#...some of the authors more than others

[teratomatica]

you always land on all fours

[serpentface]

Here's what typical vestment for The Odomache looks like.

The pelt of the lion that was originally sacrificed and worn raw for her incarnation is retained throughout the years of service, preserved and fashioned into a headdress and cape (obscuring a helmet). This can get dreadfully hot in the summer but no one ever said that being a hollowed out pathway for God's spirit was easy.

The body is always obscured near completely, barring the hands, feet, and parts of the face (philosophically, these are the body's least vulnerable parts as its modes of Action, though this is in large part a practicality). This is partially a matter of psychological enforcement that this person is not Just a human, and partly a matter of protecting the part of God's living spirit that's in a wholly human body. Conceptually, the Odomache Enables tremendous power rather than being intrinsically powerful in of herself, so all manners of protecting the metaphysically vulnerable human body are of tantamount importance in her case.

The complete obscuring of any identifiable feminine form is also notably important to the underlying philosophies and biases involved. It is necessary that she is female, a condition ascribed a unique malleability to change and transformation (for good or harm), but the act of female/non-male sex and gender assignment also serves to uphold an underclass in a patriarchy that she By Necessity must be distanced from. This extends beyond the masculinized social and dress performance of Odonii to a masculinized social performance with dress that utterly obscures any part of the body that could be gendered, and dress that is not gendered in of itself (women do wear less revealing clothing than men and skirts of similar length, but the act of Fully covering the body in this form exists outside of the bounds of gendered dress).

[[It should be noted that on a historical level, this role is largely a descendant of a variety of 'celibate and/or masculinized female religious authority' figures in pre/proto-Wardi societies stretching back centuries, rather than an emergent property of contemporary religion and philosophy. This is an adaptation of older roles and worldviews to securely fit the contemporary zeitgeist, and that's part of why many aspects of this role Superficially clashes with said zeitgeist.]]

The relatively undecorated white cloak and robes in comparison to culturally favored displays of color and opulence further emphasizes a sense of the Odomache's separation from humanity. The Wardi image of God is not a human lord, but rather the world itself and the functions of the world distilled into the forms of animals. Human hierarchies exist Within God rather than God having a place within human hierarchies, so in this philosophy it's natural for this particular person of high authority to not closely resemble a Human Authority.

This is still ultimately a human body existing at the top end of a human hierarchy (and in the dimension of religious thought, it a human body holding aspects of God most specifically concerned with maintaining concepts of 'right' civilization and hierarchy), so public-facing garb like this will still include a few mundane trappings of lordship such as this fancy gold khattanocuy displaying an image of an enemy being trampled by the Face Odomache as the guardian lion. Purely ceremonial garb for the Odomache hides the body in its entirety beneath the white cloak and forgoes all decoration save for the obligatory weaponry.

A sword and dagger is worn at all times as a matter of being the ultimate physical bastion of her society's military might, and she is always accompanied by a retinue of 'lieutenants' (Extremely elite servants/squires) who carry whatever other elements of her perpetual armament are not currently in use. These weapons are Completely ceremonial in nature (to the point that they're made or plated with gold rather than anything like, durable) and there is absolutely zero expectation that the Odomache will ever directly engage in combat (the times this has happened historically have been when things have gone horribly wrong).

Her face is usually masked in public, though this is not a strict necessity of the role and is forgone for some ceremonial purposes. On these occasion, it's standard to paint the face red to still partly obscure human features in the same fashion of battlefield Odonii. As the color of blood, it positively evokes bodily vitality and strength, the living spirit of the world itself and the mode of connection to God (and will also be reminiscent of the rite of incarnation during which she is Actually covered in blood)

[golddragon387]

Brandon Sanderson: A lot more focus is given to the mechanics of dust; the exact number of types of naturally-occurring dust is thematically significant, and Weiss invents a new combination of dust during their Beacon days. It gets revealed during the Atlas arc that dust is actually the magically fossilised remains of Humanity 1.0's magical gift from the God of Darkness. Aura and semblances are also a lot more firmly defined; semblances would be canonically tied to a person's true character/inner self and therefore treated as much more significant. The White Fang would be handled more sympathetically, but not necessarily with more tact. Silver eyes would be handled very similarly, though their being related to the God of Light would be given a lot more emphasis, and contrasted with Dust as descending from Darkness. Grimm would be just as varied, but there would also be a giant crab Grimm at some point. Ironwood's descent into tyranny would simultaneously be more sympathetic, but it would also be much more undeniable that he has become a monster; this would in fact make the discourse Even Worse Somehow.

Each volume would be about 10% longer than the previous, despite all promises to the contrary.

George RR Martin: There is an entire episode focusing on Ozpin's activities as a member of the Vale Council, and all the politicking and frustration that causes him as Secret Cryptic Wizard who was also king once; his comments wishing he was a monarch with absolute power is played for comedy initially and for fridge horror after his backstory reveal. RNJR's trek across Anima between v3 & v4 is an entire volume on its own. The Grimm are typically much more violent, and the threat of death in the line of duty as huntsmen is made clear to RWBY & JNPR very early on in their Beacon year when team CRDL is massacred in front of them on a training mission. The Fall of Beacon goes much the same, but there are a lot more lingering shots on all of the students being eviscerated and Grimm eating civilians alive. Pyrrha's death to Cinder also goes a lot less cleanly. The "entire team" joke about Taiyang can in this version be made about every member of the team, including Raven and Qrow; Vernal has red eyes and is introduced much earlier as Ruby and Yang's Cousin, but her precise parentage is Not Talked About. Ironwood's arc in v7-8 would be a clear descent into madness despite his continued insistence that he's Completely And Mentally Stable.

The waiting period between volumes would get longer every time.

Sir Terry Pratchett: Would actually handle the White Fang stuff well. Dives deeply into the inherent horror of young adults training to die while acknowledging that the war they are fighting is one that someone has to fight, or the world will end. Leans into the inherent horror of Ozpin and Salem's immortalities making them lose their objectivity and grasp on how their actions impact the world around them; the main thrust of the plot is Ruby bringing this revelation to first Oz, then Salem. Zwei would be a major recurring character, implied to be fully capable of understanding and speaking human, but feels he is above doing so.

Every single character, weapon, and semblance name is a stealth pun.

RWBY If It Were Written By…

Alan Moore: Moore cuts the middleman completely and goes straight into portraying Huntsmen as a super powered warrior caste master race making all the decisions and being treated as royalty by all the masses of civilians trying to keep them happy and willing to protect them. And because this is an Alan Moore story now, Ruby is the result of Tai taking out his drunken frustrations on Summer after she tried to help him after Raven left and the only reason Summer married him was because she didn’t want her kid to grow up to be a bastard. Also the gods are now snakes with Moore’s head.

Thomas Astruc: The show never leaves Beacon and by the time Volume 14’s come around we’re still waiting for Jaune and Pyrrha to finally figure out each other’s feelings.

Garth Ennis: Garth rips the entire concept of teenagers being involved in military operations and public safety to shreds. The over the top, rule of cool weapons are routinely the punchline to jokes like Yang losing both arms because her gauntlets jammed and backfired. Some variant of the Happy Huntresses are our protagonists and they all despise the Huntsmen system.

Genndy Tartakovsky: More emphasis on the action, a lot less dialogue and story, so no more White Fang.

Alex Hirsch: Lots of loredump mysteries with more character-focus before he eventually micromanages himself into exhaustion, gets tired of the show, and rushes an ending where Cinder absorbs Salem’s power, attacks Beacon and of the 4 potential ways to beat her that Hirsch had set up, is defeated via the most convoluted one.

Matt Trey & Parker Stone: RWBY Chibi with more plot sometimes, there’s also less than 6 voice actors on the entire cast. A running gag is killing Ozpin randomly just for him to come back as a completely new person the very next episode. But then after a few seasons the show starts focusing an inordinate amount of time on Tai for some reason. Also there’s an occasional musical number.

Robert Kirkman: Less fairytale aesthetic and more anime and takes plenty of passive aggressive meta shots at the anime industry and storytelling with a big status quo shift every little bit. Salem gets killed anticlimactically as a joke in the first few volumes. Other antagonists are more clearly inspired by other anime characters the way Invincible does a lot of it’s villains. And of the several redemption arcs the story would have, only one of them would be any decent.

Greg Farshty: Salem’s schemes are insanely convoluted and probably end with her becoming an actual god. She’s always getting a different group of villains for RWBY to fight every so often. There’s a prequel season about the STRQ days and a later on a couple seasons where JNPR are the protagonists for a bit when RWBY get captured and then do their own thing for awhile. But then there’s some pretty bad retcons in the final few seasons that pisses off a lot of people.

Might make a few more of these later. It was kinda fun.

[eiloh-dystonic]

As frustrating as reading x men fics as a big magneto fan can be, I've started getting pretty good at picking up on tells that he's going to be writen poorly (or not to my taste) so I don't waste much time on stuff I don't like

Like the words "metallokinetic" or "metal-bender" are an instant drop for me

Random German words is a big red flag too but I'm willing to over look it if something is pulling me in strong enough (rare)

It's hard to point out but a lot of fics take on a subtley dehumanizing tone when writing him that's pretty easy to pick up on quickly

Any fics but especially cherik ones that take on the "telepaths are the least accepted mutants" angle also have a high chance of being very unempathetic towards Erik

I also don't fuck with any fics that are even slightly unkind to Magda or in any way minimize Erik's feelings for her or their relationship

[crispyjenkins]

i don't know who needs to hear this today but the jedi would not be body-shy

especially during the war. some would be uncomfortable, sure, or even heavily dislike being nude and/or bathing around others, but the point of that is that would be respected as a choice. there is a very large difference between preferring not to be nude around others, for cultural religious or personal reasons, versus being ashamed. nothing you can do can convince me jedi would be ashamed or embarrassed of their or others' bodies.

why. why would the jedi think nudity undignified. why would they turn their noses up at it as unseemly, rather than a choice and preference

[getbreaded]

I'm finally done with this semester!!! Just had the sig presentation, and the professors only had nice things to say 🌻 (they said we should go study with them, instead of information technologies haha)

All in all the semester went better than expected, I learned a lot (and not just tech related subjects), got good grades, and stayed focused throughout. Just need to learn how to balance academic study and my social life.

I have roughly three weeks before the next semester starts, here's to making the most of it :)

[wackywatchdotcom]

what intrigues me abt caines dynamic w the rest of the cast is the way that none of them seem to understand why he is the way he is. like not in the comedic sense but how they dont seem to have a clear concept of his motivations or anything of that sort

we havent seen toooo much of it. but we have seen how pomni, zooble, jax, ragatha, and gangle view him and its so fascinating

pomni is like. she doesnt understand what hes doing but seems to view his actions as malicious in some way. i dont think she sees him as a 'mean' person but with how she says she thinks he wants her to suffer its very illuminating of how she sees him as someone who wants all of them to hurt. i dont think she knows why he would, but its the only conclusion shes got. it also speaks to her distrusting nature that upon being hurt by him her first thought is that its an intentional decision to harm her, and unfortunately for caine she hasnt actually been given much of a reason to think he feels otherwise. i dont know how she thinks caine feels about them but its clear to me how she views his goals and hobbies for lack of a better term

zooble doesnt trust him. they find him to be annoying but more significant is that they KNOW he likes them all. it adds an interesting tone to how they see him, that they specifically say that whats 'holding caine back' is that he 'likes [them]', which on one hand is them interpretting caines actions as being done from a place of liking the players, and that his actions are coming from a place of NOT hurting them, because he likes them (its interesting to note that they have participated in less adventures, so its unclear how much they know abt caines adventures firsthand). but on the other hand is implying that they think caines holding himself back at all. that there IS a desire or a capability to be cruel that theyre wary of. theyve also seen caine at his most vulnerable (in the show itself at least) and their comment, 'whose therapy session is this again?' implies theyre at least aware that this is caine having his own problems, though i dont think theyre comfortable safety-wise with how these problems affect them and the others. them asking caine 'why did you think i would like that?' speaks to the idea that they do think hes genuinely trying to appeal to the players, but they seem to find his lack of understanding of the players frustrating and unsafe for all of them

jax i think is pretty vague since most of his lines to caine are brief, and the most telling line he has abt caine is the only one we have. but he seems neutral on caine as a whole. caine is just a guy who makes things for them. he tries to entertain them and thats all jax really seems to be concerned with- whether his 'its not in his nature' line is reflective of him genuinely Believing that is smth i see debated often but i think no matter what, it conveys that jax Generally sees caine as someone who isnt malicious. hes not trying to hurt them, and whether or not he thinks caine is capable of hurting them is whats more vague. either way, jax doesnt seem to like or dislike caine

ragatha has very mimimal interactions with caine and not many lines about him, but i think her line in the pilot, 'thats just one of caines little adventures. theyre just something fun to do to, yknow, prevent us from going insane,' is extremely telling of how she sees caine. of all of them, she seems to have the most positive view of caine, since she interprets his actions as an active attempt to stave off abstraction in the players. whether or not she thinks caine is acting from a place of wanting to stop disruptions or if he wants to ensure the players arent doing as unwell as they could IS up for debate though. the way she talks about him in the pilot in general reads like she has some level of trust in him, but it seems like a surface level trust in him at the worst- she knows hes not malicious and knows he wants to help. she knows he can help her when shes jumbled. but its not clear if she Likes him. she seems to enjoy the adventures though (which, ill keep it brief so i dont derail this, but it honestly reads like a deliberate parallel writing-wise that the two of them both seem fond of distractions as an acceptable solution to a bad situation- if her assessment of Why he makes the adventures is anything to go by)

gangle is harder to read on this front, as she has way less lines about him, though she does have multiple notable interactions with him in ep 4, in the way of her seeming genuinely enthusiastic about his adventure (it doesnt seem completely directed at him, but she seems genuinely a bit happy about his praise of her leadership skills). when she calls him it doesnt convey TOO much i dont think but the way she talks to him and requests he make a punishment could imply she doesnt think hed normally make one, but also that hes not opposed to it, which is confusing in what it means about how she sees him but it feels important. her interaction with him at the end of the episode also doesnt convey much in this way (i feel like caine is not the main focus of most of that scene- which works for the scene and is good writing wise bc the scenes important for gangles writing of her own problems, but in terms of breaking down this idea it means im not sure this scene conveys much about how she sees him)

and then. i didnt mention kinger at the beginning specifically bc i dont think we have... almost any indicators of how he sees caine. he tells caine abt kaufmo in ep 1, suggests caine could find pomni in ep 2, doesnt address the thing pomni says abt caine in ep 3, and even his suggestion in ep 4 to sit out the adventure doesnt convey almost anything. the only throughline is that kinger sees caine as someone who can help them if they ask, but it doesnt convey any thoughts on what he thinks caines motivations are or his thoughts on caines actions. which frankly reads like a deliberate choice when kinger should be the one with the most history with caine

this post is long but i just am bery intrigued by this. i thinka ll the character dynamics are so deeply fascinating but with caine being the closest the show has to an antagonist (which of course is a loaded statement but i mean it in the writing sense and not in the 'antagonist is evil' way) it means that the way the characters see him holds a lot of weight. it conveys a lot abt them all with how they interpret the person that has (at least on the surface) the most control over the situation

[fictionadventurer]

Maybe I'm being too nitpicky toward the graphic novel children's adaptation of Tolkien and Lewis' lives, but also, I can't emphasize enough that logos is not a Latin word. I'm hardly a scholar here, but even I know that! I have no idea how a mistake that basic got through, and it does make me doubt the rest of the research.

[gemini-queen42]

Just finished reading The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica and here's my experience:

Circe is not reffered to as a Cat, or even feline, ONCE. I SWEAR. Thus another fun fact:

As it says, i only FINALLY got it right at the purring scene.

ANYWAYS- finished this book in a day. I fucking LOVE IT. 10/10 I do recommend.

[bnnywngs]

hinata: i'm home! ugh it takes so long to go anywhere in this city

kenma, sipping tea: welcome back. isn't it normal?

hinata: no??? why would it be normal? i used to go from home to school faster than this and i lived on the other side of the mountain

hinata: and by BIKE!

kenma, tokyo born: i wouldn't know

hinata, country bumpkin:

hinata: yeah, nevermind, i forgot you're a city boy

[tentenismybitch]

i have a hot take but i will keep it to myself and instead just ask:

i need some nejiten fic recs?? what are yall's GOATED nejiten fics, like top tier, some of the best shit you've ever read???

critieria:

nejiten is the focal ship, not the side ship in a fic primarily about some other ship

ideally sasuke x sakura is NOT also in the fic. bonus points if there's no naruto x hinata in it either. i'd also prefer not to have saiino. shikatema is an acceptable and much enjoyed side pairing tho

relatedly. no kakashi x sakura pls either. not sure why that would even be a side pairing in a nejiten-centric fic but i've truly seen it all

it's well-written. i know that's subjective but like. good grammar + plotting + characterization plsss*

my preference would be for it to be within the canon world/canon divergent/they are still ninjas, but if it's going to be a modern setting i would LOVE for it to NOT be a high school au

ideally it is complete or updates regularly pls <3

to get a sense of what i like to read, here are my ao3 bookmarks lol

[roomba-mangga]

thoughts on thistle and yaad's dynamic that i vomited in the tags of another post but will now try to articulate here: they're not actually family, or at least they shouldn't be. not in a conventional sense anyway. framing them as uncle and nephew (even in a non-literal, silly fantasy world way) rides more on technicality than anything concrete.

what i mean by this is yaad calls thistle by name and says he and delgal were raised "like" brothers. he talks about thistle like he's an outsider imposing himself into the melinis' space, and it's clear that thistle was never legitimized as a member of the family. for thistle's part, though we don't know how he would treat yaad pre-demon brainrot, it's safe to assume based on the way he punishes him—turning him into a doll—and how little is shown in the way of any sort of relationship between them that thistle only cares* about yaad as an extension of delgal (otherwise i'd expect something like kabru and milsiril, because it's not like another complicated interspecies family dynamic would be out of place, yet there's next to nothing on them even in bonus content, just their scant interactions in the main story).

in essence, they're strangers to one another. thistle's desperation to preserve the illusion of a family, a model where he doesn't even fit, was the snare they were caught in for the past thousand years of stasis. yaad-as-nephew is a prop to uphold that illusion, and thistle is playing a role he's unfit to play. in the context of post-canon interactions, attempting to reconstruct that facade would only be a reenactment of trauma for them both (in a deeply compelling way i'd love to watch unfold, tbh), as that "uncle and nephew" framing places thistle in an implicit position of power over someone he's already traumatized through misuse of authority in the past, a role which also perpetuates his adultification and yaad's infantilization in turn. it'd mostly be an obstacle to any real connection.

best to burn the melini family bridge, i think, and if there's still anything salvageable left in the rubble, let something different supplant it.

[campbyler]

ik part of it is that life and work just Be Like That sometimes, but every time i check back on your blog it seems yall are going through chronic ao3 author syndrome. sending love and good vibes your way i hope all three of you are doing ok and can catch a break soon!! (ik suni and thea yall are the ones writing the rest of it but sending love to andi as well)

also any tips on writing longer chapters without them sounding like they’re dragging on? i’m a (more casual) fic writer and my chapters always end up a little shorter than i usually hope they’d be

awake at 3am in a fit of jet lag and laughed aloud upon reading this bc you’re not wrong 😭 i feel like part of it is just timing, like thea’s work has a big busy season during the fall every year and her schedule also varies week by week and even day to day so i know some stretches are more difficult than others by default (rn she has been having to work from home on her weekend or after she clocks out which has been extra rough). my work tends to have bursts of insane work days every few weeks or so, and i just have a shitty daily commute on top of that and will sometimes get home like 12 hours after i left in the morning or something. so honestly there is a nonzero chance one of us is having a subpar time on any given workday i fear, and that schedule is pretty unpredictable given the nature of our very full time jobs. i also think it’s just statistically more likely that when we are active there is a reason for our Grievances to be brought up, either organically because we are coming out of a slump and are complaining about the Horrors or because someone checked in on us in a period of absence and we are giving a quick update, but either way, thank you so much for your wishesssss! thea will be getting a break soon (thank god) and i’m actually entering a bit of a busy stretch at work for the next week or so because we have a grant deadline to meet, which always means 10000 last minute experiments that i have to work into my schedule in the middle of the week and it’s really fun and lovely and great. woo hoo. 🙂

as for chapter lengths, i wish i had more solid advice but my problem is genuinely that i can’t for the life of me seem to trim them down 😭 i guess a part of it is largely how your chapters are structured — i only have a couple chaptered fics outside of acswy, but all of them are planned so that each chapter is quite meaty in terms of content or what i want each scene to accomplish. i will say that the singular thing that consistently drives up my word count is DIALOGUEEEEE!!! a blessing when i’m in a rut or have writers block and am trying to get something down on the page, a menace when im editing a scene transition i left to fill in for later and my wc is right at 29k and im sweating watching the number tick up. i find there’s absolutely nothing wrong with shorter chapters if it’s accomplishing what you hope for and i honestly am working really hard on trying to be more concise, but i do find dialogue to be a good way to slow down a scene that’s maybe rushing or is paced a little quicker than you intended. real conversations often stray off topic, people ramble or get sidetracked or get interrupted by things they’re doing — i love describing people talking while doing chores or eating or whatever because you can break up the dialogue with bits of action — and at least for me, it’s a lot easier to work in some narration or description in with dialogue than it is to just write a couple paragraphs of it straight up, which also sometimes feels a little more blunt and Quick than i intend it to be. one thing we both do a Lot is script out dialogue between characters and then go back in to fill in things like speech tags, action descriptions, inner monologues and thoughts, etc. literally just like:

character 1: ___ character 2: _______ 1, (note on how it’s meant to be said or what they’re thinking/intending to say to cue us in later): _____ 2: _____________ (small description of them moving around/something happening in the background to give a visual for describing later)

so on and so forth. it helps a lot either when we want to establish the setup of a dialogue heavy scene before we forget our inspiration, or we’re feeling a bit too blocked to be able to write more descriptively at the moment, etc etc. it’s a really natural way to focus on the flow of conversation without getting caught up in transitions and repetition of dialogue tags and stuff, and usually is the culprit for a scene taking way longer to finish than expected for me.

all that being said, the times i have actually felt like a chapter is paced too quickly is usually either when the dialogue exchange is too fast and feels like the conversation could be more fleshed out, or maybe likeeee a transition happens a little too immediately and it reads a little bit like one thing happening after the next after the next without much of a pause for expansion. if you’ve managed to get your point across in fewer words and your main concern is driving up the word count, i really wouldn’t worry about it! you could always have someone look at it with a fresh pair of eyes and ask for places they feel could use more explanation or detail (maybe describing a setting more vividly? or giving more insight to some of their thoughts at a certain point?) but genuinely — conciseness is a Skill, and seeing how i have once again accidentally answered an ask with one million words, i’ll actually just trade you some of my internal word vomit right now. here you go -> 🎁

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Compound Fracture

YA thriller set in rural West Virginia

follows an autistic trans boy who survives being almost killed by the Sheriff’s son after a party, and accidentally kills one of the boys who hurt him when he tries to get back at him

and is pulled head-first back into the 100 year old feud between his & the sheriff’s families, that began when his great-great grandfather was executed after inciting a miner’s rebellion, the grandfather whose ghost has started to haunt him

community & family & socialist revolution

aro-questioning MC

arc from netgalley, out september 3

[o-vera-nalyzing]

look i totally get it’s all love now but genuinely every kipperlilly sympathizer that only talks about how it’s so valid she hates the bad kids and how she’s a side character getting fucked by the main characters simply just feels like they themselves have hella side character syndrome and are relating to kipperlilly a bit too hard and might need to consider that they’re only a side character if they convince themselves they are

(my tags explain it a bit better but i was too lazy to copy them up here)

[onlyancunin]

Just a quick request ~

Please don't separate my art from me as an artist.

There's a post circulating about how it's alright to separate art from artist if you want to appreciate just the art.

I starkly disagree with that stance. People did that to me before and it felt incredibly offensive and objectifying.

If you can't see the artist in their art, you're not looking hard enough. Don't do that to the art, don't do that to the artist. If you hate me, hate my creations as well, don't be an apologist coward.

And if you love my art but hate me as a person, hateromance me. Don't go around proving how you can't see the humanity in the creation. How you can't see the person beyond their way of communication.