder sisters all grin with glee as they kill sinners- it paints a picture of Vaggie never having been as into exterminations as she ‘should’ have been. Too weak to be a proper exorcist no matter how good at killing she was, not just “the traitor” but also “the failure”.

And she was scared of that. She didn’t want anyone seeing her spare that child, whispered her words to them in a back alley, out of sight.

She was scared of what would happen and didn’t even fight it when Lute took her eye and wings- she was scared and no threat in any tangible way, but apparently refusing to do one single murder is enough to freak Adam and Lute the fuck out.

One woman. Doesn’t do exactly what she’s told. After who knows how many decades of being one of the “top girls” at murder, a “bad bitch” named after “the best thing ever”, and they still get spooked by that tiny moment when she wasn’t under their total control. Like it's such a betrayal to them, her daring to so much as think this level of violence isn’t justified actually, and for a split second act on that thought.

It’s an instant ticket to ousting her from the exorcists AND from heaven, while they fly the fuck off again.

“If angels can do whatever, and remain in the sky-”

and they do. After doing that to one of their own. They did that, to someone who was supposedly meant to be in heaven. They didn’t wait for divine justice- took it, and her eye, and her wings, and her halo, into their own hands and tore them away from her. Then happily, they spend the next three years up in heaven, slurping smoothies and doing more murder sprees.

until Vaggie comes strolling back with the princess of hell, there supporting her girlfriend and the idea that all the shit she did for so long really was and IS wrong.

oh and Adam and Lute are pisssssssed about it. They take her being there PERSONALLY, wanna solve it with VIOLENCE

She hurts them without even trying. Without even noticing they're there.

They're told to fix the princess of hell situation and they have no concept of forgiveness, of caring about sinners, so they guess (rightly) that Vaggie hasn't told Charlie about her past and bet (wrongly) that Charlie would never forgive her if she knew, and also assumed (rightly) that Vaggie would be terrified of that

But they don't get that she's scared of hurting Charlie. Of Charlie being hurt by her. It's a selfless thing. That's her whole PROBLEM.

Her running to hold Charlie after the reveal- her NOT breaking down when Charlie takes alone time in the aftermath, respecting that right up until she thinks Charlie's actively in danger- afraid FOR Charlie when the deal with Alastor is made, no crumbling that Charlie went to someone else for help, when being helpful to Charlie is basically her raison d'étre- agreeing to go alone to an overlord, after learning she can DIE and THIS OVERLORD knows how to do it- all this for the sake of Charlie's dream, their shared goal, their hotel. Their friends, resigned to despair in the hotel lobby, losing hope and maybe hours away from losing their lives

No shit she was never going to bow down to the blackmail?? It'd be like turning herself inside out. Charlie isn't just some "little hottie" or whatever, they're partners. They're in this together. Even when Charlie out loud doubts if that's true, it still is.

Lute and Adam don't GET what it means, that Charlie assumed Vaggie was a sinner already. That the thing she'd be hurt about was the lying, not the murder. She was scared of not really being loved by Vaggie- of everything else wonderful between them being a lie too, all that support and faith empty empty- she wasn't afraid of loving Vaggie, whoever Vaggie had been, she was afraid of who Vaggie might be now and that she'd never really believed in Charlie at all.

Charlie was angry at the thought that Vaggie didn't think she would've accepted her. The idea of not really being understood or trusted by Vaggie, that's what hurt.

And it goes against everything Lute and Adam are, Charlie actually caring about sinners while knowing what they've done- about an exorcist after finding out who they'd been- really trusting that people can change. Lute and Adam hear her say it and see her stand up for it and they just want her to shut up and die

again though, no shit she was going to stick with Vaggie after the truth came out, in the end. Once she had a moment to take a breath and step out of her head long enough for a reality check

Vaggie didn’t say to Charlie what she'd done or who she'd been. But she’s been and keeps doing what she can to follow that idea, unvoiced, from that day when she couldn’t kill a sinner- something Charlie didn't know about but now knows must have happened- A final death means no second chance and no worth as a person, but Vaggie didn’t think that, even before meeting Charlie she didn't think that.

She's always been on Charlie's side. They were on the same side before they ever set eyes on each other. All this time, for three whole years, and now she's off to go find a way to protect everything they've built together.

"-words are cheap, but actions, they speak the truth"

Charlie never really stopped trusting her. Maybe she wondered if she should, but even then, she had Vaggie go to Carmilla to find the key that might save them all.

"She killed an exorcist in the last extermination. She knows how they can be harmed."

"But… I- I didn't even know that was possible."

"If you did, would you have told me?"

So Charlie asked. A pretty painful thing to say- and she said it even as she sent an angel to go find out a way to hurt other angels.

She DID trust that Vaggie WOULD tell her.

The irony of all this happening thanks to Adam and Lute trying to keep it from happening, and all of it leading up to Vaggie getting back part of what they took from her, because now she doesn't need them or heaven to be an angel anymore.

Charlie has faith in her. Enough to send her off on an important mission even after Vaggie hurt her- and send her right to the person who end up helping Vaggie get back her wings.

“The rules are shades of gray when you don’t do as you say”

Vaggie’s new fucking wings are gray when Lute sees them. When Vaggie’s standing over her, sparing her life, her wings and that one, fucking unexplained stripe separating her from the other exorcists, all of it is GRAY.

That visual gut punch of, you’re. Fucking. Wrong. You’re wrong about sinners, you’re wrong about supposedly protecting heaven, you’re wrong thinking you can just DO this shit. That imagery of an angel who DIDN’T stay in the sky because she DIDN’T think being angel meant everything she did had to be right- who’s here in hell, trying to protect sinners from heaven’s slaughter-

And Lute wanted Vaggie to “correct” HER “mistake”? Vaggie’s???

That’s Lute, admitting that people in hell can get second chances and make up for what they did. Admitting that “Sinful filth” like Vaggie can be redeemed in some way, by following Lute’s version of what’s right.

But wasn’t her and Adam’s whole thing the idea of blowing your shot? Getting no other chance after it?  

Oh yeah. Vaggie doesn’t believe that though. Not for sinners like her, not for angels like her.

She let’s Lute live. She does it to make Lute suffer, but there are a lot of ways to make someone suffer- an eye for an eye for example- and Vaggie chooses the one that doesn’t hurt Lute more than it has to, that leaves her alive, and leaves Lute’s suffering to be something completely of Lute’s own making (a HELL of Lute's own making, if you will) (Lute choosing to tear her OWN arm off to continue the fight-).

She's totally dismissive of the woman who was just going after her remaining eye like a dog after a bone.

Why is it that nothing Adam and Lute to do her matters?

Why don’t THEY matter to her at all?

Walking right past them, being so done with them up in heaven, not caving to the blackmail, only being worried about Charlie afterwards, not letting that crack in their relationship stop her from doing what she can for their hotel, Lute threatening to take her other eye and BLIND her just making her snark- even the vague threat to Charlie only gives Vaggie the oomf she needed to defend herself.

“Pathetic” she calls Lute. She’s right- they’re so pathetic, both them, Adam and Lute. They’re so scared of being wrong. So pissy over the idea of being less than great and perfect.

It breaks them. Adam’s last words are him having a meltdown in the face of not actually being hot shit. Where’s his respect, he wails, they should all be worshiping him! But they’re not. One of his random decedents stabs him to death because he would’ve done the same to her, and one of the last things he hears is Vaggie- the fuck up, the traitor, his former grumpy top girl Vagina- whooping with glee as he dies.

And Lute lives knowing that could’ve been her, too.

If it wasn't for Vaggie.

Being not all that didn’t break Vaggie. Finding out she was wrong got her to stop and think and change, not run straight on blindly into a fight that ends up with her (with HIM) dead.

Why does she go from terrified of Lute and Adam, to dismissive and annoyed and just all around not caring about them at all?

They gave up all her respect for them when they demanded the death of a child.

The father of humanity wanted a child killed. A helpless, whimpering kid, sacrificed to his ego and bruised pride, and for shits and giggles. His first lieutenant saw failing to do so as a sin worthy of hell. All this over a child. How could she ever take them seriously after that.  

She came down from high and chased the child and held a blade over them on divine command.

Then, somehow, she saw the HORNS in her own shadow above them- even though she wasn’t WEARING her MASK, and she stopped.

She was her own messenger angel.

She chose to give the child mercy, and became the sacrifice herself.

Vaggie stuck it to the man. Didn’t steal that life. And, terrified of what would happen to her next, acted selflessly. The same thing that got her left behind in hell should have earned her place in heaven, according to Adam-

heaven was shit to her though. Made her into a soldier. Sent her to kill and kill and kill. Taught her trust on the battlefield- in heaven, of all fucking places-

Timeline wise we see her very first smile when she meets Charlie. When a stranger does- again- the bare minimum for someone else.

When she’s back up in heaven later she isn’t wistful, just angry, uncomfortable, annoyed. She isn’t happy there. It’s not home to her, like her and Charlie’s room back at the hotel is. Why should it be? What good did she ever find in herself up there?

Down here though, she's happy. Hell is where her heaven started. So I guess in the end, she did find what she’d earned after all. Or it, Charlie, found her.

When “The rules are shades of gray…”

Sometimes they’re wrong, and you have to break them.  

People like Lute and Adam would rather crack under the pressure and die instead, but not Vaggie. They're out for blood. She's out for love.

Sucks to be them~

[intrinsicepiphany]

Another worldbuilding application of the "two layer rule": To create a culture while avoiding The Planet Of Hats (the thing where a people only have one thing going for them, like "everyone wears a silly hat"): You only need two hats.

Try picking two random flat culture ideas and combine them, see how they interact. Let's say taking the Proud Warrior Race - people who are all about glory in battle and feats of strength, whose songs and ballads are about heroes in battle and whose education consists of combat and military tactics. Throw in another element: Living in diaspora. Suddenly you've got a whole more interesting dynamic going on - how did a people like this end up cast out of their old native land? How do they feel about it? How do they make a living now - as guards, mercenaries? How do their non-combatants live? Were they always warrior people, or did they become fighters out of necessity to fend for themselves in the lands of strangers? How do the peoples of these lands regard them?

Like I'm not shitting, it's literally that easy. You can avoid writing an one-dimensional culture just by adding another equally flat element, and the third dimension appears on its own just like that. And while one of the features can be location/climate, you can also combine two of those with each other.

Let's take a pretty standard Fantasy Race Biome: The forest people. Their job is the forest. They live there, hunt there, forage there, they have an obnoxious amount of sayings that somehow refer to trees, woods, or forests. Very high chance of being elves. And then a second common stock Fantasy Biome People: The Grim Cold North. Everything is bleak and grim up there. People are hardy and harsh, "frostbite because the climate hates you" and "being stabbed because your neighbour hates you" are the most common causes of death. People are either completely humourless or have a horrifyingly dark, morbid sense of humour. They might find it funny that you genuinely can't tell which one.

Now combine them: Grim Cold Bleak Forest People. The summer lasts about 15 minutes and these people know every single type of berry, mushroom and herb that's edible in any fathomable way. You're not sure if they're joking about occasionally resorting to eating tree bark to survive the long dark winter. Not a warrior people, but very skilled in disappearing into the forest and picking off would-be invaders one by one. Once they fuck off into the woods you won't find them unless they want to be found.

You know, Finland.

[intrinsicepiphany]

Also can I point out that Charlie and Vaggie have been dating for like 3 years at that point.

Charlie wasn't kidding when she said Lucifer never really listened to her. How did He not know she was dating a girl for 3 years?! Like I kinda get maybe not remebering their name or meeting for the first time but like the realization Charlie liked girls.... Either that or Charlie really never spoken to him about it but that seems uncharacteristic of Charlie esspecialy since we knew she's told him about the hotel in the past im pretty sure she would have mentioned her girlfriend/partner even in passing.

Also both him getting caught up in relating to charlie and not mentioning it or him just not even realizing it and now needing to be told are equally hilarious though I kinda think he got the idea by the final battle.

Okay so either one of 2 scenarios is true. Either:

Lucifer immediately identified Vaggie as a fellow fallen angel when they first met and didn't say anything because he was preoccupied by "OH SHIT DAUGHTER LIKES GIRLS SHE'S COMING OUT TO ME" and "OH SHIT MUST MAKE THE GIRLFRIEND LIKE ME BE NICE TO THE GIRLFRIEND".

Lucifer in fact did not immediately identify Vaggie as a fallen angel when they first met and Charlie must now go talk to her dad like "hey dad Vaggie and I need to talk to you".

And Idk which is funnier

[intrinsicepiphany]

Why did you give the last of your food to that poorly disguised mimic? You were finally at peace with letting go, but now this odd thing won’t leave you alone and is even turning itself into various items in an attempt to aid you.

[intrinsicepiphany]

THIS! LEARN TO TAG YOUR FIC! Just because they show up does not mean they need to be tagged as a main couple. That's why the background couple tag exist people!

I wish I had the time and energy to go through the tag and mark all the fics that are incorrectly tagged for the AO3 Admins to review but I don't have that many hours in my life.

It makes me really appreciate how well tagged and sorted my other fandoms are. Bless you writers with gloriously organized tags. May your phone always be charged, and your bills always paid, and your snacks always worth the calories!

and it's fucking exhausting

[intrinsicepiphany]

unfortunately no eclipse photography can ever outdo the waffle house one from 2017

[intrinsicepiphany]

This is 100% true.

Also having had to present a NASA mission plan to a panel of NASA engineers in order to get my degree along with doing an internship building robots for a JPL project I can tell you the main advice we were given is to come up with a cool acronym name and then figure out what it stood for later. Bonus points if you could tie it into something historical. Double points if it was an ancient space related God.

nasa: we're going to shoot three rockets directly at the sun during the total eclipse. for study and research purposes.

me: oh cool

nasa: we have named the rockets apep. this stands for atmospheric perturbations [in the] eclipse path.

me: oh cool

nasa: apep is also the ancient egyptian deity of chaos and darkness, who ceaselessly seeks to extinguish the sun. we launch these rockets directly at the sun in the name of apep.

me: oh... cool?

[intrinsicepiphany]

Maybe the real treasure was the boops we made along the way

[intrinsicepiphany]

I'm always up for talking. It will also give me motivation to post my fan fiction

And to give people some ideas - I studied aerospace engineering, astrophysics, history and mythology so I'll talk about any subject you can fathom.

Im a huge sci-fi and fantasy geek. Im familar with dungeons and dragons, my fandoms are pretty widespread though. I mostly play rpg games like horizon zero dawn or civ builders.

inspired by boop day, reblog this post if its ok for people to send you random asks and interact on your posts with no judgement. i want to talk to people.

[intrinsicepiphany]

they kiss right after trust me

[intrinsicepiphany]

Iove this! It is sooooo cute.

papa Adam and his nestlings, they’re on a walk

+ some baby exorcists

[intrinsicepiphany]

Reblog to let your followers know that they’re safe from jumpscares/screamers/etc from you on April 1st but they are NOT safe from getting boop’d like an idiot amen

[intrinsicepiphany]

reblog only if you’ve received less than 1000 boops! we can all get each other to “max”

[intrinsicepiphany]

I love science