Theater Panoptica

5 and 24 for the ask game!

thank you for the ask!

5: What’s something you learned while researching a fic?

oh you know me so well.... theres a lot of things, often little throwaway details, that i look up (since a lot of the bigger thing tends to be original worldbuilding or things i already know) and theres been so many rabbit holes ive sent myself down while researching. a recent thing that just started with trying to find out when exactly IVs became widely used led to me reading up (a bit) on wwi-era military medicine and adding a few things to my reading list that ill get to.... someday. but for a more specific example, i found out about mushroom-based textiles while researching for a different piece. from what i can tell its mostly a mycelium-based leather, though it seems like theres also a thinner fabric being developed. theres actually quite a few things being used to try and make leather alternatives, such as pineapple leaves and winemaking byproducts. sustainable textiles are the things that google likes to turn up when you look up "unusual fabric materials," it seems

24. Which scene/theme was the inspiration for [insert fic]?

since you didn't specify which fic ill just pick my main ongoing fic/series/thing. (which i will resume work on once i have time! soon!) its hard to say what exactly inspired me to do it beyond my deep love for crossovers and also my oc universe. but as for the specific plot threads ive put in, a lot of my ocs deal with bigger picture or higher level stuff. political schemes and grand plots. so i wanted to take a look at what the more "normal" people were doing, as it has also been somewhat of a blindspot in my own worldbuilding/development for the oc universe. and its definitely worked, since in the process of setting up the necessary infrastructure for the plots i wanted to work with in this au, ive done a lot of work fleshing out (or straight up creating) some pretty significant components of the "modern day" universe. for the ongoing fic, i've always wanted to try my hand at a sort of multimedia fic ever since i read subject: a comprehensive report (fantastic, albeit unfinished fic), and this was further fueled by q.a.b. (and its sequel. read it btw. well-executed crack treated seriously and fantastic css). and the plot sort of evolved from there. a lot of the stuff about this particular subplot actually came about after i got the initial idea for this fic and it also led to me completely overhauling a character (who has yet to show up) and accidentally getting obsessed with them so. you never know where ur stuff will take you. its always been conceived of as a sort of mystery/spy thriller type story, though the idea that "you are always being watched" only really solidified after i got working on planning this out more

Love from loss WIP 2024

So you remember those pockets I wove into this fabric couple months ago? Back then I was charmed by the idea that I could hide a small item in there - I could give this fabric a secret that is part of its structure and impossible to get out unless you break the fabric itself.

So I wrote this little poem, a gentle call out for being curious enough to break my beautiful hand woven linen fabric and messaged my lovely sculptor/jewel smith friend.

Yesterday we were finally able to realize my vision! These tiny bronze plaques are made to hide in the fabric - peeking through shiny enough that you see that there is something there to tease at your imagination but - impossible to get out or read without breaking it.

a fun thing about elytras is they give me a genuine reason to draw speedrunners with wings

something something long dead minecraft servers evidence of a life once lived etc etc

molly

From The NY Times:

nytimes.com

Trump Intensifies Statehood Threats in Attack on Canada

The U.S. president on Tuesday reiterated his claims on Canada’s territory as he increased tariffs, threatening to bring the country’s econom

And from Facebook:

(X)

(Edited to make the first link a mainstream source rather than Substack)

Did you know that many gastropods can create a pearl, including terrestrial snails? The difference is nacre which is only found in some species of mollusks and which which gives pearls their beautiful shine. Terrestrial snails occasionally produce very small translucent white pearls which are usually lost. One non-nacre secreting sea snail, the melo melo, produces gorgeous pearls that are extremely prized and rare.

y'all know that whole left-brained/right-brained thing is fake right? and the "brain fully develops at age 25" thing? and the "we only use 10% of our brains" thing? yeah they're all complete horseshit please yell at anyone who says them

tumblr is full of phrases that we are all so desensitized to that they're just normal, but if you say it to a person in real life its so funny to them its a one-hit insta kill