#its a problem honestly...

[isacksteban]

"OMG MY MAN POSTED" "which one" ok so suddenly im the towns whore?? 🤨

[hinamie]

mentor

[aethersea]

another thing fantasy writers should keep track of is how much of their worldbuilding is aesthetic-based. it's not unlike the sci-fi hardness scale, which measures how closely a story holds to known, real principles of science. The Martian is extremely hard sci-fi, with nearly every detail being grounded in realistic fact as we know it; Star Trek is extremely soft sci-fi, with a vaguely plausible "space travel and no resource scarcity" premise used as a foundation for the wildest ideas the writers' room could come up with. and much as Star Trek fuckin rules, there's nothing wrong with aesthetic-based fantasy worldbuilding!

(sidenote we're not calling this 'soft fantasy' bc there's already a hard/soft divide in fantasy: hard magic follows consistent rules, like "earthbenders can always and only bend earth", and soft magic follows vague rules that often just ~feel right~, like the Force. this frankly kinda maps, but I'm not talking about just the magic, I'm talking about the worldbuilding as a whole.

actually for the purposes of this post we're calling it grounded vs airy fantasy, bc that's succinct and sounds cool.)

a great example of grounded fantasy is Dungeon Meshi: the dungeon ecosystem is meticulously thought out, the plot is driven by the very realistic need to eat well while adventuring, the story touches on both social and psychological effects of the whole 'no one dies forever down here' situation, the list goes on. the worldbuilding wants to be engaged with on a mechanical level and it rewards that engagement.

deliberately airy fantasy is less common, because in a funny way it's much harder to do. people tend to like explanations. it takes skill to pull off "the world is this way because I said so." Narnia manages: these kids fall into a magic world through the back of a wardrobe, befriend talking beavers who drink tea, get weapons from Santa Claus, dance with Bacchus and his maenads, and sail to the edge of the world, without ever breaking suspension of disbelief. it works because every new thing that happens fits the vibes. it's all just vibes! engaging with the worldbuilding on a mechanical level wouldn't just be futile, it'd be missing the point entirely.

the reason I started off calling this aesthetic-based is that an airy story will usually lean hard on an existing aesthetic, ideally one that's widely known by the target audience. Lewis was drawing on fables, fairy tales, myths, children's stories, and the vague idea of ~medieval europe~ that is to this day our most generic fantasy setting. when a prince falls in love with a fallen star, when there are giants who welcome lost children warmly and fatten them up for the feast, it all fits because these are things we'd expect to find in this story. none of this jars against what we've already seen.

and the point of it is to be wondrous and whimsical, to set the tone for the story Lewis wants to tell. and it does a great job! the airy worldbuilding serves the purposes of the story, and it's no less elegant than Ryōko Kui's elaborately grounded dungeon. neither kind of worldbuilding is better than the other.

however.

you do have to know which one you're doing.

the whole reason I'm writing this is that I saw yet another long, entertaining post dragging GRRM for absolute filth. asoiaf is a fun one because on some axes it's pretty grounded (political fuck-around-and-find-out, rumors spread farther than fact, fastest way to lose a war is to let your people starve, etc), but on others it's entirely airy (some people have magic Just Cause, the various peoples are each based on an aesthetic/stereotype/cliché with no real thought to how they influence each other as neighbors, the super-long seasons have no effect on ecology, etc).

and again! none of this is actually bad! (well ok some of those stereotypes are quite bigoted. but other than that this isn't bad.) there's nothing wrong with the season thing being there to highlight how the nobles are focused on short-sighted wars for power instead of storing up resources for the extremely dangerous and inevitable winter, that's a nice allegory, and the looming threat of many harsh years set the narrative tone. and you can always mix and match airy and grounded worldbuilding – everyone does it, frankly it's a necessity, because sooner or later the answer to every worldbuilding question is "because the author wanted it to be that way." the only completely grounded writing is nonfiction.

the problem is when you pretend that your entirely airy worldbuilding is actually super duper grounded. like, for instance, claiming that your vibes-based depiction of Medieval Europe (Gritty Edition) is completely historical, and then never even showing anyone spinning. or sniffing dismissively at Tolkien for not detailing Aragorn's tax policy, and then never addressing how a pre-industrial grain-based agricultural society is going years without harvesting any crops. (stored grain goes bad! you can't even mouse-proof your silos, how are you going to deal with mold?) and the list goes on.

the man went up on national television and invited us to engage with his worldbuilding mechanically, and then if you actually do that, it shatters like spun sugar under the pressure. doesn't he realize that's not the part of the story that's load-bearing! he should've directed our focus to the political machinations and extensive trope deconstruction, not the handwavey bit.

point is, as a fantasy writer there will always be some amount of your worldbuilding that boils down to 'because I said so,' and there's nothing wrong with that. nor is there anything wrong with making that your whole thing – airy worldbuilding can be beautiful and inspiring. but you have to be aware of what you're doing, because if you ask your readers to engage with the worldbuilding in gritty mechanical detail, you had better have some actual mechanics to show them.

[qoldenskies]

i think its so funny when people take the way donnie acts at face value even though its a horrible lie because he's a horrible liar, while understanding leo is bullshitting very well despite him actually being GOOD at bullshitting. many such cases

[kyoukorpse]

Here's a proper ref of my goat Jakub >:) still so grateful that the goat was added as a playable option its like he was made for me.

He's a scoundrel and acts before thinking 95% of the time. Let him come over to your side to do normal things like drive you up the wall in knucklebones by eating all ur die and running around your cult kissing your spouses.

His playlist <<

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

finally at that age where i'm thinking i should get a tattoo. not bc i feel strongly about it, just seems like a waste not to. i've got so much skin i'm not using

[zuzu-romeave]

lovelovelove the helena/helly debate cuz i can fully see both sides. like, yeah, it makes sense that the lying, the insistence that innies and outies are two separate people, the reassurance that there are no cameras or microphones, the fumbling with the computer switch, and her hesitation/confusion when mark hugs her would all be helena trying to fit in and have them trust her so she can find out anything else lumon doesnt already know about. on the other hand i can totally see helly being absolutely devastated to find out that she’s the cause of her suffering in an even more involved way than all the others and wanting to hide that fact. her family built lumon from the ground up, her father is the one who came up with the severance procedure, and helly herself encourages others to become severed. it must be soul crushing to learn that You and your whole family are the cause of your suffering AND your friends suffering. it would make sense for helly to being acting strange because of that revelation and it makes sense that she would want to see outies and innies as two entirely separate people. its just very neat i like it a lot its very fun to me :3

[varilien]

ive been wanting to do some redraws of the gravity falls art i made as a kid n since it's seasonally appropriate, here's some magician au doodles ^^

and just in case i don't come back to draw it again any time soon here's my thoughts so far on the topic and the original art circa smn like. idk maybe 2015 or 2016?? i wish i'd put the date on anything from back then lol

Palestine: Funds | Action | eSims | Info

Sudan Resources | Congo Resource | Lebanese Red Cross

i might change the designs later on but at this point i thought it'd be most fun to just kinda leave it really close to the originals :3

anyways!!

okay so gravity falls magician au. plotwise it's all actually about the same, the twins might be a little older actually, like 15 or 16 (maybe they've visited gravity falls in the past?), but whatever. they get sent to a sleepy little village in the woods to stay w their great uncle. magic runs in the pines family, although no currently living pines is thought to have any notable capability. healing a scratch or finding something u lost under ur bed, basically. magic is actually probably a lot more common and mundane in this world than canon, so gravity falls' weirdness as a region comes more from the intensity and unpredictable nature of the magic found there

anyways the BIGGEST plot difference is that i like the idea of the kids meeting bill pretty early on. he introduces himself as a seasoned familiar looking to get back in touch with his old partner. now, bill is a breath of fresh air for dipper in particular, who finally has someone he can speak frankly with about the weird experiences he's been having, but even tho bill loves nothing more than spilling secrets and arcane knowledge, he's not really able to do so as he'd like to. he's got TONS of spells placed on him for the express purpose of keeping him quiet, but there's a few things bill has been able to elude to if nothing else: 1, he knows who the author of the grimoire dipper found in the woods is. 2, he knows stan pines' great secret. and 3, he knows how to access magical power beyond comprehension

hehe idk i just like the idea of bill spending possibly months mentoring and making friends w the kids fully planning on just using them for his own gain the entire time but. well. maybe it's nice not being alone anymore too. tho he'd never admit it

[giganotus]

I fucking called it about Wally btw. It's angry because it's been hurt and exploited.

Really explains why love and kindness fends it off tbh. It was never shown enough of that, so it doesn't know how to react. Its perception of love is one of ownership, exploitation, and bargaining. Actual, real love and kindness? That confuses it.

Who would've thought an eldritch entity would behave in such a sympathetic way.

[trans-axolotl]

i think i recall some info you've posted about suicide hotlines, sorry if i've mixed you up with someone else. with the lgbt youth silo being disbanded under 988 next month, do you think it'll have an impact on people? part of me wants to believe if 988 sucks then who cares. but if lgbt youth have been helped by this subservice then it's another kick in the teeth.

Yeah probably was me you were thinking of, I've posted quite a bit about the problems with 988 in terms of all the ways they collaborate with cops, do "nonconsensual active rescue" and involuntarily hospitalize people.

And honestly this is one of the reasons I said from the beginning that I didn't think hotlines such as the Trevor Project and other independent hotlines should have became part of the 988 network. Mostly because I think that 988 is a deeply unethical hotline and I don't think that other hotlines should have agreed to uphold the mandatory nonconsensual rescue policies that are required to become part of the 988 network, but also because then their operation becomes even more closely tied to federal funding and federal policy changes, and it opened the door to something like this happening.

I certainly don't think it's good that the fed government specifically cut this service and are signaling that they don't care about supporting suicide prevention for LGBTQ and specifically trans youth, but I also don't think the solution to that is pouring more money into unethical hotlines or lobbying into getting this service back into 988. I think the solution is supporting independent hotlines like the trans lifeline or thrive lifeline that don't collaborate with cops, trying to direct more funding to them so that they can support an increased influx of calls, and sharing those hotline numbers so that more LGBTQ youth are aware there are other LGBTQ hotline services out there. I also think there should be more of an organized effort to get other hotlines to quit working with the cops, quit working with 988, and implement the crisis callers bill of rights.

[nikki-handholder]

My first mistake was being on twitter, but on god there are some incredibly terrible takes on nikkitwt. Saw someone say that the writing is terrible and Nikki has no personality because she seems to be super chill with being thrown into a new world.

My guy, that is her personality. She was interrogating a man who put multiple people into comas and she said she would wish for all girls to no longer have period pain. She's just the most unfazed person ever and her being written this way is intentional.

That post has almost 300 retweets and 5.5k likes.

[searchforahero]

suggestion: if you hear someone say "hey this successful openly bisexual woman is actually a sexual deviant and a rape fetishist" maybe you shouldn't believe them whole-heartedly without checking their sources and doing your own research.

[moeblob]

Terrified by this customer I helped today holy moly why would you say that while reading my name tag and saying my name please don't REPORT me for any behavior, good or bad. Just don't.

[fairylando]

The way Lando (and Carlos) immediately go back to each other after having a hard time and being down needs to be studied. They probably find comfort in each other due to the fact it reminds them of much simpler days aka their McLaren era. They’re soooo Call it what you want by Taylor swift coded

this is exactly how i look and feel like whenever they try to convince us that they're "just rivals" and nothing more until one of them retires, and then go and do this everytime.

[shroommush]

So i drew some fanart of @pompadorbz sorry boys "still wakes the deep" au ! I had fun with the more action filled drawings, and definetly wanna do more >:P

While drawing, i got to brainstorming about what character roles the boys might take in the story. Like, charlies probably caz, and maybe phil is caz's friend whos a cook (i forgot his name) but then i thought about if characters like Rennick had a coresponding cc, and i immediately thought about schlatt. So, i have ideas about what expanding the au might look like, but this isnt MY au, so for now ill hold off on yapping my ideas and just share what ive drawn for now

But either way, i REALLY enjoy this au and love all the ansgt potential it has. Like i was thinking, who out of the boys would end up being the last one? (Aka, taking caz's place at the end of the story with the lighter) and thought that, out of the boys, it would just make the most sense to be tommy. And thats HORRIBLE, AUGH ITS SO SAD but i LOVE IT

Anyways, sorry for the rambling, i hope you guys enjoy the art :] i still have to draw that other scene with charlie on the elevator, tho, so i might come back with more later

[gelarshiesprofruitboarder]

coughs hi heres more