raven-eats-desks - Tumblr blog

[raven-eats-desks]

Okay this is a weirdly specific pet peeve but; I hate it when (professional) authors (who could do better) just cobble together a 'fantasy language' that is clearly just latin/ german/ [insert mainstream non-english european language here] by spelling the words weirdly/ overly phonetically. It's extra annoying when they then- by not doing their due diligence- end up muddling conjugations; and creating false languages with English grammar; mispelled words from [european language]; and somehow, 5 grammatical 'genders' because they've just been borrowing 'default' versions of languages.

The worst part is that I can't even be that pissed because I am equally lazy when it comes to language crafting but if you're not gonna try,, just don't try ;-;. I'd rather have author's notes explaining how "This phrase is actually translated from a made up language and more literally could be translated as this"; than some unhinged attempt at esperanto for your one shot minimal lore romantasy. Like, not every fantasy book needs a language!! Tolkien was just a dedicated nerd!!

[raven-eats-desks]

i fr do not want to hear shit from people telling me "israel has a right defending itself" like genuinely shut the fuck up. i was 4 years old when an israeli soldier stuck their rifle in my face. i was literally just walking down the street with my mom and brother. i was 4. walking. on the street. did israel have a "right to defend itself" then? did israel have a right to shove a gun to my face when i was a child just because i was walking down the street? oohhhh 4 year old little terrorist wasn't i huh? genuinely shut the fuck up oh my god

[raven-eats-desks]

As a writer, it is so hard to make a male villain wholly unlikeable in both my eyes, and those of the prospective readers. In particular, it's hard to write a male villain that readers wouldn't forgive. He is sensual and charming precisely because he manipulates people this way; and even if I only show this side once, and reveal his true, immature nature consistently, people will overlook his flaws and, in fact, be manipulated by his charm.

A female villain needs only be annoying to be unlikeable but I hate writing annoying people into my stories because frankly they don't deserve that. It's strange though, that women, so objectified, are at fault in everything they do. Yet a man, when objectified, is a creature who can do no wrong.

Idk I need to eat breakfast but. Yeah. Anyone got tips on how to write a man who will viscerally disgust everyone who reads about him?

[raven-eats-desks]

@historyinmemes

The Dublin Arm was invented in 1921, It was a significant advancement in artificial limb technology. It operated using a Bowden cable mechanism, where cables connected to the individuals residual limb enabled hand or hook movements. By contracting specific muscles, the user could control the cables, allowing them to grasp objects and perform various tasks with improved dexterity. This pioneering prosthetic limb set the foundation for future advancements in the field.

[raven-eats-desks]

How the world should be, actually

[raven-eats-desks]

Oh boy, NPC backstory time. From the pov of the Hero unfortunately, but man this one inspired me. Ended up being quite long (approx. 600 words) so just going to put a cut here, but

[Arteki] was raised in a religious community, which believed in Order over everything. Those with magic were considered as divine as they were dangerous. To [Arteki]'s benefit, her magic was divine, and her community proclaimed her a hero, both for her talents, and for her constraint.

From a young age, they trained her to become a leader, an elder, and a soldier. She was their godly tool to eliminate all Chaos. The spear they wielded against the darkness opposing them.

Never did she think to question their demands. Why would she? After all, their ideology placed her as perfect- ideal.

So she never questioned her status.

Until one night, when she came of a new age, and was shown how their dangerous members were treated. A blind child, deemed cursed from birth, shaking, only faintly aware of the monsters called forth to its voice- clearly an agent of Chaos. Yet it was not put out of its misery, not cleanly destroyed the way that [Arteki] was taught to treat deviants.

Instead, [Arteki] was encouraged to partake in the abuse of the child, who was held, unable to fight back; the monsters [Arteki] feared shrinking away from the people who had raised her as their agent. The child was blind, but [Arteki] couldn't shake the feeling of being watched. Night after night, she tossed and turned; no poultice could break her fever, no cloth could cure her shaking, as she stared into darkness, and felt eyes looking back.

At last she resolved- sleep deprived, riddled with racing thoughts- to be rid of that feeling, once and for all. Using her magic to ensure a clear route, she wandered through the winding cells, clutching her weapons and heart close to her chest. At last, she saw the child.

Restrained, and resting, curled up like a sick animal. Without riddance, the disease would spread further, like it already had to her mind. Slipping between bars, [Arteki] raised her knife.

"Hello?" the child spoke, voice scuffed and frightened. [Arteki] froze. The child twitched, shivered, and rolled over, arm reaching weakly into the dark.

"Muma?" the child spoke, fist closing around empty air, eyes closed. Was it was awake or dreaming? "What's wrong muma?"

The one sided conversation hung in the air. But the words didn't matter. Even if the child was awake it would die the same death.

Still, hesitation. [Arteki] took the child's half shut hand. With a rush, she was surrounded by darkness, more pitch than the depths of the ocean. She should have felt fear, for she was drowning, as the cowering monsters swarmed her and the child.

But for once, [Arteki] could look into the darkness, and see its empty eyes, blinking at her.

I know you it said. Are you friend, or foe?

"I'm not sure," she said, and the child's hand tightened around hers.

You are the hero, aren't you? We saw you... before. The darkness seemed to think. Will you hurt her? it asked.

"Her?" [Arteki] turned, and the darkness parted around the child. A girl. With dark, curling hair, and pimpled cheeks, still full with baby fat. She could not have been older than [Arteki] when she was first chosen.

And yet their fates were so cruelly opposed.

"Not tonight."

The darkness smiled. Then sleep, hero.

And she did. For the first night in an age, she slept without fear, without duty. Tomorrow, she would flee, with the girl in her arms, her spear cutting those who'd taught her to wield it; her darts poisoning those who'd made them. But tonight, she slept, with the girl in her arms, and the monsters protecting them both.

The Divine blessing of “Hero” granted by the gods is one of the worst kinds of mind control, slowly destroying the personality of the blessed individual. You are the only one who is able to look at the “Hero” and see them as a person rather than a living weapon and offer them comfort.

[raven-eats-desks]

New Yorkers always act like everyone else in the world knows about their stupid neighborhoods and local place names like “I’m from the upper east side” bitch you can lick the upper east side of my cock

[raven-eats-desks]

@otis-aesthetic we're using this one

“I thought the goddess of love would look…different.” The wrinkled old woman waved a dismissive hand, leaned closer, and smiled. “You are thinking of my daughter, the goddess of passion and romance. Dearie, I am the goddess of LOVE.”

[raven-eats-desks]

magical girls are real, and you have been chosen by a magical creature to become one. The only problem is your a full grown man with 2 kids and a wife.

[raven-eats-desks]

sorry, can't today. the narrative forces aren't aligned

[raven-eats-desks]

"smart appliances" fuck u i want them dumb as a brick and incidentally as sturdy and enduring

[raven-eats-desks]

[raven-eats-desks]

I don't 'write' my characters, I just watch them do stupid shit and write up the incident report.

[raven-eats-desks]

okay

okay okay OKAY

I wrote a book about what it feels like to try to get an agent to notice your novel

and what it feels like to start doing activism and find friends who share your values but also lose friends who don't

it's written in the form of unhinged query letters

and then somehow rysz merey wanted to publish it with the tRaum books press for queer agenre books

and rachel a rosen designed me one of the greatest covers of all time, with blackout poetry:

and then rysz was like, did you want an even less hinged cover for the special edition since it won't be censored by amazon and rachel was like, i can do fewer hinges, and this happened:

[tumblr won't let me blaze this post with the special edition cover so um if you want to see it you need to click the link here, do it, I promise it's worth it, this is Art, maybe not safe for work tho, don't click it at work]

if you enjoy print books or capitalism, click here to buy it, the indie links have the special cover

if you would like to read it but would not like to pay money, you can get a review copy if you promise to post an honest review somewhere, this link will be live for a month or so but if you want it after I close the link, message me on tumblr or shoot an email to nightbeatseu (at) gmail (dot) com

[raven-eats-desks]

my hearing has been aided and holy shit is this how you guys hear all the time

[raven-eats-desks]

Honestly the culture and complexities of any sign language are so important to understanding it. As someone who started learning BSL because I am,, likely to lose my hearing and would still like to understand other people, even the "BSL for Dummies" book I have stresses the importance of knowing the reason that sign languages are the way they are.

On a slightly unrelated note, this is kind of why I want to create a sign language (or multiple) for any fictional universe I create. There's a girl in my cultural studies class who signs too and she's also building sign language into her stories for this reason. I will be uploading any future ideas for these to my blog, if anyone is interested.

Koko the gorilla did irreparable damage to the average hearing person's understanding of sign language

[raven-eats-desks]

Hey @otis-aesthetic bet you'd love these. Total inspo for some kind of frozen region though. We should include a tundra based environment in our campaign.

sky & sea dice 🌌🌊 by spellcasterdice on ig