#the characters are all so fun and distinct i'm really excited to get to know them better!

[bluejayblueskies]

i finally started listening to the magnus protocol, and i have come to three conclusions:

this is not a podcast i can listen to on the go, because with all the muffling filters in place, i kept missing words even with the volume up all the way on my phone

i'm still weak for "annoyances-to-friends-to-lovers" pairings (looking directly at alice and gwen)

from one person working with decades-old proprietary government tech to another,,, colin ily and i understand you and you have my condolences

[ladyloveandjustice]

I saw a post in the My Adventures with Superman tag claiming that Lois "finally" has a character. I really like the show and it's version of Lois too, but I want to make this clear: Lois Lane has been around for over 80 years and she's always been a distinct, dynamic character with a lot going for her, every bit as admirable as Superman. This isn't a new thing!

Like any character Lois has had some bad adaptations, but she's been a great character from the beginning, and I wanted to show off some panels from comics over the years so anyone new to Superman lore can see why she's a beloved character and the MAWS portrayal is building on that, not starting from scratch.

Lois in the golden age comics (1939 through the 1940's) was shown to be a career-driven woman who didn't take shit from anyone. This was an era where a lot of women were entering the workforce because men were serving in WWII and there was excitement and change in the air, and Lois was meant to be a reflection of that. She fought against the sexism of her boss sticking her with the advice and gossip columns because she was a woman, and she was go-getting reporter out to get a real story. From the beginning she was fearless (sometimes reckless), driven, and had no patience for Clark Kent's (feigned) cowardice (and was always full of sick burns). She never let anyone push her around.

And she's been pretty consistently like this her entire run as a character. Of course, there were some bad writers, and there was a time in the 50s when all female characters had to be marriage obsessed (Lois wasn't the only one hit with this, Wonder Woman was too), but she reverted back to her firebrand self in the 60's and 70's, and when the 80's came along, characters started getting more filled in backstories, including her- this was where we started seeing stuff about her home life, her childhood moving around as a military brat, and her troubled relationship with her father and sister. She had an interior life, inner conflict- and she still kicked ass and always got the last word in. As someone invested in journalism, she is THE coolest fictional journalist to me.

This was also when comics started focusing on Clark being who Superman WAS rather than a pure act, and we got to see their relationship really grow and Lois fall for Clark, not Superman. So here, have some panels of Lois being great and see the scope of her own personality.

Lois also has lots fun little quirks and hobbies comics readers know about- she takes her coffee a certain way, she doesn't cook much because she's so on the go (so Clark is the one who cooks in the fam), she likes to sit on Clark's desk when they're talking (this happens in other Superman media too), she REALLY likes monster trucks and Clark REALLY doesn't but will support her anyway:

Also, she's always seen through to who Clark really is:

Anyway. Have more of my favorite Lois panels because I have a lot:

also this one because I'm gay:

[joyce-stick]

The Beef Stroganoff Song! (arbitrary subtitle discourse edition)

So, you may have noticed here that the subtitles in this clip (from Symphogear GX episode 3) are fairly different from what you're used to seeing when people post this video, and the phrasing in the subtitles is fairly different from what the associated memes often say

For those who don't know, Symphogear got itself released on blu-ray by Discotek, and with that came with a new translation authored by Noelle (@ulsairi on twitter ) who is notable for being the only trans lesbian anime translator I know of off the top of my head.

Her translation appears, in my opinion, really rather polished and very good, and I strongly appreciate the way it's written and how much character it adds to the dialogue by giving everyone distinct voices and adapting things into more natural English. It's also a fair bit gayer. I haven't encountered many people who've seen these subs, but I think most fans of the series would consider these a net positive change. There are some people who are mad about these subtitles, and they can die mad.

Anyway, let's talk about the different phrasing of the beef stroganoff song. I'm mostly going to compare to Crunchyroll's subtitles for reference since that seems to be what most others go off of. Here's a link to that version.

So right off the bat we can see here that while CR's translation appears to be a lot more, for lack of a better word, functional, Noelle's translation tries to apply more dialectal force "it's beef stroganoff/Yes! It's THAT beef stroganoff!" And generally communicate through the tone how excited the girls are to get started. Additionally you'll see throughout that the latter is a fair bit more lyrical, there's a lot more punctuation and verbal tics and filler phrases written into the dialogue to express that they are singing, which makes sense since Japanese tends to omit a lot of the sorts of prepositions that Noelle threw in here,

Like, Yumi (yes I went and looked up her name on the wiki) just says "beef stroganoffu" because it's obvious from context that it is beef stroganoff, she doesn't need to spell it out, at least, not in Japanese

(We know like maybe ten hiragana and 1 kanji do not trust us on Japanese this is all just basic shit we learned from online guides)

So this probably leads to a rushed translator from Crunchyroll (they are notoriously crunched for time) who's just trying to Get It Done probably not really bothering to throw in extra additional connecting letters to express the tone of the character, only doing so when it's required to make basic grammatical sense in the target language. So they likely didn't think to make the subtitles have flourishes like this that aren't explicitly in the original Japanese. Noelle meanwhile had the time to consider things like this and take such liberties in order to attempt to convey the same tone that was arguably implied by the Japanese, even if not explicitly put forth

And that's about all the things I should not repeat I guess, TL;DR, these subtitles are more fun to read because the translator had more time to think about the best way to make them more fun while still being accurate to the spirit of the original dialogue, who'd have thought!

(In case you're wondering, the Commie subtitles say kind of the same thing here, and y'know, it doesn't seem like a wrong translation, but also I really dislike this subtitle styling, orange on pink with that font and that drop shadow is just kinda bad. I appreciate the effort but like. Come on. Please fansubbers, please think about if the font and colors you chose actually work with the image you're putting them on)

Moving on!

horizontal and middle rhyme with each other so you can almost actually sing this, actually let me take a moment to try it right now- never mind, I can't sing. Hahaha. I don't actually think it lines up that well with the melody But I thought it did! Didn't I? That's significant, that this actually reads like plausible lyrics to a silly song someone made up instead of a literal translation of a Japanese song

Anyway, here comes the first major difference!

So in the Crunchyroll subtitles, Yumi says "it doesn't have to be beef" which in English (in my estimation) sounds a tad scatterbrained, like, "oh yeah sure beef but whatever really it doesn't actually matter," while Noelle's subtitles rather say "Got no beef? Don't you worry!" Which implies something different.

"It is recommended to use beef, but you may substitute something else if you are sorely lacking in beef" as opposed to "Oh the beef doesn't actually matter, zoinks lol!" CR's translation is kind of a bit funnier in how it sorta comes from nowhere without this qualification, which probably lead to this phrase's memeticness, but Noelle's translation seems more reasonable to me so yeah again, tada, yay for sensicalness.

Now here's another interesting change:

Again, the flat manner in which the CR subtitles say "finish with salt" with rendezvous only being included because that's literally what they said, is sort of absent any stronger emotional implication,

Noelle's translation meanwhile going with "don't forget them, they need it" imparts personhood upon the salt and pepper. The implication being that the girls are saying, "the salt and pepper are in love, please reunite them, they must be in gay love together." Or maybe you think the salt and pepper cannot be forgotten and must be reunited because they are Only Friends.

Whether you choose to believe that this is the salt and pepper getting married, or merely subtext, or an interpretation, or salt and pepper shipping bait, this is a deeply important tonal indicator because it reminds you that these girls are ultimately playing with their food!

"And there, now you're in for a treat!" I don't think I need to explain this one.

Now, here's an interesting one!

In the Crunchyroll subtitles, it just says the memetic "boys don't know this." With no context, no elaboration, no clarity, no qualifiers. Boys don't know. Did the boys magically get their brains wiped? Are the boys biologically incapable? Who knows. Nothing is said but that.

Noelle's subtitles, on the other hand, qualify this statement by saying "Boys aren't taught to cook, so they may not know" (And note again how, it says "kno-ow" to emphasize, once more, that they're singing, and also this lines up with the long "ooooo" sound they make at the end of this lyric, so cool)

There is now context! Boys aren't taught to cook! Anime and Japan's culture in general still pigeonholes people into gender roles! And an anime translator just wrote you a hidden translation note about it! You might be a boy, you might know how to cook, but certain boys in another part of the world aren't traditionally taught cooking, so they may not know

They may not, but they could!

Trust a trans person to express gender facts with subtle nuances like this in anime translations.

And with that lovely bit of good translation and good writing and good localization of a thing to make it make sense to people

Mew!

[allastoredeer]

I read the new chapter of Holy Suffering as soon as it came out and I love the way u write Lucifer. For the past few days I have been reading Radio apple fanfic and I hate how lucifer is portrayed in most of them, shy , innocent with Alastor after the fight, and kinda out of character for the both of them, cause they suddenly like each other, and I don’t see it in them. They like to piss each other off, that’s the whole ship point.

Ur Lucifer is so sassy, Hits all the Good Characterization checks in my brain, he’s such a delight to read, same for Alastor. U had me going speechless most of the time Alastor spoke, cause I honestly didn’t know what he was gonna say next. Writing Alastor it’s probably hard, cause he is misterious and always hides his emotions but You totally nailed it. Right now he is probably angry at Lucifer cause he ratted him out lol

Al be like the audacity of this man after he forced him to do this.🙄

Anywhizzle I just wanted to ask, for the overload meeting, is Charlie gonna send Lucifer with Alastor? Maybe as a snake or something, to make sure is he okay. Cause she really sounded mortified that she didn’t notice that Alastor was suffering and man Al definitely didn’t like that, but it’s not like he can say no to Charlie so

A nd is there like a schedule for next updates? I am really invested in this story and I honestly can’t wait to read more of it.

Thank you ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ Hahah Lucifer's got bite to him, for sure. He doesn't come off as the shy type to me. Awkward as hell, certainly. In the throes of depression, absolutely. And he cares about Charlie's opinion of him to a fault. But when it comes to someone throwing their weight around--or, more accurately, getting involved with Charlie (cough Alastor helping Charlie with the hotel, couch Adam fighting/hurting Charlie cough) he isn't afraid of getting his hands dirty.

Alastor is hard to write ಥ_ಥ I love him so much, but sometimes, I want to cut open his head and properly study his brain because f;knslnjsbj out of all the characters, he's the hardest for me to pin down, in terms of both dialogue and actions. He has such a way of talking, and such a distinct voice (his radio filter) that it's simultaneously easy to imagine his voice, but hard to put it to dialogue. So, I really appreciate hearing that I nailed it (;´༎ຶД༎ຶ`) Seriously, it's so appreciated to hear.

Nah, Alastor is going to be going to that one alone :3 It's going to be set in his POV, so we'll get some insight in his thoughts on the whole thing, and how he's handling his current affliction. I'm both excited to and nervous to get into it, because writing him in someone else's POV is hard, so writing him in his OWN POV is a little intimidating, but I'm mostly excited. I have a lot of thoughts for this series, and it's gonna be fun to explore them.

As for a schedule, I used to try to keep myself to one, and I've found that I have both a love/hate relationship with it. One the one hand, keeping a writing schedule is nice because it gives me a clear view of what I want to work on and an goal date to get it done, which is very nice for my ADHD brain.

BUT, on the other hand, when I start putting that pressure on myself to get it down, and I fail to actually reach that goal, it hits me pretty hard and it can take away my motivation and joy in writing the fic. It starts to feel more like a chore than a fun hobby I can do in my downtime.

Thankfully, I am DEEP in Hazbin Hotel hyperfixation, and the amazing feedback I've gotten from my fic's is certainly fueling my motivation. So thanks to everyone leaving kudos and comments! It's seriously so helpful and I cherish ever single one of them.

If I had to give an estimate for when the next installment of the series will drop, I'd say either at the end of this week, or the beginning/middle of next week. I have an unrelated AppleRadio one-shot I want to bust out before I work on the next installment, and that one I'm going to try and post by Thursday or Friday.

To quote out favorite Radio Demon,

~Stay Tuned

[sinni-ok-sessi]

Would love to hear any thoughts on the codification of the poet-persona over time? 👀

Ok so in the spirit of the ask game, I am not checking any citations on this whatsoever, but if you want those lmk (though they uh. largely do not exist for rímur-poets specifically, because only me and Hans Kuhn have ever cared).

This is going to require some context because, as established, the number of living people who know and care about medieval rímur can be counted on my two hands. Probably without thumbs. So, rímur are a poetic form that developed in 14th cen Iceland, which look kind of ballad-y, in that they often use four-line stanzas with ABAB end-rhyme, though actually the ballad tradition in Iceland is quite distinct (on which, see Vésteinn Ólason, The Ballads of Iceland). End-rhyme was very exciting for Icelandic poets because it was only previously a thing in some uncommon types of skaldic metres, but rímur (as their name suggests) have end-rhyme as a defining feature and rapidly become The dominant form of poetry in Iceland until well into the 19th cen.

There are two very distinctive things about rímur, other than their metres: 1) they almost never tell 'new' stories; almost all rímur narratives are attested earlier in other forms, usually in prose, which can sometimes lead to the fun cycle of saga -> rímur cycle -> old saga is lost, new version is written based on the rímur -> more rímur are written based on the new saga -> repeat until the heat death of the universe; 2) as the form develops, it acquires introductory stanzas known as mansöngvar, a term which elsewhere usually means 'love poetry', although that's not really what they're doing here.

Mansöngvar are verses, sometimes in a different metre to the rest of the canto they're attached to, in which the poet speaks directly to the audience. In the medieval period, they're pretty short and often don't say more than 'look, I made you some poetry', but as time goes on, they get more and more elaborate, and the character of the poet begins to develop some quite distinctive traits. What's interesting here is that rímur were (certainly in the medieval period; less certainly later on) performed aloud, presumably by the poet, so there's definitely some questions to be asked about how accurate the poets' self-descriptions are when presumably the audience could go 'you're not pining away for love, Jón Jónsson, I've met your wife!'

So anyway, these mansöngvar are often linked to the medieval German Minnesänger tradition (er. The actual German word might be slightly different because I still don't speak German despite my PhD supervisor's pointed remarks), which is more overtly love poetry and which sometimes features the poet as an abject and despised lover of some cruel lady. This is something rímur-poets from the later medieval period and onwards have an incredibly good time with. You may be familiar with the story of Þórr wrestling with Elli, the personification of old age in the form of an old woman. There are at least two medieval rímur poets who have a whole extended passage about 'oh alas, when I was young I was a terrible flirt but now I'm old and no women like me, except oh no, I am being courted by this ugly old giant lady; Elli is the only ladyfriend for me now, wah'. it's very playful, it's very fun, it's drawing on this general sense that the poets put forward that they're poetically gifted, but romantically unlucky, which is kind of a Thing for poets across a lot of European literature (and probably more broadly, but I don't know much about that), and is especially pronounced in the earlier Icelandic sagas about poets, which usually feature poets failing to win the love of their life for various reasons (sudden attack of Christianity; sudden attack of magic seals; sudden attack of Other Guy With Sword; etc). So in evoking this, rímur-poets are situating themselves in this existing Image of the Ideal Poet, but doing so in a way that ties them into the specifics of the Norse literary/mythological tradition as well. Poets are also frequently old and tired (same, bro), and a statistically improbably number of them are also blind (although that might just be two guys we know about who were really prolific; most rímur are anonymous so it's hard to say. But it is perhaps convenient that this also links them to A Great Poet of Old, namely Homer).

The other thing that rímur-poets really like to bring up in their mansöngvar is the myth of the mead of poetry, which I will not recount here except to say that Óðinn nicked it from a giant, and also that some dwarves used it to buy safe passage off a skerry once, so it's poetically termed 'ship of the dwarves' because it's the thing that brought them safely across the sea. Every single medieval mansöngur, if one exists at all, refers to this myth in some way, even if it's just by having the 'I made you some poetry' bit use a kenning for 'poetry' that references the myth.* And poets have a lot of fun with this too! Iceland's a coastal community, they know about boats, so you get these extended metaphors about poets trying to board a boat to sample the mead of poetry and finding only the dregs because other, better poets got there first. Or they will describe the process of poetic composition in terms of ship-building: 'Here I nail together Suðri's [a dwarf name] boat'; 'Norðri's ship sets out from the harbour [= I'm about to start reciting the main bit now]'; 'the fine vessel has now been wrecked on the rocks [=I'm going to stop reciting now]'. They'll also speak of poetry as smíð, which means a work of craftsmanship, usually physical craftsmanship (obviously cognate with smithing in English), and of brewing the ale of Óðinn, so they're really into metaphors of physical craft when it comes to the intellectual craft of poetry, which I think is really neat.

*kennings = poetic circumlocutions, e.g. 'snake of the belt' is a sword because swords are vaguely snake-shaped and hang from a belt. Common poetry kennings are '[drink/liquid/ale/wine/mead] of [any of Óðinn's literally dozens of names]' e.g. 'Berlingr's wine', and the aforementioned 'ship of the dwarves' - poetic Icelandic has literally dozens of words for different kinds of ships and also literally dozens of dwarf names, so you can get a long way without repeating yourself.

So all these things that I've mentioned that poets like to bring up - old age, unluckiness in love, poets as craftsmen - become more and more tropified as time goes on, which in turn leads to these imaginative and extended reworkings of the metaphor. No longer can you just say 'I'm old and no one fancies me', no, it's 'My only assignations now are with Elli, wink wink, here's a long description of our date'. So you end up with this very codified image of The Ideal Rímur-Poet as an old man,* ideally blind, ideally unmarried, incredibly self-deprecating about his poetry, and because that's how everyone else talks, it's self-reinforcing.

*there is one (1) known female rímur-poet from the medieval period, the poet of Landrés rímur, who unfortunately didn't write many mansöngur stanzas but is doing her best with the 'unlucky in love' bit, although her lover (male) seems to have died rather than ditched her, which is a novelty.

Anyway, it's cool and weird and fun and as I say, only me and Hans Kuhn care, academically speaking.

[atalienart]

You know, I've never had a writing crisis as bad as the one I have right now. I can't overcome it. I know what to write (I have tons of notes and a plan), I want to write because I want to finally finish this story, but whenever I sit to write it feels like a chore. I'm invested in the world but not invested in the words and I don't know what to do. I try not to think about the story as being bad but what if it's bad? I have fun rereading things I've written but what if it's all rubbish?

I felt something similar writing my previous story and it was at the same point. It's the "after climax crisis" I guess. Like I've lost all the fire even if I know it's not done and there's another "mini climax" afterwards that I want to reach. But the first time it still didn't feel like this. It was something to push through to get to the excitement again. Now it's just... idk. Ugh, I'm so frustrated!

What really worries me is that I don't think the characters in this story (Project Soulmate) have distinct enough voices. It really bugs me. Le sigh.

[lollytea]

hi. this may feel a bit silly but i just wanted to say how much of an excellent writer you are and im really appreciate your work!

ive only really read ur toh fics but recently i read ur trolls fic and really, i know u may feel differently abt a fic u wrote at 18, but i was really blown away!! it was so fun and thrilling of a read!

ur style of writing has such a distinct voice for the characters you write, which makes me adore your writing for willow; my fave for toh fics!! but seeing how you wrote branch and poppy made me all the more appreciate your growth as a writer and really sold me to your story telling! ur just really get a lot of characters and their very complex personalities so well!

im sorry to just send u a big paragraph of this haha but i hope it lets u know i'm always excited to read anything u write!! (v excited for the aladarius, lalaland, or batb au whatever you decide to go!!)

ok im done sorry!! ☆ hope u have a nice day!!

WAHHHH!!! HI HELLO!!! I've been very down for this last week but reading this made me very very happy!! There's an effort to devote to writing a little paragraph like this and I'm so grateful that you chose to take the time out of your day to do it. You must be a very lovely person <33

Since TOH is my special little passion right now, I'm of course ECSTATIC when someone tells me they enjoy the fics I write. So thank you, thank you so much!!

My trolls fics are different but just as special!! Even tho I'm not personally all that connected to the stuff I wrote all those years ago, I find it very beautiful and meaningful when somebody says, after such a long time, that something you made brought them joy!! It's like drawing a smiley face on wet cement and then a stranger sees it immortalized like a decade later and they smile. A very sweet pleasant echo I think. Thank you for telling me!! I so very much enjoy feedback on my old stuff, to this day!!!

And on my new stuff too!! DELIGHTED you like Willow!! I like her too!! Love writing her and spending time with her!!!

And I'm so happy you're excited. I'm excited too!! Idk when I'll get to the other stuff you mentioned but the batb fic is where my heart is at right now, so an update on that will likely be the next thing I post!!

Anyway, thank you to bits, MWAH

[barbaracleboy]

Etrian Odyssey Series: Compilation of Archetypal Town Characters

I really love the NPCs that show up in each Etrian Odyssey game, in the town you keep coming back to between dungeon visits. Unironically, I'm always excited to see the new shopkeeper, innkeeper, barkeeper, etc. of any given EO game. Because of that, just for fun, I decided to gather official art for all characters of the archetypes: guildmasters (whom you speak to when growing and organizing your guilds), innkeepers (whom you speak to when resting at an inn or storing/taking back items), shopkeepers (whom you speak to when buying goods and armor/weapons), barkeepers (whom you speak to to get and report sidequests), and...mission givers? (officials whom you speak to to get or report important story missions).

Now, some of this art was a bit tough to find, mainly for Etrian Mystery Dungeon 2 and the Mobile game, since neither was released outside of Japan and the latter is more or less lost. For EMD 2 I went to some Japanese articles on 4gamer talking about it (https://www.4gamer.net/games/375/G037512/20170720039/ and https://www.4gamer.net/games/375/G037512/20170622014/) and for the Mobile game I went to this Japanese Article that that talked about playing it a little (http://dihyhi.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-47.html), which to my knowledge is one of the only documentations of that game, so credit to those sources for the art. I also machine translated those sites for info on the Characters' names and whatnot, so take it with a grain of salt. I know machine translations are rarely very helpful but it's all I had right now, sorry.

It should also be noted that there will be light spoilers for some of the games here, mainly Etrian Odyssey 3. Nothing too egregious, at worst it's for something you find when you beat the second Stratum, but I still feel I should mention it.

One last thing, I will be listing most games as EO plus their respective number (so the first game will be EO1), the Mystery Dungeon games will be listed as EMD and EMD2, for the first and second respectively, the Mobile game will written EOM, and even though in America it's called Etrian Odyssey Nexus I will write that game as "EOX", simply because that's more distinctive as an acronym. I've seen others on here do that so it's probably not so weird but I still felt I should clarify.

But enough talk! It is time to meet the guildmasters, some of the most important NPCs in any Etrian Odyssey game! Mostly rather well-armored looking (except for in EO3, EMD2, and Mobile), these tend to be pretty cool characters, and while we don't always get to see them fight much it's welcome when the chance does arrive.

My favorite of these is probably Marion, with Asuka and Egar as runner ups.

[The rest will be under the Keep reading, otherwise this post would just be way too long by default]

And now, for the group that, to be real, is a big part of why I wanted to make this post: the Innkeepers! Friendly, helpful folks that run the inns where your characters can rest, healing up and saving progress. As some likely remember, I already listed most of these characters in that meme I made some time back, featuring characters I like that have constantly closed eyes (https://barbaracleboy.tumblr.com/post/722662911985778688/forgive-me-if-ive-posted-this-here-already-but-i). I intentionally tried to list every Innkeeper from the Etrian Odyssey series (minus some whose eye aren't closed all the time, whom I will get into later), and I largely succeeded!...except it turns out that there's a unique innkeeper in the Etrian Odyssey Mobile game. Granted, I can't really get on myself for that, it's a Japan-only mobile game that barely anyone seems to have played or heard of and is also not available anymore. Still, that was a slight bummer for me. But look! They're all here now!

My favorites of these is probably Hanna, with Jenetta and Dalla as runner ups.

And now, I can truly have them lined up together.

Look! They're friends!

Next up are various shopkeepers! Fun fact! Napier is not only the Shopkeeper to have run the shop in two separate games (not counting remakes), but one of, if not the only one of these NPCs to have hosted a facility in two separate games.

My favorite of these is probably Shilleka, with Edie and Wynne as runner ups.

This group consists of characters in similar not identical roles to the prior group: if I'm correct, in Etrian Odyssey One medicines and equipment were sold at different shops, and at medicine shops you could also revive characters and cure petrification (EO2 brought medicine at the main shop but kept the revival at the hospital). Hoffman, Stiles, and Muse(?) here ran their respective games medicine shops/hospitals, Angie supported Dr. Stiles, Don Chano supported his daughter, Elizabeth (from the prior group), and Lizley and the Merchant of Darkness(?) acted as merchants you coukd run into within the dungeon itself. Also, apparently Hoffman, Stiles, and Angie are (based on) characters from Trauma Center, which is neat.

My favorite of these is probably Don Chano, with either Lizley and the Merchant of Darkness as runner ups.

Another big favorite of mine, the Barkeeps! It's always fun chatting with these friendly types, hearing them cheer you on before many quests and compliment you for having completed one. They're so pleasant!...Though. yeah, Kvasir can be quite suspect with some of the things he says.

My favorite here is probably Kirtida, with Niralda and...either Missy or Mukkoran as runner ups...I love them too much, ha.

I don't know what to call this grouo really but they give the story missions and are about all in some position of power. Some are more involved in the story than others, but overall you will be seeing them often...Also, for some reason I couldn't find anyone that fills this role for Etrian Mystery Dungeon 2? Maybe I just did a bad job at looking but I don't know, I just couldn't find anybody. It's odd.

My favorite here has GOT to be the Outland Count (massively fond of his face, his moustache, and his dog), with Flowdia and Persephone as runner ups.

Last group here, being a variety of characters that act as alternatives or support for some of the other ones. This also has spoilers for etrian Odyssey 3 (the thing being spoiled is discovered after you beat the second Stratum but still).

Visil is a character you'll occasionally see during tbe story of EO1, Quona is Hannah's daughter who will sometimes greet you at the inn instead of or in addition to her mother, Gradriel is someone you'll see a bit throughout EO2's story, Gutrune is the Princess of Armoroad whom you'll see and/or hear about throuought EO3's story, Seyfreid is the Abyssal King whom you'll speak with and get Subclasses from in the Deep City of EO3, Napier's Sister (who, unfortunately, seems to have no confirmed name) runs the shop of the Deep City in EO3, Angie (who I would presume isn't the same one from EO2 but is based on the same Trauma Team character? I think?) runs the inn of EO3's Deep City, and finally, Yobo is Traoré's brother in Etrian Mystery Dungeon 2, and I...think he assists Mukkoran in giving out quests?...Him being a recolor is pretty lame, tbh.

My favorite here is probably Visil, with Napier's Sister and Seyfreid as runner ups.

HOO! THERE WE GO! Hope you guys liked this little trip down memory lane I guess, ha. I love many of these characters, and if and when EO6 happens I can't wait to see who it introduces that'll enter my heart just like many of these have!

[discordiansamba]

For the fic asks-

1. Tied between flicker, desert born, the stars shine a different shine, and who you are in the dark

2. All of it. There is so much care put into every single chapter!!!!!

3. Keith. And Pidge. And Hunk, and Allura, Coran, Shiro....

4. Yes. You make them all seem so natural, no matter who you pair up!!

5. Burgundy and Abyss of Memory!!! They look Super Uber exciting!!!!!!

6. I have NEVER forgotten the Oops We Left The Keith We Never Knew We Needed Back On Earth fic. I know it was a side fic to flicker, but it REALLY set the mood and tone for the main story!!!!

7. The absolute TRAGEDY of who you are in the dark. I was tearing up in some parts; it is written SO WELL.

8. I LOVE that your stories are so INTRICATE! When I read them I feel like I could Actually be Watching The Show. EVERY PLOT has stakes!!! Everyone has a Distinct Personality!!!! You give these characters LIFE!!!!!!!

9. I am excited for flicker's update, but I'm Really Excited for some of your new Tumblr ideas!!! I love reading the drabbles of AUs you post!!!!

10. I had never really given much thought about Romelle as a character before finding your Tumblr, you made her really interesting and fun!!

11. ANY of your Tumblr AUs!!! I LOVE the concepts and how your brain works!!!!!

12. I think the one I've reread the most is desert born. If only because I found that one first. :)

13. I'm sad to say I haven't, but I think I drew fanart once?

14. I didn't expect to like the stars shine a different shine so much!! I was Completely Unprepared for Mercenary Keith and Tiny Shiro!!!!!!!!! They are Precious!!!!!!!

15. For the stars shine a different shine, will Keith get more chances to utilize his Mercenary Background?

<3<3<3<3

ahhhhhhh you filled out all the questions! That makes my heart so very happy!!!! That truly is the perfect description for that particular flicker oneshot. Y'all forgot the guy you didn't even even know you needed. How could you do that!!

As for the question, I'm delighted to answer yes! In fact, it's going to come directly into play in the next update which will revolve around the castle invasion. It'll definitely get time to shine in other places as well, since it really changes how he approaches certain situations since he's been in war before and recognizes that the Galra are the sort to use dirty tactics if it'll get them what they want.

[flutteringfable]

OKAY SO!! DEAD PLATE IS REALLY GOOD AND IM HERE TO RAMBLE ABOUT IT. SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY LMAO

(all excitement aside, this game is best experienced blind imo! its free on itch, and there's no jumpscares [in case thats an issue for u like it is for me lolz]. there is tons of gore (mostly blood with very few organs), so please heed the warnings on the game page if that bothers u!)

okay ive talked about this before, but the art style is just soso gorgeous. the characters are so distinct and expressive, and even the npcs are beautifully designed. the art is, dare i say, tasty ;3

rody is literally the definition of a golden retriever boy (even to a fault!) and i adore his character so much. he's just a silly little guy trying to do his best but also he should really take some time to care for himself like manon suggested :(

vincent is also fantastic, i love that he warms up to rody if you continue talking to him, it's really sweet if you uh. ignore the horrors...

no jumpscares but GOD this game is fantastic at building a sense of dread. when the music cut out during the house party bit, i genuinely got nervous. manon's ghost (i assume) being in vince's window was also terrifying and honestly scared me so bad i hesitated to put my headphones back on lmao. i do love the lack of jumpscares, but that might just be my cowardice talking ahaha

u can feed the rat cheese but then vince feeds u the rat :(

i got the normal ending on my first go (as i assume most people do), and when manon didn't pick up when rody called her i knew immediately that she was the steak that you get at the end of that sequence. it felt really rewarding to find out that was true in the "best served hot" ending!!

"a dead plate" HAHAHAHAHAHA JUST LIKE THE NAME OF THE GAME (seconds later: oh god this is the manon steak)

the description of the plate changing to "the love of my life" actually hurt a little, ouch

when i had to go back to the freezer to get the ending where rody dies, i audibly went "haiii vincenttt" when he showed up lmao

when i first saw vincent bite rody, i thought he bit his neck and went "oh haha hot"

a few lines of dialogue later, i stood corrected lmaoo

finding out that vince doesnt actually like serve human meat at the restaurant was pretty interesting to hear! i like that take on the trope, because normally its more akin to games like bonnie's bakery where the food youre serving to customers IS customers lmao

learning how rody felt about manon made me super sad, esp after the post credit scene where she breaks up with him. again, i agree with her. bro needs some serious self care and needs to learn that its ok to care for himself too :(

uhhhhh vincent casual outfit hot. i mean what who said that

the normal food rewards you get for completing each day look absolutely incredible, esp the desserts

overall, just an amazing experience that i'm so happy to have done blind. not knowing what was next made it a lot more fun for me and i might give it a go again in the future! i have a few more horror rpg style games saved on my itchio that ive been meaning to try out :3

[best-non-english-word-torunament]

Round one: 些, xiē vs Bah

(poll at the end)

些, xiē (Mandarin Chinese)

Pronunciation depends on the dialect of Mandarin, but here are a few ways (chosen based on variation):

Beijing: [ɕiɛ⁵⁵] Jinan: [ɕiə²¹³] Nanjing: [sie²¹²]

Translation: Some, a few, a bit

Chinese is a Sino-Tibetan macrolanguage (a dialect continuum consisting of different varieties that are distinct languages based the criterium of mutual intelligibility, but commonly referred to as a single language) with around 1 350 300 000 speakers that consists of 16 recognised languages, often referred to as dialects. Out of these, Mandarin Chinese is the largest, as 70% of Chinese speakers have it as their native language. The Beijing dialect of Mandarin forms the basis of Standard Chinese, which is the national language and taught in schools all over China.

Motivation: It's just really fun to write

(stroke order taken from wiktionary by me to illustrate)

Note: The word was submitted as a Chinese word, not a Mandarin one. Words written with the same character and with the same meaning exist in different Chinese languages, but the submitted romanisation matches the Mandarin one.

Bah (Brazilian Portuguese)

[ˈba]

Translation: An interjection that can be used in any situation depending on tone. It's used in the southernmost state in Brazil and characterizes its accent. Bah comes from the word "barbaridade" (barbarity), used in older gaúcho slang as such:

Person A: (ridiculous, usually negative thing) and then those teenagers stole my sheep!

Person B: (agreeing/sympathetic with A) what a barbaridade!

Nowadays it lost it's meaning as a WORD word, being used in any context as an interjection like this:

A: and then those teenagers stole my sheep!

B: Baaah! (sympathetic with A)

(more examples given by the submitter at the end of the post)

Portuguese is an Indo-European language belonging to the Romance branch originating from Portugal. Due to colonialism it is the main and official language of Brazil, where 213 million of its 264 million speakers live. Brazilian Portuguese is considered a dialect of Portuguese as they are mutually intelligible.

Motivation: The heart of every gaúcho's vocabulary. bah is perfect. I use it in every five sentences and I'm not exaggerating. it's the best word bc without it I would die

Note: Gaúcho refers either to a native or inhabitant of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil’s southernmost state, or a cowboy of the South American Pampas according to Wiktionary. I assume the submitter is referring to the former meaning, but I liked the other too much to leave it out, also the meanings are probably linked.

More examples from the submitter of bah:

When seeing something impressive: bóóóó

When watching something you know isn't gonna end well, at the moment it goes badly (like a missed goal in soccer, someone parking badly or drunk people doing something stupid): buhiii (oof/ouch, meaning cringe)

Person A: If they apologized and you sorted this whole thing out, there isn't a reason to cut them off Person B: Yeah, but I found out they cheated on their last girlfriend... Person A: Bah. Yeah you’re right. (oh/shit/this face :/ , meaning that's stepping out of line, I tried to defend the subject but I can't deny your arguments)

Person A: Wanna go to the movies tonight? Person B: sure! -bahhh... I forgot I have some work to catch up on, I can't (ohhhh, meaning you remembered something, sad/apologetic tone)

Person A: They cancelled the concert! We're gonna have to wait for the next tour... Person B: Bahhhhhh I was so excited! (awww mannn/ughhh, meaning disappointment, frustration)

Person A: We’re finally gonna see The Concert From the Previous Example! Get your ticket ready so we can get in! Person B: Oh my god. I left it at home Person A: BA. (fuck)

[sixty-silver-wishes]

When I was a kid, the Appalachian/Southern US folk tale “Tailypo” used to scare the shit out of me. I’ve been wanting to illustrate a short horror story for a while, so today, I’ve been sketching out concepts for my own take on “Tailypo.” These definitely still need work (especially when it comes to the animal anatomy!) but I thought I’d share what I have so far:

So, first is the "Tailypo" itself. I devoted an entire page to this thing because I know it's probably going to go through a lot of changes, so I decided to start experimenting with what worked for me and what didn't. While many adaptations describe it as looking like a cat with a large tail, I wanted to make my Tailypo a mixture of animals- a wolverine, a cat, a mountain lion, a raccoon, and a weasel. Obviously, the tail had to be the most prominent part of the design, so I made it longer than the creature's body, with a jagged pattern. I think the Tailypo would be a very flexible animal, able to twist its body and slip into small spaces, so I modeled the body shape after a weasel, while giving it the back legs of a cat since its torso was higher above the ground. I'm still working out the details with its teeth; I want them to give it a frightening appearance, but I'm not sure whether I should base them off of a real animal or further stylize them.

I'm having a lot of fun designing the old man's cabin, although I can't yet settle on how I want it to look:

I've been looking at pictures of run-down Appalachian cabins, particularly from the 19th century (the story could be set any time, but I'm choosing to base my designs somewhere between the late 1800s and early 1900s), and they're giving me a lot to work with in terms of stylization. In terms of inspiration, I wanted to draw the crooked tree trunks supporting the porch in the first picture below, as well as the door and the uneven roof shingles in the second one.

Lastly, here are the old man and his three dogs. I was admittedly sort of running out of steam when I was drawing these, so the dog anatomy sorta sucks, but I just wanted to get my ideas down.

The old man is a hunter who lives alone in the woods, so I gave him a rifle and long facial hair because I don’t think he’d be super concerned with shaving his beard. He's heavily based on this picture:

To add more to his character, because he's starving and desperate enough to eat the tail of a strange creature he doesn't recognize, I made him very thin, with his clothes falling apart, like his hat and shoe. His eyebrows and beard will help to exaggerate his facial expressions throughout the story.

The three dogs were drawn with shape language in mind. I wanted to make them all distinct shapes and sizes. Their names vary across versions of the story, but in most of the ones I could find, their names are typically some variant of "Uno," "Ino," and "Calico." This adds for the bit that scared me most as a kid, where, after the Tailypo kills the dogs and the old man insists he doesn’t have its tail, it tells him “you know, I know, you’ve got my tailypo” before killing him. I wanted to incorporate the dogs’ names into their designs- “Uno” is made of round shapes to reflect the round letters in his name, “Ino” is a bloodhound based in triangular shapes since his name is a play on “I know” and triangles are associated with intelligence in shape language, and “Calico” is a Dalmatian based in square shapes. I also wanted to give each dog a collar that not only reflects their shape language, but also will allow the audience to know they’ve been killed by the Tailypo when their collars are all that’s left of them.

There’s still quite a bit for me to design and workshop before I get into illustrating this story, but I’m really excited! I really want to give it the same creepy feeling I had when I was a kid reading it for the first time.

[jinxthejubilee]

Venus de Milo - We Need to Talk

Because I'm desperate to see Rise of Tmnt get a third season, I need to talk about it more. And for that, I must ask this question: What do you guys think of Venus de Milo?

Honestly, I think she could be a great addition to the series. Pretty much anything they do with her would be better than the disgrace that was The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation.

I feel really bad for her because the writers never gave her a chance to be her own character. They just fell back on a bunch of period-typical tropes for female characters and never even utilized those tropes in an interesting way.

So if Venus was in ROTTMNT, here are the questions/ideas I have for both the writers, and the audience:

Since the boys are all four different species of turtles, what kind of turtle would she be?

(Maybe a diamondback?)

What color should her mask be?

It shouldn't be just a lighter color of one of the boys, she needs to be distinct.

I would say yellow, but that's Jennika's color.

Maybe silver?

Should they change her name to an actual female Renaissance artist?

If so, what would it be? And if not, what is the backstory of how she was named "Venus de Milo?"

If they keep her as the long lost sister of our main 4, how did she get separated from them in the first place?

Did Draxum keep her separated on purpose before they all got mutated?

Was she thrown out because Draxum no longer thought she was a suitable candidate for his experiments?

What was the reason?

How would they all meet each other?

Probably fighting each other, if I'm being honest. That's basically how they've met everyone in this series.

What would her weapon be?

I would say a fan, but people might be bothered that they assigned a traditionally "feminine" weapon to the only other girl in the group.

Maybe the tetsubo?

The kyoketsu-shoge?

Either way, she needs her own weapon unless they want to keep her magical powers from the original show, which would actually work really well in this particular series.

How would the creators revamp her personality?

Raphael in this series is kinda like a den mother already, so if they keep that aspect of her character the same as she was in The Next Mutation, they may need to dial that back a notch.

Maybe she could be very shy, skittish, and awkward, but once she warms up to her family and friends' love and acceptance, she gets more excitable and fun.

Also, maybe replace "motherly" with just "very formal," as in she speaks very formally and has a hard time loosening up around people.

She can still have that somewhat oblivious nature when it comes to references and cultural idioms, like she did in The Next Mutation, but not too much to the point that it becomes annoying. She just doesn't know how to interact normally due to her upbringing.

I've seen art and a few stories like this before, but what if before Draxum became a good guy (or this could be Big Mama, whoever works), he created Venus by mutating her with a small sample of Splinter's DNA?

If not a baby, then a little girl? Around 10 years old or so? Just throwing some ideas out there.

Which goes into my next question: Should Venus be older or younger than Mikey?

We all know that Mikey is baby, and people might want him to stay that way.

Unless they want Mikey to be the older brother for once and be the best and awesomest big brother ever!

I'd say this is less likely to happen though.

The most likely option is Venus being older than Mikey, but younger than Leo and Donnie.

I can dig the awkward big sister and excitable little brother dynamic.

Another idea that I saw was making Venus the same age as Leo and Donnie so that the three of them could be "triplets," and personally, I love that idea.

Speaking of Big Mama, I saw some people speculating that this person:

Might be Venus, who works for Big Mama.

That could be an interesting take on her.

Maybe after Draxum threw her out, she was found by Big Mama or one of workers and now serves under her.

Building up relationships

This is definitely going to be a separate discussion for another day, but Venus' relationships with everybody could be an awesome topic to explore.

The personalities of every single character in this show are very distinct and they bounce off each other very well, so what would happen if you throw Venus into the mix?

First off, getting rid of the idea of Venus as a love interest is a must since she will be revamped as their sister.

The boys are used to having a older sister figure in their lives because of April, so how would having a younger sister work?

Raph would obviously be a bit overprotective as usual, making sure she's comfortable and feels safe around them, which depending on her personality, she could appreciate it immensely, or not, but for the sake of his feelings, she doesn't say anything.

Donnie would be happy to have another person to show off his inventions, and they could bond over her actually taking interest in what he has to say.

Leo would be the one she talks to/is the most comfortable around, since he's pretty chill and understands that he shouldn't overwhelm her like Raph or the others tend to do. That said, Leo would be siked to have another sibling, and would show her all that she needs to know about their family, their favorite pizza places, and how they work together as a team.

Mikey would be the top brother excited to have a sister. Younger or older, he'd drag Venus around like a ragdoll to show her anything and everything! Pizza, games, arts and crafts, the Jupiter Jim movies, everything! He might be a little annoying when he gets like this, but that adorable smile on his face breaks down any resistance Venus has.

Master Splinter is an interesting one. He might feel guilty for essentially abandoning Venus, leading her to work for Draxum, Big Mama, or whatever villain she serves, if she serves anyone at all. Maybe she'll be a bit resentful of him for that, and avoid interacting with him for a while, until he eventually apologizes and makes an attempt to kindle a father-daughter relationship with her. Once they get there though, it's very sweet, with Splinter promising to be there for her and make up for lost time.

GIRLS NIGHT WITH APRIL AND SUNITA!!! This needs to happen! All three girls banning together and having little adventures of their own. If Venus is the shy one of the group, April and Sunita can show her the ropes and help build up her confidence. Positivity is a must! 🌟

And, of course, like every character on this show, we need some trauma. Paranoia is her worst enemy.

A plausible reason of why Venus is so quiet is because she was order never to speak out of line or she would be punished. She was like a robot, who never gained her own identity as she was only seen as a tool.

She's so afraid of making others upset to the point that she overthinks everything and just stops talking altogether.

Sometimes her fears and ridiculous assumptions about what could happen can be played for laughs, but her anxious nature is just...not fun for her.

Which leads to everyone helping her break out of her comfort zone and become more comfortable with the family and the outside world overall.

They might be too pushy at times, but they only have good intentions. However, these things take time, and they must learn to be more patient.

All in all, I think that Venus could be a splendid character if the people in charge of TMNT actually TRY to play with her personality and backstory, and not just let her become a walking don't list for how not to create a female character in a male-centric franchise.

Soooo...that's it! If you made it this far, first of all, thank you so much! And second, let me know how you would interpret Venus' character. We NEED this show to come back, and I want to give this girl justice!

Once again, thank you all so much for reading! Stay safe out there! And I'll see you later! Byeee! 💗

[ramoth13]

A few thoughts on Arondir, the most Elven... and I have Questions

My greatest fear when I realized the show was being made was the original characters. Are they going to overshadow the canon characters? Are they going to replace them? How will it look?

Well, Arondir fixed that fear very quickly for me. He's perfect! Keen, graceful, and light-stepped, he is exactly what an elf in an age of war would be. I love that he is caring (we see this in the way he doesn't give up the humans when he suspects something bad) and careful and wary. I'm so excited to see him just let loose. Show me the crazy arrow acrobatics, shield sliding, snow walking, orc slaying awesomeness.

And of course, let us not forget his relationship with a human, Bronwyn. In all of Tolkien we see three relationships between humans and Elves (unless you include Earendil, which I've heard arguments both ways, but that's not a can of worms I intend to open) and in every case, it was a Male human and a female elf. This, is utterly new.

This is good. I love this. It's so cool! We've never seen this dynamic in Tolkien's world. The longing, the way he doesn't fit with the other Elve's mindset. Its just so much fun. I can't wait to see how Arondir and Bronwyn develop as characters. The yearning is on point for me.

Now to my questions.... what kind of Elf is he? Is he Silvan? Sindarin? Noldorin? My first thought would be Silvan, as the bark-like armor is reminiscent of what might one day become the forest of Mirkwood. My dearest hope is that he is Sindarin (let's get some flashbacks of Doriath!!! Please show me Elu Thingol and Melian). But they haven't really made any distinction yet between the Sindar and the Noldor, let alone the other various branches.

If he is Noldorin, is he Calaquendi also? And of which house? How old is he? Did he fight the humans that worshiped Morgoth? Did he witness any of the Kinslayings? I need to know.

I'm seeing a lot saying he is Silvan (like Tauriel from the Hobbit, for those only watching the show/movies) as opposed to Sindarin (like Legolas and Thranduil) which is what I supposed based only on his armor, but still. I'd love to hear someone discuss it.

There's so much left to see! Of all of the character arcs I'm most excited to explore, I think Arondir's will take us into the places I most want to see (aside from Numenor).

I look forward to seeing this elf break-bad and get his human gal. Besides, don't we all dream of an Elven lover sweeping us off of our feet? (To you Dwarf lovers, I respectfully note your quick rejection lol)

Galu, mhellyn!

~ Ramoth13

[kaylinalexanderbooks]

🖋️"what inspired you to write your WIPs?"

📖"what has surprised you about your WIPs?"

💻"what perspectives do you write in?"

🖥️"what types of writing do you do?"

❤️"what are your favorite scenes from your WIPs?"

😭"what are the biggest challenges writing your WIPs?"

Hello! Thanks for the ask! (From this game)

This is a lot of questions! Haha super excited though. Sorry I took a bit to get to this. Long of course so it's under the cut.

🖋️"what inspired you to write your WIPs?"

The Secret Portal

TSP's inspiration can be traced back to the Rainbow Magic series. I was obsessed with these fairies as a kid, and at one point role played a story with my stuffed animals on two girls discovering they were fairies. In fourth grade during a creative writing unit, I thought back to this story and decided to change fairies (since I thought I was too old lol) to "people with powers" and I added a portal or something. It has since evolved so much and I don't know where the inspiration has come from. Most media I consume is somehow ingrained into my writing style.

School of the Legends

SOTL was inspired by my love for fairy tale retellings. Whatever After and The Land of Stories stick out the most if I'm being honest.

📖"what has surprised you about your WIPs?"

The Secret Portal

TSP has surprised me by how far it's come. How interesting I find it. How it keeps evolving into something I'm more and more proud of. Smaller stuff, like Lexi deviating completely from her original purpose of a self insert, Gwen becoming more important than I thought, how natural the chemistry between the characters has been, my many ah ha! Moments. How much I've grown as a writer and how amazing it is that I can track my growth across over a decade of my life. The positive reactions I've received. How much it keeps getting better. I love it more every day. Hard work is paying off.

School of the Legends

SOTL is not that far in development but I'm surprised by how fun it is to think about. How hilarious the first couple chapters have been overall. Also, I really like a lot of my ideas for adapting fairy tales and stuff.

💻"what perspectives do you write in?"

The Secret Portal

TSP is told in a multi POV format. One major theme is perspective and the inner workings of each character, and I honestly can't imagine it in third. It's taken a lot of work, and the character voices are becoming increasingly more distinct. There are chapters without one focal character told in third person.

School of the Legends

SOTL is told completely in third person, with one focal character per chapter. I think most of my projects from now on will be third so the exhausting and diligent work from TSP doesn't have to be repeated. Only two other works I have planned feel fitting for it anyway.

🖥️"what types of writing do you do?

I obviously do a lot of original fiction, primarily sci-fi and fantasy. Only one idea that I haven't completely scrapped is realistic fiction, and that will likely stay the same. I love realistic fiction, but find compelling narratives hard for some reason. This idea doesn't even have a plot so that's also telling.

On the side, I do a lot of media analysis. I love reviewing movies and shows and analyzing the crap out of them. Not only does this help me process and document all of my opinions but it also gives me a better understanding of the property, writing process, and story progression that leads to my development as a writer.

❤️"what are your favorite scenes from your WIPs?"

The Secret Portal

Favorite scenes aw man. For TSP, the grilled cheese sandwich debate has a special place in my heart. It's unfortunately very long so obviously I'm going to have to cut it down, which I'm working on, but I'm keeping it as is. Also, the intense moments that I'm proud of stand out. Ash getting manipulated, Noelle and Carmen arguing, Jedi's entire backstory, etc. I become super proud of myself for being able to get invested. Any scene with Robbie and Akash honestly.

School of the Legends

For SOTL, it's not that long, but I love the opening scene for Tierney's chapter electric shocking his brothers. But I am also proud of Úrsula's chapter for being pretty nuanced.

I guess both the wholesome shenanigans and also heavy scenes.

😭"what are the biggest challenges writing your WIPS?"

The Secret Portal

Biggest challenge for TSP is honestly world building. I can figure out character and plot enough with hard work but my brain hurts from world building. Which kinda sucks because I want Alium to be distinct. The good news is, it's coming along, and I like the tiny little processes that I make over time. Little things add up, and Alium is becoming more and more of its own thing. I like that, even if it's hard.

School of the Legends

For SOTL, it's stringing together a narrative and structure. I have a lot of characters and plot ideas but can't connect most of them. There are just so many fairy tales. I have no idea how I'm going to work with this. Maybe just making it a string of one-shots with an overarching plot could work. I dunno. We shall see where it goes.

Thank you so much for all the asks!!! This was so fun! Hope this was a good read!

[gojonanami]

dearest sab,

first of all, apologies for not wishing you eid mubarak in time! i am wishing you all the very best of the best xx

secondly, i just wanted to say that i absolutely loved chapter five! it was incredibly written and so well-paced, and it responded to previous chapters so, so well and it just set up chapter six so, so brilliantly. i can't pick out favourite moments off the top of my head as i loved the chapter as a whole, but, thinking about it now, the first scenes that come to mind which really moved me are those of suguru crying, the two parallel dreams, and the very end, when suguru comes back as reader's thesis adviser. (also – what a way to conclude a chapter!!!)

thirdly, i just wanted to say that i admire the way you write so, so much. i think it's so cool how you're able to enter the mindset of these characters! i really adore the ways in which you write satoru, suguru and kento, especially, and i feel like you really get their characters/personalities! they really come to life in your pieces, and i am so thankful, because thanks to you, i get to think about the characters i love for a little longer. i'm really very grateful for that, and for you.

also, just in general, i just love your writing style. you have such a distinct author's voice, which is super cool, and i just love the way in which you write – it's so clear, it's so well-paced (fast but not too fast, with enough time to ruminate, but not slow), it's filled with such amazing descriptions (like you know what to focus on when and the stuff that you choose to focus on... the way you chronicle emotions/feelings... the descriptions you pick out...), and the plots themselves are so, so good (they are diverse, persuasive, engaging, fun, emotional, moving, sexy, and so much more)!!!

honestly, i just think you're really very talented !!! thank you for sharing your works with us xxx

hi love, that’s so sweet thank you and you have nothing to apologize for!! I appreciate the wish regardless of when it comes 💕🥹 the fact you remembered is enough for me 💕

thank you so much!! ahh I had so much fun with that part and now I’m working on part 6 and I’m so so excited!!

awww I love you bb — that’s so so sweet — and I appreciate you so much 💕🥹 that always means so much to me — I really try hard to capture the essence of the character and it is very hard sometimes and I’m glad you think I’m doing a good job 💕🥹 I’m so grateful for you and everyone else who is so kind honestly 😭

🥹😭 the way you say I have a voice means everything to me because I honestly struggle with that a lot and I’m so glad you think so — it’s so hard to balance those things as a writer and it means so much to me that you think so! I cannot tell you how much it means to me

thank you for being here and your kind words 🥹💕😭