#star story was just the project name in my docs

[precure-stuff]

A little dream can bloom into a brand new you

For most of her life, Maki was a shut in. She was soft spoken and spent her days online. All this changed when she found Haruka’s performances . In that moment, her heart bloomed. When the Spring Fairy Cards called out to her, she decided to follow her new path.

The Aikatsu reboot has begun...

[drchucktingle]

mr. dr. chuck, i'm a few months ago i told a doc of mine that i believe i'm on the spectrum (after yeeeears of considering all the reasons why i thought so) and she agreed with me. then i came to some conclusions about members of my family. then i started melting down and haven't really recovered.

i'm in my 30's, but my life feels like it's been the mistake-addled 24th year for over a decade. people, choices, wants, they feel like things that were silly blips and not of much substance. i'm tired and my body hurts, so it feels harder to get to things i need. doctors don't seem like they can be trusted because of all the other ways i show up in the world.

i'm worried about my life and my future, and it feels like my magic is gone (or that i can't touch it right now). do you have any words of wisdom for someone who found out this really big thing about themselves kind of late?

thank you.

hello buckaroo thank you for writing. first of all i will say MOST IMPORTANT thing to remember is that it is okay and valid to FEEL the way that you feel. your reaction to this news or any news really is not wrong. that does not mean you cant wish for another reaction or WORK TOWARDS another reaction, but in grand cosmic sense this is just your way. YOUR TROT IS VALID and we all have our own unique way. sometimes that path is an easy path with sunny days and smiles and a glorious view, and sometimes it is through the darkness of shadows or crawling through the old bog. we can PREFER one path over the other, but neither is WRONG.

when giving advice old chuck tries to not PROJECT what i think YOU should do because that is not really the point. this is your trot to trot and i do not think it is my place to act like some authority of your way. what chuck can do is tell you MY story of diagnosis and how it made ME feel and maybe you can take little pieces of that for yourself.

chuck learned of way on autism spectrum when i was in early twenties by doctor who said 'yes this is your way'. when i learned of my spectrum way my reaction was: wow this is very very cool i am so lucky because all of my heroes are autistic and now i am in this RADICAL CLUB. we are special and unique and DANG what a treat wish i could have a membership card in my wallet to show all my buds.

now obviously this is not everyones reaction, but as starting off point i wonder what it would have meant to my future if the news would have HIT ME IN A BAD WAY. if i would have felt let a dang robot alien who didnt belong. maybe id be swimmin through the bog ever since.

thing is I LIKE ROBOT ALIENS they are very cool. doctor did not MAKE me different, i was different already, our talks just popped a nice little name on it for me to take or leave. i took the name proudly because DATA from stars trek (certified robot alien) is exactly how i already felt and dang what a cool character and dang what a great life. so was DAVID BYRNE. so was every cool buckaroo artist that i liked. cowboys are OUTSIDER HEROES and that is how my autism makes me feel.

so like i said, i do not know about YOUR way, but MY WAY of hearing this news was heaps of joy and excitement. i will also say that it is very DIFFICULT to find this reaction later if your first leap is feeling in a sad way about it. so maybe if you want to trot back in your mind to those first few steps it would be helpful. maybe mentally trot to where you were pushed off a dang cliff and think "well was i pushed off a cliff or was i just told 'hey bud youve been floating this whole time?"'

because if youve been floating then DANG thats a lot of power. thats not falling. you can float up, you can float down, you can float side to side.

the next thing i will say AS AND ARTIST is that years of toiling and feeling aimless are NEVER actually aimless when it comes to creation. and to LIVE in a human body is to be an artist, because you are CONSTANTLY CREATING the future. when i am writing and i dont have an idea for my next book that can be frustrating, but it is also PART of the process. if i walk to the store to rustle up my mind, or wander around the park, or spend a whole WEEK feeling weird because of writers block THAT IS ALL PART OF MAKING GREAT ART. that is not wasted time. in other words, your years of toiling are not wasted time, that is just the process we all have when we are creating a future masterpiece.

[grapenehifics]

Making of Monday: Can't Stop the Suns Part 1

(I am thinking SO positively rn that I am calling this part 1, like I will remember to actually write more. YMMV; we'll see how I do.)

I'm hard at work on the concluding chapters of Pick Up the Pieces right now, and working on Pick Up the Pieces means I also need to do a fair bit of rereading An Uncivil War, so it's very much on the forefront of my brain, and also I have yet to participate in a single MoM, so: here's some backstory on An Uncivil War.

Okay I actually need to back up even farther than that, all the way to Solsbury Hill and February 2020. I started Solsbury Hill - it wasn't called that, then; it didn't have a name, just 'weird doc file/outline I'll probably never finish because I don't have a track record of finishing creative writing projects, ever' - and then the very next month I started working from home AND season 7 of Clone Wars premiered.

To get ready for season 7 - and because I was home a lot more during the day, now, and didn't have to commute to work - we decided to do a rewatch of Clone Wars season 1 through 6. And you know how we joke about plot bunnies, and why they're called that? That the hardest idea is your first one and once you have that the ideas just keep multiplying? So, I'm sitting on an outline for what would become Solsbury Hill, and we're watching Clone Wars, and we get to season 5, and the episode with Ahsoka's trial, and I think to myself, huh. That's weird. Why is Obi-Wan acting like that? Why is he not sticking up for our Padawan? If he had, I bet things would have turned out differently. Ahsoka might not have left the Order. Anakin might not have turned to the Dark Side. Clone Wars is full of all these little things that individually might not be enough to push Anakin over the edge, but they start stacking up, collectively...

From there, it was a pretty easy leap to, 'what if Obi-Wan left the Order instead of Ahsoka', and that created this whole domino effect because Anakin would obviously leave with him, right, and Ahsoka was getting kicked out anyway, and now I've got this scenario with three Jedi on the run in the middle of a war.

And that was fascinating to me. Once I started thinking about it I couldn't stop. But I was also getting really into Solsbury Hill, at that point, so this new story needed to take a backseat. I dumped a bunch of notes into a Word doc and went back to my AU.

It turns out, though - and this was the first time I'd learned this about myself - that I liked having both an AU and a canon project going at the same time. Solsbury Hill and An Uncivil War both used such different parts of my brain and required a different skillset and researching vastly different things, and if I got bogged down in one it was nice to be able to switch to the other one and hack away at that one for a while. So I ended up, from early 2020 until August 2022 when I posted the first chapter of Solsbury Hill on AO3, working on both projects nearly simultaneously, although obviously Solsbury Hill (despite being three times longer) got to the finish line first.

For a long time - almost three years - An Uncivil War was just called, An Uncivil War. And it had this expansive outline that I just kept cracking away at, and whenever I came across something cool in another piece of Star Wars media or another show premiered or I read another book I'd think 'Ooh, that's neat! That's going in the fic!' and I'd add it to my to-do list. And at some point I looked at my word count and realized I was pushing 100k and not anywhere close to the end of the story I wanted to tell.

So, I started thinking about sequels, and series. I had (still have) this outline, fortunately, and there was one pretty obvious stopping point at what was then the mid-point of the plot. (I say, 'then' because it has since, of course, expanded. It turns out I'm very bad at guessing word counts.) So I took half my outline, dumped into a brand-new doc, called that one Pick Up the Pieces, and wrote the 'ending' of An Uncivil War, as much as possible, as if it were the ending, just in case I for some reason never got around to writing Pick Up the Pieces.

Because it was important to me that An Uncivil War be able to stand on its own. It's got a beginning, a middle, and an end, and the end calls back to the beginning, and the main threat to the characters is resolved, and they talk about what they're going to do next but even if that was the only story you had, it should still be a satisfying conclusion (or, at least, I hope it is).

But it isn't the entirety of the story I wanted to tell. Because they originally were one big story, I actually had maybe half of Pick Up the Pieces already written by the time I started posting An Uncivil War, so while the first part took me three years to write, the second has technically only taken me a year, but I was definitely not starting from scratch.

I also - and this should shock absolutely no one - was once again wildly off in my word count estimate. Pick Up the Pieces is, right now, already as long as An Uncivil War (120k), and I've still got three chapters left to go...plus a bunch more things in my outline I haven't gotten to yet.

So, in true Star Wars tradition, I'm now plotting a part three! Pick Up the Pieces, like An Uncivil War before it, has a logical ending point, so it will wrap up there, but the plot will move merrily along to the next thing on my to-do list, which is in fact the same to-do list I've had since March 2020. (It's a good thing I love this story so much or I would have quit long ago.) Part Three, at the moment, is tentatively titled Sometimes Fate Steps In, and I'm really, really sorry to have to admit that that's where all the smut is going to be. (I know. It's Solsbury Hill all over again.)

(I do love it, though. I feel like I should...apologize, to my fics, somehow, for having a favorite? I do have a favorite, though. It's this series. I love it so damn much. This is the one thing I write where, if you told me right now that I would never get a single comment or kudos on it, I would still write it anyway, because I just get so much enjoyment out of researching and writing it and re-reading it.)

(Which is not to say you shouldn't comment on it. Please, please do! You will absolutely make my day, week, month, year! But I love it enough to do it anyway.)

[knickynoo]

Headcanons for what Marty and Jennifer are like as parents, and how Doc/his family interact with the kids?

Anon, this is such a late reply, and I'm sorry. I'm making a concerted effort to finally get to some of the asks I've been neglecting.

Also, I'm almost positive that I once made a post of Marty and Jen as parents headcanons, but I must have forgotten to add a link in my pinned post, and the Tumblr search function is useless, so I can't find it. Anyway, I may end up repeating some of what I put in there or even contradicting it, lol.

Of course, I'm going with the improved, happy Jen and Marty marriage timeline for this. So, as parents, they're a pretty united front. They're both very involved in all aspects of the kids' lives from the start and excited to embark on such a wonderful journey for their family.

Being first-time parents and also having twins leaves Marty and Jen utterly exhausted for, like, a solid year or two. They're happy, but they're tired. As such, they're sure to divide up the work, take over for the other when needed, and also rely pretty heavily on family for support. Jen's parents help out a lot, as do George and Lorraine. I can see Aunt Linda and Uncle Dave stopping by a good deal as well to help with tasks around the house or just watch the twins for a little while so Marty and Jen can sleep.

Doc and Clara play a very big role in the kids' lives! Of course! Doc and Clara love those McFly kids!!! Makes me lose my mind to think about. They don't even wait to be called upon or anything; they just show up at the house, announce they're taking Junior and Marlene for the day, hand a home-cooked meal to Jen and Marty, and then leave. Marty and Jen are incredibly thankful for their help, and Doc and Clara love having babies around again.

Doc is like the very chaotic uncle, but in like...the most responsible way. He's got Dad-Mode down pat at this point, and he slips right into it with Junior and Marlene, but he also knows how to let them have some (supervised) wild fun. He plays games that teach them science concepts and lets them help with small projects of his when they're able to do it safely. He also reads lots of Jules Verne to them. Marty definitely calls Doc one day and goes, "Junior and Marlene are playing an elaborate game of Around the World in 80 Days outside. Can I assume this is your influence?" The kids also start digging a giant hole in the yard at some point, and that's how Marty and Jen know they've started reading Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Clara absolutely dotes on the twins every opportunity she gets. They both find such comfort in her presence and love spending time with her. She has a special place in her heart for Junior. On nice nights, she takes Junior and Marlene outside to sit on blankets and look at the stars. She teaches them about the constellations and the stories that go with them.

Okay, this is something I know I mentioned in that other post I can't find: Marty writes individual songs for Junior and Marlene that he sings to them at night. It starts off as something he does to help them sleep at night, but it's a tradition that continues until the kids are much older.

Jennifer likes to involve the kids in as many experiences as possible, so she's always looking for little art classes they can take, museums to take them to, hobbies to introduce to them, etc. She also sets aside days every so often where she just takes one kid along for an afternoon of doing something special with them that align to their interests. Maybe on those days, Marty takes the other kid and does the same.

Lately, I've been thinking about Marty and Jen having a third child at some point and what that scenario would look like. One thing I know for sure is that they would not have an "M" name.

You'd sent this ask in late September, and I ended up writing two Doctober chapters that include Marty, Jen, the kids, and Doc and Clara! I'll link them in case anyone might be interested :) HERE & HERE

Thanks for the ask!

[read-and-write-]

2023 Fic Wrapped

Thanks to @anincompletelist for tagging me! This is such a fun thing to do!

Rules: Feel free to show whatever stats you have. Only want to show Ao3 stats? Rock on. Want to include some quantitative info instead of stats? Please do this. Want to change how yours is presented? Absolutely do that. There are no rules!

Posted on Ao3: 34,145 (Across 14 fics)

Written total: 152,778 (yes, i do have a lot of docs created, a lot more than anyone wants to see)

3 published fandoms: Red, White and Royal Blue, All for the Game, The Shadowhunters Chronicles

Longest work: and every song reminds me of you (4,088 words)

Shortest work: yo te llevo dentro, hasta la raíz  (546 words)

very real wips, things I'm actively working on

Super Six and the Siren's Call (PJO AU- +100k) co-written with @inexplicablymine and @happiness-of-the-pursuit one of the most wonderful projects I've had the honour to be a part of and I'm so exicted for people to see it

Toe the Line (Figure Skating AU - 20k currently) my dearest child, 60 pages of outline, investigation, character sheets and visions i have at three am for a random scene 5 chapter away

Y recuerda siempre que tú eres la medicina (A bilingual June character study) A companion piece of sorts for a train of thought (of things not to forget), June's perspective through it all, both in Spanish and English like Alex's. and with Natalia Lafourcade lyrics as a title because that's June coded

carved within the beauty, the darkness in between and without (your) love, I am nothing two pieces about religion and firstprince from each of their povs, a question about loving yourself and about loving someone else against the things you've been taught and finding divinity within each other.

not so real wips with a little less real word counts but a lot of vibes

Spiderman AU, my entry for the New Years Resolutions event of @thebrownstone, which means it'll get here at some point

MasterChef AU, my way to put my professional knowledge to good use, it was a silly funny story and it grew a plot

Dancer AU, a drabble fail that was just a vision and then some people kind of made it get a full dual pov, double 5 + 1 plot

Numbers are not everything but I do like data and stats

Kudos: 3,969

Comment Threads: 187

Bookmarks: 946

Hits: 37,149

Numbers do not define an author's worth, but I also can see how far I've gotten with just one day deciding I wanted to write and post my fun little words again

top 3 sorted by kudos

las formas de llamarte amor (2.5k - 630 kudos)

my first fic in the rwrb fandom, it makes me so happy to see it being loved, it was the ultimate show of self indulgence

Henry has been a public figure for most of his life, the reason why he’s been given dozens of titles, some kinder than others, he’s been the gay prince, the spare, the prince of England's hearts, the activist, the author. All of the titles are inevitably a part of his history, but the way Alex calls him is the most important of all. Because to Alex, he is sweetheart, amor, and corazón; Alex calls him mi vida in between kisses and whispers hermoso, lindo, precioso with his wandering hands working through Henry’s body. His name sounds better when it comes out of Alex’s lips. or 5 times Alex calls Henry a pet name in Spanish and one time he calls him by his name or Henry learns Spanish one pet name at a time

to belong to a family (even beyond this world) (2.5k - 578 kudos)

this one, this one i wrote with my own soul, i used my tears as ink, wrote it for the Halloween Huh fest and it all the comments have made me so incredibly happy

“Talk to him. They listen, they always listen,” Ligia says and Henry nods, she squeezes his hand again before turning back and leaving him alone in front of the ofrenda. It's very rare that Henry has been at a loss for words when he tries to talk to his father. He has spent countless nights speaking to the stars, looking for Orion and hoping that —wherever his father is— he is looking for it too. “Hi dad,” Henry says softly, taking another look at the picture of his father, smiling at the camera. “I missed you.” or When Alex and Henry go to Mexico for Día de Muertos a familiar face appears on the Díaz ofrenda

you are an idiot (i missed you) (1.6k - 475 kudos)

wrote this on a whim, blacked out and pulled this out of nowhere, my first fic for aftg and really just an excuse to write Andreil being married for convenience™

The best, and arguably the only, good part of playing on opposing teams from your husband was getting to play a match against him. Therefore one could say that Neil was very excited about getting to play against Andrew tonight. Not only because for the first time since the season started they'd finally be in the same State and City (And later after the game, the same house) but also because Neil thought Andrew was 100% hotter when he was playing (Not that he would tell him out loud), and seeing him live was definitely better than seeing him on a screen. There was also the added bonus of the infamous Minyard - Josten Rivalry. Or Neil and Andrew are having too much fun with their rivalry until someone else takes it too seriously, and then they have a talk.

Being a not native english speaker means that fanfic does teach me a lot of stuff, namely vocabulary this year stars some bangers

Saccharine

Ubiquitous

Litany

Chagrin

Filibuster

I created a total of 19 docs, which doesn't mean there's 19 fics there, but it also doesn't not mean it

Alex's POV wins with total of seven fics

Six fics have the tag of Alex Claremont-Díaz Speaks Spanish

Three of my wips have an outline longer than 10 pages

there's a 30%? chance I will write smut at some point in the new year

my funniest doc title is "If you have religious trauma and you know it clap your hands"

This year has been crazy, for many reasons but I'm glad I found this space and I'm glad I'm back to writing, and on top of it all I'm glad of being able to meet so many because of it.

And the year is not over yet! There's still more to come!

I'm tagging a few people, don't feel pressured to do this but if there's anything you feel proud of I'd love to see it @inexplicablymine @happiness-of-the-pursuit @affectionatelyrs @littlemisskittentoes @ssmtskw @raysletters @14carrotghoul @heybuddy-drabbles @suseagull04 @everwitch-magiks @sherryvalli @rockyroadkylers

[smaller-comfort]

AHHHHHHHHH oh my god how is it over 6000 words what the hell.

This fought me so hard, but it more or less ended up where I wanted it. Resh'an gets to be a little bit weird sometimes, as a treat.

Notes below the cut.

Posting this story as a chaptered work instead of a one shot probably made the whole thing seem a lot cooler and more mysterious than it actually ended up being.

I hope the reveal is satisfying, but I honestly can't tell anymore! My google doc clocks in at nearly 10k words. It's an absolute mess.

Ultimately both Resh'an and Aephorul make stupid mistakes, frequently. We just see the aftermath of Aephorul's fuckups more often in the game. Sure, they're basically gods, but Resh'an can't even remember that he stuck a cork in his hat on a good day. Aephorul's first response to any minor inconvenience is to murder something. They are terrible at this.

I cut a whole lot of stuff about Aephorul wanting to be human again. There's an epilogue scene that I didn't write where he dismantles his lab- the world eater he was keeping dormant there primarily served as a power source. He drains off all the energy of those devoured souls and uses it to transform himself back into the body he remembers having when he was alive.

It only lasts for a few minutes, and every second is agonizing. The price of inmortality: he can never get back what he lost. He'll destroy the universe trying, though.

Originally Resh'an was a lot more of an asshole- or rather, Aephorul perceived him as being more of an asshole- and that's partly what I was struggling with in writing this chapter.

I considered leaning into the time loop shenanigans and including all of the stuff that I cut as one of the other 26 iterations that Resh'an experienced. That felt excessive, though.

Resh'an was definitely lying at least a little when he said he didn't remember much of the times when he wasn't lucid.

I keep making accidental locked tomb references. I swear I don't mean to.

"If we're awful together, I can't even imagine how much worse we'd be on our own." Still probably my favorite line, although the one about laboratory precautions in the third chapter makes me laugh a lot. Their bickering is a lot of fun.

Resh'an's ears aren't the only thing Aephorul pierced when they were younger. (It was his nipples. Aephorul absolutely pierced Resh'an's nipples.) (His were already pierced when they met.) (It's my sexy AU, okay, I can do what I want.)

Resh'an's terrible poetry:

Hang my heart in the sky

And see it outshine the sun

For love of you

Am I more embarrassed by this than any of these characters ever could be? 💯 That's where the series name comes from, anyway.

These guys have invented sex acts that are probably illegal in at least three separate worlds. Of course Resh'an thinks being dismembered is sexy, he's got the depression. I don't fucking know.

At some point I'm going to end up writing skullfucking and it's going to be like the assassin's creed stump fucking kinkmeme fill all over again.

I am so, so sorry I just wrote that sentence!

I will probably post some of those cut sections here tomorrow.

[duckprintspress]

Meet Aether Beyond the Binary Contributor Catherine E. Green

This is it: the final contributor spotlight for our crowdfunding anthology Aether Beyond the Binary, featuring 17 aetherpunk stories starring non-binary characters! Now, by going through the campaign updates, you can read biographies of all seventeen authors featured in this anthology and read excerpts from their works! We hope you’ll do so, and love what you read! We’ll be putting up a single post linking all the spotlights on Tuesday (January 23rd) so be on the lookout!

The crowdfunding campaign for Duck Prints Press’s next anthology Aether Beyond the Binaryends in 4 days and we are still $2,000 from our funding goal. We’d love your helping ensuring this project succeeds: so signal boost our posts or become a backer TODAY!

About Catherine: Catherine E. Green (pronouns: xe/xem/xyr or they/them/their) is an agender person, one who’s had an on-again, off-again love affair with writing. Xe began writing when xe was a wee thing, when xyr other major pastimes were playing xyr mother’s NES and roughhousing with the boys next door. It’s only in the past few years that they have begun writing consistently and publishing their writing, fanfiction and original writing alike, leading to their first published short story titled “Of Loops and Weaves.” 

Outside of writing, xe is a collector of books and sleep debt and an avid admirer of the cosmos. Playing video games, reading a variety of fiction genres (primarily fantasy, queer romance, and manga and graphic novels of all kinds), and working on wrangling their own personal data archiving projects occupy most of their free time. Xe is also proud to announce xyr graduation from a crocheting a single scarf to crocheting several scarves and other projects.

Links: Bluesky

This is Catherine’s first time contributing as a writer to a Duck Prints Press anthology, but xe were an editor on our anthology Aim For The Heart: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Alexandre Dumas’s “The Three Musketeers”, and xe are also an editor for Aether Beyond the Binary. Xyr short story Of Loops and Weaves is linked above.

An Interview with Catherine E. Green

How did you pick the name you create under?

Catherine is my meatspace name. The E. Green is an homage to my grandmother, who is herself a writer and poet and someone I look to for writing advice and inspiration. She was my first beta when I was first starting to write, and I cannot thank her enough for her loving support.

Are you a pantser, a planner, or a planster? What’s your process look like?

I’m somewhere in between a pantser and a planster. I usually go into writing something with some overarching idea (like a theme or a shape of a scene) and begin the actual act of writing with setting the scene. However, if the words aren’t coming, before I resolve to try again another day, I try writing something somewhere in the middle of the narrative – just to try to trick my brain into cooperating with me. This will sometimes lead to some internal consistencies in my writing (which one reason I love editing so much – love, love, love it), but it gets words on the page, which is often my biggest hurdle.

What do the phrases “writer’s block” or “art block” mean to you?

Writer’s block, to me, is when the filters my anxiety has built up in my mind sufficient block my creative output. It’s when I question every word I put on the page to the point where nothing I write feels worth keeping, much less moving on from. I don’t know that it’s ever something I’ll be able to work through, but I’m trying our being kinder with myself and addressing my mental health issues to see if both combined help reduce how long my writer’s block lasts for. Here’s hoping!

What are your favorite resources and tools for your craft? 

iPad with a magic keyboard, Google Docs, and either Notepad or some sticky notes for things I want to bear in mind while I’m writing. I’ve tried Scrivener and similar software, but I’ve never vibed with any of them.

What is your “dream project” – the thing you’d see as the culmination of your work as a creator?

I wrote a short story during my undergraduate studies that still have a fondness for to this day. It’s contemporary fantasy-type thing set in a lonely, not-quite-haunted cul-de-sac, where the lights and people seem to fade in and out of existence. It’s about identity, companionship among people who come from very different backgrounds, and the importance of language in how it shapes identity and relationships. I want to expand the work into a novel at some point, if I can, but we’ll see.

Tell us about your pet(s).

I have a 6-year-old tuxedo cat named Yennefer (yes, the reference). My brother and I adopted her a couple years ago from a small rural animal shelter. At the time, the shelter had given her the name Jennifer, so Yennefer was hardy a jump at all. And, goodness, does she have the personality to match. She’s my energetic boo-boo head, who likes to sleep on my bookshelves and knock over my coffee, and I love her to bits.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Try to write a little bit every day, even if it’s only a hundred words. The period of time when I was writing everyday was when I felt the best about my writing and when I felt like I was most capable shutting down the filters in my brain that make it difficult to write.

If you could give one piece of advice to a new creator who came to you for help, what would that advice be?

1) Read, read, read. Read a little bit of everything: fiction, non-fiction, fantasy, mystery, science fiction, history, etc. Read about writing. Read works by people whose style you vibe with and those by people whose style you don’t. Every bit of reading helps build a scaffold onto which you can hang your own ideas and words, and having a more stable scaffolding, and more stable foundation can only help your writing improve.

2) Learn how to talk about your writing, especially once you get to a point where you’re engaging the services of alphas, betas, and editors. The writer and the editor work best together when there can be open dialogue, and open dialogue is only possible when all parties involved can talk about the work in a productive way.

3) Figure out the kind of environment you work best in, whether that includes music or white noise or nothing, what kind of device you prefer typing on or if you prefer hand-writing, whether you work best in long stretches every so often or in short, frequent stretches, and so on. Try to craft your perfect writing space.

4) Writing is a skill one can work on improving over the course of an entire life. There is no end-point at which you are suddenly a good writer. Every word you write is a small step toward better your writing in one way or another, so try not to become too frustrated with yourself if you don’t feel like you’re improving. You are—I promise.

Catherine’s Contribution to Aether Beyond the Binary

Title: To Hold the World Close

Excerpt:

Very much unlike the typical saying “Sending along warm thoughts” and its various approximations, which often convey a rather intangible, often perfunctory, sentiment, Adrienne surrounds the swirling mass of fear, embarrassment, and grief with a warmth of xyr own. It’s the warmth of a community coming together to bring someone up from their knees; it’s the wondrous comfort of a light breeze and a spot of shade on an otherwise murderous hot summer day; it’s the pleasant touch of a loved one. I can’t be with you, my dear, not in person, but please take some measure of comfort from me, if you can, and seek out those who love you.

[sytokun]

If I may ask, I a bit curious on the timeline of your Rwby rewrite project, you made videos on a Rwby rewrite before but with a different name(s because I can’t remember if it had more than one name) What changed with the name? In fact what change about production after the details video about a Rwby rewrite(hopefully you know what I talking about) It ok if it just speak in general terms than any details, just interest in your process!

This is a good opportunity to talk about my history with RWBY AUs from start to finish, so thanks for this ask.

I first got infected with the AU bug during Volume 3, when shit started going down in Episode 6 and my mind was abuzz thinking about how the story was going to unfold. This led me to create Shattered Tomorrow, which was about the predicted events and aftermath of the Fall of Beacon.

This later moved to RWBY: Visions, which was just a catch-all term that my other AUs would be grouped into at the time (much like how Star Wars: Visions is a collection of AUs, oddly enough). I made a few videos of it, as well as a subreddit which is now dead since I transitioned my community to YouTube instead, where this sort of AU/rewrite content reaches more people.

However, I soon released a video that more or less kickstarted my RWBYTubing days in earnest: RWBY Needs A New Beginning. The large positive reception I got for it led me to create a Discord server to discuss the project, at which point it grew into a community group project, and was renamed into RWBY: Cherish.

However, it was my first time leading a community project, so it encountered numerous fatal hurdles - namely the "too many cooks" problem. Everyone was pitching idea, writing docs and proposing characters to populate the world, but none of it was translating into real, tangible results. It lost steam about a year in and I grew disillusioned, especially after the conclusion of Volume 6. I was very close to dropping the show and leaving the fandom entirely.

I decided to step away and took a month-long break from the project and anything RWBY. It took me a while for me to recentre myself and start looking at my ideas again without premature outside influence. What did I really want from this project? Why do I keep returning to it?

I started sketching again, reclaiming pride in my own ideas again. Then, I discovered Cold Kingdom's album, which sparked my first real concepts for what would become RWBY: Remnants. But at the time, I created these under the placeholder title: We Are The Hunt.

I started gaining confidence in my creative self again, and I regained motivation to start over; more importantly, I got back my love for RWBY, and it was here I realised that I'll never be truly able to leave it behind until I put out my version of it for the world. I put everything I knew about this new AU into a few illustrations, used a song I liked that conveyed the tone I pictured, edited them together, and finally released the first trailer for RWBY: Remnants.

For the first time, I had put out the ideas in my head into something tangible, something real. Something I could watch and share with others. It wasn't just a video of abstract promises, of me talking about how cool it would be in concept. Why spend all that effort describing something with the same effort I could use to make it a reality?

I realised that while others enjoyed my ideas and were passionate enough to help with it, I was the only person who could be responsible for it, and only I knew what I wanted it to be. With all those lessons in mind, I went ahead and launched RWBY: Remnants.

It's been a journey of over 6 years now, and it's still going. People who dismiss my AU work so far as a string of failed projects fail to realise that creation is an ever-changing thing. It changes its nature along with the person making it. Someone who makes something that's the same from start to finish has not learned anything about it or themselves from the process - they're making something stagnant, and a stagnant work reflects its creator.

I can't say that I'll stick with my RWBY AU forever, especially given RWBY's uncertain future, or even that I'll be able to finish all I wanted to accomplish. But as long as I'm still doing it, I've not regretted a single second.

This may be a project based on RWBY, but it's RWBY told through my own eyes. I count myself very lucky that a lot of people want to see me make it a reality, so I hope by telling it, I can inspire other people that they can do the same. You don't have to be a giant company or a team of hundred.

In my case, I just needed a small group I could trust to help me make it happen, and a lot of time. I'm grateful for that.

The one thing I learned the most in this experience is one word: Resolve. It's not a glorious, inspirational thing: I'm not pushing myself over a mountaintop or running a heartstopping marathon: but somehow, in spite of myself, I just draw a little every week.

I tell myself I shouldn't give up - not because of right or wrong - but because I know this is something that I will always return to. Something that will always welcome me back. Something about RWBY and this project constantly draws me back into it, like an unanswered question. It's an unusual drive I don't expect others to have, but whatever it is, something like that may exist for you in another form. I don't know if you wanna call it a life calling or whatever, but it's just... the thing you keep coming back to. It's like your inclination; your nature.

If I'm a pencil, it's in my nature to draw or write, even if I only take myself out of the drawer every month or so to do it. It doesn't change my character or my morals. I just do the thing, and the thing feels right to do.

6 years on, that's what working on this project feels to me at this point. Part of me wants to prove something to myself, and to share something with the world. But I think with enough consideration, I can probably live without those things. But even without them... I'm still going to do the thing. Because it feels right to do the thing. I like doing RWBY things, and I don't see a reason to stop anytime soon.

[sketch-shepherd-art]

so aside from Sytke Ardus, I have created MANY RWBY OC's over the years that I don't talk about much often outside of Discord. Figured I'd just do a masterpost of them and talk about them all here. And yeah ALL of them are Faunus... don't judge

Also disclaimer, EVERYTHING here except for the last pic is not my art, they are drawings/edits I commissioned my friend @laytonesqueautistic to do

Anyway, all character bios under the cut. From left to right, top to bottom

Faolan Ossory and Aetos Dios: a wolf Faunus and an eagle Faunus respectively, and Sytke's two other friends. The two of them, Sytke, and Ilia form team SAIF (pronounced "safe", as it's named after the star Saiph on the constellaion Orion). Two Faunus orphans that have supported each other's backs all their lives living as partners in Menagerie. Faolan is the more socially awkward and airheaded of the duo, while Aetos is cautious, paranoid, and not much of a risk taker. Faolan is based on the Irish werewolves of Ossory (his semblance called “Wolfwalker” is the ability to take on the ghostly form of a wolf whenever he's knocked unconscious), and Aetos is named after + based on Zeus' eagle in Greek mythology

Magenta Rogue and Caliber Pantera- actually RWBY versions of my Hazbin/Helluva OC's Raiya and Colt. A romantic spotted hyena and jaguar couple, and former White Fang members. However they worked for Adam moreso out of necessity and survival than a desire for revenge (though that WAS still part of their main goal at the time). Ever since they abandoned the Fang they've struggled to get by until they found a decent home with new friends in Menagerie (yeah I guess this type of RWBY OC is kind of cliche but whatever, was the best thing I could think of for them)

Bruce Thlayli- inspired by Bigwig/Thlayli from the book Watership Down, a rabbit Faunus (his animal trait is his front teeth) who also once worked for Adam as one of his high-ranking second in commands. Unlike Magenta and Caliber, Bruce voluntarily and actively supported Adam until he gradually became more and more disgusted of his leader’s homicidal actions. His rough falling out with Adam led him to have an often harsh and aggressive, but often well-meaning demeanor. He currently still works with the White Fang, but the reformed version under Ghira's new leadership. He now serves as a drill sergeant for a new and improved White Fang military division for both Huntsmen and non-Huntsmen alike.

Busa Simba, Alma Catori, Silver Fujiwara, and Cincy Sandleford- an all-Faunus team from Vacuo that form Team BASC. They're all really just an excuse for me to have RWBY OC's based on my favorite animal xenofiction, full info about them can be found on my Google Doc here

Faye Ruzizi-Gustafson, Wilkins Savo, Kuro Kuma, Champa Corbett, and Val Savo- ok last group of OC's that have some relevance to the White Fang I swear. A lot of their story is centered around my canon-divergent AU involving Sytke which I've talked about before in different posts, but basically they're a cult of Adam-worshipping Faunus called the Red Fang (edgy as that sounds) that want to honor Adam's legacy and bring back his old homicidal ways, and serve as a main source of conflict for Team SAIF in my AU. They are all themed after irl animal serial killers known for attacking humans. Faye is based on Gustave the crocodile, Wilkins and Val are brothers based on the man-eating lions of Tsavo, Kuro Kuma (the leader) is based on Kesagake the Sankebetsu brown bear, and Champa is based on the Champawat Tigress.

Florence Cuta- basically a secondary RWBYsona for myself (first one being my goat Faunus girl Lara Ziege). She's a vicious spotted hyena Faunus who works at a shady bar in Mistral that's actually a hideout spot for underground criminal operations. And she thinks Cinder and Tyrian are very attractive, definitely not a self projection in any way shhh

[sobbingdistantnoises]

🐶🐧🌕

he do know what this means but buttons!

and i like “hearing” you talk

!!!! AAAAAA, thank you thank you thank you KK for the ask!! <33 Very very glad my rambling entertains you :))

Now prepare for. QUITE A LOT of said rambling as apparently I've written more for this ask than I have in 3 weeks of school, ahaha. I am not obsessed at all with Hermitcraft, no. Definitely not

🐶 - What hermits do you watch?

A bit of question clarification first, just in case: the "hermits" are the YouTubers who play on the Minecraft server named Hermitcraft. There's around 25ish? of them, so it's practically impossible to watch every single video every single one of them puts out (whether just the Hermitcraft related ones or not). Their videos all also typically feature completely different content since even with collabs, they have their own projects to work on within the server, hence this question's existence

At the current moment, I'm watching everything/near everything by Grian, EthosLab (Etho), Xisumavoid (Xisuma or X), and DocM77 (Doc), Hermitcraft related or not

I've been watching Grian since like 2018, which is before he even joined Hermitcraft, and I can pretty safely say I've watched like 99% of his videos sans his MCC ones and his streams. Looking back, I think I stole like half my personality from him because of how young I was when I started watching him, which. I'm okay with </3 He's fairly chaotic in general with pranks and wars (Every season. EVERY SEASON, he somehow instigates a war. S6 Civil War. S6 Hippies VS Area 77. S7 Mycelium Resistance. S9 Buttercups. Evolution SMP (server he was on before Hermitcraft) Grian Empire VS Taurtis Republic) and stuff which I find very fun in general. I actually have started a few wars myself within friend groups inspired by him, which is kinda fun to look back on and see the influence, sldfjskdj. I also BUILT A (knockoff version of) HIS EVO BASE ON MY MINECRAFT WORLD WHEN I WAS YOUNGER. (I coerced my sister into helping empty some of the water against her will when I got tired but it was mostly me, SHHH.) That whole Minecraft world itself is honestly a knockoff of Evo that's mixed with Hermitcraft + my own inability to play minecraft, sldfjskld. I just honestly cannot emphasize how much of an impact he made on me, like WOAH. Magic :)

Etho, it feels sometimes that I started watching him relatively recently in comparison to Grian, but at the same time, it has been. 3 YEARS. I started watching him in S7 of Hermitcraft because of Resource Gathering, which is a remix song someone named Elybeatmaker did of his voice in his first S7 episode that I once again absolutely adore after re-getting into Hermitcraft, although I definitely knew OF him a lot earlier. It was again through Elybeatmaker songs, which I am just now realizing. Basically, I found Elybeatmaker around the endish of S5 of Hermitcraft (about 2018, from memory?), and I basically listened to all of his songs, which included a few that were Etho remixes (Hopper Dropper my beloved <3). There was also a few months later the diss track made by Team Star in S6 for the civil war plot that was going on, which had a line saying "I'm a legend of the NHO, with Etho, Beef, and Double O". That line is a reference to Doc, Etho, VintageBeef, and BdoubleO's POVs of S5 when they lived in a jungle and did jungle stuff that had some sort of plot? It's still on my to-watch list, so I can't say exactly what happened, but from what I've gathered over time, there was a cult or something, and the jungle wanted to eat them (????). But my story with him is essentially that his voice and existence were in some of my favorite songs for 2 whole years before I ever watched one of his episodes. Which is. weirdly fitting to me? Etho in general does a lot of stuff chill-ly in a chaotic way. Like, his voice is very calm, but you then pause the video randomly and notice that his shovel is named "Cooked Dirt Smells Good", and he never acknowledges it. I had a lot of "why didn't I watch his stuff earlier" at the start of S7, lskjdflsk

Okay wow, this is getting very long already. Oooooops. May attempt to shorten other hermits, sldkfjsdl, we shall see if that's even possible for me

Xisuma!! I started watching him in probably S5? I genuinely can't remember how I discovered him, but but some of the first videos that I watched from him were a bunch of these bonus Hermitcraft episodes featuring the character "Evil X". I absolutely adored them, and I actually rewatched them all a few days ago and still consider really fun, dsljflskdj. They're kinda corny, but they're silly and well made and make me happy, so :) Evil X my BELOVED. (He may or may not be afraid of flowers.) The only season I actually watched all of Xisuma's POV of is S3 a few years ago because Evil X first appeared in S3, but I've sporadically watched his newer Hermitcraft episodes as well as pretty much all his weekly snapshot update videos (informational videos covering new things added to Minecraft), so I count that, slkdfjlsk. Also also!! I realized a while ago now that the first Metallica song I listened to wasn't Seek and Destroy like I thought but Xisuma's cover of Ride the Lightning!! Which I find very cool in retrospect, haha. I found a lot of songs in general from him when I was 11/12, mostly from a video he put out that was a compilation of his time lapses, and those were some of the very first songs I actually listened to as songs to enjoy, so him and music mix very well in my brain <3. (I feel like thta video might be where I found his stuff with Evil X actually?? My memories are not in order whatsoever </3) And he also HAS AN ALBUM OUT!! WHICH WAS RECENT!! AND VERY COOL!! It has such floaty vibes, and aaaa <33

And DOC. He has vaguely been in the background for me since S6 when he was kind of the "leader" of Team Star against Grian and the G-Team during the civil war plotline, but I started actually watching him a few weeks ago because of the sheer INSANITY he displayed in current storyline that's going on with Doc VS the Buttercups. He's like, breaking the whole game so calmly, he SCARES ME and I am INTRIGUED. In my first episode of his that I watched, he was talking about block updates and other things that were flying over my head, and suddenly there was a single nether portal block sitting there which isn't supposed to be REAL, and I had to pause the video and whisper-scream "what" over and over again for a few minutes, slkdjlsdj

That's the hermits I currently watch, BUT. I'm really tempted to talk more about the others who I used to watch a lot but have since slowed on watching. I think I will do it :)

Mumbo Jumbo (MUMBO)! I think he was the first hermit whose Hermitcraft episodes I watched, starting in S5. I'm pretty sure I started watching Grian a bit earlier (think days-weeks), but he wasn't in Hermitcraft back then, SO. One of the earliest episodes I remember watching of his was S5 episode 119 because he used the Elybeatmaker remix "Stupid" in it which I got promptly obsessed with <3 I think I overall watch more of his one off redstone (which is like wires and electricity but in Minecraft) videos than his Hermitcraft stuff (I've also apparently learned nothing from watching them, redstone is hard :( ), but I've still watched stuff from him for a scary amount of time so he is here to be mentioned :)

Scar Scar Scar, Good Times With Scar, another hermit who I watched a lot of in S5 then kinda dropped off of watching as much (though his Life Series POVs are some of the POVs I'm in the process of watching) but who I still see a lot of in collabs. He had a bunch of S5 episodes in which he collaborated with another hermit, Cubfan135 (Cub), to make the ConVex, and they pranked basically everyone on the server at some point. I need to rewatch those actually, sldkfjallj (UPDATE, STARTED WATCHING WHILE TYPING, OHHHH, THE LITTLE JINGLE THING FEELS SO NOSTALGIC,,, <3). Scar is also just. really inspirational in general. And also his cat Jellie was actually added into the game :)

TangoTek (Tango)!! I haven't watched his Hermitcraft videos very much, but his bases are always so cool to me (S5 base my beloved, it's like the classic Tango base to me <3 It's this giant ring of hell with evil dark red towers), I used to wait very eagerly for videos about the Minecraft Mod about villagers he was coding (which was happening before Minecraft added the update where they overhauled villages), and in seasons 7 and 9 (current), he's been making a minigame called Decked Out within the game. Which is. SO COOL. Like, he literally made this giant dungeon crawler game inside of Minecraft for S7. And then in S9, he decided to make it BIGGER??? It's still a WIP but I'm so excited for it to be done :)) Decked Out 1 was already so cool, and I at some point even tried to make a list of statistics about various Hermits' runs (failed and gave up due to project scale but shh), slkdjflas. I really want to watch his S9 stuff to find out how it works (and then fail because redstone hard but again shhh), just haven't yet like all the other stuff I haven't watched because of time </3 [UPDATE IN THE TWO DAYS SINCE I WROTE THAT: I have watched 6 of his most recent episodes and am in love with them :] ]

This one question is getting alarmingly long, so just one final hermit unless I've forgotten someone fundamental, but!! Pearl! Or Pearlescentmoon :) She is another hermit who I've kind of been meaning to watch more of, but she is very fun from what I've seen from her POVs of another Minecraft series known as the Life Series. She's also kind of interesting to me because technically I've again known OF her for a very long time, probably longer than most of the Hermits, I'm guessing? She did a few episodes on the Evolution SMP which I loved very very much (her builds were genuinely so cool even back then, like WHAT), and I've kind of always known her as the person who is really really good at building organic things and creatures. She appears on Grian's older videos quite a bit, either helping him with building stuff or sometimes as a judge for Build Swap (game Grian used to play within minecraft a bunch) in which she was always building small cute things to the side which I found really eeee <3, so it's really cool to me that she's in Hermitcraft now after being added in S8 :) SLDfjksskdj, I want to set aside more time to watch her stuff so badly </3

🐧 - What is your favorite season?

Oh, this is MEAN, I've never actually thought about this before? Usually I just go along with the passage of time, so my current favorite thing tends to be whatever is going on now + some individual stand out events from seasons past, BUT. That being said, I thought about this question more than I usually do before answering, and I landed at season 6.

I think that's a pretty common season to have as a favorite; it's the first season Grian was a part of (who a lot of people were introduced to Hermitcraft by) and where the more "modern" Hermitcraft took off with the bigger focus on unscripted storylines that span a few episodes

However, for me, I think I'm picking S6 because this season is the only season where I've been in a kind of defined Hermitcraft fan community? There were a whole bunch of us on Wattpad that evolved into a whole Hermitpad with a discord and stuff, and while I didn't write or draw stuff that I shared, I actually COMMENTED on stuff. Which was weirdly rare for me for a long time because Wattpad had (past tense now) a newsfeed feature that you could basically use to stalk what who you followed were reading and I was oddly paranoid of that, lsdfjklsl. And I had INTERACTIONS there on Hermitpad!! Which was very cool!! And I think I've only been in 3ish fandoms where I did that, if I'm counting right? Which makes it all even more special to me :)

I'm honestly just kinda sad that I can't really look back at it since I'm pretty sure either (1) Wattpad deleted a lot of the accounts involved with it due to the passage of time without activity or (2) accounts and stories got buried under other stories because of dumb algorithm choices due to he passage of time once again. But there were a lot of good memories there :)

Hermitpad itself felt a lot more creative than the other fandoms I saw stuff for, like. We had minigames (I ran one of these!! I'm pretty sure the account got deleted, but it was based on a minigame from Hermitcraft called Demise and I loved it <3), we had accounts that acted as characters from Hermitcraft like Poultry Man (not an actual Hermit, but he has Hermitcraft related "lore" (appearances) and is definitely not just Grian) and whoever else, we had a Hermitpad Recap modeled after the Hermitcraft Recap YouTube account which basically recapped new fics, updated fics, milestones, etc people in the community got

It was overall just a really nice community which made my experience watching S6 just so much more connected, so go season 6 as my favorite apparently :) Carried by something completely outside of the control of what was happening on the actual SMP, OOPS

🌕 - What is your favorite Hermitcraft build?

OH, THIS IS SO MEAN ONCE AGAIN. It is a good thing I actually took time to think before writing these, slkdjfslkj. I've probably forgotten something really important, but one of the first things that came to my mind was Etho's S7 base, aka the Monstrosity, so I'm going with that!

Etho has a really unique way of building that he really expanded on with this build, like. He builds what he wants to build at the current moment, so the base is like, interior and exterior at the same time, and it has no real outside walls and is all inside but is also sometimes outside? And it was also completely unplanned, it was done one section at a time. That's like, the best way to explain it, sldkfjlksj, I think it turned out really cool though :)

But I think another part of why I like it is the way it was built throughout his episodes? It might be the smaller scale of the build or how he used less big timelapses like I'm used to with Grian and instead cut between snippets of him building in first person with noteblock music in the background, but it always felt kinda personal if that makes sense, sldkjflsj. I was always really attached to it and liked seeing stuff added to it :)

Screenshots!! + a video of me walking around it on the world download because the transitions between the areas are some of the coolest that have been made on Hermitcraft

[tigereyes45]

I'm posting this 4 days late haha. Sorry. Here's a Mckirk Meet Ugly for Trektober 2023 Day 17.

Summary:

When Jim saw a fight in an alley he assumed a couple of troublemakers were getting into it. He didn't expect a stab wound, and meeting one of the warmest people he'll ever know.

Preview of story:

Those blue eyes rise to look straight into Jim’s soul. “It’s deeper than I had hoped. I need to get you back to my starship where I can treat you.”

Jim lets out a low chuckle. “Lead the way, doc.”

The doctor lowers his head. His fingers rip off the bottom front of his shirt. With purpose, he folds the cloth and presses it against Jim’s wound. “Problem is. I don’t have a ride.”

“I took a shuttle for shore leave. It’s right down the block.”

With a curt nod, the doctor stands. He heaves Jim up with a bit more ease. How had he been losing? Was he just that shit at fighting? Jim gently brushes two fingers along his cheek. He could feel the bruise growing. Blue eyes move away. “I’m sorry.” Whispers the doctor.

“If you’re sorry, then tell me your name.” Jim goads, replacing the doctor’s hand on the makeshift bandage with his own.

“McCoy.” The doctor answers, wrapping Jim’s right arm over his shoulders. “Leonard McCoy.”

“I’m Kirk.” Jim goes to hold out his hand. The bandage starts to slip off, so he gives up and presses it back into place. “James T. Kirk.”

[guesswhattimeitis]

WIP Game

Oh my god I know you didn't you know what you were opening with this @kalevalakryze but I'm happy to oblige:

Wip Game Rules: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

So. Uh I'll list them here, but just a warning some of these are not fanfic wips they're original works, or for other projects, and not all of them are longer than a couple sentences, but here you are!

Files:

New Moon

List of WIPs (this one is not complete but includes WIPs that aren't any place but my mind)

D&D Planning

Kaori Project

KH Story

Lancer Fic

Shep/Miranda

Snippets

Field Guide: House of Lanterns (lots of overlap here with Lancer Fic)

battlegroup

Cyberpunk Lich

Ttrpg deck building

Dnd/Spelljammer (overlap with D&D Planning)

Shatterstar

Scars Old and New

Princesses

Sidari doc

Streamer Caitlyn

Pixie Knight

Kae meets Annalise

Femme Knight

Star Wars WIP

Aethesium Notepad

Aethesium Eyes

Aethesium Start and Outline (these 3 are obviously related lol)

Eyeshine

Ilium Ball

Snippets/Close

At The Predetermined Time

Kurinth

Shepard's Bad Month

Nemesis

Welcome Home

Parallel

Cold Hearts

Poker Face

Promise

Shawson Outline

Armored Heart

Haircut

Liara Changed

A Careful Touch

Takeoff

Core Testing Initiative LaaC (a wip for someone else's au)

Claire de Lune LaaC

Android Glados WIP

Butterfly Brigade

First Day

A Little Secret

Haruka and Michiru Make a Mistake

3 Times

Forest story name to change

Forehead kisses

Smooth stone flagstones

And technically I have MORE if you can believe it, though many are either very old and I wouldn't continue or they have nothing actually written down yet and only exist in my head. (Some of these last ones are pretty old already)

I don't know 54 writers, on tumblr or otherwise. So um if you see this and want to do it go ahead, and tag me! And don't be afraid to send me an ask to see one of these!

@opossum-knight I want to see your wips list

[sherrifdoggo]

The Map's Setting, A History

Long Talky One Again, this time it's gonna get autobiographical.

So, as i've eluded to in the past, the map (rp_chicago, see previous posts) is not say in our 1930s. It's set in my funny lore setting that i've been cultivating for the past few years that even though has had more abandonded projects tied to it than i can count still doesn't have a name that isn't a working title.

Ladies, Gentlemen and Etceras, It is my honor to present my baby to the world,

The Staten Island Universe

Yes the name sucks and makes you ask more questions than a title should, but there's a fun story behind the bizarre name i promise. Anyways here i go.

The beginings of the Staten Island universe started back in my highschool days, when i used to DM some D&D for a big friend group i had. One day, after playing too much Grand Theft Auto on my PS4 (This was in 2017? or so i think), i had a moment where the stars aligned.

What if i made a D&D campaign set in a modern crime story, without removing all the D&D elements.

And so it was, i never finished it, but we did play an unfinished version of it a couple times and it was very enjoyable. Specially the quest where you had to kill a bard with an electric guitar in the abandoned times square toys-r-us.

Unluckly, me sucking at math caused my grades to slump and now i had less time to make more D&D shit, and ended up throwing the whole project away in the dreaded vault of dead projects.

Now skipping ahead a couple years and it's my last semester of high school, in 2020. So i'm locked in my room pretending to be paying attention to whatever the teacher was saying (maybe related to my slumped grades from above) and making a new D&D campaign that my friends and i were gonna run over the internet this time. The plot of it was unimportant but what was important was my recent (at the time) acquisition of my current computer and a vr headset.

Before i got the VR headset, and around the time I upgraded from a ok-ish Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop to this thing, i was making a really shit gmod map.

Stallen Island i called it,

and it was my headcannon version of what the missing part of New York City (Staten Island) would look like in GTA IV's map, of course with nowhere near the amount of skill and art-direction to pull it off in fucking Gmod, but i tried my best.

Eventually i got bored of making this map, and/or ran out of ideas for it so i receded into doing whatever it is i did for fun back then. Until my high school friends contacted me over the internet.

They wanted to play some more D&D over the internet, so i obliged. I made them a new campaign and had a silly little idea for it. What if all the maps for it were actually gmod maps instead of PNGs.

These are my only published maps, The D&D map collection.

Info about them individually on their pictures, but i did actually get to play it with them and they enjoyed it very much.

But...

Around the same time i had finally gotten my VR Headset. And i'd been playing a lot of Skyrim VR, which influenced the design of this D&D campaign. Specifically I inserted my Khajiit into it, Mr. Ralasajeeno as a Theif.

But all this is just autobiographical shit right what does this have to do with the big name you put in yellow up there?

Well one night i was writting more shit for the campaign when it hit like how the best ideas hit you, blasting directly into your brain at 3AM.

I remembered the other D&D campaign again, and i revived it as a really big design doc i still have on my computer for a open world crime sandbox game that plays like a mix of GTA and D&D / Skyrim, A.K.A. a game that would cost too much time and money for me to ever make.

Every day, i would wake up and add more and more lore, characters, ideas for situations, missions, locations, items and it would grow so god damn big that eventually i felt like i had to make something for it.

So i had an idea, how about i make a new version of that map i mentioned earlier.

It's name was Staten Island, and it fucking rocked

Staten Island was the biggest map i ever made, and i never really finished it.

Not because of a lack of ideas, because i had plenty of ideas for it, i just outgrew it. Though it forever holds a part in my heart as the map that really kickstarted the Staten Island Universe as it's own thing. Many of the things written down in the lore for it are direct from either me needing assets for the map or questions people would ask while playing on it.

Afterwards there were a couple more Modern Staten Island Universe maps. Pictures Here:

Finally, how does Chicago fit into all this?

Well after a really long time of making smaller maps that didn't go anywhere, making other types of addons and being a support dev for other people's addons, i finally had a good idea for a map again.

This map was the current map, Chicago.

I had the idea while playing lots of Mafia: Definitive Edition a couple months back and having a grand old time.

I always wanted to do something in the past of the Staten Island Universe, so the idea was to make this map and then make a couple more maps.

Each map would pick a different time period and location, moving slowly towards today. Chicago is step one of this plan and unlike all these other maps, i do intend on sticking with this one all the way to the finish line.

trust me bro, i swear

please trust me

[thelordofgifs]

Right so if I tell you all about my silm wips, then I'm obligated to actually write them at some stage! so here's a non-exhaustive (because I keep coming up with ideas) list to guilt me into doing some writing:

First of all is the tentatively titled the fairest stars, the unhinged bullet point thing I'm partway through posting on tumblr. currently the main project because it's possessed me.

Half-finished documents include:

all the world lay then in wonder, a tiny little thing about the first rising of the Moon. hasn't been worked on for a while because Curufin was being a bitch.

the untitled thing whose doc name is Himring, in which Maedhros yells at C&C re: Nargothrond Incident. hasn't been worked on for a while because Curufin was being a bitch. hmm. my vision for this thing is a several-thousand word one-shot filled with complicated brotherly relationships and the ominous sound of the approaching Nirnaeth.

The Unburied, an actual multi-chapter because my ambition knows no bounds. canon-compliant longfic covering the time from the ship-burning at Losgar to the rising of the Sun, povs Fingon and Maglor. currently two chapters in, but I'm determined not to publish until it's fully drafted.

Then there's the Sticky Note, a list of ideas I spend far too long daydreaming about but haven't actually started writing yet. except now I'm telling you about them so I have to!

boats against the current is an AU where Maedhros doesn't swear the Oath. I have the plot of the first part of this, and the overarching theme, fairly figured out, but whenever I try to write the first sentence ("What are you doing?", ftr) it goes wrong. very fond of it though.

The Returned is the sequel to The Unburied, which probably means it will never get written. a fairly standard post-Thangorodrim longfic. I love daydreaming this one.

no morning glory mostly exists in my head because I love the title (it's from a Taylor Swift song). A Russingon WW1 AU. only problem is, I know nothing about WW1 :)

some sort of thing about Maedhros and Maglor post-Dagor Bragollach. unsure if I'll ever write this, I just have a very clear image in my head of one scene which means it can't be taken off the list.

Little Pity, an AU where the Eagle arrives after Fingon has killed Maedhros on Thangorodrim. yeah idk what to do with that really. it's on the Sticky Note, though.

something about why Elros makes his Choice, various influences on him as he grows up. an excuse for some kidnap fam history lessons.

an untitled longfic about Celebrimbor in Nargothrond. mainly because Tyelpe and Finduilas deserve to be besties. also fun exploration of Tyelpe's relationship with his father. and Huan will be there. absolutely NOT to be even TOUCHED before The Unburied is finished.

as small as a world, the story of Elwing and Earendil growing up in a refugee camp at the end of the world. the Sea is basically a third main character here. my vision for this, which I am almost certainly not competent enough to execute, features plenty of Idril, complicated politics on Balar, childhood trauma, and Sirion as this multicultural hub that's the last hope of Elvendom in Beleriand and it's so tragic that it even exists but its resilience brings tears to your eyes. also you should taste salt the entire time you're reading. can't even be DAYDREAMED about until The Unburied is finished.

a very very tragic oneshot about Celebrimbor meeting Maglor for the last time in Eregion. haven't done anything about this bc I'm not sure it's even canonically possible. it makes me tear up sometimes though.

Ashes is a missing moment from between the only two written chapters of The Unburied. Maedhros, post-Losgar. I adore him so unsure how long my self-control will last before I snap and write this.

[niceinchnails]

tell me about your project plans so far my friend......

TY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ok i revamped it from two earlier stories there are 3 stages to the production of this project with possibly many more to come. i think this infos like necessary to understand how much this projects like in limbo. and ill tell you all about it

the joke story. in this stage the title was "the chlilds wish" (typo included. during 7th grade inside joke me and my friends (theres 4 of us) bullshitted in a messy google docs and tried to make as funny as possible (it wasnt btw But its charming and nostalgic in its own way i guess) and from there came the characters sprinkles nugget and candy jade and tree x and a bunch others. The story basically involved a lot of shitty inside jokes and also some silly self inserts we made U get the deal we were in middle school making friendships. Pictured below is nugget (green) candy (pink) and sprinkles (blue)

2. 7-8th grade things start to get srs around this point. the title for the story @ this stage is "hazelquest". Me and my friends (3 of us now, the 4th one moved to a different class wah) are starting to come up with elaborate plots and arcs for them and we came up with a plot about the main character sprinkles and his siblings (candy + nugget) living in tihs library/house hybrid. and sprinkles on his somethingteenth birthday made a magic wish for a special quest (ALSO around this time we came up with the last name hazelquest) to prove himself and he got one somehow. and his quest was to like find the missing gemstones for this huge magic tree cause the world was like...corrupted or something and bringing the gemstones back would uncorrupt it or something. the main antagonist was the void and the antihero or villain i forgor was my bestie's oc theo. i forgot most of the plot LOL but here were some cover ideas i had

as you can see it was a lot more fantasy based before with like magic and spells and stuff it was more urban fantasyish than it is now lol. also heres nugget candy and tree x in my very fandomy artstyle

heres theo + the old design for the void #swell #marvelous

around 9th grade we started getting bored of the story and we realized we were never gonna finish it so we just slowly quit LOL. Until

3. da revampening

this is the BIGGEST change by far its borderline unrecognizable when you compare it to story 1. so basically i listened to a song around 9th gradeish and i had such a moment i was like wait. i rememebr this story. so i ask my friends if they would let me take the story for my own since theyre not interested in working on it anymore and they said YES!!!!!!!!! and one of my friends pulled their characters from the story which was fine by me + my bestie gave me full rights to do whatever i want w his oc theo. So here we are rn. eventually SPRINKLES turned into MILO, CANDY turned into "soon to be renamed", NUGGET turned to my silly fucking rabbit valentine. jade turned into jaiden (whos nickname is jade and thats almost all they ever called her so theres little change there) and tree x became TRIXIE! valentine and trixie pictured below im sure youve seen them before probablu. also i dont have a name for this one yet

and the history lessons done now #evolution so ill tell you the actual current things i have in mind so far. Literally all of this is subject to change i could be lying about any of this OR it could be the finalized ideas . Neither of us could ever know

SPACE + MAGIC (SETTING)

theres gonna be space Theres gonna be so much stars and planets and galaxy you have no idear . Im kind of lessening the magic and spells and stuff 4 this new story purely cause im just not into that kinda stuff anumore but IDK if theres gonna be minimal magic. like there might be runes and stuff but in a more astral stars galazy kind of way rather than an ancient wizards and staffs and spells kind of way. i might make it more scientific but put a lottttttt of artistic license into the science so the storys kinda magical but being ambigious abt it.

for the setting, its gonna take place in their universe's equivalent of our solar system probably? like earth and venus and saturn and mars and all of those but earths gonna be like different like the placement of the continents and culture and stuff its also present-day ish also theres some mythology and god involved somewhere. IN THIS UNIVERSE theres like this place AND group of characters called the "astral". so theres the VOID (I havent removed the void from this story because i still like it) and theres the GODHEART which is the heart of the entire universe its so HUGE and fleshy at the same time (which i think is a byproduct of this phase i had when i was 14 where i was obsessed with flesh and meat and stuff i think you were there for it). there MIIIIIIGHT be a huge universe tree in this story jic i wanna revive some of stage 2s plot but in the meantime im still thinkin abt it

2. PLOT

i dont kno 😒. i just kno that the voids the main antagonist and theo''s the antihero/villain guy. also theyre gonna find their mom at some point. most of this projects just built on random plot beats and character arcs stitched together

3. CHARACTERS

most of the characters are half baked bcus the storys half baked. But in time they will be baked . just you wait

THE WORLDLY: these characters are part of da #normalworld Which means theyre not like Part of the astral or somethink

milo constelle (he/him) - Main character. ambigiously transgender. hes smart and kinda a nerd but also bitchy but bashful and well hes just a bit reserved. hes a weird assortment of things i dont know how to describe him... he loves science and space though. i think his speech patterns like kinda dry But hes funny and sarcastic and passionate abt the things he likes so ya..............Dont know his arc but i know that when i figure out the plot his arc will come right after

valentine "val" constelle (she/they/he) - Shes So many thinsgs shes everything. her dad was a superstar and she wanted to follow in his footsteps n become talented like him (but with acting) but when he died she had a super huge identity crisis cause she based herself a lot on him and she doesnt even know who she is if not "the daughter of a superstar" and her thing with acting went downhill bcus of the state shes in (if she doesnt know WHO she is how could she act like someone shes not? yadda yadda smth like that) and he lives the rest of his life as a washed up nobody but tries not to let it show how fucking MISERABLE he is <- i think thats the most i ever talked about her that isnt Oh pathetic sopping in rain. reminder that literlaly anything im talking abt could be changed at any time though btw LOL. also i dont know how to resolve his arc but we'll get there

candace "candy" constelle (she/her) - idk. Shes super strong and super bubbly and sweet and loves pink and i know more abt her personality than i do milo's but i have got to come up with an arc for her ASAP

trixie (they/them) - theyre a trickster prankster a Little mischevious🤫!!! They are INSANELY clever and creative and resourceful and agile as fuck overall just one of my fave characters to think about. they have autism swag and have these cool little noise cancelling headphones with stickers on them whenever they get overwhelmed. Their sense of identity is rlly strong but their arc involves letting ppl help them and accepting help and talkin abt their feelinz. ive yet to work on their backstory though!

jaiden (she/ze(?)) - IDK ANYTHING ABT ZEM sobs.......

THE MEDIAL: In between the astral and the worldly

theodore "theo" infinity (he/they(?))- ANTIHERO antagonist i cant rlly decide. DURING the beginning of the story he tags along w the crew cause hes cute and silly And kinda the punching bag TBH ....... he starts off the most morally positive + kindest but gradually he builds up a resentment for them for something i forgot but what rlly gave him the push was when he met the void somehow. all of this is insanely vague apologies

flashbang (she/him) - dont know

dont know (he/him) - dont know

esther constelle (she/her) - the constelle siblings mom She got missing or something Wierd...

THE ASTRAL: So ya these are like specil little guys bcus theyre on a whole different plane of existence or something ok?

orion (they/them) - I POSTED ABOUT THEM AND THEIR BACKSTORY I THINK so basifcelly they live at the fvery very BOTTOM of the unvierse just where the universe ends and the void meets. theyre mute aswell + deaf + have this little computer bug thingie that follows them around :) And because theyre at the bottom of the universe, the mythology of the universe involves them planting stars and cultivating them until theyre ripe enough to release them into the heavens above

void (it/she) - I DONT FUCKING KNOW❗❗❗❗❗

godheart (it/its) - this Huge heart that lives in the center of the universe its so huge and big the size of like 99Solersystem man IDK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sorry this was so vague LOL i might update this from time to time who knos...................

where 2 finf more info: my toyhou.se ill update it more soon and my oc blog @constelle

also this is like a LOT for a first project so ill probably work on way way smaller projecys around this universe before i acually make this story a realitu so :3 ya.

[thehylianidiot]

No Clue What This Is, But Why Not?

tagged by @legendoftheotherside

Rules

Post the names of the files of your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you ask with the title that most intrigued them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it. If you want, tag as many people as you have WIPS.

Don't have a lot of WIPs compared to a lot of other people, but thought it would be fun. So here's of the stuff I'm trying to work on and hopefully will finish one day (ha).

So here's the doc titles (many of which are subject to change)

Fairy Tail

The Other Four Idiots, Plus A Cat: My current time-waster cause I like roleswap aus. So I threw a bunch of characters into a blender. After all, who better to go taking the spot of heart-on-sleeve battle junkie with a penchant for friendship speeches than their emotionally constipated nerd brother?

To Slay a Demon: My rewrite oneshot for the Gray vs. Natsu fight, because I may have been the teensiest bit disappointed with it and got some inspiration.

The Little Raindrop of Magnolia: In an AU where Gray and Juvia start in different guilds, focuses on young accidentally-makes-flash-floods Juvia growing up with a support system.

These Are Not the Reincarnated Mortals You're Looking For: You know where at the end of Fairy Tail it was implied that Zeref and Mavis somehow reincarnated? As in were there, in the background, as the main series went on? You also know how many cults were and are still in Fiore? Let's combine these facts and make a comedy!

Consequences of Neo Eclipse: Anyone else think resetting time is a terribly shortsighted idea? In which Zeref wins, time is reset.... and he realizes he might have forgotten a few details after a few centuries.

Stars Align (And Then They Fade): In a totally-won't-end-badly retelling of 400 years ago, Anna goes on a quest for the Celestial Keys. And much like her descendent, she has to deal with her insane teammates.

I also had a few whumpril ideas, but none of them clicked on their own. Maybe they will be incorporated into future fics.

Legend of Zelda

Lost My Cap: A Minish Cap AU/retelling where Vaati gets rekt by his own hubris and has to clean up his own mess. With his old mentor. You can imagine how well this will turn out.

Believe me, I wanna try to make a big story incorporating characters from all across the series sometime. I just need to mesh all the ideas coherently in headspace still.

Genshin Impact

Just a Prototype/The Puppet God: There's one point about the consequences of absorbing divine knowledge capsule in Chapter 3 Act 5 that stuck with me. A few details in the follow-up interlude quest didn't help any. Thus, that last battle could go way different if say... there was in fact enough time for all divine knowledge capsules to be absorbed.

Crossovers

Untitled FMA/FT Project: I found out that Fairy Tail's Natsu and Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood's Greed shared the same dub voice actor and the idea spiraled from there, okay? Still piecing together the details, but I got some scene ideas.

Hmm... who to tag? (please ignore if you folks did this already, but feel free to @ me in a comment and I will try to read through it)

@genavere

@inkperch

@classysassy9791

@kiliinstinct

@pencilofawesomeness

@tokkias

Eh, 6 is good nuff.