#and ik its VAGUE but i want it to be vague… kind of

[oh-gh0st]

ok youkai au lore time :3

so since i’m merging denki and youkai together, ill explain the part where denki is first

so afawk, chorosuke/choro inherited/took over his fathers house in the village near akatsuka and makes flower arrangements, hoping for his sister to marry into a good family. 

ghost lives in either the same or a little bit away from the village. they have the last name kuriirota

they live with their older sibling/siblings (havent decided between just one or all three) and run a family business based around making kasuri, japanese fabrics/silks. they often supply the fabric and pre-made clothes for people in the village, and they’re well known for their efficiency. 

ghost and choro meet when he commissions the business for yukatas and clothing for the upcoming tanabata festival. ghost immediately takes interest, wanting to know about chorosuke. they do get closer, but if anything the feelings are one sided and unreciprocated for a while.

it starts to pick up after chorosuke and his brothers find out theyre all related, and that something bad is happening between them. it’s around the same time as the festival begins, and they decide to keep it secret for now. this is around the point they see their respective youkai motifs everywhere, no matter where they look. 

chorosuke accompanies ghost to the tengu’s shrine for the first time, and it takes a while for them to walk up the mountain to get to it. chorosuke asks whats the point if its only for one wish, and ghost says it’s a wish they’ve made for years. when asked what the wish was, ghost does not answer. 

there’s some deep moment between the two here, and its where choro finds out ghost is in a similar position as his sister is, trying to marry off and find a partner but turning up with nothing as each affair comes and goes. he doesn’t know why, but he felt a compulsion to help them in his chest, hinting at the tengu’s considerate and aiding nature. 

the next night after the festival/the same night the festival ends, chorosuke goes back up the mountain to read ghost’s wish, only to find it already gone from the shrines statue. 

further along the story (and where the brothers realize their youkai powers and cause a fuss in the village), ghost does eventually find out about the news with the matsuno family. they go to meet him to give him support, but they’re turned away for the time being. they were going to tell him how they felt of him. 

fast forward a few weeks, and now the village is in uproar of the possibility of having not one, but six youkais in their village. they start pushing the idea of exile for the matsus, putting up talismans and protections from the matsus either by the matsus house or their own. come the 100 demon festival, they are in full-swing uproar and are actively pushing the brothers out, now havingh accepted their youkai counterparts. 

ghost watches the matsus exile, and choro spares them one glance before heading to the realm of youkai. it almost breaks his heart, considering he had been getting close to them. he wouldn’t be able to think about them for a whole after that, having to get used to youkai life now, and only being granted one day of the year to return to the human realm, being hyakki yagyo. 

ghost would mourn for a while after this, resulting in them taking time off from the kusari robes they have to make, backing up business quite a bit. their sisters worry about them, having been holed up in their room for weeks, only coming out at night or early in the morning to rise. 

come the next tanabata festival, ghost is finally seen outside their home, going out to deliver their wish to the tengu shrine. he senses that someone is at the shrine, and flies over from a pocket dimension to see who it is. when he recognizes who it is, he gets a familiar feeling in his chest, and he has no idea why his cheeks are burning up. 

they look so familiar. and he has a good feeling about what they are wishing for. 

(lore inspo: https://youtu.be/OhYwP9MDP8s?si=O9ejKLUPsxY-AfIG )

[hassianlovebot]

Okay so, I don't want to give spoilers in this post so this will all be somewhat vague, but I do want to say that there's another part to the Vault of the Roots after the bundles where the player's actions and dialogue are a lot more.. important and meaningful to the story. If anyone felt that this vault's story left a little to be desired, then definitely try the next part! Like I said, this next part gets started after you finish all four bundles (which isn't too hard or time consuming for this one), and like trust me, it's so much more emotionally and narratively satisfying than the first part is.

(Small spoiler in below paragraph for the first part of the quest!)

I don't want to hype it up too much, but it does handle the player's actions, thoughts, and agency a lot better than the first part. I haven't actually finished it yet so I'm not sure how the ending will be, but honestly, I think it'll be good. I think this next part will be especially more gratifying for players who weren't able to convince The Gardener (aka Hekla was the one to change his mind) since our actions and dialogue in this section directly help him in a much bigger way.

[vaporgrove]

as someone who is primarily insane about my own comic ocs more than any other set of characters Ever it is. odd to think to myself "ugh im tired of working on this comic batch. im so excited to finish so i can reward myself by drawing these characters again but not in comic form."

[croakings]

SO. sorry this is going to be deranged i'm not proofreading this

so i've been writing a lot recently, and this particular project involves a language and culture i'm making up. and it's got me thinking about language, and communication, and lying.

and this is probably a very autistic realization, but it's hit me that usually when people lie, what they are trying to convey— and like, we're ignoring the ethics of it, this post is devoid of judgement one way or another, i'm just examining this thought— is a request for an emotional response from someone that the truth is less or unlikely to get across as effectively or as easily.

like, normal example, totally excusable: "my wife is in the hospital," when it's your girlfriend in the hospital. factually untrue! but what one wants people to hear is "someone i love and want to spend the rest of my life with is in dire straits and therefore so am i, please excuse anything in my behavior that may be caused by this," essentially. or like you can swap wife/girlfriend with sibling/best friend or aunt/neighbor or whatever. what you're trying to get across is the magnitude of the relationship rather than communicating the nature of the relationship itself.

we have words for that! like, yes, it's lying to use the wrong words, technically, to "trick" someone into understanding how close whatever given person is to you, and how much their condition is affecting you, but! also, i do have to say, in that particular instance i do have to say that, the primary goal of language being communication...... it's interesting! the facts are untrue. but the gravity of the circumstance was conveyed clearly with intention, which is to say, the emotional impact was increased by sacrificing literal clarity. this is basically what hyperbole does!!!!

most lying does that, doesn't it? most lies that i can think of are in some way in service to emotion above like, anything else. someone wanting to spare themselves someone else's emotion ("i'm fine", "i didn't do that", "i don't want this, you take it") and this is....... in a way, strictly speaking, effective communication. it's. hm.

like, for the record, i'm not pro-lying, and also, to reiterate, it's also ineffective communication, because it's factually untrue, which means again that however much an aim was achieved or a meaning conveyed you do it at the expense of one whole half of the venture. but it's interesting, isn't it? how much lying is usually angling for a specific impact, or to gain some form of ease and/or expediency.

i feel like i'm probably getting this across poorly which is also like, really funny, but what prompted this is like......... language is an imperfect tool! we know this. speaking (or whatever) is always an act of translation, and in translation something is always lost. like, even if that thing is only time. one is never able to express anything exactly as quickly as the original; thoughts take time to parcel up and deliver, or come out poorly if not mangled if at all recognizably. when going from one literal language to another, you have to decide whether you want to be more accurate literally, in impact, or in delivery, so respectively and with the simplest example you have to decide if when you translate an idiom you do so verbatim, or with an equivalent, and then whether or not you explain your choice and/or its value. because like, in an unattainable "perfect" translation, you could communicate both the meaning and the trappings of its delivery seamlessly and simply in about the same space as it was originally given more or less immediately. instead, because we can't do that, you can sacrifice to some degree either the original words, their original impact, or the original delivery, by again respectively changing the words altogether, losing the impact (generally also altogether), or losing the directness/straight forward nature of the communication by inserting an info blurb. and of course any kind of translation needs some extra degree of time, even just in its delivery. you lose things! you have to decide which things are most valuable to you to allow you to be "truest". like, which part of any given sentence is most important ? it varies, right? and sometimes one can effect another, like, what if brevity is important to the impact? or conversely, what if something specific has to be communicated in a long-winded and round-about way to have the same impact, but it's tricky to manage doing so without losing the clarity? what do you sacrifice? the meaning, the impact, or the delivery? does that make sense? and you're probably always going to lose time.

so, lying!!!!! it's sacrificing meaning for the other two, is what i was trying to say earlier. it's an imperfect translation!!!!! in one sense!!! but it is a translation!!!!! isn't that interesting?? actually no, sorry, most ethically speaking it's 2 sacrifices; meaning and delivery. like, as i kept saying, the facts are untrue (meaning), and at some point for the sake of clarity it'll be necessary to be like "oh no, sorry, actually it was [the factual truth], i just said [x] because [some form of expected expediency/ease], [explanation of that choice]." (<- delivery.) but y’know with lying with ill intentions you do get to skip that part, and in that case the lack of correcting by revisiting/extending the delivery is part of the communication, whereby you are implicitly saying something like "fuck you, also". or possibly "fuck me," idk, lying can contain multitudes. which!!!!!!!! isn't that interesting??? talking!!!!!!!!!!!! communication!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! how and why and in what ways we say things........... the choices we make and the reasons we make those choices....... the sacrifices that are and are not acceptable to make, and in which contexts, in order to come across as you intend to...........

idk i'm just turning this around like a shiny rock in my hands. like, also, i do know that lying is done with the intent to deceive, and also that lying (derogatory) is done maliciously, with either the intent to harm or at least a lack of intent of care, but. hm. isn't it interesting, what you can learn when you look at how people lie, and how those things can change based on why you think they were lying? they still communicated effectively!!!!!!! they did it on purpose!!!!!!!!!!!!! they made those choices for a reason. that still..... tells something!!!!

even imperfect communication can, in its flaws, tell us something!!!!!!!! does someone sacrifice time, meaning, impact, delivery? why? in what contexts? with intent? for what purpose? isn't it interesting????????????????

[toastsnaffler]

man I think I fucked uuuuppppp a little 😭

[nomairuins]

i do need 2 work on rewiring my brain so that my immediate very first thought whenever i dont do a small task (like brushing ny teeth taking a shower picking up my room etc) isnt 'We Should Kill Connor ." this would be pretty good for me to do. putting this on the list

[journey-to-the-attic]

Pspspspspsps do you have any HCs for IK babysitting the little guys

okay keep in mind i don't actually know what happened in that kid pop quiz, so this is the literal premise of "these got turned into little primary school boys".

how i imagine this happening: satan + solomon are brewing some dastardly potion and asmo + simeon come in to chat with/ask them about what's going on. lucifer walks in, gets highly suspicious and tries to intervene, solomon accidentally drops something into the cauldron, and then it's hiss, BANG, child

i'll put the boys at around 7 years old both physically and mentally - they retain their usual memories, but they're kind of vague and hand-wavey about what exactly they remember - so they recognise everyone they're meant to but don't know why in particular

the potion going BANG happens at the rad and prof baal is down the hall, so they (attracted by the sound of explosions, their one true love) quickly show up

when they open the door there are five little boys sitting around in various states of shock. solomon turns around and sees this crazy-looking adult in with big glowing goggles and spiky hair, and also has the distinct feeling he's done something wrong, and subsequently starts crying

this sets asmo off, which sets simeon off, which makes satan angry so now he's loudly scolding them for crying for no reason

lucifer just sits there silently, apparently trying to process everything in his now significantly smaller brain

prof baal can only do one thing. leave

and call diavolo

who calls ik because he can't get the boys to stop crying, and when asked for help barbatos just inadvertently made solomon cry more

eventually ik, reeling somewhat, gets them all calmed down and ascertains what happened

unfortunately the two main guys who would be able to figure out a reverse potion are little boys now. so diavolo takes the issue to wiz and ik continues to hang out with the kids

it's. fun?? it's also incredibly jarring

big news! wiz is going to need at least a weekend to analyse the remains of the potion and reverse engineer its effects! the kids are going to have to stay at the castle in the mean time!

so let's get to know them:

lucifer: very serious and earnest - tries to act mature and rein the others in, which is mostly ineffective. likes having his hand held but won't admit it. very particular about keeping himself neat and gets annoyed when he feels he's being talked down to. spends most of his time quietly following ik around.

satan: closer to 6yo and very energetic - runs around exploring things, crawls into whatever spaces he can fit into to. his lucifer-grudge manifests in one of those kiddie rivalries where he has to prove he's the COOLEST one. likes to be read to when he's calm, dislikes it heavily when lucifer is praised in front of him

simeon: just the sweetest little guy... very smiley and bright, seeks approval to an almost worrying degree, kind of clumsy. a little shy around the other boys but super outgoing with the grown-ups (and ik + luke), tries to help out even when he doesn't know what he's doing, and consequently breaks things

solomon: also very energetic, very loudly curious, asks a lot of questions but is moving too fast to actually hear the answers. one of those kids with grabby hands and very little sense of personal space. also keeps having magic accidents because he's not great at controlling his powers in this state

asmo: cheerful but also very blunt and honest with his words. cries quite easily but is also easily consoled; enjoys playing make-believe and dress-up, but very insistent that you do it HIS way. likes being carried around and gets a little crabby if he doesn't get attention for too long

the others are involved in looking after the boys as well but i'm just going to focus on ik for brevity's sake

ik has at least three of the kids surrounding her at all times

at any given moment, at least one of them wants to be carried. another one has something cool to give her. another one wants her to follow them and look at something. lucifer is probably still clinging to her hand the entire time.

the other boys play. lucifer reads a little bit, tries to tell them off, then spends the rest of his time walking around and looking for ik so that she will hold his hand. nevertheless he will look away when asked about this and insist it's nothing

solomon spends a not insignificant amount of time trying to cause as much trouble for barbatos as possible - he's clearly conspiring with some of the little ds as well - and forces ik to go on constant tours around the castle with him so that he can ask her questions at a billion miles per hour

he keeps pointing at things and accidentally making them explode or erupt into flames, or trying to conjure pretty lights and instead summoning bats

he walks into the kitchen with a massive rat in his hands and barbatos almost bodily hurls him out of the window

satan can sprint around the entire castle (including up and down the towers) before he exhausts himself, and he is the bane of lucifer's seven year old life because he will not stop BOTHERING him

satan can theoretically still read at his usual level but he 1. can't sit still long enough do so and 2. now lacks the neural power to comprehend super complex paragraphs, so when he tuckers himself out, he makes ik read him super morbid history books from the castle library

(lucifer is there too, sitting cross-legged and listening solemnly. when satan gets squeamish or spooked he looks at lucifer and reminds himself that he MUST get a better grade in scary stories than him)

(inevitably satan falls asleep and ik will let lucifer pick a book to switch to. when satan wakes up he is inevitably very mad about this)

asmo REFUSES to exert his little legs on the castle steps, so ik has to carry him, never mind the fact that she is also not very well equipped to be taking those stairs

ik plays house with him and pretends to be a little old grandpa, which delights asmo to no end

ik brushes out his hair and he insists on returning the favour, and then tangles a bunch of ornaments in her hair because he thinks it'll look pretty

sometimes he walks into things and cries even if it didn't hurt at all because he likes being fussed over

simeon's just happy to be here!

he tries to help the little ds with chores but mostly just undos their progress (and trips himself down the stairs in the process)

he likes being doted on but doesn't know how to express that, so instead he'll follow ik around, looking at her with these really big hopeful eyes

the boys like to play tag or hide-n-seek in the castle gardens, though the grounds are so extensive that they will inevitably get lost

lucifer has a knack for finding them - he'll silently slip off while ik and barbatos are wondering what to do, and come back with everyone in tow like a border collie herding sheep

when he's finally persuaded into joining their games, satan pushes him into a pond and then immediately tattles on himself because he feels bad

ik gets them to hold hands until they've made up (and barbatos takes a picture that both satan and lucifer will hunt him down for once they're back to normal)

they make fairy cakes together and asmo's decorations are 1. a flower, 2. himself, 3. a cat, 4. himself again, and 5. someone getting their head chopped off????

[vigilskeep]

congrats on beating inquisition! did nennaia do the iron bull's personal quest? if so, did she choose to sacrifice or save the chargers? what was her mindset/thought process over it? ik with hindsight it seems very straightforward to pick the chargers and be done w it but in the moment its very difficult for me personally to see the practical justification for 'spurn this potential alliance with an entire nation of people for these 5ish guys you may or may not be vaguely fond of' and i always just play it as kind of a fuckup that turns out well? but maybe im missing something...idk

nennaia saved the chargers! i don’t rlly love this quest (u all know i don’t much care for qunari writing) so i didn’t put that much thought into it but i justified it with feeling she was comparing it to her own past, choosing duty over her boy. she didn’t want the iron bull to go through choosing duty over his boy(s) when she could tell the decision he wanted to make, so she simply gave him permission to make it

[alevolpe]

You mentioned viewing Minako as not fully Japanese and now I wonder, what other ethnicity do you see her as and do you headcanon any other Sailor Moon characters as mixed/just not 100% Japanese?

I headcanon Ami as half Kazakh btw (because im half Kazakh too (◍•ᴗ•◍)✌)

Sorry this ask is months old, if ur still here hi! :)

Alright so, I don’t have exact concepts for all the girls laid out quite yet, just vague ideas for some of them. I think as I’ll develop the story and characters, things will start flowing into place like magic lol.

Ik I want Ami to be half German, I’m thinking Saeko is Japanese and her father is German. Ami lived in Germany for a short amount of time in her childhood, despite that she speaks with Saeko often in German and considers English technically her second language (even tho she speaks perfect English and is also a polyglot on top of it lol).

Tho your idea with Ami is really cute! I love seeing more variety with Ami’s character and how different people interpret her! She’s such a comfort character for so many.

A friend of mine gave me the idea of Mako being Thai and I kind of love it and I’ll most likely stick with it. I think really fits her!

As for Rei I’m half set, but I could go with whatever fits best. I usually tend to think of her as super Japanese, like almost painfully traditionally so and preferring most aspects of her life to stick by the Japanese way instead of the more “modernized western way”. Even in my au, which takes place in a different Tokyo, that is more westernized, where most people speak English, Rei still lives in the outskirt area, where people speak mostly Japanese and the buildings tend to run more old and traditional.

With Mina I could also go either way, but I don’t see her as fully Japanese. Either her parents are mixed or not Japanese at all. I usually bounce between them being from either somewhere in South America or South-East Asia. A culture where it’s quite common to have big families with each generation having more and more children lol (it really fits my hcs for Mina and her parents’ attitude toward her and the rest of the family).

Michiru I absolutely see having very strong European descents, perhaps French, Spanish or Italian.

With the rest of the girls it’s still: unsure. LOL, sorry for the anticlimactic ending, but my au is still very much at its first draft and planning phase.

If you have any suggestions or would like to inform this dummy on your culture, please do! I love to be more educated on the subject and hearing it from others’ personal experiences is the best!

[sankttealeaf]

Do you think Gortash would be a good dad? I'm curious to hear your thoughts! Im wondering how he would even react to the news, If it were to happen accidentaly. I think it would be an ego boost for him? Or maybe even a turn on???

hi anon!!! ive had Thoughts about this!

i think he'd be alright as a parent. not great, but not completely awful. he's present, mostly! world's most mid dad. he has that on a mug he never uses.

for a man who ive always headcanoned to want to preserve his rule over faerun (and bane's grip on the land too), having kids is the next option because he'd be able to mould them to take up his mantle when he's gone. theyre just another step in his plan to keeping the world under his control. i think he would be thrilled to find out about it, and then something else would get his attention and it's pushed to the side until he can properly process it.

as someone who had an absent (to put it simply) parent growing up, theres always that lingering fear that i would end up just like them and i think thats the case for gortash as well. humanising him for a second, there may be a part of him that keeps his distance because what if, yknow? sending his child off to be looked after by nannys and other staff while he stays at the opposite end of the building to get work done. that way nothing bad can happen to ruin his well crafted step by step plan in keeping rule over the world. okay done humanising him, back to evil now

i think as the kids get older and become more curious about things he may take more of an interest then. you cant really... do much with babies. hes not about to babble at them or play with them, but a toddler who wants to explore and look at things? come along, child. let me show you some machines you are way too young to be near.

definitely calls them child or boy or girl. thats kind of funny. also could be projecting on how raphael treated him growing up in the house of hope. thats less funny.

teaches them the ways of bane from the moment they can start to understand words. ik theres studies(?) out there saying u should talk to your young kids like normal to help with their vocabulary and gortash definitely does that. this man cannot do baby talk. he sits with them over dinner discussing politics and leadership. bedtime stories? no, no, he's telling them in depth political moves hes planning on doing

ive specifically thought about this in terms of my durge, rue and gortash, and how its a good ending for him but a bad ending for her. its a vague au in my head right now but man. who let the bhaalspawn and banite have kids?

that poor child. as well loved as a child growing up in a political atmosphere with an emotionally distance mother & a father whos only taking notice of them when theyre old enough to start properly learning things can be... thats gotta be a rough childhood...

[speedlimit15]

ik its silly and self centered but when i'm feeling paranoid i think every vague post is about me. even if i havent spoken to anyone or done anything besides reblog images or talk about how im feeling or what tv shows im watching. i feel like i'm not meeting some invisible criteria or even worse i've been stomping and pissing and shitting all over it. Like i shouldnt care at all if i know i didnt do anything, but what if i did and didnt realize it. what if everyone has been secretly or even openly laughing at me the whole time and laughing even harder when i'm distressed. like i vividly imagine ppl screenshotting my posts and sharing them and mocking me every time i type anything out. i can't get to a place in my head where the opinions of ppl i want to be friends with no longer matter.

i know this thought trap comes from this situation playing out over and over in my childhood and teen years both irl and online. at this point it's such an established pattern i'm convinced i'm doomed to be some sort of secret lolcow of everyone i admire forever, and that the people who admire me would hate me if i admitted this, and so on. i thought deleting my social medias one by one would help but in doing so i kind of cornered myself here. so i keep crocheting and thinking about current events and screaming as loud as i can in my head bc thats all i can do. lately my chest reallt hurts all the time. Umm sorry i know im pushing 30 but this stuff really isnt getting any easier and being in this room is making it a thousand times worse

[send-up-my-heart-to-you]

HI HI HI long ask incoming :,,DD

so i have a transmasc muslim character from Malaysia, and i was wondering what the biggest no-no’s are when it comes to writing their transition? and, also, what is it like being a queer muslim in general?

being a queer and trans asian i understand enough (personal experience lol) but i was raised (unfortunately) in a predominantly catholic country that has a LOT of misinformation abt muslims. which sucks. i vaguely know that removing one’s hijab is a very delicate, sensitive thing to do. but what happens when the person no longer identifies as a woman, and wishes to present masculinely? or heck, even present a bit femininely, but still choose to identify as a man? how would a trans muslim go about presenting the way they want to, in the theoretical situation that they’re in a safe enough environment to do so?

hii <333 i want to clarify beforehand that this is a VERY sensitive issue, esp among muslims. cause us as muslims have faced enough misrepresentation as is, and some (i promise not me) may consider it insulting and misrepresentative for a queer muslim to exist (as if they dont already). just, be wary when approaching this subject

now, the issue here is that trans muslims are an EXTREME minority, and i mean extreme. not many people transition and still call themselves muslim. they either renounce islam, or hide their identities for the sake of safety. islam resembles christianity in a way—queerness is a big no-no. HOWEVER, in islam its not haram to BE these things, its haram to act like it (specifically, acting like the opposite gender. dressing like them, who you get married to, etc)

you have to be v delicate, since most ppl would not accept a trans muslim character (i say most bc there are ppl who wouldnt mind, but society as a whole generally would in fact mind)

you almost never see women decide to take off their hijab bc they dont identify as a woman. removing the hijab is taboo enough in muslim culture, but doing that due to not identifying as a woman anymore? BIG no-no

if, theoretically, theyre in an environment safe enough to do so, they still may find ppl unfriending them bc of it, or tryna convince them not to do so for their own safety

HOWEVER, i do have genderqueer friends irl who are still muslim, all of them afab. im gonna use two of them as an example (keep in mind we do live in a transphobic/homophobic society)

the first one (genderfluid but goes w any pronouns) was a hijabi before they stopped identifying as a woman, and they still wear a hijab. however, they do wear chest binders and more masculine style of clothing (e.g. no skirts). they still cover their awrah (the part of a muslim that should be covered. for men its from the navel to below the knees, for women its everywhere except the face and hands), but theyve become a lil more careless w the hijab (like wearing it looser)

the second one (he/they) isnt a hijabi, and they still have long hair. however, he also wears a chest binder, but still likes makeup and things like that. ik less abt this one cause we arent as close as me n the first friend, but thats what ik

and i also mentioned the awrah. keep in mind that men have a hijab too, just a different kind. "hijab" just means covering, n both genders have to cover personal parts. so your character may stop wearing a headscarf, but they still have to wear longer shorts n grow out a beard (and yes, growing out your beard is a must for men in islam. according to most scholars anyway, since the prophet pbuh did it)

if your character was previously a hijabi, you might make him more careless w the hijab (showing more n more hair until he eventually renounces it completely) n start wearing more t-shirts w jeans and things like that (search up "grunge hijab" n youll see what i mean)

it IS better to make a trans non-muslim in a muslim society, considering a lotttttt of muslims might find it offensive if theres a trans muslim, but obv i have no say in your character and in the end its entirely your choice <33 just be aware that its kinda like stepping on broken glass here

[m1ckeyb3rry]

tips and tricks on writing fanfic if u have any i beg <3<3

i have wrote so much throughout my life but it never feels like it flows right yk? i just want to write my silly characters being devastating with eachother

and you are infact my fav fic writer ever so pretty please <3

(its fine if not lol just may as well ask)

hihi!! sorry this took me a sec to respond to lol but yes ofc i can do my best to help!! and apologies in advance if any of this isn’t helpful/applicable 😓 i’ll put it all under the cut just because i can sense myself rambling in advance why did it end up being an entire thesis

okayyy so the most important thing for me when writing is having my plot and characters be in constant conversation with one another. typically i will come up with a very vague idea for a plot, which will then tell me exactly what kind of main characters i need to write, and from there, i build my cast!! it’s why i’m always afraid of writing characters ooc — typically i take aspects of the pre-existing character from canon and then expand on them so that they fit the plot i want, and sometimes i get worried that that means i’ve changed them too much LMAO.

once i understand what i want from my characters, i start to write. i usually have to rewrite my first chapter a few times as i get a feel for the characters and their perspectives, especially my pov character (we’ll call them mc for the sake of simplicity moving forward). it’s only after i feel like the mc’s voice and personality have been established that i can continue. i like to understand a character well enough that i can intuitively know how they would respond to any given situation. it makes it much easier in the future!! because once you’ve established a character, you can’t change them. i’ll use glass princess as an example because ik you’ve read it — if i wanted to write a slight different story, i could’ve written the mc to be a ruthless killer who has a short temper and resents her brother. however, i then would’ve had to work within the constraints of that character’s outlook instead of the constraints of current mc’s character!!

that’s why i typically only have loose ideas for plots. after i begin writing, i let my characters tell me what they want to do. they usually know what they want better than i do!! a lot of my “best” scenes have been entirely unplanned and based on me just following the characters’ actions to their natural conclusion. i guess you could say i go into each chapter having an idea of what the “inciting event” for the chapter will be — for example, mc runs to the tea shop the day after meeting the blue spirit, but the results of that inciting event are based more on my knowledge of my characters than any preconceived outlining or plotting. along the same lines, EVERY time i’ve had writer’s block with a fic (that was unrelated to me losing interest in the fandom/character/storyline) it’s been because i’ve forced my characters into a situation that they would not naturally end up in. my best example of this is a story i started writing with a very cold main character; she meets an injured enemy soldier who has lost his memories, and the plot was meant to revolve around her nursing him back to health and falling in love with him. however, given her character and the backstory i knew she had, i genuinely couldn’t come up with a single reason for why she would heal him instead of just killing him or turning him in, so i literally abandoned the story 😭 essentially i would recommend solid understanding of characters over a solid understanding of your plot 100% of the time. imo strong, well-rounded characters can carry even the shittiest of plots, but the opposite is rarely if ever true.

that was a lot of theory stuff!! as for where i get my ideas (not exactly what you asked but tangentially related so i’ll add it in here in case anyone else is reading and wants to know), it depends on the kind of fic i’m writing. my favorite fics are canon-verse, and for those fics i try to look for niches in the source material that aren’t already filled and make a character for it. the best example of this that i can think of off of the bat is two of my aot fics — in one, the mc is a member of the military police and the first interior squad, and in the other, the mc is a warrior candidate during the events of the show. both of these roles aren’t really filled by canon characters, so creating these characters allows me to look at plot events in a new light, which lets me expand the fic into something beyond just a rehashing of canon. in terms of au’s…to be honest listening to music is huge for me!! i’ll scroll through tik tok and hear an audio that inspires me, and once i have a vibe for what i want to write, i’ll search for similar songs that help me picture the general aesthetic of the au. the idea for my one bllk fic peregrine was conceived when i heard a snippet of the song welcome and goodbye by dream, ivory, on tik tok!! overall i don’t really like writing straight au’s that much though. idk why but in my experience every time i’ve tried to write an au fic i’ve gotten bored of it much much quicker than i would’ve with a more canon-based story. that’s just me personally though!!! i do loveeee worldbuilding though HAHA the amount of fantasy worlds i’ve created but never written for is horrific.

when it comes to things like grammar, sentence structure, and word choice, the only two things you can do to improve are reading and writing a LOT. at first, you should read more than you write, and when i say reading, it can be literally anything. find what you do and don’t like from all of the authors you encounter, and try to incorporate the pros into your writings while noticing the cons in your own work. it’s not plagiarism! you won’t be able to copy any author’s style completely, and if you engage in enough kinds of works, you’ll become a blend of so many different styles that it won’t sound copied or anything. then, once you’re comfortable mixing and matching depending on what scene you’re writing (maybe for a serious scene, you take references from a classical novel, whereas for a more lighthearted moment, you look at a social media au to see what kind of jokes might land with a broader audience), you can start to develop your own style!! it’ll come naturally as you go. the more you write, the more you will be certain of yourself and the way YOU would write something. the mixing and matching will smooth into one style that flows more naturally and does what you need, when you need it.

my final advice is that you shouldn’t compare yourself to others!! just because your writing doesn’t sound like your favorite author’s doesn’t mean it’s any worse. i’ve read amazing stories that are nothing like my own — it doesn’t mean that mine are worse than those stories, just different. there is a place in this world for every single story!! and it’s inevitable that you will look back on your old writing and cringe. i do!! i cannot read anything i wrote more than a year ago because i’ve improved so much that the old stuff is embarrassing to me. if you don’t push through the fear of cringe, though, you’ll never get anywhere. i’m not sure if you’re planning on posting anything ever, but i can say with certainty that if you do, there will be someone who reads and loves it. there’s people who still comment on and read and love my stories from 2021 that i absolutely despise now (it’s the only reason they haven’t been deleted yet). oftentimes we are our own worst critics, and also, knowing the plot ahead of time doesn’t help (writing suspenseful scenes is SO HARD when you know what’s coming 😭). your readers will love what you write, probably even more than you do!!

i hope that that was helpful and i’m so sorry for writing a literal essay OMG. like this is such a long post 😓 if you have any questions about what i wrote or about a specific aspect of the fic writing process, then lmk!! i’m always happy to help 🫶🏻

[sai-lec]

hi i’m salty i like fashion so i want to talk about the ferrari suit painting endeavour courtesy of @ joshuavides ig story

it’s not gonna be detailed or anything just a general overview but alr let’s get started

so i rlly love the idea of letting the guys design their own race suits they took two rather opposing approaches to the design of their suits providing an insight to their perspective on their personal aestheticism, branding and mandated media activity

so let’s start w Carlos . For someone who isn’t actively involved in fashion design or marketing this is impressive . like it sent me down a rabbit hole of trying to figure out carlos’ involvement in his merch design process but dead ends if anyone has anything on that lmk .

carlos’ design is centred on his branding it’s something he would wear during a race to represent not only himself personally through the chilli motif but his career and his achievement as CS55 .

the placement of the logo is phenomenal . ik it’s just a copy of the diagonal placement of all his merch but this could’ve easily been something that stretched simply across the bodice portion. carlos’ design made good use of the space whilst keeping the design simple and recognisable not to mention how challenging it is to maintain freehand lines across separations in the fabric like

i’ve tried my best to apply some guidelines on top of the suit (with a grain of salt- photo perspective and wearability will change line placements) but the precision particularly is super impressive considering i don’t believe he’s painted on fabric before and is doing so without any straight line edge for guidance .

although it’s just a result of no practise the messiness of the painting works with the design it’s refined enough to be recognisable but the imperfection brings through a sense of modern high fashion reminiscent of the haute mess situation in 2022 or mimicking the street art aesthetic not unlike the imperfect perfection of vivienne Westwood . it’s just a good well executed garment i think encapsulating who he is a driver

charles on the other hand is a lot more emotionally driven. the front of the garment seems to be more inclined to imagery that is personal to charles

the spelling of his name separates him from CL16 he’s charles, it’s more personal closer to who he is rather than his brand with his number included to allude to the importance of racing in his life - and also to keep it relevant to the task at hand which was centred around ferrari.

i’ve been seeing a lot of criticism of on this striped section of charles suit but yall just don’t get it . this is his country man . this is his way or representing his country his identity as a monegasque person is dear to him this is his national pride manifested on his uniform . the front is what charles wants people to perceive of him what he fundamentally wants to represent and who he is in his career

as for the back

this is art . it absolutely is . it’s entirely up to the viewers discretion what that art is. the art could be the wearer. it couldn’t be the sport . the race. it could be none of that and just be a funny attempt at trying to justify the decision on the front of the garment . or as the strategic placement would suggest, it could be his ass that’s the art.

i do love this though it’s giving rich its giving runway . it’s giving designer . i’m telling you keep an eye on louis vuitton and vivienne westwood this kind of mildly thought provoking vaguely political commentary handwritten aesthetic dominates modern ready to wear high end fashion. this is the kind of thing you’d see an instgram model take some gorgeous aesthetically pleasing photos in before it ends up in someone’s rebellious girl aesthetic pinterest board . and it’s a serve .

generally i do really love the idea behind this whole task tho it’s fun and expressive and i love the callback to the marlboro day with the red and white suit aesthetic of the 80s and the last vegas grand prix at the caesar’s palace track in 1982 it’s truly iconic and i hope we get to see the boys in their creations

[callmeleonardo]

Odachi Tutorial

heres kind of an explanation on how I made Leo's odachi +kind of a tutorial so you can look like this

Shit you'll need:

Lots of cardboard

Scissors or box cutter (be safe 😤😤😤)

Paint

Lots and lots of hot glue

Hot glue gun (obviously)

Masking tape (if you do the same thing I did)

Further instructions below ⬇⬇⬇

Okay so step one- figuring out big this thing is gonna be

A quick Google search will tell you that a typical odachi is 3-4 feet long, even reaching 5 feet in extreme cases

I wanted to make mine five feet, but that would make it literally the size of me (im 5'1") so I opted for slightly shorter

Heres a size ref for mine:

(The staff is 5 feet exactly)

So first things first, you'll need to cut your pieces out. I made the blade roughly 3.5 feet in length, and the handle is 7 inches. You can adjust however you'd like, but I made it so both my hands can fit comfortably on the handle. For the blade and handle I used regular cardboard (abt 1/8 inch thick) and for the hilt I used 1/4 inch thick cardboard, which was so hard to cut through oh my god- box cutter is highly recommended if you choose to use thicker cardboard there.

You will need to cut out two blades (ik, exhausting-) to glue together, because just one will bend and flop, so having two glued together helps reinforce it.

To make the handle, cut out a rectangle of cardboard; mine was 5x7 inches, but do whatever feels right. Basically just crease and roll up the cardboard until you have a solid log of cardboard.

Paper example here:

Glue your handle nice and tight, and set it to the side.

Okay- so for my swords, I decided to wrap the handle and hilt with blue masking tape for a couple of reasons. Number one, I didn't want to paint it, and number two, taping it would give me the wrapped look Leo has on his swords. You don't have to tape it, but it ended up saving me later on with keeping the pieces together, so I recommend it.

So if you do decide to tape it, here's how you can avoid my mistakes and jump right to the solution.

Right now you should have: a taped handle and hilt, and two blades, glued together.

The issue I faced was that hot glue alone wasn't enough to secure the pieces together because the blade was to heavy. So I used a method I call the octopus method. its kind of hard to explain, so here's a helpful little example.

Wrap a piece of tape around the top of the handle (the side that will be attached to the hilt) but make sure you only stick half the tape on. (If this makes sense-) So a bit of tape should be not attatched to the handle.

Make little cuts all the way around

Fold the little fringes(?) Downwards so it looks kind of like an octopus (hence the name)

Then stick your handle onto your hilt, press the tape down nice and smooth, and glue the ever living hell out of it

You can vaguely see it here

And when I say a LOT of hot glue, I mean a LOT of hot glue. If you feel like you're doing too much, youre probably not.

I used the octopus method to attach the blade to the hilt as well, and it worked very nicely.

You can go ahead and let that dry (it'll take a whileeee since you need to use a ton of glue to keep it secure; so make sure you keep it propped upright in a way it'll dry correctly.

Also don't forget to paint the blade-

I had the idea after I finished, but if someone Iowans to try and let me know how it goes, its be awesome, but I had the idea to take a wire hanger or something of the like, straighten it out, and kind of insert into into the middle of the sword (going from the handle to the blade) to help with stability.

I thinkkkkk that's about it?

If you have any questions, my ask box is always open! And if you use my tut to make a sword, feel free to show me! Id love to see ^ ^

Twin katana tutorial here

@did-i-mention-the-shirt

[raspbeyes]

Idk how hot of a take this is, but i don't really like kokichi's talent. Like ik the whole arguement of "did kokichi lie abt his talent?" has made its rounds around the fandom (i personally dont think it matters whether he lied abt it or not) but i think it shows how unnecessary it is to have kokichi be the supreme leader.

Kokichi is childish and makes frequent mention of the killing game being, well, a game. He mentions video games a few times, and most glaring, he loves to lie. Design wise, his childish appearance is very clear, but his scarf is obviously designed like a chess board. His organization is literally called DICE. Hell, while you can argue he "manipulates" everyone to do his will in ch 4 and 5, nobody liked him well enough to consider him a "leader". He's more a loner rather than leader. A solo player, if you will lol

Literally everything about Kokichi points to him being some kind of Ultimate Chessmaster or Puzzle Expert, something along those lines. And it would completely fit as well. His deductions point to the strategy he would need to win in intellect games like chess or checkers. His lying might be a skill necessary in social games like mafia or card games. His flippant attitude to people (outwardly?) and desire to win makes sense if he's revolved his whole life around defeating his opponents in a game. And it isnt some prestigious position like "strategist", as it still reflects his childish nature.

Hell the only way the dr crew could indicate "supreme leader" in his design is only in his splash art, where they literally try to cover their design up with a hat and cloak to seem convincing.

I get that danganronpa usually likes to subvert their ultimates' personality compared to their talent such as Hiyoko, Gundham, Nagito, Miu, and Tenko to name a few. But Kokichi??? Wow the guy who's been screaming since day one how evil he is ends up seizing control of the killing game im so shocked :000 Like sure he is childish and playful, very unlike a leader, but it's not a significant subversion.

Like it wouldve been more impactful/funnier if the seemingly childish character with a childish talent ended up proclaiming himself as the mastermind.

Tho it can argued it wont be as shocking of a twist when the character who likes winning games ends up proclaiming himself in charge of the killing game. But i think its at least better than the very on the nose supreme leader "talent". Like, to me, it's TOO obvious when kokichi says he's the mastermind that I immediately doubt it. Not to mention that Supreme leader is such a vague talent that aside of kokichi's unconvincing (albeit hilarious) reason of "cuz im evil muahahah very evil trust me" i dont see what more the talent can mean. He wants to rule everything so sure ig he'd wanna rule over this killing game. What else connects to his talent??

At least with a talent like puzzle master or something like that, kokichi taking over can directly correlate with his talent as a motive. Theres more explanation of how games thrill him, and that'd make sense with his talent. He can say how he's tired of playing and finally wants to secure his victory and be the game master. That can double onto his motivation as a life long puzzle solver. It can at least make more logical sense, thus making it slightly more believable that kokichi is really the mastermind, helping the impact when he's revealed as just another player.

There's a little more reverse psychology. It may be obvious he is mastermind material, but there is still room left that he may just be that way due to his talent. When it comes to the Supreme leader talent, it's so vague that there's no room outside of being the mastermind, and honestly, it becomes less of a red arrow and more of an obvious red herring.

Anyway this whole post was me struggling to find another way to not say "ultimate gamer" lol. Aside from chessmaster or puzzle master, i think of much lol. Ultimste Board Game Master lol???