#i have others but they're not drafted so i disqualified them

[catchingbigfish]

oc name meaning tag game

ooooooh this is an interesting game, thanks for the tag @dotr-rose-love! (sorry @ everyone whose tag games i missed pretty much the entire month of march btw, i know i'll never get to catch up on them but might work through a few that look immediately doable at some point) i'm tagging @nanashi23, @inkspellangel, @linaket, @pga-books, and @ls-daydreams!

rules: list OCs and explain the meaning of their names

i tend to pick names based on the vibe i have for the character -- i have strooooong associations with various vowel combinations, or arrangement of letters, or pairings, etc., so most of this is just "idk it sounded cool". but because i love the idea of this game so much, i'm going to do it for every WIP i have rn:

so it goes

Marisa: i wanted a name that ended with an A because names like that make me think of someone sincere and serious

Isaiah: i wanted a biblical name; i associate those with families with deep lineages and a strong matriarch for some reason, which was a quality i wanted Isaiah to have

Ali: i wanted a name that complemented marisa's because they were sisters in the original draft, and i feel like L's and S's complement each other nicely. her full name is Alison, but i wanted her to be someone fun and outgoing, and Ali feels like that more than Alison

Paige: i got stuck on her name and picked a name from a random generator -- for some reason, when i see the name Paige, i instantly think of a girl who is aesthetically similar to the character (whose description is inspired by Gillian Jacobs)

Henry: another random generator produced this one -- i wanted it to be a very common man's name that wouldn't provoke much interest

Sophia: she's not a main character but i fucking love the name sophia/sofia so much. it's probably my favorite ever girl's name. it means wisdom and in some schools of gnosticism it was the emanation of god that was paired with Christ and unintentionally caused the world to exist

the space between pomegranate seeds

Meredith: i wanted a name that felt like the weird religious girl everyone knew growing up, but wasn't super cliche like Chastity lol

(most of the other characters are purposefully unnamed)

decomposing gods - priestess of bones

Claire: when i originally came up with this story idea i was deep into my Early Cronenberg Period (end of 2021) and had just rewatched Dead Ringers. i knew there would be a trio of women, so i gave them the names from the movie as placeholders: Claire, Bev, and Elly. i chose Claire for the documentarian because i felt the name fit her personality/vibe best, a diminutive brunette intent to prove herself

Bev: as above. i originally wanted to go Bev/Elly for the documentarian and camera person's roles, but realized they didn't fit right. also frankly i always categorized this as a lesbian name in my head for some reason, which worked out best since the character is queer

Sofia: even though i felt like Claire and Bev fit well with the characters i also never intended to actually use the trio's name. Sofia as a filmmaker is actually most inspired by Julia Ducournau, but i do love Sofia Coppola, lol.

bilocation

Emily: the real person she is based on is Émilie Sagée, and i didn't want to trick myself into not writing this by deciding to do research on the historical period she's from (1800s latvia), so i americanized her name and placed it in a 1980s boarding school in oregon but retained the formal speaking voice i'd imagined for her

Ms. Frond: i honestly went with the first word that popped into my brain on this -- i have so many characters named after the most bizarre shit because i'll use anything for a last name that pops into my head. i love it, though, because Emily becomes obsessed with her and has an established fascination with plants

Roland: i wanted a name that felt like a surprise on the groundskeeper character -- he looks like a dude who would be named something like Biff or Johnson or something, but he becomes a much more tender and gentle character than you anticipate from the description

[batsplat]

could you say that marc is the best flag to flag pilot, at least in modern motogp?

idk if it's recency bias or what but I just rewatched misano 2015 and brno 2017 and like beyond his actual skill in the wet (which I think is pretty up there) honda and him usually nailed the strategy i think

misano 2014 was obv not great bc he came in too late but I think on the whole

oh yeah, it's not particularly close. and 'modern motogp' is in this case a completely unnecessary caveat! f2f was only introduced in 2005 as a more tv-friendly format and the first f2f race was phillip island 2006. until 2015, there's not like... any real patterns amongst the winners - and generally they're rare enough that you can't draw that many conclusions from who's winning them. marc's first f2f is technically phillip island 2013, which wasn't a weather-related bike switch but did of course feature the notable team fuck up that got him disqualified and could have cost him the title. then it's aragon 2014 where he fucks it and crashes because he didn't switch bikes when he should have, yes. but after that, the record's flawless: wins misano 2015, argentina 2016 (also a tyre-related bike swap), sachsenring 2016, brno 2017 - the full set until 2021. I do have another ask sitting in my drafts sent well before misano, which requires a longer response because it's about what makes a rider good or bad at f2f... so I'll go into more detail there. for now, yes there's a little bit of luck involved in some of these wins, a gamble or two that paid off because his race wasn't actually going all that great until he swapped bikes, but it's a record that kinda speaks for itself. it also probably speaks for itself that I spent much of the season pre-aragon attempting to singlehandedly manifest rain clouds. representative sample included here of my dispassionate analysis of the situation:

which made me initially quite irritable when the rain showed up at the race after aragon, but that's neither here nor there. anyway, I will go into this in a little more detail for that other ask, but I do think it's the f2f format specifically that suits marc. it's just those specific conditions where it's not wet wet but kinda slippery and gross where he really thrives - which of course you also see with stuff like his affinity for low grip conditions in general. plus, he developed a knack for picking the correct strategies in this genre of races. his record in proper wet races is significantly worse... if I had to make a list of the best wet weather riders this century, a few names would sneak ahead (dovi, casey and valentino being the obvious picks, and some of those riders were..... not so great at f2f). here's the comparison:

so yup - he's not a bad wet weather rider by any stretch of the imagination, but it's the type of mess thrown up by f2f where he really thrives. neat skill to have

[copperbadge]

Okay but can the royal family be called to serve jury duty?

We were talking about this in comments briefly! I've been thinking about it since.

I think the discussion is predicated on the idea that Askazer-Shivadlakia even has trial by jury. France apparently only has jury trial for felony level crimes, while Italy doesn't use juries at all (they have a council of judges). Askazer-Shivadlakia has a number of cultures tugging on it, but given they speak English due to an occupation, probably they have a jury trial format of some kind. Perhaps with only five or nine jurors (Italian Judges Style) instead of twelve. In any case, let's assume they do.

Alanna and Jerry aren't elected or immediate family, they have paid staff positions -- although this made me think that Michaelis and Miranda offered Alanna the title of "princess" as a teen, because of her close relationship to them and lack of parents, although she probably didn't really need it, given her grandparents. Anyway, let's also put Jes in this category of "not royal", because they hold no official title or staff position but have a clear association. Michaelis and Noah are Royals but Michaelis is retired and Noah is appointed, so they have similar status to staff. Eddie, too, is "royal but not elected" and his main function is paid staff much like Al and Jerry. So really it's just Gregory who might legally be exempt. In the US, at least, elected officials at the federal level are. So let's presume that getting elected to king exempts you from jury service until you leave office.

Michaelis, Eddie, and Noah (once he turns eighteen) could be summoned to appear, but would immediately be disqualified from criminal cases because they're affiliated with the Crown and could be argued to have an unconscious bias. What we were discussing in comments was in part my thought that Michaelis, who became king (and thus disqualified) very young and ruled most of his life, would be rather excited for a novel civil service experience, and disappointed when he was dismissed.

I think pretty much any of the royal family except Gregory would be qualified to serve, and allowed to in a civil case (Jerry, Alanna, and Jes would also be fine in a criminal case). Jerry and Al are famous-ish as the local nobility, Jes is a famous journalist, and Michaelis, Noah, and Eddie are royals, but I did a bit of research and I guess celebrities aren't given any kind of special exemption usually. And it's canonical that the Shivadh find celebrities amusing at best, so I doubt their presence on a jury would even be particularly disruptive. So yeah, I could see the royal family serving jury duty.

But my brain is a bit sidelong, so while it would be entertaining to write that story, I was thinking more about...hearings, court protocols, the hierarchical structure of the courtroom, and the weird way in which everyone in a court is pushed into a very specific role. I'll probably write more about that in a general sense later, but where it took me was the idea that Gregory, as a king who has a parliament he has to obey but also certain specific unilateral power, might hold something like a quarterly "King's Boon" session ala the Big Block Of Cheese Day from the West Wing.

Some period of time, every few months, he basically holds open office and meets with people who are struggling to get heard in other ways -- people who want to suggest new laws, or want state funding for something, or need help untangling some bureaucratic issue. One person might have an idea for a law but not the legal training to write it up; Gregory might put them in touch with Palace legal, who can help them draft it for presentation to Parliament. Someone else might be having trouble with some kind of bank issue, Gregory can call up the bank and be like "Hey I'm the king and I'm here with one of your clients, let's get this solved before I audit you." When the recording studio collapses at the start of Infinite Jes and Michaelis says "I'm going to have a word with the government about building inspections", if he wasn't the former king he might take that kind of issue to the King's Boon. Two ordinary people who are arguing about some issue but don't want to take it to the courts might ask Gregory to decide the matter for them. Could be who owns the tree in their mutual front yard, could be some kind of philosophical argument they've got a bet about and they're willing to let Gregory rule on it (this is also very Talmudic, the idea of finding a Sage to figure your shit out for you).

And the nice thing is, much like in the West Wing, this is something Royals and palace staff would participate in -- so when Michaelis was king, he and Miranda would both participate (as would Eitan, as Well Connected Nobility); eventually Gregory as prince and then crown prince would participate as part of his training. It's basically "you, too, have a friend in high places" week in the Palace.

So you've got, say, King's Boon Week, where you get a number, show up on your appointed day, and hang out in the ballroom, which has been converted to a waiting room with nice chairs and snacks (presumably people who can't make it in person can get a Zoom call set up). You wait to be called, and you might meet with Gregory, but you also might meet with Eddie, Michaelis, Alanna, or Jerry. Noah would also participate but for a few years he'd be sitting in with Michaelis as training. Eddie would sit in with Gregory for a year or so after officially becoming King Consort, until he had a more thorough grasp of things. I have a feeling Jes would spend the time circulating and interviewing people for a quarterly podcast. :D

That just seems like a cool thing that is possible to achieve given the size and informality of the country, and would make I think potentially a more interesting story.

I mean. Just imagine. You're having trouble getting the permits all in order for the nightclub you want to open, and you're hoping to get Lady Alanna because you know she's got every bureaucratic "in" it's possible to have. But you groan a bit because you draw Duke Gerald, who...sure he's nice, but you've heard he's a daft scatterbrain. But then you meet with him and he goes through your business plan and is like "This is really solid. Let me make a call," and while you're gaping at him he calls a friend in Legal, gets your paperwork in order, phones a guy he knows who has a vacant building that you can lease on the cheap for the first year or two, and then looks you dead in the eye and says, "Do you need investors? I'd take a thirty percent stake in this," and you wander back into the waiting room, dazed, to inform your business partner that you've struck a deal for each of you to sell 15% of the nightclub to His Grace the Duke of Shivadlakia.

Now THAT'S a fun story. :D

(Eddie is like "Just herd anyone who wants to open a restaurant into my office," and the quality of the food in Fons-Askaz, already pretty good, shoots up a notch that year.)

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

Idk if you've read it before, but 4phoenixfeathers on AO3 has a two part series (they're fairly short) called Inverted Reflections, and they feature Emmet being competent and pretty badass, especially in the second one. First fic is called The Breaking Light if you'd like to take a look. I'm pretty picky about how I like Emmet being written, since I'm with you on the nobody seems to let him actually Do Things or be anywhere near as capable as Ingo, but I do like this one. Plus, I'm a sucker for them continuing to mirror each other lol. If you end up not liking it, that's alright, just figured I'd rec it on the chance that you do, since you said you don't read much pla fic.

[ Anonymous: (Small caveat to the second fic being that I don't really know why Chandelure wouldn't have been able to just one-shot that thing with Overheat, but whatever, that's really the only part I'm like ???? at lol) ]

i have NOT read that one! i generally stay away from crack but im disqualifying that fic from being crack. honey if you think that's out there you should see my drafts

also

“You need to calm down. If Boss says we have no time, we have no time,” Jackie scolded before turning back to him. “Stitches or no?”

i havent gotten a chance to do much with the depot agents but just so's we're clear this is the EXACT vibe i want to use for them. loyal to a fault bc they have earned it. chef kiss. mwah.

[tacticalhimbo]

—OCS and CHARACTER TROPES

this has been in my drafts for almost 2 months exactly now, but we are so back! taking this uquiz for some blorbos, showing off new banners, etc etc. tagged by the stunning @jamessunderlandgf mwah

━━━ BRIENNE ISADORA ERANTHE ✨ VTM: BLOODINES ━━━

THE DISQUALIFIED: the disqualified [noun, origin unknown] refers to a character who's became too numb to the concept of the world, to the point of deeming oneself not able to express any sort of emotion, whether positive or a negative one. this state is usually the one to follow after feeling too much, as if to balance out the overwhelming sensation of human emotion. living up to their title, they often consider themselves 'disqualified' from being a human, forsaken and unloved, abandoned by the world they've never had interest in. they don't know where they belong or where should they go - every second of breathing air is a waste of oxygen someone worthier could use. the disqualified symbolize the constant state of feeling nothing but tiredness, state where all is merciless but the end. this is the one and only test outcome where i as the writer shall personally interfere - please, my most beloved disqualified, keep longing to feel again. there's so much you've never felt and so much you'll desire to feel again. in the words of osamu dazai (who's the creator of the title 'the disqualified' I so happily stole) - "Everything passes." a statement as short as it is true - everything passes, even the numbness. after it, you'll experience so much more beauty of the world - beauty that might pass just as the numbness did, but in it's temporary and unique nature lies the reason why it's to be cherished. so, please, try to hold on a bit. sometimes, holding on is the best we can do and most of the times, it's just enough.

━━━━━ LYRA MARIANA HAGAR ✨ VTM: BLOODINES ━━━━━

THE ICARUS: [noun, greek origin] refers to a character, first curious and childish, who got so bored of the world's rotten nature they lost all hope in living. as the last resort to find the spark in the world of dying stars, the icarus may have attempted numerous times to touch the blazing surface of the sun, hoping to see any kind of redemption in the reflection of their face in the sun's flames. as a result, their wings were melted down and their bones broken by the harsh landing, yet that still didn't stop them from trying all over again. the people of icarus' nature often believe their place is with the stars and their desire to burn amongst them causes them to forget the beauty of the land they've abandoned, merely flying over it - the world has stored so much beauty for them they often struggle to see through the rays of sun and yet, it is still there. the most beautiful of flowers grow upon the lands their feet haven't even touched and maybe, just maybe, if they spared a bit of their time to give the (them forsaken) world another chance, they'd see that sky might not be the home they truly desire, but one they've seeked just because they have seen only the worst of the world.

━━━━━━ ROMAN ZEMLIN ✨ INDIE / FANDOMLESS ━━━━━━

THE FALSE MUSE: the false muse [noun, latin origin] refers to a character that attempts to be perfect in order to receive certain amount of praise, or to inspire others to go in their footsteps. they tend to seek the spotlight, the podium, the gaze of the people looking up to them, with praise and validation being what keeps them pursuing the way of living they did before. the false muses surely have their goals, but the biggest one is to simply be better than yesterday and worse than tomorrow, to be in a constant state of self improvement they'll never deem enough. this is what leads them to the occasional state of burnout, state one may describe as trying so hard to please the artist you become the opposite of a muse - hence why they're called false ones. the false muses might be tempted to think that they've never achieved perfection, but the truth is, there's no such thing as perfection, nor is there a way to achieve it. all muses could long for is merely the perfect version of themselves and they've achieved that already, over a thousand times.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

—tagging: you! if you're reading this, feel free to do it for your own characters!

[void-botanist]

This or That Writer's Edition

I was tagged by @pens-swords-stuff for this! I decided to focus on what I write more than what I consume but I think both are fair game. I'll pass it on to @theskeletonprior, @vacantgodling, and @sarahlizziewrites (or anyone who'd like to do this, no pressure!).

1. historical or futuristic

This is kind of a trick question for me, because I write solarpunk-adjacent sci-fantasy. So there's a lot of real-world historical elements in there, but overall it's more futuristic than historical I think.

2. the opening or closing chapter

I just want a stable opening sequence for TFA :(

3. light+fluffy or dark+gritty

Most of my work tends toward light and fluffy, though that's a bit misleading. I like writing about cute gays and strong friendships and happy families and android shenanigans but there's also strong themes of emotional trauma and grief. I don't know if that disqualifies me from fluffy.

4. animal companion or found family

I've been lax with the animal companions, honestly. However I have plenty of found/accidental/complex family stuff going on.

5. horror or romance

I'm not a big horror consumer because I can't handle a lot of it (though I do love environmental horror, e.g. alien planets and the Southern Reach trilogy, and I do okay with body horror to some extent) so in turn I don't really write it. But I do write romance, sometimes specifically, sometimes just as an element in a larger nonromantic story.

6. hard or soft magic system

I don't write very much magic anymore, because I had a tendency to go super hard with it and get frustrated, or not have a good idea of a soft magic system that would enhance the story I was trying to tell. But in general I think soft systems work better with the character- and aesthetic-driven stories I like to write.

7. standalone or series

My ideas end up being so big and projecting themselves out in every direction as every non-villain character I make becomes my blorbo. So series are kind of necessary.

8. one project at a time or always juggling 2+

I've gotten a lot better at focusing my active planning and writing efforts on one project at a time, which helps me keep a little momentum. But I will never have only one project taking up space in my brain.

9. one award winner or one bestseller

I primarily write for myself, so I'm not particularly interested in selling my work at scale. But if it was good enough to win some award, that would be cool.

10. fantasy or sci-fi

Fantasy and sci-fi are really tangled up in my work. I'm a big believer in there being no definitive distinction between the two. Still, the world of TFA/Triad was originally built on my love of fantasy and how different sapient species from the same planet interact with each other and how I can do whatever I want with them. The more "sci-fi" elements like space travel and biotech came later, though they're just as important. But since my reading and frame of reference is more sci-fi focused at the moment, I'll say that.

11. character or setting description

I love designing cool characters, but I think I'm actually a lot better at writing setting description. There's always an ambiance I want to capture. And if the setting of my scene is wrong (a feeling I usually describe as "the aesthetics aren't rightttt") the rest of it just doesn't flow.

12. first or final draft

In the words of Undine: "boy, I'd love to finish a first draft someday,,,"

Technically I have, but for a secret 4th Tales of Tobar Si-related WIP that is in indefinite limbo. I've actually been rereading that draft and it's way too long and I was not at good at writing as I thought, however it's a romance and it's still really cute.

13. love triangle in everything or no romantic arcs

This is probably the hardest one because I span them both, depending on what the focus of the writing is and what feels right for the characters. I think I have to go with no romantic arcs just because I've written some pretty excellent romanceless stuff recently and that's kind of my default for anything that's not a romance.

14. constant sandstorm or rainstorm

I like rain a lot, and I miss thunderstorms where I live now.

[scarlettaagni]

dumb bitch walked into my job going like "oh this teacher was told not to use red ink on grading because it was 'too intense' for kids, this is how our kids are being raised and why they won't go to war and serve this country, because they're scared of shit like pens"

like first off, lady, this is a deli, and second— I hate to break it to you but that was a stupid rule made by stupid adults and literally no kid asked for that. Kids aren't ""coddled"" because they want to be, adults just like to assert themselves with what THEY think is appropriate. They're not responsible for how they're treated by others??? Especially when those others are ADULTS and they are children¿¿¿

third, we're talking about current children right? It'll be a fucking decade till whoever this pen rule applies to can join the army, was "oversensitive coddling" thing happening in like the early 2000s, the subjects of which WOULD be draft age now?? I don’t fucking think so, considering I'm one of them. You're complaining of how children are being patronized NOW to complain about people who are adults NOW???¿¿¿

fourth, fuck you, I and other kids are not fighting for this sewer hole, and not for your idiotic approval either. And besides the point, SO FUCKING WHAT IF A KID IS "SCARED OF PEN INK"? what does that have to do with ANYTHING? Are we just disqualifying people based on random neuroses? I guess Kevin can't drive the tank anymore, he's scared of clowns. What? That has nothing to do with anything? Yeah I know

truly the stupidest tidbit of old people bile I've had to sit through at this job thusly