#definitely something I see a lot in RP characters

[iniziare]

ignoring aventurine's blatant gay coding is really something

Other things have had me a little salty this morning, so in case that influences my perception of how you intended this, my sincere apologies. Either way, forgive me for being serious for a moment, but I want to use this as a PSA to make a point going forward on this blog.

I have nothing against opposing views, and I have nothing against people disagreeing with me, but what I have something against on principle, are potentially snarky messages like this one that seem to have only one aim, which is to try and taint my character by making insinuations that are wholly unfounded (that you think me to be anti-LGBT?) and based on something that you genuinely cannot draw any such thing from. Now whether Aventurine is 'gay-coded' as you so put it, or a bisexual man (on which note: it's real saddening to see that in 2024, in-house fighting against bisexuality's mere existence still reigns supreme, good job, you're really making admirable strides) doesn't matter for what I'm going to touch on. Although out of respect for the character himself and the person who wrote him, I can't move on without noting that you may want to reread some character stories, some dialogues (particularly things said by the Harmony to him, for instance), to see whether that seals your faith in your claim, or diminishes it. Either way, I want to remind you: being bisexual doesn't reduce the significance of being drawn to the same sex.

Alright, continuing what I was saying: messages like these don't accomplish anything, outside of making you feel like you're on a pedestal; is it cold up there? I don't envy you. In all seriousness however, in all my years on any of my blogs, I have always aimed to be canon-strict with my portrayals, with which I set myself up for something that I deem imperative for myself in RP: to be criticized by the masses. I have always tried to engage with my follower base, I have always encouraged them to come to me if I'm wrong on something, I value people trying to poke holes in my logic. And if you succeed in proving that I overlooked something, I will happily admit it, and stand corrected. In that, I aim to say that I thoroughly enjoy debate and discussion (based in rationale, and not feelings), which I think are fundamental to our society even outside of Tumblr. If someone disagrees with me, my notes are open, if you want to question something that I think or have posted, my askbox (as you've learned and have made use of) is open. But all I ask is that you open a line of healthy debate with me, and not send something that is entirely baseless if you don't even substantiate your claim in your same message. But also, what I don't understand is that my post doesn't even directly diminish the popular Aventurine/Ratio ship in the fandom, it instead simply expresses frustration that not more people see the depth of the Aventurine/Topaz dynamic, and recognize it as a good ship as well, because there is a lot within the game that aims at a definite potential there. Granted, yes, that comes with having to acknowledge that Aventurine may just be a bisexual man who is also into women, but if that's something that doesn't sit quite right with you, then maybe the issue that you're pointing at me, should be returned to you, the one who initially pointed the accusatory finger here.

Again, if you want to have a conversation about this and tell me why you think that I'm wrong by substantiating your own claim, you're very welcome to, and I'd be happy to engage with you. But until then, this is all that I have for you. And before I might get a 'why do I need to substantiate my thing, Sae', it's nothing against you personally, and instead it's the simple 101 of debate. You disagree with a point that I make? Then it is up to you to tell me why you disagree, so that I can give you a fruitful counter that you can then do something with.

Regardless of the intention of your message, anon, I wish you a good day, and I hope that it's raining less over there, wherever you may be, than it is over here. I'm not motivated to go get my groceries!

[benchspkmnirlhub]

A Guide to Pokemon IRL

Hello! Pokemon IRL has been getting more and more popular over the year and a half I've been in the community, and I'm seeing lots of people being confused by it.

So I'm making this guide, to hopefully help people understand it better, and perhaps join us in this wacky community.

Part 1: The Basics

Essentially, Pokemon IRL is a RP community centered on one single premise: Blogging as if you were in the Pokemon world. It's a hybrid of askblogs, RP blogs, and general tumblr blogs.

There's very few rules to it, other than just "don't be a jerk". There's all kinds of Pokemon IRL blogs, from regular OC trainers, to canon characters, to characters who are Pokemon themselves, to even Fallers from non-Pokemon media, and more!

The main thing is that 98% of Pokemon IRL operates on the multiverse. Blogs can have conflicting canons, since the multiverse exists, and the blogs can be from different universes. This also means that multiple people can RP the same character. I've lost count of the amount of Kieran and Silver blogs.

Why is Pokemon-world tumblr multiversal? Who knows! But that's the one generally accepted canon thing across almost all Pokemon IRL blogs.

Part 2: Glossary

I know glossaries are usually at the ends of books, but I figure it's important that I define some important terms before I get to the rest of this guide.

Rotomblr - The generally accepted name for Pokemon-world tumblr. I personally prefer to use the name Tacklr instead, but that's just my opinion.

Sapient Pokemon - Pokemon that are sapient. Typically refers to Pokemon that run blogs. Some blogs don't allow interactions with them. Some blogs love interacting with them, though, such as all my blogs!

Eebydeeby - A human that has been turned into a Pokemon. "Eeby" is short for it. "Sleeby" means "slow eeby", or a human that has been or is in the process of slowly turning into a Pokemon.

Hybrid - This has two meanings. The first is someone who's part human and part Pokemon. The second is a Pokemon that's part one species, part another species.

Pelipper Mail - This is a multiversal system of mail, powered via Pelipper! You can have Pelippers send items to other blogs with this. Can be enabled or disabled per blog. Same goes with the next five terms.

Pelipper Unmail - Instead of giving, this is taking. This steals something from another blog via Pelipper.

Pelipper Malice - Essentially, this is sending something to another blog that you know will hurt them.

Musharna Mail - It's like Pelipper Mail, but with dreams! This can be used to send dreams to other blogs.

Musharna Malice - Just like Musharna Mail, but it's nightmares instead of dreams.

Magic Anons - Essentially, this allows anons to do whatever they'd like to the characters on your blog. Use caution when enabling this, though, as it's suspected that some people fetish mine with these.

High Stakes - Basically, this refers to anything that can majorly injure many characters, or otherwise have lots of bad stuff happen. Many blogs don't like interacting with this stuff, so it's best to tag it.

Drama Stakes - Like High Stakes, but less. This is when stuff is happening that could lead to in-universe ruined relationships. Best to tag this too.

Ultra Stakes - Like High Stakes, but more. This is when things lead to potential death of many characters. Definitely best to tag this as well.

Chosen - Sometimes someone is a legendary's favorite special little person, and they get powers from it! That's essentially what a Chosen is.

Faller - Someone, usually from a non-Pokemon media, who falls into the Pokemon world. Essentialyl a way of writing a non-Pokemon character in Pokemon IRL.

Self-Insert Faller - An OOC blogrunner falls into the Pokemon world. Can get very meta.

Muse Mixup Madness - At the start of every month, there's an event where some blogs temporarily change their core concept for a day or a few. It's best to tag these, and to give warnings beforehand.

Part 3: Setting up your Blog

Setting up a Pokemon IRL blog is a lot like setting up a regular tumblr blog, just in-character.

The main thing you'll need is a pinned post explaining the premise of the blog. These are usually in-character, with an OOC section at the bottom.

It's best to warn for possible triggers that might pop up on the blog, as well as explaining your boundaries (i.e. if you don't want Pelipper Mail).

Feel free to theme your blog too, changing the header and icon, adjusting the theme colors, maybe even have a custom theme!

Once you have that all set, you're ready to interact!

Part 4: Interacting

I made a full guide on how to interact here, if you want to check it out!

The main thing is, don't be afraid to interact. Even with big blogs. Everyone's happy to receive interactions! Worst that can happen is that your interaction is ignored.

So don't be scared! Jump in, and start interacting!

Part 5: General Advice from my Friends

I asked around for any additional advice people wanted to add, and here's what some people had to say:

"uhhh ooc communication is super important, especially if youre trying to do a plot with someone or smth along those lines" - @espers-n-espurrs

"Uhhh "Do it scared" Like. If you're nervous about doing something but you wanna do it, do it even though you're scared!!!!! Also like. Have fun. People can tell when you're having fun. Be silly. Do what you want forever. Also that big blogs 9/10 don't mind interactions with smaller ones. I think I count as one and like. I am just as scared as interacting with new people as the smaller blogs who wanna interact with me" @chaos-cousins

"interact with people" - @justalileepguy

"The absolute worst thing that can happen if you send someone an ask is that they delete it. People like getting interaction, even if it's from a blog you don't follow. If you're having trouble interacting, find something your two characters have in common and point it out" - @fated-furret

Part 6: Miscellaneous Stuff

If there's anything I'm missing, feel free to let me know, or add it in a reblog! I've been in this community for a long time, but even I don't know absolutely everything.

If you've read this far, thank you! I hope this guide helps in some way. Reblogging it is appreciated, but not necessary.

And if you're thinking of joining the Pokemon IRL community, then I'm excited to help welcome you!

[utilitycaster]

Daggerheart Character Build thoughts!

I am actually out at work and haven't checked the version that's since come out, but I did participate in the character build beta, and the NDA is officially lifted, so here's my thoughts from that! It's definitely limited since I just made a L1 character and didn't go through gameplay, though I surmise about some aspects of gameplay.

Overall, it clearly seems to be made by people who love a lot of things about D&D 5e but wanted both more flexibility and more simplicity, which is difficult. I think they succeed.

To that end, it takes away some of the crunchier aspects (precise positioning, exact amounts of gold) and I think for some people that will be a problem, and that's valid, but ultimately this game wants to both allow for interesting mechanics in and out of combat while also not being terribly math/map/resource management heavy. It is a hard line to walk; most systems either go hard crunch or go entirely gooey.

The dice mechanic (2d12, Hope and Fear system) is fantastic; look it up but I think it handles mixed successes more gracefully and interestingly than a lot of games.

The playtest was not super clear on armor and evasion choices (or indeed what evasion means; it seems to be sort of initiative but sort of dex save, or maybe more like the Pathfinder/old school D&D varying ACs by scenario?). It was much, MUCH clearer than D&D on weapon choices (part of why I play casters? Weapon rules in D&D are annoying and poorly explained and many people rightfully ignore them) so I'm hoping this becomes clear when there's a full guide rather than just the character creation info.

The character creation questions by class were fantastic and in general, and this is a theme, this feels like it guides people towards collaboration. FWIW I feel like D&D has that information, but the way it's presented is very much as flavor text rather than a thing you should be doing. Daggerheart makes this a much more core part of creation. The Experience mechanic is particularly clear: you better be working with your GM and really thinking about background, rather than slapping it on as a mechanic.

The other side of character creation questions is that it really encourages engagement with the class, which is something I've talked about. I think either subversion for the sake of subversion, or picking a class for the mechanics and aesthetic but not the fundamental concept, will be much harder to justify in Daggerheart, and I think that's a good thing because when people do that, their characters tend to be weaker.

The downtime is designed for you to write hurt/comfort fanfic about and this is a compliment. There are a number of mechanics that reward RP, particularly one of the healing mechanics under the Splendor track. I feel like a weakness of D&D is that when you try to reward RP it's really nebulous because there's not actually a ton of space to put that - you can give inspiration, but, for example, the empathy domain Matt homebrewed actually feels kind of off because it's based on such fuzzy concepts amid mechanics that are usually more rigid. Daggerheart comes off as much cleaner yet still RP-focused, and I'm excited to see it in action.

A judgement of Candela and I suppose Daggerheart might be that it's designed for actual play. I've mentioned before that I know people who are super into the crunch and combat and numbers of TTRPGs and are less story-oriented, and again, that's valid, but actual play is just storytelling using a ttrpg and so yes, a game that encourages RP while also having mechanics to support that and influence it is an extremely good goal. I am not an actual player, but I do like D&D games with a good plot and not just Go Kill Monsters, and I want to play this. (I also have some real salty thoughts about how if you modify an existing game for AP purposes that's staggering genius apparently, but if you make your own game how dare you but that's another post).

And now, the classes/subclasses. I am going to sort of use D&D language to describe them because that's a point of reference most people reading this will understand, but they are not one-to-one. A couple notes: everyone can use weapons and armor. HP is not totally clear to me but it seems to be threshold based - everyone has the same HP to start but people have different thresholds and armor, so the tank classes have the same amount of HP but are much harder to actually do damage to.

All classes are built on a combination of a subclass and two domains. There are 9 classes and 9 domains. This technically means that if you wanted to fuck around and homebrew you could make up to 36 classes (27 additional) by just grabbing two domains that weren't otherwise combined, which is fun to consider for the potential. Anyway I cover the classes and briefly describe domains within them. You can take any domain card within your domain, regardless of subclass.

There are six stats. Presence, Instinct, Knowledge, and Strength map roughly to Charisma, Wisdom, Intelligence, and Strength. Dex is split into Agility and Finesse; Agility covers gross motor skills (jumping, most ranged weapons, "maneuvering") and Finesse finer ones (lockpicking and tinkering, though also it does cover hiding). The really big wins are first, no CON score, so you don't need to sink stat points into something that grants no skills but keeps you alive. The second one is that the "hybrid" classes spellcast from their physical stat. This is fucking fantastic. The thing about ranger or paladin or the spellcasting subclasses of rogue and fighter in D&D is that if you don't roll pretty well you're locked into the core stats and CON and nothing else. (This also doesn't have rolling for stats: you assign +2 to one stat, presumably your main, and then distribute two +1s, two 0s, and one -1.)

Your HP, Evasion, and Thresholds are set by class, and there's a core ability; the rest is all from the cards you take for subclass and domain.

Leveling up is very much based on taking more domain cards (abilities) but has a certain degree of flexibility. It's by chunks: in leveling up anywhere levels 2-4, you can, for example, increase your proficiency by +1 once, so if you wanted to do that at level 2 but your fellow player wanted to wait until level 4 and take something else at level 2 instead, they could. It allows for more min-maxing, but also everyone has the same level up rules and differs only in the abilities on the cards, which is very cool.

Bard: Grace (enchantment spells) and Codex (learned spellcaster stuff; the spells available are definitely arcane in vibes) based, Presence is your main stat. The two subclasses map roughly to lore-style stuff and eloquence. Core class ability is sort of like inspiration but not entirely. It's a bard; I like bards a lot, and this is very similar vibes-wise to your D&D bards. If you like D&D bards you will like this.

Druid: Sage (nature spells) and Arcana (raw magical power spellcaster stuff), Instinct is your spellcasting/main stat. The two subclasses are elemental but frankly cooler than circle of the moon, and a more healing/tranquility of nature focused one. I really think Marisha probably gave feedback on this one, because the elemental version is really strong. You do get beastform; it is quite similar to a D&D druid under a different system, as the bard, but the beastform options are, frankly, better and easier to understand.

Guardian: Valor (melee tank/damager) and Blade (damage). Strength based for the most part (Valor mechanics assume strength) though you could go for like, +2 Agility +1 Strength to start. This is barbarian but like. 20 times better. It is, fundamentally, a tank class, and it is very good at it, with one even more tank-focused subclass and one that is more about retaliatory damage. You do have a damage-halving ability once per day, but really guardian's questions are incredible. I think Travis and Ashley likely gave feedback. Also rage doesn't render you incapable of concentration as that doesn't seem to be a thing, so multiclassing seems way more possible (you are, I think, only allowed to do one multiclass, and not until you reach level 5 minimum, which I am in favor of). Yes, you can be a Bardian.

Ranger: This is what I built! It is based on Sage and Bone (movement around the field/dodging stuff) and it is Agility-based, including for spellcasting, which is a MASSIVE help (as is, again, the fact that CON isn't a thing.) The subclasses are basically being really good at navigation, or animal companion. Most importantly to me you can be a ranger with a longsword and you are not penalized; Bone works with either ranged weapons or melee.

Rogue: Midnight (stealth/disguise/assassination spells and skills) and Grace-based. Yes, rogue is by default a spellcaster, which does help a LOT with the vibes for me. One subclass is basically about having lots of connections (as a spy or criminal might) and the other is about magical slinking about. Hiding/sneak attack are also streamlined. I will admit I'm still more interested in…almost everything else, but I think it evened out a lot of rogue weaknesses.

Seraph: Splendor (healing/divine magic) and Valor. This is your Paladin equivalent. It is strength-based for casting, again making hybrid classes way less stressful. Questions for this area also incredible; you do have something not unlike a lay on hands pool as well. Your subclasses are being able to fly and do extra damage; or being able to make your melee weapon do ranged attacks and also some extra healing stuff, the latter of which is my favorite. Yasha vibes from this, honestly. Single downside is this is the only class where they recommend you dump Knowledge. I will not, and I never will. Now that I don't have to make sure CON is high? I am for REAL never giving myself less than a +1 Knowledge in this game.

Sorcerer: Arcana (raw nature of magic/elemental vibes) and Midnight based. Yes, sorcerers and rogues now share a vibe, for your convenient….less enthused feelings. Instinct-based, which intrigues me, and the core features are in fact really good. The two subclasses are either one that focuses on metamagic abilities, or one that is elemental based. I would play this for a long-running game, though it's not my favorite, and I can't say that for D&D sorcerer (except divine soul).

Warrior: Blade and Bone, and the recommended build is Agility but you could do a strength build. Fighter! One subclass is about doing damage and one is about the hope/fear mechanics core to the game that I have NOT talked much about. I will admit, the hybrid martials and Guardian are more interesting to me but you do have good battle knowledge.

Wizard: Codex and Splendor. Wizards can heal in this system; farewell, I will be doing nothing else (jk). Knowledge-based, and you can either go hardcore expertise in knowledge, or be a battle wizard.

Other scattered thoughts: healing is not as big a deal here; there is no pure cleric class! There is also no monk, warlock, or artificer. There is not a way to do monk as a weaponless class really though you might be able to flavor the glowing rings as a monk weapon and play a warrior. Wizard, meanwhile, with the right experiences and high finesse, would allow for some artificer flavor. Cleric and Warlock are the two tough ones and I will admit those are tricky; I feel like you'd have to multiclass (which you cannot do until level 5) between perhaps seraph and a caster class and you're still going to come off very paladin.

[ominous-feychild]

✦ Writer Questionnaire 2 ✦

Thanks for the tag, @the-golden-comet! (And @the-letterbox-archives tagging me when I was almost done here, haha)

Heads-up! Long post!

How long have you had your writing Tumblr/Writeblr? A fast and loose estimate is fine!

Two months ago to the date actually??? Or, at least, that's when I first uploaded a story here. My first actual Writeblr post was me hopping in on an open tag on the 6th of June, haha. I thought it was just a month, but looks like the summer's gone by in a flash! 😭

What led you to create it?

So, I'm a writer on Tapas! I'd been attempting to social network on other social medias (twitter and bluesky) but wasn't getting anywhere, didn't like the general formats, and uh... I'm sure I don't have to explain why I don't want to touch Twitter with a 10-foot-pole anymore. Let's just say, if you haven't seen, it's just as bad as (if not worse than) everyone says. Anyhow, I'd seen lots of Tumblr short stories on other platforms and started investigating what it's like here. Didn't know what "Writeblr" was or that it even existed, but eventually stumbled into the field after posting my short story. Thanks, @darkandstormydolls! ❤️

What’s your favorite thing about the Writeblr community?

How supportive everyone is??? Like omg you guys are so sweet, idk how to take it. Also I love seeing how much passion everyone else has for their writing, haha.

What’s one thing you’d like your mutuals to know about you?

Uhhhh, I think I'm pretty open about the things I'd like people to know about me, haha. I never mean to offend, so if I accidentally say something wrong, please tell me! I'm autistic and very dumb.

Is there anything you’d like to see more of on your dash?

I'm ngl I keep meaning to build out my followed tags for my fandoms, haha. The only fandoms I really see things for are TMAGP (10/10, TMA is my obsession. I am obsessed. It is one of my Special Interests and I love it with all my heart) and House of the Dragon??? Except I'm not even a fan of HotD??? So that's kinda annoying, haha. (Aka, my fandom stuff, but that's on me.)

WIP it Good

Which Works-in-Progress (WIPs) or writing projects are you noodling about, lately?

Rising From the Ashes, tragically. (Because it's one of the LAST things I should be working on right now, haha.) Otherwise, I'm of course always obsessed with the Arcane Rifts. Then I force myself to be obsessed with Sun and Shadow, though it's slowly growing on me, haha.

How long have you been working on them?

Haha, so I've historically jumped around a lot in working on different things, so these are approximate guesstimations!

Rising From the Ashes has likely had 3 or 4 years put into it/the characters. If you include the Calamity Crew (which overlaps with it in the timeline and originally ended up merging with the cast of RFtA), I'd say definitely 4 years!

The Arcane Rifts has had 5 years put into it.

Sun and Shadow is very new; I'd say it probably only has about 4 months of work in it? It's part of why I'm less interested in it, haha. Less I've put into it and less I'm attached to.

Do you remember what inspired them/what got you started?

Oh... oh dear. How could you ask me this??? 😭😭😭

Rising From the Ashes has existed since, I think, 2016. It started (tragically) as an RP starter on Google+. I wish I was kidding.

To those unaware of how it worked in that space (and likely similar ones to this day), you'd post a starter and people would join in with their own characters. 99% of the time, they'd drop out before long. However, I'd work out details of the characters in the process and carry that info over into the worldbuilding. I eventually stopped RPing with the masses and settled down with a single "partner" who I'll call Kris.

She's the one who stole my docs.

The Arcane Rifts technically originated as another RP starter? It never got attention, though, and instead my ideas for it simply carried over into the worldbuilding in general.

One of the characters of the original starter was important in the worldbuilding. It was not a character you see in the early books of tAR, though, so don't bother trying to figure it out. But, since he was so important, his origins were also important.

The Arcane Rifts started in 2019, as I wanted to make a story building out said character's origins. It was originally going to be a duology, the first book being Gene's backstory and the second being how Gene and The Other Guy's lives intertwined. (No, they were not gay for each other! 😂) It's since changed a lot, and focuses basically exclusively on Gene, haha. The last book in the series will probably be focused on the other character, though!

Sun and Shadow started for a romance novel competition on Tapas which has since ended. I didn't get to finish it in time for a lot of reasons, but I primarily cite stress and exhaustion from working full time at a physically-intensive job. It grew shockingly quickly and I had some fans donate to me related to it, so I'm kinda forced to work on it, haha. Dw--I like it! It's just harder to work on for a number of reasons, haha.

How much time, in your best estimation, do you spend thinking about them?

Tragic, the questions you're asking me--

It depends, haha. I'm autistic and hyperfixate a lot. Also, for one, that's a suuuuuper vague question??? Like what do you mean "how much time"--how much time within the day? How often in general? Idk, man, haha.

I think about the Arcane Rifts a LOT!

I've put an incredible amount of time and effort into it, and I'm in love with 90% of the characters there. Even the background characters have had a lot of work put into them, getting relatively fleshed-out backstories to make their motives understandable (even if not agreeable!), and I love them all so much, haha.

Except Katerina. She's a bitch.

I also think about Rising From the Ashes a good amount, and it's invaded my brain again lately, haha.

I took a step away from RFtA and basically all of my other stories late 2021 when Kris (my ex-writing partner) and I had a falling out. It was incredibly difficult for me emotionally to look at anything I worked with her on, and obviously RFtA was a huge one (actually, tAR was the only thing of my early works she had nothing to do with). Since early this year, I've finally been able to work on it again and it's been incredibly fun removing her stuff, actually!

I think all that is a good part of why I keep randomly getting obsessed with it again, haha. It's like looking at old friends (the characters, not Kris) and being all "omg??? I HAVEN'T SEEN YOU IN FOREVER??? PLEASE TELL ME EVERYTHING YOU'VE BEEN UP TO!!!" except it's removing Kris's stuff, haha.

I think about Sun and Shadow a lot more than you might expect with how much I talk about not preferring it, haha. I love the characters! Crow and, actually, Valyarus especially. They're both super interesting characters, and I'll randomly find my brain working out scenes between characters interacting with them.

(The problem with SaS is that, as a book, it's incredibly different from my usual works. It's a small cast of Frey/Crow and technically Daleira, while most of my stories focus on larger casts. It makes for a VERY different experience, and so it's a lot harder to work on)

When someone asks the dreaded, “What do you write about,” question, what do you usually say?

Actually, I've got a ready answer for this one! Until SaS, I was dedicating my time to the Arcane Rifts and had prepared the answer:

Percy Jackson meets Lord of the Rings in a steampunk fantasy world full of ✨mysteries waiting to be uncovered✨

(I'd say the "mysteries waiting to be uncovered" part ironically/accidentally mockingly most of the time, whoops, haha. I always feel awkward advertising my works.)

It was awkward when people would get actually interested in it from there and ask more questions, haha.

To clarify: that's my tagline for the Arcane Rifts! The story has gods and demigods messing with mortals, using them as their playthings and being REALLY immature babies because they don't really face consequences for their actions like PJ. Then, it's a lot more "grounded yet fantastical" like LotR, where magic is kinda infused with reality and yet you still have issues like starving to death and whatnot.

Let’s Rotate Blorbos

Name any characters you created.  Side characters, protagonists, antagonists, characters who’ve never been written, the first original abomination you ever pulled from your ass; whomever you’d like!

UHHHH THERE'S A LOT TO LIST???

Try this for a taste! These are just the guys I've gotten colors for!

Freya, Crow, Daleira, Valyarus, Grimnir, Soren, Gene, Tazin, Mislav, Adilzhan, Ludmila, Rada, Caspar, Nikolai, Gennadi, Oska, Rieka, Liesel, Carmin, Nora, Sammy, Kieva, Caron, Varik, Elazi, Riaan, Roman, and Tiberius! (Though Tib is getting a name change sooner or later)

Who’s the most unhinged?

Unhinged in which way? There's a lot of options there, haha.

I'm going to give honorary mentions to Valyarus, Gene in the later books, Tazin, Rieka, Gennadi, and Tiberius ! (Why does it not surprise me that most unhinged characters are from tAR? 🤣 Also I swear it's a coincidence most of the unhinged characters are red.)

(... Probably.)

In general, I'd say that, incredibly ironically, the Existence of Order is the most unhinged of all my characters. She's just incredible at hiding it.

(Tbf half of the Existentials probably belong on the "unhinged" list anyway but eh. They still don't compare to Order!)

Who comes the most naturally for you to write?

I'm going to give this as a tie between Gene and Sammy!

Gene has my 'tisms and just about all of my trauma, so we have a lot in common, whoops, haha. Also there's a... very specific detail about his character that makes him easier to write in general. It's just a major spoiler. 👀

Similarly and actually identically to Gene in some ways, while Sammy has a lot in common with me, he's also incredibly perceptive! (Although we don't share that fact.)

Due to the way I write, their analytical natures allow for them to spit straight facts about the worldbuilding and the people around them rather than beating around the bush, haha. Both are highly investigative, try to learn and understand everything around them, and notice small details other characters wouldn't! It makes it much easier for me to write, because uh... well here's an example of what my outlines look like.

Long story short: I include a lot of detail which I then transfer into the POV's character narration, cutting out details which they wouldn't notice or think about, haha. In Sammy's case (which that scene has Sammy as the narrator/POV character), very little information gets cut out because he's so perceptive!

(Here, as a treat--have another example!)

(In this scene, Nikolai is the narrator. Even the outline gets "filtered" to mirror the characters' way of thinking--like it's Nikolai himself seeing Caspar as "doll-like". The crossed-out stuff is details I most likely won't mention, but noted for myself, haha. I do the same thing if/when including details about the motives and thoughts of non-narrator characters.)

Do you ever cringe at them?

Gene and Sammy?

A B S O L U T E L Y .

Gene is a wreck in basically every way and desperately needs help (that he won't get until he meets Dimitry). As much as I love him, there's a lot of moments where you just can't help but wince and be all "shit, did you REALLY have to do/say that?"

Sammy on the other hand? He's a terrified, control freak manipulator who panics the moment he feels like he's losing control of a situation. It can be painful to watch, even if simultaneously fascinating.

How much control do you feel you have over your characters?  AKA, do they ever “write themselves,” refuse to cooperate, or do things you didn’t expect? To what degree? Are some less cooperative than others?

I explicitly go out of my way to add backstory to and develop each and every one of my characters until they "write themselves", haha.

I want my characters to feel like real people, so I do my absolute best to make them as real as possible. (That's part of why tAR is so massive...)

Special shoutout to Dimitry here, btw. Dude COMPLETELY screwed over the planned and intended from the earliest days path of the Arcane Rifts. I've mentioned before that Gene is villain-coded, yeah? Want to know why?

Because he was MEANT to be one! Then Dimitry had to come along, be the sweetest, nicest fucking person around to Gene while he was going through the worst part of his life, and keep Gene from slipping off the deep end!

MITRY, YOU PIECE OF--

Do you enjoy people asking questions about your characters? And do you have a preferred means of receiving said questions? For example, as Asks, as replies, as reblogs, as tag notes, as comments on AO3, etc.

I absolutely love, love, love!!! people asking questions about my characters!!! 🥰

I would absolutely prefer them as Asks sent to me, and especially would prefer if separate subjects/questions were sent in separate Asks! Like, say you were going to ask me about Gene and Dimitry. I'd rather two separate Asks, one asking for whatever you wanted to know about Gene and another for whatever you wanted to know about Dimitry, haha. However, if you wanted to ask a single question about both, that obviously is fine as a single Ask!

On writeblr engagement

What makes you want to follow another Writeblr account? Do you follow ‘em as you see ‘em, or take time scoping out the blog to make sure you align with its content? Do you follow based on WIPs, or vibes?

I definitely scope out before I follow, yes.

I choose based primarily on the personality of the person behind the blog, but the WIPs/vibes can also have an influence on my decision, haha. I'd rather follow people with kind/supportive personalities, and I'll eventually start liking their stories even if they're not initially my thing!

What makes you decide against following?

Bigotry. Moment I see it, I'm on the lookout for even the slightest hint of more and, if I see it, I'm OUT!

(That includes things like: homophobia, transphobia, TERFs, ableism, racism, xenophobia, etc.)

Also, while I include angst in my stories, the people who are big on "I have nothing but bad stuff in my writing and I'm proud" are, uh... not on my "follow" list. While they can write what they want and enjoy it, grimdark is not my thing. Angst is best in moderation and I very purposely control the amount of it in my life.

(Also Kris's--my ex writing partner's--obsession with "grimdark-ness" is a good part of why I'm so ecstatic to remove her stuff from my writing. Yes, I've tried it. For years. I hated it. Please and thank you. Also note that I proudly call myself an evil writer, so it's not like I don't love angst, it's just--moderation. Seriously.)

Do you interact with non-mutuals often?

Yes! I think a good 50-30% of my interactions are with non-moots, haha. I go out of my way to try to support my moots, but I'll definitely share support with anything that catches my attention, no matter who it's from!

To be fair, though, I think a majority of non-moots I interact with are on my mental "probably going to follow soon" list. I can be slow to make decisions, haha. It doesn't help that I try being active with my moots, so I'm trying to avoid growing that list too quickly!

Do your mutuals’ characters occupy space in your noodle?

Haha, depends what you mean by that? My brain is definitely too full of my own characters to have any space for anyone else's, but I definitely do think of others' characters at times! There's plenty of y'alls characters I really like, haha.

Just... omg, my hyperfixated AuDHD brain refuses to focus on anything except for the Hyperfixation of the Moment™.

This was a huge one! Hopefully I'm not screaming into the void with this one, or you guys enjoy finding out more about me and my WIPs.

If you're curious about the reason this is labeled Writer Questionnaire 2... well guess what!

Tagging (gently! This is a lot, haha): @honeybewrites @yourpenpaldee @paeliae-occasionally @mysticstarlightduck @illarian-rambling @.darkandstormydolls (tagged you earlier in the post haha) + open tags!

Divider from @cafekitsune!

[tallulah477]

Below the cut contains my thoughts and feelings about certain issues that I've seen recently that I feel like need to be addressed including hate/bullying, the new Neteyam & Lo'ak rp blogs, and the general fandom as a whole.

CW:// Mentions of pedophilia, predators, racism, and homophobia

Over the past several months, and especially over these past several days, it's come to my attention that we as a fandom need to make some things abundantly clear.

I was a silent reader for a long time. I love Avatar and this fandom with my entire heart and I wanted nothing more than to be an active part of it and member of the community, but the thing that stopped me for a long time was seeing how hateful people can be and I wasn't sure if I could handle it. Obviously, I decided that my happiness and sharing my love for Avatar and the characters with other people who love it as much as I do is more important than any nasty messages I might get and I couldn't be happier with my decision. I think I can safely say that most of us here in the fandom can say the same (although I'm sure the feeling of happiness comes with endless ebbs and flows for all of us).

That being said, the amount of sheer bullshit that I've been seeing on here is ridiculous.

The amount of hate messages that I've had to witness my mutuals receive is unacceptable. The amount of hounding as to why someone unfollowed this person, why aren't they interacting with this person anymore, why would someone write something like this, why won't you write this, is crazy to see. I've seen racist comments, I've seen homophobic comments, and I've seen people being called a pedophile wayyyy to often now.

This is Tumblr. We are responsible for our own media consumption. We cultivate our own media experience.

That means authors write what they enjoy regardless of content as long as they are responsible and tag the work correctly. You as the reader are responsible for heeding those warnings.

This means that if two people who used to interact or follow each other all of a sudden don't or someone gets blocked, it is no one's business as to why it happened. They don't owe you an explanation and there's no need to publicize drama. Do not go into their inboxes asking for details because all that does is feed the flames.

This is supposed to be people's happy place. Our safe space. And instead it seems like there's something new happening every single day.

At this point, we've all seen the rp blogs that have popped up. I'm not generally someone who enjoys rp so I didn't interact, but I saw a ton of my mutuals and others having a great time with them. Despite me not liking rp, it was exciting to see at first. A live persona of one of my most beloved characters interacting with fics that I love? Yes, it's definitely exciting to see!

But then it got not so exciting to see. The responses seemed solely sexual and out of character for Neteyam, a lot of them were really dark and borderline violent. I like dark fics, and I love dark Neteyam. But there are warnings to every dark fic and you go into them knowing what to expect. For a blog that's rp-ing a character that's not canonically like that, it was concerning to see.

We've had issues in this fandom in the past with predators. And despite us all being adults here (at least we should all be), you can never be too careful when it comes to the internet. I am NOT saying that the people running these blogs are predators, but certain things I've seen have raised some flags to me. Rp can be really dangerous when people don't know who's behind the character, especially if things are sexual. Since then, both blogs have created 'About Me' sections which I think is good. So that's something I appreciate.

However, we've also had the opposite problem in which minors interact with us and our content. It's a huge problem that we are constantly trying to battle because while seeing/reading sexual content can be harmful for those who are underage, it's can also get us into a lot of trouble for interacting with minors even if we don't know they're underage. When the accusation that the rp accounts were minors came out, they were sent asks to confirm. One responded respectfully and one, in my opinion, responded not so respectfully. If you are ever asked if you are a minor, don't get pissed about it. It's an important question and you should understand and respect its importance. Just clarify.

I'm saying all this not because I don't think people should interact with these blogs if you want to. It's 100% up to you and I know a lot of people were having fun with it. You're all adults, do what you think is best. And I do think it would be really nice to have more guys in the community, whether they rp or not. My issue with them is more about safety than anything else.

Now back to the hate comments. For any issues I might have had with the Neteyam blog (again, no hate, just my own thoughts), I only ever saw the Lo'ak blog being respectful. Yet, I still saw someone on their actual blog, not under anon, telling him "can't you just leave?". Under no circumstances is it okay to say this to another person. Any one who is an active member of this community who posts fics or the like KNOWS what its like to receive hateful comments like this and you think its okay to say something like this to someone else? No way. I'm sure you know what it feels like to get comments like that and you decided to be nasty to another person anyway. You should know better. Anyone who can say something mean to or about another person should be ashamed of themselves.

For as much as I love this fandom, this is insane that I actually have to say this.

Be kind. Be respectful.

And if you can't?

It's called the block button, people. Use it.

[estranha-de-all-star]

Oh man I'm excited and very anxious about the whole lore that Bagi and Cellbit are planning with them being twins in the server

Because these two motherfuckers give the best RP like their life's depend on it, and if right now they are giving the RP where Cellbit is mad, mad that they took away his chance to have a normal life, mad that they took his family away from him, that he had someone looking for him all those years, but in all this time he was trying to survive, he killed to survive, he become someone he didn't like (even if he told Q!Bagi he killed someone and liked it, I really doubt it, I almost think he is saying that to try to keep her away, because he doesn't know how to process all of this information, how to accept that he has a sister, who told in his face that doesn't matter what he did in the past, she is not going to give up on him, because she loves him no matter what), and there is a lot going on right now, and he has to deal with all of this because everyone is counting on him but he doesn't want to involve people and risk their lifes, he want to do all of this alone because if he gets killed it doesn't matter, he thinks he deserves it

In other hand, Q!Bagi is sad and a bit mad, mad that her brother doesn't want to talk to her and is avoiding her all the time, to the point she keeps away too, because she thinks he is mad at her or with the ideia that they are related. She is sad because she has become an investigator, a police officer just to find him, and she tracked his steps to Alcatraz! But when she got there, he had already escaped (which I think is a good thing, because things would be way mooooore catastrophic if he knew at that time she was her sister, he was way more unstable and crazy)

And she feels alone, that no one really trusts her or really care for her (I hope that after she talked with Q!Roier she feels like she can count on him, after all they are family too now)

But the thing is, both of them are right in feeling the way they are feeling. Is sad? Of course, but there is no right side here. Both of them are hurt because of what happend to them, but is like Q!Roier said, maybe they won't talk now, but things will be better with time, they just need time to understand what is going on, to process all these informations and feelings and them talk about it and try to figured out how they are going to go from there.

It will be sad, it will hurt, but I'm sure that in the end they will give us a wonderful RP and will become the "Irmãos Mistério", the ones that are glued like glue when they are child.

I know that we wanted a relationship like Dipper and Mabel, but I think a relationship like Stan and Ford makes so much more sense for them because of the life they had.

But as I said before, I am really excited and anxious for their RP. It will make me cry to the point I'm sobbing? Oh, definitely! Buuuuuut I'm sure that it will be good and really worth it!!

UPDATE:

I just remembered something that Bagi was talking about yesterday before ending the live, where she was talking more about her character and how Q!Bagi feels inside the island, that she feels alone and that no one talks to her and if things continue this way she is more likely to become like Q!Jaiden and build a relationship of friendship and trust with Cucurucho.

And honestly, if this happens I'm like 99% sure Q!Cellbit would snap with this, probably scream with Q!Bagi but because his worried and would definitely threaten Cucurucho if he ever thinks and going closer to his sister or doing something to her. Maybe this would be a way (not the best way, I think) to them talk about this whole situation of them being brother and sister.

...But if I'm honest, I just want to see Q!Cellbit really pissed off and screaming in Cucurucho face to not touch his sister or his family ever again.

I JUST WANT HIM TO BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF THAT MOTHERFUCKER OK??????

[heybiji]

hi!!! i just wanted to say i really love all of your MASKS stuff. i'm something of a newbie when it comes to the TTRPG community, but MASKS seems to be not very well-known and i think that's a real shame. i'm a huge fan of old-school superhero-adjacent stuff, especially the silver- and bronze-age ones!

by the way, i was wondering if you'd be willing to share some tips for a first-time GM? you don't have to if you'd rather not! i just figured i'd try asking since i was planning on GMing a MASKS campaign for some of my friends later, but despite my decade's worth of roleplaying experience i've never been in a TTRPG campaign nor a GM (or similar) role before

Thank you so much!! I was just lamenting about how I felt bad for the MASKS tag because it is now flooded with all my npc nonsense hahah so this is really nice to hear.

It's awesome you're planning on running a MASKS game for your friends!! There is an indispensable post on twitter I saw that has a LOT of great tips for running MASKS that I recommend checking out. But for my own personal tips that are just me things, here's what I got. Sorry it's gonna be extremely long-winded, it may take a few months to read through it.

(Note: I am also hugely into RP and probably put more into it than what is necessary, especially with MASKS which is meant to be able to be played out of the box. It was definitely not played out of the box in our case because I require a lot out of myself and everyone else to feel good about running something. if anyone else wants to continue seeing me as a normal human being please don't click the Keep Reading)

Since you're running it, make the world interesting to you. If the world runs around themes you're personally interested in then you'll have a much easier time coming up with answers on the fly. For me, themes I'm interested in that lend themselves well to a superhero world: money, power, family, celebrity, media, the 24 hour news cycle and the desensitization of violence. Because I'm interested in this stuff anyway, wrapping a world around them makes it much simpler for me to figure out how the world ticks and thus how the characters fit into it and how the world reacts to them, and I am DESPERATE to find out how the characters react to all the questions and expectations the world is imposing upon them.

Make sure your players have a good grasp of the tone of story so they can make characters that gel well within it. For me the tone is a lil more adult because I'm not personally into younger morality tale stories in tone, it's pretty grounded, and I think comedy and tragedy work hand in hand so I lean into them.

Talk. A lot. Talk about the characters, talk about the world. MASKS is fun because it's a LOT of talking and figuring out the narrative together. It's not a lot of crunchy mechanics, it's all around seeing how the characters react to the world narratively, all hurt and comfort and emotions which (for me) requires people to have a good grasp on their characters and the world. I like to give my players "homework" where I ask them a question involving their characters in some way like "what hero did your character look up to as a child?" so they get to come up with past heroes, or "How does your character feel about _____?" etc etc. The only fans are gonna be your table and fans love to talk so be the biggest fans of the PCs!!

Figure out your framing. I know in MASKS they suggest framing it like a comic book, and basically talking about the frames on screen. For me, because I'm more into movies and tv than comics, I frame it like that. So I have an active "camera" in play during sessions and will ask things like "would anyone like to grab the camera?" to encourage the players to put the character into a scene or "what does the audience see as the camera focuses in on your character in this emotional moment?" There is a LOT of playing up to the camera and framing the sessions as episodes of a show, so it's like, okay, you have several options but what is going to be interesting for the audience to see? I find this encourages the players to have their characters take bigger swings and feel comfortable letting us into how their character is feeling because it all looks GREAT on camera. The camera loves it. The PCs are the story after all.

Because I frame it a show, I also like to play individual ending songs over the "credits" at the end of each episode. So I asked my players to make playlists for their characters so if I feel an episode had a lot of emotional focus on one character in particular, I can play one of their songs at the end of the episode! I also made a general MASKS playlist with a bunch of songs from the era we set it in (2004) to pull from. It's a fun little addition that I really enjoy and that I hope makes it all feel more special.

The Dino Donut Effect: create landmarks in your world. (OK THIS IS GONNA BE LONG BUT WORK WITH ME HERE) They don't have to be locations, more solid landmarks of the story that the characters can refer back to and lean on to make the world feel more "real." I call it the Dino Donut Effect because in our world the thing that made everything click into place was talking out the backstory of one of the PC's figuring out they had the power negation ability. We were talking one night trying to figure it out; we wanted the character to fall out of a building and be caught by a flying superhero and accidentally turn off their powers, so they toss the kid to another flying supe whose powers also get turned off. But we were like... holy shit what is the height of a building needed that can handle this much action in the air without them hitting the ground in 3 seconds. So after a long night of talking about terminal velocity and looking at Splat Calculators we figured out the height of the building, and we needed them to crash into something that wouldn't fuckin kill them. The first suggestion was a truck full of bananas. Nah. We landed on a giant balloon that could take the impact. And the balloon became a giant T-Rex holding a donut that was the mascot of the city's beloved decades old donut shop Dino Donut. And so we decided that one of the two flying supes grabbed onto the kid and the other and flew into the giant balloon to try and keep them all alive, which destroyed the balloon, which was a city institution, and there was a crowd of children there that day that saw their friend Dino Donut die. Killed by a superhero. The balloon deflated loudly so it sounded like Dino Donut was screaming in agony. All the kids were traumatized (screaming crying throwing up), the city was furious because everyone loved Dino Donut, it was constantly in the news cycle, and it ruined the career of the supe that "killed Dino Donut." AND THEN THEY REPLACED THE DINO DONUT BALLOON WITH A LAME "UPDATED DESIGN" DINO DONUT STATUE which everyone hates and people consider to be a memorial to the old Dino Donut. ANYWAY, the Dino Donut effect is that now all the PCs have one single incident to refer back to that they all have feelings about. A couple of them were there that day and heard Dino Donut scream, one is now the protege of the disgraced superhero that killed Dino Donut so she feels uncomfortable talking about it, there's the kid that was saved that day but was sworn to secrecy by the supe so no one would find out about his power negation ability, and then there's the kid that wasn't there because she's an alien that just arrived to earth and now the kids have to explain the incident to her with all their varying opinions. Now the PCs' meeting spot is at a Dino Donut. Having this one solid incident that is both funny and kind of goes into the themes of the world has been an absolute treat. Creating "landmarks" like that in the world has done so much and now I'm like okay I'm gonna try to do this moving forward with any other thing I run.

anyway these are my extremely specific to me tips. my RP standards are kind of high which makes me a bit of a terror but also when the flowers bloom from it it feels GREAT. i'm not sure if this will help but hopefully there is something there that can be useful!

MASKS is fun and simple once you get the hang of it, though, so I'm sure whatever you do you and your players will have a lot of fun! especially if you're someone who is into RP which is the background I'm coming from too; MASKS is extremely narrative! i'll be looking in the tag for your game hehe

(The Day Dino Donut Died art by JD)

[splatattackz]

okay guess ill get this off my chest.

warning, discourse below!

discourse topic; the rampant bbh neg in this community and the misunderstanding of what fail rp is, by definition.

its REALLY rubbing me wrong how i only see discourse about BAD "fail rping" by still playing on the main server. like. bagi is doing the same thing? etoiles has done the same thing (logged on tuesday and hung with foolish)? i dont see anyone discussing that? and this is NOT to hate on them, not at all, im just pointing out how a lot if the hate is VERY focused. and its becoming apparent you guys just fucking hate bbh i think.

it also gets on my nerves its being CALLED fail rp in the first place. bc its not. both bagi and bad have made cases to justify them still wanting to be able to take a chill pill and play on the main server in lore, and those justifications are VALID and MAKE SENSE - which they DONT EVEN HAVE TO DO BTW AND ARE DOING IT JUST FOR YOU GUYS! the admins are ALLOWING creators to still play on the main island if they want. its not like theyre breaking a sacred rule set by the admins by doing this. because it does not fucking matter!

bagi has tried to justify this by saying who she is on the main island currently is a robot - emergency bagi - she made for times like these (i believe).

bad has tried to justify it by saying he split himself in 3 and left 2 thirds on the main island and let the more violent third go to purgatory - which is a plausible thing because he is a demon.

the definition of fail rp is as follows;

" when a person fails to roleplay properly, whether that be through going down an unrealistic RP or intentionally disrupting the roleplay of other's by trolling. "

in neither case is it fail rp because it isnt unrealistic for who their characters are (bagi seems like the type to have that ready easily, and bads a fucking demon what do you want from him) and they arent disrupting others roleplays by existing like this.

and its really getting on my nerves because, once again, they dont even HAVE to do this really. they dont have to justify something the admins are letting them do freely. they dont have to justify wanting to take a chill pill because purgatory is stressful. but they are. because of YOU GUYS. THE AUDIENCE. but you are not fucking listening at all.

me when tumblr is becoming JUST like twitter with the constant mindless bbh neg.. mon dieu..

id also like to note this comes from someone who doesnt always watch bad and bagi unless for lore; and this comes from the 'bias' i suppose of a fitmc main watcher. so take it as you will. i am not defending bbh because he is my main or a fav i am doing it because i find its super unfair and stupid (<- not the right word but english is not englishing) what is occuring in this discourse.

TLDR; you guys focus hate on bbh too much and also if you just take a moment and listen it makes sense the lore reason he (and bagi) have made for this and by definition is not fail rp.

much love <3

[soup-scope]

i dunno if i said this before but it beats repeating ig

one of my favorite things about redacted and his writing is that erik takes seemingly common boyfriend asmr tropes and completely flips them onto their head and assigns a certain DEPTH to his characters that makes them feel so genuinely real

a ‘tsundere alpha wolf boyfriend’ is introduced in the form of david. he completely fits the bill in his first few videos. but as time goes on and he and angel’s relationship develops and deepens he lets down those walls, gives reason to why he was the way he way and how he was still attempting to overcome his grief and mourning over the passing of his parents. one of my FAVORITE david videos is the one where angel is comforting him on the summer solstice because it also happened to fall onto father’s day. the idea that angel *KNEW* what he needed by having him miss a day at work, let him speak on his own terms about what’s upsetting him, and just holding him while he cried. early david and current david are two completely different people due to erik gripping onto a relatively generic trope and going FURTHER with it

or like with vincent in the form of ‘flirty vampire.’ i literally ADORE vincent character development. with him falling into a ‘flirty and empty’ persona in an attempt to get what he needs in order to literally survive. and as SOON as lovely was seriously injured by being involved into the empowered world, he IMMEDIATELY drops this persona and tries to gently guide lovely into this world without pressuring them or making them feel unsafe. vincent has definitely taken back some of his flirting that he originally had, but he WAITED until lovely and him were at that point again.

god and don’t get me started on gavin

a common trope i’ve seen when people write incubus or concubus in general, is that they typically carry a sense of shame for what they are/feed on. and of course gavin 1000% has a problem with people only viewing him as his capability to have sex, he isn’t ashamed of what he is or what he does. gavin sees sex as a way to make both parties feel *good.* in his confession audio he literally describes it as bringing a joy to others. i mean, the freelancer and gavin have sex for the first time in an attempt to distract freelancer because they were emotionally exhausted from everything with kody and vega. even if gavin didn’t know everything at the time, he wanted to give them just a moment to forget about everything that had them ridiculously stressed.

these are just some examples that i can think of on the top of my head. i adore erik’s writing with these characters which is something i didn’t know to be possible with the audio rp format. there’s a lot of nuance that can be lost when just hearing someone speak, but even if i have a hard time with tone or lil nuances like that, i can’t recall a time when i’m ever really been completely lost when listening to redacted content. just. great writing 👍👍

[leupagus]

Three-Legged Puppy Fics

List five of your least-popular fics, as well as when/why you wrote them.

Home to the Weary: Merlin, Gwen/Morgana, 2010.

I wrote this at the request of a friend who wanted, I think, something Gwen-centric. Because I was not a fan of the show I decided to focus on an AU in which Gwen backflipped out of that whole situation and founded her own sort of kingdom, only meeting the terrible trio years later. It was really fun and was the first time I'd ever tried writing a fic that hinted at a larger world going on around the characters, if that makes sense. This one's a little pretentious but you can definitely see my "style" as it were.

Treads on the Ground: Babylon (not the sci-fi show, the short-lived british cop show), Liz Garvey/Finn Kirkwood, 2022.

This was written during my Bertie Carvel phase where I'd watched "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell" and was desperate for something, anything, that didn't have him wearing terrible prosthetics or playing a psycho. He still sort of plays a psycho in this show, but he looks super hot and angry all the time which is really all I needed. (Also bonus hilarity: Liz's boyfriend in this show is played by none other than James Lance, playing "louche asshole" to the absolute hilt.) Anyway I wrote this because I really wanted a fake dating AU for these two AND a "Finn is secretly in line to the throne" fic and this was the perfect way to combine these two. I'm still legitimately really proud of thsi fic.

The Bright Relief: 1776 musical, John Adams & Thomas Jefferson (and a little bit of / in there, if I'm honest), 2010.

I wrote this because my friends waldorph and screamlet and I were having the Summer of 1776 Feelings and we all wrote various (wonderful) crimes and misdemeanors in that fandom, mostly revolving all the ways in people who love John Adams make fun of him. That was a truly terrible summer but made a whole lot better by those two, and by William Daniels being the most John Adams to ever John Adams. (I actually rewatched the miniseries a few months ago and Paul Giamatti does a great job but that thing is SO DREARY. Although I will say Stephen Dillane first caught my eye in the role of TJeff, aka once again playing a guy who's down real bad for someone smarter than him (in this case both Abigail AND John). The scene where he first meets Abigail is just nonstop flirting, with John making faces in the background. It's great.)

Happy Tails To You (Until We Meet Again): SGA, Rodney McKay/John Sheppard, 2009.

Oh lordy — probably the worst fic I've ever written, but I can't quite bring myself to delete it. I've been on the periphery of fandom for most of my adult life (what up X-Files yahoo groups and Prodigy Star Trek RP rooms), but SGA was what made me start thinking of writing fic after a long period of only reading it. (Yes, there is college-era gus fic out there. No, I'm not posting it on AO3.) I never quite got a handle on Sheppard or McKay but I did enjoy writing this and the other SGA fic I wrote, but yeah this deserves its obscurity.

Honey Now I'm Not One To Complain: Dalgliesh, Adam Dalgliesh/Kate Miskin, 2022.

Another one of my "Bertie Carvel is extremely attractive when he's sad and/or a cop" flash-fandoms, although I wrote a pretty good primer on the first season that I think gives a good case for the show as a whole. I wanted to write that largely because the show is so resolutely grim and I prefer stories that are... not grim, so I gave myself the challenge of putting these guys into one of the classic tropes. I did toy with the fake dating/marriage trope but honestly I think this was funnier, and I would always rather commit to the bit.

Tagging uhhh let's see, @laiqualaurelote, @themardia, @sadcypress, @auntieclimactic, and @eyebrowofdoom, if they (or anyone else) wants to do this.

[anneapocalypse]

Actually that poll brought up a lot of things I think about a lot so I'm making this its own post. There's definitely something about how much players are seen AS their characters in FFXIV that is distinctly weird to me. There's so much more blur between character and player (or at least, the persona of the player).

My FC mates mostly call me "Ari" and not "Anne", though they know I'm Anne, and it's fine, I've said I'll answer to both because it's just so much the culture of the game it feels like fighting the weather to ask anyone not to call me, the player, "Ari." Though even shortening my character's name to a nickname is, for me, a subtle way of distinguishing between the two. I know most of my FC mates only by their character names.

I've also observed that for many people, especially those who are not heavily into transformative fandom stuff like fanfiction even if they RP in game, a lot of them seem to treat their characters more as avatars than like, a true fictional character who is not them. I've witnessed a lot of people get into sticky situations with romantic relationships because the line between RP and real life was unclear or there were disagreements about it. I've seen conflicts arise because a player didn't disclose whether their gender matched their character's gender, and disagreements over whether that is deceptive, even if the relationship is purely RP.

And whatever self-inserty qualities Ariane may have, admittedly more than most characters I've played in RPGs, she's still as much a fictional character to me as any other. She's not me. She's a fiction. She's a story I'm making up.

I feel like some of this arises from the fact that, unlike on tumblr or AO3 where we can clearly see the author (or at least the author's persona) apart from their fanfiction and fan art and OCs, when you meet somebody in an MMO, they are necessarily filtered through their character and it's very difficult to separate the two without moving out of the game to get to know them on another platform. This is perhaps why I find it very difficult to make friends in the game, and find it much easier to connect with fellow players on other platforms, like tumblr.

It's a weird thing for me to navigate, personally, because it's just so different from my experiences in single-player RPG fandoms.

[sattorntempura]

:) i would really appreciate it if you gave my oc a chance. If not, it's okay. *cries*

Hey, peeps. Lately, I've been going through this uuuuugly artblock for my main project. (This is my first post, scary, lol.. really nervous)

So, a few months back, I drew a Devil May Cry OC. The images are under the 'more' tab, but i would really appreciate it if you read this first. With this art block going on and the urge to draw something other than my main/serious project, I decided to make a small comic of my OC's childhood and how he ended up meeting the main/canon characters/crew.

And if you're new to the DMC world, hello, welcome! I hope this little comic will encourage you to check out the official games, it's pretty fun!

Try to guess who I ship him with... Hey, don't look at my pfp! That's cheating!

So yeah, there's going to be some sketches/panels of this ship. Dw, nothing too explicit/graphic. It's fluff, lol. I think that's what they call it? There's going to be more information regarding the dmc - oc comic in a future post.

I know there's a lot of different opinions when shipping an oc with a canon character, so that's why I added this little 'more' tab/bar below so in case you're not interested, you can scroll away :) for those who choose to stay and continue on, thank you.

My oc's name is Ezra. He was created when a cool friend of mine invited me to RP the DMC5 storyline with them. I was kinda nervous at first since it was my first time to ever RP with someone. I got the hang of it, though! And it was fun! (The next/future post will provide more information of that if anybody is interested. Since it's kinda the reason why Ezra exists in the first place.) I am not sure if I will include the RP events in this comic, since like I've mentioned, it took place in the DMC5 storyline, and its quite a lottt. Just like the canon game. So I might draw the day (i mean the in-game time) after the Qliphoth was taken down. Or summarize the DMC5 storyline. There's still a lot of time to think about it since I'm going to start off with the background of this character, then when he becomes an adult, and then when he meets the crew.

☝️ This is how the cover of my oc's DMC comic will look like. The title is blurred out because I am still debating whether I should change it or not. Lol, it's kinda edgy, I might keep it that way.

☝️These right here are adult/present Ezra and a few panels of Vergil. I am still experimenting with the way I draw Vergil since I want to have him look a little closer to the game than the way he looks in manga. (Which is hard since I prefer drawing the exact style of any series official art... Because if I do it in my own version, it never looks like the character. So yes, this is a challenge.)

The drawing with Ezra's full body is supposed to be Ezra holding his scythe over his shoulder, but I gave up on finishing it since I didn't like the way his coat looked. You can even tell from the different coats he has in the other panels/images...

The image with Ezra getting food poisoning was from eating Dante's food. This idea stems from all those memes with Dante creating unidentified matter, whereas other characters like Vergil make decent food.

The first image and 3rd image are actually linked together, hehe. I wonder if any of you know the tilted towers reference? Lol

☝️Another Vergil sketch. He is laid next to Ezra in bed. (You can see the pillow that Ezra is cuddling with peeking in that image, lol). This moment is related to Vergil's nightmares.

☝️ The first image out of the two is one out of the 2 closest friends BEFORE the DMC5 events. I think you will really like them. They've put a huge impact on Ezra's life and are the very reason for the way/who he is today. I still don't have a design for the other friend, that's why it's not provided here.

The second image is just baby Ezra, not having a clue what the adults are talking about. The adults definitely didn't call him that...

☝️Lastly, this is my reaction once I created this DMC OC and decided to ship him with Vergil. I have no clue why Samsung does this to my images once edited, lol.

The same friend mentioned before also had me create an OC for a game that they play, and I failed to not grow attached to this character. (What!? I created them. They're like my own children now!) I might show u guys how he looks like when I finish his design.

If you guys have any questions, feel free to hit that, uh, *checks profile*, Ask me anything button, I will try my best to respond. If I don't respond, it's because I am still a boomer to this app and don't know how to operate it. Another reason is because the answer to your question may be a spoiler.

Like I've mentioned before, information about the comic itself will be explained in the next post. I don't spam post, so don't worry about getting lost in my profile trying to look for more information. I will try to have a pinned(?) post, if this app allows me, where I can add links like the way I've seen other users on here do it.

Haha, I add lazy watermarks (even though my art ain't that worthy) because I've seen small artist get their art clapped by a-hole users without permission. This has also happened to me, but it was yeeeaaarrrsss ago. This is why I don't post much of my art nowadays. Especially with the "art" bot-stealing going around. I need to find a better way to not let it happen to my art ever again.

Thank you for taking the time to view this, I really appreciate it! If you are interested in my OC's journey in the DMC world, feel free to follow me. You might even see my art growth/process between the very start of the comic to the very end of it! I hope it gets better... lol, watch it get worse- they slowly transform into stickmen HAHA

[janedooe]

i have some opinions on sso to share, so i figured, why not share it with my (i think) 4 followers on tumblr (love yall)?!!

i’m dutch so if you see any english mistakes pretend you don’t <\3

so first of all, sso should really change their character customization.. like individual options for eyes, nose, mouth etc. they’re really trying their best to be inclusive and all and i think that’s good, and definitely an improvement of how sso’s character customization used to be! however i don’t think we should be limited to, idk how many there are, 10? premade faces. (also same thing for the body types) i don’t think i have to elaborate on this, but if i do, just ask idk

so my second opinion is that the community is very rude towards the devs (i have to admit im not the nicest either), we will not get the old team back, like never, and yes i miss them too, like very much, and i think the game has gone to shit, but i don’t see that as a reason to hate EVERY update they give us. like if the old devs had created the same update yall would be hyping them up (however that music thing after a race makes me want to rip my ears off)

3rd is that the “attractive characters” (ahum ahum sabine and ydris) all get those, you know, flirty lines (for example sabine’s entertain me thing, ydris’ dove thing), and like sso makes videos of them themselves, and although i love sabine so much and i make edits of her (which is kind of weird thinking of it now??), sabine is supposed to destroy jorvik not flirt with our character !! if sabine and her design were different characters (please get it idk how to word this), i DEFINITELY wouldn’t have minded her saying those lines to mc, but again, she’s one of the main villains.. (also for ydris i just think it’s weird for a 40+ year old man to call a 16-20 year old girl his “little dove” or something)

and please bring back a team dedicated to quests!! the game is so boring for people who have finished most of the quests and don’t rp (me.)

also the thing with raptor coming back, i’m SO excited because i have missed him a lot !! although someone said he’ll be a girl now?? with a different name? i’m not sure so correct me if i’m wrong

and lastly, they should bring back sergeant tom for the music and johan egerkrans for the art, because no i don’t want to hear calm guitar strumming while racing please, and like there is no art now it’s just 3d models idk (i guess that saves money though?)

thanks for reading 🙏

[signalhill-if]

I've got an idea...

I've been toying with the idea of creating a Signal Hill TTRPG or running a campaign in the universe for a while, and even though it's worked every time I've done it, it hasn't worked out for out-of-game reasons.

I've also been thinking about text-based roleplay for a while, but it's not something I have much experience with. Those large RP servers with mods and rules have always intimidated me, so I've never joined one. But recently my partner has been playing in one, and I've been getting a hankering for it.

I'm aware this might be a long shot, but would anybody be interested in a Signal Hill RP server? It would be...

Play-by-post, with a mix of public events that people can jump into when they like as well as one-on-ones

I would not be an all-powerful game master, just controlling many of the important characters from the game

Set in the Signal Hill universe, but with the ability for players to supply their own ideas and craft it to fit everybody's vision

Likely small in scale, but if I get a lot of interest and can get somebody who's more experienced with this sort of RP to help me mod it I might be able to accommodate more players. Either way, the focus would be on getting a good group going and being welcoming to everybody <3

There would be systems in place like wealth, skills, and weapons from the game, but modified to fit the style of roleplaying

Rather than being a game master, I'd simply be moderating the server and playing the important game characters

There would be a process of applying and getting characters approved in order to ensure a good environment

I think it would be really fun to not only add a Signal Hill RP to my repertoire, but also get to meet some of you folks properly, get to see your creativity, and get to build a bit of a community (however small!)

And psst... if you really like this idea, and especially if you have experience with this kind of RP and wanna give me some tips, or help moderate, or just guarantee I wind up running it cause I'll be soooo excited that people are interested, DM me! My DMs are always open <3

[ocrpfinder]

21+ currently obsessed with high, dark fantasy settings. Really inspired by things like Souls-games right now (Dark Souls, Elden Ring) and fantasy like DnD, Baldur’s Gate, The Elder Scrolls/Skyrim, Lord of the Rings/Tolkeinn, Game of Thrones/George Martin, etc - you get the vibes. Worlds full of different creatures, monsters, magic, dungeons, gods, ghosts, curses, different kinds of kingdoms, etc. I’m quite leaning to something more in the line of Elden Ring/dark fantasy in particular, with a lot feuds, fighting, wars, factions, magic, etc. I’d love to do an ocxoc rp in such a setting. I’m open to any pairing + trans/nb characters. Bring me your rogues, your Chosen One, your mages, your elves, monsters, demigods, corrupt characters or good knights, healers, old warriors, legends, disgraced characters, fallen from grace characters, etc. The more unique the better! Open to non-human/not entirely human characters as well. Give me 8 feet tall people, people with 4 arms, eldritch abominations, animalistic creatures, etc!! Go wild! I’m definitely open to multi muse for this and fleshing out the world, but to give us a base, we could start with two setting out on an adventure together or stumbling upon one another and travelling together, something like that? Bring some ideas my way and we can brainstorm together!

I have very few limits and am open to dark, heavy topics, violence, gore, etc. I won’t rp underage content or rp out SA scenes though - mentions in backstory are fine, I just don’t want to write it. Would love some dark stuff at some points but we can figure that out together and all limits will be respected! I write on discord, advanced literate/novella style (1000-2000 words typically per reply) and of course not every reply has to be super long and I’m open to doing shorter style side threads if we need a break, but I tend to lose interest in really short replies. Open to smut - most of my characters are switches and I prefer to see what feels natural for our characters and don’t rush smut. Open to fading to black and also doing purely platonic dynamics. Open to all pairings - most of my characters tend to be cis amab or nb amab (I do also play trasnmascs, transfems and cis afabs though lol). I love queer dynamics so bring them all my way!! Unconventional dynamics too are awesome!! I love complex, nuanced characters and nuanced, realistic relationships too!! Open to realistic, drawn, animated, and description faceclaims and will probably use a mix myself. This is getting way too long now so I’ll round it out, but like if interested and I’ll reach out. Please be prepared to share some thoughts/preferences and (where I might lose some of you) a writing sample (I can offer one too.) Ty for reading this much<3 🗡️

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[roleplayfinder]

21+ currently obsessed with high, dark fantasy settings. Really inspired by things like Souls-games right now (Dark Souls, Elden Ring) and fantasy like DnD, Baldur’s Gate, The Elder Scrolls/Skyrim, Lord of the Rings/Tolkeinn, Game of Thrones/George Martin, etc - you get the vibes. Worlds full of different creatures, monsters, magic, dungeons, gods, ghosts, curses, different kinds of kingdoms, etc. I’m quite leaning to something more in the line of Elden Ring/dark fantasy in particular, with a lot feuds, fighting, wars, factions, magic, etc. I’d love to do an ocxoc rp in such a setting. I’m open to any pairing + trans/nb characters. Bring me your rogues, your Chosen One, your mages, your elves, monsters, demigods, corrupt characters or good knights, healers, old warriors, legends, disgraced characters, fallen from grace characters, etc. The more unique the better! Open to non-human/not entirely human characters as well. Give me 8 feet tall people, people with 4 arms, eldritch abominations, animalistic creatures, etc!! Go wild! I’m definitely open to multi muse for this and fleshing out the world, but to give us a base, we could start with two setting out on an adventure together or stumbling upon one another and travelling together, something like that? Bring some ideas my way and we can brainstorm together!

I have very few limits and am open to dark, heavy topics, violence, gore, etc. I won’t rp underage content or rp out SA scenes though - mentions in backstory are fine, I just don’t want to write it. Would love some dark stuff at some points but we can figure that out together and all limits will be respected! I write on discord, advanced literate/novella style (1000-2000 words typically per reply) and of course not every reply has to be super long and I’m open to doing shorter style side threads if we need a break, but I tend to lose interest in really short replies. Open to smut - most of my characters are switches and I prefer to see what feels natural for our characters and don’t rush smut. Open to fading to black and also doing purely platonic dynamics. Open to all pairings - most of my characters tend to be cis amab or nb amab (I do also play trasnmascs, transfems and cis afabs though lol). I love queer dynamics so bring them all my way!! Unconventional dynamics too are awesome!! I love complex, nuanced characters and nuanced, realistic relationships too!! Open to realistic, drawn, animated, and description faceclaims and will probably use a mix myself. This is getting way too long now so I’ll round it out, but like if interested and I’ll reach out. Please be prepared to share some thoughts/preferences and (where I might lose some of you) a writing sample (I can offer one too.) Ty for reading this much<3 🗡️

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