#i absolutely don't want that for hdm

[tenrose]

On the bright side, the selfish gremlin I am, is happy to have a good TV show adaptation not being trendy and having to enjoy it without all the annoying mainstream drama. I don't like to share my things with a big audience.

There, I said it.

[cozcat]

no thoughts head empty just that one hdm review that said that the marzipan speech now has a "pleasant surprise about mary's character, that is a change from the book, but one that fits and is most welcome"

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT

[army-of-bee-assassins]

i feel like this season of h/dm has gotten considerably worse but also i'm not 100% sure i'm remembering the previous seasons correctly. i remember mostly liking them and just finding some things weird. but maybe it was just as bad as this season and the amount of time that's passed since i watched them has simply made me forget how much stuff i didn't like

[thecryptidgrey]

As an avid lover of his Dark Materials I have yet to see a BG3 daemons concept and that is a Crime. So here are some Thoughts below the cut :)

(Also something something about the representation of religion in HDM and how it correlates to BG3's depictions of faith and trauma. I have the Idea but I am too tired to do much with it; may return to the thought later.)

Shadowheart- a borzoi. Elegant, spooky looking, dramatic. Borzoi don't make much vocal noise but are very playful- instincts surpressed by Sharrens that thrive with the party (see that very cute night orchid scene specifically). Generally very sweet, loyal animals, like SH when you get to know her. Plus they look amazing.

(Act 3 spoilers- I also appreciate that she'll match it when she dyes her hair. Seems suitable dramatic for her.) Anyways, I also really like borzois and think it's be funny af to see in them trotting around in game like the weird willow tree ghost things they are.

Lae'zel- Githyanki don't have daemons; she finds them baffling. Very impractical to carry one's soul on the exterior, although perhaps an efficient companion in combat to have someone you share instincts with. After much discussion by the others she decides for them if she did have one it would be a red dragon. Nobody argues with that.

(She does decide she'd have to prove herself worthy of such a beast first, and if she trusts Tav admits that maybe she'd like if Vlaakith could give her a daemon bond with her future dragon. Would she get a dragon if she became Vlaakith's chosen? Idk, she would now.)

Karlach- Tieflings also don't have daemons. She wants one wholeheartedly. The party finds her a magic ring that allows her to summon a familiar- she gets a direwolf puppy as enthusiastic and adoring as she is :)

Said ring is obtained somewhere in the Shadowlands after she gets the cooldown upgrade so she can hug it as soon as she has it. Also it grows up absolutely massive. Its paws are the size of its head when it's a puppy. All the better for cuddling with!

Gale- Tara. Wizards, sorcerers, etc, tend to have magical creatures as familiars. This AU he had Tara since the beginning. He still summoned all the other weird shit he did as a kid, just with Tara's help. She is his voice of reason and holder of the braincells; he gets to keep one and it's all about Mystra. She's protecting the rest from its corruption. He gets them back when the party convinces him to tell Mystra to go fuck herself.

(I do chew upon the trans Gale headcanon sometimes. If anyone wishes to muse with me on how daemons, which are typically of the opposite sex to their human, would be incorporated into that, please do.) Edit- pls see comments for very illuminating interpretations of daemons and gender!! Very cool stuff!

Wyll- lanner falcon. Medium sized yet formidable bird of prey, the head of which was often depicted on Egyptian gods like Ra and Horus. Beautiful, noble and nimble creatures (good for a dexterity based build, which I focused on for him alongside charisma).

Mizora's pact significantly lengthened their tether; her devil-form punishment broke it and weakened their bond significantly, much to their distress- they hate to be out of vision of one another as a result. Halsin, Jaheira and especially my Tav Cerewyn helped him adapt to and understand the new tether.

Druids and their daemons are based on the His Dark Materials witches, who have significantly lengthened bonds. Druid bonds are just as strong in markedly different ways; each is more independent and their personalities more distinct. I will definitley expand more on this; I adore Wyll and really want to do his character justice. He's the knight in shining armour but he also made a deal with a devil to be said knight, so, y'know. His daemon should really reflect that complexity.

Astarion- luna moth (changed when he turned- he can't remember what she was before.)

Beautiful in a fragile, showy way. Short-lived. Desperate for the light. A silkmoth; silk for embroidery. He resents her for being such a reflection of the self he tries so desperately to hide yet is fiercely protective of her, so beautiful and soft and hopeful- moths exist to seek light, craving it like he longed for a knight in shining armour, like he yearns for the sun.

Cazador liked to pin her wings.

(I love my sad wet cat very much and so as payback for hurting my soul he is subjected to the tragedy that is my attempting to be poetic :) )

Halsin- bear. Druid daemons reflect their favoured Wild shapes. Strong, steady, reliable, protective. Optimal shape for snuggles, very nice and warm, overall :) vibes to look at and be around. (Bear is not present for That Scene. That Scene and daemons are not up for discussion, you degenerates. Thank you <3)

Jaheira- Eurasian lynx. Struggled a bit on this one- didn't think any of the wild shapes suited her as a daemon- so looked up the national animal of Romania (supposedly Jaheira's accent?) for potential inspiration. Got the lynx, which seems perfect. Medium sized, elegant, very dignifed and deadly hunters who inhabit forests. Notably very quiet and hard to track. Endangered, which resonated with me because of Jaheira's status as one of the last of the Old Guard, so to speak. Nocturnal, which I like because we meet Jaheira in the shadow-cursed lands. Ambush predator, which just goes with my Gloom Stalker build for her. Overall seems perfect for the legendary druid.

Minsc- Boo? Fuck knows man, Minsc gonna Minsc. I spent way too long thinking about Jaheira and now I don't have the energy left. If Gale can have Tara, Minsc can have Boo. I do love Minsc so I will be back to expand on him if the mood strikes me but also I think maybe I don't need to? Daemon Boo just seems Right. Will consult Minsc's backstory and update later if necessary.

Minthara- yet to recruit her so uncertain. Displacer beast seems apt, maybe? Something felinoid would really fit her tbh. Elegant and lethal, very aloof but loyal once you've got her. Input would be appreciated.

My Tav, Cerewyn, just in case ya'll are interested- a raven named Gwyn, short for something I haven't figured out how to spell yet.

Clever, calculating, very blunt and sarcastic to balance out Cere's generally stoic, quite, calm demeanour. Sharp eyed bird for a sharpshooter ranger's daemon. Cere is a beast master ranger/ druid of land multiclass; ravens are summonable both for wild companions and familiars and are a wild shape (Cere's preferred wild shape too).

A common species but not to be underestimated and generally unpredictable, which suits her. She romances Astarion and both she and the raven think he and his luna moth are the prettiest things they've ever seen. They're also very patient and perceptive of trauma due to (Extensive Backstory), so they're more than happy to take their time with earning his trust. Astarion is very appreciative of all the shiny things the raven likes to bring him, and also that it clawed one of Cazador's eyes out for daring to speak to Astarion like That.

CONC.; symbolism is fun and also painful :)

Daemon names are a work in progress; the muses gave me this then said lol nope and fucked off before I could ask them for appropriate names. Might post them with some sketches of the party and daemons together?

(I wrote this in Notes app at an ungodly hour with fuck all editing. It is incoherent, but if anything is genuinely incomprehensible, please tell me so I may at least try to fix it. Much love <3 if you made it this far you get to know I welcome suggestions for NPCs to give daemons next!)

First edit- I misspelled quiet so many times omfg

[thegeminisage]

This is weird of me but you said you're reading Jane eyre and it's my favorite book (it does get better in the sense that her whole upbringing is so rough and depressing) and so many people Don't Get It because they're like oh this is a weird relationship and Rochester is a dick and Jane is so meek but I feel like you'll get it, but I feel like it's worth saying that Rochester IS a HUGE DICK but Jane is NOT MEEK she's WEIRD AS SHIT, I feel like that gets lost in the historical context A LITTLE BIT but she's the kind of weird dramatic sassy bitch where most people don't know she hates them, she's a hater, but Rochester does and LOVES it and she loves that he's a dick and the whole book is SO SO much about an abuse survivor deciding what SHE wants, it's basically a female escape and power fantasy. Sorry I'm so so so not normal about Jane Eyre, if you watch an adaptation after watch the Ruth Wilson miniseries not the Fassbender movie ANYWAY I'd love to see your thoughts when you're done okay bye

this is such a funny ask to get because i am LITERALLY reading jane eyre against my will. here's what happened: i got serial reader because i felt like i should read more books (i already did p&p!!), and on my list of "read laters" was jane eyre, and when emily saw it they were like YOU'RE GONNA HATE JANE EYRE BUT YOU HAVE TO READ IT. and i was like why on earth would i read a book i'm going to hate this is over 100k long. but for some reason i am reading it. and so i''ve only JUST finished like chapter 5 which means so far mostly what i've read is poor jane getting abused by a variety of people. and i'm like WHY WOULD YOU HAVE ME READ THIS but they said the same thing that the character jane is very important. and i do get that because she's already yelling at mrs reed for being a horrible old bitch or whatever and so good for her. i am going to keep reading unless it becomes absolutely wretched.

re: the movies...i actually had seen the michael fassbender one a long time ago, but i barely remember it except i know the part about the wife in the attic and also i remember thinking it was boring and confusing. i will not WILL NOT watch the other movie because even though i kind of fell in love with ruth wilson watching HDM, i have become absolutely radicalized against the very SIGHT of toby stephens's face thanks to pjo passions, and i absolutely refuse to look upon him because the very sight of him fills me with revulsion and rage second only to b*nedict c*mberbatch. sorry. i also read an article that was like, the movies can never be good anyway because they can't break the fourth wall the way the book can in narration, they lack jane's Personality. so that's all fine i guess, i can live without adaptations. JUST for you though i will try to make another post when im finished <3

[pia-writes-things]

Okay, so, I've been watching Luther for the past couple of weeks, I finished it yesterday and I'm absolutely going insane over it. And since the only person IRL around me that has seen it can't remember the last season, I have no one to scream about it with so I'm gonna annoy all of you instead.

Of course, major spoilers ahead so if you haven't watched it yet and plan on watching it, don't click on read more ^^

First of all, the opening credit is completely and only about Alice and Luther, right ? "Love is like a sin, my love/ For the one who feels it the most" -> this is textbook Alice and Luther, this is how they live their love, sinfully

I mean, directly related, but the parallel when Alice, in season 1, says that love isn't supposed to make you sinful and alone and then in season 5, Luther ends up arrested and alone because of his "love" for Alice ? I'm shaking, crying, throwing up !!

By the way, RUTH WILSON AND IDRIS ELBA, am I right ? They have the most insane on-screen chemistry I have EVER seen, and their acting is just- Yeah, no I don't have the words, they deserved all the awards for their performance because MY GOD !

Also, Ruth Wilson does love characters who die falling from high points, does she? (Yes I am also still in a HDM rabbit hole, hence my intense emotions those days)

Can we appreciate the parallel between between the first episode, when Luther could have saved someone from falling but didn't, and the last episode when he wanted to save someone from falling but couldn't ? Because it's killing me. Both persons were criminals but he loved one and not the other and -

The fact that in season 1 Luther says to Alice she can't know what's love AND SHE TURNS IT AGAINST HIM IN THE LAST EPISODE BECAUSE HE BETRAYED HER TRUST !! They way basically their entire dynamic is reversed emotionally speaking in those last moment 😭😭😭

How Benny said he thought Alice would be the end of John but actually she would be the end of them all AND THEN SHE WAS !!! Pain, pure pain.

Mark' attempt to help Alice, and her almost accepting it ? I was lying on the floor at this point.

And last, but not least, the fact that John and Alice tried, they really tried to make it work, but they just don't live in the same world, nor have the same values and objectives in life so it wouldn't work, and they love each other BECAUSE of that and not in spite of !! (And again, there are huge parallels here with HDM and Masriel)

Anyway, like I said, I'm going insane, and I have too much emotions about them, and the show.

[acaciapines]

omg your daemon takes are so galaxy brained--your w359 au fundamentally changed the way i look at daemons as a concept, and I absolutely ADORE all your posts about the upcoming toh daemon au!! (seriously SO excited for that thing). even in hdm don't take full advantage of the idea of an other-half daemon soul like you do, and I love the themes of personhood and identity you explore in your work. it's really informed how I think about and write my own daemon aus.

kjnkdfjgdfg aww thank you!!! the w359 daemon au for me was the first really big daemon au i ever wrote so i see it as something of a defining moment for me...im still very proud of it.

and YEAH im sure you can tell but im excited TOO it'll be a while until it comes out (my goal is to be done writing it by like, the end of summer 2024. but this says nothing of editing lol which'll add a bit of time. i want to start posting it before 2025 tho, like, fall-winter 2024? hopefully?) but i am SO SO excited and i want to talk about it to literally everyone i know lol, it's the longest thing i've ever written that im actually proud of.

also it'll be my life for many years to come dknfgdfg i havent done the math yet but even still assuming i post a chapter a week it'll take AT MINIMUM a year to post the entire thing.

oh HARD agree there im actually lowkey a hdm hater dfkmlgdfg like not really overall i enjoyed the books but they never really focused on the part of the world i was most drawn to, namely the daemons, and the stuff that was shown just. i never felt very drawn to.

im so happy i was able to inspire your own daemon aus!!! thats truly my biggest joy as a writer, just. knowing stuff i wrote got other people to write as well.

<3

[mothersmalice-a]

𝐆𝐄𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐔𝐍.

— BASICS! ♡

NAME: rubi.

PRONOUNS: she / her, feminine terms preferably. though i don't mind neutral terms, especially if we haven't really spoken before.

ZODIAC SIGN: aries sun / cancer moon / virgo rising.

TAKEN OR SINGLE: taken. ♡︎

— THREE FACTS! ♡

i'm currently working toward applying for an art course in the next few months! which is partly why inactivity has been so bad here and elsewhere lately. i'm also hoping to base part of my portfolio on book!hdm concepts i'll share here if it happens.

my shelves are littered in vocaloid / hatsune miku merchandise from ever since i was first able to get my hands on it, n with that I'd probably say vocaloid is one of if not my longest lasting fandoms. my current favourite is probably? my 2020 birthday ver. statue of her.

i'm an absolute horror nut, especially with things like psychological / analog horror, indie horror games / short films, movies etc. chilla's art and puppet combo probably have some of my favourite titles game wise, and i'll just about go insane for anything backrooms / Mandela Catalogue related or Hereditary. i also have a horror-esque AU involving marisa and the spectres / bolvangar ( huge body horror tw on this if you are curious ) on the back burner that isn't written out yet, but i'd love to use one day n id be more than happy to rant about it if it's something you're interested in!

— EXPERIENCE! ♡

PLATFORMS USED: right now it's twitter, tumblr and discord ( dearest creature#1962, since i'm normally most active there ) but years ago i'd also spent time on things like amino ( god help me ).

PLOTTING / WINGING IT / MEMES: if you just want to get into something then a meme always gives me something to build off of, but in general i adore getting to plot and develop a dynamic through chat first far more. sometimes i don't have time or motivation to write so just getting to headcanon / idea dump or do something like banter makes my day.

— MUSE PREFERENCE! ♡

GENDER: i normally find myself writing afab and / or more feminine muses mostly because i like to connect with them and write from experience, though i occasionally end up making exceptions if i really adore the source material or there's a dynamic myself and someone close to me likes, like asriel or the doctor.

MULTI OR SINGLE MUSE: single! mostly because being able to focus on one character in particular lets me think about them to a greater extent, and it caters to how i tend to fixate on things more. i adore having a multi but marisa and bedelia in particular are muses that aren't fleeting so it's nice to carry them with me in a way.

LEAST FAVOURITE FACECLAIM(S): i don't really have any in terms of my own, to be honest? anyone i use is normally someone i adore watching. unless they've done something i'm actively aware of i don't really think about it.

— FLUFF / ANGST / SMUT! ♡

FLUFF: pleaseeeee i don't care how insufferable / cold my muses are i adore softer threads.

ANGST: absolutely, make me cry n i'll probably try to make the plot more devastating in return.

SMUT: nooo thank you, especially if we're not close / comfortable. i love writing romantic dynamics but smut is not why i'm here.

Tagged by: @secondbetrayer & @toxicmalicex. ( ty ily both. ♡︎ )

Tagging: anyone who hasn't done this already!

[fratboykate]

Things my gf said to me this morning: I pay for streaming services for you know "streaming stuff right into my eye balls, nonstop!" Why the fuck would I pay to wait week to week? If I wanted to wait, I'd go back to cable! This is ridiculous! Don't come bitching to me when your newest show doesn't get enough views, if you make me wait, then another shinier stream is gonna occupy my mind and I'll forget about your drip show.

This devolution to cable model is baffling to me. We're going back to different channels, ads, and weekly episodes which was what we decided wasn't working fifteen years ago to begin with lol. It's what we chose to disrupt with streaming. It's wholly stupid. Save for a select few shows like HDM that are my absolute favorites I can't have spoiled, I refuse to watch weekly shows. I will wait until the week before the finale airs then binge and watch everything at once. You can keep your "appointment TV". I'll make my own schedule. Thank you very much.

[tenrose]

Ok, so I finished first book and tbh I started as a joke but I'm probably gonna end up being addicted lmao

Now I have to keep in mind that I wanted to read this when I was like 12 but I am now 30 (what a leap in time 😬) so obviously I'm not reading with the same eyes. I know for sure that 12yo me would have been obsessed with it, I love the idea of kids turning into animals and I would have made scenarios and possibly fanfictions with shit tons of OCs (even tho back then I didn't even know the word fanfic but that had never stopped me lmao).

Now as an adult I obviously find the book jumping too quickly into action and being too condensed but keeping in mind that it is for teens, it does make sense. Now, I have to tell that all those months I have been chasing after the absolute bliss I felt reading when I was young, and overall being nostalgic of my teens (even tho it was in fact shit years djzjzj) and I found in these books what I loved about fiction back then and that we kind of lost along the way with YA literature today. Now I don't read that much YA anymore, I think the last one I read was Cruel Prince and I hated it (some might say it's not YA but to me it kind of is YA). Tbh basically since Six of Crows I never loved any YA books after, I think. And I don't even like the world YA anymore because it has been turned into like fantasy or science fiction with romance and like no that's not it just call them SFF romances books and move along with it. But also sometimes they call YA a fantasy book just because it has romance in it and honestly WTF is wrong them. Anyway I'm completely derailing from the initial topic sorry.

So as I was saying, it is for teens and adults can read teen books if they want and that's fine and let's stop trying to invent new terms for marketing purposes every two days. Also it always funny and interesting seeing librarians and booksellers having discussion where to put a certain book because it means the said book is interesting.

And ofc we shouldn't expect some things -such has heavy descriptions- from books targeted at teens. And I'm not expecting them. Yes it goes fast, yes it's short sentences with a lot of dialogues etc. Etc. But that's normal for kid fiction.

Now what I really love and that I know is gonna be the reason why I love the books despite all of this is that it has exactly what my nostalgic brain seek for: a bunch of kids teaming together to beat some evil. I'm a sucker for a family of kids/teens/adults/misfits whatever. It's just my favourite trope in the world. And I will take it over romance any day. Not that I hate romance, but I prefer having the plot over the romance and the romance being just like one of the many relationships characters experience (now you know why I'm not into YA as it has basically turned into romance with minimalist fantasy world building and then a plot nowadays). Obviously there are many counterexamples of books focused on romance that I love, the most recent being This How You Lose the Time War but if you've read it... You know the writing and the type of narrative is the reason why it is an adult romance book, bye. But other than this examples it's not what I seek when I picking a book targeted at younger audience, and it's absolutely not what I seek when reading nostalgic 90s 00s stories. Because that's not what they were about. HDM was not about romance even they have some, HP wasn't about romance either, Ewilan wasn't about romance either and so weren't pretty much all teen books we had at the time. But they did have romance at some point and that's completely different. Like I expect Animorphs to have romantic drama at some point and that's fine with me. But keeping in mind that is not for adult, it kind of make sense that friendship, family are very important topics in these books. Like it is what most teens live. Or maybe teens don't live like this anymore, idk? But for me it was I lived, and romantic relationships came afterwards (or not at all dhjdje) but basically most of us we were just discovering it at that time. However the absolute drama we had over the 'you are not my bestie anymore', complaining about our family and stuff, that was big. And being in group of friends is what most of us were looking for back then. I mean having no friends was way more worse than not having a bf or gf, at least it was for me.

So yes I love the kids friendships over the rest. And I love that the books depicts them as kids, they react and act like kids and it's great and I hope teens today still can find these kind of stories. I already got attached to these kids and they have already distinctive personalities and stories so I can't wait to see the different POVs. Can't wait to see them have big ass dramas and feud against each other and suffering because, well, I love angst. I can already see that trauma is gonna be an important part of the story and some seems to have pretty fucked up families and that's topic I love to read about too.

And tbh kids turning into animals has the same vibes for me that when I've first read HDM with people having their soul visible has animals. Idk, there is something inherently adventurous and fun with the combo kids + animals. Or maybe I just love animals, we don't know. This come from someone whose very first original story was about a dude crossing a cursed cave with his cheetah lmao.

But yes, so far I liked it, the writing was according to its audience, the story is very kids story. And I think it's gonna have a decent world building. And I can tell that characters development are going to happen hand in hand with the plot and I like it. I just however found out that some books are ghostwritten and I am a bit wary of it but I'm far from being there to worry about it now anyway. This first book was an exposition so I kinda understand why it is a bit fast. The narrative being fast, I know they are all short books. Tbh if I'm reading all of them in one go I won't even be able to tell all books apart so it won't matter that much anyway.

Watch me falling for the late 90s early 00s nostalgia trick. I mean it's funny when you think about it, because I have been allergic to all these reboots of our generations or older because I can see from trailers only how polished they are. Like I do expect some stuff to be outdated and not exactly extremely progressive happening in the books, but also I am an adult so I can totally have the necessary distance to both appreciate something and be aware of its wrong.

[dontdowhatisayandnobodygetshurt]

Y’all will be happy to know that in the time my OCs have been absent from this blog, I’ve found several ways to be even meaner to June :D

[mkstrigidae]

i would love your take on a his dark materials AU/daemon AU! <3

Oh my god- that would be either a great one shot or a huge undertaking, knowing me. I'm not even sure what everyone's daemons would be- like do the Starks have direwolf daemons? Or still have the direwolves, but separate daemons? And Catelyn- oh lord, that one's tricky. I think I would have to actually write this as taking place in the HDM universe, or a modern AU, because I've already read the single best ASOIAF daemon fic in existence (It's Willas/Sansa instead of Jonsa, bc that's another pairing i have a soft spot for, and is absolutely lovely).

It's called Something that ought to have lain there unnoticed, by @cosmonauthill (@SecondStarontheLeft on Ao3) and it is incredible in every possible way. Like, i'm genuinely not sure I could ever write something that even comes close to how good this fic is, and how well it weaves the concept of daemons into Westeros. Joffrey's daemon is a swan, which is an absolutely perfect choice. I don't want to give anything away, but like, Sansa's daemon is just brilliant. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Thanks for the ask, anon!

Send me an anonymous ask completing the sentence “I wish you would write a fic where…”

[hatters-workshop]

I don't really post much here about my artwork other than the HDM illustrations, but I am absolutely delighted to share that I have finally set up an Etsy store. Please check out my dapper animal and dark animal prints, stickers and cards for sale. (Plenty of time to put an order in for cards or art for Christmas presents)

Even if it’s not something you’re interested in please consider sharing this post to help my shop get a good head start.

https://etsy.me/2Z7bDxE

If you want to see more art go take a look at my Facebook page or Instagram to see more designs than what has been listed on the store so far.

https://m.facebook.com/hathomasart

https://instagram.com/hathomasart

[theintentioncraft]

To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

RULES - When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag up to 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you’d like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours.

I've been tagged by @lordbelacqua (thank you Dea! <3) to talk about Backlead aka: that one Masriel fic I wrote where I got massively carried away...

Rambling/essay under the cut - fair warning, it's a long one!

Okay so first of all just a little disclaimer that Backlead did not follow my usual writing process - the idea was 110% borne out of self-indulgence and it was also both my first foray into HDM fanfic and my return to fanfic as a whole after a long hiatus from writing, so for me this was really a chance to just get back into the swing of things. Everything from Heavenly Guard through to Swansong and all of my current WIPs follow a more structured process and I'm happy to discuss any of them in a separate post!

PLANNING: I tend to find with my fics that I either have a nice little timeline of events planned out pre-writing or I have a very specific event in my head and I just take that and see how things unravel from there and Backlead was 100% the latter.

All I had in my head initially was the ballroom dance scene and so a lot of my admittedly-minimal planning was around the technicalities of that particular section, as well as some of the more general details e.g Marisa's outfit, the setting of the ball, etc. Planning the dance was the most fun part because it was a chance for me to put a lot of my dance knowledge to good use and think up something that fits the back-and-forth way in which Marisa and Asriel frequently navigate their encounters. In a way though I'm actually very glad that a lot of this fic Just Happened instead of being planned out, sometimes it's nice to just run away with an idea!

MUSIC: This gets its own section because this is one of the most important things in my process. Every single fic I write is written to various pieces of music that just help me to put myself in the right headspace for whatever I'm writing at the time - sometimes its just a single piece of music (I wrote Swansong in one hour with just one track from the Unforgotten - a TV show in the UK for those of you not familiar with it - soundtrack on repeat) and sometimes its entire playlists. I do love geeking out about my music choices for fic writing so happy to talk more in a separate post about music for some of my other fics if anyone's curious!

For Backlead I found a couple of playlist-vids from the lovely raviolae on youtube that really worked wonders for my writing. This comes with a disclaimer that I did not necessarily attribute any of these specific songs to either dance scene and I wanted to leave that open for people's imagination - but it's still brilliant vibes for thinking about two once-lovers-now-enemies trying to one-up each other whilst ignoring how much they still find each other attractive.

The two playlist-vids in question are here: you're stuck on the dance floor with your rival and find out they're an annoyingly good dancer and you're dancing with your rival and both of you want to lead

WRITING: First step every time is to figure out who's POV I'm going to cover because that makes a major difference in the way I'm going to write. Characterisation is the big thing for me and there's nothing I love more than to really get inside a character's head and basically think like them, and figure out what makes them tick and how they'll react to the story I'm putting them in. With my initial idea for Backlead being basically about the subtle power dynamics of a ballroom dance, Marisa felt like the natural go-to for this one and I found it much easier in this instance to write in her headspace than in Asriel's.

I wrote this fic in a very out-of-order fashion. The first dance (the slower, waltz-style dance) was the first part I finished, then I did as hinted at above get very carried away and move onto the section in the hallway, then I went right to the start and covered the entire section leading up to that first dance. Then I revisited the hallway scene because I wanted to rework it (the initial version was planned to be more explicit and involved less dialogue - but I wasn't comfortable with writing out the former at that time and the latter got changed by way of me having a sudden burst of dialogue-themed inspiration). The second, more set piece style dance came last in terms of the 'major events' that I wrote purely because I spent a lot of time racking with my dance knowledge to try and make it work in a way that didn't feel forced.

My final major writing stage is to write the 'transitions' between each major part - small pieces where nothing particularly noteworthy happens but it helps the fic to flow from one conversation/event to the next and also sometimes allows me to sneak in a bit of characterisation that I couldn't fit in elsewhere.

Along the way I often leave sentences half-finished with a bracket indicator so I know to go back to it later or I make little notes if I've added something in that needs explaining earlier in the fic, and I make sure to sort those parts out before I jump to the self review/beta reader stage. A couple of examples are below:

Although sometimes this method does also annoy future me too 😂:

SELF REVIEW/BETA REVIEW: Whenever I finish a fic, it gets put away for a day or two and I stop thinking about it completely - if I'm using a beta reader (usually @thatlavanderbard but I sometimes enlist help from friends on discord), I'll send them a copy of my draft at this point so they can start going through and leaving comments for me to work on, but the idea is that when I go back to my work a few days later I'm looking at it with semi-fresh eyes and can properly sift through each sentence to make sure things make sense.

When I'm self-reviewing I generally tend to follow this order of operations: spelling/grammar check (via docs') -> flow check (making sure any deliberate time skips/POV changes/etc in my fic flow smoothly from one part to the next) -> address beta reader comments (because they almost always pick up on things I myself would've picked up on anyway) -> general detailed final read through to make sure I'm happy with every single line and it all makes sense.

Backlead didn't get a full beta read because I had hit a point with it where I just wanted it up ASAP and my impatience got the better of me, but the rest of the above self-review stages still happened and I still spent a fair few evenings going through it properly and also running the occasional sentence or two by some helpful discord friends if I didn't like the way it flowed but couldn't quite figure out how to remedy it!

POSTING: First step was to reset my AO3 password because I forgot it yet again whoops

On a more serious note this part is pretty straightforward - once I'm ready to post a new fic I generally just go on autopilot for this part of the process (other than when I get to 'additional tags' and immediately get brain freeze...). As soon as it's up on AO3 I swing by here to make a post about it, then swing by discord to drop the link to friends who may be interested in reading it and then I normally nervously scuttle away from my notifications for a while out of fear that people hate it lmao.

That last part was especially true for Backlead because of it being my first trip into HDM fanfic and I always get extra nervous when posting my first fanfic for a new show/game/etc. Thankfully I got quite a few nice comments both on here and on discord that provided good motivation to stick around and post a few more things!

I always panic when asked to tag people lmao but I'll tag @fortheloveofwii for any part of the Onward, Onward series, @lyracordelia for any chapter in Hiraeth or the fic as a whole, and @glassrunner for this absolutely gorgeous gifset of beautiful game soundtracks. Please don't feel like you have to do this if you don't want to though!

[mendedserpent]

Hi! I was wondering if you had any book recs? I've been wanting to read more and can't go to the bookstore obviously and don't know who to ask

omg thanks for this ask!! I’m honestly kind of in the same boat, I’ve only recently gotten back into Reading For Fun™. but that being said here’s a short list of some of my favorite books/books I’ve read recently and really enjoyed!!

How to be both by Ali Smith - A teenage girl coping with loss in Cambridge. A mysteriously resurrected renaissance painter. Grief! Art! Gender! Eye imagery! maybe my favorite book of all time

The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer - a really excellent blend of mystery, sci-fi, and cosmic horror. amazing characters, amazing worldbuilding, and amazing cover designs.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson - yes I have been on a horror lit binge recently. yes I read this bc of its influence on I Am In Eskew. A classic haunted house novel. absolutely broke me emotionally.

Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion - A collection of essays on California and the 1960′s that were really formative for me. Notes From A Native Daughter.... many thoughts head full.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman - it’s been a hot minute since I read this but I’m putting it on here anyways. it’s a really interesting read, especially if you’re a fan of the movie.

Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx - how would YOU like to have a BREAKDOWN about gay love and COWBOYS???

The His Dark Materials Series by Phillip Pullman - read hdm read hdm please read hdm they are great books and the ending will haunt you for the rest of your life but in, like, a fun way

these are just some recs off the top of my head!!! check back w/ at the end of the summer lmao I’m sure I’ll have more opinions then

[revengeisalwaysanoption]

Helloooo, I don't know if you'd be cool with sharing more details on Tumblr, but I'd love to hear more about your HDM AU! Any headcanons about daemons, about the worldbuilding, I really, really loved it, so I'd take any crumb you'd be willing to share :)

Absolutely! The HDM!AU is my "emotional support AU", kind of my comfort fic for whenever I want to write something completely self-indulgent, because I want it to exist. Not worrying about the details, about giving it an actual plot and world building but still… I do have opinions and headcanons about it that I want to share!

I am so glad someone else likes it too ❤️!!

This AU’s world is a mix between our world and Lyra's. So they have dæmons which should stick to one form when someone hits puberty but not everyone does. It is a bit unusual but not frowned upon if your dæmon can't quite settle between 2/3 different shapes. That's why Marti doesn't really worry about that.

Nico's situation, on the other hand... It is met with confusion, infantilization and envy (oh, to still have kaleidoscopic dæmon of a little kid!). Only very few, like Martino, are fascinated by the unpredictability of Nico's soul.

His parents even sent him to a place called The Sanctuary - a religious overtone that pays homage to HDM's themes - that in Lyra's world doesn't exist but in mine is where they try to fix what society sees as faulty dæmons.

Dæmons of the same biological sex of their owner, for example.

Dæmons which choose genderfluid species. 

Dæmons which turn against their host. Or 'hosts' that turn against their dæmons… and of course dæmons who can't decide WHAT to be, like Agnes.

Moreover, Nico is very sensitive to the Dust… Up to the point of being able to see the Skam Multiverses, among others. Maybe he will actually gain the ability to travel through Worlds, together with Marti, who knows.

Luckily for Nico and Marti tere's people like Filippo, who I hope to write into this AU very soon, that welcome everyone and their dæmons with open arms.

Headcanons about dæmons… Well, for now I only know that Gio's is a lioness (Minerva), Luca's is a grey parrot (Pepita, who will become BFF with Agnes, I'm sure) Elia is a small pangolin (unnamed for the moment).