Writin' away.

thank you for the tag, @oh-no-another-idea!!!

Like you, I have also not been able to focus much on actual prose lately, but here's a thing:

“You’re wasting precious energy holding it in,” Octavius says gently, rubbing his back while his nerves scream. “Lean into it. Make any sounds you need to make.” Fuck, how can the person inflicting the pain make him feel so utterly reassured? His body is terribly confused but he’s starting to understand why people like this much pain in their play. “Four.” This time, he takes the advice.

Context because I love you guys: Any sub Octavius plays with has to start by submitting references from the BDSM club he owns and a detailed questionnaire of yes/no/maybes for all the standard stuff. Milo has a veritable portfolio of experience in the scene and has never really gotten into intense pain play - it's a hard maybe for him. But after he's done a solid set of scenes with Octavius, he's more than willing to give it a go with an open mind.

This is all so important to me because I desperately want to subvert the trope where the sub is being introduced to BDSM for the first time. Milo's been doing this a long time and is completely clear-headed about what he likes, and Octavius would accept nothing less in a playmate, unwilling to teach some novice the ropes (as it were 😏).

Thanks for the tag @sunset-a-story

A line where someone lies (from The Glass Cage): “There’s nothing more! You extracted it all!”

A line you find funny (from Snow on the Pines): “So this is Hallis.” Ivy’s voice was full of awe.

“I wonder what they do with all the rubbish.” Rail remarked.

A line about loss (from Snow on the Pines): It’s not that I grieve less…it’s just that I’ve supped on sorrow for so long I’ve just gotten better at masking it

A line with an insult (from A Feather in the Forest) “It’s because that head of yours has more fluff than feathers about it,”

Tagging @thegreatobsesso @winterandwords @theeccentricraven @starwright @writingingraves

@sleepyowlwrites @somethingclevermahogony @memento-morri-writes @writingamongther0ses @darkandstormydolls and open tag

Your lines are:

A line about sleep

A line said in secret

A line with a strong emotion

Thanks for the tags, @winterandwords and @memento-morri-writes! I won't lie, I've been doing very little writing recently, so I haven't much to show, but I hope you'll accept this new Necromancer WIP snippet with love...

Miriam leaves them to it. She pushes away from the table and walks along the row of still celebrating townspeople. A man raises his mug of ale and cheers, two young women embrace over empty plates. Away from the string of lights, shadows pool, dripping off leaning thatched rooftops, pouring over rain barrels and window boxes. Quintus, when she finds him, is lying half in a garden box like a corpse. “Good heavens,” Miriam says, unsure at first, if she’s hallucinating. Quintus lifts his head just barely, and that’s how Miriam knows he’s alive, just as drunk as a bumblebee on a spring day.

📝 Share 15 or fewer lines of dialogue from an OC, ideally lines that capture the character/personality/vibe of the OC.

tagged by @thegreatobsesso and doing this for Rem

tagging @winterandwords [because rem], @indecentpause , @reininginthefirewriting , @touloser-lautrec , and @firesidefantasy + anyone else who may wish to participate

★ 1. “No—fucker.” Rem shoves his hand away. “Two fucking [cigarette] packs for one blowjob.” 

★ 2. “No,” Rem says, hands falling to his sides, “that’s my input. Fuck this.” 

★ 3. “I’m nothing if not predictable,” Rem says through a smirk.

★ 4. “Fuck’s the problem? You with someone else?” Not that he’s with Rem. Not that Rem wants to be with him. Not in anything more meaningful than sex. 

★ 5. “Told you, I’m only here because Oli asked me to be.” 

“You do everything Oli asks you to?” 

Rem scoffs and kicks Jonah under the table. “If I did, I would’t be an alcoholic, would I?” 

★ 6. “I did. Miss you. Or whatever.” 

★ 7. “We’ve always had an expiration date,” he says after a too-long silence.

★ 8. “Hate to break it to you, but I’ve probably fucked every gay man in Warren Creek and a few of ‘em who wanna pretend they’re straight and happy but actually love a stranger’s dick up the—”

★ 9. “What, no ‘good morning’ or ‘hey, you need a drink, some food, maybe an aspirin after I bashed you in the goddamn face with my gun?’” 

★ 10. “Eat shit,” Rem grumbles and shuts his eyes, “and fuck off.” 

★ 11. Inhaling deep, laughter igniting his lungs alongside the nicotine, he says, “You’re just gonna awaken a new kink in me if you’re not careful,” on a breath of smoke and ducks away from Ross’s swinging arm. 

★ 12. There’s a flush to [Oliver’s] cheeks and he ducks his head. Reaches under the table, hand moving out of sight. 

Rem arches a brow. Leans forward. “You jerking yourself off down there or what?” 

★ 13. “Mm.” Rem taps his fingernails on the bartop. Nods to the exit and says, “You wanna go out back and blow me?” 

★ 14. “One thing you’ll learn if you stick around, is that Rem has a penchant for starting fights.” 

“Didn’t fucking start it,” Rem snaps. 

First of all, you have no idea what a gift this ask is-- thank you!! I have been in such an art slump lately and this really helps <3 You have no idea how much it made my day!

Sticking my answer under the cut because it kinda got away from me and I don't want to color-of-the-sky anyone's dash lol

I know what an art slump feels like, and trust me when I say, I am extremely impressed with your work. I know when you're the one making it and assessing your own stuff, it's different. I wish I could remember where I read it, but there's that graph that shows your skill and your... vision? I can't remember what the second piece was called. I'm doing a great job at explaining this, lol. But basically, sometimes your skills surpass your vision and that's where you feel great, but then your vision surpasses your skills (which is has to do so you can improve), but in that lag time where your skills haven't caught up, you feel the slumpiness of it all. But, you're really just getting ready to power up. :)

Anyways, I love your work. And what I think I need to do is, instead of coming at it like "now that I feel like drawing I'll draw my OCs in this incredibly specific scenario that I am super invested in emotionally because I have it here in prose", I need to just... draw other things. Draw all the things. Practice practice practice on things that are low stakes, not like, meant to be the climactic book scenes that I can see in detail in my head.

Hi, there! I go by Desi or Jasper (they/he, 30s). I'm a queer artist and writer who draws too many OCs, but that's what keeps my ship upright, so that's pretty okay I guess. Art as self-care with a nice side effect of pretty things to look at. I'm hoping you'll enjoy looking at 'em too!

Most of my art is of original characters and content related to Sunset, a serial I co-write and illustrate with my partner, @sunset-a-story. Check out their blog for more information about the serial, and here are some links to where you can read it!

Sunset follows an ensemble cast of (largely queer) superhuman people through a modern-setting, slow-burn adventure arc that encompasses themes of cloak-and-dagger action, romance, and even some monster hunting.

My art medium of choice is digital (procreate and clip studio), and I have also been dabbling in teaching myself to animate. Occasionally, I'll break out my sketch book and ink pens for some traditional work, too. Sometimes I take breaks from Sunset OCs to draw my ttrpg characters, silly little birds, or witchy things, and the veeeery occasional fan art.

I'm always happy for tags and asks! :)

(If you want to filter through, you can find my art using the #my art hashtag on my blog.)

Thanks to @oh-no-another-idea for the tag!

📝 Share 15 or fewer lines of dialogue from an OC, ideally lines that capture the character/personality/vibe of the OC.

I don't think I've done this one since I started working on Miles From Morning, so here's a bit of Rafe from the first half of MFM for you...

1 “Look at where we are. Not just this room. The whole situation. Do you really think sugar has been one of the major issues in my life so far?”

2 “Do I look like someone who needs help with relaxing and sleeping?”

3 “You been watching me sleep?”

4 “Fucking make me, Sir.”

5 “Fuck you! I am not fucking frightened.”

6 “I didn’t know it was that kind of party.”

7 “If you’re looking for validation, you’ve got to at least break the skin.”

8 “Something heavy. I want to forget my name. I want to get lost.”

9 “I’m sure. It’s nothing. I’m fine. Just stop talking.”

10 “I don’t want anything from in there. I want what’s in your left hand. I can cut it out or I can take your hand. Up to you.”

11 “Why? You want to hear about it? You want a story? You want to see the damage? Because you wouldn’t be the first, not by a long shot. You want me to take my shirt off for that too?”

12 “Get fucked. I don’t want to do anything here. I don’t want to be here at all.”

13 “Yeah, well, this keeps proving itself to be a crueller and more unusual punishment every day.”

14 “I’d rather eat my own hands than live there, surrounded by everyone else who lives there.”

15 “Thing is,” I tell him in the kind of whisper that I've learned makes people want to touch me, “I deserved it.”

Tagging @nopoodles, @i-can-even-burn-salad, @thegreatobsesso and @touloser-lautrec if you'd like to do it, with an open tag for anyone else who wants to share some dialogue from their WIP 💜

Reblogs, replies etc on my tag posts are always welcome, but if you're doing this tag yourself, please make your own post instead of using mine to start a reblog chain.

Anthony Head (sometimes credited as Anthony Stewart Head) has passed away.

His daughters shared that "he passed away peacefully of complications due to pneumonia, surrounded by his family" at the age of 72, according to BBC.

Buffy fans will most know him for playing Rupert Giles, the titular character's beloved mentor, in all seven seasons of the series. He also voiced the character in video games, the Slayers audio series, and the unproduced animated Buffy pilot.

Outside of the Buffyverse, he's had a long range of roles on screen and stage. Some highlights include roles in Little Britain, The Rocky Horror Show, Merlin, Repo! the Genetic Opera, and Ted Lasso.

I always pictured my character, Simon Bell, as what it might have been like if Giles and Jenny Calendar ever had a baby. I absolutely think of Tony Head as playing Simon's dad, who never made an actual appearance in the book but whom I have tons of headcanons and side stories surrounding. Something about him in that role just touched me so deeply; the ultimate comfort character. It always felt like as long as Giles was around, everything was gonna be okay.

My heart goes out to his IRL family and all who knew him. He made a real difference to so many people in his life, me included.