Corvidaecollectibles - Copper Cassius

I’m only a few episodes in but he’s kind of a mood

Hannibal and Will taking a romantic walk in Florence

( ;;) <- me as a little ghost. those are my autism hands

Fun quick way to make character pairs with a working dynamic: take a standard trope character type, then make another one that's the complete opposite in every defining way, and then make them buddies. Let's take the character trope of The Gentle Giant. Oh wow what a twist, this huge mean-looking burly guy is actually a docile sweetheart. Boring. But now consider: he's got a buddy who's real fucking tiny, aggressive and mean as shit.

Like this big looming guy is facing some tough guy who's blocking the way, looking for trouble, like "move aside and nobody gets hurt." And the other guy is scoffing like psch or what? You're gonna deck me? You might be big but I can tell you're no fighter.

And the big guy is like "no. You better move or I'm gonna sic my little buddy on you."

In pigeon society, this is a symbol of wealth.

mentally taking a drag of my mental cigarette because I don’t smoke but life has been very smokable lately

One must never underestimate an opponent who does not fear death. An enemy who values your death more than their own life is unpredictable - you cannot assume that there is anything they wouldn't dare to do. Risk a blow to distract you, run right into your sword in order to get their own into you, tackle you off a cliff to throw you both into your deaths. An enemy that does not seek to survive is ruthless, they will think in ways so alien to you, that you cannot anticipate what they might do. The best defense you can have is to never make enemies like this.

The same fear and respect should also apply to clowns. They do not fear shame or mockery, they have no honour to lose by becoming laughingstock. A clown will not hesitate to look ridiculous, if tackling you makes you both look stupid. A clown does not fear losing their dignity for as long as they can take yours down with them.

Do not make enemies with clowns.

after all those pope and vatican posts i feel like you should know. he's just died. on easter weekend too the timing is foul 😭😭

And this is how I find out.

…worm jokes don’t do very well in the Archives.

Tips from a Beta Reading Writer

This one's for the scenes with multiple characters, and you're not sure how to keep everyone involved.

Writing group scenes is chaos. Someone’s talking, someone’s interrupting, someone’s zoning out thinking about breadsticks. And if you’re not careful, half your cast fades into the background like NPCs in a video game. I used to struggle with this so much—my characters would just exist in the scene without actually affecting it. But here’s what I've learned and have started implementing:

✨ Give everyone a job in the scene ✨

Not their literal job—like, not everyone needs to be solving a crime or casting spells. I mean: Why are they in this moment? What’s their role in the conversation?

My favourite examples are:

The Driver: Moves the convo forward. They have an agenda, they’re pushing the action.

The Instigator: Pokes the bear. Asks the messy questions. Stirring the pot like a chef on a mission.

The Voice of Reason: "Guys, maybe we don’t commit arson today?"

The Distracted One: Completely in their own world. Tuning out, doodling on a napkin, thinking about their ex.

The Observer: Not saying much, but noticing everything. (Quiet characters still have presence!)

The Wild Card: Who knows what they’ll do? Certainly not them. Probably about to make things worse.

If a character has no function, they’ll disappear. Give them something—even if it’s just a side comment, a reaction, or stealing fries off someone’s plate. Keep them interesting, and your readers will stay interested too.