I don't know if you're familiar with the song, but "Think You Can Wait" by the National reminds me S

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I love the idea of playlists!! I have never been good at figuring out how to share them, but I would be so pumped if someone made a playlist!! 

I have playlists for a bunch of my other serieses, actually, like of things I listened to writing them and such, and Lost Kings is pretty unique in that I literally have 0 songs associated with it. I wrote so much of it in the yurt or in my head in the car between destinations or in the back of moments of free time where I did not have A Writing Space… it’s really, I think, the largest body of work I have ever written that did not have any kind of soundtrack. It’s definitely a landmark of shit Written While I Was Meant To Be Doing Something Else, all of it really. I suppose I love it extra for that, but it deserved better. 

I gotta re-listen to that song though, because I put it on, and I’m not particularly familiar with the artist, and I listened intently for a moment, but it’s a slow start, and then I got distracted and the song ended and I honestly didn’t register any of it. Probably I’d better listen to it in the car. So I was like, oh, I’d better wait to answer until I’ve properly listened to it, but then I looked at the rest of my inbox and was like no, if I don’t write and queue up an answer NOW I literally never will. So, sorry I don’t have more of a response to the song but it’s clearly the kind of thing one ought to sit and listen to in a receptive mood rather than immediately after a rowdy dinner and a car ride full of Power Metal, LOL. 
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If you could have three superpowers ( it can range from like being able to cook anything to creating

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I mean, for sure I’d want the ability to stop time, just so I could sleep. If I could get enough sleep and also have actually 24 hours in a day to get shit done, then I’d be unstoppable. 

But it’s so hard to narrow it down, otherwise. I mean. What’s a Superpower really? And how do you kinda define the edges of that? Like, if I could be invulnerable, then how would I manage not to accidentally hurt other people with my super-hard skin? And things like invisibility– if you’re not visible then your retinas are transparent and you can’t see so you’re blind so that’s awkward. And if you’ve got super speed you need super healing because of the wear and tear on all your joints from moving that fast. And I just.

If you can do more than a person then you’re obligated to do more than a person and where do you draw the line? If I’m the strongest person in the world then I also need to be the smartest because it would be so easy to use those powers for evil by accident.

I’d wind up a puddle of burnout because I’d feel like i had to fix the world. What if I could punch every fascist in the face? I’d feel like I had to. 

I’m definitely overthinking this. But the more modest superpowers are really just… more like talents, and like any talent would require work to excel at. And the more ambitious, worthwhile superpowers are the kinds of things that, shit, I think you need a degree in ethics to even contemplate actually handling. And it’s not that I’m not an ethical person, it’s that I’m painfully aware of how much of that shit I learn daily, and I can’t imagine how many times I’d fuck up if I had superpowers.

IDK I think it’s too long since I wrote in any fandoms that had supers in them. Or, like. Maybe I spent too long in them, LOL. 
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Zero degrees. First tracks in the lot. Salt

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Zero degrees. First tracks in the lot. Salt doesn’t melt ice anymore, interesting driving conditions. Does anyone know what % Lake Erie is frozen, yet? Are we done with ake effect yet?
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seramarias replied to your post: If you...

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seramarias replied to your post: If you could have three superpowers ( it can range…

I tend to gravitate towards the ‘never get sick again and also what if I could fly?’ end of the spectrum on this one. But I absolutely get your point!

oh no that would’ve been a way better answer, I’m changing mine.
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I literally don’t know how many pairs of socks

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I literally don’t know how many pairs of socks I’m wearing plus I have insoles in and these are my fuckoff chore boots from the farm made out of injection-molded foam of some kind and 

i can’t feel my toes so there’s that

but i’m wearing four sweaters and am fine from the waist up

my dears, how is winter treating you?? i’m worried because i’m seeing that people in places that aren’t equipped to have winters are getting them. i’m sorry. i live here on purpose so i feel like my complaining is only so justified, really; I live here because winter’s not that horrible and it’s better than hurricanes or earthquakes or tornadoes and we don’t get those. but some of you live in hurricane places, AND you have to deal with this bullshit, and that’s not fair, you didn’t sign up for that.

so you have my sympathy. 

I’m from a subtly different climate than this current one– it gets much colder over near New England than it typically does over here at the Great Lakes, but today it’s cold like my childhood (and uh, like 2015, so, like, it’s not like I’m out of practice). 

At any rate. Give your cars plenty of time, my dears, face away from the wind if you can, don’t worry about how you look just put more layers on, wear pantyhose under your jeans and an extra tank top under your t-shirt under your long-sleeve shirt under your sweater under your sweatshirt, you can never have too many pairs of socks on (UNLESS they make your shoes too tight!! that will backfire!!) and if you’re really cold drink hot tea and if you hate tea then just boil water and hold the mug and sip from it and pretend you’re some kind of ascetic. You don’t deserve this. It will pass. We’ll get through this. 
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millicentthecat replied to your post “I litera

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millicentthecat replied to your post “I literally don’t know how many pairs of socks I’m wearing plus I have…”

We ran out of heating oil - I guess the whole region ran out? They filled it before the storm, though :)

OMG. Our provider warned that they might run out of gas but rescinded the warning. I am still terrified. 

wyomingnot replied to your post “I literally don’t know how many pairs of socks I’m wearing plus I have…”

We’ve got plenty of cold, but not nearly the usual snowfall. Hardly any so far. Which bums me out. I did have to break down and get a new coat this year as I put on so much weight over the last year that the old one was too snug when zipped. Got a fur-trimmed hood on it. Good for wind. Thing is, I am rarely cold here. Usually too warm - which is not fun when I’m outside and my face is fucking frozen but the rest of me is sliding past toasty into *hot*. oops. sorry.

Fur is super good for wind, I’m actually sad I don’t have any on my current parka and was sort of shopping for some– can you get just… faux-fur and add it yourself?? I considered the concept that to really be ecological I should hunt coyotes myself and learn to preserve hides but, that’s a bit much even for me… 

csevet replied to your post “I literally don’t know how many pairs of socks I’m wearing plus I have…”

i just checked my phone weather app and it says “0 degrees, feels like -18” so that’s how this morning is going. every heater in my apartment is going and i’m still chilly

My phone app does not mention windchill but I’m not going to ask it either. :(

I put up some insulated drapes in the kitchen at least, and I have flannel sheets on binder clips over the doors I don’t use. (Little finish nails gently poked into the top of the trim hold up the binder clips.)

I’m real glad I don’t have to walk any distance or spend any time outside, that’s for damn sure.
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poealsobucky: Luke Skywalker, Shara Bey, and Kes Dameron...

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poealsobucky:

Luke Skywalker, Shara Bey, and Kes Dameron featuring a Force-sensitive tree and Yavin 4. Shattered Empire 004 [Marvel Comics]
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vulgarweed: ellipsical-elle: I stopped myself from rage posting about that PWP nonsense yesterday...

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vulgarweed:

ellipsical-elle:

I stopped myself from rage posting about that PWP nonsense yesterday and I’m glad I did because all of you beautiful people stepped up to the plate and defended smut so much more elegantly and ferociously than I could have. Looking at you @vulgarweed. If you haven’t yet, please read V’s post: 

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I’m gonna rec some of my favourite porny one shots in a little bit AND because @happierstill is an amazing friend and is encouraging me, I’m gonna try my hand at some OctoJohn/HumanSherlock tentacle porn.

This is your friendly neighbourhood smut writer signing off and reminding you to 

Write whatever the fuck you want.

\0/

oh wow, thank you! Honestly my pleasure - a good rant can be cathartic and satisfying, like a good PWP. I enjoyed it.

OCTOJOHN TENTACLE PORN FUCK YEAH!!! write it write it write it! I can’t wait!

One of my very favorite things about fandom is the way smut-shaming so often backfires because it gets writers motivated.

I’m disinterested in the relevant fandom and nearly skipped the post because it was so many images of Relevant Fandom Persons [and really I don’t need any more How To Write: I Know Cuz I Done It One Time essays in my life] but then I saw your responses and was like wait this is probably real good and scrolled back up and went on a whole emotional journey of getting mad and then getting psyched and then feeling satisfied, so, thanks for that.

Because you’re absolutely right: sex is plot. That bit was so lovely and well-explained. I’m just going to excerpt it here, if you don’t mind, because a bunch of my followers would skip out because of the reaction gifs and miss the good stuff:::::::

Sex IS a plot. There’s beginning, interaction, rising action, characterization EVERYWHERE, still more rising action, possibly conflict, yet more character details, CLIMAX ONE HOPES and then the afterward, the comedown, the resolution. That’s a classic short story plot, as taught by Creative Writing 101 teachers everywhere.

And if you think it’s not about the characters? lolwut?

No two people have sex exactly alike. If someone tries to tell you “all X are alike in bed,” you know they’re 1000% wrong, and you’re ok writing off everything else that person has to say about sex because they’ve just revealed they know less than jack shit about it. Everyone does it differently; humans have VAST variations in what turns them on and what doesn’t and how they express that. And the same person will be a little bit different with every different partner. And the same couple will be different with each other in different moods, on different days, in different stages of life, with different hopes to fulfill and issues to resolve. There are SO MANY ways people communicate with each other and reveal themselves while having sex, both consciously and not. There are negotiations. There are experiments. There are successes and failures. There are kinks and fetishes and all the things they can possibly reveal; there are tests of relationships in sexual compatibility. There are hints of past trauma and hurts. There might be positive or neutral baggage from the past. There are weird body noises and unpredictable reactions. There are misunderstandings. There are disappointments and pleasant surprises.

ALL of this is PLOT. And all of this is fascinating in the hands of a good writer.

If you’re not into stories that have sex as most of the content, that’s fine, but can we please stop pretending that sexual stories are somehow less challenging to write or less thought-out or less revealing of character than, say “two characters talk about their feelings in an empty room” type stories?

oh sorry that’s longer than I thought– but I couldn’t possibly say it any better than that. What a beautiful little essay that is. 

There’s more good stuff in the original thread linked above (oh, the conclusion, where you tackle the “wish-fulfillment” stigma! so beautiful) but I thought, y’know, this is really Relatable and relevant even for people allergic to the fandom in question, so. <3 <3 <3 <3
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This dumb Found Cat-verse When Kes Met Shara AU is going

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This dumb Found Cat-verse When Kes Met Shara AU is going really stupidly well. There’s even precedent for female pilots in the military at period-appropriate eras.  (TWs below cut for mentions of gore.)

“Oh holy shit,” he said. The scrap of paper said Lt. Shara Bey. And underneath the address, in the same confident block-capital scrawl, it said, “Let me know if you survive,” and then there was a scribble he puzzled over for a moment.

“It’s a heart,” the doctor said. “She drew a little heart.”

“Jesus Christ,” Kes said, staring at it in disbelief. Sure enough, it was– a little lopsided and messy, but in keeping with the rest of the handwriting.

“She’s been commended for her rescue of you,” the doctor said, “but I should mention, you’ve had a couple of commendation letters written for you, for sticking by that radio as long as you did.”

“I mean,” Kes said, “it wasn’t like I could go anywhere, I would have needed like, a bucket to carry my–” He was still staring at the little heart on the piece of paper. “Oh holy fuck, Lt. Bey touched my organs.” He’d sort of forgotten that. “She had to like, push them back in so she could drag me out of there. Oh gross. Holy shit that’s gross.”

“Maybe that’s why she drew a heart,” Vaughan said.

“Holy shit that is why,” Kes said. “Maybe that’s not supposed to be a heart. Maybe it’s intestines.”

“It’s probably not intestines,” the doctor said, amused.

“Jesus Christ,” Kes said, and held the piece of paper against his chest. “She’s the baddest bitch to ever live. That is so fucking badass.”

“That’s what you’re impressed with,” the doctor said.

“I mean,” Vaughan said. “I’m not gonna lie, I’m a little bit jealous.”

Kes was looking at the paper again. He tilted it. “Maybe that’s a spleen,” he said. “What does a human spleen look like, Doc?”

“Your spleen was not hanging out,” the doctor said. “If it was you’d be dead.”

“Liver,” Kes said. “Pancreas?”

“It was just your intestines,” the doctor said repressively.
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