#musings of a muse: the rulebook

[anim-ttrpgs]

I get that being an indie creator is difficult, especially when your competition includes industry monoliths, but it's starting to feel like half the word of mouth about Eureka is attached to long-winded pedantic posts about how the popular thing is bad. Seeing this project become rooted in spite instead of the passion that brought me in has me starting to regret backing it.

I’m sorry you feel that way. If the content of the A.N.I.M. tumblr blog doesn’t suit your tastes, you can still keep up to date on our progress via the Kickstarter updates we put out every month, free of the personal musings and philosophizing about TTRPGs as a whole.

I do have a whole lot to say on the subjects of passion, spite, and the “most popular thing,” though.

Passion and spite go hand-in-hand. I would not have been driven to create Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, a TTRPG that does investigative gameplay really well, if not for existing popular TTRPGs like Call of Cthulhu doing it badly. The desire to improve upon obvious flaws is something that drives most of all of my creative work. That passion you were drawn in by is the spite you’re complaining about now, if you were drawn in by somebody’s love of clean spaces, you shouldn’t be surprised that they hate dirt and grime.

Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy isn’t good just because I have passion, it’s good because i examined what came before in the artform, looked at where it succeeds, and more importantly where it fails and sucks and why, and sought to make targeted improvements there. This is, like, how all art and science evolves and improves.

Next, I think that most of the “long pedantic posts” about how “the popular thing is bad” you’re referencing are actually posts by @thydungeongal that I reblog, and if you think those posts are just pedantic and only criticize D&D5e because it’s popular, I think you may have a misunderstanding of tumblr user thydungeongal, the content of the posts, or the relationship between D&D5e and the wider industry and artform as a whole.

First of all, she is passionate. She doesn’t even have a financial incentive to pay living expenses like I do, she’s posting only because she cares. (She isn’t a part of the A.N.I.M. team, she’s just a friend of several of us.)

Next is the fact that her posts tend to be more about the toxic play culture and lifestyle brand of D&D5e more than the actual content of the rulebook. When she talks about the content of the rulebook, she’s actually really positive! More positive than the rulebook deserves a lot of the time in my opinion. The main thing is the super toxic play culture cultivated by WotC marketing.

Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu, Lancer, Mothership, Monster of the Week, these are all TTRPGs that are much more popular than our team’s projects, and even though you’ll see me criticize many design elements of Call of Cthulhu from time to time, and I just plain personally don’t like Monster of the Week, you won’t see me or thydungeongal rail against any of these games the way we talk about WotC, D&D5e, and its playerbase.

The thing is, as a monopoly, Wizards of the Coast and the small A.N.I.M. team are not simply in competition, we are in a war of extermination. The tactics and force of arms employed by WotC are not simply to harmlessly promote themselves and get more customers for it, but rather to destroy the entire population outside of themselves and the entire ecosystem to boot. Their tactics aren’t so much focused on bringing people to them as they are preventing people from going to anyone else. If it was just a popular game like any of the others I mentioned, it wouldn’t be a problem, but WotC with their flagship D&D5e are maintaining that popularity not by providing anything to their fans, but by hiding the existence of any other alternatives, and where they can’t do that, they are constantly, in so many words, redefining what a TTRPG even is to exclude any other game.

One of the main ways they do this is by encouraging a complete detachment from the rules, encouraging DMs to do all the work of providing a one-man-show experience, and through these things teaching the massive playerbase of D&D5e, created by its more conventional massive marketing budget, that the content of TTRPGs does not matter, and if the content of TTRPGs does not matter and they’re all basically the same one-man-show, there’s no need to go through the effort of checking out any other ones besides the D&D5e you’re already familiar with, even if it doesn’t suit your needs. This is the very first thing taught to basically every new person who enters the hobby, who then go on to perpetuate it themselves, and often raise a stink when that teaching is challenged. When it comes down to it this is what pretty much every @thydungeongal post that gets reblogged on this account is about. It’s not that they’re popular, it’s that they salt the earth.

Anyone who doesn’t want to see that sort of discussion can follow the Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy Kickstarter page, or our itchio page, for updates instead, but anyone who doesn’t want TTRPG developers and enthusiasts to complain and rail against D&D5e and WotC, well, you might as well tell the Lorax to shut up about the lumber industry too.

And when you see your entire home getting destroyed around you by a massive, nigh unstoppable force, how chipper and positive can you really be about it?

[dizzyisdizzy]

Okay I didn't say anything at first because I was nervous and didn't wanna be annoying or something but I came back because like,, woah mY GOD I LOVE YOUR ART STYLE

I was going through the hatsune miku tag and just!! Woah the COLOURS the SHAPES the LINEART RARAGGDHAHS CHEF'S KISS

immediately it reminded me a lot of rourow's art (one of those iconic muse dash artists <3) and like,, oh my god they're my biggest inspiration for my art style. I find it funny I could spot the muse dash inspiration immediately /pos

But you also put your own spin on it and AGH <3 both rourow's art AND YOURS is just,, aregsgshh I wanna eat it. I think your art would taste like fruit gushers

I will be taking notes I wish I could absorb your art style into my blood

OKAY THIS IS GETTING LONG SORRY LMAO but if you ever have any more tips or tutorials or even speedpaints I will be there with a pen and paper <33

Rourow art is soooo coool right? The Reimu just stole my heart. The colors were fun, stylish, seemingly unrestricted by any rules or seams in their structure... I wanted a look like that.

Then Miku arrived and the envy in my heart became too much to bear.

Here's my epic Dizzy tips to studying, my fellow Muse Dash enthusiast. I broke down the artwork into shapes, lineart, and color. I noted what I enjoyed and especially how it differed to what I drew. I refined the notes further until I had some main ideas/commonalities, and try to reason the whens and whys for these choices. Do they reinforce lighting, the shape of the subject, to vary the colors present, etc. There were also a lot of 'just because' reasonings (X happens when Y). All those became a 'rulebook' of sorts.

After that was lots of replicating, tracing, etc. Making sure that style was the first thing my intuition and muscle memory jumps to. My first dozen or so original drawings after that were done with many references and notes on hand until I got the hang of things.

The plan was actually to go as identical as possible, but differences were inevitable. I wanted to do my own thing proportions/faces wise, anyways. And it IS great to have people enjoy my work as its own thing AND acknowledge the clear influence.

Still so much I wanna absorb though... The flowy and varied lineweight, and I've yet to reach the sheer elaborateness of the color use.

If it helps in your quest, I don't mind talking about certain choices I make (there's usually a reason for it). Just try to be specific! Makes it easier to choose my words. Thanks!

[blackbirdffxiv]

PINNED INFO

A simple, quick run-down and easy to reference sort of "guide" to my blog; will be updated and added to/subtracted from as necessary.

A little introduction: hello, I'm Ellie, the entity of caffeine-fueled chaos person behind the blog/character(s) you see here. A quick run-down on who I am:

I'm over 21+ years old

Blog silence ≠ abandoned blog, I'm just very busy IRL + I just get lazy and don't add to my queue like I should

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Witch-hunting & Drama-Mongering: I have zero interest in who did what to who; your petty grievances with one another are not my concern, do not bring it to my doorstep, nor drag me into it.

Lore Policing: I am a firm believer in the lore being a guide rather than a rulebook; I bend the lore in a way that can be logically reasoned in the realm of XIV. Don't like it? Don't interact then.

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In-Character Musings/Ramblings (mostly from ask prompts/etc)

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Lore / Lore-Adjacent Gposes/Writing (canon, canon-divergent, etc).

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These are more for my custom-tagged content, as most of my other posts have generic, easy-to-find tags.

ffxiv mods: I use this for my mod releases.

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My Current Character Roster; characters' names in blue are established roleplay characters that I actively write characters in green are not roleplay characters but do have lore that ties into FFXIV characters in red are simply for gpose

LAST UPDATED: 3/5/2025

Eliceyn Birch - Hyur Highlander (carrd)

Seivant - Duskwood Elezen

Grim - Seawolf Roegadyn

Revi - Tiefling (Keeper of the Moon Miqo'te)

Kal - Hyur Midlander

Caefyre - Hyur Midlander

Nao - High Elf (Veena Viera)

Below are the places where I post my mods; this list will be updated as necessary.

Heliosphere XIV Mod Archive Kofi

Below are my other social media websites; if they are inactive, they will be labeled as such.

Twitter / "X" (Inactive) Bluesky (Active - Main)

[basilpaste]

thinking about how just akizet thinking someone's going to die is enough to trigger a loop . how far does this go ? would it happen if she panics about possible deaths ? would it happen if she's under too much pressure trying to keep everyone alive ? would it happen if she's reached the very end for the first time , begging to herself , "do not mess up or people will die" ? would it happen if she is at the very cusp of freeing herself , if she thinks about the consequences of failure too strongly , if her dread grows stronger than her determination and slams her all the way back at the beginning ? what would she think of herself then ?

( again sorry if it's not structured .random brain blabbering this time dshjds )

never apologize to me for rambling i am the rambler. i understand.

ive mused on this a little before, but i believe it was mostly from caviks perspective?

and it is upsetting to know that everything can be taken back to the top just because akizet thinks something! it is frustrating for akizet herself!! and for cavik [...], it is actively distressing! because it means that if he cannot, without a shadow of a doubt, convince akizet of something: the safer option will always be to go along with her decision.

okay yes. there is that.

but its just!!! so!!!! man!!!!!!!

i dont think it would be very easy to trigger a loop because she thinks someone is going to die. to steal from isats rulebook (because i assume most of my followers will be most familiar with how it does loops), loops triggered by an emotional 'i cant go on' are MUCH less common than a physical 'i cant go on'. and theyre also a MUCH bigger deal because of that.

to her brain, 'dead' and 'will absolutely be dead' register as the same thing in this situation. in canon, akizet jumps the gun on calling folks dead a good handful of times. while looping? oh boy! it is worse!!

but 'dead' is not a simple thing to be. so for her to believe something will cause certain death, she has to be absolutely sure. like the message she sends to cavik.

as time goes on. as more people die. her nerves get more fried. her stress rises, she is more afraid. more tense. and that makes it easier to jump to the conclusion of 'dead'. so "do not mess up or people will die" might not trigger a loop in golem maintenance. but... when the groups split in groundsmindry? when approaching that final fight with vekoa? when dooming tozik to certain death within the embassy's bleeding corpse?

...i dunno. it would make sense, is all. for something to go wrong. to get so close and then to have it ripped away. encore, encore!!!

and of course akizet is miserable. but if shes back at the start of it all, she has no time to dwell. a single moment of inaction spills the blood of a friend. it was foolish of her to think that she would be freed so easily. velzie is not so kind.

so the show must continue. a grotesque of infinitesimal proportions. it rests squarely on her own shoulders. never mind that cavik remembers. the deaths are her fault. she is responsible for keeping as many alive as she can. and it is her alone that has this task. she can bear the burden. a cruel giggle of velzie, surely, but fitting punishment for her guilt. she caused this, she must suffer the consequences.

it will be worth it. she will find a way to save everyone. she must.

(and she will never admit to herself that this is a tragedy.)

[direwolfrules]

EAH Glee AU

I do not have time right now to work on my actual writing- midterms are done so now we're just jumping right into final papers- but have an AU outline post.

Professor Pied Piper, taking inspiration from some of his best high school memories, gets Headmaster Grimm to reinstate the school glee club.

Meanwhile, Madame Baba Yaga fears the new activity will steal away talent from her prize cheer-hexing team, the Ever After High Cheerios (I can’t think of a good fairytale-ification for this, I will accept suggestions). To rectify this situation, she sends in three of her girls undercover with the goal of sabotaging the glee club.

Basically, Pied Piper is Will Schuester, Baba Yaga is Sue Sylvester, and chaos ensues.

Glee Club Members:

Apple White: She joined because 1) she's good at singing 2) she genuinely enjoys singing 3) her mom was in the Glee Club and led them to winning Nationals. I'd say she's the Rachel Berry or the Quinn Fabray, but I'm not gonna do that thing where I entirely change a character's personality to make them fit into the role of another character...for the students anyway. Look, Apple's got enough drama in her life, she doesn't need me making her crazy enough to send someone to a crack house out of jealousy.

Raven: Uh, in the books Headmaster Grimm won't let her take Muse-ic because it's not an evil class. Luckily, because of a bizarre loophole in the school guidelines for competitive teams, Headmaster Grimm can't ban her from Glee Club. Everyone say thank you Giles.

Daring: He joined because he was told it would give him extra credit for the serenading skills portion of Advanced Wooing. Also, Apple asked him to join because they didn't have enough boys in the club and Daring's been trained to never ignore a request from a damsel.

Dexter: He’s there cause Raven’s there? And also cause he is a genuinely great singer and unlike Daring needs the Advanced Wooing extra credit? Also, I just kinda want him there.

Darling: Her mom made her join. Queen Charming really said “I’m gonna take a page from Snow White’s book and live vicariously through you, offspring of mine”.

Briar: She really likes the idea of a team competition where she won’t put her teammates in danger if she falls asleep. Also, she checked the competition rulebook, as long as they don’t all leave the stage when she has a narcoleptic episode they won’t be disqualified.

Humphrey: Every Glee AU needs a white-boy-who raps and Ever After High has one already built-in in the form of Humphrey Dumpty.

Maddie: She’s there cause Raven’s there. It’s utterly hattastic!

Kitty: She’s there because she remembered her mom talking about how some of her fondest memories of high school revolves around messing with the glee club, and Kitty wants dearly to be like her mother.

Lizzie: We’re completing the Wonderland ensemble. Lizzie joins because she needs an extra curricular and the Invisible Tree Situation has gotten so out of hand they had to disband the croquet team. Great voice, ngl.

Justine: Not the strongest singer in the room, but she’s capable of choreographing numbers like nobody’s business.

Meeshell: Listen, canon’s pretending her singing in that webisode was something amazing. So like, we’re pretending now too.

Duchess: I picture her as a Sugar Motta-type character. Cannot sing, massive diva, but they gotta put up with her cause her family’s donating to the club budget.

Melody: Listen, it’s her dad’s club. She can’t just not join. She’s banking those supportive daughter points for a rainy day.

Lawrence Bonecrusher III: Listen, I just it'd be funny if Professor Piper says the ever-insane "You're all minorities, you're in the glee club" line and there's the one orc student in the school just sitting there with his eyebrow raised. He's also the Matt of this AU. For some reason never speaks when in a scene.

Faybelle: Captain of the Cheerios, totally not here as part of a scheme by Madame Yaga to DESTROY THE GLEE CLUB!!!!

Nah, but seriously, this whole AU was born of me going "What EAH character would say the iconic 'I'm a closeted lesbian and a judgemental bitch' line?" and her face popped into my mind.

[trainerseyes]

"I'm not overly familiar with a lot of foreign legends, honestly." She admits, though she's not entirely sure what to make of what just went down. "Though I suppose a canine pokemon being able to wield a sword isn't too odd, now that I think of it."

"Wait, you're a legendary, too? I mean, that's cool and all, but I wasn't expecting to see one legendary, let alone two, today!"

@trainerseyes from ask

Zygarde and Zacian paused as they took a step back and looked at each other. They completely forgot that Zacian was in Crown Sword form.

"...? This sword. Such is mine blade, little on--"

Zygarde-10% reached over and grabbed Zacian's sword out of her mouth. Once it was out of Zacian's clutches, the sword transformed back into the Rusted Sword and Zacian reverted to her old self.

"H--hey! Such is MINE BLADE, fair maiden! Unhand it this instance."

Nope. Zygarde-10% is fleeing with it. It's going back in the bag.

"Ugh."

She turned back to the human.

"Uh... Thou hath mine apologies, child. Such is of no concern. You are... a human of this region, hm? It appears that mine legend does not spread quite far, after all."

[polarisgreenley]

🌷Writer Interview Game 🌷

Thank you @galaxiasgreen, @gingerlegacy07 and @zetadraconis11 for the tags!

When did you start writing?

According to AO3, 2014.

It was for another fandom, and then disappeared for 7 years until 2021. But that one I'm at the limbo of leaving up or abandoning since I don't have plans on writing out the rest...

Hogwarts Legacy pulled me back in 2023 and still going decently strong 💪

Are there different themes or genres you enjoy reading than what you write?

I have the opposite where I stay clear of any romance novels, but will eat up fanfiction pairings and am planning on including a romance subplot somewhere.

Is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often?

If I could even have a morsel, a smidgen, a crumb of Agatha Christie's writing abilities...

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space?

80% of the time I write at my computer desk. Keyboard, dual monitor, speakers... a Maurauder's Map desk mat... there's usually at least one mug and a water tumbler. A few books on flowers, runes, D&D and CoC rulebooks, etc.

What's your most effective way to muster up a muse?

Rewatching or playing the source material, as well as daydreaming. Bouncing off ideas and expanding theories has proven fruitful as well.

Are there any recurring themes in your writing? Do they surprise you?

Slow-burn. I haven't written enough for any other recurring themes, I think. Oh, and flowers. Lots and lots of flowers (and their language).

What is your reason for writing?

Creative outlet.

Is their any specific comment or type of comment you find particularly motivating?

I love all of the comments that've been left (though only really started interacted the past year), but my favorites are those where I get to hear how the reader interpreted the writing. It's like seeing their thought process which is always lovely to get to know 😊

How do you want to be thought about by your readers?

Just a regular human like everyone writing out blorbos of something I enjoy and hope they enjoy it as well 😊

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

I've been told I'm good at descriptive writing, but I'm still working on what I think of it is for myself.

How do you feel about your own writing?

It is what it is - some days it feels better than others. I want to cringe at what I wrote in the past, but they're still an important stepping stone and shows the progress (sort of).

No pressure tags (sorry if you've been tagged already - I took 1,500 years to do this 😅): @dom1re @thefeatherwrites @theladyofshalott1989

Credit to @lyworth for the new divider that she generously gifted for my birthday 🥹

[miratenebrarum]

2, 19 and 29 from munday asks!

[ munday asks ; ACCEPTING ]

2. do you RP anywhere else, other than tumblr?

[ mostly in discord servers or w tabletop RPGs, especially heavily homebrew'd DND 5e. my CoC rulebook is getting dusty but someday my love SOMEDAY--

other than that, i used to rp on forums, via mail, facebook, ask.fm and. (looks left. looks right) imvu...... ]

19. do you have ship bias?

[ lmao a little bit!!!! i never put shipping before anything else, nor shipping my own ships - most of the time, i go with the flow and prefer chemistry even when it comes to characters i actively ship with, since everyone has very distinct and different hcs of course i'll always try to test the waters for ships i actually enjoy tho teehe ]

29. what are your honest thought about your muse’s canon?

[ compared to other rpcs i play in, i don't really have big complaints when it comes to the canon stuff of the fandom i play here. there are some jokes and plotpoints that aged VERY poorly in wakfu and scp, and god knows i would've done without the gross age gap of the ship mercedes odinsphere is involved with, but with a bit of tweaking and headcanonings everything is fixable

like seriously whenever i'm asked this in the pokemon blogs especially im way more ready to bark and complain BNDMFNMSDF here i'm generally good ]

[anim-ttrpgs]

I recently ran an oneshot for my friends in Eureka.

It was a lot of fun and went mostly smoothly! The charakter creation was very easy. It still took more time than I expected, but that was simply because the players needed it to decide on which traits etc. to pick.

The central resolution mechanic with 2d6 is of course tried and true (I assume. Never played one of the many other 2d6 games.) but especially the Eureka system felt really good.

I think I read in a recent post of your's, that you are overhauling the chapter on combat. That seems very important to me. Even though I read the whole book once before running the game, I had immense problems finding out how small details of the combat worked during play. The musings on game design (eg, "yes, the combat is deadly, thats on purpose heres why" and such) where really enlightening to read, but got in the way when searching for concrete stats.

I will run the same oneshot again for different friends. The game seems really promising to me.

My mystery took place on a single in game evening, and none of the players were monsters. Having therefore only scratched at the surface of Eureka, I am looking forward to running it more.

Woo! We LOVE hearing about this kinda stuff!

And yeah everything about how the combat-related rules are structured is getting overhauled. All of that was written like 2 years ago when I was a slightly worse game designer and MUCH worse at writing coherent paragraphs and hasn’t been touched since until now. Instead of being split across like four paragraphs (what was I thinking), there will be just two chapters on it: “Instruments of Violence”, which is mostly just a giant list of references for the stats and special rules of weapons and armor, and “Dangerous Situations”, which covers every rule related to how your investigators can get killed. Some of these clean-ups are already available in the latest patreon release, and the rest are coming soon to both patreon and the itchio beta.

Combat is a very rare thing in Eureka, but when it does come up, we want it to be tight and granular, but without wasting the players’ time, which I think we’ve done pretty well at.

Like the book says, combat is deadly and there’s a reason why: so it doesn��t waste the players’ time.

This is a twofold problem to solve. The first layer of it, we solved by making sure the numbers are low. Most weapons can take a character down in 2 to 3 hits, so a single instance of two guys smacking each other will never take too many rounds.

Secondly, well, combat is dangerous and deadly, and if the PCs approach it without a plan, they’re gonna die, or at least get their asses kicked fast. Otherwise, well, I consider that a waste of the players’ time. If it was predetermined that the PCs would win otherwise the story can’t continue, well, what did we roll all those die, look up all those stats, and track all that HP for? Why didn’t we just describe the PCs winning and move on? Combat matters because it can change the outcome of the adventure, and if it can’t change the outcome, why are you rolling dice? Of course with death being so possible, to keep it fun, we gotta include lots of “tools” like cover, positioning, different weapons, special melee attacks, etc. that the PCs can use cleverly to give themselves an edge, and *earn* their survival.

Oh and also yeah can’t wait to hear what you think about the monsters. Funny thing about that, everyone who has read the rulebook knows that monsters and other supernatural creatures are supposed to be really rare, like one supernatural person for every 3,000,000 normal people kinda rare, but, monsters are super cool and fun to play, and are one of the big draws of the system, so we were kinda worried that that rarity wouldn’t come through in play, everyone would just be monsters. We considered setting a limit on how many monsters can be in a party? But quickly decided against it, because then players would have to compete for the limited monster slots, and people might even feel like if they’re not filling in that slot every single adventure, they’re missing an opportunity, and so every party would max out their monster limit every time and there’d, again, be way too many monsters.

In practice, though, most parties in Eureka seem to be comprised of all normal people, or all normal people and 1 monster at most, even without the limit. And I suspect this is both because monsters are kinda difficult to play despite their immense power, and, just to brag, because we made the normal PCs fun has hell to play too. :)

[fachefaucheux]

WriteFest! // Days 4-14 + Genre Musings and Inat

So, I’m behind.

As of this morning, I’m at 45k. Which is great! Awesome! That is objectively an asston of words. Probably half a novel, if I was a normal person who wrote normal word count stories. Unfortunately, I’m supposed to be closing in on 75k. So…not great. But seeing as how we’ve all been living through A Hell Of A Time, especially last week, I’m not going to beat myself up over it too much. I’ve only had one day where I skipped writing entirely. (At least in terms of drafting…I did edit a full chapter that day, which is probably why I wrote nothing, because editing is the absolute worst.) And one day off over 2 weeks is…uh, hopefully not our future vision of a leisurely and unproductive pace, lol.

One thing I’ve noticed about myself as a writer is that I’m pretty damn inconsistent. Or, well, not just as a writer, but just on the whole. I’ve never been the kind of person who can stick to a “do something every day at the same time for the same amount of time” scheme. Of course, I have some sort of routine — humans are creatures of habit, we all fall into some kind of pattern. Mine is just very “vibes based”, so to speak. Some days, I’ll fall into the writing zone and barf up 10k worth of nonsense. Other days, I’m feeling the research side of things, or just feel like reading someone else’s work to get a fresh perspective. (I am never vibing with editing. Editing is always torture. But that’s for another post.)

I’ve never been able to follow a rulebook. I am a hopeless contrarian, oftentimes to my own detriment. In Serbia, there’s a sort of…hmm, cultural mindset, maybe? It’s called inat. Sometimes it gets translated as spitefulness, other times as stubbornness or perseverance. 

Your friends, your family, everyone tells you that doing something is a bad idea. But now you want to do it even more than when you asked for their advice, because what do they know? That’s inat. Some judgmental person tells you you’ll never be good at something, so then you throw out everything else in your life and grind at that one thing until you’re objectively skilled, just because that asshole told you you’d never make it. That’s also inat. It’s that “fuck you, I’ll do what I want” spirit, sometimes taken to unhelpful ends.

My Serbian language teacher once asked me why I was keeping my watchband held together with a band-aid instead of going to the shop she’d recommended to get a replacement, and I shrugged and said, “well, you know, I’ve been busy lately.” She smiled and shook her finger at me and said, “I see, you’re becoming a real Serbian now. Soon you’ll be skipping your lessons and telling me “the only thing I have to do in life is die!”

To be frank, she called my bluff pretty well. And maybe that’s why I didn’t have too many problems adjusting during my year in Belgrade. Because I’d been following inat long before I acquired my weird fixation on the Balkans.

This leads me to the genre problem.

I’ve always come at genre from the perspective that it exists more for the reader than the writer — a way of lumping together vaguely similar story elements and types so that readers can find the kinds of books they want to read. And I’m well aware of its connection to marketing, as much as I despise marketing with every fiber of my being. You drill down to the exact core of readers who you want to enjoy your book, you write for them, then you sell it to them. Or something. Like I said, I hate marketing, so I haven’t invested much time into it. (Probably because someone once told me it was important, and I was like, fuck you! I’ll ignore it. Inat in action.)

I wandered into both Canticle and the Niv/Yule story arc (which I really need to find a proper title for, instead of just shamelessly stealing a bunch of song titles and lyrics…) not from the perspective of “I want to write x genre of story”, but more from the perspective of “these two idiots would make for a fun couple, I wonder how they get from point A to point B?”. Most of the other elements — magic, angels/demons, whatever my passing historical fixation was at the time — came along for the ride because I just thought they were neat and fun. Which makes for an interesting story (or so I’ve been told), but not one that fits into the best genre boxes.

Take Canticle, for example. It’s really in some sort of genre black hole. There’s not enough historical immersion for it to be a true historical story, but at the same time, historical circumstance (the aftermath of the English Civil War, Louis XIV’s court, modernizing Europe) plays a big role in the themes and attitudes in it. It’s got some of the elements of your usual epic fantasy — empires and kingdoms and armies and the world in peril — but, uh, it’s not very action-forward, seeing as how most of what the reader sees are not the battles themselves but the aftermath in the infirmary. 

Even when it comes to romance, it’s not quite there. I’ve always thought of it as a romance at its core, because my only driving force when I first started drafting it was answering the question of “how did Gen and Mirk get together?”, but it doesn’t really follow the standard romance plot beats. The uncomfortable position I usually find myself in when discussing the story with other writers or workshopping chapters is that it doesn’t have enough romance for the romantasy readers/writers, and not enough fantasy action/too much relationship nonsense for the general fantasy readers/writers.

So, what am I supposed to do with it when it does come time to do the dreaded marketing? Or the even more dreaded editing? I suppose I could cut and edit to make it fit neater into one or two specific genre boxes, but, well. I feel that would kill the spirit of the story that the small band of readers (for whom I am eternally grateful) seems to find appealing. At the end of the day, I’m probably going to bank more on trope-based tagging and advertising guiding the sort of readers who’d appreciate it to the story. (Also, inat. You want me to make this fit into your genre requirements? Fuck you! I do what I want! Even if it means no one reads the damn thing!)

It’s hard for me to identify the genre of the story, but the dynamics are clear. The slow burn, it is glacial. The grumpy x sunshine is on point. And hurt/comfort? You want that? Canticle has it for…uh…centuries, lol. And, to be honest, I tend to look for dynamics/tropes in the books I read more than I do genre. I’ll read a contemporary or a sci-fi or a western, anything to get another dose of that black cat x golden retriever dynamic that I find so appealing (and can’t seem to keep out of anything I write). 

Anyway, enough blathering! And back to chipping away at my word count deficit! Since, you know, speaking of black cat x golden retriever…I’ve got another chapter of Mushroom Picking Season to write. 

[nbstevonnie]

people who chatgpt as google really do baffle me. i was learning to play a new board game with two other people and me and one guy were reading the rulebook, y'know, figuring out how stuff worked, and not even halfway into it we were musing 'huh, not sure how this thing works yet' and the other person was like 'oh, I'll ask chatgpt!'. i was like, girl... we are literally reading a rulebook... of the rules of this game.... wtf is chatgpt going to tell us that's not already written in here....

[phxtotaxis]

MUSE INFO

TW: mentions of self-harm

Name: Lyoka (real full name unknown)

Nickname/fighter alias: Moth

Age: ~21 (estimated, unknown)

Gender: Woman, she/her (by AGAB, actually gender apathetic)

Orientation: Ace (mildly repulsed), grayromantic

Species: Human (no magic, no anything)

Height: 5'3

Eye color: Amber

Hair: Brown (covered in cheap magenta dye)

Likes: Birds, sun, food, loud music (esp. metal and anything with a booming bass), good days

Dislikes: Cops, silence, judgemental pricks, feeling not in control, her episodes (bad days)

Lives in: In the poorest sector of a nameless city (not actually nameless). Said N city is broken into four sectors: A for the rich neon-lit center, B for the middle class, C for the poorer working class and those struggling by, and D for the ruined outskirts pronounced unlivable. It's populated by the homeless and rejected. That's where Lyoka lives, on a second floor of a crumbling building in an empty room with a hole in the wall.

Otherwise assume any ruined unlivable neighborhood that works for your character's world/location.

Legal status: None. She doesn't have an ID, she's not in the system, as far as officials are concerned she's just a cockroach.

Bio: It's short. She does not remember where she was born or who her parents were. One day she just appeared at the outskirts of the D sector, no more that 5 years old, wailing her heart out. The locals did their best to get her food and keep her warm, taught her to read and count, but other than that she mostly grew up like a weed. She sees D sector as her home and doesn't really feel any envy or regret — it's her turf, she knows it well, no one tells her what to do and she doesn't need much to be happy. The only shame she might feel is when shamed by others.

Has recently joined an underground fighting team, so you might've heard of her as Hyenas' new wildcard, but not too much.

ABILITIES:

Fighting. Fighting well, but chaotically, dirty if needed, no rulebook or particular style to follow.

Good at reading other people in a fight, due to sheer experience. Also good at estimating people's danger level. Says it's all in the eyes. (BAD at reading anything else about people.)

Stealing. Pickpocketing and shoplifting.

Climbing. She's not much of a free-runner, but vertical parkour elements are very much her thing.

Fighter specialty: The more damage she gets, the stronger and better she fights back. Where others become tired or lose focus due to the pain, she's the total opposite. To a point. Her body is still human and can't keep the pace up forever.

APPEARANCE:

A small, clearly malnourished woman in dirty clothes which often don't fit her very well. Her hair is colored with a cheap dye that makes it look magenta-ish, her brown roots are showing and the hair itself is messily cut and sticks out.

She's perpetually scuffed and bruised and tousled to a various degree — a shiner under one eye, a bloody nose, a busted lip, the list of what she might be sporting on any given day is endless.

Her knuckles are either bloody, or, on a rare occasion, healed but forever discolored from the constant scarring.

Her left ear is torn, there's a scar on the right side of her lower lip and she's visibly missing the left lateral incisor (the tooth right before the canine).

Doesn't own that many clothes, and her favorites include a big oversized black hoodie that she drowns in, short black bike shorts and neon green sneakers without any laces to speak off, or a slightly oversized gray t-shirt, ripped jeans, a very old leather jacket, red converse (with laces, wow) and an orange scarf.

PERSONALITY:

By default, Lyoka is a mix of chaotic and pretty indifferent.

Because of being a concrete jungle Mowgli who never really tried to enter the society of other city sectors, she seems to be more immature and ignorant than appropriate for her age. Stuff like history, biases and privileges, all those important nuances are lost on her, she lacks some of the emotional maturity and a lot of social skills.

She dislikes cops 'cause they're always on her ass — but they don't like anyone from the D-sec, so it's a given. Dislikes any person who gives her shit for her dirty look just as much. Zero political compass, zero care in the world — get food, get sleep, find some joy in the middle, who gives a shit about the rest.

Very self-confident, brash, no filter. Prone to dark humor. No real awareness of how fucked up her situation is — it's the only life she ever knew.

Curious by nature, likes climbing up to high places, loves people-watching.

Is very often confused and a lot of stuff whooshes over her head, but she's always willing to learn if you're willing to teach. As long as it's not something boring and she doesn't have to sit in one spot for too long.

Fidgety, trigger-happy (with her fists). Does not quickly trust people and values her independence a lot. ESPECIALLY her personal space. Touch-repulsed and WILL make it your problem. That being said, if you grow on her, you're basically gaining a scary dog privilege for life. Granted, the dog is very small — but indeed quite scary.

THE MENTAL CATCH:

Lyoka's big character trait is that she suffers from a mental condition I hesitate to slap an official name on. It's based on my own experiences with depersonalization, derealization and dissociation, but taken to an extreme for cathartic storytelling purposes.

On any given day, especially when she hadn't fought in a while, her brain flips out:

Sometimes she randomly stops recognizing her own body parts, instead seeing them as disgusting and/or mutilated, like something is wrong with them. It's not a delusion, she sees them properly, but it feels like they are alien and wrong.

Sometimes the world around her stops feeling real to the point of almost TV static, and then that static also starts swallowing her, and each time she's deadly afraid that it will consume her whole. Even if she doesn't exactly know what that would entail.

If her brain decides that it doesn't want to be in a particular situation, it fully checks out, leaving her body on autopilot, sometimes to the point of seeing herself in third person even. She does not like that loss of control.

As mentioned in all three cases, these episodes terrify her. Due to her living situation she's unable to afford any medication or other help, not that she would trust someone to mess with her head even more (not at this stage of her life anyway).

Which is why she figures her coping mechanisms herself, and the most efficient (and unhealthy) one is... you guessed it. Fighting.

If a body part gets hurt, it gets anchored to the reality (the pain makes her feel it at all times and reminds her of the shape, while the bruise marks it visually). The more she hurts, the more present she is. That's why she fights better after taking damage — her mind becomes clear.

Now, because of all that, depending on a day she can be either a funny chaotic gremlin or a pathetic wet rat who will try to take your eye out, so here's a handy guide:

BAD DAYS.

The worst of the worst. She's out of it, she's scared and panicking, she's self-harming by scratching herself and punching walls (or hitting her head on them, etc) in an attempt to ground herself, and she's looking for a fight, at any cost.

In this state she's mostly non-verbal (except for "fight me" and such), hunched over, eyes wild, looking for a target. She almost resembles a wild animal — ones she grew up among. Lot's of desperate animals in her sector, not just people.

NORMAL DAYS.

She's chilling. Not too talkative (although fully verbal), but curious, poking her nose everywhere. Loves observing — people, animals, especially birds. Down for vibing and parallel playing (aka just being in the vicinity while you do your thing).

Will definitely be grateful if you include her in some chill activity or give her something to fidget with.

GOOD DAYS (adrenaline edition)

A short-term alternative to pain — adrenaline. There's some big fight brewing, or some illegal activity, or simply something fun, anything that gets her blood pumping. She's hyped, she can't sit still, she's talkative and loud and ready to go go go.

This is why she's always down for some sketchy or dangerous shit. Self-preservation does not matter if there's fun to be had.

(Note: "fun" does not include alcohol and drugs, because they make her MORE disconnected from the reality and her body, which freaks her out. Not that she can't do that — but be prepared for a meltdown.)

A subset of this is when someone she cares about is hurt. That makes her blood boil in a different way and she gets clear-headed and focused.

GOOD DAYS

Everything is great. She got her dose, she's present, she's fully in control, the world is beautiful and people are cool. She's casually chatty, snarky, somewhat cocky. Always smiley and in a good mood (unless something significant ruins it).

Arguably her default personality, what she would've always been if she ever got help with her condition.

Note on roleplaying: unless we talk about it beforehand, I'm generally rolling a dice on how she's feeling at the moment of any given interaction — or decide on a whim/context. You're welcomed to request a specific "state" to interact with!

[electric-ecclectic]

Is your muse a “I play by the rulebook, no exceptions” kind of player when they play monopoly, or are they a house rules kind of monopoly player? Do they play favorites? 👀

[eclipsecrowned]

thinking about what you can infer of my muse's types based on their ships or those they're drawn to in-game.

aurelia? just wants all the women of party to zerg rush her like she's a poorly secured pack of supplies and they're a litter of bears in winter. loves a strong, confident woman that can bench her. doesn't discriminate -- half elf, tief, gith, doesn't matter at all. let her love them the way they deserve. she bets your old boyfriends couldn't even find your pearl. specific half-orc villains also got her cocky about 'i can top her.' an attack lesbian to the end.

gale? women that could destroy him with their pinky. probably men too, but specifically women of horrific power. we all know what a certain goddess did with him, but given i also ship him with ax's k*rlach... the man wants to be topped, covered, smothered, and fried like a bad southern diner menu. all women have their charms but if he's not risking death by snu snu is he really living his life right? you can maybe infer something about his lack of self-preservation in all of this but i promise it's not that deep.

hel? it's about the shelter dog rizz. in-game gale is going hot and heavy for her turning on all the charm, she and sh*dowheart are basically a romantic two girl friendship where hel is both important and trusted enough to shake the very foundations of her character.... and she just wants ast*rion to sit beside her on the couch while she reads. it's embarrassing. h*lsin is also right there putting out the signals and she just points at the world's crustiest little white dog of a man like 'daddy i love him.'

sybelle? well between her intended endgame being wyll and her fledgling squish on dammon, i think we can all see where this is going. buff dudes with hearts of solid gold and lots of stories to share. you could infer something about her being into tieflings/fiends given some visual overlap, but it's honestly not about appearances to her beyond 'he he big muscles.' she'll love a devil but not because they're a devil, you know? it's the inside that counts, a gentle heart, a brilliant mind... and some of the outside, because she never realized how hot muscles are.

valas? his favorite color is red. he has never met a problem he doesn't want to solve. he is his father's trueborn son because he is really playing the ismail rulebook of 'grippy socks are a green flag actually.' between valstarion and valheart both being potential endgames, he has a thing for those of elven descent and a clear 'i can fix them' attitude. he's trying to repair broken parts of his own long history in them, undeniably, but it just means he cleaves all the tighter. also it bears repeating this man saw the manor and decided he could put his morals aside to be cazador's concubine. he is not well.

and lastly, and least of all...

miruna? ax and i have plotted literal physical proof she fucked g*rtash. her type is unknowable and horrific. he gets into the kind of hyperfocus that means that he doesn't eat sleep or bathe and she still pulls a 'babe come fuck me on this pile of your political enemies intestines <3' we all know what she was up to before the amnesia. i don't want to think about her type and somehow her fucking one of the main three villains makes it even worse than if she was just doing that shit alone. ew. get her away from me.

[ohyeahmagi-nation]

"Legend of the Twelve Regions" Fists of Rayje, Part 1 by Edward Bolme This follows the events of The Battle of Naroom, Part 5, upcoming portions of The Unwanted, the fiction in Book of Ages #3, and the Nightmare's Dawn rulebook.

The Orothe Deeps...

"Here y'go, Blu!" said Bria cheerfully as she handed him a bundle carefully wrapped in seaweed. "Keep it safe!"

"What's this, lassie?" Blu asked.

"It's the last scroll out there," said Bria, gesturing to the surface. "At least, so far as I know. Whall's going to try to get me Kybar's Scroll, and that shouldn't be a problem, so that thing right there is the last set of words from the old times, the last words I needed to complete my set."

"Which scroll is it?" asked Blu, unwrapping the seaweed.

"NO! DON'T!" yelled Bria, but a flash of flame and a huge cloud of bubbles utterly obscured Blu from sight.

"AAAARRRRRRGH!" yelled the salty old caretaker. Bria noticed that even when yelling in shock and surprise, he rolled his Rs.

"Ooopsie," said Bria. "I'll just leave you to put that away... safely." Then she hurriedly swam off before Blu's temper grew even hotter than the flaming scroll.

"Now then," mused Bria, once she was at a safe distance from the Vault. "What else can I collect? The scrolls were tough, so maybe something easier. A smaller set of items, and preferably one that can all be found in the same place. Hmm..."

She tapped her lips and thought for a long time.

---

Read: Arderial Bograth Cald The Core The Sands of D'Resh Kybar's Teeth Nar Naroom Paradwyn The Underneath The Weave

[lastsummerfm]

𓈒⠀𓂃⠀⠀˖⠀☽⋅⠀˖⠀⠀𓂃⠀𓈒 what will you be doing this summer? welcome  to  𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐌  !  a  21+  muns  and  muses  roleplay  group  mostly  inspired  by  the  movie  franchises  of  i  know  what  you  did  last  summer.  when  a  group  of  people  do  their  best  to  try  and  hide  their  past  ...  how  long  do  you  think  it'll  take  before  it  finally  ends  up  catching  up  with  them  ? no  matter  how  deep  you  want  for  something  to  stay  buried  just  know  …  not  everything  will  stay  that  way  forever !

☽⋅ read up on the story of ours. ☽⋅ looking to see who's already residing in westhaven bay? ☽⋅ make sure that you're following by the rulebook. ☽⋅ thinking about bringing in a muse? ☽⋅ where can you travel off to in town?

݁₊ ✧˖° 𝐌𝐎𝐁𝐈𝐋𝐄 𝐍𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐆𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 .ᐟ

𝘼𝘿𝙈𝙄𝙉 𝙎𝙏𝘼𝙏𝙐𝙎: online, lurking, offline.

𝙍𝙋 𝙎𝙏𝘼𝙏𝙐𝙎: accepting apps on a rolling basis.

𝙈𝙐𝙎𝙀 𝘾𝙊𝙐𝙉𝙏: 3.

𝙈𝙐𝙉 𝘾𝘼𝙋: 1 / 30

𝙍𝙀𝙎𝙀𝙍𝙑𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉𝙎: under the cut.

none.