#a lot of these (including this one) were reworks from years past

[limelyrics]

Bring It On/劣等上等

Woah

(Grow up! Nah mean!)

Ooh

Ah

(Track Giga)

(Rin and Len in the house, let’s go!)

Pa pa ru pa ra ra ra ra ah

We’re the best so bring it on

Hoppin’ city, number 1

So, to the childish games and math, we say goodbye

Though the tricks are obvious, I’ve still got no pride

Keeping up appearances is such a red flag

Just keeping up the status quo, how boring is that

(That’s boring)

Come on, turn it up!

Cos’ I’m better than you scrubs!

Why don’t we nip that boredom in the bud

(Ooh)

Mama, no matter what, I can’t end up in a place like this

And maybe I’m going crazy

But I’m so damn bored of all this stupid playground drama

I am moving on up

So goodbye!

Fuck all that boring nonsense

Da da damn, I’m growing up

And you can’t stop me from learning about the bitter when push comes to shove

Pa pa passing all the time

Oh, time is flying by but now I don’t see how I’m in my prime

We’ll adapt, we’ll evolve, and I’m sure we’ll find love

And our past, and our sin, we’ll move on above

So bring it on

(Just bring it on)

(Ha!)

Yeah, all out

Bringing on changes, no doubt

Shut up about that green thot, she’s not hot anymore

Now, burn up

Ace-ing this whole life thing, jealous?

Need a pen, it’s all red

Yeah, I’ll get a hundred percent like I said

Girls, drinking, money, and drugs

That’s all the shit that I love

Chill out, it’s aight

Hey, take a joke, man

Everyday I wanna flip them all the bird

But it so fucking absurd, I don’t have enough hands

So throw them up!

And what’s up?

Loser

Yeah, you always were

Bring it on

Don’t tell me to calm down

Before I die I’ve gotta leave my hometown

Gotta grow a little taller and learn my way around

So blow a kiss, roll the highlights now

So tell me that you’re ready!

Da da damn those boring days

So full of our malaise

Won’t repeat once again when we have found our way

Na na nobody can see whats coming

So then it’s a draw, no one saw what the future brings

Every glitch, every bug, every hole that we dug

We’ll get up, we’ll dust off, we’ll struggle until it’s something we love

(Rin and Len in the show)

No no no, I won’t give up

To those things that I can’t let go of

You catch my busted up aesthetic cause

Now, I know, it’s me myself and

I’ve only got my fist

(I’ve got my whole heart)

Trump card is this

(I’ve got a new start)

Shout out to all the shit

“I’m done! Farewell!”

So this is it!

We’re never giving up!

Da da damn, I’m growing up

And you can’t stop me from learning about the bitter when push comes to shove

Hopefully our paths will cross again

And maybe that is when you’ll see that I’m an adult then

Centuries, wait for me, take opportunities

So go out on a limb

Bring it on and let the story begin

Ah

Lovin’ this era

Say goodbye to all the lies

We’ll see you later!

Bye guys!

[mister-tom-a-dildo-lover]

I think a certain amount of etiquette is lost on people in fandom nowadays.

Just in general, but specifically I'm focusing on Tomarry/Harrymort right now because it's relevant my present issue.

I follow Tomarry/Harrymort content on here and Twitter. I am not always active, and I'm not always reacting to every single thing I see. But I see a lot of things and I keep my mouth shut most of the time.

In these past couple of months on Twitter, it's become really annoying to witness this particular subset of the fandom because people make posts that are not-so-subtly shading Tomarry/Harrymort writers every day.

People are so obsessed with how much they love the character and how much they love fanfiction that is true to the character, where they sound just like their canon self and don't seem any different, that they spend their days tearing down depictions of Harry Potter in fanfiction, that dare to stray away from abused, snow-white-angel, Quidditch-obsessed jock.

Many people seem to have forgotten that in the actual story, Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort would not get together. We ship two crack ships. They are things that have no hope in hell of ever happening in the canon story. To even write for Tomarry/Harrymort, we either have to change a few details, leave out a few details, or try to rework the existence of some details so they hit differently and make the pairing make sense for each individual fic.

This fandom purity nonsense has ended up with a lot of recent posts dogging on different kinds of HP tropes over the years and affecting authors.

A few weeks bacl it was 'the era of creature fics was cringe'. And then it was followed by a long list describing certain scenarios in certain stories that used these tropes, and I could immediately pick out which fics inspired these descriptions. There were people in the replies and the quotes land people who took screenshots to post to their own accounts to say shady things(including naming fics specifically!) without others being able to easily access them from the OG post itself.

I, personally, have outgrown creature fics in HP, and I'm not interested in reading them anymore. But I'm not sitting here making lists attacking the tropes involved in them. I'm not sitting here saying that they were stupid and corny, and they were the most unHarry Potter-like writings ever. And I'm not the one out here making the people who wrote those stories and get to see these kinds of comments coming from people in their fandom, feel bad.

IDK, but when So-So sees people bringing their 6-year-old fic up in a post dragging tropes in Tomarry/Harrymort fics, and they suddenly get the urge to just delete their fics entirely and not bother with the fandom anymore... maybe y'all need to learn how to word things better. It's really not that hard to say you're not into a specific thing anymore without having to drag other people down.

[chirpsythismorning]

Fun fact: In the original pitch for Stranger Things, El had a little brother.

After being rejected by almost 20 studios for the Montauk pilot, the Duffers were finally green-lit by Netflix. It was at this time that they began casting and then writing the first season officially, which included reworking a lot of that first episode.

This led to the removal of the brother reference, and with it, removing any sort of arc El could have had about her apparent brother.

But the thing about this moment, is that it might not have been scrapped entirely...

Going into the final season, no one can explain why or how El recognized Will back in 1x02. And while there are plenty of things on the show that are left unexplained, with a small portion likely left that way with the intention to uncover it later, what sets this moment apart from the rest is that there are very few possibilities here.

Because for starters, the story presents El's ability to see people in the void in s1 as requiring either a picture of that person for reference, or having met that person before.

But when El see's this picture of Will, she's never met him before. Or maybe she has, but we wouldn't know because they never showed us. They could have just not done this scene at all, given that it's clearly a copy/paste/edit of something scrapped from the pitch. Or they could have even still included it, but explained it.

One explanation could be that the lab had shown El a picture of Will before, similar to what they did with the Russian agent they wanted to spy on. But then that begs to question, why would the lab show El a picture of Will? Why would they want to see what he was doing? That alone is incriminating in and of itself, implying that Will is more connected to the lab than we realize.

The only other, and frankly most likely explanation, would be that El stumbled across Will at some point on her journey between escaping the lab and Will going missing. This is actually something that happens in The Other Side comic, which explores all the things Will may have experienced during his time in the Upside Down.

Though it’s worth noting the comics aren’t technically canon, and I highly doubt they would outright spoil everything in relation to Will’s time there, years before it was intended to be revealed. But still, let's humor this for a moment given that I do think Will's time in the UD is going to be very relevant in s5, which means it's highly likely they will finally address how exactly El saw him.

Basically, in the comic, Will see’s El walking through the woods, almost apparition like, glowing as she passes by, while also sporting the Benny’s burgers shirt. This means they would have crossed passed within a short span of time, between when El escaped Benny’s when the agents arrived, but before she was found by the boys.

Though it’s worth noting that we’re seeing this all from Will’s perspective. This means from the UD, Will was capable of seeing El on the other side, despite them being on different sides. And not only that, but she also looks back at him.

What confuses me about this, is that it doesn’t make sense for El to be in the woods, only to randomly decide to pop in to the void for a moment. She was trying to escape the lab and everything that came with it. I doubt she had any desire to lurk back there for some reason, not until someone encouraged her to. Not to mention, it would make no sense for her to go there and see Will if she wasn't even looking for him in the first place. And so this would mean Will and El could see each other, with Will being in the UD, and El being on the other side.

While it does seem pretty far off, given that you would think Will and El wouldn't be able to see each other from different sides, it is true in the story that El not only recognizes Will, but knows that he is in danger. She mentions that he is hiding specifically.

Which means she has likely seen him within the last 24 hours regardless.

This, in combination with Will being able to respond to El in the void at the end of the season in Castle Byers, when no one else outside of Terry and flayed-Billy have been able to, seems to imply that there is indeed something special about Will that makes him capable of communicating with El from the UD. Not only that, but El also seems to have an ability to be in this constant knowing state of how Will is doing, without even checking again to confirm. She's just certain of it. And she seems terrified about it.

Going forward, El never uses a picture of Will to find him. She never did. And more often than not, they don’t show us what she see’s either, not until the very end. And that’s the moment they reveal that he was able to communicate with her.

Again, there was really no reason to have El recognize Will. If anything it complicates things. But the fact that they chose to introduce this concept, with a scene from the original pitch that was related to El’s younger brother, with her pointing at his name cryptically, startling Benny, only to revamp it and have El not say anything at all while pointing at the picture of Will, startling Mike… It just really makes you stop and think.

Which brings me to the other aspect of this that might have people doubting, which is that El’s brother was originally younger than her.

We know Will is not younger than El, so how could this apply to him?

Well, it might be helpful to consider that in the original script, El was actually 10 years old, while the boys were always 12. Meaning that for some reason, they decided to age her up to the age of the boys, aka the same age as Will…

Ever since @erikiara80 shared this brother discovery with me, I have been sort of reeling. It then led to other little discoveries of changes they made between Montauk and Stranger Things.

It’s important to understand that the Montauk bible and the original script precedes what we ended up with in the final product, with it finally changing and evolving months, maybe even a year since that original vision. Even casting occurred before writing started for the first season. We know this because casting announcements were made in June and August of 2015, with writing not starting until August going into early 2016, simultaneously while they were filming.

And believe it or not, what I've discovered is that a lot of the changes they made between their original plans and what we see in the final product, have to do with not only Willel, but also Byler.

If you've read the original script for Montauk, you'll know that Mike's crush on Jennifer Hayes was focused on right from the jump, along with the birthmark on his face being focused on, which was the main cause of the bullying he experienced.

This has actually been talked about recently, and some of the claims people make do fit with what I am genuinely starting to consider here, which is that the initial plan for what makes Mike an outcast shifted.

I think when they completed casting, and started actually deep diving into what they wanted this world to look like, both from a short-term and long-term standpoint, they were presented with some pretty interesting discoveries, arguably already hiding in their initial plans without realizing it.

And this is where it sort of becomes a 'chicken or the egg' situation. Because which one came first? Byler or Willel?

I can't say for certain, because obviously this is all just speculation. But in the case that Willel came first, I think Byler would come very naturally after that.

The Duffers themselves are twins. Then they hire Noah, who is a twin. Then they're thinking and planning for El's past and how her family all fits into this, and they're thinking... wait a damn minute... We could totally Star Wars this bitch!

And then when they think it couldn't get any better, they uncover another layer that they hadn't planned or really considered in their initial plans.

While Will was always going to have sexual identity issues according to the Montauk bible, meaning that the writing process for him likely involved sitting down imagining scenarios that encapsulated this arc for Will from the beginning, they were simultaneously now finding very interesting aspects of Mike's character that made it hard not to at least consider the possiblity that Mike is not exactly straight.

Just think about it. The Byers and Wheelers are basically polar opposites on the spectrum of what a family looks like. While Will's discovery and acceptance of his queerness is interesting to explore because he comes from a low-income, single-mom household, all while having been bullied for years based on his perceived queerness, he also has a mother and brother constantly reinforcing that they will accept him no matter what. They've been sort of hitting us over the head with it for years, and so it wouldn't be very satisfying for his entire arc to merely lead up to something we've known all along. It's pretty much a given at this point.

On the other side of the spectrum, Mike comes from a more upper-middle class family at the end of a cul-de-sac, more aligned with what a nuclear family looks like. Mike's family is also presented as being more conservative, and while Karen does give that very queer-coded speech to Mike in s1 (I'm convinced they only wrote this after deciding to explore queer-coding more heavily with Mike), it also comes with comments from Ted and even still Karen that hint that they are probably not as open-minded and accepting as Will's family is to him. Which means Mike's arc would be a lot more about acceptance around him from his loved ones who we have been led to believe might not be as accepting of his queerness in contrast to Will.

And so as they're putting this story together, and they're being presented with something very interesting. Two similar experiences that play out in different ways because of the characters circumstances.

Will goes missing, and his twin sister with a buzzcut pops up and has the ability to help them find Will.

This leads to several moments where El is being compared to as not only a boy, but Will as well.

Now suddenly, their initial plans to have Mike's arc be about having a girl be interested in him and to hopefully have his first kiss and feel like less of a loser, starts to look a lot like what the experience a queer kid in his position might encounter growing up in the environment that he did.

And if you don't want to take my word for it, just hear the Duffer's themselves hinting at what they initially planned for Mike and the fact that it changed.

The changes don't stop there.

Believe it or not, 'It was a seven', did not exist in the initial pitch. When the boys went outside bickering over Nancy, they leave right after that.

Another thing that changed from the first script, was Scott Clarke's introduction:

And so you might be thinking, who cares? What does that have to do with anything?

Well, it's interesting because the line we end up with on the show is arguably one of the most on the nose Twelvegate proofs to date. Mind you, this is from the first episode:

Why chuck the original version, which was arguably more interesting and fascinating in terms of it hinting at the mysteriousness surrounding this story, only to replace it with him listing off tips about their upcoming test?

Well, I think it's the irony of it all. Here Mr. Clarke is practically telling us where to look to figure stuff out for ourselves what is going on, with all the kids filing out and ignoring him...

I relate to Scott a litttle too much in this shot here, any time I try to drop Willel evidence.

And the changes go on, as they obviously would.

Things like Terry Ives not even being El's mom, but actually a man who more so aligns with the characterization of Murray.

And one very interesting one I almost overlooked was in Hopper's introduction, where instead of a kids drawing done by who we assume to be Sarah, we actually see a picture on the wall of him and his wife and daughter... Interesting that they decided to switch it something that is a lot less definitive in presenting what Hopper's past looked like...

If you've made it this far, congratulations.

If you still think I'm out of my mind, just remember that El was going to have a brother in the original script, but they scrapped the scene and gave a near identical one to introduce her connection to Will instead 😘

[the-way-astray]

HEY so I skim read your new Keefe hate post and I have some thoughts I'd like to share (all good ones!!)

As someone who also wrote a very long essay about [a] fictional character(s) while citing the page number and book word by word, you freaking ACED it. I'm always gonna be impressed when people take the time to cite your source and give a in depth explanation about it

You're lowkey not too wrong about Keefe infantilizing Sophie. For something silly and stupid, like "Iggy ate my mallowmelt!! >:( Now im mad!!" yeah I bet Sophie would seem cute lol. But for when she's genuinely angry and pissed?? Maybe lay off a little bit dude 😭 Like cmon she can murder you with her mind- There are moments where he does talk about how powerful she is though, throughout the series, but tbh as much as he does that he probably inhantilize her too *shrug* I need to reread the series, but you are making some sense.

I need Keefe getting mad and someone asking him if he's on his period LMAOOOO

Anyways as someone who loves Keefe you're making valid points. He has his flaws, and sometimes he isn't the best person. In summary

Never post that on pinterest. Those crazy Keefe loving, Fitz hating, Sokeefe shipping 11 year olds will MURDER YOU. I will respect your opinion, but they sure don't.

(your opinion is valid and you have facts *clap and approving nod* you have my respect.)

the post in question

okay, first of all, i need this essay immediately. i literally do not care what it's about but words! lots of words! about kotlc! need.

ooh, thank you so much! i mentioned this in the post itself, but this is a rework. the quotes were originally in one post (copy-pasted from another post) and the explanation was in a reblog, which was hella annoying, so i condensed them. i suppose it does make much more sense now. and my explanation is based in the fact that i don't think people were understanding why this isn't a good thing to be saying, period, when i posted it for the first time. even without context.

yeah, keefe displays a consistent attitude of "sophie is so adorable and small and cute and ditzy and soft". seriously, if you don't believe me, read his perspective in unlocked (or don't, because i'm going to do it for you in my part two keefe rant). it's why i don't buy his accepting sophie as a leader in stellarlune (done in a very, very tell-not-show way, may i add), unless he went through some serious development in unraveled. i may have to dedicate a whole post to that topic . . . anyway, yeah, him calling her powerful and talented feels very, very, very tell-not-show, and when you look at his internal thoughts in unlocked, it portrays her very differently. i'm not a fact of the way he sees her, truly. it feels very dumbed down and uwu-ified. no quotes from unlocked have been put into the post, so i'll have to update it later, but if i included unlocked quotes, this post would be like sixteen times its length. but yeah, you should reread the series before you come to a serious opinion. i'm obviously incredibly biased.

GOODBYE I WAS CITING THAT POST BECAUSE IT GAVE OFF THE EXACT ENERGY I FEEL KEEFE GIVES OFF . . . I DON'T EVEN THINK ELVES HAVE PERIODS (please nobody bring back that cursed discussion again, please, i beg) BUT YOU'RE SO CORRECT. SOMEONE WRITE A HUMAN AU WHERE THIS HAPPENS IMMEDIATELY

yay, a level-headed keefe lover, i love you guys. lol . . . i don't plan to go on pinterest anytime soon, or ever (and i also don't even think pinterest's format even allows for a long post like this . . . ). honestly the thought would have never even crossed my mind, because keepblr is my one true love and i'd never cheat on her. but now that you mention it, it might be funny . . .

[ave1dragon]

Today in: Wings of Fire headcanons made to work with my oc even though the canon is different:

The Skywing Arena is used for whatever the Queen wishes, not just for fighting. Queen Firestorm used it for art and beauty shows. Queen Scarlet uses it for fighting, and Queen Ruby uses it for a hospital.  

While the Sky kingdom is big, most Skywings live close to the palace. All eggs are hatched in the palace hatchery, and all dragonets are raised in the wingery.   

Skywings kill any dragonets with Fire scales or Animus magic out of fear that said dragon will grow up to kill everyone, although this law is changing with Queen Ruby. The parents of said dragonets would never have anymore dragonets. They did not kill the dragonet with too little fire until Queen Scarlet's time.

Skywings believe in offering their dead to the sky for seven days before being burned, so that the dead dragon reincarnates as a Skywing and not any other kind of dragon.  

Skywings are very religious and have a preists who have a lot of power. There is a priest in each town and a high priest who is second only to the queen. The priests are chosen by the previous priests and receive ten years of training. The priests not only conduct religious rites, but are also judges, healers, scholars and teachers, and mediators between arguing dragons and towns. The priest is always female and unlike Sandwing priestess, can get married.    

In the past, before Queen Firestorm’s time, The Skywings had a ceremony called the Clash of Claws tournament. Every seven years, Skywings across the kingdom appeared from across the kingdom to compete in seven challenges over seven days. The first day is Flame, all qualities are tested, the next is Endurance, a token is left on top of the tallest mountain in the kingdom, and the contestants must race to find it starting from the palace. This tests speed, stamina, and resistance to the cold. The third test is strength, Skywings lift heavy boulders from the Diamond Spray River, fly as high as they can, and throw the boulder as far as they can. The fourth test is cunning, elaborate mazes are constructed with secret rooms filled with treasure, the competitors must find this treasure while avoiding the traps, the winner finds the most treasure. Five is the test of Guile, find a scavenger, the most cunning of prey, and bring it back alive and unharmed. Sixth is the test of Wit, each competitor must correctly answer a series of riddles made by the Queen and her advisors. Seventh is a test of speed, a race to see who is the fastest Skywing.     

Skywings can either choose a partner or go through a program to be matched up by the queen. Skywing marriages were traditionally two dragons saying a few ritual words in the sky, with no other dragon around. After Queen Scarlet took the throne, she made all weddings celebrations and all celebrations with deadly gladiator battles, so Skywings stopped getting married. The Skywings didn’t want Scarlet to partner them, so most Skywings stopped partnering up instead.  

While Noble Skywings don’t put much value into family, the more commoner Skywings do and are often close to each other even after moving out.

Neither common nor noble Skywings are very romantic and marriages are mostly for lineage and dragonets

@wof-reworked had a Skywing headcanon that each Skywing family had a particular naming system, like all being named after different types of birds. The dragonets are named using the mother’s family’s naming system.

Skywings are one of the more religious tribes, so their schools’ teachings include the Skywing religious beliefs and legends.

Skywings mostly marry for dragonets and political reasons in the case of nobility, so they are generally not interested in romance as a tribe. However, they are very close to their friends in a way that more romantic tribes like the Seawings and Sandwings mistake as romance.

Skywings tend to be close to each other, despite the size of the Kingdom, as all Skywings are raised in the Wingery until age 2, and all Skywing dragonets must go to the Sky palace between the ages of 4 and 8 for battle training.  

Since the Sky Kingdom is so big, every town has its own noble family that reports back to the queen. The leader of these noble houses is picked out by the old leader on their death bed, instead of fighting to the death like queens do. The leader is also always female.

[spicybylerpolls]

In response to that anon about how sex couldn't possibly have always been heavily tied to and the natural narrative arc the Duffers had in mind for Mike and Will -

Well, for one (and correct me if I'm wrong), if the pandemic hadn't happened, they would've filmed S4 throughout 2020 and likely wrapped post-production sometime in spring/summer of 2021 (possibly later). This means we would've got a late summer or fall of 2021 S4 rather than summer of 2022.

This also means filming for S5 would have likely started in Spring of 2022, or even later if we consider the fact that S4 actually finished in July of 2022 and production PRIOR to the WGA strike was supposed to start in Spring of 2023 (IIRC) That's nearly a year gap. Not only that but if you go onto the wikipedia page for S5, you'll see that because of the pandemic the Duffers were able to completely outline and rework S5. So if the pandemic didn't happen, they would also have to do an outline as well as actually write S5 post S4's drop in the late summer/fall of 2021 (in this magical, theoretical timeline).

Honestly, with this in mind, I wouldn't see filming for S5 commencing until mid 2022, possibly even the early fall.

So basically the theoretical timeline without COVID and the WGA strike would be:

2020: Film S4

End of 2020 - Mid/Late 2021: Post production

Late 2021: S4 Drops

Summer/Early Fall 2022: S5 Filming begins

This would put Noah's age at 17, almost 18 and Finn at 19 almost 20. And presumably the hypothetical sex scene wouldn't happen until the later episodes so by then Noah would be 18 and Finn would be a full 20 years old, and likely almost 21.

Like, say the scene happens in Episode 7. This would be the very tail end of production, as we know they pretty much film in blocks. This would be June of 2023 or around there... Noah nearly 19 and Finn 6ish months away from being able to legally drink anywhere in the world. Lol.

Also, Finn literally has a scene in WYFSTW where his character masturbates, and he was just 18 when he portrayed that. Why are people so disgusted by the idea of him portraying something extremely similar to this but as Mike?! In my opinion this proves it's not just about the actors (and seeing them grow up) because I haven't seen anyone say it was weird for including that scene in that movie ...

BUT REGARDLESS, like spicybylerpolls said - there are a ton of examples, WELL RESPECTED examples at that, of underage actors portraying a storyline involving sex. I mean, look no further than Degrassi. Almost all of the actors are cast as teens (sometimes pre-teens) and almost all of the characters have a storyline to do with sex at some point, most of them when they're underage.

This is a perfect example because the point of these storylines are to educate teens on sex (the same thing Mike and Will's storyline would be doing for many queer kids btw) and also to represent their many, many confusing feelings about sex. And yes, all of the actual sex scenes in Degrassi are implied - which, although people have explained how an explicit scene would be important for Mike and Will's storyline, ultimately it's not absolutely necessary for them. (Although I don't think an implied sex scene in the same vein as Degrassi (or even Jancy) is going to work within the darker tone of S5 but I digress...)

Anyway, there's a ton more examples beyond just Degrassi [Skins is the first that pops to mind] but no I don't think it would be weird for a 17 year old to have a make out and then *implied* sex scene when it's already been done and accepted in the past with absolutely no issue (as long as the actors are comfortable of course).

But this isn't what's happening so who cares. And we have already heard the Duffers state that, although they have had a lot of it planned out, they do write for the actors too. I can even recall them saying how when they got back on set for either S3 or S4 they realized the kids ... weren't kids anymore and they were going to have to write to that.

So yeah, I think it's totally possibly the Duffers imagined that in the end, Mike and Will would overcome their shame about their sexuality by ... having sex together, however that looked on screen, since there are a myriad of ways to do this without showing sex at all.

[physalian]

What No One Tells You About Writing #6

This round we’re doing some recent discoveries on my writing journey. Some are less groundbreaking and more “I did not expect this to become an issue” things, which, hey no one told me about them, either.

Part 5

Part 4

Part 3

1. Switching tenses between your WIPs is not easy

Up until my upcoming book (Eternal Night of the Northern Sky, go check it out) I wrote exclusively in past-tense with very rare exception save for a fanfic here and there. I cannot remember what compelled me to write ENNS in present tense, but I’d committed and 10k words in, there was no going back to change it.

Committing in the first place made it very frustrating trying to actively remember my English verb tenses and sentence structures (and I am a native English speaker) that just have not come naturally to me in 8 years of writing, but once I got it, I got it.

So while waiting around during the editing process and trying to go back to past-tense for another project, past-tense started to look janky and awkward and my WIPs, too, are now written in present-tense. I am undecided on how to feel about this beyond annoyed that it is a problem.

2. Implied sex scenes have surprising pros and cons

I’m of the belief that sex scenes, like action scenes, should serve a purpose and do a lot of heavy lifting. It’s not just the actual progression of movement between the characters, it’s the exploration of trust and vulnerability, the consummation of a relationship, the growth of these two characters together with a new understanding (if this is meant to be a huge moment and not, like, an establishing one-night stand). Otherwise it becomes gratuitous fluff.

Enter the problem: I cannot write all the character development that occurs during a sex scene, if I cannot also write the sex. All of that newly broken ground on trust and gushy emotions has to come in the buildup before I decide to cut away and in skipping the rest of that scene, I have to essentially freeze the character development until I pick up the narrative again in the aftermath.

So if it’s a moment that’s meant to be the climax of two characters trusting each other, or anything that would require them talking through this important milestone in their relationship, I have to rework everything around the redacted narrative.

Sex scenes are just so unique that way. People can be very sensitive about them, they’re very tricky to get right, very revealing about what the author thinks is sexy and attractive, incredibly important relationship milestones for the characters, and, aside from torture or extremely graphic violence, the only scenes you ‘fade to black’ on and leave it up to wild imagination.

*OP why don’t you just bite the bullet and write the sex? Because I want to be an inclusive author and you’ll enjoy my book even without sex to go write your own, but you might not read it if it’s on the page because of personal taste or triggers or beliefs, okay?

3. Your crutch words will haunt you

Here is a list of 40 of them. I will never be the kind of author that struggles to make my stories longer. To everyone who does, I wish I had your problems—trying to trim the fat off a narrative already running at breakneck speed demands trimming individual words off sentences sometimes. Like crutch words.

These carry over from real-world conversation, words we don’t always realize we’re relying on. My big one is “just”. I had a 125k word manuscript and had over 600 instances of “just” and maybe only a dozen were warranted by the time the ax fell.

Good news is, once you see them and embarrass yourself finding, replacing and/or deleting them, you become very aware of them in your writing. Crutch words are a lot like cursing, which I talked about in Part 5—not including them doesn’t leave a big of a crater in the dialogue as you might think. I still use “just” and “so” but “so” is worked into my writing style as a syntactical element and I tend to leave my “so’s” in place. “Just,” on the other hand, can be cut 99% of the time.

*Disclaimer, those dozen “justs” I ended up keeping in that manuscript were all in dialogue, because while the narrative should be clean of crutch words, personally I think keeping them as your characters’ crutch words can make them feel more human.

4. Breaking up dialogue-heavy scenes with movement can get tedious

This is entirely dependent on writing style. Some books will have entire unbroken paragraphs of dialogue, make a new paragraph, and keep going with the same unbroken dialogue. Some will split a monologue up with character movement or reaction to whatever’s being said. Some authors are very frugal with dialogue tags (to varying levels of success) and some over-describe the movement of their characters or use way too many superfluous tags when “said” is not actually dead, your primary education lied.

Just keep in mind that writing is, well, written. The intonation of words might be completely lost in translation if you slap your reader with a wall of text, especially in an important character moment, and they have a critical misunderstanding in how they’re supposed to perceive the line being delivered.

This is why we use italics for emphasis. We’re still trying to legitimize the interobang (!?) because it’s very useful, and we’re very far from legitimizing Tumblr Speak to convey sarcasm and sincerity. How we convey tone is generally isolated to the generation we grew up in and the technology we had available (like how younger generations interpret ellipses compared to their parents).

There’s that Tumblr post out there that goes: “I never said she stole my money,” and claims that the meaning behind the denial changes wildly depending on which word you stress, seven different ways—and that person is absolutely right.

Every dialogue-heavy scene is a case-by-case basis, and best advice I can give is to have your betas pay extra attention to those scenes, making sure they interpret it right, or even having someone read the dialogue back to you with inflection to make sure you’re tagging and describing it properly.

Too many breaks for narrative and you risk clogging up the scene. Not enough and you lose a lot of the emotion behind their words when you aren’t describing how the speaker is visually reacting to what they’re saying.

5. Truth really is stranger than fiction

Maybe it’s the capitalist hellscape we all find ourselves in, but for example: If you told me someone wrote a book about a submersible, built for tours to the Titanic wreck, and was dubbed “Titan,” run by a company called OceanGate, failed via catastrophic implosion on its descent to the most infamous maritime disaster in history, infamous for its hubris as the “unsinkable ship,” only to find out that the company with “-Gate” in its name circumvented and ignored multiple regulations and expert opinions…. I’d call that the most contrived and lazy attempt at a criticism of human folly I’ve ever seen.

And that sh*t really happened. Titanic is already almost mythical for its hubris. The engineer of that ship stared God in the face and said bet, and lost. Then you have the same damn incident happen a century later, for the same damn reasons.

Truth might not be ‘stranger’ than fiction, perhaps as equally contrived, equally unbelievable, and can reach equal amounts of astounding stupidity. Anyone, anywhere, for the rest of literary history, can no longer say “that deus/diablo ex machina would never happen” because it can. It did.

6. You’ll find inspiration everywhere, but have nowhere to put it

Deciding what kind of story you want to tell takes so many layers, it deserves its own post that has been covered plenty else by other writers over the years but since I write fantasy and sci-fi, my inspiration usually starts with “I want to write a story about X fantasy element” and I go from there. Then the sub-genre, like if it’ll be an adventure, urban fantasy, high fantasy, what time period, etc. Then the theme.

If I’ve got my laptop close, I can polish off a whole first chapter in maybe two hours. And then… it gets dumped into my “stalled projects” folder, to be saved, but moved aside so it doesn’t clutter the workspace of WIPs I’m actually invested in.

Sometimes they’ll get revisited, sometimes my enthusiasm wanes as quickly as it came on. It can get disappointing and discouraging, but if anyone ever met your “I want to be a writer” with skepticism, or you yourself fear that you’ll be a one-trick pony in a creative slump forever: The inspiration probably isn’t the issue, it’s committing to the story you dreamt up.

7. Just because it never gets published, doesn’t mean it doesn’t have value

My writing journey began with original works back in middle school, then I gravitated toward fanfic once I discovered it and got a huge confidence boost from all the positive feedback from my readers, then felt restricted by my fandoms and switched back to original works. The very first novel I started out with was my sci-fi WIP, eight years ago, that will likely never see the light of day as it was written. I have two completed books that could be self-published right now.

The problem: Book three, of a planned five, generated a “deleted scenes” pile that quickly outpaced the word count of the actual manuscript because I cannot seamlessly fit every arc of my ensemble cast when and how I want them to happen. And, as previously mentioned, those 8-year-old characters have suffered me using them as writing therapy, and some elements have gotten far darker and more convoluted than I intended, because the worldbuilding pool got way deeper than a book with an ensemble cast can support.

But even if it never gets published, it’s not worthless. Those two books sprinted so I could jog. They were so detailed and so complex and had so many layers that starting over in a different genre with something simpler like ENNS was a breeze. I’d cut my teeth on a narrative that demanded an insane amount of behind-the-scenes production that nothing else would ever be as hard.

Not everyone will have that experience, but if you’ve saved all your old and cringey works from your early days, go back and read them and compare them to where you are now, and hopefully you realize that you’re turning into the author you thought you would be, even if you’re not quite there yet.

Now go write your insane mega-hit waiting to happen.

—

Upcoming blog topics!

Tackling beginnings and endings

Why we should normalize content warnings

Crutch tropes #2 - "we're not so different"

[xiaq]

(this can be answered publicly) Hey X, pardon me if you’ve answered this before, but I was just curious on how you ended up transitioning from academia to tech and what role you started with in tech? Also, so you have any advice for someone looking to break into tech from a non-STEM background? Thank you!

Hey! I haven't answered it publicly but it's a popular question, so I will now (warning, long answer is long).

So I was so fed up with academia for sundry reasons I won't get into here but I wanted a career that would allow me to A. retire some day (something that paid generally well), B. would allow me some measure of work/life balance without high stress, and C. Would ideally let me use my communication/writing/speaking/presenting skills in some way.

My parents and my partner all work in tech and were like, "did you know that we desperately need people with your skillsets in the tech world?" and my partner, who works in technical sales was like, "You would kill at my job, I am not lying." And I was like, every job listing in technical sales that I see requires either a degree I don't have or past experience I don't have, or both, and my mother was like "Do you know how many mediocre resumes from unqualified men come across my desk? Apply for the damn positions anyway." So I reworked my resume to focus on applicable skills/experiences and wrote a cover letter for each position I applied to saying "hey, I know I'm an odd candidate but let me tell you why that's a good thing." And I got a lot of positive responses!

I was interviewing at 2 different tech places when I accepted the offer for my job now. I had an initial screening call interview with HR, then a zoom interview with the hiring manager, and then I was given access to a limited demo environment and had a week to teach myself the software and put together a demo for a fake customer which I did for the hiring manager (my future boss), one of my current peers, and the VP of the org. I was offered the job the same night I did my fake demo. So in total it was a 2 week interview process, and I started working 2 weeks later. **

I'm a pre-sales solutions consultant, which basically means I'm paired with a sales guy who does all the money and business value talk with customers, while I get to learn about a customer's data problems and then demo for them how our products can address those problems.

The learning curve was (and still is) steep. But it was basically like going back to school, and I've always loved learning new things. The job is super fun. It fulfills all of my wants I listed above with the added bonus of being completely remote (aside from occasional travel to meet with customers for in-person demos). The people I work with are supportive, management is communicative and constantly giving me feedback/talking about my trajectory. I've won internal awards, already received two raises and one promotion and I haven't even been there a year. I'm making more than double what I did as a professor and the concept of retirement doesn't feel like a laughable pipe dream anymore. I miss teaching a lot, but I'm healthier, happier, and better prepared for the future now. And my work is genuinely fulfiling because I'm showing people how they can fix problems. Also, playing with data management software and putting together custom demos is neat. It's like all the best parts of a college project--research, making a preso, knocking everyone's socks off while giving the preso, but I'm getting paid for it. I'm glad I followed my mom's advice.

So I guess my advice is the same as hers: even if you're not "qualified," apply for the position anyway. Make custom cover letters for each position and if there's not a way to include the letter with the app, do some googling and find the hiring manager on LinkedIn and message/email them. The person who hired me said that my cover letter was what got me the initial interview. So that shit works. If you have friends or family working somewhere with open positions, use those connections. Having an internal referral will go a long way to getting your resume looked at. I know we're all like, boo nepo babies, but networking is a huge part of any industry. Use it to your advantage if you have the advantage (no, I'm not working for my parent's companies, but if there'd been an open position I was interested in, I would have applied for it. No shame).

**I also, on the side, applied for the Austin Fire Department because why not. After a whole lot of mental and physical prep, I was accepted to the academy (in the first class, no less, holla) right before I was offered my current job. But I had to be realistic and say that probably wasn't a good long-term career option for someone who is 110lbs and was barely meeting the physical testing requirements who also has issues with getting overwhelmed in high-input sensory situations. So. Into the tech world I went. This side note just to say, I was keeping my options very open and there's nothing wrong with that either, lol.

I hope this helps!

[gertritude-art]

Progress Report!

As promised, here is another progress report for DemonVN - or, as it will officially be known, Demon Detangled: Horror at the Homecoming Dance (subtitle pending).  You can view the first (rough) six minutes of it up there.  There’s still quite a bit to edit about it, as I’m sure you can tell, and a lot of it is stuff I have already shown, but for once, it’s all up there together.

Anyway, let’s get started!

FIRST...:

DemonVN has an about page on this blog, now.  You can read it here!

MENUS:

The title screen is officially done!  You can see what it looks like up above.  And, yes, the official name is Demon Detangled!  I’ve had the name in mind for months, but was waiting to officially say it in case I wanted to change it (spoilers: I could not think of a better one). The subtitle is still in need a rework, but I’m including one on the off chance that I gather enough willpower to turn this into a series, rather than just a single game.  Gotta make ‘em distinct, somehow...

I still need to customize all the other menus, but I already have drafts of how they should look in the works!  They should be done in the next few weeks.

SPRITES:

Lillie now has a new sprite, as does Catherine!  It is only looking at them now that I realize just how inhuman Lillie looks.  Hm.  Perhaps this is a deep metaphor for how, really, humans are no different than demons... or that she just needs to get out of the church more often.

Anyway, the rest of the cast is also in the progress of being edited a bit, but I don't have anything official to show for them... Please imagine them in your minds.

POINT AND CLICK ASPECTS:

As I have mentioned, DemonVN does have point and click aspects, so as to excite and challenge the average three-year-old who may want to play.  I spent a lot of the past week or so trying to iron out some of those aspects.  Did you know that at one point, you’ll be able to select multiple items to use on someone?  Check this out:

Aside from that, I’ve been slowly fixing and figuring out all the other item interactions in the game!  I almost got that done in time for this update, but I think it’ll take me another few days to get the base of all those implemented.  There have been a lot of if/else statements at play...

THE WRITING:

I’ve been jumping back and forth quite a bit with the writing of this game, but I have made some progress!  The introduction is still getting written (it remains my white whale), but all the interactions you can have with your classmates are close to finished.  That is something I did not realize I had actually done until I wrote it just now - it feels like I’ve been writing them for forever!  Here’s a fun interaction to show you:

Aside from that, a lot of my writing energy has been spent sitting and figuring out how the ending is going to go.  There is a specific, very important emotional section of it (SPOILERS: MORDRED EXPERIENCES AN EMOTION) that I’ve been trying to figure out the tone of for over a year, and I think I finally understand how it needs to be written without it coming across as overwrought or undeserved.  I wish I could show off what I’ve written of it so far, but... it will be good :^) 

THE ART:

Didn’t do much in the art department, recently, but I do have a lot of placeholder assets in place!  Shout out to this funky guy:

I have a really cool CG I drew a few months back that I had to reluctantly cut, and so I could show you that... but I’m not going to #cruelty #hatred

IS THE END IN SIGHT?

Not yet!  Check back next month for another report on how it’s going, though!  I should have some more answers by then.  Hopefully.  

WHY DID YOU WORK ON YOUR TITLE SCREEN SO HARD BEFORE YOU FINISHED THE GAME.  I WAS SO EXCITED THINKING YOU WERE DONE.  EXPLAIN.

1) I needed to do something for the game one day, and I didn’t feel like doing anything else.  2) Doing this helped me learn that buttons can perform multiple functions, which!  I had no idea was possible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Thank you for telling me, Ren’Py!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, that’s all for now.  See you next month with another progress report! :D

[weightoftomorrow]

Prompt #13: Butte

dt spoilers, longer explanation under cut but it's very spoilery

this snippet is from the original version of the idea, wherein i got sick like right after getting to shaaloani (and my city had a heatwave that prevented me playing for very long) and i had to take a LOT of long breaks because i wasn't up to actually playing, but i started forming this idea like a week after getting to the part with namikka in the outskirts because i was sick and didn't have anything better to do. BUT that meant i didn't know what was going on with sphene and living memory and so my original concept was kinda…. different since it assumed sphene could be reasoned with, regulators were significantly less damaging, and cahciua was not lying as much as she was. i didn't actually write anything down because my brain was pretty muddied and i also wanted to figure out if it was actually workable before writing anything (it needed rework obviously) but i don't have any OTHER ideas for anything to do with landforms and at least yyasulani station is on a kinda butte

The notification came as a surprise, since it was from a sentry near Yyasulani Station rather than Vanguard. He checked; the alarm had been redirected to notify Sphene instead.

Of course it had.

He let himself sigh before reaching for aetherial currents and teleporting over to Yyasulani Station.

He wasn't surprised to see that, because of the delay, the train was already disgorging a few people, and Sphene was already talking to the group that included Erenville. Well fine, he'd take care of the much more time-limited thing first.

He walked up to the engineer examining the boxes placed to block the rails. "Um, hello, you're one of the train engineers?" He looked like Magnus, but Qahs'a couldn't quite remember his actual name at the moment.

When he nodded, Qahs'a continued. "We've tried to keep the uh… turn around thing working, but you'll have to check it. The bridge ahead is out though, and some people reported that the tunnel beyond also had a rockfall blocking it."

Not-Magnus frowned. "It was fine when Nitowikwe was here a few days ago…"

Qahs'a shook his head. "Because of some very convoluted reasons, thirty years have gone by in here. It was hit by lightning before we got the lightning rods up, and part of one of the arches collapsed.

Not-Magnus looked shocked, then nodded, and turned to consult to the others in the engine.

Now that that was taken care of, Qahs'a turned to Sphene and the Scions.

As he walked over, Sphene clearly noticed him, clasped her hands in front of her, and hurriedly finished saying whatever she had to say.

"Sorry for the delay, but someone decided I shouldn't know when the train finally came," he said dryly. "I'm sure Sphene here has been spinning a very interesting yarn for you, but left out everything truthful."

Sphene made a face at him, while Alisaie scowled at him. Huh, maybe she didn't recognize him? "She's been telling us that you've been trying to erase her people's culture!"

"That's funny, because before I made it my problem, she was trying to take over Yyasulani," he said, even more dryly. "And the thing I don't like about her culture is the whole refusing to let souls return to the aetherial sea and also constantly erasing people's memories."

"It's still Alexandrian culture," Sphene said.

[and past this point nothing works with the actual game lore so let's stop there. the point was: sphene was trying to manipulate scions to help her get rid of the "usurper" and then qahs'a is like hi here's what actually happened and the scions are on his side entirely. in this version, qahs'a was mostly living with and as a turali while sphene and the alexandrians had everkeep and there was a bit of tenseness over them being completely separate but... yeah. i liked the IDEA of sphene and qahs'a having a weird standoff over the train first but then sphene being essentially a program who could NOT compromise over the endless absolutely ruined the ability to keep sphene around at all]

[my-dark-lord]

Hi! I wanted to ask, is there a way to read more about your ocs in hellaverse? I just kinda like other people ocs very much lol

Hey! I'm so sorry this is running so late, Nonny, I meant to reply sooner than this but I tend to get distracted super easily. I've got the ADHD pretty bad and in my past life I was the goldfish that made scientists think they all had five second memories.

At any rate, I have quite a few Hellaverse OCs! A lot of fankids and then quite a few surrounding Ozzie or Valentino. I've been working more with the ones that deal with Val, lately, which are mostly Darío, Ostello, and Anya!

The main OCs I have are Ostello, Anya, Darío, Ozzie's Parents (Abstemiounessa and Valore), Archangel Uriel, Leviathan, Magpie, Vick, and then a few others that I don't do much with. I also have fankids but that may be for another time.

I literally just reworked Ostello's bio and took it from 364 words to 1,101 words and updated a lot of information that had become wrong as I wrote him. Anya recently got upgraded from OC that I didn't really do anything with to OC that I'm using a lot more.

They're all on my RP blog, @e-m-p-error, though a lot of them need a little reworking. For now, I can share Ostello and Anya's info here! I've been working on them most recently. Ostello is Valentino's ex-husband and Anya is his Personal Assistant!

It's under a cut for length. Ostello's info is LONG. All art by me.

Anya

Human Name: Anya Kazlow

Name In Hell: Anya

Nicknames: Annie Baby, Yaya

Faceclaim: My/Friend’s Art

Original Universe: Mainverse

Age: 30 (When He Died); 37 Years Dead

Birthday: April 30th, 1956 (Taurus)

Deathday: December 5th, 1986

Height: 6'8"

Gender: Cis Female

Pronouns: She/Her

Sexuality: Bisexual Bimantic, Ambigamous

Species: Gorgon Sinner

Snake Color: Red and White

Eye Color: Pale red sclera, bright green irises

Occupation: Valentino’s Personal Assistant

Headcanon Masterlist

When Anya was alive, she worked in a veterinarian’s office that saw a lot of exotic pets owned by bad people. There were all kinds of things that she had to overlook in her line of work, including humans that had bullet wounds or other such injuries. She doubled as a nurse when she had to, and learned how to take care of human and animal injuries alike. Always having been nurturing and gentle, she was well-loved by the Russian mafia in her town in Belarus and ended up getting married to a lower-ranking member after tending to him for one summer.

She was shot on their wedding day when a rival cell infiltrated the wedding and killed as many of the people there as they could. She died holding her lover’s hand, and vowing revenge. This never came to fruition.

Meeting Valentino not long after she fell, Anya was hired on to be his PA after she ended up gentling him through an injury that he obtained in a turf war. She happened to be there at the time, and he decided having a medically minded personal assistant would be a good idea. She sold her soul to him, and being an important member of his team, she was given the golden tooth that Angel Dust and Val both had. She is in love with Valentino, but he only sees her as a friend. She’s mostly okay with this because it’s worth it just to be near him. It is her job to handle most things that Vox doesn’t handle for him. This can be anything from cast lists to work schedules to bartending if he needs someone to cover a shift. If Val needs it done, she’ll do it.

Her snakes are Frog Eating Rat Snakes, and because of this, they have bacteria in their mouths. If she bites you, it is an immediate, violent, and disgusting case of leprosy that can kill in minutes. She has only ever bitten three people, and she usually doesn’t, but she will absolutely do it if it is necessary.

Anya is very nosy and always likes to be up on the latest gossip and whatever juicy things are going on around Val. She will pry into his business while she takes care of him while he’s drunk so she is abreast of the latest drama.

Ostello 

Human Name: Oscar Lawrence

Name In Hell: Ostello

Nicknames: Tello, Baby (Valentino Exclusive), Broadway (@strangeandun-muse-ual’s Vox Exclusive)

Faceclaim: My Art/Al Pacino

Original Universe: Mainverse

Birthday: January 21st, 1899

Human Deathday: May 3rd, 1944

Demon Deathday: February 9th, 1980 (Assassinated by Val with a Holy spear)

Age: 45 (When He Died As A Human); 36 Years Dead (When Killed By Val); 80 Years Dead (In Heaven)

Gender: Cis Male

Sexuality: Homosexual Homoromantic Ambigamous

Species: Badger Sinner

Height: 6'8"

Relation: Valentino’s Ex-Husband (Widowed)

Occupation: Overlord, Pop-Jazz Singer, Arms Dealer

Headcanon Masterlist

When he was alive, his name was Oscar Lawrence. Oscar was the son of Ruth and Samuel Lawrence, their only child. Marty was his father’s best friend, his right-hand man in the fire department, and his wife’s affair partner. Oscar knew about the affair for approximately a year before his father died on Christmas day when he was ten years old. A year after his father’s death, Marty was his stepfather, and while he never held any express animosity toward him, he never called Marty his father. His mother and Marty had two kids together who were twelve and fourteen years younger than he was, and he was never particularly close to his half-siblings.

At seventeen, he had dropped out of school and gone to work in a club in Omaha. He was discovered singing one of the numbers from a nightly show while cleaning by his boss, who loved his sound and gave him his own attempt at playing a show one Saturday night. For starters, he did a few covers of things that he had heard and ended the night on a song he’d written himself. His lyrics were filled with a longing he became known for, a desire for something he could never have. It became something that was so Oscar Lawrence to long, to pine so genuinely and openly that it was impossible to separate from him. So much of his music was about barely scraping his fingertips against the thing he longed for, and nobody could ever quite get out of him what it was.

When he was twenty, he met Olivia, his wife-to-be. She fell for him, hard and fast, and he never felt much. But it was a suspicious thing for a man his age not to have a wife, and he liked Olivia enough to live with her. Oscar was rarely home, out touring and recording a lot, but at twenty-one their daughter, Gertrude “Gertie” Rose Lawrence was born. He rarely saw her, and when he was home, he was usually sad and drunk. Gertie doesn’t remember much of her dad, but his biggest sin with her was neglect. He never rose his hand against her or her mother, and he was never particularly cruel.

However, he did cheat on his wife. Often while he was on tour, he could sleep with any woman that wanted him in ways he found impossible to do with his wife at home. Like many singers of his time, he also had a stage presence on the silver screen. Much like he found many temporary replacements for his wife, he found a semi-permanent replacement for his daughter as a mentor to Shirley Temple.

If there was something as Oscar Lawrence as pure, unadulterated longing, it was a desire to run from what he did have with that same desperation.

His biggest sin in life was that he was gay in a time when that was very highly frowned upon, and it was a well-kept secret. Nobody knew about it, and he never once acted on it while he was alive.

When he died in 1944, it was a slow, painful, and disorienting death alone in a hospital half a country away from his family. His wife and daughter flew out to see him just in time to say goodbye, and he couldn’t recall who they were. He died of acute liver failure that had progressed under the radar of his manager who had been busy working him through the holidays.

Olivia sued the company for negligence that led to her husband’s death, and she and Gertie continued to never want for anything but the man whom they owed their cushy lives to. Neither could say they knew him before he died, and after they would know him even less.

Oscar sort of expected to fall into Hell, and when he did, he was unsurprised. For a few months, he just tooled around, feeling out his new abilities and appearance as a badger. He discovered early on that he had pyrokinesis and it was something of a novelty for a while.

One night while walking the streets and experimenting with it in the lonely hours of the morning, he gave a fireball too much juice and shot an Overlord on her way back from a big deal. He didn’t expect it, and it led to a huge fight between the two of them in which Ostello accidentally became the victor. It was a hard fight and when her gun was knocked from her hands, he managed to grab it in the ensuing wrestling for it. Unbeknownst to him, it was loaded with holy bullets, and ended in her demise.

Her attendants, who had scattered during the fight, came to him to tell him that he was now in charge of her territory as long as nobody else took it, and he took the responsibility fairly seriously. This didn’t stop him from pursuing a musical career on top of the weapons dealing, of course, but it was somethingi that he did want to do to the best of his ability.

Ostello, as he eventually renamed himself, became a rather beloved fixture of the Pentagram. He was hard to upset and treated his workers with dignity and respect. They were paid well, especially those who gathered holy metals during the Extermination, and he never went so far as to treat any of them cruelly.

He worked with Alastor to produce radio shows and sang live several times for him. When Vox eventually came around, Ostello left Alastor’s employ to work under a label that Vox owned. He performed for him there, with concerts and other such things, until the day he was killed. His music is still fairly popular and played in several Voxtech buildings.

In 1972, he met Valentino, and in two months married the moth. He was a devoted husband who wanted nothing more than to make his wife happy, and he spent the next eight years absolutely enamored by him. However, Valentino had never really been in love with him, and in 1980 used a holy spearhead pilfered from Ostello’s own armory to kill him.

Due to his love for Valentino driving him to be a much, much happier and better person, when he died he was reincarnated in Heaven. He dislikes Heaven very much because he misses Valentino and was reunited with Olivia. He does not know that Gertie is in Hell. He has been watching Valentino in Hell for years and is abreast with the latest things going on in his life at all times.

[jules-has-notes]

collaboration spotlight — Waving Through A Window by Kurt Hugo Schneider & VoicePlay

A lot of people begin a new year by reflecting on the past and expressing desires or intentions for the future. So when VoicePlay and Kurt were planning their second collaboration, they decided on the musical theater equivalent of that process, a classic "I want" song from a recent Broadway hit. The emotions of the number were a perfect showcase for Eli's talents.

Details:

title: Waving Through A Window (feat. VoicePlay)

original performer: Ben Platt as Evan Hansen in Dear Evan Hansen (2016)

written by: Benj Pasek & Justin Paul

arranged by: Layne Stein & Kurt Hugo Schneider

release date: 2 January 2018

My favorite bits:

Eli's tentative tone accompanied by the other guys' softly hummed harmonies and Layne's heartbeat body percussion

the lovely ♫ "burn burn burn burn" ♫ bell chord 🔥

Kurt alternating between frantic, stacatto synthesizer lines and long, simple chords to accentuate the dynamics of the song

that crescendo from Earl, J.None, and Geoff behind the first ♫ "Is anybody waving?" ♫ to kick things into the next gear

the cool warbling sound Layne makes at the start of the bridge

the palpable silence before the key change

Eli's beautiful balance between increasing intensity and agility to bring everything home

honorable mention for Layne's wrist brace as an echo of Evan's arm cast in the musical

Trivia:

Filming this video was part of a whirlwind trip to Los Angeles in October, during which they recorded three videos with three different collaborators in two days. They filmed this one on the same day as their "Baby It's Cold Outside" video with Shoshana Bean.

Layne reworked the arrangement to create a purely a cappella version that the guys performed as part of their live shows for a couple years, including at the 2018 Total Vocal concert in NYC.

For the second year in a row, VoicePlay's first video of the year was a Broadway song collaboration released on someone else's channel. The previous year's debut was "Seasons of Love" with AJ Rafael.

Their previous collaboration with Kurt, a "Twenty One Pilots mashup" video, was filmed just over a year before this one.

[autumnslance]

I saw you replied to my fear post, thank you for that. I’ve been trying to make an OC that is both a main and a character for writing like Aeryn is for you. My next question is can I take a canon character like Aerith, Rinoa, or Yuna for example as a base and then work to make them my own OC? I’ve been really into FF7 and the Atelier series, Aerith is the perfect candidate to be an Alchemist! Are any of your OCs inspired by your favorite characters in other series?

You're welcome! And I think that taking an existing character as inspiration is a good way to start with making an OC. I've done it a few times in some tabletop games, but also often don't consciously, only realizing there are similarities to characters I've loved after the fact.

In a tabletop game, I made a character initially inspired by a dancer character from one of the Lunar games, but the game didn't go anywhere (as often happens). I held onto that base concept, and then years later found a Pathfinder game the concept worked in perfectly, also letting me revise the character greatly.

My WoW paladin, Alynore, was inspired by characters like Susan Ivanova from Babylon 5, Paksenarrion from Elizabeth Moon's Deed of Paksenarrion novel series, and a little of Sleepy from The Black Company novel series. They're all dedicated military women, leaders, queer (1 bisexual, 2 asexual), no-nonsense, and value dedication, justice, and even kindness in their own ways.

I also took the idea of some favorite twin characters from a show who were taken in by their noble father, but ran away a few years later. I did a "what if a trusted member of the household was discovered to have let them run away, and now was charged with finding them?" and turned that into an OC in another game.

Aeryn maybe has some other Final Fantasy heroines in her makeup, but as I'd played through XIV twice before, I noted how the game treats what I call "Assumed Default WoL." They can't account for every permutation of the player character; even games like Dragon Age, or Mass Effect, or Baldur's Gate can't account for every version of their player heroes. But there are baseline assumptions, and so I baked that into the concept when I came up with Aeryn. An adventurous altruist, a determinator, a little bit of a gremlin--especially as time goes on and "this is my life now" really sets in (and WoL's dialogue options include a few more unhinged possibilities in some places). I looked at the influences and inspirations, said "OK, I know why they adventure, why does this girl?" In Aeryn's case, I started simple: I knew her brother was 1.0 WoL and never returned, so she was looking.

That was it. A lot of the rest of the details came later.

It's OK--and I often recommend--leaving a lot of backstory details loose and vague to start. I did the same with Dark Autumn, with C'oretta, Iyna, and various past characters in WoW and others. It let me add, change, shuffle, and write things in later. Sometimes even retcon and rework things.

Don't be afraid of that, especially when using other characters as starting points. Use the broad strokes summaries of their story and adjust it to fit in the new setting you're importing them to; goodness knows FF itself does this all the time (look at the Ivalice raid and Bozja story and related characters from Tactics and XII!). And then change things as needed, especially as you get ideas and interactions that feel "right" for the character and yourself, the stories you want to tell.

And maybe later you want to change them again (you come up with something new, lore drops make you want to play around with a different thing, etc), or make up AUs, or other characters to tell other stories. Play around, experiment, and remember nothing is set in stone.

[j0kers-light]

Can you give any hint on how His Lighthouse will end?

Hey hi anon 🖤✨

After careful consideration (y’all really bullied me lol) I’ve decided to alter the initial ending I had written.

I won’t lie anon. I tagged this story as #angst for a reason. From the beginning I knew this story was gonna be long. (I promise, I’m not dragging it out)

I mapped out at least fifty chapters not including an epilogue that occurs immediately after His Lighthouse. I just didn’t expect so many people to be so invested!! I hope you all have patience because this a journey.

Onto the unnecessary long explanation! 🖤✨

We already know Joker is in custody. He willingly surrendered in chapter one and is currently telling a long summary to Batman, Gordon, and the GCPD police force watching the interrogation— about his six months spent with Y/n.

All of His Lighthouse transpires in past tense until Joker wraps up his trip down memory lane. And apparently J has a lot to talk about. 👀

Half a year is a long time! That being said; I originally wrote the ending to be angst. I wanted to be different and create an angsty ambiguous ending were it’s implied that Y/n moved on without Joker.

BUT the people want a HEA! Soooo I flipped the script to make the reader happy. So far I’m struggling to rearrange the plot so we can all be happy at the end so please be patient with me!! The next few chapters are gonna reflect the sudden plot change.

I get that this is a self indulgent fic but I read every comment and message people send. I use them both as motivation and as constructive criticism to learn and improve. This will be happy ending!!

Somehow. 🫠

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Edit: I thought about adding a snippet to the written ending but 😬😬😬 spoilers. They be cray. Here’s one anyway. I may or may not use this narrative now that I’ve reworked the ending. Eh. No harm of it.

[WARNING SPOILERS BELOW READ AT OWN RISK]

[blueeyeswhitegarden]

Day 15: Extra Prompt 1) Time Pendulumgraph @arcvmonth

For a lot of reasons, I'm not really into the assigned prompt for today. I just find the whole premise of devoting a day for salt in a month celebrating the series unappealing and unnecessary. I don't think that the fanbase really needs a day devoted for salt when that often feels like everyday. Not that there aren't valid complaints for Arc V or that I don't have stuff I wish had happened or were handled differently/better myself. And I can understand the benefits of venting out your frustrations with a series since I do that with pretty much every other series in this franchise, including the other shows that I like. Personally speaking, after years of dealing with backlash during and after Arc V's run, what enjoyment I could get from venting my issues about the show itself is minimal to nonexistent. I have more salt for the toxic part of the fanbase/hatedom for Arc V than for the show itself at this point. My main goal for this month has just been to have fun talking about Arc V and that's what I hope to keep doing with this prompt instead.

I'm more interested in the post-canon ideas since I think that there is a bit more to explore there than in the pre-canon, but I might save pre-canon ideas for another time too. I like to imagine that Yuzu was relatively comfortable dealing with being merged with her counterparts. She was still Ray within Arc V for awhile, so I think that allowed for her to feel the connection between her counterparts, so becoming one with them felt natural. It also helps that she didn't have the same kind of issues Yuya had in regards to having self-worth or self-esteem. It would take her longer to communicate more directly with her counterparts, but she could sense their feelings. She feels Serena's pride whenever she starts to duel, she feels more calm on windy days from Rin and she enjoys watching the birds more from Ruri. She gains some of their memories over time and because of their time in Arc V, it feels more natural to her as a result.

There are some conflicted feelings once Yuzu starts to regain more of Ray's memories though. She remembers how much she loved Leo, how she was willing to sacrifice herself all because she didn't want to lose her father and that is sharp contrast to how Yuzu saw Leo herself. Despite everything he did, I don't think she'd hate him, especially after learning more from Ray's memories, but she wouldn't see him as her father. Shuzo is her father. He hugs her every day and he'd practically cry in tears of joy whenever she comes back home. But Yuzu does start to feel some sympathy for Leo. A part of her wants to go tell him what she remembers from Ray, but Leo sealed himself back at Academia, determined to undo what damage he could by rebuilding it. He also doesn't think he deserved to go back to the family he abandoned. Yuzu has more support from Yuya, the only other person who could really understand her situation. After all, neither of them were technically even born. They are pieces of another person's soul, their reincarnations and their own persons all at the same time. She accepts these memories as precious treasures from her past life as Ray and continues to move towards her future as Yuzu with Yuya, Gongenzaka, Sora, Shuzo and all of their friends by her side. She reworks her deck to represent her other counterparts, including some Melodious Pendulum cards which would exist in the newly reborn Pendulum Dimension, and she passes the pro test to become a pro duelist. Yuzu enjoys dueling on her own, but she loves to perform right alongside Yuya in their tag matches. Both of their Entertainment Dueling skills are more polished as they perform together.

While I do believe that Shun is happier post-canon than fans tend to give him credit for, I also think that he would have some anger towards Dennis. After all, Dennis was the one who found Ruri and signaled the start of the Heartland invasion. But now he's in Heartland, teaching kids about Entertainment Dueling. They know that he's a former Academia solider, but they don't know he signaled the start of the Heartland invasion. Even though Shun know that Yuto and Ruri are still alive in Yuya and Yuzu, a part of him still blames Dennis for what happened to his hometown. He knows that if wasn't Dennis, it would have been another Academia solider and that Leo is the real cause of it, but he does have some lingering resentment towards Dennis. Kaito understand his feelings, but he also saw Dennis carding himself and he saw Dennis' duel against Yuya, so he is more willing to give him a chance from the start despite what he's done. Dennis himself also still carries regrets for what he did, knowing that he never really had the courage to make his own stance against Academia despite how much he truly wanted to keep performing, but he is happy that he's able to embrace his true self while trying to make amends for what he's done. While I don't think that Shun would consider Dennis his friend, I think seeing the impact he has on kids and his efforts to restore Heartland would eventually lessen his anger over time. He may not be able to fully forgive Dennis, but Shun is willing to try to move forward all the same. He knows that Heartland can't go back to the way it was exactly, but he can help to make it a better future at least. Both Shun and Kaito eventually agree to duel Dennis occasionally to help him with his Entertainment Dueling lessons as well.

Reiji is still reserved post-canon, but he enjoys his pro matches more, especially against Yuya and eventually Yuzu. Much like Yuzu, I don't think he'd hate Leo. There would be some complicated feelings there given his own abandonment issues and learning that Leo left his family to chase after the ghost of his half-sister, but Reiji knows that a part of him still cares about his father as well. It doesn't negate all of the damage he did, but it can be painful and confusing when you still care about someone also deeply hurt you. Even so, I think he'd accept these kind of conflicted feelings as well. Leo staying in Fusion instead of coming back home helps just because being back home as if nothing had changed would make them worse. He knows that the damage has been done to their relationship and that's okay. He has more friends now with the Lancers and he is able to move forward in this brand new world. He enjoys taking care of Reira as well. He wants to protect her smile and hopes that their sibling bond can be even stronger in her new life. He also gives her a teddy bear similar to the one Reira had earlier in the series.

[astromechs]

I'm keeping my fingers crossed this isn't too controversial; I think nobody involved was equipped to handle Gamora's story once they decided to have Thanos kill her. I think Gunn knew exactly what to do with a relatively straightforward story of surviving abuse and breaking free. Once we entered the realm of woman murdered under the guise of her abuser being rewarded for his love, all bets were off. There was no coming back from that without an entire reworking of the story that followed which would require someone having both more experience with Gamora's type of abuse and awareness of the fact that unfortunately it can take more effort for audiences to relate to certain characters. Someone mentioned Black Panther and I think that was a great example. Gunn is undeniably talented but he still wouldn't have been a good choice to do that movie on his own. Sometimes you need certain experiences or the ability to walk in someone else's shoes to understand the direction a story needs to take. That means either hiring or consulting with people who have that experience or information. I have come across a few women who have survived abuse talking about hurtful or dimsissive comments they received about abuse following IW. I think that says a lot.

With this said I think they never should have killed Gamora or if they had to they should have ressurected her and called it a day. I know Gunn has gone on record as saying he hates ressurections and he believes in the need for consequences, but fact is an abuse victims whole story shouldn't be boiled down to consequences. I'm not saying how Gamora was brought back had no potential. I actually think it had a lot of potential and even though she's not getting the credit due, Gamora is probably one of the most interesting characters in vol 3 when you look at everything she's been through and the whole past present time travel angle plus all the messy emotions. Fans could have a field day with her and if she were a dude she'd be getting way more love and attention. That doesn't change that the story needed the benefit of writing Gunn wasn't capable of giving or in the mindset to give during his already planned out finale. Which means the best choice was not to kill her. I see a lot of people skirting around saying that but honestly don't kill an abuse victim just as she's embracing freedom shouldn't be a controversial thing to say or talk about. And certainly don't have her abuser kill her.

literally gamora should've never died in the first place. like, that's just unequivocally the truth. it was a terrible choice on a lot of levels, especially with the way it was actually done — because it was dismissive toward abuse, and real life people are affected by that. it's been five years since infinity war, and i'm still angry about it!!

the thing, though, is that i was willing to go with it, because gamora has died and been resurrected from the soul world (the dimension inside the soul stone) in the comics. her resurrection, also canonically in the comics, has had long-term consequences for her that are interesting. all of this could've easily been done on film after infinity war, if they were so hell bent on including the death.

but no, no one was equipped to handle this story, from infinity war to after infinity war. this is, again, the importance of having more diverse voices involved in the creation of stories.