swordoffrivolousthings

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Ethical necromancy

the insane experience of missing a fictional character . like you can always go back and reread the book , replay the game , rewatch the show or movie , you can always go back & see them , but you can never experience them & their story for the first time again . its absurd to miss them because they'll always be there , but you'll miss when there were still new things for them to say .

for a small time they were real & growing and changing and you hung onto every new word, but now all they can do is repeat the same story forever&ever & they're not real anymore because you know everything they're going to do. & you miss them. its fucked man...

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Do you like to read? If yes, put your current/most recent book in the tags!

Yes

No

I used to but dont anymore

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the river has roots- amal el mohtar

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hi everybody please reblog this and tell me your go-to coffee order right now and if you don't like coffee feel free to include your go-to tea order instead

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I don't listen to the kind of growling grumble metal where you can't make sense of what the hell the vocalist is saying, but I appreciate bands that use this to their benefit by having the most baffling goddamn lyrics. Going like

[insane guitar solo]

Evil fucking gnome that will fuck your mom

He don't need no reason he'll do it just 'cause

Don't ask her where's her dignity it's already gone

You don't need to call him daddy 'cause she already does

[an even more balls-to-the wall batshit fucking sick drum solo]

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You discover that the little fact that you had been thought in magic school about astronomical magics is actually wrong, but it had been ingrained so deep in shared knowledge for so long that no magic school will ever agree to correct the fact. It's annoying, it can lead to too many problems, but the board of wizards in your country is just letting it play out. It can't hurt anyone, right? Wrong, because in the event of using astronomical data and magic in the rite of the eleventh full moon of the year, in which the misconception is deeply ingrained, everything will go very, very wrong. You've accidently found out.

Less magic schools. More magic universities. Unlearn the simplified models of your secondary education. Discover how to reference scrolls written by a wizard possessed by a different wizard. Identify bias in the voices that whisper from beyond the veil. Have your institution be accused of promoting a Merlinist agenda. Become addicted to energy potions.

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But I also like the innate 'strangeness' of the character -> medical/scientific torture. And by strangeness I mean even small things: an odd blood composition, DNA missing or added that doesn't (inexplicably) affect them, a strange, little mutation (reflective eye shine *wink wink*). Anything and everything just a little out of the ordinary.

If it is taking place in a world where superpowers are common, make the powers seem odd, have strange origins, the way they act when used not give the expected effect. If the superpower is basec in the DNA have the Character have powers, but not the DNA necessary to sustain/warrant them.

And everything OP said still applies, but also on the more Medical Horror side of things:

Character's genes are odd, so the scientists try to understand them by adding animal DNA and see how they react. First on the sterile, duplicated genes outside the body, and then in the Character themself to see what is happening (supposing that the first round of tests didn't give the wanted reactions, so they try on the host)

Have it go both wonderfully well and horrifyingly wrong

Have Character not be the only 'patient' in the facility. Make them witness others go through similar situations, give them trauma

Extreme and unsafe use of body/powers for the extent of activating powers, get the gist of the strange DNA, make something happen. Something happens

If their body is strange/has few reactions to most stimuli, the scientists can: give them strong acids to ingest, fire, different poisons, heavy metals, etc. Body reacts and/or builds an unnaturally fast healing reaction

Make it so, by the end of it Character is so changed that they are THE WEAPON. More tragic if they could have had a normal, wonderful life if the facility didn't get a whiff of them

Most subhuman treatment: medical boundaries shattered and then dissolved, something always dripping into their blood, withholding of necessities to see what happens

Notes on Torturing The Character In The Science Facility

my takes on this trope rarely if ever have anything to do with the character being "special" or being studied for powers they innately have, if they are special its something that was done to them

it's about the medical trauma

it's about the violation and lack of bodily autonomy

the "living weapon" trope, but the key characteristic is catastrophic functionality

i love, love, love the concept of "catastrophic functionality" in a person: character that can tank ludicrous amounts of damage and just Keep Going in virtually all circumstances barring outright dismemberment. They can keep going, so do they "deserve" rest and/or pain relief?

after a lifetime of having their distress treated as whiny and unreasonable, they have what would be a dangerously high tolerance to pain and exhaustion.

another key function of the Science Facility is to fix the damage Character takes, maybe using enhanced healing technologies or 3D printed organs or something. this leads to Character's body being treated as relatively disposable cause "we can just fix them"

extreme version of this: Character can't die even if they wanted to

people who work with Character are informed that they're dangerous and arbitrarily violent, and their fear of Character makes it easier to justify restricting autonomy

It is TRUE, cause Character does not have tools to set boundaries or protect their body other than violence. vicious cycle of being perceived as dangerous and therefore denied autonomy, and being forced to use violence to defend autonomy

the restraints used to hold Character look like major overkill, which underscores how dangerous they are. LOVE this trope

character being desexualized to the point that their non-consent to touch, to being stripped down and examined, or to procedures is trivialized. There is no non-clinical context for their body, and the "clinical" framework eclipses any possibility for bodily violation to be understood as violent.

types of uncanniness: Character looks human but has some subtle inhuman traits or characteristics. (I'm obsessed with reflective eye shine, personally.) OR Character looks like they've been taken apart and put back together, like flesh pulled over a much more unforgiving and indestructible metal scaffold. OR Character gives off "undead" vibes; they're just not quite alive in a way that sets off air raid sirens in people's brains

Often, Character is dead and Came Back Wrong (varying levels of literalness)

anyways yeah. i never stopped writing this trope and probably never will. it's a good one

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desegregate all sports now. no more gendered sports. its stupid

if you absolutely must, in primarily muscle force-based sports, create competitive classes like in boxing except separated by body comp, not just pure body weight. i mean, if you must. this will eliminate any tiny advantages in muscle mass. some will say basketball should have height classes but frankly some of the NBA's most impressive players were not tall so idk that this actually matters ever

the primary athletic impediment to all women is overwhelmingly cultural and psychological. i have won probably half the physical competitions with cis men that i have engaged in, friendly or otherwise. even without the benefit of a lifetime of people trying to make me throw or hit balls, i have won wrestling matches, sparring matches, funny backyard foam sword fights, video games, equestrian activities, dance, endurance tests of various kinds, etc. i'm small and weak. men think theyre stronger and more skilled than they are, women think the opposite about themselves

humans just arent that differently-sized or -shaped, as a species. we have almost no sexual dimorphism at all compared to the vast majority of other mammals.

animals that have similar levels of sexual dimorphism to humans, for example cats, dogs, and horses, do not generally have competitive events segregated by sex. the dog agility trials dont normally have separate leagues for male and female dogs (gendered competitions exist they're just unusual). because it doesnt matter. there is no kentucky derby 2 just for girl horses. thats not a thing

remove all gendered categories from online shopping websites and universalize clothing and shoe sizing. im sick of having to search two entirely different sections of ebay when im just trying to find a nice velvet loafer in size 39 EU. what the hell is "women's clothing"

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The people who go "well who's going to look after you when you're old?" when you say you're not having kids are breathtakingly naive. Our next-door neighbour, somewhere in her mid-80s, has a son, grandkids, and a grear-granddaughter, and who's the one she calls when she needs help, and checks that she's not spending christmas alone? Me and my boyfriend.

Having kids is irrelevant if the answer to that question is still going to be "the mentally ill faggots next door."

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Reading Agatha Christie books (especially the ones that have Hercule Poirot solving the crime in the background) make me feel just a little dumb but so so good despite it. Don't have the necessary mind for details to figure it out but oh well. Enjoyable despite that.

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fun behaviors to give dragons that aren't feline/canine based

cause as much as i love dragons purring and roaring i wish there was just more variety in how they would act

clacking their teeth together to show contentedness/happiness (budgies)

using tails as a defensive weapon in a whip like fashion (iguana)

twitching to express that they're not a threat to members of their species (hognose snake)

feeling calm when eyes are hooded/covered (birds of prey)

head bobbing as a threat display (anoles/bearded dragons)

flattening neck or sides to appear bigger (snakes/lizards)

mantling over food to protect it from hatchmates (birds of prey)

wiggling neck as a courting maneuver (budgies)

audibly grinding teeth as a warning (macaques)

maintained eye contact as a challenge (gorillas)

pounding wings against sides as a threat (gorillas)

slapping other dragons with their claws when their personal bubble is invaded (seals)

hoards used as a site to impress mates (birds of paradise)

snorting when undergoing heightened stress (horses)

making repeated loud noises with surroundings to establish territory (woodpeckers)

loud constant arguments with other dragons when roosting (bats)

building lairs that cause a domino effect of change in the land around them (beavers)

slapping their tails against the ground/water as a warning (beavers)

wiggling tail tip to attract prey (various animals)

wiggling tail tip as a warning (snakes)

plucking or scraping off scales as a sign of stress (parrots)

raising spines/frills as a response to danger and carrying on with their usual business as they believe they're protected (lionfish)

and im not saying canine and feline behaviors are wrong or bad to give a dragon (people wouldn't write dragons with those behaviors if they weren't fun in the first place!) but i feel for creatures that are mythological giant winged lizards that you can do more and get experimental with it. often the more unfamiliar behavior the more dragony the dragon feels

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a writing competition i was going to participate in again this year has announced that they now allow AI generated content to be submitted

their reasoning being that "we couldn't ban it even if we wanted to, every writer already uses it anyway"

"Every writer"?

come on

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Level up your writing skills in English - Dialogue Punctuation

A guide for those whose first language is not English (pro tips at the end)

Well, this is maybe the most that the new authors struggle with. As any other language, English also has its own rules for dialogues and I bet you could find them on the net as well, but if you want it short - here I am.

First things first, we use ‘’ and “” for dialogues in English and never ‘—‘ or ‘–‘ or spaces or just ‘start new line’. We need to indicate the people are speaking. ‘’ - for thoughts and “” - for speaking.

‘I was dancing with him.’ - I understand it’s in the character’s head.

“I was dancing with him.” - I understand the character says it out loud.

The next part is punctuation. I know, a lot of you maybe struggle with all these commas and no commas at the end, at the beginning, dialogue tags and stuff, but, believe me, it’s not as hard as it seems. So, what is important to remember is that we use commas with things that we do with our mouth or verbally and full stops with actions.

“It was quite interesting,” she said.

Look, comma is inside the “” and ‘said’ is something she does with her mouth or verbally.

“It was not so easy.” She moved closer to the table.

Look, full stops is inside the “” and ‘she’ is written in the capital, because ‘she moved closer to the table’ is not something she could do with her mouth or verbally.

Also, do not forget to start each character’s speaking from the new line, so it doesn’t look like a mess.

“I came here from the north.” He put his gloves on the table.

“Me too,” she agreed.

Look, 2 characters speaking, each of them having their own line. Also, notice that the first one is doing action, which is why there’s a full stop at the end, and the second one is agreeing - which is something we could do with our mouth or verbally and - which is why we have comma at the end.

The other thing to remember is that ‘…’ is not interrupting. It’s about the words slowly fading as the character speaks. If you want to show that the person was interrupted - use ‘—‘.

“I wasn’t sure whether to go…” Jake answered.

Look, there’s no comma or full stop at the end of “” and I understand that Jake’s voice becomes quieter and quieter as he speaks, showing that he’s really unsure of what to do next.

“I wasn’t sure wheth—“

“I will tell you!” she shouted.

Look, there’s no comma or full stop at the end of “” and I understand that the character is interrupted. Also, take a look at the second line: there’s an exclamation mark inside “”, but she is written with the small letter - yes, because shouted is something you do with your mouth or verbally.

One more thing: if your sentence finished with ! or ? there’s no need to add a full stop or comma at the end or after “”, ‘’.

That’s it for beginners. Practice with those above to sharpen your writing skills. Yes, you may think it’s too easy and want more, but believe me - I’m also using the rules above and rarely use the rules I’m gonna tell next in my own writing. Make small things look good first and then go to bigger things.

Well, my fellows, who are professionals in writing dialogues and the tips above were like a baby talk to you, fasten your seatbelts, you’re gonna find out some more tricks (I hope).

Okay, first things first, ‘’ and “” could be interchangeable. If you want to write thoughts in “” - you’re welcome, but don’t forget your choice for the rest of the story, so the readers are not messed up with what’s thought and what’s word:

“I was dreaming,” he thought.

And

‘I was dreaming,’ he thought.

Are both fine.

Next, using dialogue tags or actions before the words themselves:

Jake answered quietly, “What if I got it wrong?”

She pressed her hand to his chest. “It can’t be.”

It’s also okay. Just mind the punctuation: commas are for dialogue tags (mouth or verbally) and full stops for actions.

Depending on what you choose for your story, we use ‘’ inside “” and “” inside ‘’:

“I was surprised by ‘his’ behavior,” she stated.

If you have prolonged dialogue tag or action with dialogue tag, the tag should always come directly to the sentence (it’s easier to avoid any extra punctuation drama):

He answered quietly, smiling, “Of course.”

Julie laughed and asked, “What’s that?”

“I want this,” she replied, walking down the street.

There’s a difference when the words are interrupted by dialogue tag or action:

“We’d rather,” Jake said and lifted his arm, “win this auction.”

“I’ll never”—she pressed her finger to his chest—“let you do this!”

But personally I never use this rule, cause it’s just hard to punctuate and I believe that non-English readers may find it too hard to understand.

Well, that’s all for now, thanks for reading and I hope that was useful! <3

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A LA CARTE ALUCARD

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has anyone figured out how to be a real person yet

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Overly Sarcastic Productions just posted their newest Castlevania video essay and it's a tremendously well-discussed and researched diatribe on Nocturne. Highly recommended 🦇

Watch here!