#it's like wild how differently people describe their thought processes

[arc-misadventures]

The VTuber: The Ninja

VTubers are an eclectic assortment of fellows. Ranging form, humans, to catgirls, dwarfs to elfs, from dragons to loli’s. They were an odd sort.

There were various characters among this assortment of individuals as well. From dragons to knights, barkeepers to schoolgirls. Often times they were all of these at once. So it came as no surprise that one VTuber was a combination of two of these particular eclectic tastes.

Like a catgirl, and a ninja combined into one.

For that’s how one would describe the VTuber SushiandShibari. Aka, NyanNinja.

Least that’s how people described her appearance, when it came to her personality, that was a whole different can of worms to deal with.

~~~

Instead of doing, SushiandShibari’s usual stream videos; Playing romance game, to horror games, and the like. She was stuck in an unexpectedly awkward conversation with friend: DraGunShow.

SushiandShibari: So… Care to explain why you just jumped into my stream, call me a bitch?

DraGunShow: Ughhhhh…

DraGunShow: I lost the bet we made…

SushiandShibari: What bet?

DraGunShow: The one where you bet I couldn’t get, Errant to blush.

SushiandShibari: Oh that one, so you called me a bitch because you couldn’t get him to blush? That’s rude.

DraGunShow: No… My chat let it slip what was going on because they were making bets on whether, or not I could do it. So, he changed the game on me; Who ever blushes first loses, and wins their chats betting pool money. And, I lost… Oh god did I lose!

SushiandShibari: It wasn’t that bad was it?

DraGunShow: He asked me if I ride a motorbike, to which I do. So he asked if you have to grab the handlebar to drive it.

SushiandShibari: Is he thinking about getting a motor bike? Oh I bet he would look food on a bike!

DraGunShow: He would look damn hot on a bike~! Ahem! But, no that’s not what he asked about.

SushiandShibari: It wasn’t? Then what did he ask?

DraGunShow: He asked if he had to grab me by my horns to ride me.

SushiandShibari’s eyes inwidened as her mouth fell open, look at her chat in wild shock as she processed the words her friend had just said. Leaving her with, but one course of action to hearing that.

SushiandShibari: DAMNNNN! That is so hot!

DraGunShow: I turned tail, and ran like hell! I could not stay around him anymore! I have never been so thoroughly flirted with before in all my life!

SushiandShibari: Really? I thought you got flirted with a lot.

DraGunShow: No I don’t, I tend to teasingly flirt with other people.

SushiandShibari: Like me.

DraGunShow: Like you, but I don’t tend to be flirted with. Least most of the times I’ve been flirted with people tend to ‘flirt’ with my boobs.

SushiandShibari: With your boobs?

DraGunShow: ‘Hey babe, nice buns you got there, how about I put my sausage between them?”

DraGun’s voice dropped into what could only be described as her best ‘dude bro’ voice. Or that, Muscleman character, whatever you felt was more adept.

NyanNinja however looked on in horror for several reasons, least of all was the voice she impersonated.

SushiandShibari: A guy once used that exact same line on me?!

DraGunShow: Oh shit, really?

SushiandShibari: Yes, but he wasn’t talking about my breasts, bastard was talking about my ass!

DraGunShow: Ppfff-HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

DraGun burst into a fit of laughter as, NyanNinja’s ears flattened against her head as she glared at her friend.

SushiandShibari: Its not funny, quit laughing!

DraGunShow: Like hell it is! “Hey babe, can I hotdog your ass?” Pfft! Hahahahaha!

SushiandShibari: Grrrrrrr! Listen here you…?

NyanNinja was about to start berating her friend when an automated voice from a donation started playing.

: Hello Sushi, I noticed you lack of notifications sounds, and I decided to make one, adding it to your streams prompt pack. Enjoy.

SushiandShibari: Uh oh…

DraGunShow: Oi! Aren’t you supposed to review those before people are allowed to put stuff on there? In case someone put on something inappropriate that could get you cancelled?

SushiandShibari: I do! But, there is a filter, so if people say anything with certain words they’ll…?!

: Good girrrl~!

SushiandShibari: …?!

DraGunShow: …?!

The duo’s blood frozen in their veins as a shiver of excitement coursed down their spines. The pair looked to one another before addressing chat.

DraGunShow: W-W-Was that what I think it is…?

SushiandShibari: Please tell me it was!

: Good girrrl~!

DS: Ahhhh~!

The pair, for the lack of a better word fainted in shear excitement, and the coursing thrill as they heard those words, or more importantly who said those words. For it was a simple sound bite from everyone’s favourite paladin, Errant.

DraGunShow: He called me a good girl!

SushiandShibari: Like hell he did! This is my stream, I’m the good girl!

DraGunShow: Fine, but only the first one is yours, I get the second one!

SushiandShibari: Like hell! They’re both mine! Every time he says that it’s fucking mine!

DraGunShow: Then chat! Give me that sound bite too! I want to be called a good girl too! In fact! Give me every sound bite like that I want them! I want them all!

SushiandShibari: I want them too! Give me all the sound bits of him being sexy! I NEED THEM!

DS: NOW!!!

~~~

Meanwhile while, ErrantryPaladin was watching a video recommended to him by chat, he hit pause as he stopped, and looked around. A worrying expression etched across his face as he looked about expecting some sort of monster to suddenly pop out, and attack him.

ErrantryPaladin: C-Chat… anyone else just get this foreboding sense of unease… Like something bad is about to happen…

Errant continued to look about before he stopped as he saw a message appear on his screen, offering him a deal he couldn’t help, but view suspiciously.

ErrantryPaladin: Okay… why the hell are you bribing me with thirty subs if I say, ‘ara ara’ in a seductive voice?

[ecogirl2759]

THE MOMENT WE'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR!!!!

Here it is, guys!

The Kiyotaka Ishimaru Mastermind comic from 4コマ KINGS Vol. 4!

SPECIFICALLY CITING THIS SO THAT OTHERS KNOW WHERE TO FIND THIS COMIC!!!

Huge, HUUUUGE thanks to @panicuriprince!!! They helped me with clearing the text, rewording panels and putting everything together! Pages 4, 5, and 6 are her doing! PLEEEASE go send her some love, they REALLY helped me get this done and I literally couldn't have done this without her :D

There's a document below the break with more literal translations for the comic, as well as translation notes, a link to a Google Drive folder with ALL of the pages, and other interesting tidbits! Please give it a read!

The Japanese pages will also be below the break! (As well as a little spiel of mine. It's quite long, so be careful!)

(also please forgive how many tags there are here-)

Remember to read right to left <3

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As promised, here are the Japanese panels:

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AND HERE'S THE DOCUMENT!

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✨ WOW ✨

I can't begin to describe to you all how AMAZING this feels!

I've spent the past 2 years on what felt like a wild goose chase, desperately searching for this one comic that I wasn't even sure existed.

This all started with me finding a photo on Tumblr of this comic and spiraling into this deep dive. First I didn't know if this was even real, then I found out that this comic series had ceased printing, then I couldn't be sure which book it was actually in.

There is literally almost no information out there about the fourth volume of this anthology series. I've said this before and I'll say it again, volumes 1 and 2 both have full translations that you can download off of other websites, and while 3 doesn't seem to have that, there are a lot of separately translated comics floating around out there, namely on Pinterest.

The 4th volume had NOTHING! No matter how hard I searched or how many links I clicked, no one has really said ANYTHING about this book, which was why this specific comic was so hard for me to find.

But I have all of the books now, so I definitely want to do this again for all of them so that people have easy access to these translations. I'll start with book 4 though haha.

Also, I'm not sure who it was, but HUUUUGE thanks to the kind stranger on Ebay who was willing to sent me the whole series!! I literally don't know where I would be right now if these books weren't with me, so thank you <3

Also, thank you to all of my Japanese teachers that I've had throughout the years. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't have been able to understand the comic, haha! One even helped me out in the early stages of this process, so extra thanks to him <3

I feel really passionate about accessible media. I think that everyone should be able to read and find whatever they want. That's part of the reason that I've endeavored on this project. I want everyone to be able to seek out and find these comics if they really want to. And, of course, I want everyone to be able to understand them, too.

So please enjoy this comic! If you'd like to repost it, I'd appreciate being credited just so that others know where they can go to find the full comic.

This one-man project isn't so one-man anymore, and I seriously can't thank everyone who's helped me enough!!! I'm honestly so glad I didn't have to go through this alone <33

ALSO

If you see anything, LITERALLY ANYTHING, that you think I could change/improve (like formatting or different interpretations of the Japanese text), PLEASE shoot me a message!! I want to make sure this comic is as good as it can be, and I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Even if you don't have a suggestion and would just like to reach out to ask a question or something, PLEASE don't be afraid to do that! I know I get really cold feet when sending people asks, so I'm going to reassure everyone who needs to hear it now: You're never going to be a bother to me! I love getting asks! Whenever anyone sends me something, I get really excited <3

So ask questions! Tell me I did a horrible job and got none of the text right! Ask why Ishimaru literally cannot be evil! I don't know the answer, either!

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Thank you all so much for the support and the kind words you've been giving me ever since I first announced I was translating this comic! Your support has been extremely motivating to me! Also, you guys are hilarious with your tags!

Seriously, thank you so much! Words literally can't express how I feel right now, but I guess the best way I could describe it is cathartic. I'm REALLY happy that I finally get to share 2 years worth of work with you guys! You've all been a massive help to me in more ways than one <333

KEEP BEING AWESOME <3

[headspace-hotel]

What feels so strange about growing plants, and making friends with plants, and generally being aware of my ecosystem, is that it's not a "head" knowledge, it's a "hands" knowledge.

It feels strange for me, at least. My formative years were spent in a homeschool co-op that was roughly 50% anti-vaxxers, so in spirit, I'm the sort that has yelled "just believe science!" until my throat hurt. I've clung to peer-reviewed papers, as an abstract concept, as the sole beacon of truth in a dark world, and found Facebook groups full of people that thought just like me: if it's not proven, if it's not science, it's false, and science is truth.

There are online communities of people who "believe in science," and t-shirts that affirm the wearer to "believe in science." This is not the worst place you can be, in a world where people believe things like "eating lemons makes your blood more alkaline, which cures cancer" and "polio was renamed to ALS in order to hide the fact that polio vaccines don't work."

However, science is not a doctrine. It's a process. It points to truth, but it doesn't produce truth as an end result. There is no end result. The results are endless, actually.

What word do I use to describe what I've been doing? I'm gardening, sure, but that makes it sound like I do things to plants, when mostly, the plants do things to me. I'm learning about the living things already around me. I've learned to identify so many plants, and I know about what role they serve in the ecosystem.

"Gardening" is a difficult word because it means planting things in the ground and tending to them, but plants plant and tend themselves. So since we have to use the word "gardening," we have to think of plants as either belonging to a garden or not, depending on whether a human put them there. Plants either grow on their own or a human, a "grower," "grows" them. Isn't it weird how that verb is transitive?

However, I understand now that even knowing the name of a plant is, in some way, "gardening" it, because it affects my behavior toward that plant, which is the thing that "gardening" is, just in a different amount.

Humans can transport seeds and plants, supplement nutrients and water, but this is just participation. A gardener doesn't create plants, they help them to grow. So it follows that any act of "helping" is also gardening—thinning out a stand of wild plants, moving a wild plant from one spot to another, choosing not to mow a wild plant down.

I have more of something than I used to. The thing that I have more of now is knowledge, but a lot of this knowledge isn't facts. Ecology is a science. Scientists study ecosystems. It is possible to know facts about ecosystems. But ecosystems are not made of facts.

I know that most people desperately need to know more about the ecosystems around them. They need to know about the plants and trees near them. I think this is literally essential to saving the world as we know it. But they don't need to learn facts—not just facts. They need to learn something Else.

For the past several months, I have been learning things that are not facts. I hesitate to call them skills. But they are like skills. Both gardening and plant identification are impossible to fully teach from a book or a written resource, because you have to know not what something is, but what it is like.

I rely on my senses—feeling the suppleness of a twig, the dampness of potting soil. Identifying plants is so hard starting out because the qualities that identify them best have to be experienced.

Back when I was first learning to identify trees, I discovered that there was a black walnut tree at the end of our road. I was just then entering the extremely frustrating reality of how many plants there are and how few photos of them at all growth stages exist on the internet. I didn't know what a fucking "petiole" was. Leaves all just looked like leaves and I wanted to cry.

But I tore a twig from one of the trees down at the end of the road, and I instantly knew it was a black walnut tree! And I couldn't describe to you how. I caught a whiff of the smell of the crushed leaves, and it pulled up a memory of the walnut trees at the farmhouse when I was a child, dropping their heavy green fruits all over the grass. I'm not even sure how to describe the smell. It's very fresh and spicy, but earthier and less "clear" than the word "fresh" would suggest.

And I identify a lot of plants in ways that you can't just...depict. Alianthus altissima, tree-of-heaven, is hard to draw or photograph in a way that lets you see through the picture what makes it distinctively Alianthus altissima. The best way to identify it is by its odor. Tear off a leafy twig and smell it—it smells exactly like peanut butter and the mustiness of a damp basement.

I am learning things that don't exist in books, that are specific to my immediate surroundings. The specific community of organisms found in my backyard, what they're doing. How my plant and animal neighbors are related, and how their relationships change.

I am learning just how little we know. There are so many plants, so many local plant communities. There are more relationships in an ecosystem than there are scientists that could possibly study them. I look up a question about a particular plant and there's just...nothing.

I have to use my own knowledge, my own observations. I have to do tiny science every day, where Big, Capital S Science can't help me. "Is this non-native plant harmful enough that it is better to get rid of it even if I can't replace it yet, or is it providing enough benefits to other organisms that it is better to let it stay?" Sometimes no website or book or article can answer this. Constantly I encounter this kind of question, and I have to observe and decide myself. I have to trust that I can be taught by my ecosystem, and that this knowledge is, in its own way, valid.

It is uncomfortable to be here. I want to convey my knowledge to others, but it sometimes feels almost pseudoscientific, superstitious. I want to be rational and rely on the experts, and teach other people to do so; I know that what "seems" right often isn't, and that personal observations are flawed, even useless, in many areas. But not only are these fuzzy, instinctual observations sometimes all we have, they are an essential skill that is needed to save our world.

There's also the fact that research doesn't happen fast enough to function all alone as a guide. Invasive species lists on state websites are basically decades out of date and not regionally specific enough. The Callery/Bradford pear tree, bane of my existence, is not "officially" designated an invasive species to my knowledge, and there is relatively little research on its role as an invasive species, but it is declared invasive, primarily by common consensus that it's Satan in tree form. Crowding and shading out other mid-succession shrubs and trees, forming thick, almost monoculture masses of ugly glossy foliage replacing whatever else would have grown there.

And the severe threat of the Bradford pear is specific to my region; its particular severity may be specific down to the square mile of land I live on. Some scientists may be studying it, but they're not studying my state, my county, my neighborhood.

It's insane how many TYPES of forests there are. You would think that within a specific biome and climate, a forest is a forest is a forest, but no. There are a bajillion specific associations of trees with specific relationships that form special ecosystems. It's insane how many types of moth there are, too. And it really blows your mind to look up a moth's host plants and read that we're not really sure of the full range of plants its caterpillars can eat.

You'll be reading something and it will say "We don't know this" but you will know, because you've seen it—and then you think to yourself, well, isn't that what people say about Nessie and Bigfoot and little green aliens? Can we trust what we observe for ourselves? Can we trust people to know what they see?

Maybe not—but we have to.

[lyndentree63]

So you wanna watch Burrow's End but you are a Delicate Flower (TM) and don't know if you can tolerate gore, body horror, suspense, etc. But you reeeeaaallly really love Aabria DMing and all the players, and all your friends are excited and talking about it, what do you do? (It's me, I'm the Delicate Flower.)

First, know the difference between "this is uncomfortable" and "this is unsafe". It's really important to be in tune with your body and know what's inside your window of tolerance, what's on the edge of your window tolerance and what is straight-up trauma triggering you.

If you know ahead of time what your specific trauma triggers are, look at the content warnings, ask friends, or ask in the Discord server (either on the Burrow's End channel or DM the mods) for if those specific things are described and/or shown. Note the time stamps.

Skip the sections that trauma-trigger you. That might be the whole episode. Or the whole season. Take care of yourself. But if you think it's uncomfy and just outside of your window of tolerance, carry on. . .

If it's something that you think you might be ok with, try reducing visual input: listen to the audio-only version, adjust your screen setting so things are in different colours, make your browser window small to reduce details. If you're near-sighted like me, take your glasses off to blur things.

Alternatively, your brain might make things MORE detailed and worse than they actually are, in which case, try watching and focusing on the cast, their interactions, the funny bits, the sweet bits. Also try half-watching it while doing some other task like folding laundry, or doing something like knitting or hand-sewing.

Look at the set with analytic movie-maker brain. How did they make this TECHNICALLY? What shots are they using? Notice the cuts, the lighting, the paint details. Think about the boring nitty-gritty backstage details that went into making this.

Watch with someone safe.

Make stupid jokes (The Blue is Walmart)

DO NOT EAT WHILE WATCHING (Alternatively, eating and drinking may actually help because eating food activates the parasympathetic nervous system aka the calm down system)

Take it in small chunks. Watch only a few minutes at a time, and then do something else grounding and calming.

Watch during daylight, so you can process stuff BEFORE you have to sleep.

Have an aftercare plan in place, either for processing (talk about it with a friend, yell about it on Discord or Tumblr, journal, have a little sob, make art about it) or for distracting (watch funny and wholesome videos, scroll Instagram, go to work, play with your cat, read a book, go for a walk, have a wild dance party)

Have an after-aftercare plan in place for when stuff crops up a few days or weeks later and unwelcome things pop into your brain. (Hint: treat 'em like intrusive thoughts; just let them fly through like li'l bats out to get a mosquito dinner and move on to the next thought.)

Read all the spoilers beforehand (on the Dropout Discord, here, on other socials), and desensitise yourself to pictures that way.

Write a tumblr post to help other people out

Don't feel ashamed for reacting with disgust, horror, feeling like you want to cry and generally being a Delicate Flower. We all have different nervous systems and different tolerances and life experiences and traumas, you're not better if you can stomach gore and horror and you're not Too Much if you get squeamish at just the thought of some of the things mentioned in ep 2 of Burrow's End.

[magnusth]

Living Souls and Alecto

Okay, so it's time for TLT theorizing. There's a line that's always stood out to me in Harrow the Ninth, and I've never seen a theory really grapple with it: "You are alive, Harrowhark—that does mean something where souls are concerned."

This is Abigail, who follows up with a description of how Harrow's soul will be drawn to her body no matter what. And the concept comes up a few times: It's important when Gideon comes back as Kiriona Gaia. She has not been resurrected; she's a revenant, haunting her own corpse. I thought it would come into play in Nona with Palamedes - I thought him being dead would make it too late, but that was not the case. Everyone mostly acts like Palamades, Wake, Gideon hanging about as revenants are just the same people, and the text bears this out. However, the text also wants you to know there's a difference between a dead soul and a living soul. These differences are unclear, but we know some things:

For one, there's the question of where they go. Revenants are drawn into the river, but can stick around through thanergetic links; living souls are drawn into their bodies, which are notably thalergetic. I think this might imply that dead souls are... converted? like plants? that they become thanergetic; there's mention of thanergetic cascades upon death, which is what makes revenants in the first place. This is also supported by not being able to get Thanergy for a reaction from Kiriona in Nona.

For another, there's the wild panic. Revenants flee their deaths; a living soul seperated from the body, again, is drawn back to it. This also seems to be what happens with 8th style siphoning: the soul returns to the body eventually.

This brings me to the Alecto part of this post. Because while it's common to describe Alecto as Earth's Resurrection Beast, I don't think that's true. While the part of Nona where John triggers nuclear Armageddon and then stuffs the earth's soul in a humanoid body is... unclear, there noticably is no part where john actually directly says he kills her. he says "i tried to hurt you" and "That stung, when i ate every single death." He describes putting his hand around her throat, but not twisting it. Now, that might be implied from the next sentence being him cupping her soul, but it's not clear at all. Further, Varun, through Judy, Calls Alecto-as-Nona "Green and breathing thing," which further implies that Alecto is in some way still alive, still green and breathing.

That implies some interesting things, however! Like... What is Alecto's body? There's the barbie one, yes, but there's also earth. When John became Alecto's lyctor, he claims he remade them; it's with Alecto's power that John became what he is. He had to make a body to house her but it's not clear why - she had a body! right there, he was standing on it! It could be he wanted to make her a body because her old one, the earth, was sick. But there's another option: because if he gave her back, he would give all of her back. There's a sliver of Alecto in John, but that's not the body it belongs to. Maybe, just maybe, the fear that John has isn't that Alecto can kill him, or that Alecto gets killed and that breaks their Lyctor bond, but something else: that Alecto, freed from the tomb, can leave the two bodies he made her - the barbie doll one, and the one he remade that houses him and a little of her, "his" body. This might also be why John calls it "a beautiful labyrinth to house you in." It's a trap, it's a delaying mechanism to keep her from just... returning to where she's supposed to go, as a living soul: her own, original body, the Earth. I don't know what that would do to John, but I think it's entirely possible that it will just... pull the part of Alecto in him out.

I think this stuff about living vs. dead souls is also why John talks about remaking, and why the Lyctoral process involves "reconstructing," to make the Lyctor, a suitable long-term host to the soul it's eating. This may also have to do with resurrection - the difference between revenanting around ala Kiriona and a proper, actual resurrection. That implies that Lyctorhood is a sort of self-resurrection where your cavalier is resurrected in you, but that's a theory for another day.

[dazzlerazz]

One thing I like about the fell xenologue is that all characters in the main campaign have the potential to become their fell xenologue counterparts. What FX did was basically amplify their worst traits to the maximum, and that effected how they interacted with their world, and this is especially present within the royals, and with them being the leaders of their countries that trickled down into their subjects and by proxy the other characters

I feel the best example of this is Celine, who is war-thirsty and ready to attack another country to protect her own subjects from the resource epidemic their country is facing. Celine in the main campaign has shown a similar form of ruthlessness, but on smaller scales, in some of her supports. What she is in FX is that part of her times 10. She's willing to more and more to protect her people, even to go so far as to put those lives of the people she loves at risk to believe that she's saving them all, even when it eventually resultts in their deaths

Diamant is also another perfect example. While Diamant just seems to be Main Game Alcryst, he's actually far different than that. FX Diamant is a king of a country that doesn't want to go to battle, of course, and while this was always the base, I believe it symbolizes FX Diamant's fearfulness. FX Diamant is afraid, he's unsure of himself, he knows his younger brother is more fit for the throne and that Alcryst is going to have him assassinated, or even worse, bring that blade down himself. Diamant has accepted his fate, he won't fight it. He wants to lead his country the best he can, but he's also lost his father. While Alear was alive in this universe as well, Alear fell far too soon to help Diamant be able to completely process his grief, stripping him of yet another ally. The Divine Dragon was everyone's closest friend, after all

Ivy I feel is a similar case but in a slightly different way. FX Ivy is almost like main campaign Hortensia in a way, but devoted to the Fell Dragon all the same. FX Ivy begs his return, something MC Ivy would never do, which leads me to believe that after Alear's death, her faith in the divine dragons was lost, allowing her to fall back onto her previous religion out of just pure emotion. Maybe she thought Sombron would resurrect Alear despite him being the one that killed them, or maybe she just wanted to use his power for her own and burn the entire world down as revenge against the universe for allowing Alear to fall. MC Ivy in battle with FX Ivy says that she hopes that she doesn't sound like FX Ivy, meaning that MC Ivy in some way sees her behaviors in FX Ivy (I've always assumed this was because Ivy was being very careful in the MC to not let that side of herself show while FX Ivy let that side of herself run wild)

Timerra, similar to Celine, wants to do what's best for her country, except FX Timerra has a bit more of a level head on her shoulders compared to FX Celine. (Also I will admit that we didn't get that much time with her compared to others). Solm is a country that keeps to itself and helps no one unless it benefits them mostly, and the only reason they wanted to go to war with Elusia was to keep them from resurrecting Sombron and effectively save their home, so it's worth gathering an army to meet them on the field of battle. They view Elusia power-hungry, and will absolutely tear Elyos to its roots if allowed to run free

Anyways that's it, I could go on about side characters but I feel like the royals are really at the heart of it all and are the best examples I can give. There are characters that are written to just be exact opposites instead of their worst traits, such as Bunet who was described as a terrible cook which pretty much goes completely against his MC character, but you get what I mean

[skyechaser]

Bumbleby Bike Gang AU Part 1/?

The bar was usually quiet on tuesdays. Just the regulars showing up for their drinks and the eventual college idiots getting into shenanigans. Nothing seemed to indicate that this night was going to be any different. She couldn't be more wrong. Yang had owned the place, Ember, for about two years and she enjoyed her work a lot. She liked making drinks and talking to people. The blonde had some of the best stories to tell at parties and sometimes she could even give some well received advice.

It was almost two in the morning when she heard the roars. It was like a pack of wild bears was screaming directly into her ears. When they stopped they were replaced by voices. Then the door was thrown open and what could only be described as a gang entered her bar. There were around twenty five people, mostly men, in matching leather jackets. They all had the same logo on the back: the profile of a wolf like creature and the words "The White Fang".

I hope they don't cause me any trouble Yang thought to herself as they all sat sat down, making significant noise in the process. One of her waitresses, Nora, approached them to take their orders and the blonde held her breath, hoping the group would behave. After a couple of hours and many beers, the gang was starting to get on her nerves. Specially since some of them had made some stupid comments at Nora as she brought them their drinks. She had come pretty close to throwing them out but they were paying very good tips and her waitress said not to worry.

"I'm sorry for the disturbance" a soft voice said, very close to her. She turned her head to see a girl, around her own age, sitting in front of her. She had been so focused on the group she hadn't even noticed her approaching. She had amber eyes and black hair and something about her made it feel like they had already met.

"Its okay" a lie "I've had worst" a truth.

"Could I have a Coke, please?" the girl asked.

"Had enough to drink for the night?" Yang replied as she got what the other one requested.

"Oh, no" she replied "I don't drink" she smiled. Yang's heart skipped a beat. There was something about this girl but she couldn't wrap her finger around it yet.

"I'm Yang. What's your name?" she asked boldly.

"I'm Blake" the other one replied.

"How long have you been riding with these guys?"

"All my life" Blake answered "My parents founded the group"

"That's a long time to be on the road. Are they here?" Yang questioned as she looked at the clearly drunk group sitting not so far away from them.

"They left a while back" the black haired girl said, not understanding herself why she was telling her whole life story.

"And you stayed?"

"Yes"

Silence.

"They seem like an interesting group" Yang said, trying to break the tension.

"They can be... A lot to handle but I'm used to them by now"

"Excuse me if this offends you in any way but you do not seem like the biker gang type girl"

"None taken. I'm more low profile than the rest of our group. I'd rather stay and read a good book than get into trouble" Blake said.

"Any good reads you can recommend?" Yang asked and the other girl's eyes lit up like a child's in Christmas morning. They talked for what seemed hours about books, bar stories and family. Yang told her about her little sister Ruby and how she was studying to become a veterinarian. Blake, on the other hand, told her about all the places she had been in during her travels. Their conversation was cut short by the sound of breaking glass.

"I got it!" Nora said as she walked towards the table, her eyes visibly tired but her pockets full.

"Do they get into trouble often?" the blonde asked.

"It depends on Adam's mood mostly. He's our current leader"

"Blake!" a red haired man yelped drunkly "Come over here, love!"

"That's him. I gotta go. It was really nice talking to you, Yang" she smiled again and the blonde was finally able to realize what the deal was. She liked Blake. Everything about her was charming and enticing. It had been a while since she had liked someone so it didn't surprise her that she had missed the signs.

She watched Blake walking away and that's when she saw it. On her lower back she had a tattoo that read "Property of the White Fang".

Oh.

[bucket-barnes]

You betcha, pal

(Suggestion from @shouldwemaybe)

CJ Hook- the not so Jolly Roger

Heads up: I am still not a doctor, the research I do is minimal and I embellish for dramatic effect. If you know more about what I’m writing about than I do, just suspend your disbelief a little bit

CJ, the baby of the Hook family…not very supervised. CJ was often described as a “wild child” by her sister and a “damn loon on par with the boy” by her father, which really meant she wasn’t one for thinking more so doing and then worrying later…which often bit her in the ass later on

Food was scarce on the Isle, or at least sort of edible food was. CJ’s siblings often went hungry to make sure she stayed fed growing up, Harry saying he’d just go eat with Uma and Harriet saying she wasn’t hungry anyway. Granted, the food CJ was eating wasn’t that great of quality, stale bread with the mold scraped off, rotten eggs and vegetables, whatever fish Harry managed to fish up if they were lucky, safe to say the girl grew up with a strong stomach, which she’d sometimes use to her advantage

Maybe it was her yearning for adventure, maybe it was whatever parts of her brother’s insanity rubbed off on her, but CJ liked to play a little game with other residents of the Isle. You could give her the most rancid piece of food you could find (which wasn’t hard, it’s the Isle of the lost) and if she could keep it down, you owed her five dollars, and she always kept it down…when people were looking

Once eyes were off her, the day often turned into CJ going to the farthest corner of the Jolly Roger to throw up whatever she had put in her body, usually while one of her siblings (Harriet, usually, Harry if she was lucky, at least he wouldn’t scold her for playing this little game) she’d always say she’s fine and that it wasn’t a big deal, though her shaking body and slightly sickly pale skin would tell a different story. And yet, she would rinse and repeat this process every couple of days, for no other reason than she could

When CJ managed to sneak onto Auradon, she got a taste of Auradon food, usually small pastries that Freddie would steal for her…holy crap were they good! The lack of mold or overall decay was definitely nice, the food actually having a taste other than unholy was also welcomed, but uh…who would’ve thought that Auradon food would have a very similar effect on the young pirate as Isle food…but worse

She’d spend hours curled on the floor trying not to throw up on the floor, the food may have tasted amazing but it would always come back up. Freddie would take note of her friend’s shaking and overall sickly appearance, she looked worse than she did on the Isle, but, of course CJ would insist she’s fine and that it would pass, but on the inside…she just wanted her siblings. Harriet may have scolded her for her stupid game, but she’d always help her breathe through the sickness and give her a little praise for bringing in some money, and Harry would always hold her until the shaking stopped. But in Auradon…she didn’t have her siblings…she missed them

Eventually, CJ was caught and got tossed back onto the Isle of the lost, surprisingly, her siblings embraced her (in private- no affection in public) and told her how much they missed her…she did…kinda leave without warning

“We thought you were taken! Or dead! I swear to the gods if you do something that stupid again…”

Harriet scolded as she squeezed her little sister

“I was so ready to kill someone. At least leave a note next time”

Harry said under his breath as he kissed the top of CJ’s head

Harriet and Harry did take note of CJ’s sicker appearance, it perplexed them, she was in Auradon, how did she get worse? The two decided to keep it to themselves and look after their baby sister in quiet ways- they didn’t want to make her feel worse. They’d continue to give her the good pieces of their food, Harriet started dragging CJ along with her to keep her from eating street garbage while Harry started bringing whatever leftovers he could swipe from Ursula’s fish and chips home for both his sisters, though as usual, Harriet gave her portion to CJ saying she wasn’t hungry

Hope this works! You got a descendants character you’d like to see violently ill? Tell me immediately, I will make it happen!

[joyfulapostate]

Hey!

I was raised aetheist, and I never really realised how badly Christianity could screw people up. There were some people in my extended family who were religious, but it was always just this vague distant thing that existed on the periphary. The only times I entered churches were in a touristy way, and only then because my mum dragged me into them - I've always hated churches, they have bad vibes.

Then I met my best friend who was raised in a religious family, and they described a lot of the strange, disturbing rituals they would perform in church. Around the same time, I began watching a content creator who was raised in a religious family and was going through the process of reconciling their religious upbringing with their homosexuality.

Since then, I've been really fascinated by how this religion can screw people up and make people doubt their entire being. I think a lot about how on earth this one religion - or cult - from a city thousands of years ago became so persistent and all encompassing.

I was wondering, what do you know about the real-world history of the Christian religion and Jesus? One can assume that Jesus was a real person, but what are the details? Was he a cult leader? A rebel? Both? How did he make people believe he was a prohpet? Why did he make people believe he was a prophet? I'm fascinated by the real historical events that occurred to create such a long-lived ripple effect, but I'm cautious of researching "religious history" on my own because I don't know how to avoid the many dangerous people one would be likely to come across in that feild. Do you have any knowledge to share?

-🟪

My favorite biblical historian is Dr. Bart Ehrman (link to his website). He’s a former Christian, current agnostic which I think gives him a balanced view of biblical history. He talks about what it was like to believe in the Christian story, what it was like to figure out what is real and what isn’t, and what actual biblical scholarship should look like. His books helped me disentangle the complicated stories around Jesus and develop my own sense of scholarship.

Most historians believe that Jesus was a real person who existed around the same time and place as was claimed in the Bible. We have no eye witness testimony about anything Jesus said or did. All we have are copies of copies of legends that people wrote about him decades after his death. We have no real way of knowing what Jesus thought about himself or what he claimed to be.

That being said, we can try to understand the traditions of the stories told about Jesus. I’ve heard a lot of fundamentalists claim to be going back to the “early Christian church” but there were so, so many traditions that sprang up around the story of Jesus all believing different theologies. For example, early Christian mysticism is a weird, wild rabbit hole to go down if you’re ever curious. 

We can try to understand the man that Jesus was by looking at the stories told about him. These stories were based in apocalypticism under Roman rule: the belief that the end would come, but hey at least it would free people from Roman tyranny. Jesus was an apocalyptic preacher whose death caused shockwaves of grief among his followers. I do believe that he made promises about the coming kingdom and when those promises were suddenly impossible after he was killed by his government, his followers found a way to make those promises relevant again in their own minds.

I find this stuff interesting, but I really wish that this specific history didn’t affect people’s lives in the modern world. I wish it were just a weird history niche instead of a direct threat to people’s wellbeing. Being hesitant to research biblical history makes sense. There’s a lot of nonsense out there to dig through and it can be exhausting. Take care of yourself first. Biblical history is not as important as your wellbeing. But if you do enjoy researching, have at it! Find people that you respect, hold on to ideas loosely so you critically evaluate them, and be ready to take a break if you burn out. 

[aikoiya]

My Thoughts on the Fierce Deity

I think I see the Fierce Deity as a god of war, battle strategy, wrath, retribution, protection, heroism, courage/bravery, balance, the wild, the truth, music, the forge, death, spirits, tutelaries (specifically kishin), psychopomps, & the moon.

And while not actively a god of food/cooking himself, they are things that he very much enjoys for himself, & as such, he is regularly associated with them regardless of the fact that he does not hold any power over those domains.

He's also a symbol of manhood. Specifically healthy masculinity even though, much like with food, he has no power over such a domain.

A dark god, but in the way that the moon is dark compared to the sun. How a clear, full moon night is dark compared to even stormy days.

A very kind & compassionate deity who loves deeply, but is also somber & melancholic due to the hardships he's had to endure. Is gentlemanly, chivalrous, & polite, if extremely quiet & outwardly phlegmatic or stoic. So much so that he is selectively mute. Even still, he is vicious, even monstrous & merciless, in battle. You wrong those under his protection, expect nature's fury to come down on you.

The fact that his mask is referred to in Japanese as the Kishin no Kamen (鬼神の仮面), which actually lends credence to this as, as I've seen discussed before, in Japanese folklore Kishin (鬼神) are referred to as wrathful deities or demon gods, but you have to remember that the Japanese concept of demon is entirely different from the western or Judeo-Christian concept of demons. In a lot of ways, demon is a mistranslation & a more accurate one would be fae or genii.

The closest parallel that the Japanese have to the Judeo-Christian concept of demons are Akuma (悪魔) meaning devil. This being due to the use of the Kanji for evil (悪). While Ma (魔) is translated into evil spirit or demon in English, I feel that that is due to a cultural bias more so than being an actual indication of the moral tendencies of said spirits. After all, if these spirits were already evil by default, then what point would there be in specifying that Akuma were evil? To make them seem doubly evil?

Rather, Kishin are more so Oni Kami or Ogre Gods. And despite there being many evil ogres in Japanese lore, there are also many benevolent ones. Kishin specifically are based on a type of Hindu god known as Pāla, a.k.a. Protectors, which are depicted as being wrathful & fierce, even being described as scary-looking, but also compassionate & benevolent at their cores. These deities are said to exact just & righteous vengeance on behalf of the practitioners of Buddhism & are known to destroy obstacles on the path to humanity's enlightenment.

Thus being figures of duality & healthy masculinity in a way. As a good man is one who is strong, but also gentle. Is innately dangerous & even scary at times, but knows where he needs to aim it. Has those primal urges, but controls them. Often tough & possibly even stoic, having to do what's difficult because it is right, as well as a distributor of tough love & corrective punishment. However, as a result of this, is often seen as the bad guy & demonized by the shortsighted because of it. I think the Fierce Deity is similar.

However, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that there are depictions of Kishin in which they are known to eat people. At the same time, I do not know the specificity behind this. For all I know, they may eat any person, or they could instead only eat the wicked. I do not know. It requires further research.

Though, per prompting, I may make it so they don't actually eat people, but more so the souls of the most wicked of sinners. This is done to fast-track to process of the soul forgetting its previous life. Now, normally, it's best to let souls do this organically, however it never a good idea to just let evil spirits wander around unsupervised, spreading their On'nen everywhere.

There's also how Majora's Mask seems to parallel Buddhism in many ways.

And, as I've come to understand, in Japan, one wears an oni mask to bring safety, peace, & to avoid disasters.

At least, that's the cultural significance as I've been told.

At the same time, I also see him having several things in common with the Norse god, Týr. Who is both a god of war, but also justice & is depicted as being self-sacrificial & brave as well as being known as a noble & just god by virtue of having sacrificed his own hand to Fenrir in order to hold off Ragnarök. Which would very much parallel my story for him.

Anyway, within Japanese myth, Kishin are minor deities. However, here, Sheikaku is sort of the King of Kishin (remember, Hyrule's religion isn't actually Buddhism or Shintoism, merely inspired by it), so you could call him the Daikishin even though I don't think there is such a thing in Japanese mythos. In this way, he more resembles a Dharma Pāla.

Moving on, notice that when he's called the "bad guy" in MM, it's done by Majora, who is portrayed as a kid who's forcing Link to play a twisted game with them. And kids often see the one who stops their fun as being "bad." Add to that, the fact that Majora is the one trying to literally kill everyone in Termina & calling itself the "good guy" while doing so, I'm just not inclined to believe it. Which considering the fact that those who do bad things often see those who try to stop them or punish them as being "bad," actually makes sense. In this way, if we continue with the child imagery, this would paint the Fierce Deity as the responsible father figure who comes in at the end of playtime to tell the kids to put their toys away. Though, only in a symbolic way.

The Gyorg Mask child even questions if doing the right thing actually makes everyone happy & the truth of the matter is that no, it doesn't. Not everyone's gonna be happy no matter what you do & that's just reality. And this, I think, is the Fierce Deity's true role in MM.

Anyway, I think FD's sacred animals would be dragons, wolves, foxes, moths, & surprisingly rabbits, but he is also heavily associated with hawks, horses, & bucks. And that he was associated with music (specifically wind & string instruments) & nature/the wild which I think would be due to his less hectic childhood where he'd been a boy with a heart of gold & love of such things even if he could also be a bit mischievous at times, maybe a bit shy too. Back then, he'd been far more open, social, & outgoing than he is now. Some of his favorite pastimes are fishing & whittling since he was a little boy as it reminds him of hunting trips with his father, Hebrogar (who is an oc of mine), & his sister, Karina (another oc of mine). Has also always been extremely good with animals.

Interesting thing, he actually had the singing voice of an angel, but initially he was too shy, then later was too traumatized. As such, he mostly utilized his music magic through instruments. Despite this, the voice is the most powerful musical medium as it simply connects with the soul on a more intimate frequency than physical instruments can.

Another interesting thing being a connection to Farore based on this one fanfic I read that was really good! In it, he was Farore's son, so he'll be similar here.

The thing is, the core of the Fierce Deity is that no one told him to pick up the sword. No one pushed him into it. Instead, he chose to of his own accord when he realized that simply talking to the people who wanted to hurt those he was tasked with protecting would end in his wards being hurt or even killed. Thus began his journey to become a protector of Hyruleans & an avenger of wrongs.

As a man, he became known for using instruments to sooth the souls of the departed with the Song of Healing which he wrote & shepherded them off to the Realms Beyond Death in a manner similar to a pied piper. On occasion, he'd also have to fight them (namely the Poe enemies) to calm them down before sending them on.

Thus, making him somewhat analogous to the Dharma Pāla, Yama, the Hindu god of death & judge of the dead who presides over the cycle of the afterlife.

If so, then this might explain why Link is always able to see & interact with the spirits of the departed in one way or another. Why he can see the Poes. Why he can see the Shadow Soldiers upon the rock stacks in the Depths when no one else can. He's fulfilling his own bygone task from millennia gone by.

Fierce's magical elements are Twilight (which can be broken up into both Light & Shadow), as well as Spirit, Wind, Nature/Wild, & even Ice to a degree. He also has a natural inclination towards Music magic due to being a god of music.

I also subscribe to the theory that just like Zelda is the mortal reincarnation of Hylia & Ganondorf is the mortal incarnation of The Bringer of Demise's hatred, I believe that Link is the mortal reincarnation of the Fierce Deity & I'd like to know the story that led to him becoming mortal.

My guess is that he held off Demise while Hylia created the Goddess Sword, but was fatally injured in the process. At which point, rather than leave Hylia to fight Demise on her own, he chose to relinquish his godhood in death so that he'd be reborn as a human & be able to use the Triforce to save Hyrule from The Bringer of Demise. As only non-deities can use it.

At the same time, I see the Bargainer's Statues as being very early depictions of the Fierce Deity that act as "bunshin" for him in the same way that the Goddess Statues act as "bunshin" for Hylia.

However, as a result, this would mean that the Fierce Deity might've had 4 eyes in a similar way to how Rainbow Quartz from Steven Universe had 4 eyes. Which I'm very cool with!

I get the idea that, physical attribute-wise, his true form likely had a similar appearance to Sesshoumaru from Inuyasha, but with different facial markings, 4 eyes, & darker, more tanned skin resembling Impa's from Skyward Sword. Not to mention different clothes. Possibly with a look like a mix of what we associate the Fierce Deity with, but with a Depths Set script, & made to look like the armor of a Sheikah samurai of sorts, maybe with elements of the Mystic set, the Double Helix Sword acting as a Zanbatō.

I also think that he was, at least physically, more similar to TP Link in that he actually had some damn muscles on him & was specifically a hunk, not a twink nor even a twunk. A hunk. Not, like, Ganondorf levels of hunk, rather being more slim or compact in build, but still very muscular.

Anyway, "bunshin" are, again, something based on Japanese folklore. Though, I've heard it be described 2 ways: Bunshin & Bunrei. The first is the one that I'm going with, which is where deities are able to split themselves up into "bunshin" which are sort of regional versions of the 'source' god that govern over specific domains. Think Kage Bunshin from Naruto. Only one is real, but the others are able to accomplish tasks given to them by their source & have a much more limited well of power than the original.

The other, Bunrei, described thr Shintoist concept, process, & spirit produced as a result of said process. In which, theologically speaking, the Kami isn't supposed to be decreased in any way by the act, even functioning the same. It is specifically compared to the act of using a candle to light another candle.

However, I am personally gonna be taking a couple of creative liberties in certain instances & this happens to be one of them. If this were the case in my hc, then I'd have to get a bit more convoluted with things than I'd personally prefer. As such, I'm instead making it more similarly to the Kage Bunshin technique from Naruto. Which I've already gone into above. If this upsets anyone, my apologies, but I wanted to be upfront about the tweaks that I'm making.

Anyway, in this way, even though Hylia & the Fierce Deity themselves have both been reincarnated several times over, their bunshin still exist & are able to watch over Hyrule & the Depths via their statues. Thus, in a way, the statues' bunshin are like siblings to each other & the source god their parent in an abstract sense.

I also theorize that the Fierce Deity created the Sheikah in a similar way to how Hylia created the Hylians. Thus if the naming conventions hold, his true name would start with, or at least have, the word "Shei" or "Sheik" in it. I'm thinking of going with Sheikaku.

The Sheikah & Hylians having come forth from the union between the Fierce Deity & Hylia. Not as actual blood offspring, but as their spiritual children in a sense. The Sheikah actually came about first, then when the first Hylians came to be, the Fierce Deity instructed the Sheikah to always watch over their younger siblings as that is the duty that comes with being the eldest. As such, the truth is that the Sheikah weren't simply supposed to protect only the Royal Family, but the Hylians as a whole.

Similarly, Hylia is based on the Greek term Hylia presina meaning "sunny green" & is likely the ancient Hyrulean word for the sun as well. In this way, if the naming conventions do follow through, then I also think that "Shei" would be the ancient Hyrulean or Sheikan word for moon. Which would make sense because I see the Fierce Deity as having connections to the moon.

Also, the symbols on the Depths Set & the Dark Clumps are ancient Sheikah script. Those who were tasked with not only bringing spirits (non-combative poes) to the Bargainer Statues, but also fighting the Poe enemies on the Surface after the Fierce Deity gave up his immortality, were the Sheikah.

---

Something else I read somewhere that I quite liked was, "The never-ending battle between Zelda/Hylia and Ganondorf/Demise represents Chaos. Link brings order and balance to this conflict every time."

---

Either way, I'd love it if LoZ had more lore for him or made him a major focus of a game's plot.

At the same time, I wonder why there isn't anymore talk of the 3 golden goddesses? They used to be the main goddesses that people in Hyrule talked about. Now, it's all about Hylia & I wonder when this changed & why.

LoZ Cultural Masterlist

[clever-fox-studios]

Something Something Trust the Process

More inane ramblings as I go over and add more notes for Free Runner, only this time mostly in regard to world building and language and how so many things we refer to in our world are directly related to constants we experience. I say that because when Azil came to be (a randomly vivid dream) it came with some very specific features (and lack there of) that make it counter intuitive in some key ways to what I experience here on earth and that's awesome and really really tedious to break down.

Because I want to move the Free Runners away from DCA a bit more, I felt one of the best ways to do that was to refer to them with different names, which was kind of necessary anyway after realizing the term "Sun" doesn't exist on Azil anyway. The rabbit hole opened up before me about linguistic context and now I'm staring at three pages of notes I have to annotate because simple principles I take for granted on earth simply do not work in this world setting. The layer I peeled back of terms used on earth to easily describe things like celestial bodies cease to function because this world doesn't have an equivalent.

Azil has no "sun", there are no visible celestial bodies in its sky, the relationship between planet (which is broken) and its only moon is very different and than earth and our moon, the day-night cycle does not exist. Remove these features, and suddenly I can't make parallels to earth cultures or words like "sol" or "equinox". Cultures with features built on weather patterns, heavenly bodies, star patterns, etc, all stop working because there is no sun to worship, no seasons to acknowledge.

Everything is different and the thought process of finding new parallels, thinking how some things don't make sense anymore, and having to redefine other terms ("eclipse" as a term exists due to its secondary meaning, "to block/black out", becoming its primary one over time) to fit the world has been wild and honestly?

I fucking love it.

Never be afraid to get fast and loose with ideas and to really explore the deviations even small things have on how cultures and people evolve. It makes you get creative and genuinely adds flavor to your projects.

[star4daisy]

Wife on her duty as a perfect wife i'm!

For the asking game, babe. Give me what i need... 3, 4, 14, 17, 19, 30, 35, and 43 (even tho i already know the answer).

Lov u sfm🖤

omg it was a joke luv <3

3. Describe the creative process of writing a chapter/fic

I'm the worst person to answer this I have no process sometimes I plan everything out and then write based on that and actually do what I planned, most times the characters take life and change everything and I keep trying to go back to the original plan and sometimes can still fit some things, usually not lol when I have time I just go with the flow and then if I'm interrupted I have to write down what I want to happen next otherwise I will not remember when I open the docs again, on the good days I write without actually thinking about it so I don't remember it well just feels like my fingers can't type fast enough lol very automatic

4. Where do you find inspiration for new ideas?

(I think I've answered this before in a better way) everywhere, things come to me at the most random times, usually when I'm daydreaming before falling asleep, sometimes by other books, tv shows or music but mostly it just feels like I spent six years of my life repressing my creative side so I could do physics and calculus so now that I'm letting it loose it's running wild lol

14. how do you write emotional scenes? Do you ever feel what the characters feel? Do you draw from personal experiences?

I don't write emotional scenes, I can't do emotional or vulnerable therefore neither can my characters which is why I mostly write from Barty/Evan's pov lol it's a different type of emotional I guess I have a dificulty in making my characters say I love you, I just cringe so badly. I don't feel what they feel at all lol and the only personal experience would be from emotions like anger

17. What do you do when writing becomes difficult? (maybe a lack of inspiration or writers block)

inspiration never lacks the problem is the lack of time, but when things aren't flowing I stop and go watch something, read or go to the gym until my mojo comes back

19. What is the most-used tag on your ao3?

Morally Ambiguous Characters and Graphic Depictions of Violence

30. Do you share rough drafts or do you wait until it’s all polished?

sometimes I just post the draft lol I cannot re-read things before posting so the first few people reading are definetly getting screwed over sorry, but then I feel the pressure of having people seeing all my mistakes and it forces me to go polish it

35. What is one essential thing to remember when writing a villain?

question what are his motives and why did he chose that path and maybe not make him one-dimensional like his whole purpose isn't just to go against the hero, make him compelling, make us believe in why he chose that path make us understand him and feel sorry for his motivations, I always like that lol

43. Do you take a sadistic joy in whumping your characters, or are you more the "If you hurt them I would kill everyone and then myself" kind of person?

Definetely the first, I'm very disattached to death, I have cried in very few fics and it's not when people die lol sometimes living is more painful so I never expect people to say they cried and when they do I'm always in shock

thx <3 I thought this was gonna be harder lol but maybe I just didn't answer as I should lol

[mythuzalasheir3]

I HAVE FABLE THOUGHTS AND YOU HAVE TO HEAR ABOUT THEM

My ‘canon’ Sparrow is fem Sparrow who ends up in a whirlwind romance with Reaver because their kinds of fucked up match in a sense and they feel less alone in the world when they’re together.

They end up having kids because Logan and HoBW exist :))) I have different vibes for strength, skill and will HoBW so if they all existed in one timeline they’d be three people

Logan: He’s the oldest of all the children and Sparrow was queen when he was born, so all his life he has the pressure of being the heir and Sparrow through no fault of her own unintentionally raises him with this higher destiny to be king, when she struggled with that because of how Theresa trained her to be a Hero.

Then Sparrow dies when he’s still a child unexpectedly and Reaver abandons them because he’s trying to swallow his grief so he’s left to learn how to navigate politics and make sure his regent doesn’t fuck him over (but it’s either his auntie Hammer or Rose so she wouldn’t) while still a child.

So he finds the sense of adventure he shares with his parents and that becomes a bit of an escape for him. And then he goes to Aurora and sees what the Crawler can do and is manipulated by Theresa into doing whatever he needs to do save Albion.

He goes to Reaver because even though their relationship is tense as fuck, he is still the wealthiest man in Albion.

Once his sibling takes the throne from him and the Crawler is dead, if he wasn’t executed, Logan struggles with what to do with himself now, like Sparrow did after Fable 2. He ends up floating around a bit and ends up travelling across the world, becoming a semi-intentional ambassador for Albion across the world.

Side note: Each of my HoBW are inspired by the Baratheon Brothers, Robert, Stannis the mannis and Renly.

Dorian: He is my Strength HoBW. I’m drawing a lot from Robert Baratheon vibe wise from him, as well as my son Agent Curt Mega from SAF. If he’s the Hero, he sacrifices Elise for the crowd and completely spirals.

He’s always had a tendency to be wild and reckless as a boy and is much more inclined to rush into a fight than his siblings.

He can crush your head in his hands, but beneath the borderline alcoholism and intimidating hammer, he’s a bloody teddy bear.

If all three versions of the HoBW exist, he is the second oldest, seven years behind Logan, so he’s the designated ‘spare’. He has little interest in actual politics but he’s generally a decent person, if rough around the edges.

Rose: My skill HoBW and the one I play as most because I prefer ranged combat in Fable sue me. Rose is The People’s Princess through and through, having an eye for political negotiations and a compassionate heart. She is the most like the Hero Queen out of all of them, all righteousness and iron will.

Rose is like the ‘ideal’ HoBW, at least, on the surface. She’s morally upstanding, a talented Hero and the weight of all her burdens sit on her shoulders comfortably and she accepts them without complaint.

However, she is stubborn to a fault and unless something forces her to change her mind, she never will,

Rose also has several identity issues, particularly post Traitor’s Keep as she has always done her best to be as good as possible, like Sparrow would have wanted, but she feels like she’s losing herself in the process.

She is most similar to Stannis the Mannis, with their keen sense of duty blinding them at times.

Caroline: My Will HoBW. If Rose is a good Hero, Caroline is not, unafraid to do what needs to be done, even revelling in the darkness at time. In a timeline where they’re all siblings,

Rose and Caroline are twins, so they’re each other’s anchors. Rose is light and compassion and duty, while Caroline’s only duty is to her power, learning to be a powerful will user.

She describes herself as the things nightmares run from, the thing too dark for hell itself.”

Caroline’s pursuit of power comes from a desire for approval from Reaver, who in this universe is her father, while Rose’s comes from her duty to her mother. and to Albion.

[azrielgreen]

This is probably a bit weird but I really admire your work and was wondering how do you find that passion and hold onto it? I've been getting back into writing and I'm enjoying what I write but I haven't felt that passion and drive I had when I was teenager.

Thank you so much! I really love that you're getting back into writing, that's WONDERFUL!! OK, so, in terms of passion? I think the best way to describe the kind of passion I have for my own work is that it's obsession bordering on complete delusion. I don't ever let myself feel insecure about what I'm writing, how I write it, who else will read it, what they'll think of it etc... and it creates a kind of bulletproof bubble around my passion. I get so insanely excited because there are SCENES in my head I'm building towards, exploring vibes, characters and all of it with the fuel that what I'm creating is absolutely perfect. And it is, for me.

I write for myself, always. I write what makes me happy, excited, scared. Push boundaries, find inspiration and nourish it. I also romanticise my writing process to the max - when I get time to myself to write, I light candles, I put lavender in my bra, i make tea and snacks for myself and pretend I'm snowed it, nothing to do but write. I find the perfect music, I let run on sentences flow, I go wild with it.

This is how I keep my passion.

And then later, I will edit and make it clean cut, snip where i went too far, but that's a different process and it takes nothing from my joy (I use read-aloud tech and a very pleasant female voice).

If I get stuck, if I start dreading writing it usually means I need to delete something or switch gears.

Write for yourself and only yourself. Then, if you're generous enough, let people see it, share it. The outcome is always so much more authentic than when I would try to write what I thought people would like in the past.

Your fire and creative passion needs fuel, it needs tending and feeding. Give yourself what you need to get completely worked up about what you're going to create. Be delusional, romanticise, make time and space wherever you can for your process.

Hope this helps/makes sense.

Az.

💜💜💜

[marshmallowprotection]

Hi ho Kait! ✨

If it's not too late for the writer ask game, maybe 23, 26, 36, 54, 59? (You pick as little or as many you want to answer! ^^)

23. Best writing advice for other writers?

Do it every day.

Write something every day.

It is a skill just like drawing, and artists will give you the same advice. You need to use your skills to grow your skills. Do not think for a second that other creators had that skill inherently. Some people may take to creative things faster but we all have to practice to be able to get to where we want to be. My style today is not my style from years ago but that is because I spend so much time writing all day, every day.

Don't cringe when you write. Keep going. You will learn how to adjust with time as you take your time to process how to capture thoughts and emotions on paper.

26. How do you write kissing scenes?

Honestly? You just have to get a feel for it. You don't have to know how to kiss to write that scene but you should try to watch more scenes in different media with kisses to better learn how they look and what the vibe is. It also helps to read how it's done in other stories. I tend to think and focus on how they feel as opposed to describing the kiss itself. I'll sprinkle in a few sentences about the act but spend my time focused on their feelings. To me, the kiss itself is not the focal point! It is the feelings!

36. What’s your favorite part about the fanfiction writing process?

The part when I'm finished.

Actually, the real answer is the part when I post a story and I get screaming feedback or tears not long after that. I live for someone not even getting four sentences in and just hitting my inbox with

"How dare you!"

54. Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?

For me emotionally, or for my readers? That's a hard question.

I feel like Iris was a wild story because I wanted to write it for years and when I finally did, I was ready to create what I wanted. Saeran and his former assistant have to learn how to adapt and survive this painful world until they see each other again. That story had a lot of twists and turns I doubt most of the readers expected. I might follow a story pattern best for beat sometimes if you know my stories, but I know none of you expected Rika to do what she did.

Now, reader wise? I know it's Gardenia et tu Polaris. That story had and still people shout at me because they're straining to find out how Saeran and Luciel lost each other, why Polaris and Luciel can't touch, why Gardenia is such an important person, and truly, whatever is happening with Rika as the Devil. :)

59. Does anyone in your personal life know you write fic? if not, would you tell anyone?

Yes. But, I would not tell people unless I fully trusted them. Like, my family? Nope. They do not get to know for valid reasons and it'll stay that way. But, friends? Maybe. It truly hinges on the vibe. If this is a person I know who is in fandoms, then yeah. If not, no. I do not like judging eyes so if I can't trust someone they will not know I spend my time writing about kissing Saeran.

[self-loving-vampire]

I was recently reminded of how wild it was to have emotional flashbacks and hypervigilance. In hindsight my behavior when I was still suffering from that frequently was very irrational but internally it typically made sense based on the information I had.

Fortunately I don’t really get this much anymore and have pretty much recovered from everything, but that only makes my past self sound even crazier.

For those who don’t know, an emotional flashback is usually the result of C-PTSD and also different from the more audiovisual type often associated with classic PTSD. 

Rather than seeing or hearing things while re-experiencing events from the past, in an emotional flashback your emotions are essentially hijacked by your past self’s. You feel as hurt, worthless, and/or unsafe as you did during a traumatic event but don’t actually perceive anything out of the ordinary.

A lot of people don’t even realize that what they are experiencing is a trauma response at all, even as they suddenly stop trusting people they previously liked, emotionally detach themselves from everything, or enter self-loathing spirals every time they are less than perfect or do anything to displease others.

It really could be compared to being mind controlled or possessed by something that is trying to drive you to self-isolation and ultimately death, complete with your loved ones begging you to fight it and you becoming unable to tell if you can even trust yourself because your thought processes become corrupted by these overwhelming emotional reactions.

And those reactions can come really suddenly too, as if your entire brain gets overwritten with the flip of a switch and suddenly established trust and bonds vanish for some time and you start feeling unusually defective and “bad”.

To fight this it is important to become able to recognize when these events are happening and remind yourself that you are safe in the present, among other things.

I don’t think it makes sense to describe me as having C-PTSD anymore, though. I have pretty much recovered from it.