#[The Winds of Change - Mod Updates & Announcements]

[funnel-webbed-au]

It's just my... reflection... in the mirror, nothing more...

Why am I still afraid?

Digital art. Done with Krita, and I quite obviously do not know how to shade yet, but I did what I could to make this design unsettling. I also apologize for my proportions not being quite right. It is supposed to feature a corrupted version of his outfit, of his tail, and twisted variations of his motifs while his artifacts retain their divine power. Note that Sydney's ichor is too impure for him to summon his celestial armaments, outside of the Wind-Fire Wheels and Red Armillary Sash. Also note how his hair has a motif from the Lady Bone Demon, as well as the pagoda-like shape. This was not intentional at first, but I went with it because it adds to the twisted air of Nezha's new form as Sydney.

This is by no means a final design, but it feels like an upgrade from what is currently set as the blog icon.

[jazzybot4]

Perspective, I hope.

Thursday Morning at 2:26 AM, I had just gotten into bed. I was winding down from my week at work, which is the only reason I had the time to get involved at all. The message was thus:

This was the first time my name had been mentioned in this current drama, since I was the owner/moderator of the discord. I started it a few years ago to act as an aggregate of Deadcatwithaflamethrowers fans, fanfic updates, and offering a community where people could hang out and just be fans, friends. This Discord predates a LOT of the current issues that are in circulation now.

Below is the entire story, receipts included.

I did the good moderator thing. I made sure that all the threats, all the vitriol, all the potential catalytic language was removed from the server (as server owners have the discretion to do, for good reasons. I didn’t remove anything without keeping a record of it.) and I created a new server to talk about options. I was up until nearly 5 AM talking Flamethrower out of her initial knee-jerk reaction, which was to lash out at someone based on a hunch and no solid evidence. I sat down and analyzed the situation, taking into account Flamethrower's own reputation, and I tried my best to be as honest and upfront as I could be about my own emotions about the whole thing. I believed the best course of action would be to de-escalate, rather than fan the flames, especially in the face of Flamethrower's notoriety. To anyone who knows me as a moderator: You know my first goal is always community safety and continuity. Malicious actors are absolutely not tolerated, and I’m always trying to find the edge of Hanlons razor to deflate problems with. I went to bed with the knowledge that I was going to be doing damage control for a few days, because tempers were running high and I was waiting for my moderation team to get caught up on the news, and to warn them that we might have to make changes. Thursday Afternoon I had a conversation with a user in the server I’d created to talk about and see where mitigation of the (in Flamethrowers mind) Crisis could be done. My goal through the day had been to see where people stood, reaching out to friends and contacts to poke at their opinions. I wanted to see what kind of reception to certain posts Flamethrower might make would receive. Flamethrower did not participate in this side conversation. In it, I tried my best to look at things from an outside perspective, removing myself to better gauge the optics of the whole situation. I can only assume Flamethrower did not realize this, as that's the only explanation I can fathom for why she reacted the way she did. It was never my goal to try and start any fights, merely to mitigate possible reputational harm and consider all the angles of an argument, even the less than kind angles. The highlights here:

After this message, Flamethrower left both this Discord, as well as the Domain discord I���d set up. This was not announced, and nobody knew they had left. On Friday morning, I found out that Flamethrower had left the server. She did not tell me so. She instead reached out to one of the members of my mod team, and asked for an invite to rejoin the server. This is baffling to me, because she lives with people who had the server invite available, and therefore I can only conclude her reaching out to the mod team was meant to be meaningful somehow. Unfortunately, that meaning eludes me entirely. The server is public and everyone in it has the ability to generate an invite. Her approach to the mod was... strange. She prefaced her request for an invite by asking the mod why no one had reached out to her or said anything about her leaving the server.

I will repeat what I said before: She did not announce she left the server. Discord does not automatically notify every member of the server when someone leaves. No one knew she had left the server.

Friday afternoon was a quiet one, with the mod team talking about options and trying to figure out contingencies in case of issue. I also received this message:

Between that message and the subsequent follow up, I went to the mod team. I was concerned about the timing and the entire... off tone, of the whole interaction. I had previously - and earnestly - made the offer to give ownership or admin status to Flamethrower. The server is, after all, dedicated to their work, and all of us there are - were - fans of her work. But Flamethrower had rejected my offer, more than once. I took her last rejection to heart, and in conjunction with her habit to come and go from the server - completely valid, as this was more often than not a response to stressful or tense situations - made the decision to instead focus on fostering the community and making sure she would instead have a place to return.

Again, the server is public. There's no penalty for leaving and coming back, and the mod team certainly does not hold it against anyone who decides to step back for a short - or long! - time.

I will be honest, I also didn't like the tone of the request. It seemed... off. She didn't outright ask for control of the server, leaving me room to refuse, but the timing of the conversation was... strange. My last conversation with Flamethrower - if you can call it that - was her snarling at me in the drama containment server, before she abruptly left that and the Deadcat Domain server. Then, radio silence.

And then this message.

So I asked the mod team what to do, and my response was pretty much scripted by them. The mod team very emphatically did not want to deal with a massive server handover amidst the already ongoing drama. Flamethrower's own admission that deleting the entire server - and in the process destroying and uprooting our community - was very much an option she was willing to consider did not make anyone more enthused about the idea.

Saturday was a lot of moderation things. I was at work, and between clients I was checking on the discord and my mod team. The first message I sent them was this:

Pretty much directly after this conversation, we talked about what they wanted and I asked them to help me word a response to Flamethrowers request to take the server off my hands. I also sent them an invite to the containment server. I wanted them to have full context of what had happened and for them to know exactly what everyone involved had said, so they could make informed decisions in their votes. 

I take my mod work seriously, and I believe transparency is crucial for a healthy community to thrive. So me sharing this with my mod team was not at all unusual or strange. Flamethrower was asking to take on an admin or even owner role in the server, but the server was no longer mine alone, and I would not feel comfortable making a decision without input from my mods. Their work, after all, had shaped the server beyond my own involvement in its creation. 

I am the kind of admin that likes to make sure people have the whole story, if I'm going to ask for their opinion or analysis. I wanted mods to make their own decisions, unbiased from how I might recount events. I wanted to make sure that, if a handoff was needed, it went on as smoothly as possible.

I’m so sorry that it didn’t. 

Sunday was a lot of Mods talking about reorganizing and cleaning up server roles, opening more fandom roles, and clarifying what was going on in different channels. We were also looking to bring on people who wanted to help role-wrangle and offer an ear for people to come to with server suggestions or issues that were a little more low-key than posting up in the suggestions box.

Meanwhile in the vent channel, this happens:

On Monday, Flamethrower opened with this in our help-I-need-an-adult room. Personally, I don't think this was the appropriate place for this conversation, and I'm not sure why she thought it belonged here instead of venting. I didn’t see her asking for advice on how to word her post, or even asking for advice on what to do.

Then, Flamethrower started posting on a similar vein in the Main chat, which led to this announcement. (This is not an official announcement, as they were not part of the mod team. They also did not go to the mod team asking to post this as an @everyone announcement the next day. But they are the person whose work inspired the creation of the server in the first place, and so their word carries a lot of weight in this space.) I...don't know what to say, about that whole anxiety-inducing lead-in, except that it bothers me. 

Again, between her reaching out about a potential handoff of the server, and making these increasingly aggressive posts, Flamethrower hadn't spoken to me at all. Everything at this point, I knew from her talking to the mod team, and apparently telling them that I was "not to be trusted". I'm not entirely sure, since I don't have hard records of those conversations, but frankly, I don't want or need to see that. I just want to know what made the vibe change from "I'll help you with the server" to "this person isn't on my side anymore", not to mention how I managed to cause it without directly speaking with her once.

I'm trying to understand what if anything could have set off Flamethrower to assume everything I did and said was in bad faith. I don't think there was much to give her reason, but then, I'm biased I suppose. Everything I did was absolutely from the position I had taken, back at the beginning of this whole fiasco: "protect the server and its members, including Flamethrower, from potential fallout." I'd love to get an answer, clear cut and upfront, about what terrible thing I did, to make them think I was out to get them. I'd love to know, but I don’t think I'm going to get those answers.

And so, I decided to go. It wasn't going to be a good thing to stay, not when Flamethrower had basically told the entire community that I was not welcome. That still hurts, honestly. I've always worked hard to build this community and I've proudly watched it grow over the years. I try my best to be trustworthy and true to my word, and I certainly do not approach any of my work as a mod or as an admin in bad faith.

It hurt, but it was the best thing for the community, and I genuinely thought that, once I left, things would calm down. I had *hoped* that the community would support the mod team, and Flamethrower would be able to work with them in good faith. 

I didn't think that the vitriol that would follow would be so harsh, especially against the mods.

Tuesday, VERY early in the morning, the mod team posted this announcement. I followed up with a goodbye message.

After that, I left. 

Everything after this point, I only know because I have been sent updates from people still on the server, who wanted to keep me in the loop as the dust settled. Admittedly, I could have told them to stop, but after so many years, I wanted to see what was going to happen. It’s heartbreaking, seeing a community that I’ve worked to build, being turned against me and the team I’d trusted for so long with the growth and peace of the Discord. I suppose, in a way, it’s like poking at a bruise to want to see if it settles out again.

The dust, however,  did not settle.

The mods put together a thread, so they could ask people about what to do next. The intent was to redraw the rules of engagement, to address any still festering upset and to make sure the server would survive the growing pains and continue to thrive.

Instead, it turned into a lot of attacks and bad faith assumptions about what had happened, a laundry list of petty complaints about the way the server was moderated and a viciously unkind, and entirely uncalled for, examination of who they were, as people. Disturbing words and intents came out in full force, with people saying cruel and hurtful things to them.

I genuinely thought, naively perhaps, that since they had been so minimally involved with the... it feels wrong to call it a confrontation, since one of the weirdest things about all this is that I never actually HAD any sort of confrontation with Flamethrower. The mess, then. I thought that by leaving and offering a clean break, and since they had nothing to do with the whole mess, they would get a chance to clean the slate and start fresh with the community. I am genuinely sorry that these people, very good and kind and genuinely enthusiastic people, had something like this happen to them.

The thread did not last very long. They shut it down before attacks could get more personal or vicious, but not before outrageous - and untrue - accusations of HIPPA violations were brought up and a massive, and almost coordinated, dogpile against the mods. Ultimately, it became a game of accusations and chastising, like the mods were children that needed disciplining, as opposed to adults working on a volunteer basis to keep the community and its underlying server running. Then, Flamethrower posted this:

For reference, I need to clarify that Rule 4 predates Flamethrower's presence in the server. It was initially created to ensure us - a community of fans of her work - did not dwell into parasocial and inappropriate territory. The initial vent that kicked started this whole mess was not subject to that rule at all.

As per our rules, seen above, the vent was taken down due to a combination of factors: its incendiary tone, the fact it related to someone not in the server, accusations and wishes for ill. None of that is inherently illegal, merely - in my opinion - in very poor taste. But they were definitely in violation of rule 1: Be respectful.

Wednesday, and now Thursday have come and gone, and I’m still not sure what to do about any of this. I’m not going to say that I have good answers, since I’m no longer inside this mess. I just want people to stop attacking the mods. They're amazing at what they do and they've worked so hard to keep the community streamlined and running smoothly. They're volunteers, for fuck's sake. They're doing this out of love, nothing more. Ultimately, that's the thing that makes me recoil the most: all of us, literally all of us, in that server, were there out of love. Love of stories and the person who wrote them, who brought us all together with her words and the fantastic worlds she came up with. It breaks my heart to see the community splintering and collapsing like this, and I wish there was more I could do to help.

All I can do is give you all as close to the truth as I can get. I'm a firm believer in archives, and I've done my best to source and contextualize everything here as much as possible.

I should also probably add this here, because I’m not the only one who genuinely believes in keeping a record:

Ultimately, this isn't about me, really. This isn't supposed to be a callout or a condemnation. This isn't about me, because I can't make sense of what happened, and at this point I'm tired of so many conflicting and inflammatory reactions. I made a server, to give people who liked the same things I did a place to hang out and form a community. It worked well for a while, or at least I thought it did. When the inevitable trouble arrived, I tried my best, and evidently, my best was not enough. I’m so sorry, that leaving was the best thing I could think to do. 

I hope it's clear, as of now, that just like you, I have many questions. Questions I'm pretty sure I will never get any actual answers to. I hope that someday they’ll stop chasing me around, eating at me and making me wonder what I could have done differently. 

For the sake of full transparency, and since this is the catalyst of this whole mess, here's the vent chat, in full:

https://imgur.com/S3PwRiS

Sorry for the edit, it got too big for Tumblr to display correctly.

[wind-boys]

Third Anniversary!

Today, marks three years since 23 May 2019, the day I first made the very hesitant move on Tumblr to translate content for Wind Boys!.

Firstly, I really must apologise for not updating the Tumblr account here of late. As mentioned, I’m still thinking of what to do with it, now that the long, text-heavy translations that I have are up on WordPress instead.

Yes! I realise I haven’t explicitly mentioned this, but although updates on this account are few, I’ve been more than active in Wind Boys! Translations as always! You can find translations for main stories, event stories, campaigns and homescreen lines at izumitani.wordpress.com. Announcements on when the are new updates are currently on moltoarticulate on Twitter, but I’ve also been intending to make announcements here sometime.

Currently, I’m working to revamp the translations blog, so any changes to Tumblr will take a little more time. However, thank you always to those who’ve been loyally following the content here, whether since the good old days, or recently. (Which, you’re amazing. I’m honoured to still be gaining new followers despite not updating my content...! I’m so sorry.)

- Mod Stamff

(For the full third-anniversary message, click here.)

[marcilled]

5 years

It was 5 years ago today that a humble little minecraft server first opened its gates. 5 years ago, I started @quixol​ with a team of 8 friends. Today, only 4 of those original friends are still on our Staff team, and the server is a shadow of its former self.

There’s a lot I could talk about with Quixol, but before I get into it, I just want it to be known that this is a highly personal post from me. This isn’t an official announcement, but seeing as I’m an admin, it’s definitely of pertinence if you are someone who is a part of the Quixol community.

If you’re new to following me, or just don’t know what I’m talking about: Quixol is a trans-friendly minecraft server started by me and a few pals back on November 16, 2015. It’s primarily populated by folks from here on Tumblr, and is an LGBT+ only community. Over its 5 years, it’s gotten over 1600 unique players. And... Well, there’s a lot of history that took place during and after that, I can’t hope to summarize it here. You can see more on the about page on our blog.

So, yeah. Today is the 5-year anniversary of Quixol. Pretty big deal! And... we have nothing in store for today to celebrate that huge milestone. Pretty big bummer. The prior 4 years, the anniversary was the single biggest celebration of the year. We typically tried to schedule large server updates to coincide with the anniversary, just to make it feel that much more special. So, on the day that marks a whole half-decade of being online, why do we have no plans? It’s a long, complicated story. I’ll only be able to tell you my side of it. Everything written below is from my perspective, and doesn’t necessarily reflect how others think or feel.

Regardless of the lonely feeling on the server now, I just want to say, I’m really glad I could host such a fantastic community for so many years. Thank you everyone who has made the past half decade so special.

Long retrospective below (plus, discussion about Quixol’s future):

-----

Where to begin... All I can say at the start here is, don’t expect anything coherent, I typed this up while sleep deprived just the night before posting this, without much forethought of what I’d say in it. I just feel I need to get these feelings off my chest before I can mentally move on, you know.

Before I delve into this, I just want to put this sort of disclaimer at the top here: Despite how gloomy I make things sound throughout this post, Quixol is and was an amazing place, that I’m so glad to say I got to play such a pivotal role in. I wouldn’t trade my time here for anything. It’s been an honor to serve as an Admin over such an incredible community. I’ve seen countless new friendships forged, plenty of laughs and fun times to be had... I’ve even known several couples that met through their time on Quixol, I’ve known several people that came out or discovered more about their identity/gender/sexuality while on Quixol. It’s a great community, despite its flaws, and what we did over these past 5 years is nothing short of spectacular. I’m forever thankful for everyone who helped make this place as special as it is- you’ve all been such great friends. Thank you.

While I may speak a great deal about some of the lowest lows that happened on Quixol, you better believe it had some of the highest highs as well. Keep that in mind, so you know why I’m spending this much time and effort to commemorate this server that I’ve called home for so long.

I’ll start here with a rough timeline of Quixol... I’ll even include some screenshots for you all.

Old World (Nov. 2015 - Mar. 2017, mc 1.8 - 1.9)

Quixol began back in 2015 like I mentioned- whitelisted at first, but moved on to being unwhitelisted at a later date (I believe it was summer of 2016). Hundreds of people joined after the whitelist was removed, in just the first month or so. We owe that initial success to how much our blog post about the server got shared around, it served as a nice advertisement for the server. It was only posted to tumblr, so everybody who joined then was from the same sort of social sphere of 2016 tumblr. It was pretty lively, and we made lots of friends very quickly. A lot never logged in again after the first initial burst, but a fair amount stuck around.

The server started on minecraft version 1.8, which was before the end update that introduced elytra & all the controversial combat changes. Most people never even saw the server on this version, though, since it was still whitelisted when we updated to 1.9. The world we used back in 2015-2016 eventually got deleted at a later date, however we did provide an archive of this old world to download, it’s... somewhere on our blog, you can go find it if you poke around a bit. (Assuming the download hasn’t been removed from the website I uploaded it to, which would make sense since it’s just 20 gb sitting on some server doing nothing).

While there was plenty of merriment, there was also the fair share of drama. I can’t even hope to recall all the drama that happened in 2016, but one of our og mods got banned completely after the rest of the staff sort of woke up to the realization they were incredibly abusive. There’s lots of other stuff that happened then- I wish I could tell the “full tale” as it were, but it would be so long-winded that almost nobody would bother to read. Plus, my memory isn’t very good, so I would need to dig through old blog posts, discord messages, screenshots, etc etc to jog my memory... way too much work.

Protos (Mar. 2017 - Nov. 2018, mc 1.11 - 1.12)

2017 came around, and that’s when we updated the server to 1.11 and created a new world (Protos). That update happened on March 26, 2017- I remember because march 26th is my birthday, and the other staff made a cute little celebration for me on that day and I literally cried from how happy I was. It was the nicest thing anyone’s done for me in a long time. (God, I miss those times.)

A lot more happened during this time period, and honestly I’d consider the period in which Protos was our main, active world to be the most consistently active the server has ever been. It wasn’t always exploding with activity, but the people who joined and played during this time were consistent. And we had a relatively consistent influx of new players.

There was a lot more drama that happened during this time... More staff members left, mostly of their own accord (but never on a wholly positive note). Drama amongst some of the veteran/long-time players, arguments over how to interpret and enforce our rules.

Regardless of the troubles, I’d say this period was overall quite positive for Quixol. We even brought in our first batch of new staff members during this period.

Ghalea (Nov. 2018 - Present, mc 1.13 - 1.15)

I believe late 2018 was when we updated the server from 1.12 to 1.13. We rushed the update to this version quite a lot, which was a shame since it ensured the server had an egregious amount of bugs to work out, and lots of missing plugins/functionality. With this update, we made another new world (and, our current main world): Ghalea.

Regardless of buggy behavior, we managed to hit what I believe is the all-time peak concurrent player count we have ever gotten, which is something like 54-56 players playing at the same time. The server chugged so hard, I’m surprised it didn’t crash. All of those parties were so stressful to put on, but at the same time, incredibly fun and fulfilling to see when lots of people showed up and had a good time.

Funny, though: despite the success of the server, 2018 and early 2019 are the closest the server has ever gotten to absolutely tearing itself apart from internal staff drama. By early-mid 2019, several staff members ended up getting banned one after the other. So that left us with very few staff by that point (only 6 active staff, myself included, if I remember correctly).

2019 should have been a great year for Quixol, seeing as it was what many people referred to as the “minecraft renaissance”, “the great minecraft revival”, etc etc etc. However, the drama amongst the staff, coupled with drama in our personal lives, and just an all around lack of staff members to kick things into gear, resulted in a pretty lackluster year compared to the previous 4 years.

Despite all of that, we worked tirelessly to complete our greatest project yet, Chroma Park, just before our 4th anniversary on Nov 16th, 2019. It took a whole team of builders to complete, and several months in preparation/building.

With such a grand project completed, you would expect it would result in a flurry of new activity on the server... unfortunately, it ended up being almost the opposite. Because we called upon our “build team” to help with it, (several talented veteran players who volunteered their building skills), nearly all of our active players suffered some serious burnout after the major project they just completed. Lots of people just weren’t feelin’ up to minecraft anymore... And, that spelled the beginning of the end, really.

The culmination of this was that, going into 2020, activity on the server just... plummeted. Then, we all know what a shit year 2020 turned into. That just furthered feelings of burnout. I made another personal post about this, back in April- explaining why I had been relatively absent from the server for a while. It goes into more detail about the “hiatus” at that time, what caused it, why it continued so long, and how my personal feelings were at that time. Give it a read if you want. It even goes more in-depth about some of Quixol’s former staff, and how toxic behavior from them may have negatively impacted the community (especially in 2018-2019).

So, basically nothing has happened on Quixol in 2020... I took the time to update the server from 1.14 to 1.15 back in July, just so that the server was on a more stable version of minecraft- but all the effort poured into that resulted in basically nothing happening. Barely anyone even noticed, because it was such a minor update focusing on bug fixes. I hoped it would get the ball rolling again, but it just wasn’t enough.

While I wasn’t ready to throw in the towel just yet, I decided it was for the best if I put any plans on the backburner for a while, and focus more attention on building infrastructure back up again. I spent some time researching sysadmin stuff, and looking into upgrading my PC. I set up a new discord bot that we’re currently using on Quixol, & have in a few other discord servers I’m active in.

Then, I got tossed one of the most difficult months of my life in a long time pretty recently. It’s very recent/fresh, but suffice it to say, a decent chunk of what made it such a horrible month was related to drama within the Quixol friend group, particularly... me being a shitty friend. I made another post about this a while back, but I won’t link it since it’s a bit vague and not super relevant to what I’m talking about here. Just know, September this year pretty much demolished any feelings of hope I had for continuing work on Quixol.

So, that leads us to... Today. The 5th anniversary of Quixol.

Where did it all go wrong?

Now that I’ve laid out as quick a summary of the past 5 years as I could, I want to talk about some of the mistakes we made along the way. The people that made Quixol what it is, and how that history always seems to tie me down.

To tell you the truth, saying that “it all went wrong” sounds horribly pessimistic to me. Sure, I felt pessimistic going into writing this, but... Just looking back on everything we’ve accomplished, there’s never really a point where it “went wrong”. Moreso, Quixol has had its fair share of flaws baked in from the very beginning. But, perhaps those flaws are what made it what it really is. I can’t go back and change the past, and neither can you. Perhaps the best we can do is just accept Quixol for what it is, and acknowledge its shortcomings while allowing ourselves to feel happy about the good memories we do have.

While I’m not going to cast away every pleasant memory I have of Quixol, I must admit I find so many of them tainted and forever changed, just because of how many people entered this community, made their stay known, then left or were cast away on a sour note. There are countless people that were a huge part of Quixol, of my life, my friends, that I don’t speak to anymore. People that hate me. Maybe even some that I hate.

If I go back and think fondly of those times, I remember how the people in those memories largely don’t think fondly of me anymore. I remember all of my mistakes, all of the ways I could have avoided that outcome. All the ways I could have worked with those friends, to work out our differences, to just fucking communicate. Sure... some of those friends, there was nothing I could do for them. Nothing I could do to make things work. But, all the same... it stings, thinking of everyone I used to know. Not knowing who is still a friend, or who simply has no need for me anymore...

So much of Quixol’s history is tied up in knots this way. Complicated webs of emotion, suffocating in the tethers to its past. So many things built on the server, just wasting away, never to be touched again... New players won’t even know it. They don’t know, can’t know the history behind those blocks that were placed. It sounds a bit silly talking about it this way, but that’s how it feels to me. There’s real history behind each of these blocks, all of the little farms and structures and silly signs. So much of it, nobody even knows. But it wears on my heart, knowing all of that history, and feeling so disconnected from it. Feeling cast away by the people who forged those memories.

It’s a disconnect that’s always hurt, to me. Maybe I’m just too sentimental, nostalgic. Maybe I cling to the past too much. But it feels impossible to ignore... So much of what made Quixol what it is today was left there by people who want nothing to do with me, us, anymore. What does that say about Quixol? About me...? About our group?

There’s a lot I could say about this, but it’s stuff I’ve mentioned before. I hang on too tightly to the past, and am often too critical of my own mistakes. But, sometimes the past is just the way it is, and there’s not much that can be done about it. Regardless, I find myself feeling regrets about every little thing that went wrong, and thinking about where all those people are now... Maybe one of them is even reading this right now. If you’re out there, hey. We can still talk. I’m not going to hold a grudge on you forever. It’s ok.

My influence

Since Quixol began in 2015, I’ve tried my best to be nothing more than an “Admin” of Quixol... not the “owner” or “lead admin” or “founder”, just “admin”. I hoped I could encourage the other admins to be leaders in their own rights. While each of the admins we’ve had has been great leaders in their own respect, I feel that every one of them has been, unfortunately, tied down by my influence to some extent.

In most aspects of life, I’m a very timid, indecisive person. I’m incredibly anxious, and lack confidence to a worrying degree. However, a different side of me can be seen in the safe, comfortable environment that Quixol provided for me. Surrounded by friends and people who I felt really got me, I became comfortable enough to show some level of confidence in myself... In all honesty, for a long time, I was never able to recognize this self confidence for what it was. I really was not, and mostly still am not, used to feeling confident in myself or my own abilities. Like, at all. So when I actually feel good about myself, like I actually know what I’m doing... Well, for a really long time, I didn’t even process it as such. I just felt like I knew the right answers, and that was it.

On Quixol, this often manifested in a specific way... Being proud of my own knowledge & skills with minecraft, I would insert myself into any discussion about Minecraft, the server, or just anywhere I could, and offer up my knowledge, opinions & help. This hardly sounds like a problem, but... The problem was just in my unwavering presence. I was everywhere on Quixol, you couldn’t escape me. I dominated the space with my presence. Not that I interrupted people (usually...?), I just would try to put myself anywhere a conversation was happening, assuming it was, like, appropriate for me to do so on some level.

Whenever I chimed in with my thoughts, eventually there became this sort of air of almost... superiority about it. This feeling that my word was “final”, or that I had some layer of expertise on everything, and that if I said what you said was right, that was a pretty good indicator you were on the right track. I didn’t pretend like I was infallible, and I don’t think anyone ever saw me as that. But the perception was generally that if Vivian says it, that holds weight to it. Perhaps this is somewhat unavoidable of a staff member, but... it was this way even amongst the staff.

I never really realized that I was creating this environment within the community, because it happened rather slowly. But as things moved along, other staff began to pick up on this (perhaps subconsciously). Including even the other admins. Quickly, my own insistence on doing things a Specific Way, became “the Right Way” to do things on Quixol... Whether I intended it or not.

Now, this is something I didn’t know until quite recently, but I actually have OCD (undiagnosed, but it’s glaringly obvious to me at this point). My ocd comes out in minecraft, and specifically Quixol, quite a lot. I have very ritualistic ways of doing things, whether it be while building a project in-game, to managing specific parts of the server- we have a very detailed format in which update logs are written, and I have very specific rituals related to updating plugins on the server, taking backups, etc. Even just the way I play survival minecraft has sorts of rituals in a way, like specific patterns in which I place torches. I’m not too educated on ocd, so excuse me if I’m using some terminology of this wrong, or if I’m spreading some sort of misinformation about it. This is just my experience.

Anyhow, with the extremely regimented way I manage things on the server, coupled with my constant presence in things, you can understand how this might lead to other admins, who have their own mental illness issues, to become very averse to doing a lot of admin-related duties. After months and months, years, even, of this sort of stuff... and... yeah. That leads to where we are now.

With my selfish behavior in the past, I’ve unintentionally created this staff environment where people are reluctant to make their own decisions, show their own creativity, etc. And that must feel incredibly frustrating if you actually want to do something to make a difference on Quixol...

I’m not even accounting for all the times I’ve butted heads with the other staff before, either. While much less frequent, I’ve definitely had arguments with folks in the past. And with the great amount of influence I hold over the server, it takes a lot of courage to stand up to what I say.

I’ve always resented that I hold this position of power over everyone else, and tried many times to address it. However, I don’t think I ever quite had a full picture of why things were this way. Now, I think I understand it better. Sadly, it feels too little, too late to make any significant changes without uprooting pretty much everything we have set in place already. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe I’m being too pessimistic here... But, this is how I feel at the present moment.

I’m sincerely sorry to any current or former staff members, who have wanted to do something great for Quixol, but felt they could never convince me to go through with your idea... Or who felt pushed away from doing something they otherwise would’ve liked to, just because the attitude I gave, the environment my presence created, made you feel like you weren’t good enough or qualified enough to do it. You are good enough. I’m so sorry that my actions made you convinced otherwise...

I will say, this sort of mindset of mine, that I have to be the Most Right about anything relating to minecraft, or any hyperfixation/special interest of mine, has caused problems elsewhere, too. I talked about this in another post I made. I’ve only really come to realize all this stuff within the past few months, but I’ve been a really terrible friend to a lot of people. I never even realized until recently just how often I struggle with empathy, and how that’s colored so many of my friendships. Needless to say, it’s affected things on Quixol before, sometimes without me even realizing it.

My influence over the community also means if anybody’s relations with me in particular ever become marred, it must inevitably result in them leaving the community because there’s simply no escaping me. There’s not really anything I can do about this, though, aside from doing whatever I can to become a kinder, more

I’m far from a perfect person, and my imperfections seeped into so much of what made Quixol what it is. However, it’d be silly to suggest that I’m the singular reason that Quixol is flawed, if anything, that would be another form of arrogance- assuming that I singlehandedly shaped the way Quixol took form. No, it was always a team effort, and every single staff and community member held great influence of their own.

The Future

This part is probably why many of you clicked on this post... You want to know what’s going to happen to Quixol. You likely noticed I’ve been referring to Quixol in the past tense a lot in this post. Honestly, I’m not sure why I did that, it just felt the most natural to type it that way. But, I will be honest- the future of Quixol right now isn’t looking very bright.

This is a personal post, so I don’t want to deliver any sort of formal announcement about plans for Quixol here, especially since I haven’t run this post by the other staff before posting it.

For the past 2 and a half months, I’ve been taking a very long break from Quixol. Much greater than any previous break of mine... I’ve neglected to even log in for weeks at a time. I still keep an eye on the discord server, and check the mc <-> discord bridge channel to see which players have been logging in. But I have little to no motivation to play, even just casually.

While I’d love to give you some fun cool news about how this hiatus is ending soon and I have a million and one projects planned, that simply isn’t the case. I’ve gotten to this point where I’m rethinking everything about myself, who I am, and what I’m doing with my life. Surely, I can’t dedicate all my time and energy to running a minecraft server for the rest of my life, even though I do care deeply about this community. But at the same time, it’s not really my call to shut down Quixol, and I’d hate to pull the plug just because of my own lack of motivation.

So, for the time being at least, you can probably consider Quixol to be on a sort of “indefinite hiatus”. I am generally the one to update plugins, do major server updates, etc., and I likely won’t be doing any of that any time soon. I fully entrust the other staff to handle that stuff if they really want to, and I’ve expressed that to them already. But as things stand, nobody else seems to want to pick up the torch right now. Shit is rough for pretty much everyone, and we’re all equally burnt out. We’ve all grown up quite a lot since Quixol began, too. So... Don’t expect anything anytime soon.

If there are any updates, they’ll come in our Discord server first.

As for me, personally... I just need time away from all of this. It’s clearer than ever to me that I have a lot of personal problems I need to work on, and I think that the cozy safe environment provided by Quixol didn’t challenge me enough to really address those issues. I need time to focus on myself & my own growth. At the same time, I also feel like I need more experience being a part of a team, instead of just running the show. I’m not getting the kind of enrichment I need from running Quixol, so I’m trying to turn my attention elsewhere.

I’m doing this not because I want to abandon you guys, or because I feel like I want/need to move on from this community. It’s just... Something I need to do, for myself. And I’ll still be around, I’m still gonna be posting to my tumblr & twitter and stuff, and you can still reach me on discord. I’m just focusing my time elsewhere for once.

What does that mean for the future of Quixol? I don’t really know yet. But, for now, it’s not going anywhere. It’s just... also not changing anytime soon. Not even a little bit. I’m sorry to give you this disappointing news, but I hope you all understand.

I miss the good times on Quixol, too. I really do. Maybe we can share them again sometime? Who knows...

For now, that’s all.

It breaks my heart that we don’t have anything glitzy and glamorous to do to celebrate Quixol’s 5th anniversary... But it would be asking far too much of the staff to set anything like that up right now. Maybe we can have some sort of celebration later...? I dunno.

I hope you’re all staying safe & healthy out there. Thank you so much for reading this. I love all of you.

Happy birthday, Quixol.

[reylofanfictionanthology]

Welcome to the 2020 Reylo Fanfiction Anthology: To Rapture the Earth and the Seas

Dear writers,

We’re so excited to have all of you as part of this year’s Anthology, To Rapture the Earth and the Seas!  Please note that while we post on various social media platforms with updates, we use email for all communication and our emails will have information not found in our social posting. If you didn’t receive an email from us, please let us know!

The next step for the project is submitting outlines. For the outlines, we look for everyone to have a clear idea of where their piece will go and for a clear link to the natural element for which you signed up. Each fic’s focus should be the relationship between Rey and Kylo/Ben, and it must be something that can be completed in the given time and word limits. Information about how to submit will be in your email inboxes, and please submit your outlines by April 7th through Google Docs. We’ll reply to you to let you know we’ve read your outline as soon as we can! 

As a reminder, here’s our schedule:

Anthology Timeline

Sign ups:  March 13 - 27

Welcome email/Official sign ups announcement: March 29

Outlines due: April 19

First submission deadline: June 28

Second submission deadline: August 23

Final and AO3 upload deadline: October 18

Final publication: October 24

We also host a Discord chat for participants of our projects to talk about the project, Reylo, writing, word wars, and just getting to know each other. Please email us or contact a mod individually for a link to the chat!

Finally, below is the list of this year’s writers, organized by element, with Tumblr URLs and/or AO3 usernames. If your information is wrong or something needs to be changed, please email us and let us know.

Aurora borealis

@goodboysweatertm | goodboysweatertm

Avalanche

@shelikespretties | Vivien

Bespin

ReyNimanSolo

Bioluminescence

LilyandLeather

Blizzard

@cobwebbing | cuddlesome

Rikachan101

Blooming

@fangirlintheforest | FangirlintheForest

@miss-stealyourgirl-lister | itsnotillegal

bugs_not_bunny

Blooming Flowers

@radioactivesaltghoul | radioactivesaltghoul

Changing leaves

@venetum | venetum

@jgoose13 | JGoose13

Changing seasons

@my-jedi-life | MyJediLife

@januarywren | Januarywren

msbutterfingers

Continental Drift

Zrofyre

Cosmic Force

chagrins

Crystallization

@laser-swords | duckindisguise

Cyclone

@thirddeadlysin | ishie

Dead Sea

adhocpeacock

Decay

@nuanceismyjam | walkingsaladshooter

@transpogrrl | Zabeta

Desert Rain

@han-not-solo | madeupgirl

Dormant Growth

@ceallaigheirinn | Ceallaigh

Drought

@politicalpadme | politicalpadme

@themoonxii | babythalasiren

@reylotrashcompactor | Reylotrashcompactor

Earth's rotation

@flyinglowdown | MahoganyDoodles

Earthquake

@ludopstudio | ludopstudio

@fangirlabbie08 | abbytheatre08

@tiaraofsapphires | Tiara_of_Sapphires

Electromagnetic Winds

@shadowrenwrites | ShadowRen

Entropy

@Fingertipstrembling | misszeldasayre

Erosion

@halfwaythroughit | HalfwayThrough

Fire

@thehobbem | thehobbem

Hellyjellybean

@starcrossreylo | starcrossreylo

Flood

@reyloner | Dalzo

@supremeprince-bensolo | immortalpramheda

@informalmajesty | InFormalMajesty

Force Cave

@wombathos | wombathos

Force lightning

@maq-moon | maq_moon

@kuresoto | kuresoto

Frost

@forcebondedreylo | iamladyloki

Genesis

@misscoppelia | misscoppelia

Glacier

@apisa-b | apisa_b

Gravitational Force

@darksideofme-reylo | DarkSideOfMe

@writergenie | Writergenie

Gravity

@clock-work-crow | ClockworkCrow

CoinToYourWitcher

@sarah-todd115 | FoxAnomalie

Growth

@wantisamlindyla | wantisamlindyla

Heat Wave

@orkindofamazing | VeriLee

@ladyofdragonstone | ladyofdragonstone

Hoth

@pandoraspocksao3 | Pandora_Spocks

Hurricane

@jadeddiva | jadeddiva

@obversa | Obversa

@fangirl-outlet-very-much-needed | Fangirl_outlet

Impact Event

@omfgreylo | starfleetjedi

Jakku

@therealther | Thereorhere

Kamino

@hellomelusine | Melusine11

Lava

@cellar-darlings | cellardarlings

Lightning

@finalfantasyx | RedPaladin465

@kitsushel | KitsuShel

@z3phryn | Zephryn

Magnetosphere

@a-nerd-obsessed | aNerdObsessed

Metamorphosis

@qotsisajakk | qotsisajakk

sphaerae

Meteor Showers

@womp-rat-fever | LonelyLavenderBones

Mistral

Bombastique

Monsoon

@hauscrashburn | Elywyngirlie

@hoperebel9 | hoperebel

@reylo-targaryen | reylo-targaryen

Mountain

@thekesselrun | La_Catrina

Mustafar

@politicalmamaduck | politicalmamaduck

Nature Reclamation

@bastetwrites | bastetwrites

Oceans

@reylotrash711 | reylotrash711

@luminoustico | OccasionallyCreative

@biekewieke | Biekewieke

Phototropism

midwinterspring

Polarity

@crimsonalchemistress | crimson_alchemistress

Pollination

@dankobah | dankobah

Radiation

@yourstrulycommandershepard | Yours_Truly_Commander_Shepard

Rain

jaxink

@okpianist | okaypianist

@shruggyben | shruggyben

Rainstorm

@tmwillson3 | tmwillson3

@trashqueenkyloren | SymmetryLocked

@allthatandacupofcoffee | lovingdriver

River

@persimonne | persimonne

Rough Seas

@niennathegrey | niennathegrey

Sandstorm

@mnemehoshiko | bittersnake

LRRH17

@bensolosredemption | bensolosredemption

Sinkhole

@inthegrayworld | inthegrayworld

Snowstorms

@athelise | Athelise

@the-reylo-void | the-reylo-void

Solar storm

@ursaminors | ursaminors

Sparks

@shmisolo | crossingwinter

Twisted_Mirror

Tempest

@takekurabehime | Takekurabehime

Thunder

@cosmicforces | dearly

@lasthopesolo | punkeraa

Thundersnow

@greyrey-lo | greyrey-lo

Thunderstorm

@abstractragedy | addictedtoacertainlifestyle

@thegeekypoet | thegeekypoet

@thewayofthetrashcompactor | Thewayofthetrashcompactor

Tidal Force

@shipperofdarkness | shipperofdarkness

@Thewitchofthesouthwest | Apricot

Tidal Wave

artistgirl623

@dark-mage-13 | DarkMage13

@fantasyherondales | fantasyherondales

Tides

@lindsiloowho | LindsilooWho

Tornado

@spottytonguedog | crysania

AQuill2Thrill

Tsunami

@geekymoviemom | geekymoviemom

@leofgyth | QueenOfCarrotFlowers

Vernal equinox

@pixelsteve | pixelsteve

Volcanic Fissures

@starlit-dyad | lightningpelt

Volcanoes

@lizardbeths | lizardbeth

TristenCrone

Waves

@starxfighter | StarxFighter

Waterfall

@lilia-ula | lilia_ula

Whirlpool

Destini

Wildfire

@sand-its-everywhere | SpaceWaffleHouseTM

Wind

@chthonya | Chthonia

@wickedbamf | thewickedlady

@vamillepudding | Vamillepudding

World Between Worlds

@drnucleus | drnucleus

shiera

[clintbartonbingo]

Before We Begin!

Hey, Hawk-fam!

Just a few quick announcements before we kick this bingo off. I know there’s been quite a bit of tumult recently surrounding this blog, but – from here on – I want to make sure that the winds are in our favour for the rest of our journey. Thank you for your patience regarding your card receipt, and for sticking with this event through all the changes.

Cards will be going out beginning tomorrow at 10:00 EDT / 16:00 CET. All cards should be out no later than 14:00 EDT / 20:00 CET. Some of you may have received questions and final confirmations regarding your card information. If you have gotten an email from awbingono, please reply; that way you can get your card as soon as possible.

If you finish your card, you can always ask for another one, and it can have different parameters from your first. Information regarding changes to cards or card options will be updated once all cards for those currently signed up have been sent.

Finally, I wanted to take a moment to point out the reason for all the I’s in this message. As of now, the Clint Barton Bingo event is being modded by one individual. I’ll be doing my utmost to make this a fun and relaxed event that we can all enjoy, but – for the moment – all of the day-to-day blog and event work will be done just by me. I might be a bit slow at the start, but I promise to do my best.

I’m looking forward to kicking this all off with you tomorrow.

Smiles!

Mod Sep

[apollon-hyakinthios]

Are you sad because all the good writers have left the Hetalia fandom?

Do you spend a lot of time focusing on famous authors that have been inactive for years, and fics that were published half a decade ago?

Do you miss the way the fandom used to be? Do you even feel like the fandom is dying and nobody is making fanworks as good as they used to be?

Well, I have some good news for you - Hetalia fanfic is alive and well, and there are many wonderful authors still active in our fandom! 

So, where do I start looking?

Luckily, five other wonderful people from our fandom and i have put together a blog that has an archive of recently-written hetalia fanfic, just for people like you who want to find more fanfic and get to know more authors in the aph fandom but don’t know where to begin!

The HWD Official Blog is the Tumblr account for the Discord server we run - the Hetalia Writers’ Discord, a growing community of over 100 active writers! On the HWD, we come together to share our work, exchange feedback, support one anothers’ projects, make friends, get motivated to finish projects, and more! And we’re in the process of collecting all of the work of our writers on the HWD Official Blog , so that any and all of you lovely people in the fandom can check out what we have to offer!!

And we have it organized into an easy-to-use directory format just for you. Here’s how to get started browsing!

FANFIC: If you’re looking for fanfic in general and you don’t have a specific character or pairing in mind, this is the place for you! Our Fanfic tag includes only writing by our members - no blog maintenance, update or announcement posts - and includes all characters, ships, genres and ratings.

TAG DIRECTORY: This is the place to go if you’re looking for works that feature specific characters, pairings, ratings or genres! HWD is completely ship-neutral and hosts works of all pairings.

CREATOR DIRECTORY: This is the place to go to check out our wonderful writers by name, including their Tumblrs, their AO3 and FFN accounts, and more! This page was put together by Mod Sara, @kanadka !!!

Our directories are always being updated and added onto!! If you don’t see your favorite ship or character, don’t worry - we are still in the process of adding to our archive and categorizing all the fanfic we already have on our blog, and you’re sure to find more if you explore the general Fanfic tag!

But to help you get more of a feel for what we’re all about, here are some of my favorite fics from our writers!

Non, je ne regrette rien by @gnostic-heretic

Pairing: Lithuania/Poland, France/Poland

Rating: M

Genre: Historical, Drama

“It would be a wonderful evening, a wonderful night ahead, and he had never been happier in his life.”

god who ate everything by @52px

Characters: Rome, Carthage, Etruria, Macedon, Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt

Pairing: Carthage/Etruria

Rating: G

Genre: Historical, Drama

“—did this world feed you?

The pallid web of peace sticking the Mediterranean together since the last war is cut into pieces. To discuss just how unhappy the Romans are that Carthage is not dead yet, Carthage himself is called to Rome. Easier said than done, as he has been under the ancient equivalent of house arrest for years and is barely fit to board a boat. What's worse, to test his limits, the living ghost nation must travel much deeper into Italy than anticipated. Along the way, Carthage faces supernatural feelings centuries-buried before he faces his final grave.”

Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man by @bonjourxrenae

Pairing: America/Lithuania

Rating: G

Genre: Fluff, Romance, Historical

“Missisippi, 1928. Alfred receives a new record for his Victrola. Upon trying to serenade his houseguest Toris with showtunes, he winds up being serenaded instead.”

Between Shadows. by @morgenstille

Pairing: Belarus/Lithuania

Rating: T

Genre: Romance

One of my favorite passages from this fic: “In another life, the two of them are married and have a family. Toris wonders what their children would look like; it’s pointless speculation, of course, they can’t have children, but still, he wonders.”

Star Crossed by @flyingsassysaddles

Pairing: Nyo!Tibet/Nyo!Mongolia

Rating: T

Genre: Historical, Romance, Tragedy

A favorite passage: “Khulan trembled, burying herself into the Tibetan’s chest and feeling the week pulse of her friend’s heart. 

The pulse sang a song Khulan had been listening to for 13 years, from the first time she met the crying girl who had fallen off her horse, to the first time they held hands when playing in the snow, to when the girl trailed behind her as she brought the hunt back home, smiling when Khulan returned to her day and night.” 

bless me, father by @scandinavienne

Pairing: Germany/North Italy

Rating: T

Genre: Historical, Romance

“In Renaissance Florence, Feliciano struggles under the weight of his family name.”

napom, fényes napom by @phyripowritesthings

Pairing: Belarus/Hungary

Rating: T

Genre: Romance

“During less than a decade but spanning two millennia all the same, Hungary learns that she’s been missing out by not having gotten to know Belarus better, and she finds that maybe they’re just each other’s thing.”

The Dimensional Door by @scarlettlillies

Characters: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Finland, Sweden

Rating: T

Genre: Alternate Universe

“Eduard thought he was living a normal life, with good friends and a future he was working hard towards. But the world he lives in is not what it seems when he finds himself plunged into a role that only existed in the comics that Feliks liked. But he isn't alone in all this. He's glad for it, considering monsters and portals showing up left, right, and center.”

Wonderfully creative Sailor Moon AU that Lilly has put a ton of hard work and love into!!!

Blood on Gold by @aph-belarusia

Pairing: Belarus/Romania

Rating: M

Genre: Supernatural, Romance, Gothic Horror

“The young voivode Vladimir Dragulescu upon the death of his mother, decides to summon an Ancient Entity to carry his desire for revenge but ends up falling in love for such Being.”

Cross Life by @rantingfangirl

Pairing: America/England

Rating: T

Genre: Alternate Universe, Romance

“Given the choice to change his ways or face the consequences, Arthur is propelled from urban England to the American suburbs, putting up with all the drama, pettiness, and idiots that go with it.”

La Pioggia by @lluviadinoche

Pairing: Spain/Romano

Rating: G

Genre: Fantasy, Alternate Universe

“He loved through a paper. Words that sang and touched his soul lighting fires in the deepest parts of his soul. Antonio was in love. If only who knew with who.”

Castaway by @paperbarks

Characters: Australia, England

Rating: T

Genre: Historical

“All I want is you gone,” says Australia. The imperial statutes, the English judges, the marks of foreign settlement, the hoisted flags – all of it escapes him in the moment. Later he might think it childish, but in the present, England is an all-encompassing entity. England’s absence is the absence of control.”

The Gods’ Share by @kanadka

Characters: Lithuania, Poland, Prussia

Pairing: Lithuania/Prussia

Rating: M

Genre: Historical

“At the beginning of the 1400s, the Teutonic Order was at the height of its power. Their navy ruled the Baltic and their Prussian cities were affluent enough to wholly cover the cost of maintaining the crusading army of the Teutonic Knights as a standing force. By 1435, the country was demoralised and discontented, trounced by a gang of heretics, and all but powerless. Here's how it happened.”

And we have many, many more where these wonderful fics came from!

So check out our blog and take a look!! We are a growing community and we’re adding to our fic archives all the time, and with your support we can continue to grow and make this fandom a more creative, encouraging, and happier place to be!!! <3

[isolaradiale]

If double permission is set to no, can the person who set the permission still app a double themself? (for example, someone with wind waker ganondorf says no to doubles, but then apps twilight princess ganondorf) since it's about the comfort of the mun with other people taking the double of the muse, it's a tad confusing if "no" includes yourself or not

Good question!

In cases like these: no. If you have doubles closed you have to be fair and respect that they’re closed. If you change your mind and would like to app one of your own doubles later you can feel free to open them, but if it looks like you opened them just to allow yourself (or a friend) the right to app a character you otherwise didn’t want before than the credibility of your actions might be challenged.

Keeping that in mind: if you plan on opening your double permissions under our current policy update you have to announce the fact on your blog when you do so. I would take that a step further if you plan on apping your own double or if a friend plans on it then give some notice (one day, three days, a week, etc) so that people are aware and can also have equal opportunity once your permissions open.

For example: making a post saying ‘I’ll be changing my permissions to allow X character on April 24th, 2019 at 12:00am EST’.

– mod altair.

[funnel-webbed-au]

Mod Update 9/20/23

Going on hiatus. My computer's old hard drives gave out and I had to switch to Linux.

-Mod Riley

[mbordermodsd3q81]

What does Borderlands season pass include?

How to farm lady fist Borderlands?

I'm the ruler of mum which doesn't permit the little one play label regarding obligation and also games that way. Preserves hand migrated via Screens to Linux will need to have many lowercase characters inside filename. With the delivery connected with Borderlands VR imminent Sony hath got announced a new PlayStation VR bunch using the game, Overcom Saber as well as all of the hardware you need to participate in the games. Additionally, since the item's height is scaled for you to your own character's stage, this advisable to unwrap the upper body quite soon after you've turned (also certainly not to await until finally you're acquiring close to leveling), in order to use because much top quality moment as possible helping make very good utilization of in which identical plane product.

There are four playable characters in this particular game, almost all further, good 2 advantage characters that had been count seeing that DLC. Anyone needs free material, if you're nonetheless playing Borderlands 2, Shift codes can easily unlock free mods, pores and skin, older torsos and more.

Several principal story-based DLC bunches become launched as an ingredient, with Gearbox later discharging holiday-centric miniquests which focus in eliminating a boss and advancing a president as well as skin being a reward. Borderlands 2 is an actions role-playing game played from your first-person perspective with elemental impact. Shelter lives in duress, the Vault's place has been gained access to along with a toxic gas becomes poisoning Pandora. This means, depending on the allow Class Mod, you'll have 9 points intended for a certain skill which has a cap connected with 5.

Borderlands 2 how to level up guns?

Gearbox Software handles to raise their own IP in many ways, offer you Borderlands 2 golden key one of them concepts you might not really quite possibly overlook to acquire, and also proposing new elements that may enable players to help bash off of several heavy steam all day. Meanwhile, the some great campaigns you will get inside the BAMF DLC Wrap up most give you a web host associated with modern atmospheres, journeys, items, firearm, opponents, bosses, and thus far more. Make your way towards the base from the Bloodshed shrub, however, along with anyone uncover skills that permitted anyone remain on this Deceptiveness function potentially forever. Jack, supposedly holding them, suddenly sabotages the aim as well as puts the Vault Hunters intended for expended in a very frosted nova wasteland. Hyperion's guy on the floor is often a chuckle pail involving contempt in addition to tresses sauces recognized merely so Handsome Jack, who has conducted this on himself for you to wipe any non-Hyperion staff members - such as player - down the facial skin involving Pandora.

Legendary class mods are decreased by means of Vermivorous the supreme any change for better regarding Varkid adversary. Gearbox Software managed to get make that the sport exclusivity for PSVR was always timed.

In the credits, various views become demonstrated on the Pandorans celebrating Handsome Jack's beat also accompanying reverse the entire world from the continuing being Hyperion push-button, Lilith turn into the brand new organizer of the Crimson Raiders, the Vault Hunters end up being originated as heroes representing his or her actions, Lilith, Brick and Mordecai mourning Roland, in addition to Mordecai hatching as well as produce a brand new family pet fowl called up Talon. It also appears to be a free DLC, so that a great bonus regarding Borderlands 2 best class players. Resume the merit earning shooter-looter for a brand new venture of which lay down the present with the upcoming Borderlands 2.

How to powerlevel in Borderlands 2?

Like the head game, Borderlands is usually a mission-based First-Person Present shooter with RPG Elements, permitting the player to be able to update their own characters with modern skills in addition to abilities, while funning time the route because of hordes of alien animals, robots, along with crazy bandits. The action might be organized working with a mixture of Real point striving and an ordinary PlayStation controller, and there's a minimum of a number of variety regarding collaboration to the PlayStation Move controllers. Handsome Jack's program is to open Pandora's second Vault along with develop the "Warrior", a strong Eridian beast restrained in whoever relieves that. They, along with particular class new characters, may help players beat Jack, finish the Warrior, and apart from Pandora.

Terramorphous ended up being hadn't a baby immediately after Borderlands designer Gearbox Software imagine just how players appreciated working upon Crawmerax the Supreme (absolutely no regards), the crab earthworm raid boss from your superb The Solution Arsenal involving Universal Knoxx downloadable add-on Borderlands 2 classes. Every time I mod the skill points to re they never ever live then I giving you xbox and your usb after that pack upward Borderlands 2 while using modded.

I guarantee persons talk about the spike, that i dont comprehend, as you are can easily switch it down (which usually i wish a lot more games might fix). It was a great deal of entertaining We prepared recognize Borderlands 2 would wind up staying a platform a great number of games would size with, but fail to live up to. In case you ever before desire to return back as well as go to the nice older reminiscences regarding Borderlands 2 with PC while, you have a different choices. This Badassery prizes players with Badass tokens they could expend at better abilities they'll made use of at all times, this sort of such as decreasing gun-recoil, rifle damage, fitness planes as well as shield recharge paces.

[silmarillionwritersguild]

Revolution Challenge Stories and Art

Yesterday, our February challenge, Revolution, closed with a total of 19 stories and artwork contributed! Below is a list of all of the challenge entries for Revolution. All links to stories go the Table of Contents, where you can view ratings, warnings, author's notes, and additional information about the story. If you like a piece, please consider letting the author or artist know. And then he spoke by Hrymfaxe. Knowing his own fate, that he can speak only three times before his death, taking the leap and speaking that first time must have required courage from Huan. (Art) Aurë entuluva! by Lyra. Húrin's famous battle cry makes a fine protest sign. Or maybe just a motivational postcard. (Art) A Different Kind of Peace by Tyelca. During various moments in his life, Celebrimbor is forced to reconsider the meaning of peace. Early Roman Kings by mangacrack. The degree of civilisation of a society can be judged by entering its prisons. Far Too Many of You Dying by StarSpray. After the Noldor depart, Alqualondë is left reeling. Give Me Freedom, Give Me Fire by Fernstrike. In the week after the beginning of Dagor Bragollach, an elfling and his mother flee their settlement near the Fens of Serech. With his father's fate unknown and his home destroyed, the elfling considers what is to come next. Like The Fall Of Night by hennethgalad. Morgoth sells the concept of swords to the elves through his minions. Morning Hath Broken by Kaylee Arafinwiel. One fair morning in Harlindon, Oropher tells the story of the Iathrim's first sunrise to the most precious light of his life - his only remaining son. Musical Interpretation by Erulisse. Feanaro intended his sons to be smiths or artists as he and Nerdanel were. His second son seems to have a different idea and when he spends a day at the Forge, it is a eye-opening experience for both Feanaro and his young son, Maglor. No Small Dreams by just_jenni. After the Noldor are victorious in the Dagor-Nuin-Giliath Finrod and Turgon fall asleep beside the River Sirion while on a camping trip. Ulmo, having come up the river to find them, lays a deep sleep complete with heavy dreams upon them. Each elf will remember that his dream involved building new cities or realms which are places of refuge or retreats for their people during a peaceful time; for at any moment this peace could be broken by Morgoth and his evil army waging war on them once more. This fic deals with the fact that despite being best friends (perhaps even closer than that) since childhood, neither Finrod nor Turgon will disclose each other's dream to one another. I tried to understand why they would not and describe the reasons they might have for not doing so. Obsidian to Cut by LadyBrooke. He is reborn in Valinor, and they assume he died because the Kindi were incapable of standing against Morgoth, especially after their King and Princes were not. (The Noldor forget that their relatives weren't left behind on the March because they were incapable, but because they didn't wish to come.)

The Parting of the Ways by Lyra. On the eve of the Great Journey, Morwë discusses his doubts with Finwë. Standing Aside by Silver Trails. Maedhros must decide what to do after standing aside while his father and brothers burned the boats at Losgar. Those Who Remain by Tyelca. In 1997, Maglor visits the musical The Scarlet Pimpernel shortly after the premiere, and one song in particular catches his attention. Also featuring Fëanorian Stubbornness. Three by the Door by Himring. Elros, future King of Numenor, makes the acquaintance of some of his future subjects--and finds out that some traditions that he thought forgotten have survived the drowning of Beleriand. Uncertain Seas by Grundy. Today changed everything, and Artanis isn't certain of anything now. We Weren't Born to Follow by oshun. The Noldor were always a contentious people. Finwë and Míriel before they leave on the great Trek across the mountains to the sea.

The World Will Know by Lotrfan. written for the Revolution Challenge 2017. The prompt was the song “The World Will Know” from Newsies. “And the world will see that we had to choose that the things we do today will be tomorrow’s news. And the old will fall And the young stand tall And the time is now And the winds will blow And our ranks will grow and grow and grow and so The world will feel the fire And finally know!” Your Image in an Antique Book by IgnobleBard. After the Battle of Unnumbered Tears, Maedhros revisits Fingon's fortress. Some housekeeping details ...

I first want to give an enormous thank you to Lyra, who helped us immensely with both prompts and stamps for the Revolution challenge. The next challenge will be announced on 15 March, which is next Wednesday. I made quite a bit of headway earlier this week on stamps for participants and reviewers, so updated stamp collections should be available by the end of the weekend. If you don't see your updates by Monday, please let me know, but please do not query before then. Late entries are welcome for any challenge; however, late entries do not receive participant stamps for that month. If you want a prompt for Revolution, you can continue to request a prompt on the challenge post or contact the SWG mods. On that note, we had a couple late entries for the Taboo challenge. Please stop by and check out these stories and show the authors some love! If you need an extra incentive, remember that review challenges never expire, so it's not too late to earn the pretty Taboo challenge reviewer stamps. ;) Late Taboo Challenge Stories 100 Days of Silence by just_jenni. Amras, realizing that he cannot bear to continue fighting, ostracizes himself from his family. Choosing to retreat into the forests of Beleriand, he meets someone unexpected. Fire and Worms by Tyelca. The ground is wet and rotten and the fire is wasteful, and madness slowly turns vices into virtues. Or is it the other way around?

[tribesoflandandsky]

Sign Up Rules

01) We are currently looking for members to be 16+. If you’re going to be sixteen before the end of the year, you may contact the staff. Just know that if you are 16 or 17 you will be asked by staff if you are completely comfortable knowing there are adults as many rpers are 18+. This is NOT a NSFW Roleplay, but there have been some issues about young members and older members feeling uneasy in an openly mixed group. The only other exceptions are if you are currently a member of the sister roleplay group, and quality over quantity!

02) New / Joining members get an “Acclimation Period” of One Week where the current members see if they click into the group okay, or if there are any discomforts.

—> After the week a member can have three warnings before being asked to take a month break. In this time their characters will go MIA through events made by the mod team that make it possible for them to return in a month if they wish to. If you have any questions while on your month break you can speak to Mod Panda or Mod Wind about what happened. If the member repeats the actions that caused their hiatus the first time, mods vote majority rules and the player is asked to leave and try to apply another time with different characters and the current ones will be written off.

3) You have three days from being accepted and added to the proper threads to post with your character before we acknowledge they exist. After that the character is put on the back burner, the rper is contacted to see if they’re still interested, no response for four days and it’s done. Characters are written off. That’s a week guys. We do wanna have the rp move. We don’t expect super activity but again the goal is “a few times a week”. Right now anyone who hasn’t posted with their character at least once has three days to do so. Inactivity, dropping without word = character death. This rule does apply for if you have more then one character; after they are made and accepted please post with them as well before three days!

04) You can start with only one when signing up, but after two weeks is over, you may take on two more to make, and one adoption. This includes half-tribe cats, and former kittypets/loners, as well as current loners/rogues. However, all cats do need to be applied for, and accepted before being played. After you have your four,  you have to earn slots through events both irp and on the tumblr.

5) You can have your cats in any group. You can have three in one group, or one in each Tribe, etc. Just remember information is not past through all your characters. Characters in one tribe do not immediately know what’s going on in the other two, and may never know unless it’s shared purposefully. Two characters in the same tribe may not know something if one of them wasn’t on the scene. Please keep this in mind when you play multiple characters. This being said you also cannot share information; we have separate chat threads for all groups and one for everyone. You cannot post about what’s happening in one tribe in the rogue group chat because not everyone wants multiple characters spread through the groups. Please just keep this is mind.

06) Characters must be genetically realistic. Only former kittypets can be purebred.

07) When it comes to choosing High Powers, there is an “Active Timeline”. This means instead of choosing for replacements in the future, (example: Shellstar’s roleplayer choses Dustnose as deputy, and Dustnose’s rper plans to choose Otterwhisker as their deputy when they become leader and they tell Otterwhisker’s rper that and Otterwhisker who isn’t even deputy yet promises Rocktail’s rper they will be their deputy and so forth) high power replacements are chosen when needed and ‘in the moment’. You can have people audition, or have some ideas who you want, but the new high rank isn’t officially announced until staffers approve and the announcement is made in game.

08) Due to the rule above, there are no HP applications.

09) Characters cannot have the same Base Names / Nicknames as another living character in their own tribe. Base Names cannot be picked up and “reused” until the former is deceased, or the name retired. You can however have two similar Base Names in different tribes as long as they have different Nicknames.

10) These tribes have been here for several generations. When dead/past NPCs, history, events, current alive NPCs, or even just new information is mentioned and comes into play it would be weird for the characters who heard these stories (or some variant), grew up with this npc, (etc) to not know about it/them. When playing a game the NPCs who assign missions or are generally around you still play a role, and usually it’s a bad thing when they die. Therefore it is now considered a rule break (though a small one) to “have no idea” about an NPC. You can say they weren’t close or memory doesn’t serve it’s best (some stuff is even purposely staggered) but once you learn something please help us by rolling with it. We are always happy to add the current characters plots and thoughts/emotions/feelings of course but background is a good thing too.

11) Keep it clean, no racism, sexism, homiphic remarks, etc.

12) Feel free to assume the OOC chat is an open space. You are free to discuss what you feel comfortable sharing, and if there are any discomforts please talk to staff so they may address it in private.

—-> HOWEVER: Please do not advertise in the chat. If you are doing commissions, making a group/site/etc of your own you want to share, please do not post this in the chat. The tumblr will be happy to support its members by giving a shout out if you ask them to, but doing so in the chat has proven in the past to cause some tension.

13) If the roleplay gets too quick, we will be doing Weekly Summaries to keep everyone caught up. In the meantime, there will be daily Summeries after a day ends.

14) Please do NOT make any of your characters suicidal or self-harm. There are other ways to play depression if you really want to, but this sort of thing can be very triggering to other members or can make them simply uncomfortable. We also do not allow this topic to come up in the chats for many reasons.

15) Do not share your clans events/secrets with people in other tribes or the sister rps; both in roleplay and ooc unless given staffer permission.

16) If you need an Official Bio updated/changed, please contact the admin by messaging this tumblr account!

—> While you may (and are encouraged to) keep/make a bio of your own to update, keep track of, etc the “Official Bios” (made and kept on this tumblr) can only be accessed and changed by the admins. Feel free to have it changed as often as you need, okay? Staff is always happy to help!

[funnel-webbed-au]

Mod Update 9/4/23

Mod Riley: Gonna start porting things to AO3 as my traumatized audhd brain will allow me. There might be some AO3 exclusive posts in the future. My AO3 is ScalyDramamaker, and my old works are only still there because I know someone enjoyed my old work, as bad as it is compared to my current skill level.

[funnel-webbed-au]

Mod Update 16/10/23

Gonna be migrating to pillowfort at some point. As much as I've loved this place, the state of it is just sad. I'll post what my main blog url is and my side blog url here, if I can have multiple. If not, I'll be utilizing tagging liberally.

[funnel-webbed-au]

Mod Update 09/08/23

A little off schedule. I'm sick and I won't be posting until this clears up, for my sake.

- Mod Riley

[funnel-webbed-au]

Mod Update 9/22/23

Since I've had this in the works for a chunk of yesterday and I am actually proud of this design, I will be posting a drawing of Sydney soon, probably over the weekend. It's a huge glow up from the blog icon and I'm very proud of the design principles that I've used in the sketch so far.

Teaser: He has a corruption motif mixed in with his spiders and lotus petals.

-Mod Riley