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senlinyu · 4 years

Note

Thank you so much for sharing all that you have about the writing process! How important is promotion of your work across different platforms? Is it important at all?

Sorry. I’ve been sitting on this ask for a while... but we were just having a discussion on the Dramione Fanfiction Server about promotion and I realised I should get to writing all this out.

This is sort of a follow up on my post about doing weekly updates and writing my fics in full prior to publishing them. Find it here.

Caveat, these are my personal observations only. I’ve been involved in the fandom for a little over 2 years, and at least tried most of the fandom platforms to some extent and followed a lot of discussions among writers and readers.

This is basically a rundown of things that I wish someone had told me about promotion when I started. It’s also an info dump, I’m sorry. You don’t need to do all these things, or any of these things. But if you’re trying to figure stuff out, this is what I’ve noticed. A lot of this is based on my experiences and the experiences I’ve heard from other writers.

Publishing

• The first step you’ll take in promotion is publishing your fic: The most active platforms for fic are archiveofourown.org (Ao3) and fanfiction.net (FFN). There’s also wattpad, but my experience there is limited, so I won’t comment on it. Older fandoms are still hanging out on FFN, but a lot of people are finally migrating to Ao3.

I cross-post most of my fic, with the exception of very sexually explicit content. FFN hasn’t enforced their content restrictions in years, but they have cracked down in the past and deleted fic without warning, and if you’re reported and they decide you violate their terms it’s extremely difficult to dispute based on everything I’ve heard from fandom olds.

Title: It’s ideal to find a title that doesn’t already have seventy fics attached to it for your fandom/ship. But there are a finite number of titles, this may not always work. However, if there’s a super popular fic already with that title, it may be advisable to choose something else because people will get confused about which fic it is and the other fic will tend to show up first in a google search.

If you choose a long title (more than five words), or a title with multiple words in a foreign language, people will have a harder time remembering it. One of my favorite fics has a long Latin quote for its title that isn’t a super common phrase. I cannot ever remember except that it starts with an ”a.” I have to refind it every time I want to rec it by googling one of the author’s other fics and then sorting through her listed works. Avoid this if possible.

Summary: Don’t say things like “story’s better. I suck at summaries.” If you can’t figure out what to put in the summary, put in an excerpt that you feel captures the tone and spirit of the story.

Smut sells. On ao3, a not overly-explicit excerpt of a scene will often garner more hits than anything else. Although I wouldn't promote a fic in that manner if there’s actually minimal smut in the story.

Rating: On FFN it’s unfortunately better to be safe than sorry. People will sometimes complain if T rated fics even allude to the existence of sex. But M ratings will create the expection of some level of smut. If you’re writing a M rated fic without sexual content, it can be a good idea to have an author’s note at the very beginning explaining what the rating is and isn’t for. (Many people never ever read author’s notes, but at least then it’s not on you anymore.)

Tagging: On Ao3, good tagging can make or break a fic. The balance is between under-tagging and over-tagging. Dramione is relatively chill about tags because a lot of readers are from FFN where there are no tags. However, newer readers, especially those coming over from other fandoms, can be very particular about tagging and complain in the comments if your tagging it insufficient or misleading.

Fandom etiquette dictates: use the archive warnings and always tag triggers. Even if it’s a plot twist. People who really care about not having plot elements spoiled can hide additional tags from their browsing. The main archive warnings are: graphic violence, character death, rape, underage. If you include any of those things without an archive warning or tags, people will not be inclined to trust you.

I know that’s not how published books are, but it’s a question of which hills you want to die on. I strongly discourage dying on this hill when you’re first starting out.

Additional tags. There’s a very tricky balance between over-tagging and under-tagging. People don’t like tag walls, but they do want some information. Tag the story’s main tropes: enemies to lovers, mutual pining, miscommunication, coworkers, Veela, etc. Tag the triggers. (A word of advice, if you’re writing a fic with rape/non-con that occurs but isn’t committed between the main pairing, specify that in your tags, e.g. ‘attempted sexual assault, not by Draco’ ) Tag kinks, especially if they’re not garden variety. Very, very few readers are going to be pleased to have a kink sprung on them, one person’s kink can be another person’s squick. People who want your fic may not find it if you haven’t tagged it, and people who don’t want that kink will not be pleased about tripping on it.

Don’t over-tag. If “explicit sexual content” is tagged, most people will assume the general explicit sex spectrum. Unless there’s a particularly heavy focus there’s no need to list every single basic aspect of sex in your tags: “vaginal sex, vaginal penetration, fingering, humping, groping, oral sex, breast worship, etc etc”. Nor should you tag every single character or subpairing who happens to appear unless they’re a significant element of the plot.

Promotion on other platforms:

Dramione and HP is an older fandom. The Hermione-centric parts of fandom are primarily here on Tumblr and on Facebook in the form of private groups, some that are ship specific and others that are slightly more general. Reddit is fairly inactive for dramione, and the HP subreddit is not particularly fond of dramione.

Dramione is beginning to establish itself on discord, but it's still a gradual process.

Some writers join the FB groups with their IRL accounts, but its a growing trend to create fandom pseuds for FB groups, which is what I do. Some Facebook groups require that new members privately provide the admins with a form of ID for age/identity verification. Whether or not you're comfortable/willing to out your pseud in that way is a matter of personal discretion.

Most groups do not require this... but it’s something to be aware of.

Tumblr: Posting about story updates on Tumblr is one the the best things to do for promotion beyond the basics of posting your fic. Since it’s a public platform unlike FB, it’s one of the most visible ways to boost your story and let people know about updates.

Cover art/aesthetics for your fic are a great way to catch attention. If you’re like me and very bad at making aesthetics and covers the @dark-arts-society-fbhp is a group specializing in covers and manips. If you’re not a member on FB, the admins say that writers can submit requests via the tumblr asks and they will be shared to the group. Send them:

Title:

Penname:

Characters/ships:

Tone:

Fancasts:

Other info:

Tumblr

Post a fic update on tumblr with cover art, links, and an excerpt of the chapter. Personally the fics that catch my attention have excerpts that are at least a couple paragraphs long.

You want to include enough content to pique reader curiosity and demonstrate your writing style. It makes you less an unknown to readers looking for something new. Every update is an opportunity to catch the attention of new readers and each new excerpt can do that.

A couple don’ts:

Don’t just keep reblogging the same post, adding a link to the latest chapter. Reblogs don’t show up in the tumblr tags. Make a new post for each chapter update and use the fandom tags every time. The first five tags you use are what can show up in tags, everything after the first five should just be for your tumblr’s personal organization.

Do not include triggering content in your excerpt. It’s rude and a way to get unfollowed or blocked.

Don’t use too many links on your update posts. If there are too many links, tumblr won’t have the post to show up in the tags. I’m not sure what the cut-off is because tumblr is an illogical beast. 2-3 links seems to be fine. Link to FFN and AO3 and nothing else.

Don’t use your tumblr solely as a personal house organ. If no one is interacting with your posts, tumblr is less likely to decide you’re a real blog and let your posts show up in the tags. Connect to other fandom blogs by reblogging and liking their content. I generally don't follow tumblrs that blog solely about their own content, because I'd just subscribe to the story or the writer. Reblog art, reblog aesthetics, reblog fandom memes, reblog drabbles, reblog updates from fics you’re following, etc.

However, even if you do all that, tumblr’s algorithm is a mysterious and illogical creature. Sometimes posts need to have a certain number of likes and reblogs to show up in the “Dramione” tag, although the algorithm is inconsistent there are many exceptions, but as a general rule this seems to be the case.

In my most recent Dramione update post, the post in question never showed up in the recent ”Dramione” tags, despite fairly high engagement. I have no idea why. That’s all the more reason to create a new post for every update, because tumblr will just randomly screw you over at times. 😑

If you write dramione, one of the best forms of exposure is by getting your fic updates reblogged by @dramioneasks, they have a very large following on Tumblr, and regularly go through recent posts under the dramione tag and reblog the story updates that show up there. A lot of writers have noticed a dramatic difference in engagement if their updates get reblogged by DramioneAsks.

Another way to promote your writing more generally is by accepting prompts and/or posting ficlets solely on Tumblr. Those will usually get more reblogs and likes than a story update will. In my observation, ficlets tend to do best when they’re between .5k to 2k words (longer than that and people will complain about huge walls of text in their feed.) DramioneAsks will also reblog those.

Facebook

The other main platform for the Dramione fandom is FB. It’s the place that a lot of the fests and comps are hosted and where a lot of writers will begin forming some fandom relationships. People will post recs for stories they like, and ask for recs with certain tropes, etc. You can also post story updates there.

However, it’s also a lot of individual ponds because the groups are all closed, and there’s only partial overlap between them in terms of membership. Different groups have different cultures and fic preferences and you only tend to start figuring them out after being there for a while.

They also all have different rules and policies about things, such as requiring members to provide identifying information to mods, file-sharing, fic update promotion etc. So you have to make sure you check the rules and keep track of which group requires what.

But it’s very active and the place where you’ll encounter more discussions of fics, start getting to know people more, and have more one on one interactions. It’s best to start in just one or two and then slowly branch out from there if you choose. I’d recommend starting in groups specific to your ship, or if you write rare-pairs, to join rare-pair oriented groups.

I’m currently a member of more than 25 groups, but I’m active in less than five of them.

Conclusion

Again, this is not intended to be a to-do list. You don’t need to do all of this, or any of it. It’s more a rundown of different elements and factors that can make a difference in my experience and observations.

The thing with fic promotion is that fics sometimes have a tipping point. My fic Manacled crept along with limited engagement for a long time (like more than 30 chapters) and then hit a point where I got a bunch of people who started it leaving comments saying “I’ve seen the updates for this so many times, I finally decide to click,” or “I started this but didn’t think it was for me, but then I saw some of the excerpts for later chapters and they made me curious so I jumped back in again.”

There are some readers who will check out everything regardless of stats, but particularly in Dramione where you have a lot of fics and authors, people are less likely to click every fic they see. You can build recognition through engagement with fandom and visibility.

My very first work-in-progress multichap got a lot more attention after I posted a one-shot that allowed readers to check out my writing in a “lower commitment” context. It wasn’t even a very popular one-shot, but it gave people a chance to read a completed work of mine without requiring the investment that a 90k word WIP did. Once they decided they liked my writing style and characterizations they decided to check out my other works.

Anyway. This ended up incredibly long. 🤦🏻‍♀️

If you read this and have a different opinion or feel like I’ve left anything out, feel free to chime in. Or if you disagree. I am happy to reblog additional and differing perspectives as long as the tone stays civil. 😊

#on writing #fic promo #fandom #dramione #senlinyuspeaks #asks

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shadow-assassin-blix · 4 years

Text

It’s a Grey Area

CHAPTER 6

A/N: Getting further into last episode. Not gonna lie... I saw it like 2x... It wasn’t great either times. So. Trying to get through it. If some things are off between this and the next couple of chapters, it’s cause I’m going off my memory and basic summaries on the internet. It’s not going to end once we get through the plot of Ep 9 though. There’s still more to explore. So. I said, I was changing some things, but not everything. I am not a medical expert, when I talk about the brain scans, I’m going off what I remember of what certain brain disorders look like. Other than that: “talk” ‘thoughts’ “Force Talk”

Gif is from @captain-flint of whom i wouldnt remember this entire scene without.

The next few weeks were hectic. There came word of a spy for the First Order, and they gave damn good information. However, no one knew who it was. They passed on their information through a network of rebel sympathizers.

That’s where Poe currently was, gathering the new intel. Blix was in the middle of training with Ben and Rey. Ben didn’t need too much training, but his skills were being refined. He was learning to use the Force for good. Rey was learning just how powerful she truly was. However, there were some… concentration issues, as Blix soon discovered.

Rey came forward after running the obstacle course, with BB-8 directly behind her looking… rough.

“Oh. No. Uhoh. Um. Maybe I can fix you before Poe comes back,” Blix fretted as she kneeled down and looked him over.

BB angrily beeped at her, saying a tree was dropped on him. “I know honey. I know. Uhh. Oh boy. Poe’s going to kill me.” He beeped. “True. He’ll kill Rey then me.”

There was commotion behind them near the flight deck, and as they turned their attention to it, they saw the Falcon… on fire.

Rey stared at it and Poe and Finn in disbelief as they made their way over to them.

“It’s on fire. The.. the whole thing is on fire,” She began looking at Poe with mild horror. “Han’s ship.”

“What did you do to the droid?” Poe asked staring down at BB with an expression mixed between concern and anger.

“What did you to the Falcon?” Rey threw back, glancing at the 2 annoyed.

“Falcon’s in a lot better shape than he is,” Poe argued gesturing toward BB.

“BB-8’s not on fire-“ Rey began before she was cut off.

“What’s left of him isn’t on fire!” Poe nearly shouted his own look of horror growing as he continued to examine the state of BB.

Finn and Blix glanced at each other; Finn shrugged not wanting to get involved, and Blix was trying to not laugh.

Their arguing continued, and when they thought it was over, BB-8 then felt the need to tell Poe what had happened. That stirred the arguing back up before Poe stormed off in a huff.

“BB. Was that really necessary honey?” Blix lightly admonished him. “C’mon. Let’s go get you fixed up and then go find your dad. Hopefully by then he’ll have settled.”

An hour later after a quick stop in the repair shop, BB-8 was bright and shiny again. “Alright. Let’s go find Poe yeah?”

They took off toward his room, and as they stepped in, they see Poe tiredly running a hand through his curls, exhaustion radiating from him.

BB rushed forward to show himself off. Poe quietly told him he looked great before turning his gaze toward Blix. He beckoned her over with a wave of his hand, and she strolled over to him, a look of concern on her face.

“What’s up honey? What happened?” She quietly asked as she stood between his knees.

“It.. we had to light speed skip.. to get outta there. Ya know… I’ve gone on many missions… but this is one of the rare few times… that I was scared that I wasn’t going to come back… It’s like… the closer we get to finally finishing this war… the more I worry. About… everything,” He quietly confessed as he leaned to rest his head against her stomach.

She gently brushed her fingers through his hair, trying to relax him. “That’s not all that strange honey. It just means, that you are finally seeing the end, and the closer you get to it, the scarier it is. Besides, you’re not allowed to die. Not until we’ve married, had many kids and grow old with each other,” She informed him, pressing a kiss to his unruly curls.

“Is that so? Well. I’ll make sure to not disappoint you,” Poe sadly promised.

“You could never disappoint me. I got to work the Medbay for a couple hours. I’ll come get you for dinner,” She whispered to him before urging him to lay down and rest.

He laid down with a nod and muttered something that sounded like he understood.

Blix made her way to Medbay and began working there. About 30 minutes before her shift was to end, she got a visit from someone she didn’t expect.

“General Leia. What brings you here?” Blix asked concerned.

“I have been having some headaches. Wondered if you could help me figure out what’s wrong?” Leia answered with a heavy sigh.

Blix nodded quickly and led her over to one of the beds, so she could sit or lay down.

“How long have you’ve been experiencing the headaches? Any confusion, lightheadedness, trouble remembering stuff?” She began as she grabbed a device to scan her head.

“Sometime after Crait and yes to all of the above,” She answered.

“You mean… sometime after you were tossed into space and nearly died? That long?” Blix asked alarmed.

Leia nodded once. Blix completed her scans and made her way over to computers to print them out. A few minutes later, she was examining them with a deep frown. She took a deep breath before mentally reaching out to Luke.

“Luke. Get Ben. The both of you need to come to Medbay. Now.”

A few minutes later they both walked in and began to ask her what was going on when they realized Leia was lying on the bed.

Blix led them over to her, and said, “I’m sorry, but… they need to know.”

She sets the scans onto the nearby board, grabbing a seat to begin explaining.

“This is your brain. See the large dark spot? That is inactivity. In most cases that’s not fairly abnormal, but when its almost the entire brain? There’s a problem. From… from the looks of it… your brain is dying. I don’t know if… its because of lack of oxygen from the attack, if you picked up something while exposed to space,” She began to explain.

“What… what do you mean? Can-can it be reversed?” Luke asked stuttering slightly.

“If we had known sooner? Maybe? At this point, it’s not a matter of if but when. I’m so sorry. I-… I don’t know of anything I can do except make you comfortable,” She hesitantly informed.

Ben turned and walked out at that. Luke began to follow after him, but Blix stopped him before he got out the door.

“Luke. Go after him. Do me a favor…. Talk to him like he’s your nephew, not your student. He doesn’t need Master Skywalker. He needs Uncle Luke,” Blix requested with a small frown.

Luke nodded and looked back over to his sister sadly, before exiting.

“I apologize for bringing them in without warning you, but they needed to hear that as well. What… What do you need me to do?” Blix appeased turning back to Leia.

“Honestly. They did need to know. You saved me the trouble of having to tell them later. Can you have Commander Dameron come in please?” Leia asked with a sad smile.

“Of course. Then I’ll give you something for the pain, something light, to at least take away the headache,” She promised before going over to her communicator.

She quickly got ahold of Poe and asked him to come see her. A minute later he walked in, looking slightly disheveled.

“What’s up baby?” He rasped rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

She nodded her head over to Leia, and he quickly made his way over to her. They talked quietly for a few minutes before Leia called Blix over.

“Dr. I wish for you to make a notice and note it my medical charts. I am currently unfit for duty, and as such has appointed Poe Dameron to acting General,” She commanded.

“Yes Ma’am. Lemme get you that medicine real quick too,” Blix noted, quickly giving her some medicine before doing as she requested.

Soon enough the entire base knew that the General Leia was unwell, and that Poe had taken her place. They both escorted Leia back to her room, before returning to Poe’s room. They both plopped down onto his bed with heavy hearts.

“You’re sure there’s… there’s nothing that can be done?” He sniffled.

“Jedi have the ability to heal, but… when the damage is that extreme… It would be giving up a life for a life,” Blix croaked.

She sees out of the corner of her eye, him nodding. His hand slowly reached out and held her own, fingers laced. They both slowly fell back onto the bed, staring at the ceiling.

“I… I don’t know how to be a general. I’m barely good at being a commander. What… what the hell am I supposed to do?” Poe questioned softly, shaking his head.

“Leia trusts you. She believes in you. You know the Resistance inside and out. I can’t think of anyone better suited to take over. You can do this baby. I know it,” She encouraged turning on her side to look at him.

“I’m going to make us some sandwiches, and then we should head to bed. We got a busy day tomorrow,” Blix announced as she sat up, and made her way over to the kitchen.

Tomorrow they would be heading to Pasaana, to figure out what happened to the Sith Wayfinder and the man who had it last. They ate dinner silently, and when they went to bed, Poe laid down, resting his head on her chest. They soon feel asleep with sadness in their hearts.

The next day, Poe, Rey, Finn, Chewie, C-3PO, BB-8 and herself were on their way to Pasaana. Ben stayed behind to watch over Leia with Luke.

As they landed and began making their way, following Luke’s steps, they realized that a festival was occurring. 3PO excitedly informed them it was a celebration of their ancestors and that it only occurred every 42 years. As they moved through the crowd, Blix looked over at Poe with a smile.

“What? What’s that look for?” Poe asked trying to squash his annoyance.

“Anyone ever tell you that you look very sexy with a scarf?” She flirted as she moved forward, her grin growing at the dumbfounded look that appeared on his face.

She came up to Rey as they were conversing with a local. She heard them talking about last names, and before Rey could say anything, Blix bounded forward.

“She’s a Kenobi. Adopted. But a Kenobi. C’mon lil sis, we got work to do,” Blix answered before dragging her away with a laugh.

As they made their way back over to the guys, another native walked up to her, and began to speak to her.

3PO began to translate, “I’m sorry to interrupt, but is that man over there your significant other.” And she motioned at Poe.

“Yes. He’s mine,” She answered with a smile.

She then draped a crown of flowers on her head, and then gave her a necklace to give to Poe.

“Do these items have some sort of significance? Are they important?” She asked curiously as she gently held the necklace with both hands.

3PO informed her, “That it was to signify your union. In some ways, it is considered a marriage in their culture, if General Poe accepts the necklace.”

She silently mouthed an “Oh.”

She looked over at Poe and then back at the native and said, “Wish me luck.”

Blix made her way over to him, and Poe stared at her curiously, his eyes glancing up at the flower crown.

“So. Apparently… if you accept me giving this necklace to you, we are considered hitched in this culture. May I?” She offered holding the necklace up.

He smiled, shaking his head slightly, but leaned down to allow her to put it on him. While he was leaned down, he asked, “Do you really think I look sexy with this scarf?”

She gave him a kiss in response and a wink. He tensed as he looked over her shoulder. “We got stormtroopers.”

A few minutes of panicked running and they were safely hidden with Lando Calrissian. Rey grabbed her attention really quick and asked hesitantly, “Did… did you mean what you… what you said earlier?”

“That you’re a Kenobi? Yeah. Damn straight you are. Listen. If or when, we find out your lineage, it won’t change how everyone in this caravan or within the Rebellion sees you. You’ll still be my kid sister. May as well make it official,” She assured holding her hand.

Rey smiled at her, her eyes watering up.

“Don’t you dare cry. If you cry, I’ll cry, and that’s not a good look for either of us,” Blix fretted jokingly.

Rey laughed at that and as they pulled to a stop, they followed Lando’s instruction over where they last tracked Ochi’s presence.

They explored the area, walking onto a strange patch of blackened sand. They looked every which way trying to figure out what had happened, when suddenly they began to sink. Poe grabbed onto her, as Finn tried shouting something at Rey.

When they finally dropped, they were in a small tunnel. Blix pulled out her lightsaber and turned it on, prompting Rey to do the same. As they moved forward, they looked around cautiously. They soon ran into a large serpentine creature, who allowed them to move past, when Rey reached down to heal it.

When he had moved, they discovered a corpse lying there. Ochi. Amongst his remains was a dagger that had a strange language inscribed on it.

Blix gently picked it up and stared at it concentrating. “It’s the Sith language. It’s… old… Difficult to translate.”

“But can you translate it?” Poe asked looking at the dagger over her shoulder.

“It would take time. Time we don’t have. 3PO? You got any ideas?” She admitted before turning her attention to the droid.

“Why, yes, I can translate it, Doctor. However, it is against my programming to translate it,” 3PO stated.

“So, the one time we need you to speak, you can’t?” Poe and Blix asked at the same time.

“Cool. Great. So… who knows how to override said programming?” Blix asked the group.

Poe winces, his face scrunching up as he thought. “I do. But. It’s risky.”

“Risky? How?” Finn asked exasperated.

“I’ll explain later, let’s get out of here for now,” Poe dismissed moving forward, following the path the serpent took.

Blix, Rey, and Finn all squinted at him in suspicion and looked at each other, then back at him.

“That was sus, right?” Blix asked in a whisper.

“Extremely,” Finn replied squinting his eyes at Poe’s back as they began to follow him. “Blix. Ask him why he bein’ weird?”

“What? Why me?” She blinked in slight confusion.

“He’s your boyfriend.” Came two voices in response.

Blix sighed with a laugh and ran up to walk alongside Poe.

“So…Why you bein so secretive, babe?” She asked, after a moment, not looking at him.

“We have to go to Kimiji,” He quietly muttered.

“….the planet… where you were a spice…runner? The one where your partner stabbed you? That Kimiji?” She clarified her voice slowly becoming more and more panicked.

He quickly grabbed her hand with his, and shushed her gently, “Hey. Don’t panic. It’ll be fine. I promise.”

“I wish I had your undying hope, but past encounters throw doubt,” She angrily whispered back, making her way forward, toward the end of the tunnel, shaking her head.

“Are you… are you seriously mad at me?” He asked incredulous, running up to catch her.

“Yes. You want us to go to the one place, where you could potentially be KILLED. Just for existing. And what? I’m supposed to be okay with that? No. We can… we can find another way, another… something. I don’t know,” She ranted panic beginning to consume her.

“Honey. Honey. We will be fine. You just said, we don’t have the time. You want to spend however long trying to find someone else to reprogram a droid, or do you want to try and translate it yourself?” Poe reasoned, trying to get her to focus on him.

Blix breathed heavily through her nose, looking away, not thrilled with this plan at all.

“Let’s just… get back to the Falcon. Regroup there,” She said finally walking in its direction.

As they were walking, Blix slowly came to a halt. She felt a presence coming toward them, a dark one.

As everyone began stepping up onto the rock formation, to get into the Falcon, Blix turned her attention toward the energy she was feeling. Rey quietly walked over to her and tensed as she realized what was going on. In the distance they could see a TIE-fighter rushing toward them.

“Rey. Run. Now!” Blix commanded shoving her toward the Falcon.

She turned her lightsaber back on and prepared herself. She took a deep breath and twirled the lightsaber.

As the fighter approached, she tensed her legs, preparing to jump. As soon as it was close enough, she leapt into the air, flipping over the fighter and running her lightsaber down its left wing. She landed in a crouch as the fighter crashed a few feet away.

From the wreckage, a figure dressed in black, wearing a hood and a face mask appeared. As the figure came to face her, she could see a pair of eyes that glowed like amber.

“Darth Sidious didn’t mention another Force wielder. Who are you?” came a raspy, feminine voice.

“I’m complicated,” Blix said sarcastically, throwing her hand out to use Force push the Sith away.

The push threw her back a couple of steps, but otherwise didn’t deter her. The Sith began to walk toward her, when Rey intervened, slashing at her with her own saber.

Blix tried to intervene, but the Sith was now focused on Rey, taunting her; trying to provoke her for some reason. They kept moving away, so she couldn’t hear what was being said, she just knew that all of sudden, Rey screamed in anger, lightning shooting from her hands.

Blix’s eyes widen in surprise, she could vaguely hear Poe screaming about more enemies coming in. Rey looked at her with such terror at what she just did. Especially when bolt was directed at another enemy ship that may have had Chewie on it.

Blix looked at the Sith who stood quite smugly, staring at Rey. While she was distracted in her gloating, Blix decided to give her a taste of her own medicine. She felt the Force surge around her, and she directed as much energy as she could to both of her hands, throwing them out at her.

The Force blasted her off her feet and tossing her several feet away.

“REY! C’MON!” Blix yelled out.

Rey rushed over toward her, grasping Blix’s outreached hand, the both of them rushing to the Falcon

As they raced onboard, Poe taking off as soon as they had jumped onto the ramp. It took mere seconds for them to reach space and make the jump to hyperspace. The both of them collapsed against the wall, breathing heavy.

Blix looked at Rey and pulled her into her arms. Rey shook, soft sobs coursing through her. She could hear her thoughts running amok, one thought that stood out clearly: ‘I killed Chewie.’

“Honey. We don’t know that. There were two transporters. It’s quite possible he was on the other one, okay? If so, we will save him, alright?” Blix whispered to her, as Rey held onto her tightly.

“As for the other thing… even if… you are his grandchild… that doesn’t change how everyone here sees you. That doesn’t change our love for you. You’re still my adopted kid sister, got it? In my eyes, you are a Kenobi,” Blix affirmed turning Rey’s head to look her in the eyes.

Rey tearfully nodded her head, before burying it back into Blix’s chest, her tears continuing, but not as harshly. They sat like that until Rey calmed down, and slowly fell asleep in her arms. Blix pressed some kisses to her hair affectionately. Blix slowly gathered her in her arms, picking her up, and carrying her over to one of the beds. She laid Rey down, making sure she was comfortable before grabbing blanket to cover her.

Blix made her way to the cockpit where Poe and Finn sat.

“Finn. Can you… can you go watch over Rey? I don’t want her to be alone right now,” Blix quietly requested.

Finn nodded his head, standing up. “How… how is she doing?” He asked as he got next to her, pausing.

“Not good. She just now fell asleep. I don’t know how long she’ll sleep, but I don’t want her to wake up alone.,” She began. “She’s feeling lost. Don’t..uh. Don’t. bring up what happened unless she does first. She’s still processing it, okay?”

Finn mumbled he understood before continuing out to her.

Blix all but collapsed into the co-driver’s seat.

“If you didn’t join the Navy, or the Rebellion… what would you be doing?” Blix wondered, staring at the ceiling.

“Ooh. Tough question. Mechanic. Or smuggler. Think I could’ve given Han a run for his money,” Poe answered thinking on it for a second. “You?”

“Pod Racer. Politics are too boring. Maybe even train kids on it,” She noted with a tired sigh.

“When this war is finally over… I’m taking you to my home in Naboo, and we are not leaving my bed for a week,” She announced as she straightened up.

“Deal. But you have to also come home with me to Yavin and meet my dad. Need for him to meet the woman who’s going to become his daughter in law,” He countered leaning over to press a kiss to her lips.

“Sounds good,” She replied leaning forward, resting her elbows on her thighs, looking at her hands.

“My mom would’ve liked you,” She whispered staring at the ring he got her on their first date.

“My mom would’ve loved you. Would’ve thought it was hilarious that you kept rejecting me for a year. She always said, I would wind up with someone who would keep me on my toes,” Poe admired, his hand gently stroking her cheek.

“How long until we reach Kimiji?” She wondered looking at the controls. “And uhh… can the controls go on auto pilot?”

Poe flicked a couple of switched with a small smile. “It’ll be a couple of hours. Wanna go lay down for a bit?”

She nodded her head, and they both stood up, walking toward the nearby bed. Poe laid down first on his back and waved her over once he was situated. She grabbed a blanket, holding it over her shoulders like a cape, before crawling on top of him. She gently maneuvered the blanket to cover the both of them, before sinking onto his chest.

The gentle lull of his heartbeat coaxed her to sleep, as Poe watched over her for a few minutes before going to sleep as well.

C-3PO and BB-8 were charging after the hectic morning. Rey had at some point woke up, and persuaded Finn to curl up next to her. The moment his arm wrapped around her; she was out again.

“I want to tell you, that I love you,” Finn whispered into her hair. “Maybe one day, I’ll be brave enough to tell you when your awake.”

He eventually fell asleep as well.

The occupants of the Falcon were momentarily at peace. It had been a rough couple of hours, and they all knew, that it was probably going to get worse. But for now, they were going to take refuge in the peace. Once they dropped out of hyperspace, things would be hectic again. But the end was near. They were on their way to finally defeating the Empire, they just needed to continue fighting.

ELSEWHERE

Darth Sidious was angry.

"What do you mean "there was another Jedi" Maeve?" He seethed.

"Exactly that, my lord. She was powerful. She was able to toss me like I weighed nothing. She's protective of your granddaughter though. Maybe we can use her to convince Rey to join us?" Darth Maeve suggested.

"Hm. We shall see. I need to know what drives her. If she can be turned easily," Darth Sidious contemplated cackling. "If so, we can turn the tides on this ridiculous Rebellion, and the Dark side shall rule all. Continue with our plans for now."

"Yes, my lord," Maeve responded disconnecting her projection.

#poe dameron x oc #poe dameron #i shipped rey and finn #sorry not sorry #so #bb8 is ridiculous #this took so long to write out #i apologize #it was hard finding inspiration for it

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thesleepingbinch · 5 years

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🥄🥄🥄

N O !

-Harrods? When? Have I, has the enterity of London – nay, the UK – unbeknowest of ourselves delighted in Certified Noob® Baked Goods? Världen är p y t t e l i t e n my fellow Barbarian. ‘Tis sad that you’re not there now.** **(b/c #fikagoshdarnit!)

Ah, thanks a munch for clueing me in on The Spoon Theory as it applies here: units of energy-per-activity. Interesting. So, how many spoons do you have today? (And are they full of sugar, …or sourdough?) The whole low 🥄-status > doc > FK > managing basic life™ > lower 🥄-status > ♻ … Can’t imagine the added stress. Hopefully the doc<>FK correlation can solve that bit, at least (?). It should feel nice to know that you can start living and take steps forward in life, no?

Speaking of which; what would you like to do now moving forward (aside from nimble b o i s)? You are obviously creative – and doing creative shenanigans should have positive effects on spoon status, right? Bonus: they are allowed to take however much time they take.

Getting out of your 🥄drawer now. Hope you’ve had a nice Midsommarhelg with the Noob Fam and given the chance to replenish the happy feels! :)

Love, W

*(Ps. did you get the card recs? No need to pub. Just checking, since Tumblr is a little godisgris, munching on asks & subs. Ds.)

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ah, Raring Wemps! So I am finally sitting down to reply to this lovely master post after the longest wait in history! (I do feel better knowing you’ve been diving into the ocean and living in #smultronsnåret, can’t get better than that, can it?). Grab a cup of coffee and get comfortable because this will be quite the long read (förlåt).

It was a long time ago since I was in London. 2012 to be precise. It’s high up on my list of places to get back to (for living) once I get better and start getting all this illness stuff under control (DoucheDoc™ laughed when he asked me what my goal was and I bluntly said ‘To get good enough to get the fuck out of here and go back to exploring the world’. Admitting he couldn’t help me with that right now, he did say he appreciated the answer). However, my invitation for fresh sea delicacies if you’d ever come a little south of that N60° border is still open.

Sadly the doc >> FK mess is getting even deeper. The “doctor” FK turns to for consultation when the medical issues exceed the normal levels they are used to seem to have absolutely no idea what ME/CFS is and is suggesting I am ill because I am inactive (while my specialist doctor think I am already almost doing too much for my condition before we have managed to find that fine line where it goes from being ok to too much), and need exercise therapy - something my specialist clinic doesn’t even offer because it has a higher rate of making people sicker than better. So things are gonna go further, we’re getting ready to make an appeal on their ruling, and I am just completely drained already. So things have not been looking great in this department - but I’ve managed to take some time off to be by the salty sea and watching horror movies until the morning light is coming up again with dear FreshNoob friends so even though one side of my life seem to be crashing and burning, it’s not all dark and dreadful!

Creative things do have a MAJOR positive effect on both mood and in a sense my spoons as well (or rather, it is spoons well spent, if you catch my drift?). I am working on identifying what kind of things drain me of spoons and what could possibly give me some spoons or which - at the very least - give me a very positive emotional payoff doing. I am looking for ways to get my hands on an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil (my god why are they so expensive? :sweat: ), because that way I can bring my creative stuff with me everywhere and even do it on bed on the days when I am feeling too rough to do much. It could also serve as a smaller side income, selling prints and such, eventually ... so this is really an option I am looking into!

Also, I absolutely LOVED your tarot suggestions, tack så hemskt mycket raring! And I did both laugh and get a little frustrated because the top deck you suggested (Jolandas) ... I already own. I just can’t find it. It’s a funny story, I went into her little shop in Gamla stan as a wee little 14-15ish year old Fresh Noob (so REALLY fresh) looking to dive into this mysterious world, and I got it and she signed the book for me (Krax pax!). I’ve been looking for this deck for months now, but I can’t find it. I’m scared one of my mum’s ex’s got it with him taking his stuff from the basement (a moment of silence, please ...).

I’ve also already been throwing some serious eyes on The Wild Unknown deck, I love the colour bursts in it and the overall simple design is really appealing. I have had some mixed feelings wondering if perhaps it’s a little too simplistic and will be hard for someone new like me - but then, maybe I have enough creativity in my head to fill out the picture myself. A huge plus is that it’s fairly inexpensive to get as well (we really stan that at the moment with thet FK struggle!).

Scouting the vast interwebs trying to find a tarot deck for my dear Bästis after she expressed interest in getting one herself after seeing my deck on the table, I did stumble upon a real masterpiece though. I mean, it was love at first sight, I am obsessed. I check back at it like at least once a day and I am just like, ugh ... look at this thing! It’s the gilded Marigold Tarot deck. Quite a dark theme, but oh my, it’s absolutely gorgeous! I can’t get it out of my head! The $60-80 price tag is quite a hefty one though, at least for the time being. I can’t really justify spending that money on a tarot deck with the struggle currently going on with FK ...

The deck I have right now is the Gateway to the Divine Tarot. It’s a really nice deck, very detailed and everything. But I just don’t vibe with it ... 😥😥😥 I pull cards, I look at them, and then I just sort of feel this ‘ugh’ feeling inside and shove them away. Because even though the imagery is really nice and eye-catching it doesn’t hold my attention and I just, ... I don’t like it? Does it make sense? Am I being a spoiled and difficult Fresh Noob here? lol

Wemps raring, gosh, did that little mini forecast make me both happy and a little frustrated (I mean, the patience part ... I really have to work on that one, don’t I??). I did snort and laugh a little though when you said you got The Star, because ... lately I’ve been all surrounded by stars. My whole mantra/theme for July was in fact a star studded one! (And let’s not mention how my friend has been pushing for me to change camps and start rooting for a certain Star-named hockey team lately as well ...)

Also, a small story (because why not make this HUGE post even longer, right??) - I have a really special connection to the Sun card. Not particularly the meaning of it, but the name and the imagery. Darling Fresh Noob Granny passed away when I was a mere wee little girl of the small age of six. Way way too soon. We had quite a special bond, everyone always kept commenting on it, and she always called me her sun (and she was my moon). So whenever the sun card comes up (no matter what the position), Fresh Noob do get a little sappy and take it as a small nod from Granny.

THAT’S IT. Gosh, what a lengthy blabbering drag this turned into. I’m sorry, raring Wempy. All the smultron and wienerbröd to you if you managed to stick through this all, you’ve earned them! Now, it’s time for this little one to get up and keep following her own star ...

#Wempy Raring #longest rant in the history of fresh noob schmitting #star filled mush #submission

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thelioncourts · 5 years

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i’ve received a few asks wondering why i haven’t been all that active on tumblr the last few months and instead of answering the few that are sitting there, i thought it may be easier to make a post ❤

so, to start things off, i’m working ~part-time~ at a coffee shop right now. by part-time, however, i very much mean i am working full-time, but without the benefits (i.e. insurance, paid vacation, etc. that all the full-timers get). i don’t get my schedule for monday-sunday until the thursday beforehand. that makes it very difficult to plan ahead and figure out where my free time is so. it’s frustrating and tiresome and there is a very very veryveryveryvery good chance i will be giving my two weeks’ notice sometime in july because i quite literally cannot handle this anymore, especially with what i have going on.

my little sister graduated high school this year which is very exciting, but also means we have been consumed with all those last-month-of-grade-school festivities she’s had as well as graduation itself and her grad party. she now is turning eighteen in a little over a week so we are back onto the party planning less than a month later, only this time for a big birthday. my dad’s birthday is also tomorrow, coincidentally on father’s day this year, so we’ve been planning that as well.

i’ve been running. so much. i’m running about 15-20 miles per week (though this week has been an anomaly as it’s been a much needed rest-week and i’ve only ran 5 miles, but whatever). on top of the running i’ve also been doing my own grocery shopping, meal planning, and meal prepping to make sure i’m getting the right stuff in my body to keep up with the mileage and the races i’m training for. it’s been amazing and life-changing, but it’s also fairly time consuming.

i have done a lot of thinking this last year on what i want to do with my life and, as of last week, i have officially been accepted into a teaching license program at a nearby college and will start this fall in becoming a high school english teacher!! it’s very exciting and i’m setting up a meeting with my new adviser for sometime next week. but! that means i’m going back to school! i might die! but it’ll be okay!

on a more somber-ish note, i’ve lost a lot of interest in spn over the last year or so. the show quality is saddening and the js are so quiet during hiatus that it’s hard to stay excited all the time. ofc i’m going to be watching this final season now that it’s been announced and i will forever&always have the biggest place in my heart for jensen and jared. i totally believe quiet is a good thing for them, but that doesn’t make it easy to look forward to content as it’s few and far between. i think the only j2 fanfic i’ve read in the last year has been keeping up with the underneath it all ‘verse which is very much a verse i will follow until it is 10000% finished by the author and then i will be doing a very significant reread because. brilliance. utter brilliance.

there’s also been a lot of time dedicated to reading and reading fanfic. it’s been so nice, so therapeutic, but, as you all know, time-consuming as our fanfic authors are out there writing 300k stories half of the time. it’s amazing. i’m also writing more than usual but ofc that means i’m writing maybe two stories every year, which is nothing so :))

and! as of last month, i’ve also been planning a vacation to italy for myself! i should be getting my butt over there sometime in 2020 and i’m literally going to sob.

so, yes, i’m sorry for the inactivity. i try my very best to keep my queue up and running, though my dedication there is slacking so badly atm, and i desperately need to go through my askbox and answer some things, i know i know i know. i thank you all for your patience and your support and your continued following despite my hopping around to a multitude of interests. you’re all wonderful and i still, even after all these years, find it odd that people have any kind of interest in me whatsoever.

edit: oh i also forgot to mention the car accident i was in back in april that very much gave me nightmares and whatnot and now!! a car payment!! yay!

#don't mind me #life update! ignore by all means lol

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dirtj0b · 6 years

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Sorry I have been so inactive! A lot of stuff has been going on! I’ll leave a journal here but save all the whiny stuff for my journal blog thing.

This is mostly about mundane stuff, but there are some things about spirit nonsense as well! It’s pretty long.

I started dating someone, so I’ve been pretty distracted lately. I really like him a lot, and I think mostly things are going well, except for a few weird hang ups that I’m not sure how to talk about. None of it is directly his fault, though, and a lot of them have to do with my own personal baggage because of shitty past relationships.

On the bright side, King really likes him, and we get along extremely well. I was surprised that King liked him as much as he did. King likes some people, and is friendly with a lot of my friends (he even goes to breakfast at @angelspaintwiththeirtears house! Just, on his own!) but I haven’t really seen him THIS excited about someone. Except B, but I think it’s because B is pretty handsome and is always teaching us about interesting history shit. (King’s favorite subject, apparently...)

My room mate/ex isn’t taking things very well. He knows I’m seeing someone, but I haven’t told him who or whether or not it’s serious. We’ve been broken up for more than a year and a half now, I forget exactly how long. Maybe even two years... I guess he was thinking that we would still be involved in such a way even after he dumped me. I have... a lot of feelings on this and none of them are good or worth discussing here.

Recently, I discovered that my boyfriend doesn’t seem to mind being seen in public with me. That’s almost a first. My ex didn’t seem to mind, but refused to go out in public on most occasions. Everyone I dated before hand seemed... Very embarrassed to even admit to knowing me. This is a lot to get used to. Last week he took me to a small event and I had one of the worst panic attacks I’ve had in a long time, all because he touched me in front of everyone. I was happy about it, but I was so used to hiding that I believed that I had made him look bad or insulted him in some way by allowing anyone to see that.

I didn’t mean to start dating him, and it actually happened through a misunderstanding, but I’m happy that it ended up this way. ...Even if I am still not quite sure if I’m ready to be in a relationship with a physical person.

---

In other news, I probably mentioned that I met another spirit during an investigation my group was doing. Our group is friends with a couple who collect haunted objects, several of which are dolls. They keep them in a building a bit outside of town. We go there fairly often, at least every couple of months.

During our first investigation there, I made friends with a clown doll who supposedly had a demon inside of him. This doll is unfriendly to everyone but me, it sounds like. I don’t understand why he likes me, but I’m happy about it! The first day I met him, he saved me from an encounter with a person who had been uh... a fucking creep to me in the past. (You know, the guy who kept asking weird questions about my junk, and wanted free or cheap lap dances)

After that, I visited him several more times. None of us have been able to get him to tell us a name, even a nickname or temporary name. All we know is that he is supposedly a “low ranking demon” (According to what my boss said he told her) and that he always threatens to hurt everyone but me.

When he manifests, he usually shows up as a cat or a large shadow. The first day I was there, he tried to keep us from leaving by pretending to be a kitten. Needless to say, we found out that there was no kitten...

I know that demons are a bit more powerful than people expect, and binding them to an object would be extremely hard. Chances are, he’s not BOUND, but is attached to that object for some other reason.

Last night I was telling my friend Verloren about him. I told Verloren that he seems to manifest as a cat often, and that I wish I knew his name so I could get in touch with him someday. I want to be friends with him and know him a bit better, but I can’t because I don’t know how to find him outside of that place!

When I went to sleep, I had dreams about kittens. Really strange dreams. Not scary ones, though. When I woke up, I kept running into cats all day! Almost every picture I have seen today has had a cat in it! My friend adopted a cat, too, and sent me lots of pictures as well. I thought... Maybe, that the clown was trying to get my attention. So I asked, and pulled a card. The one I pulled was about victory and recognition!

I decided that since I already like clowns a lot, I will do up one of my unused MSD size ball jointed dolls for him to use if he wants. Like, a vacation clown! It seems like the doll makes it easier for him to manifest and communicate somehow, so maybe if I have a doll for him to use he will be able to visit me sometimes with less effort! I’m pretty excited about this. I’ll probably be posting progress pictures here. I’ll make another post about this so that the people who didn’t read this (It IS pretty fuckin long) won’t be caught off guard by the sudden influx of... clown.

---

TL;DR - My boyfriend is excellent, I’ve got baggage, and The Clown Approaches.

#notes i guess

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alessariel · 7 years

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Please don't reblog. Replies welcome! A couple of people expressed interest in a state of the me, so here's a bit of a run-down as to what's been going on in my life lately: I've been sick for the last two weeks with a fairly annoying sinusitis. I don't suffer from this often and the symptoms were a little weird so I went and got tested for lyme's disease just in case - had a couple of close encounters with tics after the larp in july and since I've had it before I'm somewhat weary. Looks like it's not that though - its a bit hard to tell because the infection from long ago still skews the markers. Weight-wise, I just had my one-and-a-half-year post surgery check-up. Mostly, everything looks good. I've hit my target weight, but I could stand to loose another ten to twenty pounds. Mostly I'm annoyed because my weight fluctuates wildly every month - around ten pounds in extreme cases, sometimes within one week. Not sure what's up with that. Due to weather and health circumstances I haven't been keeping up as diligently with sport as I should. Stopped doing the sword fighting for reasons - some of the people there were weird and made me very uncomfortable. I miss running - the weather so far this summer has been very miserable. I should really make an effort to run more often nevertheless. I still do pilates once or twice a week and ride the bicycle a lot though. Some of you may remember me posting a bit about my dad and his heart problems last year. Then, after all of the scare he gave us, his docs decided he didn't have to had surgery. Now, a year later, they decide that he suddenly has to have it, because things have gotten way worse. Not sure wether to be angry or relieved. I just hope it goes well. He'll get a bypass and a new cardiac valve, hopefully next month. I really hope that with that his mental state will improve as well - we've been very concerned with what looks like an early onset of dementia or alzheimers lately. On the up side, my relationship with him has notably improved somewhat during the last year. I'm in the process of applying for a program that might help me get back into a job. It's a long and ardous process and the success rates arent thrilling - as someone suffering from longterm disability because of mental problems, it's pretty hard to get back into a real job. it's been years since I've been full-time employed. The whole thing is scary, but if I don't try now I may never manage to get back into it and I'm not done trying to fix my life yet. I've been catless for half a year now. Since Kea died and Teddy left its taken a while to get used to it, but I'm managing. I'm getting to the state where it's hard to remember why keeping Teddy would have been a bad idea (mainly, he needed more activity than my small flat could afford him plus deargod all that fur) but I start to really miss having a floofball around. I firmly believe that the cat finds the human though. Maybe one day one will find me again. I've been pretty productive lately. Finished some crafts and larp projects, worked on the flat a lot too. Did some digital work and am really thinking about getting affinity photo once it comes out for Windows, because my old copy of photoshop is really extremely outdated. I forgot how much I enjoy doing this stuff. Gishwhes sort of reminded me how much fun photoshopping can be. I also had way too much fun doing those little illustrations for @phoenike and her great mass effect andromeda mreyder fic "Unresolved". I enjoy betaing that one so so much too. After the disaster with the Drachenfest where I had to give up and go home because the weather was so bad and there just was too much mud the next larp I'm going to will be at the end of september and it will hopefully see my new charater's debut. I'm really looking forward to it. The antidepressant I've been on for the last three years was just unexpectedly cancelled by the only producer so I was forced to switch meds. That led to a bit of a stint with mania last week. Very productive, but also very exhausting and a little scary because it's not something I experience a lot. I hope it'll even out now. Hm, I feel like this all sounds pretty negative when really, a lot of things have been going pretty ok, too. I'm productive, things are going forward, I'm seeing a lot of social interaction and I'm getting stuff done. There's the occasional setback but overall I feel like I'm dealing fairly well with everything. I've been a little inactive here lately and I kind of want to remedy that and be more present again. I'd like to talk more with people too, so if you feel like it just chat with me. Fandomwise I'm in a bit of a lull since I'm feeling a little less enthusiastic about Supernatural lately. I'm still following along for now and I'll guess I'll see what the next season brings but I'm not very hopeful for it drawing me back in. Yuri on Ice still keeps bringing me joy but there's no new content and I just really finally want to own it on DVD so I can rewatch it whenever I want to. Other than that I really enjoyed watching Supergirl, Voltron, Designated Suvivor and iZombie lately, but none of these shows really draw me in shippingwise. But I have had nascent merthur otp feelings lately, I even thought of a plot and sort of started writing it in my head. Not sure it'll ever progress to the page though. So, uh, that's a lot of rambling, sorry. If you've actually progressed this far, wow. This is where I'm at, this is the state of the me. Would love to hear some feedback, but please no reblogs. Thanks!

#state of the me

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ganymedesclock · 7 years

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[submitted by @trickster-goddess-extraordinaire]

Alright so as a brand-new follower I hate to just barge in with my Voltron theories, but I’ve been reading your Galra headcanons and I have a few of my own that might be worth some consideration.

1) I don’t think I can get entirely on board with the mesothermic Galra you proposed, even if some of them look pretty reptiliod. There’s plenty of weird endotherms on Earth that have scales, and consider Arus–it looks pretty deserty from what we saw of it, so we can assume it gets cold at night, but Sendak and Haxus seemed to be doing just fine (may have had something to do with the armor, idk), though admittedly Sendak’s form while fighting Shiro was off (I suspect it had something to do with the size of his prosthetic arm). I like the idea of a hibernation reflex though.

2) You mentioned in a different post a headcanon of city-ships for large populations, but…that doesn’t seem like it would work too well, especially if one did depressurize in space–you’d lose a fair chunk of your population. So here’s the theory: multiple ‘home’ planets with big populations of Galra, which leads into:

3)The way you classified Galra in that one post–highland/lowland/cave? There might be another explanation. A lot of the Galra we see in the Black Lion’s flashbacks in S2E7 look fairly similar to Zarkon and the unnamed commander from S1E1, vaguely reptiliod, but there’s no fluffy Galra in there, and if they’re advanced enough to have space travel and cooperate with the Alteans on building something like the Lions, you’d assume that if all those subtypes evolved on the same planet they’d be pretty well-integrated by that point. But if you’re spread out to multiple planets, even if there’s travel and genetic exchange between planets, you’re going to have traits suited to the environment start popping up, or you’re going to want to enhance traits that make surviving them easier. So, three basic phenotypes: reptiliod (Zarkon, S1E1 commander, other ‘scaly’ ones), ‘sleek’ (Haxus, Morvok, Ulaz?), and ‘fluffy’ (Prorok, Sendak, arguably Thace and Kolivan), each set for a certain range of conditions and probably tweaked to better suit the environment of their 'home’ planet. The fluffy ones probably have a pretty high cold tolerance but struggle in the heat, while the reptiliod ones have the opposite problem.

4)Looking at their general aesthetics, they might be colorblind by human standards? They use a lot of blacks/greys and range all over the blue-purple-red side of the spectrum, but aside from some of the lighting I see almost no green, and yellow seems to be limited to Haggar/Druids and detailing on commander’s uniforms. So they be missing cones that let them see those colors, similar to tritanopia in humans? The green lighting seems generally limited to prison areas, so it might be for the prisoners’ benefit–those scenes are generally less dim than the rest of their ships, and if you make it easier for your prisoners to see where they’re going, they’ll crash into less stuff while moving them, which would significantly cut down on the time they’re outside of their cells, plus if I remember correctly, in humans at least, spending too much time in the dark can damage your eyes, and if they want the prisoners for whatever (labor, study, entertainment, etc), they probably want to keep them in decent enough shape to do the thing. (for added humor, Galra only know the terms 'green’ and 'yellow’ with regards to the lions, and are generally shit at hiding themselves by the standards of anyone with more cones. no, you can’t just stay still and disguise your outline, these guys can tell you’re a different color than the surrounding stuff) (for double humor: colorblind Keith)

Sorry to just drop randomly into your submissions box like this, I just have a ton of theory and no one irl to babble at.

Hello, and welcome new follower! Let’s talk about your theories because mm alien anatomy.

1. Honestly my thinking on mesothermic galra is, just like you said, they would build heat-retention into their suits.

Sendak’s armor is at least insulated enough to be able to seal in space, and if it can keep out those kind of temperatures, planetside ones are no problem. It’s a bit of an ‘oops’ if his head is exposed, especially with those big ears- he’d still get cold- but if his core is insulated and warmed it might not trip hibernation reflex.

Another argument could be that Keith, who has some amount of galra genetics and would probably be not completely warm-blooded, lived in what could only be a pretty poorly-insulated shack in the desert and, as you mentioned, desert nights get very cold.

We don’t ever really see a bed or concentration of pillows so it’s fair to assume the couch with its one blanket is what Keith’s been sleeping in this entire time. Now that blanket could be heavier than it looks, but it’s also possible Keith’s just been getting that cold. Of course, it’d line up with times when he expects to be inactive himself (even if he’s biologically nocturnal, he’d be socially diurnal- used to being awake during the day and sleeping at night because “that’s normal”) so he probably wouldn’t think much if he’s lethargic at night.

2-3. Interesting alternative theory! My impression of the city-ships is they would probably be incredibly heavily guarded and insulated against that sort of thing- like they just plain don’t travel much. Zarkon clearly already doesn’t have any qualms already having long-term or permanent residence on spacecraft for himself and large numbers of people considering his command center is his flagship and main fleet. The Altean Castleship also would suggest that they didn’t have any qualms with their species’ royalty spending a long time in space. So I’d have to guess their ships are a lot safer and more insulated than ours, or just that whatever the risks are, they’re already okay with it for high command, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the civilian population is the same.

That said, the idea that different rough “races” of galra would emerge from different planets/ships would make sense if we assume those populations would stay grouped together. I don’t know for sure if I’d use the tiny flashback we saw of the past to guess all of the galra are like that because we didn’t exactly see a lot of the population, but you do have a point that furrier Galra may have gotten, if nothing else, a lot more common in trying to adapt to different climates.

4. ...Oh my god? I love this. Tritanopic galra, and, by connection, tritanopic Keith. Just out of curiosity I ran some screenshots through a filter and:

Empire aesthetic looks almost the exact same, the only thing is the purple is dulled to red.

The marmora aesthetic becomes super desaturated, but there’s still a glaring difference between the two.

Each of the Lions are recognizable as their color, but Red is the only one in full vivid color. This lines up with Keith mentioned that Blue was, well, blue in the pilot (“each tells a slightly different story about a blue lion”) in that he can identify what’s supposed to be blue.

And Keith himself. Proposed alternative explanation for why Keith wears so much grays and blacks- he’s picking the colors that look normal to him.

Though I wouldn’t be surprised if galra stealth capacities average out at pretty good since they’re better at hiding in the darkness.

#voltron legendary defender #vld #galra #Keith #readmore #image heavy #submission

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survivemiddleearth · 6 years

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Episode 1: “Hobbits, we gonna slay this all the way to Isengard.” -JG

I’m back and better than ever!

Heylo! Who loves a pre-game confessional oh we do! I cannot wait for this season to be honest. I am finishing a season as we speak being in the final 3 so the adrenaline rush and hype is so real. I am a not a super fan of LOTR but I do love and enjoy the the stories. I read the books when I was in second grade and the saw the movies for the first time in 7th grade. My goal is to be like Frodo in this game, make myself known when it's really important and needed, then disappear when I am not, why make a target on myself when I don't need to. Hopefully the power of the ring won't consume and something wild happens.... eeks here goes nothing, FOR MIDDLE EARTH!

Ahh fuck Johnny is in this game he's gonna betray me I know it fml I just wanna win an org how hard omfg

This is my first org in 5 months and honestly I forget how to play. I'm just gonna do whatever and I do how I do, but I'm not gonna be scared to yeet people out of here.

Part of my strategy is to try and be social to everyone in the beginning. I want to try and have a conversation with everyone on my tribe as soon as possible and try to gain a slight favor so people think I have something to contribute to them if we happen to lose the first immunity challenge and go to tribal

First confession of a new game is always a lot. I haven’t played since…March? Maybe even earlier than that. And if you know me, you know there’s been a lot of drama surrounding me since then, so I’m definitely nervous to be back in the saddle and playing again. Pre-merge queen. Basically, on my tribe, I feel…neutral to nervous. I have Dylan R, who is my ORG child, so I should be able to work with him fairly easily. I’ve also hosted Eric, which could be good if he weren’t friends with so many people who don’t like me. Same boat with Vi. I’m hoping I can kind of work both of them to my side, but it might not be possible and I may just have to rely on Dylan keeping me in the loop. There’s also a newbie, which is usually a good sign. Finally, we have Johnny. I FEEL like Johnny has an issue with me from something, but I’m not 100% sure. I love reaching a point in my life where I can’t remember who hates me and why, but, hey, that’s running and destroying the biggest ORG series since Mains for you. As for the other tribes……..yikes on a bike. Aside from Zach, JG, and Stephen (more of my sons), we’re fairly stacked with people who would cut my throat without a second thought. Drew has seen me play before and we had a, uh, messy relationship in that game. I’m certain Sammy still hates me from Lago and also from The Drama since he’s friends with the core few people who hate me. Nick I don’t know, but he has “skinny” in his bio as a positive which means we probably won’t get along, plus he came from tengaged which can be a yikes. Crow I hosted for like three seconds in Emathia, so maybe he’ll have mercy on me. Dennis I think hates me from the Athena stuff. Bodhi I think hates me, and I’m not wild about him either. Roxy I know hates me but I don’t have any idea why since we’ve never spoken. Probably just more Athena Stuff. Hopefully I make merge with JG. That’s going to be my big hope for this season. Well. Idol hunting is going to be my lifeblood. Wish me luck, unless you hate me like everyone else.

So Drew in this game? Kill me with an axe right now. What the fuck is JG doing here? I'm finished, I was going to play nice but THREE zwooper people are on my tribe. MESS.

Small tribe, which means riskier tribals early on but its easier to get to know everyone. So far Roxy and.. dnn??? I like (I’ll check the cast reveal for what we should be calling dnn). JG and Sammy I know from other games, I feel I can trust JG a little, we’ll see. Sammy I don’t know I like to give people clean slates but almost every game we’ve been in he’s gone straight for me. Bodhi hasnt messaged me back yet :/

Hello ! Welcome to my first confession. Excited to exist. I haven’t met everyone in the tribe yet but I am playing with my old host so that’s funny. I don’t really have any interesting things to say so just. Hello. The first immunity challenge is one that I really didn’t do well in the first time I played so. Yikes. Whatever I’m still excited !!

Well hey! Got a clue on my very first idol hunt? But in a series so aggressively dominated by men, where the hell is "sisterhood" supposed to take me?

Honestly, I did not want to do the first challenge. I know I am good at it, but I didn't want to be the one responsible for losing for the tribe since its a hero challenge. I made up an excuse which is not a lie and is at the same time. Hopefully our tribe does well at the challenge!

This game so far is really stupid, I mean no talking during heats is fine but the fact that my tribe didn't offer any condolences or anything like "you tried" is rude and frankly, tragic.

You ever agree to face an Australian in an endurance challenge at midnight your time, 2pm his time? What a disaster for me

What are half the things mentioned here. Like what's a hobbit. I know its a movie but like, really? There better not be a quiz on LOTR or I am getting last place.

Yas!!! I love getting lucky and being on a winning tribe. First immunity lets go hobbits, we gonna slay this all the way to Isengard. So far I've mingled and stayed for tea with my hobbits and gotten to know them. Of course I'm excited to play with Stephen again, cool to finally meet Roxy and Bodhi. We shall see what will happen I'm anxiously, excitedly nervous. But let's go!

You know the most embarrassing part of losing that comp in 2 seconds? The fact that I almost called in sick to work bc I wanted to free my schedule for the day. Yeah that was a flop. If I get eliminated first that would be simultaneously hilarious and also very depressing. No one other than Eric and Jay have messaged me so I should probably like. Pop in and say hi

watches crow flop

My tribe is so...INACTIVE.

In this immunity challenge, I have no other option but to beat Vi if i dont, I will lose my spot in this game, I swear on it

Im deciding if I should tell Crow Run wants him out. I like Run but I gotta cover myself...

So uh...it’s kinda fuckin wild. We lost and don’t really have an easy vote because everyone’s active and ready to play the damn game. I’m fairly certain there’s a large majority though I don’t think anyone will be absolutely shocked about who goes home.

I'd like to start this seasons confessionals of with saying that I absolutely hate Bodhi. Since he took my Tom Bombadil and then told me, he had forgotten that he was cast for this season... LIKE COME ON ARE YOU SERIOUS, THATS MY AVATAR. After calming down I saw the tribe I was on. Bodhi (AJUSNKDIKWQJNE), Roxy, Sammy, Stephen and JG. I have played loads with Sammy and Roxy before. Stephen seems nice. Bodhi must die and JG is prolly the hardest person to talk to since I was in kindergarten. I mean. It should be that hard to give proper answers to your questions. MAYBE it was because he was busy playing the inferior BR game fortnite, but still come ON. I agree to play the challenge, but didn't need to actually do something in it, since Stephen and Sammy beasted it. The idolsearch first went SUCKY. because I went to bree ignored Aragorn, got durnk and got a 35 % DISADVANTAGE ON MY NEXT CHALLENGE (LIKE WHO THOUGHT OF THAT HIGH NUMBER) then at my next search I find out, that the other option I had, prolly would've given me an Idol... OH MAN PLEASE DONT LET IT BE GONE I WANT THAT.

You know I'm winning when my tribe wins immunity. Time to take the free time to make an alliance of my own. I have to choose who I want to trust for now.

okay so i haven’t made a confessional yet but I’m super excited to see some familiar faces in the game. I’ve played with Dennis before but I know that if I’m a threat to his game he will take me out so it’s a good person to stick with for now but idk if I can trust him in this game. JG is very friendly and chill but I’ve onkg played another game with him where he quit. He had a lot going on so I understood but I’m willing to work with him again if he’s willing. ROXY IS ON MY TRIBE AND SHE IS THE LOVE OF MY LIFE AND I KNOW SHE WILL NEVER VOTE ME OUT. SO I GOT HER AND IM EXCITED. Okay and who else? oh yes Stephen! Stephen is cool and I’m 100% down to work with him despite our past in orgs. I just don’t want him to think of me as an enemy. If we have to boot out someone I’d say bodhi would be the most obvious choice because he hasn’t been active...but bodhi is a fun player to play with I’m just hoping he becomes more active before our tribe decides to give him the boot. I see Crow in this game and he’s super nice and I’m so glad I’m playing with him and also Johnny is playing and I’m hoping he’s gonna want to work with me. Okay okay I’m done for now. Let the games begin.

CRAP i forgot to talk about immunity and idol search...okay sooooo i went heat 2 after Stephen won heat 1 and like i was expecting to be targeted bc if I won, my tribe would get immunity. However Dylan(I’m sorry if i umm spelled that wrong) forgot the period and Crow spoke out of turn or something and I won...I was shocked but glad that it didn’t last as long as the first heat. Oh and I searched for the idol and went to the bar or something and it turns out the item i was gonna get had been snatched before I had a chance....WE GOTTA THIEF IN HERE....I’m just trying to make it to merge so i need any advantage i can get.

Johnny just approached me for an alliance and I told him, "of course johnny! :)" But I am internally screaming like "nooooooo why meeee," because just before this game we were talking about how Johnny likes to betray everyone in orgs so now I'm like, please just let me win one org I got Ryan V casted in Bermuda you owe me.

The nice thing about not going to tribal council is that it really gives you the time to flex that social game and work on building up relationships, which is super important early in the game.

me doing this 4 hours before tribal is a mood but uhm ahem in conclusion, i've heard 8 names this round and let me breakdown how and why begin: i tell nick i think first boot should be someone who didn't compete, and then narrow it down to jayden or zach nick tells me he's been pushing for jayden and that drew is on board and is working on zach jayden comes to me saying he knows he's in trouble and asking me what to do, he reveals that runs ratted out nick about targeting him i tell nick runs ratted him out nick reveals to me that runs has been pushing me to everyone (confirmed by Drew, and later Jayden, as well) i confront rataways subtly and he insinuates that his loyalty is to me and that we're friends and my BS alarm goes flying off the charts rataways thinks he's sly but he's not end: im voting rataways and got confirmation from jayden and drew that they'd do the same....currently working on nick who has supposedly already told zach to vote runs as well if everybody minus rataways isn't a completely shady bitch, this should be an easy 5-1 with rataways thinking he somehow has votes on me and i'll probs get idoled out but w/e. i'm not going to lose my sanity trying to beg rataways not to vote me, idc. oh and i threw the immunity challenge cuz tribal seemed fun (and boi it is!)

Well I wasn’t the first person evicted so I consider this season an accomplishment. I’m trying to attach myself to Ford, since he’s completely new.

Alright hold on a second. 2nd day. 2nd conversation with JG. AND its like day & night. He seems pretty chill :). MAYBE HE WAS JUST BUSY WITH FORTNITE (what I as a gamer understand. I mean.. you gotta set priorities.. right?). Just wanted to clarify, so I don't come over as a dick at the end of the season. In case we end up being best friends *shrugs*

#outwitoutplayoutrunthewitchking

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