#in fact infodumps may help your creature get in!! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

maybe-arts · 2 months

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Hi maybeher0! If I’m not too late for the ask game, any combo of ⚡️💥🪄🔮🦋 for any oc(s)?

nononono you're not late at all!! in fact yall are welcome to send more, i haven't got a lot of those and would love to ramble (the post is here for anyone wondering)

anyways, let's spin the wheel and see who comes up!

(legitimately gonna set up a pickerwheel for this thing lmao)

(the reason the wheel is uneven is those who i actually have designs on hand or drew at least once are given more priority)

⚡️ (Lightning Bolt) - Which Power Effects [Blizzard, Bluster, Sizzle, Splash, Zap] would their attacks grant? Do they have any particular weaknesses or resistances, elemental or otherwise?

spinny wheel said this one is for Nova

Nova has the same Copy ability Kirby does, so by default their attacks have no elemental property and depend on whichever ability they currently possess. Given how by the time Nova arrives, Kirby is capable to switch abilities without needing a catalyst (aka without swallowing anything/anyone) and Gooey is able to do the same, but within a single moveset, I'd imagine adult Nova would be able to infuse their own weapon abilities with element from get go. Yknow, best of all worlds!

In the same vein, they don't have many elemental weaknesses. Astrals are tough creatures by their nature, made to be able to withstand absurdly extreme enviroments, so Nova isn't affected a lot by temperatures. in terms of matter/magic, they may be a touch weak to Dark as of now, due to their origin/core memory, but I'd imagine they will grow more resistant to it in the future.

💥 (Collision) - What’s your OC’s combat style like? Do they adhere to any particular code of honour or ethics in a fight, or are they totally unfettered by that sort of thing?

a big surprise! I don't think i've showed Debbie on this blog yet XD (for reference, she's Kawasaki's daughter that i based on the disguise Kirby and Dedede did in the first novel)

Debbie is more of a support fighter, like her dad, Vividria or Adeleine. She prefers to stay away from direct combat and use her baking/cooking skills to keep her allies alive and well. Not exactly a healer, but somewhere around that matter.

I do imagine a frying pan to the noggin as emergency self-defense would still hurt a lot tho.

🪄 (Magic Wand) - Are they capable of wielding magic? Is it a learned skill, or is it innate? What sorts of spells can they cast? Do they possess any magical items or artifacts? [e.g. the Dimensional Mantle]

wheel, why. I already talked a lot about Beamee's hurdles with magic, I wanted to choose someone else PLEASE.

Beamee is half-Doo, as you may know. In my kirbyverse, Waddle Dees, despite having strongly Zap-inclined Waddle Doos as closest relative species, are strongly magically insulated, meaning they're naturally incapable of wielding or conducting magic of any type on their own. (Tool-based abilities like Parasol, Archer or Spear do not count, this is all skill and/or weapon enchantment.)

And then there's Beamee.

Technically she can wield Zap elemental magic in form of Beam, but her Beam is... wonky at best. Plus her magical insulation as a Dee means she's having a hard time to actually focus and release the pent-up energy, leading to frequent migraines.

Tabitha made a small rod for her to help alleviate these issues, thankfully. Also the tiny girlfriends did talk at length about Beamee's magical troubles here:

(Tabitha LOVES to infodump about research.)

🔮 (Crystal Ball) - Out of all the treasures in the Great Cave Offensive, Kirby is letting your OC pick one from his stash to keep! Which one do they pick, and why?

If the wheel picks Beamee, Nova or Chiffon, I'm rerolling this thing.

...and it's none of those! It's Hooddini, my marxolor accidental fankid.

Hoodie would probably really like this thing:

He's a firm believer in luck, given circumstances or his "birth" (that being a "happy accident") so he collects a lot of things that bring good luck. Plus, this one reminds him of his cat dad!

🦋 (Butterfly) - Does your OC ‘fear the reaper’, so to speak? If they fused with Morpho Knight, what sort of form would they take on?

(offtopic but it's funny how on mobile app this emoji is a blue butterfly, but on website it's an orange one)

Almost wanted to not spin bc I actually do have a character in mind, but...

it's not the one I thought of, but it'll do.

As a child, Mona doesn't essentially fear death - mostly because they didn't encounter it personally. They did felt some sort of longing whenever a certain red butterfly was around.

As an adult tho, Mona still feels the same longing, but actively understands that it's not missing her mother, as she initially thought. It's more like she's missing being around a person that this butterfly reminds her of. (Gooey gets the same feeling, by the way. A trip to a certain retired knight does clarify some things once they learn about Nihil.)

As for the fused form, I gotta whip up CSP, hold on-

Here we go! A quick-ish sketch done. Morp becomes a magic witchknight bc I said so.

#kirby #kirby fandom #kirby oc #beamee #debbie #nova #mona #hooddini #in no particular order #morpho is fucking difficult to draw who made it i just wanna talk #i'm still open to oc questions btw!!

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fantasyforbeginners · 2 years

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hello! this is probably a question you've already answered before, but do you have any tips on how to introduce a fantasy world with new races, magic systems, and countries etc, without just infodumping in the first chapter?

in a story i'm working on, there are two races of characters who are very different from humans and don't appear in like. folklore or anything (ie they're completely made up), but since i don't want to infodump i end up sort of talking about them like the reader should already know who/what they are, and that's really confusing i think. i'm just not sure where i should put my information, there never really seems like a right time but i know it needs to be somewhere

any help is really appreciated, sorry if you've already received a question like this !

So this is something where character voice and distinctiveness is going to be your way out. A lot of this depends on your POV character(s) and how much they would notice about any given person and/or creature. If your POV character for some of these introduction scenes does not belong to either race, they can be an effective conduit for info dumping in a way that doesn't feel egregarious.

I'm assuming you're working on secondary (i.e. set in an entirely different fantasy world and everyone is from that same world) > portal or hidden world fantasy, so this advice is catered slightly accordingly.

However, the concept of an audience conduit is true for all of these. In portal or hidden world fantasy, this is the Ordinary / Secretly Special Kid who Discovers a Thing or Falls through some Portal and needs to get everything explained to them as a result of having literally no or very little context.

In secondary fantasy, this is often a character who's more naive or a little less worldly (think the Hobbits in LOTR) who although they inhabit this world, haven't seen too much of it first hand. ATLA also handles this very cleverly, as Aang educates Katara and Sokka about all the places they haven't been, and they can educate him about how the world has generally changed in the 100 years since he's been gone / about the war.

What I mean in terms of character voice is something like this:

In another life, the meadow would have awoken under her touch, with unfurled petals, blooming blades of grass, and warmth. But Ally just prodded the lifeless husk of grass with the frosted rim of her boot. She’d hoped the walk and crisp wintry air would clear her head after a restless night, but to no avail. She’d been off—well, more off-kilter all week. Why was it that the more important it was to sleep well, the harder it was to do?

(Fun fact, this is the first paragraph of my WIP).

Immediately we know there's a subverted expectation, a sense of loss of power (and what those powers may be), that my protagonist is worried about something, and that we're in a world that generally experiences a snowy form of winter. A lot of this is conveyed through subtext, but there's also plenty of tell. The next 10 pages are about establishing her Ordinary (extraordinary) life, her outsider perspective, and establishing the immediate and some of the possible future stakes these hold for her.

Again, what do we have to know in order to understand an immediate, personal issue, even for something vast and sprawling, in order to get us invested? Could be a relationship, could be a character, could be something to prove - but always best to start small and specific > broad and wordy.

As my first piece of formal advice, if I had to take a guess, is that likely you're trying to establish too many stakes too in-depth at once. It may be worth stepping back and thinking "What is the most important information that has to be there, and everything else is set dressing?" For myself, this meant establishing my protagonist's broken chosen one cycle and her personal stakes. The other sets of powers, the broader world (including whole countries), the long and complicated history of the lore... all didn't matter. Or at least, doesn't matter yet.

Ask yourself: What are the personal stakes for your POV character in the first 10 pages, and figure out what worldbuilding has to be included from there? Are they a merchant, a scientist, a knight? An outsider? And then you go from there, for every ten pages onwards. Figuring out what to add later for a bit more cohesiveness or foreshadowing can be a second draft thing, and it is okay for your reader to marinate in implications or not entirely answered questions for a little, too.

Additionally, if you're worried about tossing too many names and titles, you can generalize. We don't have to know the names of every country; if say, there's an issue with one in the north or south, you can say "The northern provinces are starting to complain," and that gives us details without giving us cumbersome details (at least this early on).

If your POV character, or one of them, belongs to one of the new species, there will still be variations (or not, which is very notable) between themselves and others within their race that they can notice. For example, is the POV's characters pointed ears smaller than others'? Are the horns or assortment of limbs different or uniform across the species in contrast to other features, like hair or skin or eyes, that might differ further?

For example, I have three different types of elves in my world, but they all look slightly different from each other and have different attitudes regarding their ears / whether ears can be pierced, should be covered by hair, etc. Little things like that that a character from any of the three types would draw attention to.

Of course, that can only really be done once details concerning that distinctiveness. And again, it's okay to give more general descriptions at first and go into more detail later. Quality > quantity. Some parts of exposition really are just info-dumping (aka a paragraph on how a certain race or even building or city looks) and there's no really getting around that, but the most important thing is spacing it out. Your reader can't take it all in at once and you don't have to write it all at once.

I have offered advice on how to create a sense of distinctiveness in worldbuilding in a pretty simple way (as you seem to be working in threes already, which may work out).

I hope this helps, happy writing, and feel free to pop into my DMs or inbox with more specifics if you'd like to chat more! <3

#writing advice #fantasy #worldbuilding #first chapters #advice #thanks for asking #anonymous #requests

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spectral-apparitions · 3 years

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Imagine: Aquarium Date with Your F/O

I started talking about aquarium dates in a discord chat and ended up really going off, so here’s those ideas rewritten to be more coherent!

Your f/o will point out fish or other creatures and say "that's you." Could be because it's a fish you said you like before, a fish that they think looks like you/your personality, that fish is acting like you, or it's a joke and they're pointing out the weirdest thing in the tank

Taking pictures of the fish and taking selfies in front of the tanks! Are you both into it or does one of you think it’s a bit silly to keep moving trying to get a good selfie with the fish in the background? If you’re wanting to take pictures, your f/o is patient and lets you take your time, and they’d love to look back through the photos later. Or maybe they’re the photographer, picking out fish they want to photograph and trying to get good shots.

Do either of you read the little signs with info about the fish? If you've got a nerdy f/o them just getting SO interested in reading about the fish and watching them and you can see their excitement. If they're already a nerd about fish, infodumping to you about the different species, their behavior, how to keep them in a tank, etc

Maybe the two of you try to find every species on the list in the tank, or try to count how many fish are in there.

If you are excited about fish, they love to see it! They think you're very cute when you're excited and they're so happy to see you like that. Even if they don't much care for aquariums, they’re able to enjoy and appreciate it all because of how happy you are!

And if you know some fish and sea facts, they'd love to listen to you. They’re so impressed by how much you know and they love that you can explain these things to them and make it interesting to learn!

Maybe you're both nerds and you rattle off facts to each other, forgetting to keep your voices down as you get excited talking with each other

Or maybe neither of you know anything about fish but you're reading the info boards to each other and discussing. You're learning about the exhibits together. Do you take time to read everything and learn? Or do you just want to find species names and identify them in the tank? Or maybe you don't care and just want to watch the lovely creatures next to each other

The lighting:

Freshwater exhibits are usually well lit, but sea exhibits tend to be dimmer. Especially when you get into deep sea and sea floor exhibits. Usually the area you walk in is dimly lit so the fish aren't disturbed and so the tanks can look brighter/easier to see, and like the light is usually blue, sometimes either the light fixtures or where light comes through the tanks make water patterns in the room

So just. Imagine how your f/o looks in that. With soft lights and shadows rolling over them. Maybe you look over at them as they're looking at the fish and you can take in their expression. Are they excited, mouth opening in gasps and smiles, eyes wide and shining? Or maybe they're a quiet interested, soft face and eyes intently following the movements of fish.

If they've got any part of them that glows, seeing that soft light of their own in the dim light. How it looks against all the blue, how no matter what fish and people are around you, they stand out. Do they glow enough that some fish come over to check them out?

Or if they're got any metal parts the way the light reflects on them. It's different from how bright lights bounce off of them.

And also, your f/o looking at you in that light. And thinking you're so beautiful. Maybe you catch them staring. Maybe they tell you how nice you look- all these vibrant fish and you're still the most eye-catching thing to them. Maybe they give you a kiss because they can't help themself

If there are any playful animals like dolphins or octupi (or even some fish you wouldn't think of!) that come up to the glass and try to interact, do you or your f/o interact with them? Wouldn't they be cute waving at an animal that came up to them and talking to it

Aquariums are usually chilly (in my experience anyways) so having extra reason to hold hands or lean into each other

Petting pools!

Stingrays, small sharks, horseshoe crabs...Do you want to pet them? Does your f/o want to pet them? Maybe someone touching them for the first time and getting excited that they get to pet the animal. Or having touched them before and being excited to get to do it again. Or! Someone having not pet them before and is nervous, the other calmer one gently guiding their hand out to and on the animal

Does your f/o love petting the animals and wants to stay just a little longer or are they ready to move on to the next exhibit? Would they try to flick water at you when they get their hand out of the tank?

Do either of you make fish puns relentlessly

If you have an f/o who hasn't been exposed to much sea life (being reclusive, from another planet/dimension, etc) how do they react to everything? Do they think it's cool? Weird? Are they in awe or maybe scared?

What if we...kissed in [exhibit]? Haha jk...unless? Do either of you want to kiss or take pictures at any specific exhibit? Are there any creatures you’re hoping to take a selfie with? Any exhibits you don't have plans for but just really want to go see?

Does your f/o pull you around excitedly to their favorite (or all) exhibits? Or maybe you're leading them around. Do they want to take their time at each one, or spend more time just at their favorites? Or maybe there's no plan and you just roam around to different exhibits as you find them

If you sit on a bench, watching the fish and being with your love might get one of you so calm they doze off, even more likely in a chilly or dark exhibit. If that’s you, your f/o lets you doze for a few minutes, pleased that you’re so content and happy to be there with you.

On topics of gifts, are they more the type to give you something to remind you of something specific? Like getting you a plush of your favorite animal, or getting you a plush or model of the one that you both poked fun at. Or something more like a trinket, like a pressed penny or a magnet with the aquarium on it? Do they buy anything for themselves or do they just care about getting something for you?

And would you buy anything for them? Whatever you get they'd surely be happy with, because it's from you and anytime they look at it they can think about spending the day with you

You may be tired when the visit is over, but your f/o is just so glad that they got to spend time with you, and hope you enjoyed your time too. They’ll remember it fondly. <3

#writing #imagines #self ship imagine #f/o imagine #long post #man I haven't been to an aquarium in years and i'm trying to convince my family to visit one for a day when we go to the beach later #this summer #but I'd love to go with my f/os;;;#There are so many fun things about aquariums and I tried to touch on as much as I could!

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musashi · 2 years

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I posted 9,720 times in 2021

3208 posts created (33%)

6512 posts reblogged (67%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 2.0 posts.

I added 6,628 tags in 2021

#song of the hero - 1931 posts

#wordy wendy - 1426 posts

#to the sky - 744 posts

#wendy answers - 716 posts

#anonymous - 467 posts

#linkedu - 446 posts

#courage never forgotten - 281 posts

#1000 lifetimes - 230 posts

#like no one ever was - 199 posts

#hand of sorrow - 188 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#you fight for good and you keep fighting no matter how bad things get. you believe in people so much and it doesn’t even make u look stupid

My Top Posts in 2021

okay since its fi loving hours, do you have a favorite optional bit of fi dialogue? a favorite statistic? and/or a favorite enemy analysis?

optional fi dialogue:

"On slippery slopes, you may lose your footing and slide down on your backside. Quite gracefully, I'm sure, Master."

"As you may have observed during your time as one, human beings are not a species that can stay underwater for long periods of time."

"However, because of its size and weight, I do not believe it could be carried by a human. No offense intended, I assure you."

"I suggest you cease being scared and speak to her."

"I have identified the item that the... highly unusual man on Fun Fun Island says was lost."

"Master... unless you plan to carry the tub on your back, now is not the time to be picky about who will help you."

(^ she asks if you want to call Scrapper and if you say 'not that guy' this is how she responds. but fun fact, if you tell her 'sure' she asks a second time if you want to call him just to confirm, and if you say 'not that guy' the second time, she has slightly different fialogue where she says 'despite your warranted reservations--' which is so fucking funny to me, Link is like HIM??? and Fi is like "look dude, i know, but--")

"She hates housecleaning but adores antiques. I recommend keeping a safe distance from her."

"Master, your interest in this young woman is clear. I can see your aura shining brightly with joy in her presence. ...I strongly recommend that you do not mention this when you next encounter Zelda."

"You may not know this, but human beings are not a species that can survive in extremely high-temperature environments."

best statistics:

"I can verify with only 40% accuracy that this person is a plant, however--"

The probability of your assessment being correct is... 10%. Rounded up."

"The probability of this life-form being Zelda is 5%, so I must conclude that this is, in fact, not Zelda but a peaceful forest creature known as a Kikwi."

"I sense a large disturbance in this individual's aura. There is an 85% probability that he is experiencing the emotion humans refer to as "love.""

best enemy analyses:

"If you make contact with this type of Chuchu when it is charged, it will give you a shock. Then it will attempt to feed on you. This is not pleasant."

"This bird seemingly jettisons its droppings upon people's heads on purpose. It is unclear if this is due to a carefree attitude or pure malice. Should its droppings land on you, I calculate the probability of your intense aggravation at 100%."

every single bokoblin analysis mentions their underwear. like she. she can't stop infodumping about their underwear.

"This horrifying Bokoblin reanimates after death. Analysis indicates it fears pure, shiny items and will startle at the sight of a sacred shield. It is able to reanimate purely through its hatred of this world...and its attachment to outlandish underpants."

OBSESSED WITH HER

I CAN'T STRESS ENOUGH IF YOU ARE PLAYING SKYWARD SWORD FOR THE FIRST TIME THIS MONTH I NEED YOU GUYS TO TALK TO FI SHE'S SO FUNNY

709 notes • Posted 2021-07-04 00:27:54 GMT

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1209 notes • Posted 2021-02-18 03:47:04 GMT

can you guys imagine how Link must’ve felt running down the sealed grounds past all those hoards, fighting for his life to get to zelda, after a lifetime of people telling him he’s late and can’t keep up, only for the first words out of ghirahim’s mouth to be a seething “You’re far too quick, boy!”

1231 notes • Posted 2021-07-25 00:39:45 GMT

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22532 notes • Posted 2021-05-24 20:03:27 GMT

'its not realistic for two characters to talk in the middle of a sword fight' cool I wrote it anyways because it fucks severely

39463 notes • Posted 2021-11-18 00:04:47 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #CANT BELIEVE EVERY SINGLE POPULAR POST I MADE THIS YEAR WAS ABOUT ZELDA #long post

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anxiouspotatorants · 3 years

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HOLD UP!!! You immediately had me at the "Twilight AU but Rory is the vampire" here 👀👀👀👀. Color me intrigued AND inspired.

Ok so first off, the 'reveal' conversation. The COMEDY potential!! Just Jess being overall nervous but also pretty curious to know about what Rory as a vampire is like, whereas Rory is trying pretty hard to make him be more afraid and to hopefully get him to run away screaming so she can have some reason to tackle him, but this guy just isn't budging!

The shiny skin reveal! Like first off, THIS CAN'T BE THE SAME WITH EDWARD BECAUSE RORY'S NOT PLANNING ON STRIPPING IN FRONT OF JESS HERE (no matter how much she might like him despite her better judgement). Imagine the complete lack of suspense when she just uncovers her arm and shows Jess how it sparkles into the sunlight.

Rory: This is the skin of a killer, Jess!!

Jess: Wow, didn't know murderers had a continuous discount at Claire's for silvery glitter.

Rory: 😒

JESS WITH THE ICONIC GOOGLE SEARCH. THE DREAMS ABOUT RORY COMING IN WITH THE FULL DRACULA GETUP, MENACINGLY LEANING IN TO BITE HIM AS HE TAKES HIS "Paint me like one of your french girls" pose. Jess waking up from it not knowing whether he's scared or has just figured out a new kink for himself.

Jess dodging all of Rory's attempts to get him to stop wanting to see her by just coming in and asking her all of these questions while they're in the middle of the recess crowd in school. Rory giving up after the fourth attempt and answering all of his questions in a hushed tone.

Jess: So you can read people's minds?

Rory: Yes, except for yours. I still haven't figured out why though.

Jess: Huh, maybe Liz's all-round smoking diet during her pregnancy had its benefits after all.

Rory: Jess!!

I'm not sure whether I'd want Rory to be an older vampire like Edward or a more newly-made one, and in this case Lorelai is potentially still human but knows about Rory's condition despite Rory trying to keep her in the dark about it when she first turned. They still haven't found a way to break it to Richard and Emily though, despite their various brainstorming sessions over it.

Lorelai: We could get them drunk and just announce it to them!

Rory: Wonderful, and they'll accept their formerly estranged granddaughter as an undead creature.

Lorelai: Hey, you only asked how we should tell them, you never asked about how they'd handle it.

Jess just straight-up asking if she would eat the bullies in the high-school. Rory vehemently replying that no, she doesn't eat people, she just drinks the blood, but if he must know,......yes she drank from Chuck Presby once because she was angry and hungry and his blood almost tasted like Gatorade, so she's refrained from trying out the other bullies' blood. No, Chuck doesn't know what happened, he just thinks some girl went a bit too far with her hickey.

Jess and Rory talking to each other late at night and organizing a "studying" session where they just end up watching various B-movies, and sometimes Jess ends up falling asleep on the other side of the couch while Rory looks on at him and look, she's not being creepy here, she's just sitting on her side admiring this insane boy who still hasn't woken up one morning and decided that being friends with a vampire girl isn't in fact one of the smartest choices he could make in his life, and she can't help but like him because of that, ok? Also she really needs to hear more of his thoughts on some of the other American classics, it's imperative.

Rory ending up protecting Jess from an ongoing car that almost hits him instead of the whole "other vampire craves his blood" storyline but Jess ends up spraining his arm when he fell to the ground and Rory just feels guilty that she couldn't have saved him in a better way and tries to avoid him after that. Unfortunately she can't because this dumbass is walking along her trail in the nearby woods with his arm in a sling and goddamn it Jess, you're scaring away the deer!!

Yes. A thousand times yes. To all of this. The comedy. The pining. The Google search idea and elder Gilmore announcement. Yes to it all. But may I raise you some alternatives/more ideas:

In the books the sparkling looks more like the vampires are on fire. So when Rory reveals some skin in the sunlight, Jess is like «Shit, stop doing that do you have a death wish?!» and Rory just gives him a shit eating grin and waves her arm in and out of the sunlight. Also what if she doesn’t strip but takes of her sweater to reveal a t-shirt and Jess has a momentary heart attack thinking a vampire was about to flash him? All this being said the Claire’s silvery glitter scene is too good to replace ;-;

There just has to be a point while they’re close friends that Rory tries to impress/scare Jess by pulling him over her shoulders and carrying him while she speed runs. But when she tries to say something badass or seductive she has a brain fart and the only thing that comes out is: «Hold on tight... spidermonkey.» Jess doesn’t get to react before she runs, and when she’s finished the first thing he does is puke (apparently it’s hard to get used to that running according to SMeyer). Rory: «Oh no I’m so sorry I shouldn’t have done it, it was stupid and now you’re hurt and-»

Jess: «Spidermonkey???»

Rory: «oh, you’re fine.»

Jess: «SPIDERMONKEY????»

Rory: «I’ll just leave you here for the bears,» and walks away.

I’m not sure what her vampire origin story should be. It could be all the Gilmores are vampires and they bite each other at a certain age after procreating (and the eldest Lorelai decided to be an asshole and bite Rory early) or it could just be Rory like you said. In that case maybe Christopher became one and bit Rory because he wants her and Lorelai and him to be one big happy family of the night? But Lorelai refused and Rory protected her? Or maybe it was a stranger who passed by Stars Hollow?

Jess questions Rory’s humanity not after being saved by a car crash (pre friendship that is, I still think your idea should come in afterwards) but because he consistently skips school and on a sunny day («How can I lock myself in a stuffy dusty dark room on a day like this, uncle Luke?») he comes upon Rory hunting and eating a dear. That and/or she saves him from the swan. And because it’s Rory and she’s a clumsy new-born she saves him by speeding over and suckerpunching the swan so hard it does an action movie sweep miles into the forest.

Rory’s cover for sunny days in Stars Hollow is that she’s staying at Chilton longer for an assignment, or in the case of her still going to ST High it’s visiting their library for resources. Because she hates missing school, that cover is usually true, and she just refuses to go into any spot with sunlight:

Rory: «I have this skin condition, I have sun allergy»

Madeleine or Louise: «That’s not a thing is it»

Paris: «It is [starts infodumping]»

She usually locks herself in the darkest corner of the library and speeding away in a flash at closing time before anyone can spot her.

Rory has lost count of the amount of times Jess has dared her to drink from him. She refuses because she’s scared if hurting a friend:«What if I taste your blood and it’s so good I can’t stop? Like it tastes like heroin or ecstasy or coffee?» Jess usually counters with either «If you could resist Chuck Presby you can resist me» or «What makes you think I’d taste so good, huh?» Rory always ends up thinking she would have a blush right now if she was still human.

Jess wants to be a vampire too because hey what else does he have a chance at doing in life? But Rory refuses because she sees the potential in him and what he can be, and doesn’t want to take his chance at a good and normal life away from him. But at some point they get into a dangerous situation where Jess’ only options are death or vampyrism and Rory finally gives in. Also this is our AU and we get to decide which Twilight vampire-rules apply and in this AU vampires age mentally (it’s a bullshit excuse SMeyer and you know it).

This one depends on the origin but hey it’s an idea: While Rory was still a new new-born, her and Lorelai locked themselves up in the crap shack for a full week watching all the vampire movies they could in search of information that could help them. Rory decided to do empirical experiments too, and had garlic food, got a cross close to her, wore silver and stabbed her arm a wooden stake. The garlic food (like all food now sadly) tasted crap but didn’t kill her, nor did any of the rest. The wooden stake hurt but it healed fast.

Rory gets both Lorelai and Jess to order insane amounts of food just to watch them eat it because she misses the taste and needs to live vicariously through their tastebuds. In the AU where both Gilmore girls are vampires, they order so much food because they have no idea what the normal amount is (chaotic vampire Gilmores for the win).

Also I did not realize how well Bella and Edward’s powers fit Rory and Jess? Like of course Rory would be a mind reader and of course Jess’ thing would be an all-encompassing shield. Sometime when he’s still human and «bugging» Rory she poses the theory that maybe his head is just empty and doesn’t have any interesting ideas. Jess pretends to be hurt (okay he’s a little hurt but he’d never tell her that) and Rory immediately falls into apologetic mode.

Rory wants to go to prom because it’s a human teenage activity she refuses to miss before starts figuring out what to make out of her vampire life. Jess isn’t hyped for it but promises to get tickets. They end up both going as vampires because that altercation happens a week or so before. Jess struggles with not eating everyone in sight but he sticks close to Rory and they leave without a single drop of blood on their hands.

Also Luke as Charlie! Paying attention to the beat attacks and being the only one who noticed that Rory doesn’t actually eat the food on her plate anymore (her mom eats her own plate then switches it with Rory’s) and when Rory and Jess reveal the secret he momentarily closes down and has to take a fishing trip to process everything. But he comes back a ride or die wanting to protect the poor kids.

I also feel like there should be multiple moments where one is insanely attracted to the other and questions this attraction strongly. Like Rory crushing on Jess and wondering if it’s bloodthirst or just the last remains of her human teenage hormones. And Jess being full on into Rory while still acknowledging the fact that it could be some vampire seduction powers, but what the hell does he care? There’s a cute undead bookworm right there and if he has to go he doesn’t mind dying to be a pretty girl’s lunch meal.

#why does this AU work so well what the hell #also I loved your ideas so much!!!#The Google search the Claire’s line Jess consistently bugging Rory into sharing everything #this feels like a crack fic with a heart and I’m here for it #gilmore girls au #twilight au #literati #rory x jess #vampire au #midnight brunch

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happikattwuzheere · 4 years

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the one where gansey befriends a deer: the au

hey remember that time ronan dreamed up a deer that was described with language suspiciously similar to how adam’s described, because i sure do!!! anyway

OK.

ok. so. this au’s actually evolved a lot since its initial already-pretty-fleshed-out inception one sleepless night, so me talking about it’s gonna be more than one post, but here’s the first one well actually the second technically yesterday’s warmup doodles were also from this au but i didnt talk about it at all so

and I’m gonna start with more or less the same pitch I gave to a couple people on discord

SO. starting out: it’s standard fantasy times, vaguely medieval but no specific time period because I don’t care enough to be digging into that quite frankly, but it is somewhere in England where this is happening. Story starts with just Gansey, Ronan, and Noah. Fey are very real and known entities and there’s been a conflict in England between the fey and humans, if not in the whole country then at least in the lands that the Ganseys are the lords of but probably the whole island tbh, and Gansey’s not inherited the lands yet but he’s going to and wants to maybe find a peaceful resolution to the conflict. It’s not open warfare by any means but it’s been a big problem.

To the effect of solving that, he heads to some little village that I haven’t named but it’s right next to a known fey forest called Cabeswater. This village has avoided being stomped by the local fey because, despite witches not being particularly liked by the nobility of the time, there’s a big old coven (the psychics of Fox Way, essentially) situated right by this village that’s kept things in check. Gansey’s made his excuses to his parents about why he’s officially going there but really he wants to talk to the witches and get a better grasp of the conflict from the people actually dealing with it. He and Ronan set out from home together, pick up Noah along the way--who is not a ghost in this AU, he’s a fey who owes Gansey a life debt, that’s a whole other post and THIS post is mostly about gansey and adam--but anyway they get to this village and NOBODY gives gansey the time of day.

the witches don’t let him into their house because they don’t like the nobility right back thanks and the next time he tries to visit Cabeswater won’t even let him get to the coven’s dwelling, the one witch’s daughter who regularly stops by the village for supplies and to check if anyone needs anything has a big argument with him the first time he talks to her so that’s going nowhere, and, well, the villagers are polite, but they clearly don’t take him seriously. He’s just the lordling playing at things and potentially meddling in their business to them.

So he starts hanging out just barely within Cabeswater, even though he knows that’s not wise, because he finds this perfect spot by a stream, and he’ll sit out there and think and work on the journal he keeps of all his thoughts and plans, and one day while he’s there has a straight up Disney princess experience when a deer stops by the stream and seems incredibly unafraid of him. he cherishes the experience but accepts that it probably won’t happen again.

and then it does. several times. gansey’s losing his mind. this deer??? apparently likes listening to him info dump?? it’s very therapeutic and also very magical and he’s amazed

a few times in, he names the deer “Pryderi” after a character from a welsh legend, because “such a handsome creature deserves a princely name,” [[muffled blue laughing and whispering “princely” in the distance]], and he tells ronan and noah about this experience but ronan doesn’t believe him at ALL.

one time after gansey’s particularly upset at how bad his attempts at getting along with the villagers, Pryderi actually lets Gansey touch him for the first time and gansey cannot shut up about it to ronan who’s finally like “i think you’re bullshitting me about this deer thing. im coming with you next time” and gansey’s like “well he’s a deer he might not show up if a stranger’s around and he doesn’t come every time i go down there anyway” and ronan’s like “this sounds like a lot of excuses, dick, you’re not making me believe you any more with this” and gansey’s like “>8\”

but pryderi does show up, and gansey is delighted, and ronan stares really hard at him and then goes

and gansey’s like what? nooo. but ronan keeps arguing it for the duration of the visit and the deer actually starts to look annoyed and at the end ganseys like ok maybe but i doubt it. and then hes like “well since you are a fey apparently (/sarcasm) i ought to say farewell with respect” and bows very mockingly and then the deer makes direct eye contact with ronan and bows back and gansey loses his shit

gansey continues meeting up with pryderi but even while his infodumping still happens it does so now with the knowledge that He Does Actually Understand What Im Saying, he may be a fey but he seems like a friendly one and hey that’s way more than gansey thought he would get out here, and also this deer is his friend now thanks,

he, ronan, and noah (who’s amused by Pryderi but keeps his main thoughts to himself for now) make some excursions into cabeswater, but the thing is noah’s not really native to england, he’s from the european mainland, again i’ll get to it in another post sometime, but. he can sort of help navigate cabeswater but not all THAT well so they get lost a couple times, and every time it does happen pryderi shows up and helps guide them out. there’s some very funny moments of a very jealous ronan getting into weird conflict w/ a very smug deer

anyWAY one day there’s like a festival, everyone’s drunk because its the middle ages and there’s not really a drinking age, gansey’s making another effort to make friends with anyone, and this one guy about his own age is like “ok look here i’ll teach you the folk dance everyone’s doing ok?” and gansey spends the night dancing w/ a handsome stranger, yes he will recognize the irony in the morning, but for now it goes. well badly because they’re both drunk but it’s fun, and then the guy says “ah, fuck it, i’ll finish teaching you next time we see each other” and gansey’s like “thats a little forward but ok!” and the guy (adam. its adam) panics and leaves while gansey’s back is turned and gansey doesn’t remember that last snippet of conversation the next day nor can he quite recall the stranger’s face. ronan does, because he was watching and not sure which of the two he was jealous of, but neither of them has any idea who the guy actually was.

and then like, 3 days later, gansey falls asleep at the spot he usually hangs out in in cabeswater and wakes up in the early evening just in time to hear people yelling and for Pryderi to burst into view with an arrow in his flank. he collapses in a bush. gansey snaps into “protect friend” mode and gets the hunters off his trail by being all “oh a strange buck? i saw it pass that way over there friend!” and then when they’re gone he comes back and is all “alright pryderi they’re gone, let me just--” except pryderi’s not a deer anymore. it’s a boy.

(Adam. its adam. the deer is adam.)

gansey takes him home, gets the arrow out, noah’s like “i mean he’s not a fey, i dont know what turning into a deer is about but if he were fey the iron in that arrow would already have him dead. he might be partially fey but so little that he’s human in the ways that really matter”, over the next couple days they figure out that pryderi is in fact from the village and is a young man named adam parrish who’s been labelled a changeling and is assumed dead since he was yknow shot, gansey decides for now its probably best to keep him that way, but adam’s not getting better--apparently even having had the arrow in him as briefly as he did has poisoned him, he’s desperately ill and on the third day is finally like “get persephone” so gansey tries again (he’s tried several times over these days, they’d worked out that to have survived this long he must have someone else with a small degree of fey blood teaching him the ropes and the most likely suspects are the witches, but he’s hoping adam specifically asking him to will grant him permission enough to go in) and runs into a very frantic blue en route who as soon as he makes it clear he’s got adam is like “move your ass over on that horse im climbing on too”

they get persephone, who turns into a fox rather than a deer, she saves adam, everythings cool except adam’s pissy now because he cant go back to the village and he has to give up on the attempts he had in the works to get out of town by working his way out and he takes it out on gansey who doesnt deserve it because this friendship is a mess, he’ll feel bad and take it back eventually but thats yet more posts ANYWAY YEAH theres our starting point

(also worth noting: due to cabeswater being Right There, p much everyone in this village actually has a small degree of fey blood, adam just won the genetic lottery)

tl;dr adam’s a fey-blooded witch’s apprentice and he’s been the deer the whole time and thats the start of this au ty for coming to this ramble

#longpost #trc #the raven cycle #lolsketch #gonna make separate posts w/ just the art in a sec #anyway i love this au with all of my heart its extremely self indulgent #deer boy au #because thats what ive been shorthanding it to

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the-fae-folk · 4 years

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*Quoth* every bit of writing advice ive read talks about having a really good hook. but nothing actually explains what that means or how to do it.

(transcribed and translated from Quoth the Raven) Of course they don’t tell you how. Most people who tell you to do that have no idea how to write a good hook. They’re just parroting advice that they’ve heard. Lets start with what a hook is. A Narrative Hook is just a literary technique that “Hooks” the reader’s attention and keeps them interested enough in your writing to actually want to keep going. So many bits of advice emphasize that your hook has to be the very first sentence. In many cases they are correct. But not always. A hook can also be several paragraphs, or even the first few pages of a novel. Only academic writing needs to place so heavy an emphasis on your first sentence and paragraph because you have to make your point immediately and move on. There’s no time for dallying or dillying in Academia. But even though you have a bit more leeway in other types of writing you’ve still got to be careful. This isn’t just something you can scribble out and move on. A good narrative hook takes some planning. You have to think about WHO your audience is and WHY this particular bit of writing will hook them. What about it will intrigue or interest them enough that they’ll resist other plays for their attention in order to follow those thoughts. And of course not only does your hook need to be for your audience (or audiences if you insist on writing for more than one at a time), but it also needs to be relevant to your story or characters somehow. It should give us a reason to keep reading so that we can see more where that came from, to see how it connects and keeps giving. Even something that touches upon the themes of your book would be good if the writing is clever enough. Dialogue will give insight on the characters, setting, or even signs of the conflict. Let me give you an example. “The skies are always dark when I stop at the McDonald's on my way to work in the morning. Just a breakfast sandwich and a sprite is enough to keep me going. I always see the strangest people when I come out this early. But the strangest of all was when I saw Death herself feeding the starlings with french fries.” In this paragraph I’ve done several things. I purposefully did not put the hook at the beginning of the paragraph. Instead I’ve given you both a general setting for your story (Set in a contemporary world where such things as a McDonald’s exists and people actually want to eat there) and some insight into your character and their life (someone who is unfortunate enough to have to get up for an early morning shift and doesn’t have time for breakfast at home). It tells you about the sorts of things they’ll eat and what the general expectation for this part of their life is like (they see lots of weird people around this time of day because that’s just what happens at McDonald’s around 6am).

Then I drop the bombshell. Disguised as a casual statement that is merely continuing the previous thought I happen to mention that I saw Death doing something as ordinary as feeding starlings her french fries. This sentence, though seemingly tame is quite extraordinary for a number of reasons. It introduces the metaphysical concept of Death as a character who can move about and do person things like eat (or not eat) french fries. It tells us that Death is not just a person...but a HER! How many depictions of Death are female in our contemporary media? A few...but not that many. Even something as mundane seeming as Starlings might have significance. Besides being initially odd (Because usually one might say crows or pigeons when someone is feeding birds), you might have starlings have some greater significance later on, perhaps some kind of symbolism you hint at. Or you might just really like starlings and think that they themselves are odd enough to mention that it might help, either one works just as well. Even though Death is just feeding a bunch of birds some fries we already have so many questions that NEED answering. Why is Death there? What’s her story? Why starlings? And why McDonald’s french fries of all things? We’ve hooked the reader into wanting more. But did you know that you don’t have to begin things with a scene? A question could be a startling and interesting way to start out a piece of writing. Drop straight to the heart of the matter and question the reader themselves. “What is your third favorite reptile?” Is a fun one I’ve heard, especially since you can immediately elaborate on that with your own favorite reptile and why any of this is relevant to whatever your writing is supposed to be about. Really there are lots of ways you can start a story. A declaration that something is so! A significant quote that pulls your reader straight into the middle of a heated conversation. Perhaps an interesting fact or statistic might help you (it can even be entirely made up if your story is set in a fictional world. I once read a book that interspersed the entire story with encyclopedia style clips about places, people, things, and creatures that didn’t exist outside of the story’s world). Even just describing something in great detail is acceptable, whether an enchanted forest, a cold and empty moon, or an apartment filled with half filled cups that your protagonist keeps forgetting to finish and put in the dishwasher. You can even begin with a particularly unique or really well chosen metaphor (or simile) that will set a certain tone or idea for everything that comes after it. (I read a short story where they used a popular spiritual cliche as their first sentence and then spent the entire piece undermining the sentiment.) So many ways to make a hook, and even better, make a good hook. However... You don’t HAVE to use a hook. It’s a literary technique that has become rather popular, but it’s not set down in the rules that you must absolutely use one or your entire piece of writing will burst into flames and die. There are a lot of good stories, essays, and other pieces of writing that don’t use hooks. It does get a lot more difficult if you don’t use one though. The point of a hook is that initial attention grab. If you decide not to use one you will run the risk of many people not reading past your first few pages. It’s not the end of the world, but its a dangerous game to play. The rest of your work will have to be truly worth the read for you to get away with that sort of thing in this day and age. Well, I hope that answers your question and gives you a good place to start writing hooks for your stories! (or essays). In thanks I request that you go feed some birds (not starlings because they’re so annoying. Always like “look at me! I’m so mateable and majestic even though I’m flying in a swarm of a thousand others who look exactly like me and none of us will shut up for five minutes about who can get it on the best or who can find the best fruit and insects.” Ugh. Stupid little things. They think they’re so pretty. I agree, they’re pretty irritating.) (Notes from the Author of the Blog: One unmentioned form of Narrative Hook is called “In Media Res”. It literally means “in the middle of things” which is fairly on point because the technique is about beginning your story in the middle of the action instead of slogging through all the boring exposition. It’s a little hard to pull off well because it demands that the writer find fluid and subtle ways to introduce all that worldbuilding and essential info to the reader without giving a pages long infodump later on when the reader needs to understand something for plot reasons. Also, a Hook can be found in other types of media besides writing. In music it is a musical phrase or idea that is used to catch the listener’s attention and make the music seem appealing. In film they have something similar that is used to try and grab the viewer’s attention in the first 5-10 minutes. It is a very good tool to know how to use and use well, though it may take a bit of practice to get right. Finally, the Author of the Blog does not share Quoth’s views on Starlings; though maybe still don’t feed them (or any bird) french fries.)

#quoth the raven #writing advice #narrative hook #writing hook #writing skills #starlings #french fries #writing

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lunar-lair · 4 years

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Ok so like,,,,,,,,,Concept

Mermaid au but All the sides are mermaids and Thomas is the only human among them

Like humans still exist and stuff and it's probably modern day but mermaids don't really...interact with humans much

They aren't really *dangerous,* since most people don't believe they exist anyways, but mermaids just. Don't see them much. They never come out to deep enough waters or come by the coast at the right times or stay long enough, and most mermaids don't see it fit to expose themselves anyways.

Idk what fish everyone is yet, I plan on looking that up later, honestly, but I've got some Other ideas.

Anyways uh,,,,,,Remus is totally the one who finds Thomas first

He was with Roman, the two of them just seeing if any humans were hanging out near the beach. They were about ready to leave to go back to where the others were (they have a little grotto they've claimed for themselves that most other mermaids don't touch, probably mostly bc Remus terrifies them)

And then Remus stopped, hearing a human singing a song. That sounded like it was underwater. And was *also* an ancient siren's song, wh-?

Remus grabbed Roman by the shoulders and dragged him back closer to the shore, telling him to listen.

Both sat stunned for a moment.

Mermaids have their own language that most humans can't understand; it's a lot of singing and humming and clicking + a few deviations for different species, like accents for humans. Most of this language is due to mermaids being descendants of sirens, though nowadays they have different, more complex powers that align with a species and then deviate between people, in some circumstances, though most of them still relate to singing in *some* way. (Dw, the boys are all getting their own powers.)

Mermaids can understand humans, but just barely, most of the time. This human though, he was singing something they understood loud and clear.

They took a spot on a rock near him, Remus hiding behind Roman a bit. (He's always been the scarier of the two, and Roman is more social anyways. Plus...it was an old habit left over from when they were kids, ok? Don't judge.)

When the man stopped singing, eyes opening, he took a moment to look around

and then simply *froze* when he noticed fucking *mermaids* right in front of him, what the hell-

Thomas was just singing an old song his parents had sung to him when he was a child, why are there fucking *mermaids* here??

Roman quickly explained that *yes* we're mermaids but also YOU were the one singing an ancient siren song

And then the dude was like 'oh yeah I'm hearin ya' and they were like 'HH???'

Slowly, they explained that 'dude humans usually can't understand mermaids and we can't usually understand them, wh-'

And then the man's face scrunched up and he began speaking human speak, eyes widening as he switched again. "...how the Hell didn't I realize I was speaking in hums and whistles."

"Ya might be siren born!" Remus chimed from behind Roman, sharp teeth grinning wide as he moved out from behind him a little more.

Thomas was just like '???' and so they explained that 'yeah you might have siren descendants, we have a friend who knows more tho'

The twins talked with the man a little more, finding his name was Thomas and he was coming out to the beach because he used to come here a lot as a kid. Not to mention that the sea was...calling to him, he felt, as it always had.

"Definitely siren born," Roman muttered.

Anyways, after a little more talking and the boys introducing themselves-Roman and Remus, twins-and their powers-able to create anything they desire with a certain song and the right ingredients-they told Thomas to wait there and got the other four.

Thomas didn't get to ask what the "power" they mentioned was all about, but he simply waited.

Roman and Remus returned with the others, the twins settling on the same rock and most of the others just popping up from the water.

They introduced themselves, one by one;

Logan, able to help anyone understand or learn anything by simply humming in their hearing range. He's helped his stupid friends figure shit out like this a few too many times. He knows a lot about many things, as well; his powers are *made* to help people learn, and it pulls him to learn enough to properly do so.

Janus, able to deceive or trick anyone he wishes with the right song. He's also able to make anyone believe what he wishes them to, which he usually just uses to basically go 'psst. Taking a nap is a good idea' to his friends most of the time. He is not easy to trick, but he has a habit of lying, as it is what his powers are made for. It's also very difficult to get him to believe anything besides what he does at the time.

Virgil, able to make anyone fear or not fear anything at all. This is rather useful for keeping others safe and keeping dangerous people and things away from them aswell, but he himself is rather fearful, a result of his purpose being to manipulate others' fears.

Patton, able to spread any emotion he pleases, and able to sense emotions. This is useful in helping the others calm down and making sure they're ok. He's very emotional, however, and is often scrambled with his own between broadcasting emotions and sensing outside ones. A part of him is naturally against feeling negative emotions, as he fears he may accidently broadcast them. And either way, he's made to spread good, *useful* emotions, right?

And Roman and Remus' repercussions; Roman can only make certain things and same for Remus. Twins often share powers in this way, split between them. They also basically never stop thinking about what things to make, which makes them a little spacey. Remus is also prone to violent creations, and Roman flowery ones, as that's part of their bias as two halves. When they work together, it's absolutely perfect. Their harmonies are known for their beauty, similar voices harmonizing perfectly to put together things neither could dream of making on their own. Of course, it does take quite a bit of harmony from the two themselves, but they usually manage it. (There's a chance part of Remus' hectic personality is due to people disliking his creations for their darkness, and that part of Roman's theatrics and happy tune is part of trying to keep his side of their creations, but that's a different story, and a problem they're working on anyways.)

After Thomas asks about the "powers" stuff, Logan tells him simple and clean; "due to the fact that mermaids are descendants of sirens, we often have our own versions of their ability to lure others in with their songs. For instance;" Logan gave a simple hum, and suddenly Thomas knew the random (but slightly pertinent) fact that twin mermaids often have powers split between them.

As for the rest of the AU, Thomas just generally learns more about mermaids and stuff and eventually, over some time and some investigating into his family history that *yea I'm a descendant of a siren holy shit.* Thomas' power seemed to be a rather weak version of ancient sirens'; he's able to attract people to him, basically. People hear him singing and go 'wow he seems super cool I should talk to him'. Like um...friendship powers. Literally friendship powers.

Which is uh. Probably part of the reason the sides ended up becoming friends with him in the first place.

I don't know exactly what ocean creature everyone is going to be yet, and it probably won't change their Power(tm) (wow I need a better name for those) but it miiiight change their role in their group a little bit/the headcanons I have for how everyone is going to act, so I'll have to wait and see. For now though, I'll give you the basic idea:

Roman and Remus are the chaos twins, of course. They go around creating whatever the hell they want, basically-within reason. Mostly. Remus scares off any other mermaids for the most part and Roman talks to the ones that seem nice and assures them that they're just trying to keep their little grotto safe. The two of them were abandoned and grew up pretty much alone. They only had each other. They've got a pretty unbreakable bond-oh and also they have an *infinite* amount of teasing material and inside jokes.

Virgil also instills a little fear in most of them of specifically *hurting* him and his friends/messing with their shit. It used to be pure 'yeah fear us' when he didn't have as good as a grasp on his powers and just Panicked anytime anyone came up but now he's more like 'yeah just leave us alone pls'.

Janus? Absolutely the local mom. Goes around forcing everyone to sleep well and to eat and to *preserve your goddamn voices you idiots, I know we all love singing here but our voices are Important ok-*

Also forces Remus to stop chasing local tiny fish and is the only one that can really keep him in line. (Roman can too, for the most part, but he doesn't rlly mind Remus' random shit for the most part.)

Logan usually leaves for at least part of the day to explore and find more things out. He exhausted most tests he could of the other fives' powers to understand them better in about the first month, but he still has it filed away in his Memory Brain. (And that memory of his is exceptional; another important part of what makes his powers useful, and thus extremely pertinent.) Other than that he's usually telling the others off for doing stupid shit or telling someone stuff if they want to hear. (One of the others sits down every couple days and lets him infodump on specific fish and stuff like that. Sometimes verbally, sometimes through his hums, depending on the day.)

Patton is usually goin' around spreading good feels and fixing any bad ones he finds along the way. He's always checking on everyone, always making sure everyone's happy and ok, and they make sure he is in turn.

Sidenote for the Glasses Boys: yeah no I don't think they have glasses. Maybe it's more like...hm...they were born with slightly weak voices, ones that were wobbly. A simple fix, just as glasses are; simply more singing, more training of the voice, and they're mostly up to snuff.

Second sidenote, mermaids can sing without using their powers, but it's fairly rare as most see it as a necessity rather than something fun. The sides love singing, though, and random singing without a meaning at all can often be heard ringing through the tiny little home they've carved out.

I just realized I don't know how they sleep. Idk if/how this is going to work depending on what ocean creatures I choose, but currently the plan is they sleep in piles on the ocean floor, inside their grotto/cave thing. Sometimes just a couple of them sleep together, sometimes they'll all pile on. Depends on who goes to sleep when and what piles you want to join. The rule, though, is no one sleeps alone. It's just not as fun, and Patton insists. And we don't ignore Patton in this household, ok?

The twins like/hate sleeping together on their own depending on the night, though they almost always sleep together anyways. Just the two of them reminds them out at sea, alone when they were kids, but it also makes them feel *safe.* On the nights it reminds them of sadder days, they usually just beg one of the others to join them for the night.

It's basically a rule that *someone* has to oblige.

The twins don't sleep right without each other, honestly. Sometimes, though, they need someone else there to remind them of where they are now.

Idk what I'm going to do with the others' backstories, really. If nothing else, tho, current plan is that mermaid parents usually work like ours do; they raise a mermaid until it's mature enough to be out on it's own. This can change between species, though, and is mostly decided by the mermaid and it's parents according to species, preparedness, and like 50 other factors. So it's not quite as set-in-stone as it is for humans.

Remus and Roman were *certainly* too young when they were abandoned; maybe 10 years old when most leave at 16 to anywhere around 24.

No one knows where their mother went. Not even them.

Also just realized they don't have ages,,,,,,,,h

Note: mermaids live longer than humans (around 150 yrs mostly, deviates slightly depending on species) but they still use human ages, since they mature at...kinda the same rate. Sorta. Thomas, of course, will be living a little longer than most; probably 120 yrs or so, as most of his family is known for. (His great grandfather holds the record for humans at 140 yrs. Probably only a couple lines down from that og siren.)

Roman and Remus: 23

Virgil: 22

Patton: 24

Janus: 25

Logan: 24

Thomas: 23

Mermaid lifespans would probably be a lot shorter if most predators didn't know not to fuck with them. Even animals can understand that mermaids are *powerful,* and can and *will* protects themselves. Most mermaids live peacefully, unless they try to fight each other, which is actually kinda rare since they're usually loners or in small groups like The Boys are and they're usually pretty spread out.

Idk if I'm gonna do any romance for this AU...I'm kinda not in the mood?? Feelin like lettin this just be friends bein friends yknow

Idk. I think that's it for this idea for the moment. I'll come back with any major ideas/those ocean creature designations later, so yknow,,,,,,,,hype for that ig

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zombinary · 4 years

Note

i dont really know ur characters hekrh,, ahh maybe infodump a bit abt one youve been wanting to talk about ??

uhhh...well, there’s isabelle warner! she’s a dst oc!!

she’s a paranormal investigator who owned the codex before losing it. she’s like if mary poppins was in a series of unfortunate events! tries to look to the bright side of anything. even when stuck in a flesh demon dimension!

she can interact and see the dead as well, they’re p much like everyday people to her unless they’re a poltergeist or haunting spirit...in fact, she can see other anomalies aka shadow creatures.

why that is special is bc you only interact with these things when at your lowest, they prey on it. but warner can do that 24/7. they’re not hostile either, they’re neutral to her. she only saw them a few times as a kid, but summed it up as warped poltergeists haunting folks.

she grew up in a christian orphanage in a small community. she never got adopted, but she did have a buddy named winwood! he’s my @mrkanman‘s oc. they were thick as thieves and only interacted bc they were the weird kids. warner has always wanted to help people and went on many adventures trying to do that, but it’d usually go wrong and she’d get blamed. it was like bad luck followed her and she was treated as such.

when she was a teenager, she ran away and started a life of hopping from job to job, etc. until she was contacted by a private eye, who’d been hired to find her. some great-grandmother and a large inheritance from a spooky family... the family may or may not have connections to the constant and the entities, explaining her paranormal ability.

in fact, when in the constant she can turn into a specter! it looks like her but all shadow-y and ghost-like. in my mod i wanna make this her main mechanic! but i gotta get past her art and programming...

But!! That’s Warner!!! Bonus: Walter and Wendy idolize her and she inadvertently becomes their mom

#shrigis

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arcticfern · 4 years

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So tell me about your OCs.

Infodump time? Infodump time!

TLDR: Most of these characters can be found on my picrew blog @picrewpoint2. Uploads are slow, but they're coming.

OKAY SO

So these characters are all from a book I'm writing that's gonna be about evil otherworldly beings who attack and kill people, and groups of people in the various countries I've created who exist to kill those creatures before the general populace finds out about them (it's got a lot of Mortal Instruments vibes, I know).

Magic may or may not be a plot point, I haven't decided yet.

September LastNameTBA (red-haired boy on the blog) is the main character, and one of the younger people who fight these beings. Native of Dellmarsh. I can't give too much away without ruining the plot, but there's an epic adventure and a weapon that can save them all and he's determined to find it. He's a sweetheart of a kid who can't bear to see people hurt, especially if he can prevent it. Fun fact about September: he likes to fidget with machinery and the like, even if his inventions don't work.

Aleksander Code (boy with vitiligo on the blog) is September's best friend, also part of this organization. Native of Dellmarsh. When September goes off on his quest, Aleksander is the one who chases after him (because September is stupid) and ends up helping him. Fun fact about Aleksander: He has a knack for animals, and had a dog for a time.

Lenora Morse (the dark-skinned girl on the blog) is the lovely young lady who completes their group. Native of Grenderal. She and Alek have trained together for years, and she is very much his other (and first) best friend. She's 1000000000% the smart one of the group; she gets them out of trouble and is usually the one to make breakthroughs in their research. She follows Aleksander after convincing the organization that he and September didn't defect when they vanished. Fun fact about Lenora: She is a highly skilled diplomat/aristocrat, despite being a tad socially awkward at times.

Telyn Drex (pink-haired girl on blog) is another important character, but not one of the trio. She's a whiz at potions and tinctures, and she's literally a lifesaver on multiple occasions. She and her grandmother run the potions/crystal shop that Aleksander and Lenora's branch of the organization gets most of their medicinal supplies from. Fun fact about Telyn: Her hair is normally light brown; she dyed it pink in an accident involving a potion and an overheated pot.

Pip (no current picrews, haven't had the time) is the leader of Aleksander and Lenora's branch of the organization. He's a very mysterious young man with seemingly no family/family history. He's been running their branch for about 3 years at the time the book starts, and while Lenora trusts him completely, Aleksander has never been quite sure what to think of him. Fun fact about Pip: He constantly carries a vial about his neck, filled with a strange dark liquid that Aleksander swears is blood.

Vincent Newton (Newt) (no current picrews) is Pip's right hand. Newt and Pip are rarely seen apart, and Newt is the one who helped integrate Pip into the organization following the incident that leads Pip to be so unforthcoming about his past. Fun fact about Newt: They use they/them pronouns and are smaller than any other character (in this post).

Soren LastNameTBA (the blond boy on the blog) is another mysterious character and the book's primary antagonist. Not much is known about his past, but it can be assumed that his childhood was far from easy. Fun fact about Soren: His hand-to-hand combat skills surpass anything the trio has ever seen.

#my ocs #my book #september #aleksander #lenora #telyn #pip #newt #soren

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dragonscalesatdawn · 5 years

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Dragon Worldbuilding in ‘Scales’

@abalonetea

“i’d love to know anything about your dragons that you’re able to share” - first of all, thank you! So much!!!! I was going to answer that in a reblog like you did, but the post got long, so...now it’s this.

Second - You fool. You’ve activated my infodump card! I have so much to share! A lot of what I’m about to write will probably never be explored, at least not in much depth, in the WIP itself, as much as I’d love to, because it’s just backstory infodump stuff and not really plot-relevant. But it’s really cool and I adored coming up with it, so I’m thrilled to have even the tiniest excuse to share!

I’ve put it all under a cut because seriously, I’m not kidding about it being long, lmao.

The classic dragon in fantasy is great, and all, but there are aspects of them that don’t make a whole lot of sense if you look at them from a science viewpoint. I’m no animal expert or anything, but I’ve decided to use what knowledge I do have/can google to try to fix a few of the little things that don’t make sense. I like to science my fantasy lmao. There doesn’t seem to be much I can do about them being far too heavy to ever fly, let alone carry passengers, and a few other elements just wouldn’t come together naturally in a single animal, so I used some backstory excuses.

My world, which I’ve yet to name, was made through a mix of Gods and evolution. Gods made the Big Bang, and though they mostly left things to form as they would, they did help things along here and there, and continuously interfered in how their Big Bang evolved until they had the world as we see it today. They still interfere - frequently, from their viewpoint, but of course they’re immortal, so interference happens only every few thousand years at most.

Dragons were, long story short, a result of one God bragging about her creation of the first human, and saying that nothing could be more creative or original than this, and how her creation would soon conquer the world, blah blah. Another God (Gods being petty as they are) basically just said ‘hold my beer’ and made dragons, in much the same way that a twelve year old author makes a shameless self-insert character. He took a bunch of features from other creatures that he thought were cool and smooshed them together.

Now, if a God wants to bestow a creature with magical abilities, these abilities come from that God, and tax the God a little of their power. Gods have a lot of power, so this is only a very minor inconvenience, but they still like to avoid overusing it if they can. This guy was really hell-bent on spiting his sister, though, so once he had the basic beast to work with, he just couldn’t resist giving them a bunch of magic in the end. But that’s why they’re not just creatures of pure magic.

(Fun fact - another God also had the idea to build a creature to spite the God who made human and her bragging - but she took a different route and just gave humans magic - and hey presto, elves! The dragon guy was really pissed that he didn’t think of it.)

He used magic to make them fly, and magic to allow them to breathe fire - literally, purely for The Aesthetic™. He also gave them a certain brand of telepathy - I’ll get to that later. But that’s all the magic he gave them (although, this was enough to give them a connection to magic that they can, in times of great need, draw on more magic to use at their own will. But that’s basically limited to a panic response, they can’t do it just whenever) and here’s where we get into my own takes.

Dragons are typically reptiles. They’re also typically warm-blooded. Like, super warm blooded - some stories have dragons who are hot enough to make rain turn to steam. Those two facts don’t really work together, so in my world, dragons aren’t reptiles at all. After a bit of research and screwing around, I’ve decided that they’re probably closest to monotremes - a group of mammal that lays eggs. Their scales are made of keratin, similar to an echidna’s (one of two types of monotreme) spines. They also have short, dense fur underneath the scales, and the males have manes. Male monotremes also have a venom spur, so my male dragons have venomous barbs at the tips of their tails.

Monotremes are born hairless, but I discarded that because...because shut up, is why. Baby dragons looking like little lumps of raw chicken didn’t work for my Aesthetic™. But, it seemed to much of a stretch to have them born with scales. Thus, for the first two weeks of their life, dragons are covered in a layer of extra-soft baby fur. The fur doesn’t come in the same variety of colours as their scales, but it’s usually as close as possible. For example, Avaura is going to be a red dragon, but at the point I’m currently up to writing, she’s just a little ginger puffball.

Ok, now for the telepathy thing. Originally, the God who made dragons was content to just let them communicate through body language, but (because this design process took a fair while) he saw how humans and elves were really benefiting from being able to communicate more complex thoughts to one another, and he changed his mind. Only, dang it, he hadn’t made a creature with the sort of mouths that could pronounce sound the way the others’ creatures could, so he had to find another way for them to communicate. One that didn’t drain too much of his own power. So he came up with a pretty complex system.

Baby dragons inside their eggs can sense the minds of people who touch the eggshell, and they imprint upon a creature - usually their mother - from inside, and only hatch when this creature is around to protect them through their vulnerable infancy. And then, only when that creature’s thoughts tell the small that it’s safe to hatch - well, mostly. If a dragon is waiting in its egg for too long, it can get impatient. Sometimes they make hasty decisions about who to imprint upon, and sometimes they do things like hatch when it isn’t safe once they’ve chosen somebody.

(There’s a famous figure in my world who decided to smash a bunch of dragon eggs. It backfired horribly, from his viewpoint anyway, and he ended up with like ten dragons imprinting on him because hey, this guy was better than nobody at all. He may or may not be real, but parents tell their kids about him to scare them away from being cruel to other children.)

Upon hatching, the baby dragon forms a permanent psychic link with it’s imprinted ‘mother’ where their minds become basically two parts of a whole. They can see through one another’s eyes, feel each other’s pain, and remember each other’s memories. They can ‘speak’ to one another without speaking, just by sending thoughts, images, sensations, etc., although in my actual writing I translate these into something like dialogue for readability purposes. When an entire clutch of eggs (which are usually around 30 at my current stage of worldbuilding, but that number might change idk) all the little babies who imprint on the one mother are connected to each other through her. Thus, they have a strongly matriarchal society - and since they can remember all their mind-partner’s memories, after a few generations a dragon is less of an individual being and more an amalgamation of several wise and ancient beings. If they could talk to you, it would probably be a pretty unsettling conversation.

Dragons usually live on a continent, a fair ways away from where the ‘people’ races live and where my story takes place, so when a dragon egg for whatever reason doesn’t imprint on its mother, its usually another dragon who takes care of the lil bab.

But, for reasons that aren’t and probably never will be known, there was one time that a heavily pregnant dragon decided to fly away from her home and lay her eggs in the land of peoples. These babies were all set and ready to hatch, and then tragedy struck and mummy dragon died. The babies never got to emerge from their shells, and there were no other dragons around to adopt them.

Thus, these babies, 30 or so of them (again, might change the number, idk) were left with no mind to tell them it was safe to hatch. So they didn’t. For quite a few years. Then along came a human that one little egg deemed worthy of imprinting on. This human became known as ‘scaled,’ due to the dragon scales, of the same colour as her mind-partner, that grew and spread from the spot on her skin that first came into contact with the egg. Humans aren’t dragons, though, and so the clutch of eggs were far pickier about picking one to imprint on. No two of them ever agreed on a person, and so each scaled human has only been partner to one dragon (aside from the one guy I mentioned earlier, but he’s a special case. And possibly fictional).

The scales growing on human mind-partners is basically the dragon magic trying to identify the hatchling’s mind-partner as another dragon, failing, and instead of accepting this, just going ‘well them I’ll make them a dragon!’ But of course, dragon magic being pretty weak, it takes far more than a single human lifetime for any real change to happen, so they just grow a few harmless scales on the surface. The scales are harder than human skin, obviously, so they make for somewhat decent armour, but just because they protect the skin from cuts does not make the area immune to any sort of bludgeoning or impact-based damage, as many scaled folk find out the hard way.

Avaura is the second-to-last to hatch of this clutch. One the last bab hatches, there will likely be no more scaled people. Unless of course, Something Happens. Which it might. Or might not. Who knows.

And my god, that was long. If you actually read all of that, thank you so much for listening!!!!!!! I hope it was even half as entertaining to read as it was to write :)

#WIP #Writing #Writeblr #Fantasy #Worldbuilding #Dragons #Scales WIP

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oopsabird · 6 years

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1; & 3, 5, 10 for take my heart &/so much like stars

1. Of the fics you’ve written, which is your favourite and why?

Of all of my fics, that award I think would have to go to “I have loved the stars too fondly” (my Hamlet fic). Partly because I’m exceptionally pleased with how the prose and story/visuals execution turned out (in the most recent edited edition, which I think was last spruced up in 2016), and partly because since Hamlet is public domain, it technically sits on a sort of par with The Lion King in terms of canon-ness (or at least that’s what I say to boost my own ego lol). Of my WW fics (completed ones), I like “And In The Morning” best - it executes exactly the imagery and mood I intended it to, and I like it so much that I actually frequently forget that the hug it adds to the airfield aftermath scene isn’t actually canon, despite me carrying it over to all my other fics (it happened off-screen and I will take that headcanon to my grave). gambit, that wonderful whumpy collection of historical anachronisms, medical bullshitting, and tropes, is a very close second there, purely because I designed it to be a collection of things I enjoy in fic so of course I love it.

3. Which part of [title] was hardest to write?

take my heart clean apart if it helps yours beat: Trying to convey exactly the physical positions and body language I was picturing in my head while maintaining prose and mood was probably the toughest. I tend to picture my fics like films in my head beforehand, complete with camera angles and cuts and mood lighting and a lot of minute physical/action detail, so trying to cram all that information into a sentence that still reads nicely and gets the intended feeling across is my most frequent struggle in writing. This was a fic that to me carried just as much of its mood and angst in things like the touch of a shoulder or the intonation of a word as it did in the prose, so it was tough, but I think I struck a pretty good balance.

so much like stars: I know the answer to this instantly, and you may know it too since I mention it in the end note of the fic: the undressing scene. Like, I basically worship Lindy Hemming for her costume design work in this movie and legitimately think she deserved to at least be nominated for an Oscar for it (product placement: the Wonder Woman Artbook is well worth its $50 price tag for the incredible insight into the crazy amount of craftmanship and work that went into making this movie. Must-have if you are fascinated by film-making and Wonder Woman. Hence why I have it.) All that being said, the (truly excellent) costumes for Sameer and Charlie have an INSANE amount of layers and pieces, and because I am a stickler for prop continuity I took it upon myself to keep track of each and every one. Except for a few I omitted because I knew nobody else is enough of a nerd about this movie to know the difference lol. It was a nightmare of my own making but in the end also a good writing exercise for managing prop pieces in a scene. But still. SO. MANY. JACKETS.

I really do go on in the rest of these answers, so please find them tucked under the cut!

5. Did you make an outline for [title], and if so did you stick to it?

I have what I would call a very ADHD writing technique, in which I will generally impulsively write the scenes I have visualized most clearly first, regardless of their place in the fic; then I spend possibly weeks jumping around and filling in the patches between scenes whenever inspiration strikes, generally working either from a vague “it will go like this overall” plan stored in my brain, or a placeholder in-text like “[they leave the bar and travel home. Charlie falls asleep in the cab]”. I almost always write my openings last, after having built the rest of the fic together bit-by-bit and now needing a way to segue the reader into it. That’s process is basically how I wrote both of these, except these were essentially written as a moment of hyperfocus rather than over a long period of time - each of them developed very quickly from initial idea to publication in a short period because I didn’t do literally anything else during that time (take my heart over a period of 12 hours, so much like stars over a period of three days). The only fic I have that really has a concretely written formal outline is The Big Fic (that mythological creature from my WIP list), and that’s because I’ve spent months actively workshopping the shit out of it and treating the damn thing like a novel (which is probably why finishing it escapes me).

10. What are some facts that readers may not know about [title]?

Ooooooo this is a delightful question, because as you can probably tell from my lengthy author’s notes on AO3, I looooove giving “director’s commentary” and spilling extra-textual info about my fics!

take my heart:

I don’t like that this is yet another WW fic I’ve done where Diana appears but doesn’t speak, but couldn’t (yet) find a way to give her even a passing line that didn’t feel shoehorned.

The choice to use present tense was made on a whim.

Though the fic doesn’t actually mention it explicitly (the one that I borrowed my own headcanon from does), the injury Charlie received to his shoulder and was put on leave for is that he “froze up” during their last mission and got shot (it was a graze), fell off his sniper perch and hit his head (a version of this incident is detailed in To Burn And Keep Quiet).

I worry that I write too many fics where Sameer is just a lens for processing Charlie’s trauma and emotional arcs in the text, and want to do more pieces that give Sami other plots and motivations and have him operating as a character more independently from his relationship to and feelings for Charlie.

Originally the idea was going to be Sami saying “I love you” knowing it will be forgotten in the morning, but then when I was writing it I was like “wait, I’ve thought of something worse! how delightful!”.

The “over breakfasts and newspapers” line is intended as a reference to Steve’s in-movie explanation to Diana of what people do when there are no wars to fight.

I decided to have it rain at one point because in the movie when Diana enters the pub with Steve the pavement is shown to be wet so I figure it must have been that kind of day, and also because it was raining all day while I wrote so I was really feeling it.

so much like stars:

I went to painstaking googling lengths to find a French-language song for the opening that was both period-accurate and suitable to the mood.

I actually omitted at least one costume piece: Sami wears these absurd-looking knit legwarmer-looking things over his boots and the bottom of his pants (these can be glimpsed in some scenes), and not only do they really look strange with just the suit (less so with all his coats and everything on), but I have no idea what they’re called and was sick of writing costume pieces, so I left them out knowing nobody else is enough of a nerd about it to notice.

I originally wanted to give this fic a fade-to-black/”soft focus” They Done Fucked romantic get-together conclusion (hence the setup with the windowless room, the creaky bed, the washbasin), but as the fic progressed I decided against it because it didn’t feel right for the tone/situation or the fact that that’s not my actual headcanon for how that night would’ve gone (and I was shooting for canon-compliant). An unfinished draft of that alternate ending does exist, but it’s not as of yet in any shape to be shown to anybody. Yet.

I worried while writing (still do, a bit) that this fic wouldn’t be liked/read by other fans because I know that the version of Charlie I have developed/analyzed out of my repeated close readings of the film and headcanons is a much more likable character than the impression of him you get after just one or two viewings of the film, so I worried that more casual/less obsessed fans reading this (and indeed, several of my other fics) wouldn’t be able to suspend their disbelief enough to accept me saying “yeah, Sameer is very in love with him. attacted to him, even.” without having been along for the ride on my entire crazy obsession with this movie and these characters. Luckily the way Sameer’s interactions with him in the film are acted and shot do the vast majority of the heavy lifting in-canon for this ship already, so readers are more likely to take “Sami is in love with Charlie, secretly” as read without me having to do too much extra stuff to back it up or make it plausible. “Charlie is in love with Sami” doesn’t require nearly as much work to “justify” because Sami is extremely handsome and charming and much of the fandom seems to adore him anyway, so its more like “yeah obviously, who WOULDN’T be in love with him in some way or another?”

I watched the entire “Night In Veld” set of scenes (through from Sami bringing Diana and Steve drinks to that wonderful Wondertrev fade-to-black scene) probably about 8+ times during the process of writing this fic, just to keep myself in the right frame of mind/mood; at this point I could recite it word-for-word.

Sami’s list of “Reasons Not To Tell Him” is pretty much my favourite part of the fic.

The “Sami wears undershirts with sleeves, Charlie wears sleeveless ones” distinction is my own little bit of costume design and also a headcanon that I carry through almost all of my fics.

I had a lot of trouble trying to balance my dedication to the principle “write non-English dialogue in the correct language” with “you can’t subtitle this, there is a LOT of French, and it needs to be comprehensible for an English audience”. What you see in the fic is my version of a happy medium, which I think works rather well.

Thank you for asking this!!!! And thank you to anybody who stuck it out to read this whole damn thing and indulge my infodumping!

#asks #long post #fanfic #charliexsameer #ww 2017

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snarktheater · 7 years

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Shadowhunters S2 — Episode 1

It's long overdue. And yeah, I know I teased that I might do something special with this, but…it's just not working out and I'm kind of tired of waiting on this show until the stars align. So we're just back to regular episode snarks. Oh well. I'm still happy about this.

The episode starts right where we left off (or…pretty close to it, anyway). Jace is on Valentine's ship, with a bunch of people passed out from drinking from the Mortal Cup that he recently acquired. Pretty simple stuff.

Except…the ship is now docked, and Clary shows up. How did she know to come here?

"I portaled in."

That's…not an explanation, Clary.

Jace refuses to leave with her, but before he can explain and/or they can argue, they get spotted. Jace downs one…guard? Random follower of Valentine who just happened to be there? Whatever, he gets knocked out, but Valentine himself arrives, by the power of dramatic timing. He and Jace fight, which gives them a chance to show off a new visual effect for the seraph blades. Which I'm not very fond of.

It just looks…less epic than the full-on glow to me. But I guess it's a matter of taste.

Note that Clary and Valentine's followers just stand back and do nothing. Because…why would they do something, right?

Anyway, Jace stabs Valentine, which is basically the point you realize this is probably a dream sequence, but it keeps going anyway…? And Clary and Jace escape into the ship instead of leaving it? And then Valentine shows up again to get killed by Jace?

Well, this time, they actually stick around long enough to see that the body turns into…some other random dude, so maybe it's not a dream after all. Also, they're now somewhere deep inside the ship, with a bunch of Valentine's experiments (remember those?) in cages. It all looks very cliché, in a way that I can't quite define, but this assembly of former human creatures snarling at the protagonist feels familiar.

Oh, also, it wasn't Clary, but Valentine the whole time.

"Your skills may be unparalleled, but your loyalty is sorely lacking."

Well gee, it's almost like you took him under duress or something. That was just dumb, Valentine.

He orders his minions to "string Jace up" after injecting him with something, and…cue credits. Which are actually kind of cool, although I do have to question the inclusion of Luke and Raphael in them. Like…since when are they on equal footing with the main six?

I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear we then jump to the Institute. If anything, I'm more pissed that we didn't open with Clary, who is, you know, the main protagonist of the show. But there is a possibility that the show will just follow the book's steps and shove Herondales to the forefront no matter what. And it doesn't look like I'm gonna be less angry about this, because we open with the Lightwoods, Magnus and Lydia, with Clary being nowhere in sight.

Lydia's been trying and failing to contact the Clave for four hours.

"The Clave being unhelpful? Who's shocked?"

Me. I'm shocked, because none of the fans seem to mind the fact that this world is built around the concept that the command of the people who fight for the defense of the Earth alternate between incompetent or actively working against their own goals.

Alec also can't sense Jace through their bond either, but…wasn't it a plot point last season that their bond was weakened? I admittedly should have at least re-read my own recaps before I started this season, but I distinctly remember pointing out that that scene was kind of…pornographic.

On the cooler side of things, Lydia and Isabelle. That is all.

I mean, they also do cool things, but I just wanted to restate my love for these two. What they do is pull up the waterways around New York, while Alec sets up monitoring of the Hudson and East River. Which…actual detective work instead of just going "oh no, Magnus's magic doesn't work on water, guess we're stuck"!

Unfortunately, this devolves into Alec being a douche to Lydia.

"Don't forget who you're talking to, I'm still the head of this Institute!"

On the plus side, Lydia and Isabelle both tell him to calm the fuck down and Lydia even dismisses him. Which means there is now a timer on "how long until Alec goes rogue", but hey, at least she didn't take his shit.

I feel like you're getting some of Jace's angst through your bond, Alec.

And now we get to Clary as she…has another reunion with Jocelyn, complete with "I never thought I'd see you again". Which…do you mean besides that time you saw her again at the end of the last season? Clary does call Jocelyn out on hiding her life to her, Jocelyn apologizes and promises not to lie anymore, and it's actually pretty sweet. Until Clary gives her the box of Jonathan's stuff, that is.

"His name is Jace. He's alive." "That's impossible."

I want to hope that they don't drag out the fakecest for too long, but…I'm not feeling very confident about it. Although I do know that Sebastian/Jonathan/whatever has been cast for the second half of the season, so who knows?

And that's apparently enough of our protagonist. We're back to Alec angsting, although he does apologize to Magnus for lashing out in the previous scene. I guess the girls don't deserve an apology or something. Alec also infodumps again about what the parabatai bond means, and asks Magnus's help to track Jace again like they did…in that episode I just mentioned that weakened the bond in the first place. So they did remember that, they just decide not to care about the consequences beyond "ooh but you almost died the first time".

"Why can't you just do this one thing? After everything I've done for you?"

What…did you do for Magnus, exactly? Coming out? Is that a favor you did for him? Because I can't really think of anything else right now.

Back to Clary…sort of. Luke joined her and Jocelyn, still in denial about Jonathan since she "saw them burn". Luke insists that it's the truth, but…frankly, they have no proof of that beyond what Valentine says. And since we all know it's not true…eh. I understand that it's an adaptation and you have to stick to these plots at least on some level, but it was pretty obviously a lie in the books too, which is a little bit more of an issue.

Simon shows up too, which makes me wonder where they are exactly that Downworlders can just waltz in with no problem. They catch her up on what happened to Simon by way of Simon's fangs show up on their own, but before they can do anything else, they're called away. You'd think it's something important, but no, it's just Maryse making a speech about how they're at war.

"Looks like the queen's taken back her kingdom."

For some reason, Isabelle says this, which makes it sound like she's unhappy that her mom's back in charge. But frankly, I'm too busy wondering why Maryse is suddenly back in charge in the first place.

"[The Clave's] first priority is to replace the current leadership who they have deemed…wholly ineffectual."

And they replace Lydia with…the woman she was sent to replace for being bad at her job herself? Well, not quite, there's a new Clave representative taking over the Institute: Victor Aldertree. I'm pretty sure this is a new character for the show, and he sounds surprisingly reasonable, even saying they need to find Jace because they don't leave one of their own behind. Although he does also put the Institute on lockdown, which is…less reasonable, I guess. But at least he doesn't project an air of complete incompetence that emissaries of the Clave have had in the books. I guess Lydia wasn't a lucky hit; the show really is trying their best…some of the time.

Clary's upset because this means no one is "out there" looking for Jace, and…yeah, I guess that's valid. Does this mean Aldertree canceled the orders Alec gave earlier, though? Because that sounds like a bad idea.

Speaking of Jace, he's busy getting punched repeatedly. I can't pretend I don't feel a slight hint of satisfaction over. And I don't really have much to add there; we just see him getting punched, and then Valentine says cliché banter about him being a fighter. Well, he does also put a rune on Jace, but I'm not entirely sure what it is, so I guess we'll just find out later, won't we?

Back to Clary, who's been called by Aldertree to interrogate her about the last time she saw Jace. Clary is…surprisingly honest, even telling Aldertree that Jace knew Valentine was coming, even though she doesn't know how he knew and probably realizes that it sounds incriminating.

"We have to find him." "That's exactly what I'm gonna do."

That sounds…vaguely ominous, even if Aldertree puts in that line every possible ounce of laid-back-ness he can muster.

Back to Jace, and…God, I just realized why I used to handle each plot line individually in these episode snarks, this is obnoxious and it doesn't look like the show's given up on the fast switching PoVs. He's been brought to Valentine, who's busy cooking. And…I guess he's not afraid of Jace trying to kill him, even though Jace is unrestrained and has clearly shown he was willing to try again?

"You really think I wanna have a meal with you?"

You tried, Jace.

Anyway. Valentine claims he faked his identity to "keep him safe", Jace calls him out and says the Lightwoods are more his parents than Valentine is.

"I sent you a place where I knew you would be cared for." "Father of the year."

Oh, and Valentine also brings out the big "reveal" about how Jocelyn supposedly left him to die because he's special. And by "special" he means the whole demon blood experiment thing, which Valentine shows Jace by sharing his own memory. Watching Valentine inject stuff in his pregnant wife is every bit as creepy as it sounds, by the way, and to be glad, I'm happy we're not using Ithuriel as a plot device, so I'm not complaining. Plus, this is a better moment to introduce this plot point than randomly in the middle of a book like City of Glass did. Of course, it also means we get to suffer Jace's angst for the equivalent of (I assume) two books' worth of plot instead of half a book, and that's a little less welcome. You win some, you lose some.

Back at the Institute, Magnus is on his way out, which upsets Alec.

"You really don't get it, do you? You didn't risk anything for me, you did it for you."

Alec is as shocked as I am enraged. I mean, one, Alec clearly just stated moments ago that no, he definitely came out for Magnus's sake in his own mind (and I assume this is what they're talking about here). Which would be bad enough on its own, but I'll also remind you that Magnus basically pressured him and manipulated him into it for a good half of the previous season. So now, to have him call Alec out for not coming out for the right reasons? Damn, that's cold. If the showrunners had realized their mistakes, this is the worst possible way to go about correcting it.

But no, Magnus leaves after acting all high and mighty, and Alec can't follow because the Institute is suddenly on high alert, and Jace is now wanted dead or alive. So much for Aldertree being a more reasonable guy than his book counterparts. Oh, he also forces Downworlders out of the Institute, which…I'm pretty sure they shouldn't even have been allowed inside in the first place, but okay. This does pose a problem for Simon, since it's almost dawn.

"You're a smart guy. I'm sure you'll figure something out."

I take every nice thing I said about you back, Victor.

He also prohibits Jace's friends from getting involved in the manhunt, which…okay, that is pretty logical. Jocelyn is surprisingly okay about the whole thing. By which I mean we're supposed to act surprised, but since we already know she tried to kill Jonathan as a child and thinks that Jocelyn is Jonathan…do the math.

And because this episode wasn't yet suffering from subplot overdose, we follow Luke as he takes Simon with him back to the Chinese restaurant the werewolf pack lives in. Luke states once again that he is a hardcore Climon shipper by telling him to "be bold" about telling Clary how he feels. And we go from this brief moment of comic relief to…the wolf pack turning on Simon before Luke has even fully walked out of the room. Which leads to more comic relief as Simon tries to use the encanto and fails, because…being in possibly lethal danger is hilarious! So they lock him up in a shipping container. Should I care? Apparently, since we stick around while Simon tests the limits of his vampire abilities.

Back on Valentine's ship, I guess Jace is now on board (pun fully intended) with Valentine, or at least decided not to kill him directly. He's still pretty pissed about the whole being experimented on thing, which isn't helped by Valentine's discourse.

"Even a single drop of demon blood running in your veins makes you a threat to humanity."

He says so in relationship to Downworlders, but…what about Jace? Also, what exactly is the "demonic nature" that warlocks are supposed to fall victim to? Because I can sort of understand werewolves and vampires…you know, eat people, but warlocks? Don't really seem to have any inclination of any kind towards evil.

Jace considers jumping off the ship, Valentine dissuades him by picking a random warlock prisoner who just happened to be lying around and throwing him at the barrier surrounding the ship, showing Jace that unless he likes his face being burnt off, he probably doesn't want to leave that way.

At the Institute, Isabelle decides to train Clary some more. Clary isn't too happy about it, but…well, at least Isabelle is being practical about it. Plus, that way she puts on a show about how much she's not looking for Jace, which she subtly tells Clary while they spar.

On the other hand, Alec sneaks out of the Institute, intent on going to Magnus to keep looking for Jace. Maryse catches him before he leaves, trying to convince Alec to just give up on Jace altogether, parabatai bond be damned.

When you have a cancer, you cut it out before it destroys you."

That's harsh. Why are you so intent on sucking Maryse dry of every drop of likability she had in the books?

Well, Alec just ignores her and goes on his merry way. But who cares about following one plot thread, let's go check on Luke, who gets a visit from Clary (first glamoured as Aldertree). Luke agrees to use his connection to the police to find Jace (which…he'd already offered to do anyway?), and he points Clary to the container Simon's locked up in. So…I guess Luke knew about it and let his pack be threatening towards Simon because it's more fun this way? Well, who cares, because Simon doesn't seem mad about it, and this scene doesn't go anywhere because Luke immediately calls Jocelyn, who shows up to bring Clary back. Or…at least, that's how she got the permission to leave from Aldertree. She says she wants to help.

"Here are some basics of Shadowhunting."

And she immediately tricks Clary into giving her her phone and stele before running away and locking Clary in with Simon. Okay, that was kinda funny.

Cut to Magnus's apartment, where he's doing…magical tai chi? Or just juggling magic balls, if you are so crudely inclined as to make a dirty joke out of it. Alec shows up, because…he can just walk in, I guess. And he apologizes. Because yes, we're supposed to think Magnus was right earlier.

And after this nonsequitur of a scene, it's back to Clary and Simon stuck in their container. They actually have a nice moment of just being friends, which gets interrupted because…Simon tried to break down the door earlier and it paid off. Cue Simon being all disappointed that he didn't get to make his move on Clary, because we can't have nice things.

So, Jocelyn tracks Jace with the glove Clary snatched from the Institute, Clary and Simon follow her using the GPS on Clary's phone, Alec and Magnus track him through the parabatai bond…except not, because Jace gets on land just then and Alec can sense him again. This unfortunately also means that the Institute finds him immediately.

Why is Jace on land, you ask? Well, Valentine took him to a vampire den started by a woman who killed her family, in an attempt to convince him that the demon blood will always prevail and make him evil. Oh, and it'll also make him want Clary, because yes, we're following this stupid plot point. Jace hears screams inside the den, rushes in, and kills the vampires.

Meanwhile at the Institute, Alec and Isabelle show up to stop Aldertree, even going as far as to openly rebel, in spite of his earlier threats to de-rune them if they disobeyed him. This goes nowhere, except to have Lydia promises she'll do what she can to help Jace.

Speaking of Jace, the leader of that vampire den surrenders to the authorities of the Clave, meaning he can't kill her.

"Look at you. You got your stake all ready to go, and you can't use it. […] I'm no longer a threat. I know my rights."

Is the show trying to make us fall for Valentine's manipulation? Because that's kind of what it feels like. And…well, this has a very distinct air of police brutality to it, which is not helped by the fact that Downworlders have been a longstanding race metaphor. So Jace falls for the obvious bait, kills her just as Clary and Simon show up…as well as Jocelyn, who shoots Jace with a crossbow. Valentine takes the shot, the Institute forces show up, and Jace escapes with Valentine through his portal.

Which…was admittedly a pretty tight climax for the episode. The constant back-and-forth was edited tight enough to increase tension instead of preventing us to care about any of the plot lines, and Jocelyn's interference makes Jace's choice to stay with Valentine make a little more sense. So there is that.

And…that's episode 1. And so far, the show sounds…pretty equal to itself. The Malec is pure nonsense, Jace gets way too much angst and focus. And Aldertree is…I'm not sure where I stand on him, but at the very least his attitude makes him more believable as someone most people would follow as a leader, so there is that. On the other hand, Jocelyn being awake means she has agency in this story, which is a pretty good thing. And yes, I'd be lying if I said I didn't know where this is going, but I'll get to it when I get to it. Until then, this is what we got.

#This Guilty Blood #shadowhunters #Michael Reisz #Matt Hastings #Todd Slavkin #Darren Swimmer #mcg #series #TV series #review #reviews #series review #series reviews #the shadowhunter chronicles #cassandra clare #st: shadowhunters s2

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divorcedfiddleford · 7 years

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i know this is random, but do you have any tips on writing ford and fiddleford? you do a really good job on their characterizations and even though i'm very familiar with their characters i always write people out of character when i'm writing, lol! thanks !!!!

ghhhgg i Kid but anyway im like super distracted so i just made a list of a bunch of common mistakes i see when people r writing themedit: i was so wrong i made such a long fucking post im sorry this was a Mistake (rip mobile users)

first things first everything in the journal was Fake

fiddleford:

“fiddleford is a poor precious cinnamon roll who is helpless and did nothing wrong uwu” fuck off he built all those robots and probably killed a bunch of people in the process he isnt some innocent sunflower he’s more like a rowdy dandelion

yes this applies even if you’re writing young fiddleford he was just more patient and less open with his life of crime because he didnt want to go to jail

his eyes are blue. theyre fucking blue. theyre fucking b

“he doesnt like swears/he’s soft-spoken” wrong he’s literally the only character to have sworn on-screen

“he started the society because he was traumatized by what he’d seen” no, where did you get that idea. he literally says he invented the gun because he was “haunted by the thoughts of what I’d done” >literally stating that it was guilt not fear that was bothering him. eventually yes he used it for erasing scary memories but that was not his initial intent

he’s not bald anymore

really any idea that fiddleford is pathetic is grossly ooc i can think of one situation in the show that he wasn’t able to get himself out of and thats because he was turned into a fucking arras

what is this southern belle bullshit… he chews tobacco and wrestles pigs please stop woobifying this force of nature

a banjo is not the same as a guitar. a banjo is not the same as a guitar. a banjo is not the same as a guitar.

if youre going to write accents don’t be obnoxious about it

EX: “How are y’all doin’ this fine evening?”NOT: “Hower y’all doien’ this fain evenin’?”you don’t have to use the mannerisms in every sentence and you don’t have to drop the g in every -ingphonetic spelling is a pain to read like at the most you should be using apostrophes not respelling words (“Stanferd” more like kill me now)

also make sure your mannerisms are geographically accurate he’s not from texas i never want to see him say “sugah” again

his accent isnt even that strong in the show …what……….

tip: fiddleford is salty as FUCK he has NO MERCY and holds onto grudges like a lifesaver in a storm

tip: he loves being around people and will talk to them about fucking anything such as his multiple cases of manslaughter but doesn’t usually open up about his insecurities unless prompted