#ive been in a creative funk

[falmerbrook]

Before his son was born, Stellar had only ever interacted with baby Argonians, who hatch at a development equivalent to toddlers, and had no idea that non-Argonian babies developed differently. His son's year was quite the shock to him.

Bonus father-son bonding:

[s0fter-sin]

happy four year anniversary (and first anniversary of posting) to the bane of my existence, the source of all my stress and the greatest joy in my life! i love you, i hate you, i’ve grown so much as a writer bc of you but god i wish you were finished 😭💕

[roetrolls]

New Blood

Prior to discovering his powers, what Bigby hated most about the circus was simple. Even in his time on the streets, the redblood had never seen someplace so loud. The carnival was an endless assault on the senses, manufactured for the wonder of those visiting with no thought spared to the ones who could not leave.

Flashing lights and garish colors, spinning music and roaring crowds, the relentless jostle of bodies passing too close to his–– every waking second was filled with just too much. It was enough to drive a person mad.

The only thing worse than living in the circus was dying there, but he’d seen no shortage of that either.

Were he a more introspective sort, Bigby might have ruminated on how used to the stimulus he had become, how novel the quiet still felt. Not even Maelia’s hive was truly calm, though its bustle was a warmer, welcome sort.

Pleasant as it was, it still meant that Bigby did not often find himself sharing company with silence at home. That luxury was found somewhere else.

Though some nights saw the House of Restoration buzzing with activity, many more saw it quiet and still, so calm not even the crickets dared disturb it.

If one thought on it, they could perhaps see the ways both carnival and church took after their respective leaders… If one thought on it, of course. Which Bigby, naturally, would not. He was not inclined toward such fanciful metaphors. 

Instead, he let his mind wander to what Maelia might be planning for dinner, a most pressing thought indeed. He considered briefly whether to call and ask, but the idea was easily dismissed. The general would be picking him up shortly, after all. 

With that crucial decision made, the boy busied himself rifling through his belongings, making sure he had not left anything behind. It was unlikely he had, given how diligent he was in tracking the things he owned, but it never hurt to check. Especially at a time like this, with the church’s entrance devoid of interlopers and plenty of empty space to himself.

Well.

He should have had the space to himself. But the quiet click of heels on tile seemed to indicate otherwise. Who else was on their way out at this hour? When he lifted his head to check, he found himself bristling at the four-eyed face that greeted him.

“Belbig.” Serafi scowled, disgust tugging at her lips. Whether her disdain was sparked by the boy himself or the life he reminded her of, she was clearly less than pleased to see him sitting in this refuge. 

“Bigby,” he corrected her sharply, tail lashing out his own displeasure behind him. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask the same of you,” she countered, peering down her nose at him. “Last I heard you’d become Emarra’s latest plaything.”

Bigby growled at the mention of his former Ringleader, pupils morphing into slits.

What was once the pleasant buzz of quiet had morphed into a thick and heavy silence, strung out between the pair with enough tension to mimic a tightrope. 

Serafi surveyed him thoughtfully, half-lidded eyes somehow walking the line between both daggers and disinterest. How much did she know? She had already escaped by the time Emarra discovered Bigby’s ability to return from death. Somehow, she was aware of the favoritism that followed… Had she learned of his power as well?

The redblood narrowed his eyes at the thought, all too aware of the sadistic streak that had followed Serafi through the fairgrounds. She wasn’t the sort of person who belonged at the House of Restoration.

“What are you doing here?” He hissed again.

“Currently? Speaking to a dirty brat with an attitude problem.”

“You’re the one with the problem. You shouldn’t even be allowed in here.”

“Is that so?” she asked flatly. “And why not?”

Bigby gestured vaguely at the church hall around them, as if that alone was enough of an answer.

“The House of Restoration doesn’t discriminate, Belbig.”

“Bigby.”

“I behave while I’m here. I don’t hurt anyone within these walls. I think I’m more than deserving of the protection this place affords us.”

“You’re not.”

“What is your criteria for what constitutes the deserving poor, then, hm?”

“The people here are nice,” he huffed.

At that, Serafi barked a short, shrill laugh, hand floating just beneath her chin. 

“Look in the mirror, kid.”

Again, Bigby’s tail began to lash, but she paid his irritation little mind.

“You’ve met Ailzea. Do you honestly believe he’d throw me to the wolves just for being a little bitchy?” She scoffed, examining her nails. “I knew you were stunted, but I didn’t realize you were this juvenile.”

“You hurt people.”

“True,” Serafi hummed, finally lifting her eyes back to his. “It’s a shame your abilities never came to light before I left. I would have enjoyed having a turn with you…”

Instantly, Bigby felt his chest tighten. She tilted her head slightly and smirked, soaking in his reaction, and he suddenly realized that his hair was standing on end. 

“Are you scared?” the tealblood purred, ghosting a step closer.

Despite the pounding in his chest, he kept his feet planted, and she advanced no further.

Serafi was dangerous, but she was at least predictable. For all her talk, there was very little chance she would actually hurt him. Even if she were willing to risk the protection of Ailzea and his church, her own haphephobia made it unlikely that she would ever lay a hand on Bigby herself.

“No,” he breathed, left ear flicking once.

“Do I scare you, Belbig?”

He flexed his hand at his side, eyes darting across her face as the storm of an idea began to gather in his head. So occupied by his own thoughts, he almost didn’t notice the hulking shape that had entered his peripheral, its footfall heavy and familiar.

“It’s Bigby,” Maelia growled, drawing Serafi’s attention away from the tiny redblood in front of her. Much to the general’s surprise, however, Bigby raised a hand to stop him before he could intercede further. 

Then, without warning, he dragged his tongue up the length of his palm and stamped it directly on Serafi’s face. 

The shriek she let out was ungodly, but as Maelia’s bellowing laugh joined it in reverberating off the chapel walls, the result was almost harmonious.

[nuncamuere]

ehhh i wasn't gonna post this but its his birthday. sketchy one-layer neuvi test to fight the art block

[hotsugarbyglassanimals]

if you witnessed me having brainworms from january til june thank you for your patience 👍

[antlereed]

glaring at all of my wips because i dont like them anymore

[drearyfog]

seeing other people's art and getting inspired is one thing

but nothing fires up my creative juices better than looking back on stuff I've done in the past and remembering that I DID THAT and reminding myself of what i'm capable of

[shepardstales]

Hi guys, update again

Taking a small break from writing to replenish my ability to write What i will say, its most likely definitely (see this post why) looking like my moving date is the start of November now, so Im going to have to say that my paid exclusive content on Ko-Fi and my free WordPress stuff is going to probably come back on the blogs, tumblr, Kofi ect, in the middle of November it feels like.

Im saying the middle of November for a couple of reasons

Gives me time to relax and do other things so i get out of a writers block/ creative funk

Lets me settle into my home when I finally get to move and I'll be without internet for a bit anyway so like if I'm on my laptop, I can most likely get work done on my wips but not be able to upload them because of course, no internet

Any ideas Ive been working on will get a lot more focus and you guys dont get slop put out. I know Its only £2 a month for Ko-Fi exclusive content and there's only one story up at the moment, but I can't control how things play out. Things are chaos XD

November December time is christmas/ holiday relaxing time so yeah :D hopefully that helps

i really appreciate you understanding, especially @bardic-tales @pinkevilwriter @watermeezer @justabunchofocs @moremysteriesthantragedies . You guys are amazing. I'll make it up to you

[soulless-angel25]

Ive been in an art flunk as of late, a creative funk just in general. So I've decided to make a list of fandoms and characters and draw ship art for pride <3

My first piece is Sebek x Trey, I have no idea if this is a popular ship at all but I wanted to share it

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

The House Sound of London - Vol. IV - "The Jackin' Zone" 1988 House / Acid House

I mean, should I even acknowledge the silver-plattered 'jackin'" pun that's sitting right here in front of us, folks? Or should I prime the pump instead for a bit and then deliver some sweet release later? Hmm, I think I'll choose to hold off for a little while 😁.

First, let's get down to business and try to properly contextualize this classic house release from the Pete Tong-run FFRR label by talking about Jazzy M, the London DJ who kicks off this very "Jackin' Zone" comp under the pseudonym of The J&M Connection, with "Living in a World of Fantasy."

Jazzy M is a DJ from the UK who had a very popular radio show on pirate station LWR (London-Wide Radio) in the 80s. At first, his show was known for playing dancy brands of jazz, funk, and Latin music, but when house started gaining steam in the UK, he gladly incorporated that too, setting it aside for a specific portion of his program that he labeled as 'The Jackin' Zone.' And then, eventually, his show took on The Jackin' Zone as its own name 😎.

So that's where the title of this comp is derived from, but here with this fourth installment in this House Sound of… series—which originally began in Chicago on D. J. International Records as a showcase of the Windy City's own original house scene before being picked up and expanded on by FFRR with its third volume—the lens appears to have been widened.

See, you might think that a comp that calls itself The House Sound of London would try to showcase the city's own house output, but this actually seems to present a full slate of tracks that were merely *being played* in London at the time instead, which is pretty different. So, "The Jackin' Zone" is not just reflective of what Londoners themselves were making, but moreso the sound of house music writ large in whichever cities it was thriving at the time—from Chicago, to Detroit, to New York, to London, to Manchester and beyond—which all ended up getting funneled onto the pirate airwaves and dancefloors of London proper.

So if you want a sweet array of 80s house and acid house gold that comes from a whole bunch of different places, this is a pretty stellar release for digging into. And my main takeaway here, like it is with so many of these other 80s-to-early 90s electronic releases, is that I continue to be floored by just how creative this music was despite the archaic technology that went into making it, which only further enforces my long-held belief that a DAW can really only get one so far.

Like, take the stunning closer on here, for example, Chicago native Tyree's "Spectrum Mix" of "Acid Over," which was likely made for Paul Oakenfold's own successful Monday Spectrum club night at London's iconic gay superclub, Heaven. Ironically, a different version of this song that I don't like very much was the only actual acid house tune to appear on a previous installment of this series called Acid Tracks, but with this specific version of the song, Tyree delivers an acid house triumph that sounds absolutely like nothing else that'd probably ever been made before up until that point, rolling up Roland TB-303 squelches, futuristically raw and hypnotic electro talkbox melodies, a little bit of rapping, and some strings and keys too, into his own unbelievable cosmic wonder ✨. A really tremendous and transcendent piece of house music that was put out exclusively by FFRR in 1988.

Plus, there's a lone disco banger on here as well, by a guy from Munich named Harry Thumann, who in 1979 dropped his debut single, "Underwater," a song that cyclically bursts with an impressive orchestral mix of horns, strings, harp, xylo, and electric guitar, and is also accompanied by a zappy synthesizer bassline that sort of resembles the sound that would come to anchor acid house some years later. Really neat inclusion.

And I can't end this post without mentioning the song that's currently firmly implanted in my mind as I'm writing this, UK native Richie Rich's lovely "Salsa House," a super groovy Latin house jam that's loaded up and laced with all these thin and bleepy Latin keyboard melodies. Richie Rich is responsible for co-founding popular UK hip hop label Gee Street Records, but before it primarily became a hip hop label, it was releasing house music. And in 1989, Richie released his only album on there: I Can Make You Dance, which featured "Salsa House" on it. However, prior to that, "Salsa House" was released as a 12-inch on FFRR, with an original mix that clocks in at almost seven minutes. And that longer version of it, rather than the significantly truncated album version, is the one that appears on this very album 🤘. Wrote about it years ago too; I love it so much 🥰.

And, now, finally, we can get to the long-awaited pun 👏. Here, I even made something for you that you can Etsify and hang on your wall alongside all your 'Live, Laugh, Love' décor! It's my very own commemoration of this terrific album!

Isn't it beautiful? 🥹 Wonderful wall art for such a wonderful house comp, don't you think? And it's the last one from this series that I'm posting about this week too! 👋

Highlights:

The J&M Connection - "Living in a World of Fantasy" Richie Rich - "Salsa House" House Addicts - "Come Together" D Mob - "We Call It Acid" Silicon Chip - "FM (FFRR Remix)" Jamie Principle - "Rebels" The Speech - "I Have a Dream" Acid Fingers - "Mix It Up" Harry Thumann - "Underwater" Reese & Santonio - "Rock to the Beat" Tyree - "Acid Over"

[obscuremechala]

once again ive realized ive been forgetting to post art on here. right now im in one of the creative funks of all time but maybeee??? its getting better??? in the meanwhile hhere's some stuff i forgot to share here (almost entirely oc art and concepts and whatever)

literally scrapped this dampener redesign in june 2024 i'll get to him one of these days

on the contrast a design thats actually going somewhere for once (designing robots always takes forever man,,, but i love them too much to stop. im sensing a pattern here)

ehhh thats it for now. don't remember if i posted the top meo piece here but probably not. have a good day folks i might actually try to post more

[butchious]

to elaborate a bit on that post blaming tvtropes for my creative funk: ive been reading tvtropes lately (as i am often wont to do) and the reason ive been getting ideas for the Two Specific Things instead of Thing I Want To Actively Work On is because ive been picturing said two specific things as having their own tv tropes pages whereas the thing i want to actively work on is super personal and self indulgent and therefore i don't picture it having one. but basically the two options i have now to solve this problem is either to get rid of the tv tropes brainworm or to start imagining the tv tropes page of the thing i want to be doing.

[jacqcrisis]

when you writing unsavory topics and you put down a line that makes you physically recoil...

Makes me a little proud. 

[sadrien]

in an attempt to find my creativity, i read quite literally ALL of my miraculous works, finished and unfinished, in the past few days. and for a bunch of them, it really is a shame that i didn’t finish them, because a lot of them no longer work with the hawk moth reveal 

the thing is that i always thought gabriel was hawk moth (the first fic i started writing ever is about the fallout of that), BUT having gabriel and hawk moth be two separate entities was sometimes really helpful in plotting out stories. i think regardless we all agree he’s a terrible father, but sometimes it was interesting to play in the space where he isn’t hawk moth

another spot i lose a LOT of plot, actually, is nathalie. essentially all my writing was speculation, but i literally always had nathalie being on adrien’s side over gabriel’s, at least a little bit

the story most effected by this is obviously astralis, which is actually the work i regret abandoning the most. because it was such a good story in my head, but it loses a lot when i have to remove the parts about gabriel and nathalie caring for adrien while marinette takes on a new superhero team. it’s already one of my darker stories, having them not give a damn when he almost dies and is permanently scarred is kind of super depressing. there are definitely options i have that i’ve thought about, but none of them hit the same

season 1 gave me a sandbox to play in. and while usually i can work around restrictions or rules set by canon, with the new seasons it’s harder and harder to imagine any story i wrote is related to this series, which is really sad

[transgaysex]

did you guys know dnd is fun

[violet-bridgerton]

Just dropping by to say I love your content 😊 your gifs always come out super crisp and colorful! It always makes me happy to see you on my dash.

omg?? thank you so much!! 🥺 that really means a lot and i really appreciate it 💖