#I don't think that's the descriptor most people would use haha

[sysig]

Getting up to trouble is his speciality (Patreon)

[majorbaby]

some early and candid thoughts on MASH: The Comedy that Changed Television

I thought Gary Burghoff had the most illuminating commentary to offer. he was specific, technical and detailed when recounting how the show was constructed, a style of media commentary that caters to my preferences. he has one comment that really stuck with me as a strong descriptor of the Radar character (paraphrase from memory): they needed a character who was experiencing the concept of war for the first time, for whom you could see the

after Burghoff, I thought Jamie Farr had some interesting things to say re: Margaret - 'she contains multitudes' being one of them, and a recurring theme when everyone was speaking about the character

i have to talk about mike farrell's comment on anti-war vs. anti-military: i've talked about how I feel that the post-reynolds/gelbart years have heavily watered-down messaging re: war before, and i've pointed to several episodes where i feel this is obvious, but mike farrell saying (quite strongly) that he felt the show was anti-war but never anti-military is pretty damning evidence.

i mean, i think this is good characterization for BJ, to take a more, let's call it 'broadly', anti-war stance, rather than be opposed specifically to military, particularly to the US military. it fits with his aspirations to live a quiet, middle-class life, with his insistence that he's always done 'the right thing' and imo, a good motivation for him to butt heads with the more radical Hawkeye, who opposes authority figures in general (per Alan Alda himself in this same special) - which actually goes beyond the military...

so i love it for BJ but i hate it for a show that never framed him as being wrong about that idea specifically. i can't say for sure whether BJ always held Farrell's beliefs of course, or vice versa, but if BJ ever did oppose the military as a system, Farrell doesn't know it. this knowledge makes episodes like Preventative Medicine and Back Pay land even worse with me.

'some of us were IN the military' he added, as a justification for his point that the show could not have been anti-establishment which i would speak on even more candidly if i was going to make this unrebloggable lol. but truly it's not that serious except in terms of how i think about the themes of this show - he seems like a perfectly lovely person who really loved making MASH and i think his fans will enjoy watching him speak about that.

Mclean Stevenson makes a point about how what Radar anticipates about a character tells us something about that character beyond what we would receive if we just heard the character say it themselves (which they usually do, at the same time as Radar) - I need to think about this some more when re-watching those scenes...

dlfkjaljfk I've never heard David Ogden Stiers' natural voice I thought someone was giving commentary over footage of him and then i realized he was actually giving the commentary - I feel like everyone knows this, but he was immensely talented, a master of voice and speech

1 hour and 10 minutes (including ads, or 'commercial breaks' as we used to call them back in my day) spent on seasons 1-3. tbf there's character-specific commentary in the first half that is for characters that were with us for the whole run, but, there's also a lot of time devoted to talking about how the show was initially constructed, the pilot being good (correct), and something that made me smirk - Larry Gelbart's commentary on how people were incensed and outraged at Henry's death and felt they had been misled, lied to, about their funny haha, wholesome weeknight comedy (set in the Korean War???) is almost indistinguishable from how people talk about plots they don't like in media nowadays

it was good! i had fun!

[sneakydraws]

Okay so!! Here's a little wap design compilation - not exhaustive, both because of the image limit and because there's many things I'm not settled on but I want to post some of it at least~

Organised by families because familial resemblence or lack thereof is one of my favourite factors in chardes! And because Tolstoy is so good at creating these family dynamics of shared traits! First, the Bolkonskys:

Lise, Mlle Bourienne and Nikolai jr. not included for now, maybe later. The shared traits I gave them all (therefore presumably coming from Nikolai's side) are sharp, angular features with a beaked nose and high cheekbones, thin figures and straight, dark hair. Both Andrei and Nikolai are described as short, so initially I wanted to apply this to them all, but then I thought it would be cool to emphasise Andrei's similarity to his father AND separate Marya out by making her much taller than them. It works really well because Andrei and Nikolai are both short yet straightened out to their full height while Marya cowers and hunches to hide hers - which also works to create the unattractive figure she's described as having. I use heads to note height - as in, how many heads tall a character is - mostly because numerous manga art tutorials ingrained those in me <:3c Nikolai has his signature bushy eyebrows, and his clothes and hair are inspired by his depiction in the first soviet wap movie because I really liked it!

In general I spent the most time on Andrei, both because he's my favourite and because he has a lot of tantalisingly sparse and at times interestingly contrasting descriptions - he's meant to look unassuming, his small and slender figure hiding his impressive stamina and his cushy administrative position contrasting with the rugged hussars (and his small hands are mentioned as well) but he has sharp features, and his design should showcase his proud, decisive nature as well.

The Rostovs! Not including the count and countess because while I have some features in mind I haven't made up my mind yet on the overall designs, and excluding Vera for reasons I'll divulge later. These Rostov kids are all energetic, emotionally driven and strong-willed and I wanted to reflect that in their designs - most of all in their hair, which is curly and kind of fluffy, making big, untamed shapes - I decided this they would have inherited from the Count. They're all rather short (I think some of the Rostovs are described as short so I extended it to the whole family) and a little stockier than the Bolkonskys - Natasha's figure is really incosistent because she gains and loses weight a lot over the book, but I settled on the slightly heavier side mostly to contrast with Sonya. I also love freckles and always associate them with energy and youthfulness so they got given to the Rostovs - presumably from the Count's side again. And their eyes and hair are all black or dark brown!

BIG RAMBLING RANT: The Countess is described as having "oriental features" and I wanted to incorporate that into the kids because it's like the most detail we ever get on someone's overall facial features lol but it turned out kind of frustratingly vague. I think my first idea was towards Georgia because Pierre mentions a woman with Georgian features in 1812, and because my ballets russes research included a very orientalist ballet about a georgian queen. I didn't find very good references though and turned next to Armenia, and when I found someone talking about common Armenian features that fit what I already had in mind for the Rostovs I ended up using that. However, later I realised those countries are in Western Asia and don't really fit the descriptor of "oriental (eastern)" from the perspective of Russia... Now I'm looking more towards the Kalmyk and Bashkir people after seeing them mentioned in one of my interlibrary books so I might revise the Rostovs yet. I did get kind of attached to the nose though so I'll do my best to keep it haha

The odd ones out in the Rostov household!! Sonya is, I believe, related to the Rostovs on the Count's side so maybe it would make sense to give her the fluffy hair and freckles, but she has enough descriptions in the book to form a separate design on her own (and she's only a second cousin to the Rostov kids, so it's pretty far away anyway). She's compared to a graceful kitten, described as almost unattractively thin and with a sallow skin, so I thought it would fit her to have a slightly unwell air, with portruding collarbones and a slight hunch. She also has her dark double braid.

Vera was fun once I got the idea to make her look very different from her siblings - to mirror her personality being completely different (cool, impassionate, meanspirited at times) and to visually reflect how she's disliked by the Countess - perhaps almost looking like she's not her parents' child 👀 She's taller and slimmer than her siblings, with straighter and lighter in colour hair, and her features are more smooth and soft. No freckles either.

The Kuragins! Those guys are fun. I have Anatole as the tallest in the cast (save for Pierre), and Helene as the tallest woman, with Ippolit the same height as her. Helene and Ippolit in general are described as having the same features so they ended up almost looking like twins! Later I'll talk a bit more about their facial features and hair but in terms of silhouettes, Helene has to have her round shoulders and impressive bosom (and low neckline), while Anatole has to look all broad-shouldered and masculine. He was actually the hardest to draw because I kept feeling like his head was too small and his whole body too long... I might go back and make him a bit broader still. A book I have says the elite life guards of the Russian army were known for their impressive, immaculate appearance, with some men padding their uniforms to add volume to their chest... That made me think of Anatole lmao.

A little roll call to show everyone's height in relation to each other.

More about the Kuragins! I tackled Helene with the aim to make her beautiful by the standards of the time, and luckily there's actually an 1812 bust of the Greek Helene! It was too poerfect of a coincidence so I leaned heavily into it. I find that typical features of ancient Greek or 19th century Hellenistic busts are a very straight nose that flows smoothly from the forehead, a very round jawline with a somewhat portruding chin and that particular curve of the neck. I gave Helene all of those along with heavily-lidded, downturned eyes and an expression that hopefully conveys calm confidence and intelligence. Ippolit is supposed to have the same features but made to look ugly by his stupid expression - this actually turned out easier than I thought? Though it might just be that the moustache looks kind of stupid - maybe I should try a version without it. Anatole I thought ought to look impressive and masculine so in the end I kept the squarer jaw and strong forehead (and I couldn't resist the slicked back hair) but I considered a more Hellenistic version too, with the short curls and round jaw. Helene's hair was tricky because none of the styles I saw felt quite right - I settled on a sort of combo of the Hellenistic curls from the statue but a bit looser with the braid she's described to have in the book. She'd also probably wear a lot of hair accessories but I'll have to do more research on those.

More Natasha and Sonya, and Andrei - Andrei is so difficult!! I always kind of oscillate between "stern, strong-willed soldier", "sharp-featured intellectual" and "soft pampered prince/troubled poet" (where I try and fail to imitate this gorgeous illustration by Vadimir Serov). The Brutus haircut is tempting in its historical accuracy, but I'm just a little bit too fond of the immaculately slicked back hair...

Edit: I completely forgot @visualnoteslibrary was on Tumblr!! Thank you so much for collecting all the descriptions, you spared me quite the Easter egg hunt through the Gutenberg version <3

[wedreamedlove]

In Freeze The Moment, the 2nd anniversary video Light and Night released, there are frames where you can see keywords for the men and I found them extremely interesting, especially because some words seem counterintuitive to what you would apply to the men. So, here is my analysis attempt.

OSBORN

First up is our Boss Osborn and I want to talk about his graphics. You can see that he's split in half (blue and black) and in the next frame his silhouette is boxed inside layers of alternating blue and black. I believe this is a nod to his split soul—good and evil.

runaway. At a glance, this word probably gives you a negative connotation, such as running away like a coward. However, you can use it to describe something that breaks away from control and this suits Osborn better. He has broken out of the expectation society placed on him as well as his own limitations (what I also think the boxed layers around his silhouette represent). In your relationship, there are multiple times where Osborn offers to take you on a getaway trip, like running out of a rainy day (Moments) or driving to the end of the world (1st Valentine's date). In this context, running away is no longer something negative but to throw off the troubles life brings and to embrace the freedom of being in the moment.

haven. Osborn is the man to go to when you want security. He founded the bar, Weeds, to give juvenile offenders a place to restart their life. He took in strays and gave them a home. Interestingly, in addition to carrying the meaning of sanctuary and shelter, havens are also used to describe shipping harbours, so we have this extra sea connection with Osborn.

romantic. Haha, this is an extremely cute descriptor to attach to Osborn, especially because he looks like an edgy bad boy, but it's completely true because in your relationship he can only do the most classic of romantic things. For example, in his 1st Valentine's date he stuffed his jeep's trunk with roses, and in the 2nd anniversary video call he brings a balloon to you.

danger. I think this is pretty self-explanatory, but both his racing and bounty hunter profession are accompanied with danger. Also, in his 2nd Valentine's card, he tells the journalist that some people are inherently born accompanied by danger (we just need to look at Osborn's entire past, especially given how he's a mix of the Blood Clan and God Clan). The person—you—who is willing to go with him on dangerous adventures doesn't need him to do anything because you would have entered his life already.

EVAN

For Evan, after his words, the next frame shows him with bars around his silhouette, reminiscent of a cage. He's been jailed for being a smooth criminal. I believe this shows his upbringing and how he's never had any freedom.

expectation. This is a loaded word because this can refer to how he now looks forward to the future, thanks to your influence on him that gives him hope, or it can refer to his expectations for you because he's always challenging you to grow and be strong enough to stand on your own or against him.

Belief. The immediate thing that pops out here is that this is the only word, out of all the men, that has a capitalization. I saw a fellow fan bring up his reading event date, where Evan and you discuss possible words that start with B-E for a story, and ultimately you decide it must have been "Believe". I agree with this interpretation and I believe it refers specifically to your relationship with Evan, because in his sunrise date you say "Love is, even if you don't understand a person, you're willing to believe in them without reservation". Loving someone is a trust fall and for someone like Evan, who was once terrified of love, being able to love someone is being able to believe in them.

There is also the aspect of Evan's nihilism and how, due to Blood Clan upbringing being so against his nature, Evan has doubted literally everything in the world. At one point, after you do enough philosophical exercises, you will think yourself into a deep hole and realize that, in order to get out, you can only blindly believe in something.

loyalty. Evan's position in the game has always been close to being a double agent, haha. He manipulates everything behind the scenes and plays roles for both sides to the point where it's easy to wonder just who is the real Evan? I don't think it's a coincidence that all his AU roles has also played with this concept and the codename for his VR event is "Integrity". However, we can be assured that he will never put you in real harm anymore (after Chapter 16) and so I think this descriptor is a reminder that, in the end, he is loyal to you and only you.

commitment. Once again, I think this is a reference to your relationship with Evan and how, after all the push-pull tension that resulted in the climax of Chapter 16, Evan is now willing to fight for you and has committed to his feelings. He refuses to be strangers with you.

SARIEL

I don't have anything to say about his graphics, but I do think it's interesting that he is the only man who gets two screens for his words. Maybe it's to show the passage of his time?

serenity. I believe this refers to Sariel's zen-like attitude towards everything and how he believes in letting nature take its course. Out of all the men, Sariel is still the only one whose emotions rarely get agitated. He has seen so much over thousands of years that he can make peace with pretty much anything.

samsara. This is the concept of reincarnation and karma, which cannot be any more perfect to describe your relationship with Sariel. Although it seems more like timey-wimey loops in the game, we can treat it functionally like reincarnation and I will never shut up about the Möbius loop of how you went back into the past and taught Sariel about designer skills, which led him onto that path, and then makes him become your North Star, which leads you onto the path of being a designer.

reunion. I was shocked to see this word land on Sariel instead of Jesse, but I think it's ingenious in how it captures the development of your relationship with the men and the world state. Now that Sariel has recovered his memories he has truly reunited with you.

eternal. You met him when he was a child, you met him when he was a young general, and then you met him when he was a three thousand year old plus designer. Again and again, your lives intersect and you become someone irreplaceable to him. Sariel has said in his Spring Festival date that he can wait for you for hundreds or thousands of years, and in his 2nd birthday date he did a Spirit Clan ritual to mark your souls so that you can find each other again in the next life.

CHARLIE

Oh man, do I have things to say about Charlie's graphics. First, there are 5 of him that appear with his words. Second, in the next frame, you see two Charlies that flicker back and forth. I wonder if this refers to all the different roles he has (Novaten heir, firefighter, journalist, burn surgeon, "Charlie"), his dissociation, and also his twin.

utopia. From the opening for the game where Charlie says the line "A new world. I will be here waiting for you", to the album title for his BGMs being "Utopia", to his 2nd valentine's date where he gets called an idealist who suffers in the current state of reality, to all of his main chapter cards, we can see that Charlie is driven to fight against the evils of society. There is no better word to describe the goal he wants to achieve.

fantasy. I believe this is a nod to his childlike innocence and how he encourages this in you. A lot of his dates involve bringing romantic fantasties into the real world, like his magician date and his Hello Kitty date.

stratagem. This is another word which I would have thought would go to another man—the behind-the-scenes manipulator Evan—but I think it's because Evan has now stripped off his mask and is openly warring with his family. Evan's battle still requires strategy, of course, but it's not at the scale of Charlie and his father, who also have their own war. The definition of stratagem involves surprising or deceiving the enemy and, in my opinion, this has been Charlie's actions where he has to limit the knowledge his father has, such as going on the run or hypnotizing himself.

freedom. I may not have said this out loud but I do believe Charlie suits this word more than Osborn. For all intents and purposes, Osborn has already achieved his freedom and it's no longer a prominent theme with him (rather, it's just inherent in his actions) but Charlie is still struggling to escape his father's control, the contradiction between his ideals and reality, and even the weight of his name "Charlie". Freedom is a keystone theme shared between you and Charlie and the foundation of your relationship, because you ran from the engagement and caught his interest.

JESSE

Before Jesse's words appear, he also gets the cage-looking graphics like Evan and I believe it's because he's similarly trapped. He was born with the weight of the Xia Clan on his shoulders and the responsibility that comes with his powers. I would argue he is also trapped by his revenge and insecurities.

protection. Yes, all the other men protect you, but we only need to look at how many times Jesse puts his life on the line for you to know that this truly defines him. He gives you one of his soul flames in his Qixi date, he gives up on his revenge in the main chapter for you, and he forces himself to sing and topples off the stage in the main chapter for you. Heck, Chapter 15 was all about tackling his overprotective behavior.

partiality. This should have gone to Osborn. I believe this goes hand in hand with his "obsession" for you and how that is naturally expressed in favoring you for everything.

passionate. I think this might refer to how much he's grown from the boy who didn't understand his feelings for you to the man that now wants to be a partner you can rely on. In the steamier cards, he can barely hold himself back and puts his desires front and center.

firmness. This can refer to many things but I like to think it's Jesse's position on his revenge and you. At many instances, people have told him there was only one killer for his father but he refuses to believe that and continues to search for the truth. His "obsession" for you has been pointed out to have potential negative consequences, but he firmly believes that you are the fulcrum of all his possibilities. Once Jesse makes a decision, nothing can change his mind.

[overfedvenison]

Could you talk more about Gwyndolin Dark Souls? What's his(?) deal, and the boobs?

Uhh I suppose Gwyndolin is a secret boss from Dark Souls 1. He is an illusionst who set up the Anor Londo area of the series in it's current form, which imitates the grandiosity it had in it's prime. In truth, most of what you see are part of a grand illusion meant to guide a chosen undead along a path to a chosen end - to succeed Lord Gwyn as the kindling of the First Flame, prolonging the age of light.

A recurring theme in the series is the idea that this world you inhabit is decaying, and clinging on to the embers of a better and more prosperous era. Anor Londo is probably the most obvious reflection of this - presenting itself as though it is still in a golden era, but actually a dark, empty city maintained by the one remaining god in it. And that god is Gwyndolin. Gwyndolin is a son of Lord Gwyn, raised as a daughter because of his affinity for the moon's power in his magic. (The moon being feminine is a well-established thing in both fantasy and real life.) This makes him a literal "Male Daughter;" the literal meaning of "Otokonoko" which is that kind of male crossdresser archetype you see in Japanese media sometimes. I don't THINK he's ever referred to as an Otokonoko explicitly in the Japanese text, but it seems like a logical association, in my mind. I won't delve to deeply into what that means here, but suffice it to say that - although I don't think literally being raised female is actually that much of a thing - that sort of "Crossdresser Lifestyler" concept IS a thing over there, and is not just an anime thing. I see a lot of people asserting that characters like this are just trans characters portrayed incorrectly, but I feel like that is a total misread and disregard for this other concept in favour of western norms.

(Note that although I occasionally see people insisting on feminine pronouns, the game games themselves have never used these though they occasionally use neutral terms and more feminine descriptors like "Goddess." This makes sense, characters like this often use female descriptors paired with male pronouns.)

In any case, there are a number of things which directly tie in to this identity. His affinity for illusions is cool. I feel like it's relatively common on the rare intersections between "Otokonoko/femboy/trap/whatever" and "Fantasy Setting," but I've only really seen that like twice. But, for example, you can see this association as well in Chrono Trigger's Flea

(...Come to think of it, one of my college textbooks was literally called The Illusion of Life. Is there something innate about this connection? Pfft) But it's pretty logical. The crossdressing character has illusions, and among other things it would make him look more feminine. In Dark Souls 3, you can return to Anor Londo. Gwyndolin has been devoured by Aldrich and can be seen in his boss fight. But if you return to his room from the original Dark Souls, you can find this:

It changes your animations to those of the other gender. That's actually such a brilliant thing to add to this game, and implies he needed some help along the way. It's also near-useless to you, but, yeah.

As for the boobs, I think his armor just has boobs. An outfit like that is a lot less uhh, required, to have anatomy under the clothes than you may expect. I can tell you that from experience, haha.

A character wearing it I pulled off of an Oceanhero search ...I have no idea why he has snakes for feet. Like, that's not a Lord thing. I don't think it's ever explained why he's like that. Strange. Maybe they're illusory snakes? Maybe he's like Flea and just looks like whatever he wants too. Aaand, yeah

[abeinginsand]

:D Hi Countless! How about 2, 3, 7, 9, and 31 for Sparrow!

Heya Baba!! :] Thank you for letting me ramble about Sparrow once again hehe 2. A canon or headcanon hill I will die on

Hm, strongest thought that comes to mind is that Sparrow loves his family (especially his kids) so very much, more than himself even. Also related, Sparrow and Rebecca having Normal as an accidental pregnancy isn't something awful. Maybe I feel strongly about this because...I was an accidental baby myself? But it kinda bums me out how harsh some folks on here were being about the reveal. Unplanned does not automatically equal unloved or unwanted is all I'm trying to say I guess.

3. Obscure headcanon Sparrow has always loved playing with his food, often using the edible materials to make mini food towers or little scenes or expressions. With drinks, he likes to mix them a lot to see the colors change or to making silly shaped stains on available napkins/his clothes/other material. As an adult, he still does this--just at home or when he's relaxing in the woods/park during a break (with picnic basket). Yes, he is one of those people who will press every drink machine option to get a little of each flavor in the cup. When he was little and left alone with other people's food plates, he'd start making art out of them too! He would then pretend he didn't do anything when the person returned and watch to see the reactions. He convinced a few of his elementary school classmates the school was haunted this way. 7. Age/height/weight headcanon So I think all the kiddads are in their 30s in s2, I assume Sparrow and Lark are 35? 10 in s1 and 25 years past... speaking of years, was listening to the uncut of s2 ep 1 yesterday and one of the things cut was Anthony saying it might be 30 years instead of 25. Height wise, I think Sparrow is like 5'9 and Lark's 6'. Sparrow closes his eyes to the truth and says he is 6' anyway (even now he still likes to match in some ways). Also, Rebecca is taller than them at 6'2. I don't have any specific weight hcs outside of Sparrow probably isn't that toned compared to Lark due to different fighting styles (hand-to hand combat heavy Lark vs Long distance caster Sparrow). Still skilled in hand-to-hand combat though when necessary. 9. Scene that first made me love (or hate) the character In the first ep, when Sparrow proudly talks about his doodler mascot design and also mentioned trying better next time about setting fires at the school haha. (I interpreted that last bit to be Sparrow talking at least, may be remembering wrong). The twins introduction in general seemed so fittingly chaotic as young kid characters. Kids will do the most unusual stuff (ex. being a menace to trees) simply because...why not! seems fun! I adore the whimsy and also understand Henry's frustration and concern about their actions too. 31. If the had a tumblr what would it look like? Chaosflower as the username, probably says "a beloved wolf" in the little blog descriptor along with whatever pronouns he's feeling that week. It would look pretty and/or cool palette wise with this night sky banner that has stars, a bright moon, various soft glowing flowers, and wolves walking along the path. Which looks normal etc UNTIL you zoom in and sees the skulls and debris laying in the sand and that some of the wolves have suspiciously reddish fur and glistening teeth. Also the banner has fake constellations that make various shapes...probably characters from shows/books/podcasts etc that he likes. He is so thrilled whenever someone sends in an ask commenting on the banner and is just waiting for the opportunity to explain in great detail all the info he put into it from the setting, the wolf names, to the meaning of each flower type. He also has a wolf icon--actual picture of a wolf with a pink rose on its head and what seems to be the unfocused image of a person (probs a teen) high-fiving the wolf. He wild shaped, posed, turned back into normal self and posed on the other side, stitched the image together. Its an art blog mainly where he posts fanart including animatics and lots of silly memes probably (&lt;-- based on the artist Sparrow hcs from the bonding with Taylor idea). I think he speaks a lot of Spanish daily (with family atleast) but mostly writes in English for school work etc. So he enjoys writing at least half of his tumblr posts in Spanish or with a mix of both languages. Probably makes wolf drawing tutorials sometimes, and of course he has a wolfsona of his own.

[queenofbaws]

Hi!! I hope you are feeling better Queenie!! For the writers ask may I ask numbers 7,8,17 and 39? Thank you!!

ahhh, thank you!!! 🥰 i'm hangin' in there, haha! i hope you don't mind i shifted the order of these juuust a little, for reasons that will probably be obvious, hehe.

weird writing asks for weird writers!

7. What is your deepest joy about writing?

honestly, for all i complain about it when the words aren't coming out right (or, more often, fast enough for my liking, lmfao), my deepest joy about writing is.........most of it, actually. for me, writing is like......a puzzle. you have to put the right words together, the right sentences together, the right ideas and concepts and images together, and if you can do that, you can make something gorgeous, or terrifying, or hilarious, or tearjerking, or any combination therein!

i love getting to sit down to a project and think "huh, how am i going to tackle this one?" and i love imagining how people will respond to it, and i love lying in bed at night or standing in the shower and suddenly screaming because something makes sense where it didn't before!!! writing is just my happy place, and whenever you guys see me bemoaning it, i hope you know it's (mostly) me being a dramatic clown ;P

39. What keeps you writing when you feel like giving up?

god, time for cliché hour again, but...you guys 🥹 hahaha, seriously, whenever i get super stuck on a project or i just start hating my own writing - something that happens more often than i'd like to admit, lmao - knowing that out there, there are people who have taken time out of their day to sit down and read the words i put down just...idk man, it does something to the ol' heart. whenever i start feeling really down on myself, i pop over to ao3 and poke through my saved inbox messages, and without fail, that always puts a little fire back under my butt ;)

8. If you had to write an entire story without either action or dialogue, which would you choose and how would it go?

oh, without action, no question. dialogue is my JAM, and while i'm sure it'd be hard to get around my impulse to always have people shrugging and smirking, shrugging and smirking, that's all anyone ever does, shrug and smirk, i think i could PROBABLY make something work...lights get knocked out and it's two characters trying to escape a room in the dark? laura and max stuck in their itty bitty cells trying to scheme their way out? a long-distance phone call being spied on by a third party??? oh the possibilities are endless, and, i'm sure, full of ellipses!

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

i'm lying down on the ground right now you don't even know. ooooooooooooh if you want some additional info about like wringing blood from a stone (i'm gonna be trying real hard not to spoil anything), it's under the cut akldsjfaklsdjf

so. as is the case with every longfic i endeavor upon, i've. i've gotten in too deep with my personal headcanons for the hackett fam lmfao. some of this is going to end up in the fic itself, some of it won't, but god. help me. i didn't intend to go THIS deep into the summer camp family aklsdjfklasjdkfjdf

i keep telling myself that one of these days i'm going to try and sit down to make a big, nice edit of the whole family, but then i chicken out and don't do it, but playing off the character intro cards/descriptions from the quarry, here are the descriptors i've personally been using for the whole racket:

KAYLEE: Athletic, considerate, lonely, defiant CALEB: Brooding, responsible, sensitive, creative BOBBY: Absent-minded, impulsive, obedient, excitable CHRIS: Charismatic, people-pleasing, emotional, paternal TRAVIS: High-strung, suspicious, insecure, defensive JACK: Superstitious, reclusive, sentimental, cunning CONSTANCE: Assertive, capable, obstinate, manipulative JEDEDIAH: Old-fashioned, stern, proud, aloof

they make such a pretty (and well-adjusted) picture when they're all together like that, huh? ;P

when i do character studies like this, usually i end up falling into rabbit hole after rabbit hole of backstories, and this is...this is absolutely no different - i don't think i'll ever sit down and write the whole thing out, but i do, for example, have the story of jed and constance's whole deal figured out in my head. i'm going to touch on it SO briefly in the fic itself, but god it's. it's all there. i have rough backgrounds for jed's siblings (that we don't see in the hackett family tree in-game, no, but boy howdy i have reasons for THAT too asdklfjlsdf), i just sort of.............as with any family, there's a whole story that obviously comes BEFORE the story we're seeing right now, the story that explains how everyone got to be The Way They Are, but there aren't werewolves in that one, it's just like. bad parenting. and child negligence. and alcohol. so it's staying in my brainbox where it belongs, but rest assured IT EXISTS.

i cannot for the life of me think of a way to present any of this clearly and in an organized manner, so...here are just some pieces-parts about the worldstate the fic takes place in, which may appear in the story itself aaaaaaand which might not!

the events of until dawn are canon - except, of course, jack and josh dying, lmao

the events of house of ashes are canon - sole survivor jason

the events of the devil in me are/will be canon - the shoeshine killer is a known entity

the fiddlers' visits to hackett's quarry always took place in the early spring/late fall and usually coincided with, let's say, parties going missing in the general area of the pines

...except the one time they visited at the height of summer in 1993 ;)c

amelia hackett (aka that grant girl) died from complications giving birth to kaylee

all twelve of the harbinger motel's guest rooms are color-coded according to the series of totems jack has placed inside for "protection:" fortune - white, guidance - yellow, loss - brown, danger - red; there's only one "death" or "black" room, and it's jack's personal quarters in back of the check-in area

none of the hunting trophies hanging in the harbinger are actual hunting trophies...except the jackalope. all the other skulls are wood carvings jack has made himself, finished to look like bone

growing up, chris only ever worked at the camp and bobby only ever worked at the scrapyard, but travis bounced around, working at the warrens' farm and the one (1) video rental place north kill had before winding up with the police, meaning, ironically, he's the sibling who worked the least for the family

all three hackett brothers played football in high school - to varying degrees of success

as used to be common, there is a family burial plot out in hackett woods somewhere, where many - but not all - of jed's relatives have been laid to rest

...kaylee and caleb still have not found it, but they TRY

jed says none of them will find it until it's time to bury him back there

travis has explained at least 47 times in the past two years that people don't get buried in their backyards anymore, that's not how it works, dad

jed insists that's exactly how it works, so help him god

bobby is so fucking good at shadow puppets. he's just. he's really, really fucking good at shadow puppets you guys

at the risk of continuing to ramble for five business days, i'll leave it there for now but aklsdjfldsjaf thank you for giving me the opportunity to barf behind the scenes stuff out onto a page XD

[sunriseverse]

For the fic writer asks: 13, 14 and 15 if I may :)

And you know I'm always here for 37!

putting this all below the cut because it got long, oops!

13. What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever come across?

hmm...................the only piece of writing advice i can think of that i would actually go "yeah, that's true" about is the fact that most of the time, you do not need to find alternatives to "said". "said" is not dead, but in fact a vital tool in any writer's repertoire, and oftentimes trying to cut it out for other, more "interesting" options can make a piece come across as clunky.

14. What’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever come across?

95% of all writing advice i've come across ranges from "this is only applicable in certain situations and trying to generalise it is nonsensical" to "that's just downright stupid and will hinder you". my "favourite" piece of writing advice is every piece that tells you to mercilessly cut out 90% of adjectives, adverbs, and other descriptors—most people do not want to aspire to ernest hemmingway's writing style, and many people, both readers and writers, enjoy descriptives because they help paint a mental scene of what's happening. you know—the very thing writing is meant to be doing? i for one love using many, many descriptives, because i find they help to set the emotional tone of the scenes i write, and i've been told by multiple people that my habit of describing things helps them to imagine my stories set in a more realistic, convincing world rather than just characters on a blank background.

15. If you could choose one of your fics to be filmed, which would you choose?

oh this is hard. this is very, very hard. i think......................oh god, i forget the title to this, but years ago (so in like.........2020), i wrote a pacrim fic that was vaguely set in the victorian era, featuring magical elements. it's at an even 20k, and i wrote it all in one sitting, and while i don't think it's the best thing i've ever written, i do think it's the most film adaptable of everything (that i can remember, at least). that said, while it wouldn't work with the film format, i have some very vicarious daydreams of the sunrise verse being adapted to live action.

37. Talk about your current wips.

it would be easier to talk about what aren't my current wips haha. well, let's see........................i'm not actively writing anything, but basically anything i've got more than a few sentences in concept of counts as a wip to me. in order from most important for me to get started on to "less important but i'd like to make a crack on them before 2024":

immortal ba ye au - what if instead of zhang rishan taking over as head of the jiumen association, it was an immortal ba ye, who has lost just about everyone he loves in his life (fo ye, qi yu, zhang rishan), and had to make himself in an entirely new man to survive the modern world and the position he's in? what if after the wang compound battle, he found out that zhang rishan hadn't died as he had thought, but actually been kept in a cursed sleep after being experimented on by the wang? what if—well, you know the rest. this is my big writing project i really need to plot out properly so i can work on it.

multiple sunrise verse fics. i'm putting these all together because they're too interconnected by being in the same verse to separate them. i want to write a heihua fic in this setting, plus the fuba fic, plus a much larger sunrise verse!version of the events of sha hai, and then a fic about xiaoge post changbaishan rift/when he returns from beyond the bronze gate. unfortunately i cannot write the heihua fic until i get through more of canon, but the others are all more doable. (i went and plotted out the sunrise verse timeline specifically so i could make all these fics work—even the fuba one, which required me to make the both of them significantly younger than in (show) canon (though funnily enough, fo ye got retcon'd to around his novelverse age rather than show canon age).)

the weird fucking vampire au that has far too strong of a hold over me for something that i am 90% sure will have to be tagged as "blood kink" if (when) it ever gets written. tl;dr: ba ye gets poisoned, they try and heal him with qilin blood, it............does not work and instead he winds up craving it (it being zhang rishan's blood). once he gets cured it doesn't go away. the inherent homoeroticism of blood drinking, having someone's teeth sunk into your neck knowing they could kill you but won't, you know how it goes.

lesbian luo fei/qin xiaoman fic. i have got to finish detective l before i can write this but the mental images for this in my head are very strong. country dyke xiaoman-jie representation. alas, this means i have to relegate luo fei/ben jieming to a platonic relationship, but i'll write them as canon gay people some day to even out the scales.

the iron triangle visiting baima's grave. that's it, that's the fic. (that's a lie—the concept has so many fucking feels attached for both personal and narrative reasons. taking the people you love to meet the person you lost. the acknowledgement of that loss and the love that still continues in you. you know how it goes.)

[technitango]

3, 4, 17, 24, 25

feel free to answer what you like if you don't have time to do all and lmk if you're open to receiving more asks like this!

thank you so much for the ask, sorry it took me awhile to get to, and of course i am always up to receiving asks like this ;; <3

3. What are some tropes or details that you think are very characteristic of your fics?

Ah so I actually have a lot of details that I tend to reuse throughout my fics. I realized at some point when re-reading my works that I focus a lot on hands? I’m constantly describing the way characters clench their hands into fists, or their hands feeling cold and clammy, or their knuckles going white from tension. I also like to use a specific descriptor to do with taste with things that don’t really have specifically to do with taste, like comparing emotions to taste, if that makes sense? Some other things that are characteristic of my fics are a character feeling unmoored or uncertain, overwhelmed by their emotions, and needing another character to ground them. The way I write, at least from my perspective, can sometimes feel a bit flowery or not very straightforward, but I really try to find a balance and still have my fics be accessible and understandable, for the most part (hopefully that’s the case). 

4. What detail in [insert fic] are you really proud of?

Since there wasn’t a specific fic in the ask, I just picked one myself. Not to overly brag but I’m really proud of the entirety of my The Devil Judge Yo Han-centric fic, The Devil In Me. I haven't revisited it in awhile, but the last time I did I remember having a surprised moment where I was like, wait, I wrote this??? Haha. There’s this particular small scene that I like:

“Yo Han looks at himself in the mirror and he hates what he sees. His reflection whispers at him, smiling crookedly.

You're a monster.

"I know." He says back.”

The fic doesn’t get a lot of love on ao3, probably because of the sibling incest tag, but I think it deserves more love than it gets, if I can be so presumptuous to say so. 

17. What highly specific AU do you want to read or write even though you might be the only person to appreciate it?

This is a great question, because I have an AU I’ve wanted to write for The Devil Judge for a long time, which is a Blade Runner AU! Except it would be entirely self-serving and probably not that many people would be interested in it. But it’s always sitting on the backburner of my mind, maybe one of these days I’ll get around to it~

24. Are there any easter eggs in [insert fic], and if so, what are they?

To be honest I don’t think I’ve put any easter eggs in my fics?? At least, I’m 99 percent certain. 

25. What other websites or resources do you use most often when you write?

Hmmm, aside from the source material I’m taking from when I’m writing fic, I rarely use other resources. Every now and then when I’m struggling to find a word, I might use google to figure out exactly what I’m looking for. If my fics require research about something I’m not super familiar with, I’m up for doing some digging through google to make sure I’m getting details accurate, at least to the best of my ability. 

[probablysapphic]

Hi! So recently I figured out that I like girls, and it didn't take me much. What bothers me very much now is whether I even like boys. I know the self-discovery process is very time-consuming, but not being sure of my sexual identity bugs me really bad. TL;DR - I don't know if I'm bi or a lesbian. Also, is there a name for a woman attracted only to women and genderqueer people, but not men? Much love xx

Hey there!

I’m so proud of you already, congratulations :)

Haha, as if I knew. I have a gay or bi tag that you might wanna check out, also going through my compulsory heterosexuality tag might help you (there’s so many great resources there, I can’t stop recommending it, I’m quite proud of this amazing collection of these posts stuffed with resources and advice). My questioning tag is also pretty nice. And the one about attraction. And labels. Those posts cover every advice I could give you.If you ever wanna have someone to talk to about those things you mentioned - please, seriously, feel free to chat with me/private message me :)

For being attracted to women and genderqueer people:

There are broad terms like wlw or sapphic which basically mean a woman/woman-aligned person attracted to women/women-aligned people (you can use that no matter if you’re identifying as a lesbian or bi/pan/ply).

[Disclaimer: The following things are my current stand of information, which I mainly got from this site so if something is wrong or inappropriate or offensive - please tell me, I don’t mean them to be but I’m not educated enough on things that involve gender/being genderqueer/anything other than cis for that matter, so saying something that’s incorrect or offensive is very possible even if I don’t mean to. I’m eager to learn and educate myself, though.]

Something that needs to be said is that you’re not a lesbian if you’re genuinely (I know that’s hard to figure out, I hope you still know what I mean) attracted to people who are identifying as men or men-aligned people. When your partner/the person you’re attracted to isn’t comfortable with being seen as something else than your boyfriend/a man/man-aligned person, then you’re not a lesbian, you know? (I think?) So then you’re bi/pan/ply maybe, whichever label feels most comfortable. Bi for example means attraction to two or more genders so if you know you’re attracted to girls but your partner feels like that’s not their gender (doesn’t have any ties to womanhood etc, I hope I phrased that correctly), you can identify as bi.

But if it’s important to you that your partner/the people you’re attracted to aren’t men/men-aligned at all then lesbian is okay. However, if they don’t want to be seen as your girlfriend/a woman-aligned person due to not identifying as such, then lesbian isn’t the right fit for you, probably? It’s a very personal thing.

So I guess it comes down to how your partner wants to be seen and if you’re still attracted to them if they’re men/men-aligned.If your partner only agrees with boyfriend as a descriptor and you’re attracted to them/want to genuinely be with them, then you’re not a lesbian.If they don’t want to be connected to neither man or woman then I honestly have no clue, my advice would be talk with them about it and decide what’s most comfortable for both of you since neither of you would want the other to feel invalidated in their gender/sexuality.

Gender (same as sexuality) is complicated and a spectrum anyways so if right now you’re like “no men ever”, then lesbian is alright, if you find yourself attracted to someone who’s a man or in some ways men-aligned or something similar in the future then it’s totally valid to change your label if that feels right for you.I think there are some ground rules when it comes to all of that but sometimes the lines can be very blurry.(Again, that’s all just what I read, so don’t quote me on anything.)I hope that’s somewhat understandable and correct.

I wish you a wonderful day and if anyone has additions, don’t be afraid to comment! (And anon? Don’t be afraid to chat with me :D)

EDIT: This post is great, read it.