#scifi vibes!! bc yes

[lenreli]

Day 30 - Mechanic [Human AU]

[AO3]

Hob sighs and looks up from the mangled wall panel, and Dream feels. Only a little bit bad about the poor mechanic, having to deal with his spaceship to fix. “And how did you manage this again?” Hob scratches his head and crosses his arms as he looks at the panel’s insides. 

“Wear and tear,” he answers with an innocent blink.

“Would the wear and tear happen to be a laser gun,” Hob mutters to himself, and Dream looks out the window of the ship. Laser cutter, technically he thinks to himself. A very impulsive thing after a bad day, and thinking of the hot mechanic ― and, well. 

“How much will it be?” Dream asks, leaning over Hob’s shoulder, who sighs and straightens up suddenly. 

“There are better ways,” Hob cuts himself off with a huff, glaring at him, and Dream tries not to squirm under it, blood rushing south at how close they are, and the intensity of Hob’s gaze. 

“Yes?” He breathes, keeping still. 

There’s another sigh from Hob, ears red as he turns around to fix up the mangled insides of the panel. “You think you’re so smart, fucking up your own ship like this to see me,” Hob says and Dream freezes ― mortified, and aroused at being caught so easily. 

“I,” he squeaks, face feeling hot as Hob continues to work on the panel. “I had ― I. Apologise,” he manages. There’s a ding on his tablet and he jumps, looking down to see the amount of credits needed, Hob still staring at the ship as Dream pays quietly. 

 Hob sighs once more, facing him and walking over to him, leaning near a table, and Dream gets the impression that Hob's unimpressed with him. “You do realise being my partner means you don’t have to pay to see me, right?” Hob says dryly, their foreheads touching, and Dream’s face heats even more. 

“Bad day,” he says quietly as Hob kisses him, body hot against his front and Dream melts into it, edge of the table digging into his back as Hob’s hands grasp his face, the smell of ozone strong with the tools that Hob uses.

“Dream,” Hob sighs into his mouth, and his arousal is aches as one of Hob’s hands goes down his body, “really should punish you for doing this to your ship, when you could’ve just seen me without doing this,” Hob mutters to himself and Dream whines, bucking up into Hob’s body.

“How?” He asks, voice gravelly as Hob cups his cloth-covered cock, blood pounding in his ears as Hob presses down onto it, making him whimper. 

“Not sure yet,” Hob says, other hand pulling his head back, and Dream lets out a whine as Hob licks his neck.

[the-chattering-tower]

Can't type much rn and I keep forgetting to develop Vesper's lore properly, but now I have even more reason to poke it thanks to the recent (yesterday) addition of Altair

But the short of it is that Vesper was sent from space-and-maybe-also-another-dimension-or-something as a Weapon Of Mass Destruction, intended to do their job and Commit Mass Destruction. This did not work bc apparently the locals at The Chattering Tower are, like, way too nice. So Vesper kept procrastinating doing many murders and causing an ecosystem collapse, and eventually decided that actually they just wanna be loved now

Which did not constitute as doing their job

So they sent after him Altair, a more up-to-date Weapon Of Mass Destruction with a more bloodthirsty work ethic from the same, like, brand of Weapons Of Mass Destruction. To get Vesper to do their fuckin job, or more likely delete Vesper and then do their job instead

This ultimately also does not work bc Vesper does not like their new home being threatened, Vesper's new home also doesn't like being threatened, and also it wouldn't be a fun story if Altair just showed up and did their job correctly. So eventually Altair also gets domesticated despite being a lil bitch. At which point whoever sent them both probably decides that Sornieth is bad for business, bc imagine failing to Mass Destroy a place not once but Twice. Horrible for PR

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 2/6/2024

some weeks it's really hard to come up with a snappy little bon mot to put here

listening

Barbarella, by a fuck of a lot of people. yes i DID watch this movie this week! this is the single catchiest theme song i have ever heard. i cannot link the actual opening credits scene bc tumblr will censor that shit SO fast. spotify

-

reading

Rebecca Roanhorse's Tread of Angels novella. this is an urban magic old west religious fantasy novella. VERY sangfielle friendsatthetable vibes, there's an old west mining town centered around the body of the demon Abbadon, which is being mined for its powerful properties. demons and angels have sort of interbred throughout the human population. there is some deeply nerdy catholic bullshit and i say that as someone who was in catholic school for fifteen years. actually let's just take Roanhorse's explanation

the setting and premise are not where the novella bites off way more than it can chew. the main character, a cardsharp, has a chanteuse sister being held accused of a murder and she's got 48hrs to prove her innocence. the time limit and general structure is good, and it uses its side characters wisely, there's just a fuck of a lot of them.

in general, this novella does not have the emotional room to make its emotional beats really count. for example, there was a second breakup with an ex after a night of passion that mostly just left me confused. more broadly, the main character has an oldest sister's selfsacrificing nature that has twisted into utter ruthlessness with regards to her sister, and i'm both impressed Roanhorse managed to convey that in so few pages and annoyed bc i really wanted to see more of that in way more detail. due to the nature of it being a novella, the series of escalating decisions she takes feel very jagged in their escalation. i hope that makes sense.

it's got really interesting ideas! i want to know more about the ideas! i wish this was a full book instead of a novella, so the ending hits a little better instead of a Well That Just Happened way. from this interview it seems Roanhorse also wanted it to be a full book, but it was sort of a "i need something short and sweet so i don't go insane while adapting my other book for TV" (which is very exciting!!!)

-

watching

really a bizarre set of films. extremely unemployed energy in this watchlist this week. largely composed of "what's on my letterboxed watchlist and also available for free on tubi, with brief forays into hulu"

Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons (2013, dir. Chow). loved the overall visual design of the antagonists and the monsters, did not overall love this movie. it is a solid martial arts showcase and the first twenty minutes with freshwater JAWS are the most tightly plotted. it kind of flounders (lol) after that. can't find a gif i like.

INU-OH (2021, dir. Yuasa) genuinely healed my heart a little i think. queer (complimentary, not queer in the western massachusetts housing coop way) feudal anime glam rock opera. i am sooooooo picky about bad dads in movies as a driving force but this really soothed my daddy issues. stuck the landing on both storytelling and visuals.

Barbarella (1968, dir. Vadim) WOW Jane Fonda was hot. this was both sillier and less porny than i was led to believe (if we ignore the softcore porn opening credits). however horny this movie was it was not brave enough to have some girl-on-girl action with barbarella and the evil empress, even though the evil empress never seems to actually learn her name and just calls her “pretty” or “pretty-pretty”. shoutout to the one fic on ao3 that rectifies this situation. certainly a piece of scifi history, i wish modern scifi was as brave with its theatrical set dressing, i think one viewing is good enough for me bc i cannot stop thinking about how all the women on set might have been treated.

john philip law popped up and i said out loud to my cat “hey i know him from cowboys”

Flower Drum Song (1961, dir. Koster) got conned into watching this by the hotvintagemen poll bc i wanted to see what james shigeta’s deal was, and if he did have a sort of ratpack sensibility as the propaganda described. he does! however this movie is unrelentingly awful. it is so so so slow. all of its comedy is racism-based. it feels like a three and a half hour two-VHS set instead of two hours. i like to think i have a stronger stomach for older media and am able to consider things as products of their times but this is my upper limit i think. one brief fleeting moment of cool production with this triple mirror effect

Dirty Dancing (1987, dir. Ardolino). we were trying to find something to watch on either peacock or hbo max, and when i said "oh i've never seen that" out loud my my best friend said "that's insane we're watching it". i did not hate this movie, but i feel like i missed some critical window of development in which i would have had to see this movie to really love it. i had sort of an abnormal high school experience and i am a smidge too old to relate to bildungsroman any more. but it was cute! it was fine! i think patrick swayze’s jawline could cut glass. this film was made after Roe v Wade (1973) and i feel like the backstreet abortion b-plot has done this interesting 180 from sort of a historical novelty to a real threat and terror again. fun!

that’s it for the watching section i promise

-

playing

im doing the thing where i play a game for ten minutes, put it down, and then pick it back up again, which is probably not terrific for the health of my elderly switch. but whatever. what have i been up to in breath of the wild?

not a ton of progress map-wise, but did make it up to zora’s domain.

i was planning on the camel being the first divine beast, to get that over with bc i had such a devil of a time in my last playthrough, but the thing about the desert is it’s really far away.

dicked around the dueling peaks stables for a while without managing to defeat that guardian and unlock that shrine. so it goes. i think i really need an actual guardian shield from one of the minor tests of strength shrines instead of a normie shield. this line and sidequest made me laugh— it wasn’t terribly hard to find this little cache but it was a tricky bit of gliding.

didn’t realize the horses don’t have that much vertical threat perception, just like real horses. this little band walked right under me and i failed to glide down and land perfectly on someone’s back, which did freak them all out.

i think my new favorite place in a game is this little grove clinging to the side of the dueling peaks. it felt very peaceful and cozy. nothing can get me up there and there’s more than enough room to make a little campfire and cook dinner and not roll off the mountain in a sleeping bag the middle of the night.

also fully kitted out my house bc i had a very successful mining expedition along dueling peaks. EXTREMELY forgiving and generous secondary opening area imo, thanks game

-

making

i started this glitch sampler pattern by tumblr's own mathysphere (not @'d bc this is a fuck of a long post) at the beginning of the pandemic, june 2020, while thinking "eh let's give this friends at the table counterweight thing a shot" got most of the way through both counterweight and this piece, put it down bc i was so annoyed with all the confetti stitches (random one-off stitches of colors that aren't anywhere near other stitches of the same color. i think i resorted to fraychek at several points in the rover square) and then put it down so long i had to throw it out during the great moth debacle, bc it was partly eaten.

here's what it will look like finished, and a link to buy the pattern

i think this time around i am a much better technical stitcher (the first crack at this i didn't know the loop method of starting, or pin stitches, or really any alternate endings except running the tail under the last few stitches). i usually stitch with three strands bc i like the look, but i think the loop method with three strands is overly fiddly. i have not picked up cross stitch since mmmm 2021, but any mistakes or unevenness in this will simply contribute to the glitch effect. i'm going to go back and backstitch the four "frames" and key portions of the sampler to highlight portions of the glitches (eg the yellow and blue centers of the spiral galaxy, the interior of the eclipse, perhaps add an antenna to the rover).

still not my tidiest back, but hey. it's going to sit in a frame and not have any sort of friction or extra force applied to it ever

i am really looking forward to framing this in a deep shadowbox, i have an idea about how to mat it with little melty cutouts for the drips at the bottom.

[unclewaynemunson]

Omg I just wanted to let you know that thanks to your posts I kind of can't stop thinking about Wayne/Mr Clarke? I don't have any fancy writing I'm afraid, just vibes, but I'm having fun!!

Mr Clarke comes over to have dinner and watch a movie with Wayne, a chill home date, and Eddie says he can make himself scarce. It's fine, he can go bug Steve. And Mr Clarke says its fine, he wouldn't mind if he stayed, it would be nice to get to know Eddie as his boyfriend's son - and not just as one of his ex students. They watch some scifi horror movie and eat pasta together - Mr Clarke and Eddie bonding over weird trivia and science facts while Wayne watches fondly.

Both men becoming increasingly smitten as they notice their wardrobes are slowly merging together. Wayne's flannels and worn jeans with Clarke's sweater vests and slacks.

Occasionally Steve will bump into Mr Clarke in the supermarket, or at the gym. And they'll stop for a quick chat or wave politely at each other. And it's nice, knowing there are older queer people who are dating and happy.

Every now and then one of the party will ring up with a science question, and Mr Clarke is always happy to answer, but now they run the risk of Eddie answering the phone, telling them 'a wizard did it' and hanging up on them bc it's date night and his Uncle deserves a nice night at home with no interruptions.

Idk where I'm going with this but I'm vibing so thank u for this ship!!! Wayne deserves happiness

OHMYGOD thank you so much for sending this i love it!!! Them being a family together and an example for Steve and Eddie is sooo precious to me <3

Also you're so so right about the wardrobe merging i am living for this. Actually @flowercrowngods also had this idea that Scott would start borrowing Wayne's flannels but still wear his bow tie with them and that image is now making itself at home in my head bc it's so hilarious yet sweet and just so THEM. Also I think when Wayne gets older he starts running cold more easily, especially when they're at the trailer park bc it's chilly there and the heat doesn't even work half the time, so he starts wearing Scott's sweater vests over his own flannels.

I'm obsessed with your takes on Eddie making sure they get enough alone time together, it's so soft :') And also them having dinner together YES. Wayne and Eddie are both terrible cooks and have lived off canned food all their lives, but Scott loves his fresh veggies and makes it his mission to get as many vitamins as possible into those Munsons. He loves to cook and it soon becomes a weekly tradition that Steve and Scott cook together while Wayne and Eddie fondly make fun of them and praise their cooking skills. After dinner, Steve and Wayne always watch sports together while Eddie and Scott have endless conversations about all kinds of nerdy stuff.

[daemonhxckergrrl]

What is the absolute most beautiful tech aesthetic you've seen and can you share it with your nerdy trans mutuals please?

whough i can't pick just one and ik you'll love at least one of these and possibly hate the others xD

Frutiger Aero !!!

this was the back end of what i grew up on and one of the last design trends i genuinely liked d: the soft gradients are preeetttyyyyy and a lot of the UX design at the time encouraged sharing options rather than treating the user condescendingly. this also ties into a more physical aesthetic....

Translucent Plastics

not clear glass like those hyperfuturistic transparent TVs people keep dreaming up. you know, the ones that look like a billionaire's house. no, the soft translucency of these coloured plastics exposing circuitry and mechanisms inside. like oughhh 😳😳

and that leads us back into the 90s and to one i consider beautiful even if many see it as ugly...

Slate/Motif

hey hai hellooo hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ;3 the strong borders and fun colours !! if synthia was software it would look like this ! i'm already chunky beige computer vibes so it makes sense

and one last shoutout to something i don't have a proper name for but it's low-budget scifi from the 90s and 00s

i couldn't find good pictures but i'm specifically thinking about red dawrf and tennant-era doctor who (the gritty old well-built shit held together by duct tape and prayers look). and yes this is a list of my most beautiful aesthetics bc to me they are !

i love things that look heavy duty and don't hide features and are meant to function first.

[mack-anthology-mp3]

NWKAKWKQKWJAKA MACK

THE CHRISTMAS SPECIAL?!?!?!??!?!!?! NCUTI GATWA MY BELOVED AHSKAHJSKSJS I LOVE THIS DOCTOR ABKAJSKS THE QUEERNESS OF WHEN HES DANCING IN THE BAR NEARLY MADE ME CRY AKSKKSSKSK I LOVE IT ABAKJSSKJSSKKSJSKB MACK I AM SO EXCITED FOR MAYYYYYY I CANT WAIT AHEJAJSJSKSKJSKKSKKAKAKS HNNGNGGGGG

I am so glad i watched this. i stopped watching mudway through jodi Whittaker's run because when shows make Political Points its stressful bc i need to escape from the world not be drowned in uts problems again. But OSNAKSKKAKA I AM SO EXCITED I CANT EXPRESS IT ENOUGH OUUUGHH I LOVE RTD'S WRITING GIS EPISODES WER3 MY FAVE AND NOW HESSS BBACKKKASJSKAKAKWKAKAKA MACK I CANT COPE GNNNGGGGGGGG

JASHNKAHSKAS ELIIIII AHAHHHHHHHHHH

hehheeeeee it's so good isn't it??? he's dancing and he's enjoying himself and he said 'babes' and and an dadhnaknshkanhska hnmnhnhnmnhnmn AGHSGNAGHNS I'M SO EXCITEDDDDDD FOR THE SEQSSONNNNNNN it's just so so wonderful and like yeah the sing was a bit weird but sure!!! let the doctor do that!!!! they've been through so much but now they can singgg

AND YES OMGGGGGGG i started s5 but the vibes were off idk how much of it i'll watch but RTD IS BACKKKKK AHHH ajkshaknshakn dr wHO <3

AND AND NAD I LOVE HOW BY INVOKING THE SALT SUPERSTITION IN WILD BLUE YONDER AND THEN THE TOYMAKER WITH DIFFERENT RULES OF REALITY AND NOW COINCIDENCES AJKHSNKAHNSANHSAKJNAKJNSKHANHNAKJNNAKNKNHK a,hsnansmahnsansan. hnsnah. oh i'm so excited to see where this goessssssss ahhh the way it moving into things that are less strictly scifi and more kind of fantasy anshakhsaknshannshknkNHNSAHKNSkhsahjkkhjsajkn. ajhsanmsaj.

and rubyyyyyy i like her!! and her family!!!!! ah!!! i think she might be pat aliennnnnnnnn wouldn't that be cool?!??!? and THE WOMAN AT TEH END MRS FLOOD 'HAVEN'T YOU EVER SEEN A TARDIS BEFORE' AHHHHHHHHHH

i'm so happy you liked ittttttt ough i can hardly wait until the season comes outtttttttttt hehe fortunatley i now have months to rewatch nine & ten and watch the important plot episodes of teh other seasons, actually i think i like the vibes i'm getting from twelve so maybe i'll watch some of his heheeeeeeeeeeee

[emiliosandozsequence]

Hi! I barely ever use my tumblr but found your blog while looking for Dune stuff. I started reading The Sparrow based off of your interests (since many overlap w things I’m interested in but never put name to) — and was wondering if there’s any other media you recommend with similar vibes? I’m only about 100 pages into The Sparrow and can already tell it’s going to be devastating/I’ll need to read the follow up. The blend of science, religion, foreboding prophecy (?), and lifelike characters has really pulled me in (not dissimilar to Dune in a way?!). Anyways, big fan and if you have the time to reply, thanks!

OH YOU HAVE COME TO THE RIGHT PLACE!!! most of what i watch/read has this vibe. most of what i recommend is going to be films tho bc up until last year i've been in a reading slump that's lasted several years rip

three body problem by liu cixin (of everything i will recommend, this is the one that i recommend the most strongly because it's EXACTLY on the nose what you're asking for)

mistborn trilogy by branden sanderson (this is more fantasy, but it Does have a mixing of science and religion nonetheless)

the fountain (2006) -- this is my all time favorite film hands down; most people don't like it, but i think that's bc they don't get it

another earth (2011)

sound of my voice (2011)

the oa (this is a tv show; it only lasted two seasons and g-d i DREAM every day of it being longer)

arrival (both the book and the film)

the southern reach trilogy/annihilation (again: both the book and the film, but definitely moreso the books here)

the aeronauts (2019)

i origins (2014)

interstellar (2014)

sunshine (2008)

knowing (2009)

signs (2002)

contact (1997)

district 9 (2009)

elysium (2013)

the creator (2023)

lucy (2014)

castle rock (another tv show that...you wouldn't think is about science and religion, but it definitely ends up being that way)

tron: legacy (2010)

atlantis: the lost empire (yes the disney movie)

cloud atlas (again: both the film and the book; i do prefer the film tho bc it leans into the religious aspects a lot more than the book does)

prometheus (2012)

avatar (2010) say what you will about this movie, but it literally does exactly this (blends science and religion); tbh it's probably bc of this movie that i love scifi as much as i do today

event horizon (1997)

the wonder (2022) this really isn't what you're asking for, but i love the film so much and it has such an ethereal holy feel that i had to recommend it anyway 💕💕

also i'm so so glad you're enjoying the sparrow so far!! i highly recommend the sequel children of g-d and i recommend reading it as soon as you finish the sparrow too so you can notice all the parallels between the sparrow and that book!!

[astrovagrant]

i want fallout seattle even though it would be dubious at best. here's my selling points:

ive wanted to do a "everett goes up to the pnw" adventure for awhile. this is a benefit to no one but me :)

world fair space needle midcentury scifi vibes = made for fallout. also the head of whatever government or loose coalition has sprung up is there, because of course.

volcanic activity: the nuke(s) that hit the area has caused an upset to the two major fault lines - the cascades are actively leaking lava at all times (tahoma is a cool high level zone) and the olympic fault slipped and had a mega-earthquake that caused half of downtown to slide into the ocean because it was built out of trash. the historical areas are still more or less intact for exploration purposes.

there's military bases here and so on and so forth. i'm sure bethesda couldn't resist depicting (in a fashion that is Not Quite Clear if they're being satirical or not, bc they've lost the fucking plot) the pnw area as the forefront of the 'help alaska' effort, the 'keep canada down' effort, and the 'evil chinese commies' messaging.

mutated orcas. yes they go out of their way to eat people now. whale sighting tours have a very different vibe

in post-post-nuclear-apocalypse pnw, the salmon smoke you.

seattle is half-overtaken with nature - the rainforests and the wetlands are taking it back, verdantly alive in new and different ways - and the people who live here just live alongside that, rather than in opposition to it. for the most part.

sorry i've become obsessed with the tahoma part now. volcanic nuclear hell mountain littered with the ash-covered tourism flyers from when the volcano was still asleep... it should be more than just scary. it should be bone-achingly sad.

anyway thats my ted talk. fallout: seattle - tagline: just as good or as bad as like 95% of the random ass places i see suggested for fallout locations, so why not

[the--highlanders]

choose violence ask game (loving the name of that btw) - 8, 16, & 23?

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

(this fandom is so small that I don't want to sound like I'm vagueblogging or @-ing someone or anything so I'm just gonna preface this by saying this also goes for plenty of licensed media)

oh man ok. at risk of sounding like a total killjoy who takes everything too seriously & looks too much into stuff. I'm pretty sensitive about. primitivism in the way jamie gets portrayed?? is the best way I can think to describe it?? anything that implies that where & when he comes from means that he's inherently less intelligent, or equates his lack of knowledge on some things with him being stupid. can't stand him being reduced to dumb guy who hits stuff. idiot who has no critical thinking skills or reasoning.

and like, I get that it's a fairly common assumption, the idea that people from the past weren't as smart because they didn't know as much (even setting aside the devaluing of /different/ ways of knowing & understanding) - but, say, victoria never gets this treatment. despite also being from the past. which then leads you to think, hey, why would people make that assumption about jamie and not about victoria?

and then you get to a bunch of ideas which have been kicking around since. before jamie's time, real-world-historically speaking. which depict the highlands as savage, as populated by 'wild' people, by - well - 'primitives'. speakers of a primitive language. violent, at worst, strong, at best, but never intelligent. & this is all starting to sound a lot like the ideas that buttress colonialism and biological determinism, isn't it?

idk. this is a silly 60s family tv show & a very very small online fandom. it's kind of not that deep. but any time jamie gets written off as being inherently stupid (often /because/ of where he comes from), and any time that idea is the foundation of a joke, it rubs me the wrong way, and this is why.

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

gfdhkjsg once again this is a v small fandom so 'so many people' is kinda like..... 2 people max probably. & also I've been sort of keeping more or less to myself for a couple years now in terms of actually discussing thoughts & headcanons (except you obviously and also @ettelwenailinon who is always right about everything despite not being super active in dr who fandom on tumblr anymore <3)

gonna go with shipping jamie and victoria tbh. absolutely no hate if you do bc I can definitely see where it comes from in canon/behind the scenes stuff but it is just,,, not for me at all, and so antithecal to how I write/interpret their characters.

23. ship you've unwillingly come around to

tenrose?? weirdly?? not that I'd say I actively ship it (there is one (1) tenrose fic in my ao3 bookmarks but it's really there bc it's a pretty charming magical realism au and the voices of all the characters are just so spot on rather than bc I ever crave reading about the ship) but. when I got into dr who in 2013 there felt like there was a pretty solid line between rtd fans and moffat fans. & I have always vibed with moffat's era more (neither of them are above criticism obviously, the scifi fairytale aesthetic/tone of moffat's era is just so so so so tailor-made for me personally).

and for some reason tenrose and elevenriver were kind of. bundled into that opposition?? not sure if that was just in my head or something other people noticed/experienced but I felt like if you were a moffat fan you had to ship elevenriver & if you were an rtd fan you had to ship tenrose, and they were like. rivals. (yes I did try very half-heartedly to enjoy elevenriver. no I never succeeded). so I always had this thing of like, I don't like ten, I don't like tenrose.

like I said I still don't actively ship it, I don't get any warm fuzzy feelings from their relationship, but I did go back into rtd's era looking to actively enjoy stuff (after being tired of really not enjoying uh. recent seasons ajhksglf) and found that I didn't hate the concept of tenrose as much as I used to. I genuinely believed they liked each other, I felt the hubris of their relationship worked and built well narratively. never thought that ship would get a redemption arc in my head but I've definitely gained more appreciation for its role in the narrative.

[erdarielthewhumper]

Another OC question, slightly meta this time, if/when ever you feel like it: What were some of the inspirations / influences for creating your OCs? How have their personalities, backstories, and present lives evolved since their original conception?

Oh boy, lemme think... this is gonna get long, so again, everything is under the cut!

Well, Meldie was originally a D&D character, but the campaign kinda fell apart after like 3 sessions bc we couldn't find the time to play. Basics of the character are relatively same; game mechanically the character was a wood elf fighter and kind of aiming for a fairly good balance between dex and strength, but focused on dex a bit more. The basic gear, so sword (game mechanically a rapier, visually a sidesword, but in fic game mechanics doesn't matter), a shield (round metal thing, like a rotella), and a metal breastplate, are all also kind of what i picked as my starter gear in the game. I never really came up with an alignment for her because my group pretty much ignored aligments as a mechanic (the DM didn't like them that much, and tbh I sort of agree, they can be useful but they can also be very awkward to deal with), though I suppose she matches the description of true neutral more closely than anything else. Her backstory is also pretty much the same as what I wrote for the game. The world ofc is different, tho, bc I can't just steal my DM's world for my writing, you know?

As for changes/evolving... well, I think one thing is that Meldie as I write her is somewhat less social and more kind of gruff loner than she was in the game. Which I suppose is fundamentally a practical matter; you can make loners work in D&D, but then you need to go out of your way to figure out a reason for the character to stick with the party, so it's easier to just make the character a bit more social and team player, you know? Whereas in writing, I don't really like juggling big casts of characters, I'm better at writing stuff where the amount of characters that get a lot of focus is pretty small, so it's easier for me if Meldie's a loner because it means I don't have to come up with so many characters, at least not to the same level of detail, as I'd have to if she was a more social person

***

When it comes to Anthony and Elias (and yes, they were always a pair from the moment I made them up; I think I wrote like one fic of Anthony alone before he knew Elias, back in the day, but they were always meant to be together), this is gonna sound strange, but the inspiration behind them was largely space/scifi themed filk music, which I was listening to a lot back in the day. Neither of them are directly based on any specific song (although there are elements I drew from some songs that I still remember, but we'd be here all day if I tried listing all of them), but the characters and the vibe of the world are both something I kind of took inspiration for from filk. It's actually the reason why Elias sings and plays the guitar as a hobby, I threw that in there as a little private nod to what inspired the setting and the characters.

And this is more a setting-thing, but another thing I took inspiration from in the worldbuilding was a couple of tumblr posts I've seen around that make up folklore and stuff for a future scifi universe, like the idea that even in a far-future world where FTL space travel is a thing, there'll still be stories of spirits and gods and ghost ships, there'll still be superstitions and seemingly pointless little rituals people do for luck, things people avoid doing because it's supposedly bad luck. So it doesn't usually come up a lot in the stories, but it's kind of there, this little sprinkle of superstition. I doubt I'll ever actually confirm whether any of those beliefs are true in the setting or not, though, because confirming it would spoil the fun.

Anyway, back to the characters... I don't think Anthony and Elias have ever changed, so much as my idea of who they are has solidified and become more clear over time, espeically once I managed to make up vague outlines for what the places/cultures they came from were like. But I wouldn't really say they've evolved as such, they're still more or less the same as they were then, I just understand what they are better now

[yorksbooty]

if they make nala se clone palpatine that just might be the last straw for me with star wars as a whole

[igarbagecannoteven]

good luck on writing your novel opening! i am sending you lots of positive writing and plot vibes!!! but also i would like to know the answers to 5, 11, 12, 24, 35, 43, 54, 72, and 77! That's a lot of questions so feel free to pick and choose but i am genuinely curious about all of them -hazel

thank you for the positive vibes and good luck wishes!! they have been received and i edited and reworked the first 4.5k of the assignment! (most of it had already been edited previously, so don't be too impressed lol)

5. how many wips do you have? how many fandoms/pairings are they for? depending on what you count as a "wip", i'd say somewhere btwn 30-40ish? all 5sos pairings have more than one wip, and i've got a couple hp wips (and one doctor who drabble, but that's finished so it doesn't count)

11. do you write scenes in order or do you jump around? i usually start from what i think is the beginning at the time and then start jumping around when i either run into a wall or am inspired by something that will happen later!

12. do you outline your fics? if yes, how detailed are your outlines? how far do you stray from them? it depends! most fics i start have a general idea of how they'll go, but they rarely get an outline (unless you count one sentence in a notes app as an outline, but i don't) as for proper outlines, i have three aus (my big superhero au, we gotta make a decision's parent au, and my crazy scifi au) that have "proper" outlines, which range from extremely vague to very specific. i have yet to stray too far from any of them, but i'm also not super far along so we'll see! (my 4th of july au and my baby blue au also have docs that are vaguely outline shaped, but i'm not counting them for multiple reasons, chief among them being that they may never be written)

24. how do you choose which pov to write from? answered here!

35. what's your favorite fic you've posted? ohhh gosh. i really do love what if i'm weak (and i need you tonight?) i think it's one of my strongest writing-wise, i love the characters, it's my 2nd most popular fic,,, yeah idk i just think it's nice :))

43. is there a trope or idea you'd really like to write but haven't yet? lots! there are so many that are in wip-land, but one that hasn't even gotten a doc yet is a longer fic that's both a quarantine au and a slowburn and a fic that centers around the character's ace-ness. i've been thinking about it for a while now and i think it's something i need to sit on for a few months/years before i start it, but hopefully someday it'll be written :))

54. what's the fandom/pairing distribution of your posted fics? it's very sad :(( i've got 3 malum, 2 lashton, 1 mashton, 1 cake, 1 malum friendship fic, and no muke or cashton :(((( i can't wait to release more stuff with other pairings i don't like how unbalanced it is :((

72. what's your favorite writing compliment you've gotten? today in my creative writing class i got a very nice compliment from a classmate that made me very soft(tm). he said something like "we've talked about how great your ideas and concepts are in your story and that's true, but the real strength is the characters, who are so real and strong that they help me believe everything about this world you're building". and i just. :') i mean any compliment on my writing makes me melt but i think characters are the most important part of a story and for him to say that??? i did not propose but it was a close thing ksdjflkdsjfljsd

77. why do you enjoy writing fanfic? i like the freedom it gives me! i like that i can write characters and not have to worry about telling people what they look like or their general vibe bc they already know! (i hate describing how characters look lol it's the bane of my existence) i like the community feeling! i love how people can just comment on what they liked best and know that i'll read it! i like that so many different kinds of writing can fit under this one umbrella! i just love it!!

writer’s ask time!

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 8/31/21

what a dreadful august

listening another double song week babey, making up for lost time. my dearly beloved best friend recommends media maybe twice a year if i’m lucky but her recs are always on fucking point.

crucible by sleigh bells was described to me as “a scrub brush to the brain but in a good way” and yes!!! very good song to drive around and let wash over you.

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toes by glass animals was described to me as “makes me feel like a pretty bitch”. this is a slinky little thing about The Island of Dr Moreau. due to being partially deaf and glass animals’ love of drawing out all the vowels in their words to their fullest length, i am rarely able to comprehend their lyrics. i am simply Vibing with this one

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reading The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty. while unpacking, i remembered reading and liking this when it came out but could not remember why until i read the first few chapters again. small-time magical hustler trying to do the least amount of harm to her neighborhood while making the most money possible off rich fucks accidentally heats up a centuries-old magical cold war. at some point i will acquire the other two books in this series and become a person who like, follows recent scifi/fantasy publishing again

watching stress-watching s/tar wars r/ebels, which i did not keep up with when it was on the air. whales but weird are always and forever the best creature/beast concept. you cannot change my mind. i’m only halfway through s2 so a cooler creature and/or beast may show up but i think that’s pretty unlikely

playing bounced off the terra nil demo pretty hard. the interesting premise (rebuilding a devastated ecosystem, bc i have a pathological need to Fix Things) was not enough to get me over the hump of a genre i generally don’t vibe with (strategy/city builders/make the number go up in the most efficient way possible). also, this demo is a little rough. the tutorial and prompts are unclear at best. they have all the pieces, just no signposts. and i think this game will take the fuck off among a certain subset of people (it helps it’s already got pretty strong interest and they’re doing all the “right” things to promo it), but it needs a lot of quality of life and general clarity improvements. that’s the point of a demo, to get this feedback from your audience and really nail your gameplay loop before everything is too set in stone, especially for strategy-ish games that need a lot more iteration before they exit early access. devolver games tend to spend a little longer in early access, so even though this looks pretty polished i would estimate late 2023/early 2024 for a “full” release/non-early access build and would expect an early access version for like ten bucks next spring (earth day would be a good day to release an early access version of this). hope they do well, Free Lives seems like a neat team, not a game for me. so it goes. image yoinked from their steam page

making yee hop. i really really love cross stitch patterns by pixel artists bc they use color and shading in really fun ways. there’s usually a lot more “confetti” or single stitches of a color that aren’t anywhere near “sister” stitches of the same color, but imo it’s worth it. this static image looks like it should be a three-frame gif gently bobbing up and down as a page header somewhere

[handern]

Devy this is a weird question but you're my only mutual I know who speaks French. Do you have any recommendations for french language children's books? Especially geared at like 6-10 year old readers? I'm trying to practice my language skills, but my french isn't quite good enough yet to read the book reviews. There's "adult readers", but they have a startling lack of anything at all fun in them. I want dragons and spaceships and shit, not sad people buying groceries

Oh I'm going to pull out my list of french writers books I read when I was 7/10 but I'm not sure if it's really what you're searching for?

Even when they're aimed at kids french books by french authors can have a lot of very pedantic words no one uses on a daily basis

Also keep in mind that most popular books written in english out there have probably been translated into french at some point !

Erik L'Homme :

- Le Maître des Brisants (just read book 1 and 2, the 3rd one was a mistake sorry mister Erik sir) : Steampunkish scifi, I don't remember the whole plot but it was pretty epic and I think it was about a boy coming on a spaceship for an internship? Now I need to re read it

- Le Livre des Etoiles : a young boy training to become a mage in a world that was part of ours and is still linked to ours but through a very small gate. It has celtic themes and epic fights but in a more modern way than most fantasy books

- Phaenomen : four kids in a "hospital for children with special needs" realize they have some powers while they go searching for their favorite doctor who vanished one day without a word. Kind of a modern take on changeling kids, smh it gave me a coping mechanism for ADHD and sensory overload that I still use haha

Pierre Bottero : all his series are linked somehow so here's the publication order, which is not the chronological order

- Ewilan series : a girl finds out she has the power to cross from our world to another one, and also that she's the most powerful magic user born in that world. She goes in search of her biological parents trapped somewhere in that world along with a very eclectic band of weird people. It was some of my favorite books ever.

- L'Autre : set in our world, it follows two heirs of some 7 or so families of people who can use magic, they have to learn to control their powers and I also forgot the main plot but hey the girl can turn into a panther and at some point she murders someone which was very cool of her

- Elana : following my childhood hero, Elana from the Ewilan series. It starts with her as a toddler being raised in the jungle after her parents' death (the best book) then it follows her growing up and being trained as a Marchombre (less interesting but still good) which is a thing that would take too long to explain like, they could be assassins but they're not and they could be thieves but they are not but also they're both assassins and thieves for most of them except they're not, they follow a goal way more important than just assassinations and thievery, of spiritual and physical perfection. I started practicing climbing bc of these books.

Erik L'Homme and Pierre Bottero :

- A comme Association : monsters hunting monsters (4 first books are by both of them, the rest is Erik L'Homme alone). It's pretty fun but I didn't get the end at all. But it's pretty fun yes and makes me very emotionnal bc Pierre Bottero was my favorite author and he died right after the 4th book's completion. The characters are really cool and very fun, and of course there's some monsters befriending

Serge Brussolo : each of his series has like 10000 books, I have no idea how this man writes so much but I'm pretty sure his writing rate should be illegal somehow

- the Peggy Sue series : my grandpa gave me the second book instead of the first by accident and thank goodness he did because the first book absolutely TERRIFIED ME, the rest is really kids books but the first one is horror. It tells the story of a girl who can see ghosts and they make her life miserable for it like, literally try to murder her and her family. She ends up travelling through weird places/worlds, it's pretty cool but jesus christ the first book. Warning for graphic murders, mind control and cannibalism in the first book. Some kids get almost boiled alive to be eaten in the second book but you know what? That's tame compared to the impression the first book left on me! There are sheep who eat people in the 5th book also if I recall correctly

- the Sigrid series : A girl born and raised in a weird submarine realizes that something is wrong and weird, ends up travelling through very eerie worlds where she has to learn the rules very fast to survive, it's also kind of horror-like, but less horrifying than the first Peggy Sue book. There are some spaceships, submarines, ghost boats and a lot more

Fabrice Colin : this man is a genius but also sometimes a dirty little copycat man I love him so much. He wrote a lot and not all of his books are equal in quality but when it's good it's really excellent

- Les Enfants de la Lune : set during WWII, a child who lives with his grandmother finds a letter adressed to his grandfather who died 10 years ago, he goes to the meeting to announce it to the people who wrote the letter and ends up meeting the last elves trying to leave our world before the last portal closes. It's very bittersweet and has absolutely amazing characters including a crocodile who probably ate a nazi at some point, evil pterodactyles and a mechanical kraken in the Seine. I spent 10 years hunting for a copy of this book, I would borrow it ten times a year at the local library

Eric Sanvoisin : I was absolutely obsessed w the atmosphere of his books. Horror but not scary? Kind of intriguing and creepy but in a very cosy and familiar way?

- Les buveurs d'encre : vampires but they drink books ink

- Les chasseurs d'Ombres (type in the author's name or you'll just get the Moral Instruments in the results) honestly it's been so long I don't remember much except that I harassed my parents until they bought me the book after I read it at the library. I think it has vampire-y vibes too with investigations

I also read every single book of the "Autre Mondes" collection by the Mango editor, which has really cool scifi books but there are so many it would make this list way too long so I'll just recommend "Les Abimes d'Outremer" which is about space whales being spaceships, but this collection is a goldmine if you want well wrapped together short-ish novels

[vldkeith]

9, 12, 20 💖

9. Their interactions with their best friend

lance and hunk are the duo to end all duos. they bounce off of each other effortlessly & know how to get the other going/make the other laugh, and it’s sooo entertaining to be around gnfskdjghsk they know each other soso well, can p much always tell when the other has something on his mind, and they’ve learned well how to comfort each other when it’s needed. hunk is long-suffering thru lance’s crush/”rivalry” with keith, but it’s ok bc lance gets him back a little when hunk bemoans his crush on shay in space :3 tbh i think they just have a really excellent, solid relationship, and ppl often think they’re dating (this is a source of some generally good-natured bitterness for keith once he and lance get together gskfdhgfkds)

keith.......does he even have a best friend gksfdhgsdk does shiro count? or maybe pidge? we’ll go w pidge, shiro has too much sibling/dad vibes to be a best friend. he and pidge, as the fandom well knows, are conspiracy theory buddies and like to huddle together with flashlights and a computer at night to watch nexpo videos or look at cult websites. they are so annoying when they get to talking but it’s also fun to listen to so the others don’t (usually) mind. aside from that tho they’re close bc they genuinely get each other, like they both have trouble socializing and they both have weird niche interests, so their ability to communicate in a special language just for them is unparalleled. they’re also good at pulling the other out of self-destructive overworking, which is sweet and necessary 

12. Them in their favorite outfit

keith got his jacket from shiro after he took a trip to japan and it influences his whole aesthetic. yes he bought the boots bc they matched the jacket. yes he wears those dumbass toolbelt things bc they go with the look. it’s all the dumb jacket’s fault. but keith just likes looking like an 80s scifi protag so theres not helping it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

lance shops at straight boys r us and h&m exclusively and he wears what’s comfortable. except his shoes, which are too chunky to be comfortable, but he wears them anyway bc he thinks guys with chunky shoes look cool. they don’t. also lance is a tall lanky man and he likes having a jacket that falls below his waist; it feels comforting and enveloping, which he likes :) 

20. Writer’s choice

im doing hcs about japanese keith bc i like forcing you all to acknowledge that he’s japanese. anyway he lived in randoville, texas w his dad so there were no jpn classes near him, however he took it upon himself to learn abt the history of samurai and he finds no greater joy than connecting the history of samurai with the history of cowboys (which is kind of a thing gksdfghs)!! his dad came to america from japan but he doesn’t rly have time to teach keith japanese sadly, so when keith finally can get into a japanese class, he knows nothing and is rly excited. he’s a pretty fast learner! here are some quick facts: 

- he uses the most annoying masculine pronoun, ore 俺, because it sounds rebellious 

- this is what his name looks like: 黄金キース

- he uses the yo よ ending particle the most bc it makes things sound harsher and he likes that

- he WILL NOT learn keigo and refuses to use what he does know. he will not learn any form more polite than plain form, and it aggravates his teachers greatly 

- he resents intensely that his name in japanese (pronounced kiisu キース) sounds just like kiss does in japanese (kisu キス--they even look the same!) 

- he like teaching lance to write his name in japanese :) (it’s ランス)

[shanhelingmoving]

UGH u said that u were giving this run more leeway bc of jodie,, YES Ive been doing that too, and I hate that the first female doctor has such empty writing bc she could! be! good! it's so sad! and, bc I was so excited for it, I still feel like I should be more grateful? but I'm really not feeling it and I worry that its only bc she's a woman and I've got internalised misogyny or something.

but it just seems like any other boring angsty modern scifi and I want MORE.

like 13's first season I could understand bc chibnal was new, and so was jodie and the cast, and there were a lot of new characters to flesh out, but now it's been so long that I'm just not willing to wait for the spark anymore? like Graham and Ryan left and I didn't even care bc I hadn't even connected to them at all. and they all keep giving these speaches about how they're gonna be there for each other forever but I honestly can't see it? idk anything about any of the companions except the fact that they all seem to love the Doctor.

oh my god anon i TOTALLY understand you like. when i first got to her season it almost felt an obligation to like jodie & 13 because ahem girl power™ and also b/c i do really like jodie as an actor. (esp on broadchurch!) in addition to that we’ve been asking for a female doctor for such a long time so when we finally got one and it felt. hollow. i still feel a sense that i Should’ve liked her and her run Should’ve been great, and to criticize her run as you said did felt a lil ungrateful?? it’s like. because we got this, we should be happy with the crumbs. which is so so much </3

obviously i don’t know your whole situation but i also don’t think it can be completely internalized misogyny either, because i genuinely just chalk it up to bad writing, i’m with you on the not feeling anything for the new characters. i really tried to like them i really did, and i do like them but it’s in the very shallow way of ‘oh, they’re neat. i hope they don’t die’ and thats probably the extent of it. 

i think it was @suzie-costello that said it was like chibnall was trying to invoke nostalgia to distract from the empty writing and i definitely think she’s right – it’s both the boring angsty modern scifi AND the constant nostalgia baiting is like a veneer over that to try and say ‘well actually, we still are doctor who’ and it makes me really sad! i love this show i love how good it can get and also how hilariously awful (in the fun way) it can get but. i just can’t feel the vibes from jodie’s run ://

final note there’s a really good podcast called gayv club i listened to w/an episode goes in-depth about s11/12 that i think you’d like! it’s by @/shesnake and @/akajustmerry & here’s their page <3 spotify episode link !!