#i just googled it and paraphrased what i found

[eaterofghosts]

one of my favorite forms of friendship is people asking me things they could have just googled. idk why, half the time i just google it too, but i’m honored they think to ask me first

[simp4konig]

König jealous of your dog headcannons

Gender-neutral Reader

Word count: Definitely more than 2😎 🗿Honest to God i have no idea whay the word count is 🤦🏼‍♀️These were mewnt to be short headcannons yet as PER USUAL i got carried away 🤡🤡not abt to copynpaste every single paragraph individually into a word counter

*Slow burn

*Established relationship with König

*⚠️Google Translate German!!⚠️ (sorry guys ...💔)

*Not requested 😋😋 just something that's been on my mind.

*Pls dont worru about rqs guys!!😨 Writing two of tjem atm but I jus wanted to post this first (so my profile isnt as barren as the Sahara desert🏜️while i work at a pace that is slower than that of a turtle 🐢)! :)

*Also how tf do people make their bullet points look so good??? is it a formatting thing or sum cuz im ACTUALLT crippled 😰😰

...

König really didn't want to be jealous of your dog. He didn't.

He hadn't anticipated he would ever feel that way, especially towards a dog, of all things.

Despite not being the type to be jealous — at least, not from his perspective; he was only looking out for his darling! — his eyes would narrow whenever a soldier would approach you, being far too handsy with a stranger. His partner. It made his blood boil.

Sure, König would always stare down whoever made the mistake of flirting with you or introducing themselves with playful banter while behind you. Clearing his throat, a tense hand was placed gently yet firmly on your shoulder.

"Hör auf, mit meinem Schatz zu reden, sonst breche ich dir das Genick."

Not understanding a word of what he said, they would cower in fear nonetheless, getting the message with how he'd had spat that sentence and the venom in his voice. Glancing at their wrist despite wearing no watch, they'd insist that they were running out of time and literally run away.

When you'd look up at him in confusion, König looked back down at you innocently, paraphrasing that he had simply said you were taken.

A facepalm from you. "God, König..." you'd groan, unable to stop the silly smirk from stretching itself on your face. "You nearly made that guy shit himself. Please don't do that again."

König would likewise always straighten himself to his full height and cast a menacing shadow at the dummkopf who dared speak poorly of you.

Once they'd mumble rushed apologies and speed-walk away, you'd see him glowing with an adoring expression in his eyes, a complete 180° to the death stare he shot at the recruit and the hand gesture he made at his throat seconds before.

König would always rest a large hand on your lower back to guide you in crowds, keeping you close beside him to further drive in the point that you were strictly off limits.

Really though, he wasn't jealous. Not in the slightest!

He rationalised his behaviour as looking out for you. In no way was he being overbearing or overly territorial; if anything, people were pushing your already established boundaries and he was reminding people of them! He wasn't jealous at all, no.

Behind closed doors, however, he'd be quieter than usual and have a vulnerable look in his eyes, desperate for your reassurance and to hear you say that you loved him.

Deep down, he was insecure.

That good-looking man didn't make you swoon, did he? Why were you laughing so hard at his joke? He wanted to have made you laugh like that. You still loved him, though, didn't you? You wouldn't want to be with anyone else, right? Right?

It wasn't that König didn't trust you. Although this Colonel looked fierce in front of his collegues and used his booming voice to command others with a harsh tone he found it difficult to project at a large crowd, he had always been sensitive in secret. Being bullied in childhood could certainly do that to a person.

You were the only one he trusted to see his insecurities, and would always shower him with love and affection in private, reassuring him that yes, he was still your sweet and handsome König, and yes, of course you still loved him — that guy that got a laugh out of you was only one out of pity, as he gave you the ick anyways.

One afternoon while you two were eating dinner, König had out of the blue been the one to suggest the idea of a pet; a strong, big, intimidating dog that would protect you while he himself couldn't.

In all actuality, he had been thinking this over since the day you two started dating.

After all, as much as he'd had liked to clone himself and have one part of him fighting when duty called while the other part stayed with you to protect you at home, obviously that wasn't achievable. That afternoon seemed most appropriate to bring it up, as he was assigned for a mission in two weeks' time and was already worried sick over you despite still yet to be around you at all times for twelve more days.

You laughed, surprised by his sudden suggestion. In a way, you had already had a guard dog all along, you told him, yet König shook his head vehemently, insistent. "Nein! Was ist, wenn du verletzt bist? What if you get hurt while I am away? I won't allow it!"

Shaking your head in defeat as an amused smile was tugging at your lips, you couldn't really blame your boyfriend for being so paranoid. In a sense, he was justified in thinking so, and you couldn't fault him, him being a soldier — a Colonel — and all.

König himself came to the conclusion that you should have a German-Shepherd — "A big, strong, and intelligent dog" — smiling proudly as he said so. Laughing at his need to prove himself to you and his evident enthusiasm that proved he was deadly serious, you shook your head again with a sincere smile on your face and gave his forehead a kiss. Really, his concern over you was endearing, and you loved him so much.

On the day before the mission of his, he surprised you by leading in a fully-grown German Shepherd into your shared home as he carried a large dufflebag over his shoulder. Although you had wanted to have a puppy, König insisted a trained canine used in the police force and military operations would keep you safe, and he was firm, not budging even when you mustered the best puppy-dog eyes you could. He knew best, and he needed to relieve the anxiety that plagued him when you weren't around immediately. Finally having use for the connections he had made in his position, he was able to bring home on of Kortac's own German-Shepherds.

Standing with a self-assured manner, the dog didn't hesistate in showering you with love once the lead came off, lapping and licking at your face in excitement at seeing his new owner's face.

You laughed out loud when you saw a tactical dog collar around his neck, the same khaki colour that matched König's cargo pants. Another piece of König to remind you of him.

Still standing, König watched with his arms crossed and a huge smile across his face as he saw how happy you were. He was beginning to breathe easy with the knowledge that nothing would come to harm you while he was away.

Tongue out while panting, the dog waited expectantly under you for an order.

You looked up at König, eyes sparkling in child-like excitement. "Can he do tricks?"

Smiling, König's eyes crinkled in his love for you. "Schatz, it can do more than just tricks. It can protect you. And it will."

You looked down at the giant yet sweet dog, and raised your voice slightly.

"Sit." He did so without hesitation.

"Handshake," you prompted, and he offered his paw to you obediently.

"Stay..." you began, a finger in front of his snout, "stay..."

"Good boy!" you squealed, and fed him a dog treat from the one of the XXL bags König had bought for the occasion, along with a mountain of dog toys, and even a bed.

"What are clever boy you are, aren't you? Yes you are! You are!"

König crouched, and pet the top of the dog's head a couple of times, his eyes on you. "What do you want to call it, meine Liebe?"

Pausing, all at once it occured to you. With joyful satisfaction, you exclaimed: "Prince!" You giggled, barely able to contain your happiness. "Our Prince to my sweet, handsome King," you cooed, not failing to notice the way König looked away, his cheeks under the eye holes of his hood reddening at your comment.

While away from you for weeks, even months at a time, he could rest easier knowing that you weren't all alone at home. Although he still worried for you excessively, biting his nails when in his room as he thought over how you could be doing and what you were doing at any given time, at least he wouldn't toss and turn at night thinking over what could happen to you. He'd smile in satisfaction, pleased that his presence would still linger even when he wasn't physically there, finding comfort in the fact that a part of him still remained with you when he was hundreds of miles away.

You, on the other hand, were so happy! Obviously you were overwhelmed with the responsibility — quite frankly, you had never had a dog before, much less one this big — so you struggled to take care of it in the beginning. Knowing what food to feed it, how to keep it entertained, going so often outside you'd flop on a chair in exhaustion was physically and mentally demanding, as you wanted your canine companion to love you unconditionally and not be a bad owner to it at all.

However, it all quickly became routine to you: walking your guard dog as his ears were perked up in alertness, head darting around from side to side; playing with it in the park, and spoiling it with treats when you'd get home; and grooming his soft, dark fur and taking him to vet checkups almost made you wonder how you had managed to live this long without ever owning a pet.

Whenever you'd make yourself some food, you filled his bowl with dog food too. Whenever you had just stepped out of the shower, it would be your dog's turn to be cleaned in the bathtub. Whenever you would lazily lay on the sofa or sprawl yourself on the bed, your dog was cuddled up to you.

It was all fun and games, though, until he'd damn near suffocate you with his sheer mass and make you sneeze from the fur that tickled your nostrils, but you slowly grew used to it, using your German Shepherd as a weighted blanket and hugging it like it was your own child.

Somehow, this furry friend filled a void that König would leave behind, and you practically were both attached by the hip — well, by the ankle and hind leg, actually, but that's beside the point. You two were inseparable, and if König knew that then he'd be surely overjoyed.

When König finally had some precious minutes to himself, the first thing he'd do was call you, wanting to hear your voice and make sure you were alright. He'd nearly trip over his own two feet as he scrambled for his phone to dial your number, nearly knocking over a lamp and falling over some furniture in the process.

You'd pick up on the second ring and would nearly go deaf upon hearing the loud accented voice on the receiver. "Liebling! How are you, my sweet? I have been missing you!"

You two would exchange these sorts of questions and proclamations of love back and forth, so lovey-dovey that some of the more daring operators in König's faction made gagging noises on the other side of the door, while the more serious operators scolded them and reminded them that they were yet to feel the touch of another man/woman.

As König would listen to your ramblings about how happy you were and your lovely German Shepard, however, his ears perked up and he listened more closely.

"Prince is so lovely! He's my sweet baby and I love him so so so much! He's definitely my best friend right now, 100%. Everyone back home is getting pissy with me when I don't answer their calls because I spend more time with him than I do with them but can you really blame me when I have this beautiful prince? I mean, he's so sweet! Whenever I don't wake up at the same time in the morning he's jumping into bed and licking my face and oh my God I cannot cope with this cuteness! He's such a good boy! The very best boy! The best boy of all the boys!"

Meanwhile, König stood there, his mouth agape.

...What did you mean he was your sweet baby? Your beautiful prince? Your good boy?

Why would you call him the — not the best, but the very best — boy, the best of all boys? You couldn't have been serious.

It was just a dog. Why were you so attached to it?

It wasn't like König didn't grasp the concept of strong bonds between humans and animals — in fact, he had always been a strong believer of the "dogs being a man's best friend" common knowledge — but... this? You were coddling the thing, for God's sake! It was supposed to be fierce and threatening, not cute and cuddly. How was it supposed to protect you when all you'd do was hug it and give it compliments?

He felt his jaws tighten when you panned the camera down to show the dog peacefully laying beside you on the bed, you stroking his ears. On. The. Bed. On his and your bed. The bed the two of you would sleep on.

König couldn't believe this; he, a grown man, a disciplined soldier that moved up the ranks to be a Colonel, a 6'10 brutal killing machine who l... wanted you to be calling him those things, wanted you to run your fingers through his hair like that. Not some mutt. You were giving it star treatment and pampering it way too much than you should have.

He laughed at himself for thinking so irrationally and for being so immature. I mean, it was a dog. There was no competition to be won, nothing to prove — his rational thought repeated to him that you still loved him regardless — yet the ultimate prize would be you and your attention.

He chuckled disingenuously as you rambled on about something, and the smile under his hood didn't quite reach his eyes.

When he finally returned after grueling months away from you, those pale blue eyes still crinkled up in happiness whenever they saw you, still picked you up and spun you in the air as you'd shriek like a banshee while your legs kicked freely, still gave you a loving kiss on your lips before showering your face with wet kisses. He'd pull away, a boyish grin on his face, his face flushed, your eyes locked with his in an intimate moment...

...And then his mood would sour as your dog leaped up towards you, not wanting to be left out in the reunion.

You'd fail to notice his hands clenched into fists as your dog took the oh so comfortable spot on your lap, where he should have been laying, how below his mask a scowl was aimed at the dog you'd shower with kisses that should have been for him, how the dog would slobber your face and leave it dripping in drool, almost as if it was proving some point to him and being totally smug about it.

Of course, he didn't seem the least bit bothered to you — he wouldn't let his behaviour show. This was utter childishness, completely ridiculous, and absolutely absurd, yet somehow König couldn't control the jealousy that would stew inside of him hours after you'd fall asleep, glaring at the dog laying in between you when all he had wanted all day was to cuddle up to you and hold you close.

Somehow, his plan to keep you safe backfired, because the dog took his job as your body guard too seriously and would not let him be affectionate with you. He was beginning to despise the creature.

When you'd be walking the dog together and shower it with praise, König's hands clenched into tight fists. When you'd stroke the dog's head gently, running your fingers through his thick fur as his front paws were tucked neatly underneath him, König's nails dug into his biceps as he kept his arms firmly crossed, hating what he was seeing through his peripheral vision. When you'd glance at him as your dog was nestled between your legs, he'd turn his head, hiding the furrowed eyebrows and the clear pout on his face of an annoyed child, behaving like an annoyed child.

• In conclusion: give your König a hug. :( A kiss right on the lips and tell him that he's your sweet baby! Your beautiful prince! Your good boy! Your favourite person in the entire world and the best of the best!

• Reserve that precious spot on your lap *just* for him, and allow him to be putty in your hands!

• Run your fingers through his hair just like you would with your dog, and scratch that sensitive spot on his scalp with your fingernails!

• Don't make him regret ever getting the dog for you :'( As time goes on, it will eventually become the "father that didn't want the pet is now best friends with it and the pet is most affectionate with him" kind of dynamic.

• Just because muscular men and army-hardened soldiers like König were disciplined to be stoic and strong, sometimes they want nothing more than affection and words of affirmation from their lover from time to time. <3

So, you'd now lounge on the couch, content with your two guard dogs on either side of you; your Prince laying to your right, and your King in between your thighs, stroking the top of his head as his chest rose and fell at a steady rhythm.

...

Note: Gonna kms 🤡🔫 i have ro to go back to school tmr fucjing WHY i hate everyoje there 😭So yeah less frequent updates sorry guys 💔💔still going to be writing my long-ass fanfictions but itll take more time and ill probs have like 10 mentsl breakfowns daily 🤪 literallt cannot wait 🥰

My writing process is so incomprehensible tho 😭i jump from the first fic im writing to the second one im writing WAYY too often 🗿but ig its good because in a way im not TECHNICALLY procrastinating and beinf productive with 2 projects at once,, tho idk i guess tbats just a major cope if im beinf honest🤷🏼‍♀️

THANKS FOR 1000+ LIKES AND NEARLY 80 FOLLOWERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🥳🥳🥳🥳🎉🎉🎉🎉🎊🎊💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💞💕💕💕💕 LOVE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF U AND WISH YOU NOTHING BUT HAPPINESS IN LIFE 🥹🥹🥹❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[wellcomeoneileen]

Why does Randy Harrison deserve compensation? What happened to him? You can DM me if it's not okay to be public

Hey! No it’s totally okay.

⚠️disclaimer - I am a NEW fan and so I am NOT the most informed at all. Other people like @brian-kinney-apologist like really know shit. I initially found things bc watching S4 made me go oh there is bts shit going on for sure and googled, and then when I got on tumblr I saw a bunch of posts talking about it, too.

Lots of older sources are harder to find now bc they didn’t do a digital preservation or the website is expired, but here is what I’ve found, from heated Advocate articles whilst the show aired and then from more measured reflections from podcasts around 2016.

Randy was young and it was his first TV show - when he started he didn’t even have an agent, and really didn’t know what he was getting into. He had done sex scenes on stage and thought that he was pretty prepared for what was to come.

However, he has stated he ended up feeling pretty objectified, such as hearing “we need more shots of Justin’s ass” regularly or expressing a desire to not to go-go dancing type scenes (King of Babylon upset him) and then even more go-go dancing being added (S2 Sap scenes). He was also told to act less gay by casting directors for the show, and to “try to be more butch because Justin isn’t out of the closet”

The show pre-dates intimacy coordinators and there have been allusions, including from the actresses Thea and Michelle, that the sex scenes could be uncomfortable to film.

There was BTS clashing, with producer Tony Jones !!reportedly!!! Saying that Randy was a bitch to work with and “showrunners” “reportedly” saying they would never work with Randy again. There are two interview clips, one from when the show was airing, and one from 2016, when CowLip say they wanted all actors to be comfortable on set, and in BOTH clips , like 15 years apart, Randy kinda like laugh/roll his eyes and Gale looks at him very bemusedly. They had bigger reactions in the ~2003 clip.

He was openly pretty angry as the show went on. He told the Advocate that he would never be friends with or respect Justin if real. He disapproved of the Britin relationship. He said he had to fight to include the scene of Justin topping Brian, which was very important to him. Leading into season 5 he stated he hoped Justin was killed off by getting hit by a truck (obviously being glib, but like he was mad lol)

He has said that lots of scenes needed to be reshot because he struggled to do them so much, like the Cody sexy gun scene that made him so uncomfortable, and then either he or Gale said S5 sex scenes were reshot a lot because they just couldn’t stop laughing at that point anymore.

Peter and Scott recently have said the only time anyone asked for actors’ opinions was right after season 1 ended, and to ME they sounded kinda cheeky about it, all these years later, so perhaps it was a cast sticking point? Unsure, and it wasn’t even Randy who said that. Fat grain of salt.

He has more recently reflected on this time period and expressed regret he went out the way he did, and he understands things better and honors his craft more (heavy paraphrasing!) bc he was mentally checked out by the end and wishes he had finished strong instead.

Also, the cast didn’t realize when signing on how isolated they would be from The Industry. Randy has spoken about this in an unrelated podcast, as have the actors who play Ted and Emmett. NYC or LA are where you want to be for networking, and then signing on to spend the majority of the year in Toronto negatively impacted their careers, they feel. Randy has said he had to start from scratch after the show ended, and Peter and Scott have said Showtime had no idea how to market the show nor their stars, and so they had to just watch as all the initial hype fizzled and nothing was done with them. They were contracted to work too much to seriously be involved elsewhere, while simultaneously not getting good exposure, which I IMAGINE created a dire sort of mood and morale on set. < personal interpretation and fictionalizing history.

Meaning, Randy probably at the very least FELT like he had spent five years on a show that didn’t respect him and it was largely for nothing. He has since stated he appreciates the opportunity and it is the reason he was finically secure, for which he is deeply grateful.

And then finally the fans! He had stalker(s?) and tons of creepy people and was heavily typecast and people would come up to him frequently, which made him uncomfy, and would furthermore act like he was actually Justin, which made him super uncomfy. He was kinda like Chappell Roan!! He was like hey I’m not Justin I’m a person and y’all are freaks. He has publicially declined to speak on the stalking issues, which given his vocal responses to other issues, indicates to ME that it’s pretty personal and upsetting (I mean it’s stalking it’s obviously horrible but you know what I mean). During the show he had a boyfriend that fans like tormented online and even on posters (that bit comes from Tumblr or another forum, so not like verified info on my part at all) because they shipped “Gandy” so hard. I know I’ve read on tumblr about the insane Gandy people but all I remember is they were intense and insane and negatively impacted Randy’s actual real life. Again, that’s info from fans that I haven’t read in article or heard from out of his mouth. Secondary source lol.

This point is PURE speculation, but early interviews with the whole cast were super excited, and they all talked about how excited they were for something ground breaking. By the end, people were angry or giving fluff responses, or in Peter’s case; calmly stating the show was a soap opera and that’s okay. I FEEL like everyone thought they were signing up for something more real/gritty/positive impact to society and then were like oh I’m here to look hot in this show that only moms watch to get them turned on to have sex with their husband. Cool.

Now, do I agree with that - no. But, the show audience was vastly different than expected, and the artistic direction might have been too, both of which might have really disappointed people. Esp Randy and maybe Gale. Randy was a capital T theatre person, and Gale was too and had lots of experimental work and like performance art. Randy has ALSO expressed displeasure with some theater work he did because he didn’t think it was fresh and the audience was only older wealthy white people, so we do know that this sort of thing does matter to his sense of fulfillment at work.

TLDR; had to shoot scenes he didn’t want to, several times, felt objectified on set, disagreed with his character’s direction, maybe felt like he wasn’t being listened to artistically, was cut off from other work opportunities, didn’t appear to get along with leadership, had bad fans, was young and in deep over his head, and at the very least *started* with no career or social support system.

Again!! Am not the most knowledgeable person !!! I do NOT want to spread misinformation so hopefully I’ve tagged where I’m reading into things vs actual quotes but also people who have actually been around pls feel free to say 🙋um actuallllyyyyy

[panlight]

I feel there's just so much wrong with the entire imprinting concept in the Twilight books.

The concept of never being able to say no or essentially make your own decisions because of the girl/whoever you imprinted almost sounds like a romanticized version of domestic abuse. Google describes it as "pattern incidents of controlling, coercive, degrading and violent behavior, etc". Now the threatening wouldn't be necessary because they literally don't have any choice or say in the matter. The entire idea of obsession and doing whatever pleases the person I've imprinted on sounds degrading, that you're now longer you're own person capable of making you're own choices. I find this ironic because SM literally tells us the underlying theme of these books is about choice. None of the wolves have a choice. They didn't choose to be wolves (shape shifters), they don't choose who they imprint on and they definitely don't choose what they get to do after imprinting. Did SM find it all romantic? Because everytime it's mentioned it just gives me the ick. The wolves are my favorite characters in the books and seeing them being forced into all this is so annoyinggg! They deserved SO much better.

Also, it shocks me that after all the success SM gained from tts that she didn't donate a penny to the Quileute tribe. It's super disappointing.

Oh, yeah, with you 100% on imprinting. I've never found it romantic. It reads as straight-up horror to me. Who even ARE you if you don't have free will? If you have to be whatever someone else needs? And beyond that it just feels fake and empty to me. Sam loved Leah. When he had a choice, he chose Leah. Magic overruled him and picked Emily instead. Why am I supposed to think his love for Emily is the 'real' love?

I get that the fantasy is supposed to be from the imprintee's POV, the fantasy of having this guy who is 100000% devoted to you, will never leave you, you never have to worry about cheating, he is there for you and will do whatever you want or need him to do. But that's not . . . that's not like a person who loves you, that's like a robot programmed to fulfill your wishes. For me, there's no real love without choice. This dude isn't choosing to show up for you every day if he has no other choice. It feels fake and arbitrary. Like a love potion, like Cupid's arrow.

And hell yes, the lack of choice with the wolves is a pattern and a really unsettling one given that she chose to make these characters Indigenous and tie their wolf-ness to that identity. They don't get to choose to be wolves, they don't get to choose who they love, within those relationships they have no agency and have to be/do whatever their partner wants, and then there's also the Alpha Order! They can literally be forced to obey, no choice there either. Again, this is straight up horror stuff. Loss of free will, loss of identity. That whole passage when Jacob imprints on Nessie is the stuff of nightmares to me. Everything that Jacob cared about, everything that made him who he was, is cut away and he is bound to a half-vampire baby instead. And now he has to keep phasing forever to stay immortal with her. To paraphrase Rosalie: this isn't the life he would have chosen for himself.

There are ways in which Twilight vampires get a raw deal too (when I'm sick and have a sore throat it's like, the Worst, so dealing with that forever and on a supernatural scale sounds horrific) but they still have CHOICES. Carlisle had the free will and agency to run to the forest and starve himself as a newborn. Rosalie had the will to kill her attackers without drinking their blood. Edward chose to leave Bella for a time when we're told Jacob spending any real time away from Nessie would be impossible because of the imprint. The vampires may have to FIGHT their nature sometimes, but SM lets them win more often than not. Carlisle can be a doctor; the Denali sisters can sleep with humans; Edward can resist Bella's blood; Bella can be the best newborn ever and not kill her dad. But the only time a shifter character is allowed to fight his nature is when Jacob defies Sam to break off and form his own pack, and that's only because of the loophole that Jacob was himself the rightful alpha. No one else has that option. Leah has to choose between allowing Sam or Jake to have alpha power over her.

Which is all why I thought Jacob's whole thing would be fighting an imprint. It would be so in character for him and such a good parallel to the vegetarian vampires fighting their thirst. I wanted to see Jacob say 'no, I don't care what destiny says, I will make my own path.' And you know if SM had had him imprint on literally anyone BUT Nessie or Bella she would have written about him fighting it! It would have been so cool! But no, because ultimately this is Bella's fantasy life, and part of her happily ever after is keeping Jacob around literally forever even though HE wouldn't have chosen an immortal life with the Cullens like Bella did.

[butchsophiewalten]

There was another space last night. Only found out about it this morning and apparently they mentioned a dog animatronic named Ringo. Could you do a recap on it?

OK twitter space recap again. Just for clarity, a lot of these answers are effectively verbatim, but have been chopped down for clarity and to remove some less relevant information.

-Someone asks what the hardest part of making an episode is and Martin goes 'Fucking, coming up with what's gonna happen in it.' And talks about how like, if TWF4 took three years to make, half the time was just preproduction and him figuring out what the hell was going to happen. He talks about how TWF4 was originally going to be a return to form for the series, and then one day he woke up and thought about it and was like "this is fucking shit." and that's when he decided to make it more cinematic.

-Someone asks if TWF4 will have Spanish subtitles, and Martin says no, because writing the English ones was a pain and he doesn't want to go through that again.

-Somebody asks who Martin would cast for Brian if The Walten Files was a live action series, and Kyle extends the question to 'Who would you cast for Everyone?'. They spend the next while just spitballing answers, which I've condensed here:

Kyle thinks it'd be fun to cast Jack as "Weird" Al Yankovic, and Martin thinks that's funny. He doesn't know who he would cast for Jack. Martin says Brian would be "The guy from Whiplash", who is Miles Teller.

Martin says Derek Collins would be Michael Mckean, but Kyle picks Clancy Brown.

Kyle says Charles should be Adam Driver.

Martin says Felix would be Michael Douglas as he is in Falling Down, and says that he's always thinking of him whenever he goes to draw Felix.

Martin says Sophie would be Ally Sheedy as she is in The Breakfast Club, and how Allison Reynolds (Ally Sheedy's character in The Breakfast Club) was in part inspiration for Sophie's character. Secondary pick Martin gives is Mia Goth, but says they aren't the same in the face or the mannerisms, just that Mia Goth would make a good portrayal of the character because she's such a good actress.

Martin picks Shelley Duvall for Rosemary, saying again that they don't really look alike, but that she'd do a great job portraying the character. Kyle says a young Jane Kaczmarek would make a good Rosemary, too, and Martin mentions that he could also see a very young Carol Burnett, "...because she has a very smile-shaped smile."

Martin says that they aren't at all the same physically, but that Tina Parker would make a great Susan. Inspired heavily by her role in Better Call Saul.

-Martin hems and haws for a bit about who a good Jenny would be, saying that it's difficult, because she has such a particular face. On the topic, Kyle brings up how fans so often portray Jenny as "chubby", and how that's really impacted how he thinks of Jenny as a character, where he imagines the fanon version of her before even the canon one.

Martin agrees like, "This kinda influenced the way I draw her. I've been drawing concept art for Jenny recently and I noticed I've started drawing her a little chubbier. Not to the extent of the fanon, but the way I look at the character has changed a lot because of the way the fandom draws her... But I could definitely see Jenny as a chubby character, she just has that vibe." (<-Mostly paraphrased)

-Martin and Kyle say they both keep running into a funny problem where they google Charles using his full name, and wonder why all of the results just call him 'Charles Walten Files', forgetting that his full name is not public information yet.

-Martin says that if there was anything he would change about The Walten Files, he'd make Bon less adjacent to Bonnie from Five Nights at Freddy's. He says he wishes he'd made Bon a dog named Ringo, and that the name "Ringo" has a specific lore reason behind it (Unrelated to. The Beatles.)

-Martin talks about how when he first named Bon's Burgers, he thought he was being really clever, because in French "Bon" means "Good", so it was like calling it "Good Burgers".

-Someone asks what Martin would rename Bon's Burgers to if Bon's name had been different, and he says he'd call it "Wonderland".

-Martin gives a story about him actually seriously injuring himself opening a can of Palmitos, slicing his palm open and needing to get stitches, but how the main thing he was worried about was it keeping him from releasing TWF4 on time, and how he was really scared of the fan reaction of like, 'he always fucking does this, he always delays the episode', before he talked to some friends and calmed down about it. This all happened like less than a week ago. He tells everyone not to worry to much about it, that he's still in some pain, but he's fine.

-Someone asks about the "Bontest", the contest where people could submit their original characters to appear briefly in TWF4, and Martin says that he plans to work on it last, as a reward for himself.

-Someone asks if a Welcome to Bon's Burgers remake could ever happen, Martin answers: "No. I would have wanted to, but I'm really trying to stay, like, legally distinct from Five Nights at Freddys. So no more Welcome to Bon's Burgers, ever."

-Martin asks Kyle, "Is Charles mean? or nice?" and Kyle says he thinks Charles has like. Fun Uncle energy. That he's the sort of person you'd maybe think was mean, but that he's ultimately pretty silly and laid-back. He calls him the type of person to doodle in the margins of his work.

-Someone asks if Boozoo is a magician or a ringmaster, and Martin says that he is both. When he's not on stage, he falls into the ringmaster persona, but when he's performing he's doing magic tricks and the like. He switches between both.

-"Boozoo has a mechanism where he can take off his hat, and there's a very tiny plush rabbit in his hat"

-"Will we ever get to know how Jenny and Sophie met and/or became a couple?" "Yes. We will see it in the series, I have the whole thing planned out. Yippie!"

-Martin talks about how when making WTBB, he went through a phase where he really hated Banny, and took her out of the game. Then he was like, fuck, I need a new girl character, and that's why he created Sha.

-"Who has been your favorite character to develop personality-wise and role-wise?" "Felix Kranken. I fucking love but I fucking hate Felix kranken... I feel like the viewer keeps indirectly giving Felix chances, like, to make things right. And you will see how he uses those chances."

-Someone asks for a Felix Fact, and Kyle jokes that he smells bad. Martin says he disagrees, and that he thinks Felix smells like car air freshener.

-Actual Felix Fact: He loves Louis Wain's paintings, and has many in his office. Martin says he really connects with the story around them, and that he also feels a deep connection to cats.

-"How many takes did the phone call in BunnyFarm take to get right? Was the wavering in Jack's voice before he got angry intentional?" "It took three takes and yeah, yes it was. I did one take that was like, screaming angry, and another one was very whispery, and then i got the version that was used." They talk for a bit and then Martin goes "I think Jack here like, works best when he's not like, exaggerated, but you can tell that he's on the verge of just-- punching you fucking skull, but he doesn't like, explode. And it's this tension of like, when will we see this character like, genuinely lose his mind, yknow?"

-Someone asks if Bon could ever learn to like or be nice to Banny, and Martin says that if the showstoppers had any kind of linear story then he would probably grow to be nicer to her eventually, but because they're in like an episodic thing where everything resets, he's just gonna hate her forever

-Linda Lore: This isn't necessarily canon, but Martin kinda imagines that she'd move out of hurricane after only a couple of weeks because it's such a ghost town, so she moves to Nashville end ends up starting a family there and having two children.

-My question! I asked Kyle and Martin what musicians/bands they listen to. Kyle lists Gorillaz, Tally Hall, and Tenacious D. Martin lists MF Doom, Tyler, the Creator, and Canserbero.

-Martin mentions an incident with Bon's Burgers where a guy showed up and stood on a table demanding to eat pizza, and stayed there for 20 hours demanding to eat pizza.

-Martin imagines a funny scenario where Charles' car breaks down on the way to work and Jack gives him a ride. Charles asks to listen to some music, and Jack starts playing "obscure 30s music", and Charles is like, "what the fuck?", while Jack is bobbing his head like he's listening to heavy metal.

-Someone asks if there's any Autistic characters in The Walten Files, and Kyle brings up his personal headcanon that both Sophie and Jenny have autism, but that Jenny has it comorbid with ADHD. Martin mentions that it's actually canon that Charles has ADHD, and how it was one of the first things he decided on for his character.

-Kyle specifically asks if there's any Walten Files characters Martin can imagine being Autistic, and Martin gives a long answer I've written out as follows:

"Okay, so, this is really complicated, but the episode 5 draft is finished, and I sent it to Eva, and- this episode has a bigger focus on Sophie, episode 5, and I think a lot of things- Eva- I talked a lot about it with Eva, and she mentioned how Sophie, was like, had many many traits that imply that she is autistic.

And, while I said yes, that the intention was to like, sorta allude to it? I would never confirm it because I wouldn't be able to represent it properly. I would never be able to fully represent it, because it's not an experience I've gone through. But there's a lot of like, unintentional double meaning with Autism, with like, what's going on in her head and how like, she behaves, in a way?

But I feel like, from what Eva told me, from her experience as an Autistic person, she told me it was a really good representation, for like, the character. Even if it wasn't intentional, because she's never represented as like, mentally unstable, or not fit to, like-not competent... But you can still see some of her personal struggles in her behavior."

-They talk for a while about how Kyle likes to think that Boozoo is gay, but he's not especially a fan of the relatively popular ship between him and Bon. Martin says that a better Boozoo ship idea could maybe be Pete the Hippo, provided that the recasted his VA.

-On the same topic, Martin agrees that Boozoo and Bon would be a bad ship idea, because he doesn't like the idea of Bon being with anybody who he treats poorly, and how this is the reason why he really tries to be nice to Sha, even if he isn't especially good at it. Martin mentions that the thing that really makes Bon like Sha is that she's the one person who can really tell him off, and for a while he was a little scared of her.

-Martin talks about a funny showstoppers story he's thought of, where Banny gets a crush on a girl from school and Boozoo and Sha help her work up the courage to ask her out, but the girl is just so unapologetically mean to Banny and totally breaks her heart, and so all the showstoppers come to defend Banny, and they go and beat up this teenager on her behalf.

-Someone asks for a "Susan Fun Fact" but typos it as "Susan Gun Fact". Martin says that Susan would think that the American attitude towards guns and gun control is one of the things most wrong with the United States. Kyle says it'd be funny if she was the type to believe that, but then own a gun anyway.

-Martin says that he really loves Susan's voice, and thinks it's so perfect for her character.

[rosey-blog06]

Ok, I've just recently found and finished "The Disastrous Life of Saiki K" and while interacting with the fandoms content, it has come to my attention that many many people say that Saiki is AroAce, And I would like to add my own headcanon onto Saiki's Sexuality.

I believe him to be Demi-Romantic & Asexual.

And I have claims to back this headcanon up

1.) All Saiki see's is Muscles and Bones, therefore Gender/appearance (really depending on whether you ship him with anyone or not) doesn't have any kind of impact on how he would feel about someone

2.) He can read peoples thoughts and would see who they really are underneath, and so he would (again this is my headcanon so) only feel any kind of Romantic feelings for someone based off of the personality, (and would have to have a deep connection to this person)

3.) that whole "I see naked bodies all the time (due to the x-ray ability he has no control over) I don't see the hype" (I'm paraphrasing, I can't remember the actual quote or what Episode it's from (I've only seen the Anime, but I want to get the Manga soon)

4.) the whole scene where Aiura Mikoto & Rifuta Imu had that "have you done 'it' yet?" "of course we've done 'it' before" convo and Saiki just looks really uninterested/uncomfortable (Again this my perspective about these points)

Anyway, I've been thinking about this for a few days and have nobody irl to talk to about it :/

(Btw please don't try and force any of your opinions onto anybody about anything, this was just to share mine, You don't have to agree)

Anyway Here are some Pretty Saiki Pictures I found on Google Images

[babylaptop]

setting up an ipod is harder than you fucking think

just spent the last life four+ hours setting up this ipod classic 4th gen. here's a summary of all the problems i ran into:

(1) ipod had files in it. they appeared as gray and un-editable on itunes, so i thought reseting the ipod to factory would be the fastest and easiest solution.

turns out the last step of the process is connecting ipod to a wall power source. i do this. nothing happens for at least an hour. ipod is stuck in "connect to the wall" icon screen no matter what i do. the internet says it needs to connect with an actual apple firewire wall connector, which i do not have. tried using my ipad's charger with a usb-to-usb-c adapter that i own. didn't work. eventually figured it out the problem had to do with the amps it needs to get defibrillated. i remember that i own a pretty hefty power bank with a 5v/2.1a output. it works. ipod is reset. i have a nice fun time adding the 6 or so songs i have downloaded on my computer (:

(2) i had downloaded soulseek a while ago and gotten frustrated with it but decided to give it another spin since piracy experts on reddit sing it many praises. it seems to have a heavy culture of egalitarianism: a pop up window informs you that a lot of people's download's are restricted only to other people sharing files.

__(2.1) it prompts me to enter my account and password but i don't have one. there isn't an immediatly visible 'create account' link. i google this. eventually i find this soulseek forum where a ton of normies are asking questions pretty regularly. excellent. i search my problems and someone else has already made a post and had the question answered. thank you normies. also: google groups is still a thing???????

the inability to create an account is a weird bug. someone's answer tells me how to circumvent it.

__(2.2) i still can't search for anything. there are no files in this wasteland. i turn on my vpn. put my humble six songs in a folder and share it. voila!!!!!!!

soulseek is actually VERY cool. you can browse other people's music folders, which opens an incredible secret world of possibilities re: finding new music similar to your tastes. EXTREMELY exciting. feels like i'm in a cool secret club of the internet. feels like the old internet.

i download one (1) lana del rey song that's stuck in my head. choose .flac (a lossless audio file) because i want to be fancy.

(3) ...........itunes doesn't read .flac files

__(3.1) searches: what files does itunes read? > which of these files is best for lossless audio? > how do i convert .flac files to itunes-compatible file types? > download foobar2000 > click around till i figure out how to convert .flac files to .wav files.

__(3.2) it works! (: the songs are now in itunes! (:

............but the metadata (album cover, genres, artist, album, etc) doesn't transfer. i don't want to manually input it again. searches: how to keep metadata when converting files? tutorial is slightly different from the version of foobar i have, but i eventually find the setting to keep the metadata.

(4) it works! (:

.............but it won't transfer to my ipod ): i get the message: your ipod can't read this file <- paraphrasing.

okay. searches: what kind of files can an ipod classic 4th gen read? (perhaps they are different from the files itunes can read. this is, after all, the last version of itunes ever released, many years and itunes versions after the ipod classic 4th gen.)

this information isn't in the wikipedia page. this isn't in the ipod wiki. can't even find this model in the official apple pages. it's mentioned in several reviews but it's the wrong model. christ almighty. ok. here it is. found it. allegedly it should be able to read it. ok. why isn't it.

read through forum threads. some people say older ipods get fussy with high bitrates. (search: what is a bitrate? oh ok. higher bitrate > higher audio quality. got it.)

bitrates reccomended by foobar: 180-300something. lossless file bitrate: 2000 and change. hm. surely that's a huge difference.

i convert the .flac file to .mp3 instead.

__(4.1) it works! (: the files are in my ipod! (:

.....but goddamnit, i'm stubborn, and this goddamn ipod is supposed to be able to read apple lossless files (basically a .flac file, but designed to be used with apple products. lol.) i don't want a lameass mp3, i want lossless goddamn quality! even if this brick of an ipod won't be able to play it! it's the principle of the thing!

______(4.1.1) okay. try to fuck around with bitrates in the settings of the apple lossless conversion on foobar. foobar is like "you don't have the right encoder pack, bitch" <- paraphrasing.

oooh. surely, this is the problem. i download encoder pack.

______(4.1.2) foobar is like: "you don't have the right encoder pack, bitch" <- paraphrasing.

me: [crying] but i did.

foobar: bitch.

______(4.1.3) search: why is foobar calling me a bitch? > reddit thread: look closely at the sphynx's riddles three: it doesn't say "you haven't downloaded the encoder pack." it says: you haven't installed the encoder pack. (<- NOT A JOKE.)

go to C: > program files > foobar > find the encoder pack i downloaded > click on all the .exe files. powershell windows appear and dissappear. basically: stuff happened. i'm certian.

_____________(3.4.3.1) i'm STILL getting the riddles three message, but the same reddit thread says: if you know you solved th riddles three, you can just ignore it (: so i do.

__(4.2) .flac files seem to have been successfully converted to apple lossless files !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

....but i am back to "your ipod can't read this shit!!!!!!!!!"

do some more searches > turns out it's a weird itunes glitch. the thing is just moody. try turning it on and off. try disconnecting and re-connecting. try resetting your ipod again.

try uninstalling and installing again.

(5) "iTunes Library.itl cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of iTunes"

.......................to be continued. if i don't kill mysuelf first.

[ebisul]

TCW Rewatch: Season 1 Episodes 16-18

Yknow Im proud of Anakin for making it through most of the first season thisfar without any major war crimes. Im sure Obi Wan is too

These are pretty lackluster notes but the next set have significantly more to say

Episode 16: The Hidden Enemy

* Obi and Ani’s forces are infiltrated by a traitor and Rex and Cody investigate the men while Obi Wan and Anakin investigate the enemy

* Rex and Cody interrogate Slicks men

* Poor Chopper hes just a little fucked up its ok

* Slick trying to push a narrative on Chopper and it backfires completely

* Cody and Rex fight Slick while obi and Ani fight ventress

* Slick destroys the GARs weapons depo

* not a lot happened to take note on this episode, I just like seeing Cody

Episode 17: Blue Shadow Virus

* Naboo is facing yet another invasion

* Padme has c3po try to get information out of a separatist droid discovering info about a virus

* JarJar destroys the separatist droid but happens to know information that leads to the secret lab

* Padme and Captain Typho request assistance from the Jedi

* Specifically requesting Obi Wan and Anakin, because of obi’s good relations with the gungans and Anakin for the obvious reasons

* The peace between the gungans and naboo is tense, I don’t remember if they mentioned why that is

* The water is poisoned by the virus

* Presumably from the leak the droid mentioned

* Ok so theyre doing bio warfare now

* Science guys plan is to make enough virus bombs to send to each key star system, spreading the plague galaxy-wide

Episode 18: Mystery of the Thousand Moons

* A vial of the virus has gone missing

* Presumably stolen by a droid

* Virus was released in the lab, rex, the 501st, and ahsoka are contaminated while obi wan and anakin are searching for a cure

* The cure is found on a moon in separatist territory, upon arrival they meet a kid who helps them find the cure and learn that the inhabited cant leave because of a “curse”

* The curse is separatist occupation destroying any ship leaving the moon, trapping the people of the moon

* Ani and obi destroy the laser field allowing them and others to travel and getting the cure back to naboo in order to save everyone

* “Im sorry senator, but its what these mean are meant to do” paraphrasing but so telling on how the clones view themselves and are viewed by others

War Crime Counter:

Separatists: 6 bio warefare is a war crime i googled it

Republic: 0 when this counter starts moving up itll move up fast

[aza-trash-can]

akshgfb someone wants to hear my theories/headcanons? This is the best, okay, @lewistheeditor ask ye shall receive

Although thinking back on it, I guess not a lot were dashed, only one really, but it's a whole connected thing in my head so it meant many details had to change, which felt like a lot to me.

Dashed Theory

He was found by Egeria in the human world

So originally, I imagined that after the hydro sovereign withered away and died, Neuvillette was born as an heir to the sovereign. He was born as a human (enkanomiya prophecy), but he quite obviously doesn't look completely human so his parents freaked out and just tossed him into the sea (what else do you do with what you think is a cursed child? come on people, this is me we're talking about, we need angst). Time passed, Egeria found him all alone, and she took to raising him as her own.

New Theory

He was found by Egeria in the Light Realm (or wherever it is the vishaps disappeared to after the fight with the Primordial One)

With this, hydro sovereign still withers and dies, Neuvillette is still born in the human world and gets tossed into the sea, BUT he is found by the vishaps very early on (like, same day or a few days after instead of after quite some time). The vishaps take him back with them to their world/realm and try (and fail) to raise him. Egeria is exploring this realm (why? idk, reasons. to study or something, idk), which I imagine to be very very dark and near impossible to see in, when this little kid finds her and starts to talk to her. She makes a connection with this kid, figures out he's the hydro sovereign's heir but he really isn't that bad at all, he's just a kid. Stuff happens (I could elaborate but man i gotta get it all straightened out in a google doc first), but the important thing to note is that after a few years he goes back with her to the human realm, and she raises him as her own.

Explanation

The whole reason I had this change is really inconsequential when it comes down to it, but it's the line "You will see much in the human world". That, to me at least, implies that he is going to the human world for the first time or is otherwise experiencing the human world for the first time; basically, that he didn't live there originally and was either brought there or travelled there himself.

I like to think that line and the whole phrase it's a part of is a summary or paraphrase of a prophecy made in Fontaine surrounding the heir to the hydro sovereign. Enkanomiya has it's prophecy, who's to say other regions, especially the region of hydro, won't have their own prophecies concerning the hydro sovereign's heir?

I like to think it was Furina paraphrasing Fontaine's prophecy to Neuvillette at some point after Egeria came back with the hydro sovereign's heir following after her. Why? I'm not sure, maybe she was trying to connect with him, or tell him he's destined for great things to bring his spirits up, who knows.

Of course, if it's a prophecy, and a paraphrase at that, he still very much could have been born and stayed in the human realm, but it's much more fun to imagine this little dragon kid living in the world of vishaps and meeting his first human (or human-like figure) and being completely fascinated with her, and sort of just following her around like a puppy.

[de1-os]

i'll bite, whats the story about why you turned down those coms?

okay I wroite a whole response and everything but then my pc refused to connect to my router so I ahve to rewrite. all of it so I'm gonna try a keep it as thorough but short as possible

The 2nd one was requested a couple years ago (sweating nervously I wonder if it's been too recent to talk about it) but yeah this is when i did paypal only commissions on my old acc. The request was for me to draw a. Ok I don't know the semantics of the character's race but he's White and From Japan (like, the setting of the story, he was born and raised in Japan iirc).

^ this guy. he also has a wolf form with the same color scheme

and the requester asked me to draw his wolf form as a "Djinn" (shirtless, magic lamp, turban and all). Which. I was not comfortable with! And I was like "idk dude I don't think I draw something like that esp. because I don't. Know anything about Djinn." and they insisted and explained to me what a Djinn was and gave me examples of what they wanted, and tbh I don't remember if I was like "Seriously. No." or if I stopped responding entirely but they never contacted me again.

I looked up the person's url during this whole interaction and apparently they've publicly requested (and I assume commissioned) other artists to draw various other anime characters as "djinn" (which. the most distinct one I remember was Mt. Lady from BnHA.) and Only That. And it's just. it's feels at best cultural appropriation and at worst race fetishization (maybe not the precise phrases that describes what I mean, but if it gets the point across....) to me.

-----------

The 1st commission I've ever rejected (and mind you the 1st one I got ever), I got back in late 2016. Despite having a tumblr at the time I only really posted my art on DeviantArt (and Google+ but I digress). I decided to open commissions after an internet friend of mine explained to me how it works (and the prices were horrendously low, like maximum $10 low, but I was like 12-13 years old) and I mostly did requests anyways.

Anyways this guy (and I still have the screenshots I sent my friends at the time, referring to them for accuracy) sends me a really polite message (like. waaay overly formal) asking me to draw Kumatetsu from The Boy and The Beast but "shrunk" and him going about his daily life in his shrunken form in oversized clothes. But like. this guy was really insistent about the specifics of how this character looked when "dwarfed". and was like "I Will Negotiate to get this art" (paraphrasing) and also asked for a comic about How this character was shrunk "if I wanted to" (paraphrasing). Which. 13 year old me had no idea how to take this??

I checked out his account and found a lot of art (reuploads of art he requested/commissioned I believe). And like, at the time I had no idea what it was but it was fetish art. A whole bunch of it. Baby/diaper stuff, shrunken characters, inflation??, uhm. Large. Feet? etc. of. children's show characters.

Which, t. to each their own abt their fetishes/paraphilias/fixations and what they post in their personal online spaces (the block button is free) but the actual issue in this situation was that this was an Adult Man (30s at the time, I believe) asking a 13 year old to draw fetish art for him, and even insisted that he would do Anything to negotiate getting that art. While it wasn't sexually explicit, that's like. really fucked up!!! I even actually drew out part of the commission before deciding to just not accept any money for it because it felt too weird and gross to me.

While this was like 7 years ago I still wouldn't accept the commission if I got it now. If you're going to commission fetish art from someone commission an artist who also has that fetish and isn't a minor.

Anyways that's the only 2 times I've every rejected someone's commission before.

[at-thestillpoint]

Hi!! I love your writing! And I was wondering how you set a scene like the actual setting. I feel like my setting is always lacking and that the readers won’t understand the atmosphere i’m setting or wont know where the setting is taking place. Sorry if this makes no sense.

First of all, thank you so much! Secondly, this makes total sense! 

Response under a cut because this got very, very long. 

One big caveat before I begin my ramble: I am not an expert at all. Other than one intro creative writing class many moons ago and reading George Saunders’s A Swim in a Pond in the Rain more recently, I have not studied the craft of creative writing. Everything I’m sharing is based on me futzing my way through. 

Okay, with that out of the way, on to my ramble: 

I think it’s brilliant that you’ve named two aspects of setting: The fact of it (where it’s taking place) and the experience of it (the atmosphere). I’m going to take them piece by piece, because I think they are separate but very related steps. 

The fact of setting: I read somewhere once (possibly in relation to writing smut? lmao) to think about the five senses, and I’ve found that helpful for both smut and setting. Combine those with the five Ws and I have my recipe for determining the setting: Where are they? What does it look like? What does it smell like? What does it sound like? And how, and why?

Do I go through all of these steps every time? Not at all. But they’re helpful for me to picture things.

I also spend a lot of time on Google Maps Street View and Zillow and even Yelp. I do a lot of research, because I can’t seem to just make things up, and having pictures of a character’s house or the exact seven miles they run or the exact floral arrangement at a wedding helps me ground the description.

The experience of setting: Once I know where the characters are, I can now see it through their eyes, hear it through their ears, smell—you get the picture. For me, because I write almost exclusively in third person limited, what actually gets put on the page is (or should be, anyway) entirely determined by what the POV character is sensing, feeling, and noticing. If they don’t see it, hear it, smell it, touch it, or—most importantly—care about it, it doesn’t get described. 

For example, in the first scene of california sand (I’m sorry if you’re coming to me from a different fandom!), I describe basically nothing about the wedding reception. Because Jake doesn’t give a shit. He notices the people around him because he’s slightly worried about causing a scene, but before he’s even in the room, he’s 99.99% focused on Natasha. And the strange hands on her back. Later on, I spend a lot of time describing San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Dipsea Trail hike that I make them go on. This was partly driven by my own yen for California, but this was mostly Jake noticing things about Natasha’s hometown, taking time to see this place she loves. All to show he’s a big ol’ softie.

On atmosphere, specifically: Call me a close reading English major, but I think the second part of the experience of setting, and the part that is foundational to atmosphere, is the actual words: how the prose affects how the reader experiences the setting. There’s an incredible post floating around Tumblr about how (and I’m grossly paraphrasing here) sentence structure helps create feeling. (i.e. Short sentences are anxious. Longer, more meandering sentences take you on a different kind of journey, which could be soothing, or could be aimless, or are the thing that drills deep into the marrow of the character.) I think the same is true at the word level, though the extent of that is bound by the actual definition of the word. Small words are crisp. Melodic words create an entirely different feel. Though I love it immensely, I wouldn’t just use “diaphanous” willy nilly: only when describing things that are actually diaphanous or when I’m trying to create a dreamlike, whimsical, filtered feeling. So these are things I consider, especially when editing.

One piece of feedback I remember vividly from that intro creative writing class was to stay in a moment longer. So that’s what I always come back to. Have I stayed in this moment long enough, in a way that makes sense for the character? 

All of that said: Setting doesn’t come naturally to me, so I have had to actively think about how to create it, and I’m still not sure if I strike the right balance or integrate it naturally in my writing. I’m consistently awed by and envious of writers who manage to incorporate setting into their prose so naturally that I hardly notice it’s being described at all. I think I can still tend toward clunky and chunky (that is, I describe setting, then thought, then dialogue and action, etc. instead of it all being woven together). There are many, many, many writers who do the weaving well, but I’ll shout out @goddesspharo in particular, whom I consider a masterclass in what I’ll call woven prose. 

One last unsolicited note (sorry!): For the most part, trust your readers to get it! They’re going to miss things you intended (and that’s okay!), and they’re going to pick up on things you had no idea you were doing (and that, for me, is honestly the most incredible experience).

[twdmusicboxmystery]

did you see the piece saying DDs spinoff must avoid one fatal story? fairly long, but basically concluded a romance would ruin the story line already set up with connie :)) how much clearer do you need than D saying you seem happy and C replying i am! there is a story line already set up. they just don't realize with whom :))

Lol. I hadn't seen it, but I googled and found it:

I really just glanced through it, but a couple of things that jumped out at me.

First, it compares the idea of Daryl having a romance to the Leah storyline and says that him having another affair with a stranger/new character would be stupid and repetitive. (I'm paraphrasing here.) But they specifically focus on the idea of it being with a "new" character. So, what if instead it's an old character he already had a a romance of sorts with? I'm just saying.

Second, I've told this story before, but I'm gonna tell it again, because it applies here. This is one of those articles we're pretty sure tptb themselves--the highest ones, meaning Gimple and Kang--supply content for, and they always use these platforms for misdirection. Case in point: back between S6 and S7, when everyone was wondering who Negan's victims were, I read an article similar to this. It tried hard to convince the audience that Daryl would be be Negan's victim because, in the comic books, Abraham is Rick's right hand guy and confident, and Daryl isn't even in them. So, they said the show would kill off Daryl and Abraham would take his "rightful" place at Rick's side.

Now, this was years ago and I wasn't as well versed in how tptb work, or how they use these types of articles. So I remember being a little nervous and thinking, "they wouldn't do that, would they?"

Of course they wouldn't. For SO many reasons. But none of them are the point. The point is that not only were they wrong and Daryl didn't die, but Abraham specifically WAS one of Negan's victims. So, what they said was the EXACT OPPOSITE of the truth.

Now apply that to this article. See what I mean?

So yeah, thanks for sharing this. And I had to LOL at the idea of a storyline that is "fatal" to a ship. That happened years ago for Caryl. And I totally agree that whether Daryl does or doesn't have another romance here, it's not really the "fatal" blow to Donnie. That happened a long time ago, too, when Daryl told Carol flat out he didn't have romantic feelings for Connie.

But what do we know? We're just shippers too, right? Shippers who have been right more times than any other niche of the fandom, but still. We couldn't possibly know what we're talking about, right? 😉😂

Xoxo! 💌💕

[stgroversfire]

LOOOONG fnaf sb ruin post here. lots of criticism and thoughts no one cares about, and of course spoilers.

take it all with a grain of salt, because while i know a lot about the story, i'm a 23 year old that got into the franchise 8 years ago and i havent actively kept up with the lore since fnaf 6.

and because in researching more for this post i found out there's key lore points in the fucking books and i'm not reading a glorified manual to understand the story of a game i paid 40 bucks for.

i want to be kinder to fnaf sb ruin, but i still feel disappointed.

from a gameplay standpoint, it was, of course, a VASTLY improved game. this is a tumblr post not a review, so i'll keep it short, but by god did the dlc actually have intention and vision that the original lacked, with a lot less bugs (more than i find acceptable, but the bar was low here so i'm taking the W). the core gameplay mechanics actually felt like they belonged in the game and made the experience better, and this free dlc went a long way to making sb's $40 price tag closer to worth it.

the atmosphere was stunning to me- much creepier and like it actually belonged in a horror game. the free roam aspect being less painfully redundant and more linear was a great improvement for player experience. the AR mechanic was maybe a touch cluttered, but i still loved it and was glad to see creative ideas implemented without obvious scope creep.

story wise... well, i'm quite sure i must be missing something. after sb i had so many questions, and i think like one of them is answered. there's something to be said about fnaf sticking to its guns and keeping a lot of lore up to speculation, but i haven't fully grasped what the fuck is happening since pizzeria sim.

it's probably a bit soon after release to be shitting on the story but uh. i still don't know who tf gregory is or his relevancy to the plot. i don't know who cassie is or her relevancy to the plot. i liked her character but it felt like a skeleton of a story. every relationship felt too threadbare to justify character actions (although retrospectively there is something to be said about the actions of children being impulsive). and while it's not inherently bad, i personally don't love every piece of her backstory being some one off line that is never explored (i.e. paraphrasing "this faz wrench is like my dads!" and "maybe your friends will come next time").

i was fascinated by the mimic as an antagonist, and relieved to see anyone but springtrap, but having to google who he was and why he randomly changed forms in the scooper ending (??? did i miss something?) to understand the dlc kind of killed a lot of excitement for me. really great design though, and even if it was a bit obvious i enjoyed the whole mimicking gregory thing.

as for the endings: i'm a bit confused as to why gregory would frantically try to save cassie, only to attempt to kill her off. i'm also not sure why he knows about the mimic in the first place. i have my own theories, sure, but speculation doesn't mean much when the concrete scenes we got gave us nothing. i really wanted more information on gregory and frustratingly ended with more goddamned questions. the scooper ending was cool, even if it confused the shit outta me. fredbear ending was uh. actually very creepy to me and probably my favorite of the bunch. the dichotomy of the cheery music and graphics vs cassie's terrified breathing was creepy af and i wish that wasn't just the joke ending.

i'm losing steam here so i'll try to wrap up. all in all, i went into ruin mostly blind and was really hoping for any kind of wrap up on who gregory is (adding here that im now aware that's in the books, but i really really hate the idea of supplemental paid reading for a paid video game), and while i don't hate cassie, i was a little disappointed to see any expansion on the original story. the gameplay was such a different and improved experience i can't believe it came from the same studio.

and despite me absolutely ripping into this thing, i'm really excited to see more from steel wool and scott. help wanted 2 should be a much less disjointed experience, with some really cool tie ins to vanny (if i understand the lore at all)

EDIT: I FORGOT ABOUT THE VANNI SYSTEM. the bunny enemy was very fucking well designed, made complete sense with the story while also preventing the player from staying in AR too long, and fixed a lot of what made the original animatronic AIs feel extremely janky. that creepy bunny guy takes the game from like. a 5/10 to a 7/10.

if you made it this far i'm sorry you read all that and i hope your day is as wonderful as you are, much love.

[mcalhenwrites]

Are they named after trees and plants and such? Idk seemed familiar

Some are, yes! :D Long post ahead. :') So simple explanation but dragons are keepers/protectors of their region, which could be a section of a continent or an entire planet. Depends on the dragon's experience and size of region/planet. Now, humans have sometimes named dragons, and those names stick. Humans don't know about all dragons, so you'll have some with more complicated names. Tessa's name? Not her actual name! No one would be able to decipher it. ;) Here's a conversation between Niven and Tessa:

          “Did Methla teach you how to talk in human tongue? And what is your real name?” Nearly all the humans who had ever heard the language of dragons lived thousands of years ago. Not even priests and priestesses could claim they had ever heard it.

          She responded to the last question first, using a guttural noise that filled the air like the rush of a waterfall. Niven had to clap his hands over his ears. Despite that, he grinned.

          “And yes, I learned your language from Methla,” said Tessa casually as he lowered his arms.

          “Humans could not speak their names, and so placeholders were found.” Niven paraphrased the common knowledge all children learned in the nursery. He giggled. “Does that mean you didn’t know we called you Tessa until Methla told you?”

          Tessa snorted so much that it created small waves in the water in front of her. They lapped against Niven’s rock stack.

          “It’s a simple name, yes. So is your language. It has had so much time to evolve, and yet you have not the words for some emotions, no word for the tickle of a tail touching scales.” Her lips curled into what must have been a dragon’s smile.

Anyway, humans sometimes go with "what a dragon seems keen on" too. One of my dragons, Dirkka, likes... Dirks. Swords. Knives. Sheathes. (Dragons, hoarding? Yes haha~) Mind, he's equally touched when humans offer him sentimental items of no monetary value, like their children's first cut locks of hair. My art post included Bircha, for instance, and the birch tree influence. I'm glad I finally got to draw him. That led to a funny convo with a friend, who didn't know the word for birch tree in English but still sent me a picture of birch trees to say Bircha reminded her of them. :') Afensi isn't really in a fen, but it's a marsh-like area, and I came up with a name around "fen" easiest. Mydas is interesting, because if you look at his design and hop on google images to search "mydas"... okay wtf I'm getting bugs now, I'll add "sea" - AH THERE WE GO:

(Apparently google has figured out I like to identify bugs, so that must've skewed my results.) Mydas is the name of the planet he built, and the seasons are divided by sea turtle breeding patterns. (Which aren't super realistic, based on my research, but it's a fictional world/that's the system I wanted.) I also have Tempra, who looks over a region called the Spicewood, and it is a temperate rainforest! So yes, location/plants/etc usually do have a lot to do with their names. Just not for all of them. There are a lot of planets. Dragons have had planets destroyed on them (main plot of The Hostile Credence, and it's an unfortunate ending to the planet the first story, The Will of the Whispering, takes place on) and have to rebuild, or they go work on a new one, what of it? Their looks often change if their tastes do. :') They're basically a bunch of artists having a blast with building planets in space together. They also make space highways by the time humans start traveling in space. :D Some are named really affectionately, I think that's where Affie's name comes from. She's about the size of a bobcat, maybe slightly bigger, and just walks into random houses in her region and spends the night. Basically like a neighborhood cat that no one owns. She accepts wine offerings. So drunk aunt cat who crashes at random houses? (They love her, and she's one of the most commonly seen dragons on that planet, whereas others are elusive. No one actually knows Vionne exists.) I love talking about my dragons so much, sorry for the huge reponse haha

[nolivingunderstarlight]

Can't make this shit up

For full context: as someone with a degree in equine science, the horse industry is remarkably small and found in specific locations. Back in the day, I put my information in with a horse-specific staffing agency, just to see what might come of it. In 2021, they headhunted me specifically for a breeding farm manager job in Nevada. The job, on paper, was exactly what I've always dreamed of doing. The pay was good, came with on site housing and housing for our horses, and the facilities were awesome at first glance. We sold our house, packed up our lives and our three horses, and moved across the country. And for a while, it was really good. The horses were cool on the whole, the people I worked with were very nice and supportive, and I was getting to do the things I love.

Unfortunately.

The farm owner is a very rich white woman with nothing to do all day but think about her horses, plan things for her mansion, doomsday prep, and fall deep into conspiracy theories. In the last year, she's gotten significantly worse. I am not talking about political conspiracy theories either. I'm talking "there is a group of people who control the weather, and they are making the climate change in order to starve everyone" and "everything that might have come from big pharma cannot be trusted but this thing I read about on the internet from three other wackadoodles is gonna save everyone's life" and "society is going to collapse soon and the only things that will have any value are shelf-stable foods and gold bars." (I only paraphrased the first two. That third one is nearly verbatim.)

It progressed to:

Lying about vaccinating the horses so that they are protected but she has no idea

Having to defend veterinarian prescribed pain management for a horse with a broken foot because she wanted us to use "all natural" pain management that would not have been anywhere near strong enough and could have resulted in life-threatening complications

Lying about most of the times we had to use antibiotics

Lying about when horses are sick and we had to institute quarantine protocols, just so she won't try to come up with an "all natural" treatment and stop us from doing what the vet said to do

Her pulling the free choice mineral blocks in favor of free choice feeding a mineral supplement that delivers more than the daily recommended amount of selenium in each ounce (so free choice means an adult horse could eat up to 8x the recommended amount of selenium per day. Chronic selenium toxicity causes hair and hoof sloughing. Acute selenium toxicity causes neurological damage and death. And we have babies on the farm who could easily eat enough of the minerals to cause serious harm including death)

Her insisting we treat sick horses by feeding them colloidal silver and developing a protocol to give them regular colloidal silver to "prevent infections" (Colloidal silver is great at topical wound treatment but is toxic to eat, as silver is a heavy metal that the body can't process very well. It can build up and cause organ damage)

Her buying boxes of Borax for everyone to eat because she read that it can prevent rheumatoid arthritis and cancer (Please google if Borax is safe to eat so you can also be horrified that she's literally encouraging us to poison ourselves)

I was already looking to get out during the selenium and colloidal silver situations, but the Borax was very much the final straw. However, we lived on site. Our housing, and the horses' housing, was dependent on my job.

So we did the only thing we could do - we bought a house and moved ourselves and the horses there as fast as possible. I thought I might be able to stick out working there while job hunting, but boy could I not. Because I spoke out against, y'know, poisoning animals and people, I was being shut out of everything except the day to day tasks, not being able to make decisions or even being consulted about anything. Also, because I have always drawn my work-life boundaries very firmly, and my coworkers did not, they kept getting voluntold to do things in their off time - creating resentment. It was obvious that if they could manage to sucker someone else in to replace me, I'd be fired.

So. We're safe. We have a lovely little house. The horses are safe. Nadra is still at training (for now), and the three boys are here with us. But we did have to spend a lot of our savings getting here, and now I am between jobs.

And so I come to you, tumblr, if anyone is listening - I have this little etsy shop where I sell stuff I make: https://littlehorsedesigns.etsy.com

You can find jewelry, decorative horseshoes, and horse halters there right now. Coming soon: dice bags inspired by Critical Role! Other yarn crafts!

It would mean the world to me if you could share this, also if you see something you like and wanted to buy it! Or if you see something you like but want a custom version, let me know!

[just-missunderst00d]

So I found this post on Threads and it got me thinking... So fuck it, here are some "rules" I fuckin despise

(I replied there but I wanna go a bit more in depth)

• Threefold rule/rule of three: though I do believe in... universal retribution? Sometimes you gotta be someone's retribution. I've seen way too many good people suffer through horrible things that they didn't deserve, and even more horrible people never pay for the harm they've caused others. It's more like a "do no (unprovoked) harm" IMO

• "You can't work with deities from different pantheons" and/or "you can't work with deities that don't like each other": Deities are far more complex than humans, and most of them can tolerate each other for the sake of their devotees. As always, just be mindful about the deities you choose to work with and their personalities.

• On a similar note "you have to believe in/work with deities": no, you don't. Atheist witches exist. And even if you believe in deities, you don't have to work with them if you don't want to. Your spell work isn't going to be less powerful because of that.

• "you can't mix and match types of magic": give me a break. If you like using runes to communicate with your Christian deities because that's the tool that works best for you and they answer that way, more power to you. Do what works for you. Just be mindful about it and don't be sticking your nose where you're not supposed to (looking at you, people who fuck around with closed practices).

• Correspondences (so much bs around what thing is what). Correspondences are not the same for everyone. For example: I love carnations. They've always been one of my favorite flowers. If my bf gifted me a carnation bouquet, I'll most definitely use those carnations in love spells because that's what I associate those carnations with. I don't care if you associate them with death or whatever (they're very popular in cemeteries where I live). Context matters.

• Feminine/masculine energy: there's SO MUCH sexism behind that. It's a lot to unpack here.

• "spells need to be well thought of and can't be improvised": once again, if that's what works best for you, that's great! In my case, I have countless spells that I've "designed", you know how many of them I did? None. You wanna know which ones I did and worked best? The one's where I've been like "okay, I need to achieve [intent] so let's see..." and mushed a bunch of things together, with whatever felt right at the moment, said a couple words, several profanities and ta-da! Worked like a charm (pun intended). So yea, to each their own.

• "you have to be initiated", whether its done by someone else or yourself, "you have to have a ritualistic initiation": my initiation was adding "baby witch" to my Tumblr bio lol is that ritualistic enough for y'all? Tbh the whole initiation bit feels a bit gatekeepy for me. As I've been saying, if you've done it because you wanted to do it, then that's amazing, but expecting eeeveryoooneee to do it as well is weird, idk.

• Related to the last one "you have to have a coven": my small-town, socially traumatized, opinionated, anxious ass couldn't handle it. I won't deny that being a self-taught witch feels lonely at times but I don't think I could just join a coven just because I "need" it. If I ever found a place that makes me feel welcome and whatnot, maybe I'll consider it but even then... Paraphrasing Cher "men covens are a luxury, not a necessity."

• "you have to have a grimoire/book of shadows": my AHDH won't allow it, sorry. I can't keep track of it and honestly I've tried everything lol a traditional notebook, a side blog, the notes app on my phone, docs on my PC... I just can't keep up with it. My grimoire is mostly in my head and that's where it works best. I'm not planning on "passing it along" so... And if I ever need to refresh something, I can almost always google it.

• back to deity-related rules "offerings need to be done in a ritualistic/specific way and you can't eat them/throw them into the trash": once again, depends on who you're working with and the occasion. There was a time I was working with 5 different deities (3 of "my own" plus 2 "borrowed ones", for a lack of better words) and I was making offerings for them every week, meaning almost an offering everyday and honestly who has the time for making that super extra? Not me. They knew that and understood. The same way they understand when I can't provide an offering for whatever reason. But again, that's depending on your relationship with your deities.

• "Meditation/visualization is a must": yea, that's not it and it's kind of ableist when you think about it. Some neurodivergent people can't meditate/our meditations aren't the same as other's. As well, some people are literally incapable of visualizing pictures in their mind as they can only think in words. More so, even the people who can visualize pictures can sometimes see unclear pictures/outlines/shadows. Not everyone is capable of creating FULL HD 4K images inside their brains and "mental clarity" isn't a thing when your "train of thought" is the equivalent to the entire public transportation system of Buenos Aires, with interceptions, connecting routes and lines that are out of service due to mechanical issues. So yes, if you can't mediate/visualize, don't give it much though and focus on what works for you ok, I'm done with the puns

There's probably a lot more that I can't remember so that's it for now.

I didn't proofread this so I apologize not for anything that doesn't make much sense, it's currently 1:14 am and I wanna go to sleep.

Yes, I'm a chaos witch, how did you know?

Anyways, blessed be ✨