Whispers From Tomorrow

Vaderkin Creative Exchange 2024!

Hello and welcome! This is a gift exchange in four steps, organised by the Vaderkin Community (Vaderkin is a lightning rod discord), to increase interactions between writers and artists and give everyone some time to shine!

✒️ Step 1: Writers write prompts for artists, everyone get matched depending on sign up answers.

🎨 Step 2: Artists have one month to draw one or more works from the prompts they received.

✒️ Step 3: Arts reveal. Writers get assigned one or several art pieces and have two months to write a minimum 500 words story inspired from them.

🎨 Step 4: Fics reveal. Drawing festival, every artist can draw fanart over the new stories created from the event (and be reblogged by this tumblr for it).

Sign up here:

Google Docs

Vaderkin Creative Exchange 2024

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Vaderkin Creative Exchange 2024!! This is a gift exchange in four steps, organised by the Vaderkin Commun

All works (art and fic) from tumblr will be reblogged by the Vader Community and all works (art and fic) from ao3 can be added to the event collection. For this, the works need to be tagged properly with "Vaderkin creative exchange 2024", as well as the tag "explicit" if it is explicit (smut, strong graphic violence) work.

Overall, it’s a typical gift exchange, only writers prompts will be in image rather than words, and everyone is strongly encouraged to have fun and try their hand at sketching during the ’drawing festival’.

Schedule:

Sign up opens: Marsh 28th, 2024

Sign up closes: April 27th, 2024

Artists receive prompts & giftee: May 4th, 2024 (as a little sw gift 😉)

Writers receive prompts & giftee: June 2nd-4th, 2024

Artists Submissions: June 4th, 2024

Writers Submissions: August 4th 2024

Drawing Festival: August 2024

Have fun!!

Rules and FAQ below the cut

RULES

- This is an Anakin Skywalker | Darth Vader exchange. This character needs to be one of the main characters, or at least have a very strong presence in the artwork/story. Crossovers are accepted.

- Respect your Giftee's Do Not Want (DNW)

- Do not reveal who your Giftee is before the reveal date (June 4th for artists, August 4th for writers). If you have a question, ask as anon through the Giftee's Tumblr or ask one of the event mods (we will serve as intermediary).

- Do not repost your gift content (especially art!) Mind your giftee’s extra request for AI-scraping protection if there is any. If you can, use the ao3 gift function to link to their profile. Otherwise, mention in your work post that this is a gift, with a mention of your giftee username and a link towards their tumblr/ao3/otherwise page, if they gave one.

- Do not use AI to produce your gift, be it to produce the prompts or to produce your art / written work.

- Avoid character bashing, kinkshaming, and ship wars. If one fits in your DNW (ex: You absolutely do not want Obikin content), mention it politely. This is an event for everyone to have fun! The fandom is wide, and there is space for everyone.

By participating in this exchange, you commit yourself to producing one art piece if you sign up as an artist, one written fic if you sign up as writer, or one artwork and one fic if you sign up as both. If you can't complete your work, you must warn one of the mods at least one week before the deadline.

If any of the above rules is not respected, mods reserve the right to ban you from this and any future Vaderkin Community events.

Please don’t forget to comment on your gift, even a small ’thank you’ to the artist/writer is better than nothing and will make everyone very happy!

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FAQ

Can I draw a comic? Yes, a comic panel will be counted as an art piece.

Can I write a multi chapter story? Sure! Feel free to! But your first chapter must be able to pass as a one shot, and be finished by the writing deadline.

I missed the sign up deadline (27th April), can I still join? No, but you can still join during the Drawing Festival! The final event is open to everyone.

I only joined as an artist/writer but also wanted to participate as the other one. Same answer. The sign up closes in order for us to properly match everyone. But don’t hesitate to join and give gifts for the Drawing Festival!

Someone else also have the same writing prompt/art prompt/giftee as me, is this normal? Yes, this is how we balance the number difference between writers and artists. Prompt interpretation varies from person to person!

Can I do several art/fic works? Sure! In the case of art pieces, it will allow the writer to choose from which picture to draw inspiration from, like receiving several prompts, so several art pieces is highly encouraged!

I cannot finish my work in time, what do I do? Contact us ASAP and tell us your estimated delay. If you are an artist, keep in mind that your gifter cannot begin their writing work before your art piece is published.

I do not wish to participate anymore, what do I do? Contact us ASAP. Please try not to drop out right before the deadline, as we may have to create a work to replace yours.

Now playing: III-IV: Masters and Apprentices

In which the Alliance comes to the aid of the besieged Partisans, and masters and apprentices meet again.

Mo Ghile Mear, by Órla Fallon—I've listened to other versions of "Mo Ghile Mear," but they've all been kind of slow and tranquil, whereas this one is so vibrant and dynamic, it's like jubilation in a bottle, and I can just see a scene playing out in my head, and all the characters, and the mood, and... hgnghgrhfh, just can't wait to write the chapter that goes with this song!

Seriously, words cannot describe how much I'm looking forward to writing and sharing this part of Fortune's Rule Part IV. At least, not at this hour of the night. morning. whatever. Anyway! I'm SO EXCITED!

I'm back to playing through KotOR 2. This is based on a conversation between @for-the-love-of-starwars and I, where she suggested I draw Kreia with a mug saying "#1 bad space mom." I ended up shortening it to "No. 1 Worst Mom."

I see Kreia's relationship with Revan as something of an emotionally abusive parental figure who also can't understand why her successful, adult child wants nothing to do with her.

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[My Ko-Fi] [Patreon]  

the more i think about it, I don't think Star Wars should be considered scifi. I know it already probably isn't by some, but i think that it should instead be thought of a space fantasy.

Now playing: III-VI, The New Way of Things

In which Obi-Wan and Padmé contemplate, Shili seeks to join the Rebellion, Piett decides to befriend a homicidal child, and Vader faces his Master after the disaster that was Wrea.

Noticing something funny about my fanart

So, a few weeks ago, I did a drawing for one of the chapters in Fortune's Rule—a little digital sketch of Padmé and Luke. And then I'm looking at this drawing, and wondering why the heck does something about this picture look familiar, and then I realise:

It's Star Wars meets Mary Cassatt.

My sketch:

A couple of Mary Cassatt paintings:

Young Mother Sewing

Mère et enfant (Reine Lefebre and Margot before a Window)

And then, last week, I did another drawing, to use as a sort of banner-thing for the story. And I'm looking at it. And looking. And getting this creeping, yucky feeling that a certain painting style always inspires in me. And asking myself why I've just created Star Wars meets Hudson River School, because something about the lighting and the semi-desolation of the landscape is very reminiscent of that style.

My drawing:

Hudson River School paintings:

A View of the Two Lakes and Mountain House, Catskill Mountains, Morning, by Thomas Cole

Mount Washington from the Valley of Conway, by John Frederick Kensett

Seriously, why does this keep happening? Have these things have just been lurking in the brain since middle school, waiting for an excuse to escape? And what the heck is going to be next?

Not sure if this has been asked or not, but how would canon Luke and Leia react to meeting your au versions of them?

omg I'VE BEEN WANTING TO MAKE AN INTO THE LUKE-AND-LEIA-VERSE FOR AGES thank you for kicking me into doing it

(donation doodles! // tip jar)

A Tale of Three Antivirus Programs

Aka, I somehow have three different antivirus programs vying for the privilege of protecting my computer? My laptop: *fan running loudly nonstop because it's probably been... a month? since I last restarted it.* Me: Oh, you poor thing! *restarts it.* My antivirus software, next time I open my laptop: Hey, so we're going to need you to restart your device so we can install this new update. Me: Well, should have thought of this sooner, Bitdefender, because I literally just did that, and it is not happening again until things get buggy. See ya' next month. Note: Chances are that Bitdefender will do the same exact thing next time I restart. Even if I restart on a weekly basis instead of monthly, it does this. It's like anytime I decide to restart, it wants to update. Why. Bitdefender, when my laptop connects to wifi: This is your home network, yes? Me: No. Bitdefender next time the laptop connects to that same wifi: This is your work network, yes? Me: No. Bitdefender, third time connecting to that wifi: This is your home network, yes? Me: *facepalm*  why are you like this. Also Bitdefender: OMG you're on an unprotected network, turn on your VPN! The network: *is private, password-protected* The VPN: *is an extra, offered by Bitdefender, which I don't subscribe to* Me: *is suspicious that this is just a ploy to pull in more money* The OTHER antivirus software that my computer came with, and still hangs out occasionally, just to be a pest (yes, McAfee, looking at you): Hi!  Turn on web protection! Me: Are you seriously trying to get me to use two antivirus programs at once?  Do you really think that's a good idea?  Or even remotely necessary? The THIRD??? antivirus software, which my computer also came with:  *shyly knocks on the door, by which I mean pops up a humble little notification when I first turn the computer on*  Hey, would you... maybe... like to... consider turning on Microsoft Defender? Me: *wishes I could post a "No thanks" sticky note on my OS like I can on my front door* Go away. To be fair, I could probably uninstall the McAfee thing.  But at the same time, it's kind of funny having these three competing programs, even if what they're competing for seems to be the title of Most Irritating Hypervigilent Software.

20 Questions For Writers

Thank you, @sinvulkt! I saw someone else post one of these a while ago, and it looked fun, so thanks so much for the tag! 💛💛💛

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Seven. Technically eight, but one of them is part of another and just separated for logistical reasons, so it doesn't really count.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

190,105 words

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Star Wars

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Fortune's Rule, 536 kudos

Missing Pieces No More, 142

Whispers From Tomorrow, 126

Petrichor, 42

Threadbare, 30

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Most of the time! Sometimes it takes a while because busy + tired, but I enjoy it when other authors respond to my comments, so I want to respond other people's comments. :)

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Probably Threadbare. Wouldn't say it's a full-on angsty ending, because I tend to go for angsty beginnings/middles and happy endings, but it's the closest I've got.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Whispers From Tomorrow, by virtue of it being a pre-Order-66 fix-it.

8. Do you get hate on your fic?

I've gotten a little. You know how FFN can be. There was this one kinda funny one instance where somebody was silent for like 20 chapters, and then absolutely flipped their lid in a comment after I killed off a character. Not even a main character! Oops....

9. Do you write smut?

Nope.

10. Do you write crossovers?

Not as a rule, but I did start scribbling down this weird idea for Anne Shirley, from Anne of Green Gables, ending up in the GFFA during the Clone Wars via some witchery in the Haunted Wood. What gets me is how I told my brother about it, and he promptly started nagging me to write it because he wants to read it XD

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but feel free to do so if you're interested!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

No.

14. What‘s your all-time favourite ship?

Meh, not really a big shipper.

15. What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

WIP I will never finish? What are you talking about?

There are no unfinished WIPS in Ba Sing Se.

Seriously, though, probably my Padmé ROTS time loop fic. I had this idea for Padmé to keep looping back to some point in ROTS after she dies. I love the idea, it's roughly outlined and I've written some snippets, and there's this one scene that I'd really like to include, but I'm just not sure how to make the time loop AU work in this scenario.

16. What’s your writing strengths?

Grammar, usage, and mechanics. And maybe angst, oddly enough. Never figured myself for an angst writer, but then I started writing Fortune's Rule, and here we are.

17. What’s your writing weaknesses?

Speed. I write slowly. I also tend to end up going down research rabbit holes that suck up my time and energy. And I have a really hard time saying no to adding more characters, which adds to the whole writing-takes-a-long-time thing.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Sure! I've enjoyed putting little bits of Mando'a and Huttese into Fortune's Rule.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Calico Captive, by Elizabeth George Speare, when I was in my early teens. Never managed to get a whole fic out of it, and what fragments I did write were terribly underdeveloped, sentimental, and shallow. But we all have to start somewhere!

20. Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

Fortune's Rule, all the way! I know it's not finished yet, but it is my precious and my problem child, and I love it to bits!

In a way, it's a very self-indulgent story, because it's got all the tropes I most adore, and it's like a puzzle, trying to figure out how to put all these different elements together in a way that's believable, and how to have characters develop to where I want them to be.

Plus, it's also given me some fun surprises, like Padmé and Ahsoka being besties, Ventress becoming Obi-Wan's confidant for a certain matter, and Piett becoming a friend/confidant/emotional support admiral for Starkiller.

And there's so much more fun stuff planned, especially as we're getting close the start of an arc I've been planning since before I started posting the fic in 2021! (There will be child hijinks. There will be pirates. There will be sand, and angst and fluff galore. And I am so kriffing excited.)

Tagging (If you're interested! I'm doing like sinvulkt and tagging some authors I've interacted with a bit on AO3; hope this isn't a nuisance to anyone! :) ) @musewrangler, @clawedandcute, @xxiamnotokay666xx