#“tags” applies to pretty much everything with a tagging system

[carmendeiact2whenplz]

*Stumbling out of the character tag covered in blood* I have seen all there is, and yet I hunger for more. I have waded through the stars and the abyss, the journey as brief and as beautiful as a sunset. But why must my yearning be so boundless, my curiosity so intense, and my fixation so very hyper? Is partaking in the act of creation my only option, if there is nothing else to do except wait? Alas, as I refresh the tag over and over again, my appetite for novelty has not yet been sated. *Picking up the pencil* what a shame. It seems as if I have no other choice.

[afyrian]

beach day w/ karasuno's first years | headcanons

m.list

kageyama tobio

- more competitive than you could ever see coming - 'let's see who can swim from that end to this end first' [kageyama] - a pro swimmer in another life - practically thrives in the water - enjoys snorkeling on a long day out - but he does hate the sun and burns like crazy - sunscreen king!! - feels super awkward about it and will ask you to help apply away from everyone - thoroughly enjoys a swim shirt on extra sunny days - but really just enjoys spending time with you - will not say it though

hinata shoyo

- big sandcastle enjoyer - brings a bunch of supplies - usually a beach ball and volleyball - or an underwater camera - loves looking for reefs and fish - checks out every seashell he can find - takes photos of everything to send to you if you’re not there - ‘this shell reminded me of you’ type of beat - is the ultimate planner of beach days - (by ultimate planner, it means he invites everyone and then hopes tsuki remembers) - was like this all through secondary school - but ends up asking everyone to go pretty much every day after brazil 

tsukishima kei

- chronic swimmer's ear - wears those prescription goggles that barely work - refuses to get into the water if it reaches above his knees - more of a scroll on his phone on a beach towel - will laugh every time you eat it while surfing - legitimately finds it to be the funniest thing ever - probably records it too - not because he thinks you look great surfing or anything… - but he does post your fail on like twt - tagging you and everything

yamaguchi tadashi

- loves to just chill - like a good book and iced coffee - does partake in group activities - usually volunteers to get ice cream for everyone - ends up getting most of them just slightly wrong - 'oh i thought you wanted lemon with raspberry.. not strawberry' [yamaguchi] - lowkey you think it’s on purpose - because it’s always people who pissed him off recently - never you though, he’ll never forget your order - even if you do forget to bring your umbrella for him… - (don’t worry he WILL steal one from a nearby resort) 

yachi hitoka

- becomes an amateur photographer - makes you do like fifty different poses - 'just move over like an inch..' [yamaguchi] - once she gets that out of her system, she's like a kid again - definitely a 'you want to play mermaids?' girl - in which you will whether you want to or not - absolutely loves it when the fish come up to her - huge fan of sharks actually - would die if she ever saw one BUT loves the idea of them - super fun to be around - towards the end of the day she just likes floating with you

gen. taglist (open): @eggyrocks @causenessus @applepi25 @softpia

[bucketfullofstrawberries]

HELLO ~ HELLO ~ HELLOOO ~!!

HI THERE! Nice to meet you -- you can call me BERRI (he/they) ~ I'm 17 y/o (aka a MINOR!!!) and it's a PLEASURE to make your acquaintance! On this blog, you will typically find a lot of art, as well as a TON of random, obscure reblogs from here there & everywhere (since SOMEONE clearly keeps forgetting he has a secondary blog SPECIFICALLY FOR REBLOGS - but I digress- )

For ANYONE wondering, HERE are my sideblogs; @theberrigarden -- the place I typically TRY to keep my more misc reblogs (though, I'll be honest, I often forget it's there, @berriarthives -- my blog for where I am going to ACTIVELY try to post all my art so there's a place where it doesn't get completely overrun by my random reblog sprees @thesillyoldnarrator -- a FUN, silly side roleplay blog that's run by my Narrator, Edgar! Say hello, if you like! His asks are ALWAYS open!

Allow me to introduce you to my INFAMOUS tagging system; ~

#berri stuff -- the tag I use for just about EVERYTHING and ANYTHING with my name on it; artwork, writings, random 3AM ramblings - if I made it then it's THERE! (i think) #berri rambles about shit -- the tag SPECIFICALLY for my insane ramblings, if you happen to be into listening to an idiot talk about misc nonsense at random intervals of the day! #berri art -- the tag pretty much speaks for itself - you can fine (pretty much) ALL my art over here if you fancy taking a browse through my shtuff ~ #berri reblogs -- also self explanatory, this is the stuff I've taken particular interest in & have decided to reblog, #berri asks -- any asks YOU have gone to the effort of sending me and I have gone and answered ~!

IF, by chance, you happen to take a particular INTEREST in my works of art and fancy a little sketch/doodle for the cheap, cheap price of whatever pay you fancy -- AND/OR you wouldn't mind donating to the cause of helping me out financially so I'm able to SOMEDAY move my butt out of my current living situation, with the extension of being able to afford accommodations towards my disabilities, then you can find my KO-FI;

HERE ~ .ᐟ.ᐟ

-and I shall try my VERY best to get to any requests I may receive as quickly as possible. Though do be warned, these aren't quite considered commissions (yet) & I've a berry busy life-style with college and all + the CURSE of ADHD - so if I don't get to your request right away, don't be afraid to give me a nudge/reminder-!!

BASIC DNI's & GENERAL HUMAN DECENCY APPLY HERE AT ALL TIMES!!! Please, see yourself out the door immediately & do NOT interact with me or my blog if you happen to be, support or identify as the following; homophobic, transphobic, ableist, misogynistic, pr0shippers, 1nc3st glorifiers, ab^se glorifiers, p3dophiles, gr00mers, tr*mp supporters, terfs, & any other indecent, nasty weirdos or freaks I may of forgotten to list or label who may happen to ponder onto my page.

HOWEVER, for those of you who do NOT affiliate yourselves with the above nasties then consider yourself MORE than welcome to stay! DM me, shoot me an ask or even just say hi! Now all THAT's out the way - make sure to have a LOVELY rest of your day/evening/night!

& REMEBER; be CRINGE & be FREE ~!!! ✩°｡ ⋆

[alpaca-clouds]

How to convince right-wingers to vote left

Alright, folks. In Germany we have a new election coming up - and this is also something that other people in other places can absolutely use. I want to talk to you about something, that I think a lot of left wingers do wrong. And don't get me wrong: I absolutely get why you do it this way. I want to do that way, too. But I realize that it just does not work.

See, most right wingers are not raging Nazis. There are some raging Nazis, sure, but those are by far the minority. Most people voting for right wing parties are just tag-alongs. A lot of them people who are not doing that well economically, and who kinda like the fact that the right wing offers them an easy solution: "You are doing bad economically because of the immigrants stealing your jobs, and because of the evil DEI rules!" And so the average right-wing voter will note to himself and think: "Yeah, because it is not my own fault."

And here is the thing: In a lot of cases it is not their fault. It is simply capitalism doing its thing. They are doing badly because of capitalism. However, here is the problem: The average right-wing voter has also consumed tons and tons of propaganda that told them about how evil communism and socialism are, and how evil and crazy and criminal any minority of your choosing is. Yes, including those minorities they are themselves part of. You know, good old "I never thought the face-eating leopard party was going to eat my face."

Which is where the mistake comes in that us lefties tend to do: We want to engage them directly on a) progressive thought and b) capitalism as a system.

You know, when they are raging about the immigrants or the trans people or the queers or the homeless or whatever, you really want to correct them on that. Heck, maybe you are part of one of those groups and you will go: "Well, do you want me to die/be imprisoned?" (Especially when it is family members espousing this kinda thought.) But the thing is: I am sorry, but you will not convince them with this. Again, chances are they are themselves part of some group whose face will be eaten. They will not see it. Worst case: They might indeed think that you should be cishet again and that it would be for your own good. Best case: They cannot fathom that it would apply to you, but just those "evil queers" (to take queerness as an example, as it will apply to most people on this hellsite). You can show them quotes of their right wing politicians that do not differentiate, and they will still stand firm that it most certainly will not apply to you or anyone they know. For them it is just against a nebulous other group of [minority X], who are actually criminal. They have heard so much about that group online!

Do not engage. Do not! I understand that you want to. But you will not be able to deprogram them quickly. Like, deprogramming is possible, but it takes time. And if you try to get them to vote for your rights in the upcoming election, you will not win on this.

Next thing especially a lot of folks like me will wanna do is just go full on out there and rage against capitalism. Because yes, pretty much everything whatever person will tell you about their misery can mostly be traced back to capitalism. And you would right. I would be right. But again: You are going to go up against years and years of brainwashing. In this case even against brainwashing that has started DURING THEIR SCHOOL TIME. We all get taught how amazing capitalism is, and how evil communism. You will not undo that in a twenty-minutes discussion - and not in a weekend either.

No. What you want to do is the thing that EVERYTHING INSIDE YOU will scream against: Listen. Listen to the concrete issues they bring up. Chances are, that the right wing party they are wanting to vote for would make this worse.

They struggle to make ends meet even though their job for a long time was enough to make those ends meet?

Great, show how the left wing party actually has a strong policy on a proper minimum wage, and how they might also want to push for more help for smaller companies and more worker protections.

If they argue on that, show also how actually the right party actually is trying to remove those protections, and how it would affect them personally. Make a point out of it. If they try to steer the conversation on some minorities they want to blame, do not engage. Again, you want to talk about their specific problem, and how voting for the left wing party is better for them.

They recently lost a job, struggle to survive on whatever handouts your country might give out, while also struggling to find a new job?

Again: Put emphasis on how the left wing party has stronger policies on worker protection, allows people to live more easily from whatever handouts there would be, and also usually want to invest more in ways for people to get new jobs and so on.

An argument you will get on this often is: "But what is with those who do not wanna work?" Something like this. Generally speaking though, this is one of the arguments that is not as deeply held of a believe. If there are official statistics of how few people are shown to not want to work (usually it is less than 2% of the jobless people, often even less than 1%), this actually will work. Otherwise just focus on: "Yeah, but do you personally not deserve more money, after having worked so hard for XY years? Do you want those others to not have money strongly enough that you are willing to starve for it?"

They struggle to pay for necessities? (Be it food, be it electricity and water, be it heating, or rent.)

Again: Show how the left wing party has more concrete plans to tackle this. Because chances are: Even if your supposed left wing party is center right, they will have more concrete plans on how to tackle this issue. They might have some plans to substitute electricity, water and heating. They might have plans to guarantee certain prices for the most important groceries. They might also have plans for rent freezes.

Again, if they try to evade this by going on again some minority, refocus the conversation on the actual problem - the inflation.

They might here also go against renewable energies. But again, this is usually something that is not a core belief, so you will have chances to just show them graphs how renewables are much cheaper. Do not even engage on whether or not climate change is real. It does not matter. It literally does not matter. Renewables ARE cheaper. So just argue on that front: "Why would you want to pay more for a less effective way of sourcing energy?"

Again: The important bit is, that you cannot deprogram someone in a short conversation. Deprogramming people is something that will take months to do. And if you are going to try this, it is going to be exhausting.

But convincing people to vote in a way that will help you? That is actually fairly easy. Because chances are: If they are not a billionaire, the same party who will be in favor of your minority rights will probably be the only party, that will also ACTUALLY address their issues.

Do not discuss minority rights with them. Do not discuss the issues with capitalism with them. It will not work. Arguing with them about their own rights though? That works actually really well.

[chronic-escapixt]

Mine Forever

Heretic!Kai Parker x Vampire!reader

content warnings/tags ~ Dark fiction, Yandere!Kai, non-con (alluded to), murder, abuse, degradation, blood, choking. Minors DNI

word count: <400

I prefer to use Rosalina (nickname: Rose) Bennett as a placeholder for Y/N.

summary- Kai forces an unwilling reader to turn so he'll never have to lose her

“Aw, Rosy is that all you’ve got?… pathetic…” Kai taunts maliciously digging the heel of his combat boot into the middle of her back. She let out a weak groan, clawing at the floor. 

The last thing she remembered was the metallic taste of blood in her mouth. His blood. The wicked heretic force fed it to her then cornered her until she was cowering against the wall, hands raised in surrender crying and begging him not to go through with his plan. He wanted her to be his forever, his perfectly preserved Rose. His mind was made up and once Malachai Parker made up his mind about something, there was no changing it.

“Kai don’t-”

Snap. His eyes followed her limp body as it dropped to the floor.

He didn’t leave her side while he waited, rubbing the top of her soft hand in small circles to ease the anxiety that creeped in with each hour that passed. Even if he failed, he would go through his archives of grimoires and use every ounce of magic he can find to resurrect her. He is not letting her go without a fight.

She twitched before her eyes opened, locking onto him immediately before she flew upwards in a frenzy latching onto his face and neck, clawing and scratching at him viciously.

She felt different. Everything was heightened, including her anger.

“What have you done! You’ve ruined me. I’ll kill you for this!” she screeched in blind fury, snatching the floral lamp off the nightstand and breaking it over his head. He hardly reacted, grabbing her shoulders and throwing her to the hard floor. He pinned her down while she flailed weakly.

“Oh come on, Rosy get up.. oh wait, my foot is on your back,” he sneers applying more pressure until her bones crack and she cries out. “Tsk. tsk... still so fragile. You’ll be much stronger once you’ve got some human blood in your system and finalize the transition.” He kneels down and holds her by the throat, tenderly running his knuckles along her spine. 

“I. hate. you.” she breathed out weakly.

“Shh-sh-shhh, it’s better this way. Now I don’t have to lose you or watch you grow old and wither away… I can have you like this forever, my pretty little Rose… and as a vampire, your enhanced durability will make our games a lot more fun dontcha’ think?”

[ladykailitha]

Royal Pain Part 17

Hello! I'm still trying to sort out the tagging problem, so until it's fixed follow the tag #ladykailithawrites and hope that Tumblr doesn't screw that up, too. I've reported my issue with the help desk and I hope to hear word back soon. Thanks to @goodolefashionedloverboi, @estrellami-1, and @just-a-tiny-void for trying their best to help me.

I'm going to try tagging in the comments, but it's going to blow them up (only five per comment)...apologies.

Throws cliffhanger at you and runs!

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16

***

Steve got to the tattoo shop and found Eddie waiting for him. He was leaning against the door to his van, arms and ankles crossed with his head down. Steve thought he looked like a sunning lizard on a rock. Though he supposed Eddie would appreciate a dragon comparison instead.

“Hello gorgeous,” he greeted, coming up to the van.

Eddie opened his eyes and smiled. “Hey, sweetheart. Thanks so much for offering to do this, you really didn’t have to.”

“I wanted to,” Steve said softly. “It was shit that I was taking longer on that tattoo than it should have.”

“Did you get it worked out?” Eddie asked, following Steve to the front door of the shop.

“I got it to the point where the client was satisfied, even if I wasn’t,” Steve murmured. He unlocked the door and then bent down to unlock the metal screen that protected the shop from people breaking through the plate glass in the door and lifted it up to allow them entry into the Royal Pain’s lobby.

“Just let me boot up the computer,” he said, smiling at Eddie, “and then we’ll get started on your working on your tattoo.”

“You don’t have to set up your equipment?” Eddie asked, coming over to lean on the counter while Steve fiddled with their computer.

Steve shook his head. “That’s the best part of having apprentices, I can have them do that for me. And in this case, Argyle offered to set it up last night after work, while the rest of us went to your gig.”

Eddie grinned. “It looked like you were having a good time.”

“You know exactly what you did,” Steve scoffed. “That was a deliberate seduction and you know it.”

Eddie batted his eyes innocently. “I don’t know what you mean, sweetheart. That’s what I usually wear when I preform.”

Steve ran his tongue over his teeth slowly. “Oh, I don’t doubt that. It was the wink that killed me.”

Eddie cackled.

“Okay, got the system up and running,” Steve said, standing up. “I’m just going to lock the door so people don’t think it’s safe to come in.”

Eddie nodded.

They went back to Steve’s room and sure enough Argyle had gotten everything laid out for Steve.

“I hope he decides to stay at the shop when his apprenticeship is over, because he does amazing work,” Steve said, pulling on the nitrile gloves.

“He seems pretty chill,” Eddie agreed, taking off his shirt. “Where’s he from? I can’t quite place the accent.”

“Southern California,” Steve said. “Came out here to help a friend get back on he’s feet and just ended up staying.”

Eddie got settled into the chair. “That was really nice of him.”

Steve shrugged. “He’s been a bit cagey about the friend, so I assumed it was a boyfriend and he didn’t want to out the guy. But he hit on and got the number of a girl that had applied for the apprenticeship at the same time. So I don’t know.”

“Could be the person involved was deep into drugs or alcohol and needed the help recovering,” Eddie suggested.

Steve hummed. “That’s a possibility. I wasn’t going to press because it really isn’t any of my business.”

Eddie nodded. “Yeah, as curious as the mystery is, it’s best to let sleeping dogs lie.”

Steve agreed and then started up the tattoo gun, getting to work.

“Everyone is liking the tattoo so far,” Eddie assured him. “I can’t wait to see what it looks like when it’s all done.”

Steve smiled fondly. “I’m glad you’re liking it so far. The last big tattoo I did was of this big boobed chick on motorcycle, pinup style. I kept telling the guy it wasn’t my usual style and that having reference would make it better or to go to someone else, who’s style it was. But he insisted I do it.”

“I’m guessing it didn’t turn out great?” Eddie asked.

“That’s the thing though,” Steve said over the buzzing of the gun. “It looked amazing. He just thought it looked too cartoonish. Even though he’d approved the design, approved every step, he suddenly turned around and tried to sue me.”

Eddie winced. “Shit, man, I’m sorry. That sucks.”

Steve shrugged and huffed through his nose. “The asshole sued me so often the last time the judge awarded me money for the pain and suffering the guy was causing me.” He paused and hummed thoughtfully. “Well, I counter-sued, but the fact that the judge agreed with me and my lawyer over him and his lawyer pretty much sums up the whole ordeal.”

Eddie laughed. “That how you got your own shop in two years?”

Steve grinned. “Yup!” He smacked Eddie shoulder. “Now stop moving, you menace.”

Eddie settled down and let Steve do his work.

*

Steve and Eddie walked out of the parlor a couple hours later.

“Hey you want to go get some lunch?” Steve suggested as they parted ways to their separate cars.

Eddie grinned. “Hell, yeah! Where to?”

Steve suggested a diner nearby and Eddie agreed to meet him there. Eddie drove off, but as Steve was unlocking his car door, he thought he could feel the prickling of someone watching him. But when he looked around he didn’t see anyone that it could possibly be.

He shook his head. He was probably just imagining it. He got in his car and drove off.

*

Over the next couple of week, Steve would feel this twinge between his shoulder blades as if he was being watched, but whenever he would look around, he couldn’t spot anyone looking.

Robin smacked his arm one day after work and Steve spent five minutes looking around for the source of his unsettling feeling. “Stop it! You’re making me paranoid!”

“Come on, Robs!” Steve protested. “You can’t tell me you don’t feel it.”

She crossed her arms. “Yes I can, because seriously Steve, I can’t feel it. There is no one watching you!”

Steve rolled his eyes. “I think it’s time to switch over to the nicknames at work. I don’t want anyone using their real names at work.”

Robin sighed. She wanted to argue that that was a stupid reason to start using the nicknames but she also knew that he was as stubborn as a mule and unfortunately at times, just as stupid. “Fine. But you find me a better name then stewardess, but that makes me sound like a waitress or some shit.”

Steve laughed. “Yeah, yeah. I’ll find you a cool name.”

“I’ll hold you to that, your majesty,” she groused, sliding into the passenger seat of his car.

*

The name Robin ended up choosing was Chamberlainne. A femininized version of chamberlain. Erica, Argyle, and Chrissy all loved it. Steve wanted to tell them about the person that was watching him, but as Robin didn’t think it was a big deal (or even a thing), she overrode him.

Their weekends were spent with Eddie and his band and Eddie was slowly coming out of his shell more and more. They were still at the more than friends, but not quite lovers stage and while there were times Steve wanted to throw in the towel and just give up, Eddie would flash him this goofy grin and Steve would fall in love all over again.

The week days were filled with teaching Chrissy and Argyle the ins and outs of the tattooing industry and getting more and more busy. It was honestly insane how busy they were getting. Hell, Steve was booked up for the next six months.

Robin was about ready to tear out her hair from how busy it was.

“I know we said we’d wait for July to get another receptionist,” Steve told Robin after a particularly busy day, “but we need one now. I’ll stop paying myself if I have to to cover the cost.”

Robin sighed. “You don’t have to do that, we have the money to hire one. I just haven’t had the time to set up appointments for interviews.”

Steve sighed and ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. “Train Chrissy on the phones to help lighten your load a bit so you can set that up. I’ll also ask around the other shops, see if I can’t find out why we’re getting this massive flux of people.”

Robin nodded. “I know it’s worse for you with Chrissy and Argyle only being apprentices and not full on artists to lighten your load, but with the money Erica is bringing in with henna being popular again, it’s been helping us keep up with the demand.”

*

Steve went to Hopper’s first. Hop would know the ins and outs of the scene better then he would. Steve was too new to really be apart of it, his style notwithstanding.

“Stevie!” Hop greeted. “Long time no see!”

They hugged each other tightly. “Hey, Hop. How’s things?”

“Busy as hell,” the older man groused. “I don’t know what it is, but a lot of the shops around here are just buzzing.”

“Mine, too,” Steve said. “I was hoping you would know the cause, but if you don’t know, no one does.”

“I think it has to do with current state of the world, if I’m honest,” Hop said warily. “When you can’t find permanence in any other aspect of your life, getting a tattoo can fill that void.”

Steve sighed heavily. “That could be it. How’s Eden working out for you?”

“I need to take you out for dinner for putting her in my path, kid,” Hop said, throwing his arm around Steve’s shoulders. “She is going to be amazing. A really good fit.”

Steve grinned. “I’ll hold you to that, old man. Steak dinner at Kincaid’s.”

“You’ve got yourself a deal.”

Eden peeked her head around a corner and gasped. “Steve?”

“Hey, Eden,” Steve said brightly. “I hear you’re settling in pretty good around here.”

She came out to the front of the shop. “Yeah. This place is exactly the type of shop I always wanted to work in. Thank you so much for suggesting I apply here.”

“It’s no trouble,” he said.

“I owe so much,” she replied. “I got the apprenticeship here and I got a great new boyfriend in Argyle.”

Steve laughed. “I’m glad things are working out great.”

“Yeah,” Eden said, “we’re even going on a double date with his roommate and his girlfriend.”

“That’s got be fun,” Steve said, trying not ask the question that had been burning in his mind about said roommate for weeks.

She shrugged. “He’s okay, I guess. Painfully shy according to Argyle, but his girlfriend more than talks for the both of them.”

Steve was biting his lip, just dying to ask who these people were. He looked at his watch. It was really getting late.

“I really should go and let you guys clean and close up.”

He hugged Hop and waved goodbye to Eden. He breathed a sigh of relief as the cool night hit his face. He had been so close to asking Eden about the elusive roommate even though both Robin and Eddie had warned him not to ask.

And maybe because he was lost in his thoughts he didn’t notice someone coming up from behind him as he struggled to get into his car.

***

Part 18 Part 19 Part 20 Part 21 Part 22 Part 23 Part 24 Part 25 Part 26 Part 27 Part 28 Epilogue

[anonymous-dentist]

Someone has gone ahead and dm-ed me with a lengthy explanation for the Guapoverse stuff, so here is the explanation from somebody active in the Twitter community.

Hopefully, with this full explanation, we can all stop fighting and being nasty to each other. Is this really the way we want to present ourselves? We're all really cool people, we shouldn't be tearing each other apart over something as silly as tags.

hey, just wanted to let you know the context of the whole guapoverse in twitter and why people are changing the tags and the ! for the cubitos, since I think the criticism from both sides is just basically miscommunication. the vast majority of the cellbit community in twt (and a lot of people from roier's) are not just disappointed or boycotting the qsmp, they just straight up dropped it (like, the most common opinions I saw regarding the future of the qsmp from both of those communities are either watching only cellbit and roier if they logged in to just not watching even them if they decided to do so). There are a lot of reasons as to why but people have lost the hope they had in the server and in quackity, especially after the way he treated the xenophobia and admins situation. people still love the characters and the story they constructed and think everything cellbit and roier put they effort in is bigger than the platform and "world" they created it. the thing with not using the q anymore and changing the tag is because the project, as much as it brought joy to us in the beggining, caused more pain and harm than good in the brazilian community, both for the viewers and admins affected, so we just really don't want to have a reminder staring at us everytime we want to talk or write about these characters we care so much for. BUT!! I totally agree that the ! system for the cubitos is super confusing, so as a chronically online person in the twt fandom I'll try to explain the system I've seen people using (is not perfect and not as consistent, it's still all very new, but I'll try to explain the patterns I've notice, also it's mostly applied to the guapoduo twt fandom I can't explain the use from other viewers.) people either use g! or just the ! to refer to the qsmp characters, some still use the q! but it's mostly those two. f! from the fuga impossível characters (like f!cell), the c! from chafaland (like c!roier) and other variations from the twt aus (like the great pretender au is gp!cellbit). so it's mostly it I feel like as someone who has not seen the disappointment in real time and seen people coming up with solutions to still enjoy the characters and their story without having to be reminded of the horrible time the community had these last few months, is very valid that you had your reservations to the many changes the fandom had, and I guess it could look like people are just avoiding the server and trying to erase everything related to it but I hope I could give you more context people are still posting under the q!, people are still posting stuff in the qsmp tag, they aren't going after people that are still using it, it's just to distance themselves from it. the whole thing is mostly a twitter thing, I think not even 30 fanfics changed the tags (last I checked), is just people there are the most affected from the xenophobia and wanted to distance themselves (again, in twitter) of the qsmp and quackity fandom. nobody wanted the whole fandom to adapt, nobody wanted a revolution in guapoduo/spiderbit media consumption, it was just a way to distance themselves on twitter. it was just this.

It's a pretty long explanation, but I think it gets everything across that needs to be said.

Nobody needs to be a dick to each other. We need to understand the Guapoverse Guys, but they also need to understand us. We've got some cultural differences between Tumblr and Twitter, and now there are more differences between Guapoverse and Everyone Else.

[tobypuppic]

Hihi !! Welcome 2 my safe space (≡^∇^≡) My name is Toby !! I'm here to make stimboards, moodboards, and all things in between !! Big age is 16 and little age is from around 3-10, I'm a puppy regressor and a therian !! I love my boyfriend (≧∇≦)

✮DNI✮:

I'm not very strict on my DNI !! But there are a few things I would like to mention ˚‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥ )‧º·˚ Please no NSFW or k!nk accounts, they're icky and I don't want them interacting with me !! This account is strictly SFW, and no weirdos will b tolerated !!

In general, no problematic media !! Things like dr_gs, ed or sh content, or just generally anything else of the sort is NOT welcome !! ヽ(`д´；)/ this goes for content creators too !!

To be more specific, basic DNI criteria such as homophobic, transphobic, racist, etc also apply !! But I also don't welcome people who are anti-furry, anti-alterhuman, anti-mogai, endogenic "systems" and supporters, general stuff that I don't believe to be very strict, just don't be a jerk !!

Also, please do not message me !! I'm okay with asks, comments, and requests, but that is all !! This may seem odd but it's simply my own personal preference ゜・．（ｉДｉ）｡：ﾟ

I block FREELY !!

If I ever accidentally break YOUR DNI, please let me know !! Sometimes I will miss or skim over things, I promise I always try my best !! ʚ♡⃛ɞ(ू•ᴗ•ू❁)

✮REQS✮:

Requests, requests, requests !! Let's talk about them !! I WILL do: well-known characters, general franchises, pretty much everything. If I do not know what franchise or character you're talking about, your ask will likely simply be ignored ಥ_ಥ I don't mean to be rude at all when it comes to this, but if your ask was ignored, please don't send more !! I read each and every one, and if it was ignored, it's for a reason !! ・゜(。┰ω┰。).・゜

I will NOT do: gore, blood, generally scary things (aside from things such as FNaF, if you catch my drift), hazbin/helluva, adult content/characters/franchises, anything NSFW/k!nk related, and related topics !! Again, if your ask was ignored, it's for a reason, please respect that !!

✮TAGS✮:

#Tobybarks (talking post)

#Tobystims (stimboards/moodboards)

#Tobypup (art or anything I made)

#Toblogs (reblogs !!)

｡ ˚ ︶︶✩︶︶‌ ₊ ˚ ︶︶✩︶︶‌ ｡˚

✮Other things✮

I have Autism, and I suspect I have ADHD as well, but I'm unsure !! I'm silly and awesum saucers and I have way 2 many interests !! You're super cool and I care so much about you kiddo ꉂ(ˊᗜˋ*)♡

X.X.X.X

[quackity1999]

"i mean— it's a weird mix. some of you come in the form of letters, some of you are the weird, noisy pop-up ads, some people i meet in person. it's a variation of stuff."

LN ARCHIVES: MASTERPOST ON Q'S CHAT!!

OKAY. cracks my knuckles.

much like how other characters in the dream smp have physical manifestations of their twitch chat, i thought it'd be fun to apply that here — since this is a c!quackity ask blog.

anons function similarly to a twitch chat, which is why i decided that q's chat wasn't a duck pond for originality!

3 categories: people / actual pop ups / and letters or documents.

[ TAGGING SYSTEM ] + [ PINNED ]

POP UPS: this applies to all asks that aren't letters or in-person situations.

these asks are visual pop-ups (boxes, like those virus advertisements you get on a computer, ykykyk) that show up in quackity's peripheral vision. the pop ups can't interact with him physically since they're just text— but they pile up and overlap if he doesn't address them. he can swipe them away with his hands, of course. quackity either responds to them verbally (only if he's alone to avoid looking bonkers.) or mentally (if he's got company.)

examples ; THIS , THIS , THIS , AND THIS .

LETTERS / DOCUMENTS: these asks are formatted + physical, often delivered to quackity's desk. pretty cut and dry.

examples ; THIS, THIS , AND THIS.

PEOPLE: these asks are physical interactions. yk. when people are within his office, or give him something, or touch him, or come to give updates about LN— etc. anon examples: 🟣👓, ♾️🪞, and a few others.

examples ; THIS , THIS , THIS, AND THIS.

NOTE: literate interactions are NOT my primary style of writing. i'm an ask blog with some teeeensy aspects of roleplay— i almost always write in dialogue! yes, even in response to some literate interactions. i don't respond to rp starters unless i'm writing an event + have planned those interactions with another writer. respect that :3 thank yew!! [ also for the love of prime herself, pleeease, READ PINNED. it'll help. i swear. it's easy peasy lemon squeezy. 5 mins! ]

lengthy asks always tend to overwhelm / slow me down, and while that isn't a bad thing, i do prefer short-mid length asks on a regular basis. this doesn't rule out occasional long letters & shit tho :)

EXTRA INFO:

as for the anons side of things, i'd imagine it's similar to either watching a TV show you can send in notes / commentary / questions into, or literally being a citizen of LN. or, for some, working in the nation itself. (we need more workers pleasepleas.e pleas e its so fucking cool dude i love writing professional fancy shit olealplease i beg i beg i plead)

the anons cannot press too hard on changing what lore i have set up. you can add in little details if you like, or base details off of what canon i've already shown thru this blog (LOVE THAT), but anons aren't going to be aware of absolutely everything nor can they possess or control quackity's actions. keep that in mind <3

IMPORTANT: i've seen a few dsmp blogs using my pop-up idea, and while that's chill, i politely suggest taking inspo from the cc's interpretation of their chat. :3

i made quackity's anons function as popup ads rather than a duck pond or something basic, since it reflects his chaotic sort of character— from what i recall, tommy (?) had a nokia phone, jack uses his ingame headset, phil has crows and techno has voices.

bascially, i'd much rather see ppl coming up with their own versions of their anons/chat. or at least credit me for the pop-up idea!

i hope this clears things up :3 if there's questions or confusions i am more than happy to respond!

[1800pain]

DID/OSDD System Template

Hello, I made a template on Notion for those interested in system documentation using Notion. The basic features are:

Headmate gallery with a HUGE template and plenty of tags and spaces to fill out,

journaling,

sources table with boundaries and a template,

A headspace gallery (sort of. You'll see) with another gallery with spaces and tags.

Pretty much everything has spaces and tags so you don't have to worry about that stuff, or you just need to add things that apply to you and your system.

I hope you get some good use out of this.

Link: https://1800pain.notion.site/DID-OSDD-System-Template-9b240c1af9b9456fbe2176e1b7ca86b3?pvs=4

[rottenbrainstuff]

Love & Deepspace Caleb storyline thoughts:

Holy shit so much to get through. Main story updates, free myth chapters, new cards, man.

Yandere is typically not my jam at allllll, but similar to what they did with Sylus, they've taken the standard trope and really expanded on it and made it quite interesting here. I'm really quite impressed with this game. I haven't played a lot of recent otome games, I admit. The ones I used to play were very old, very simple, very expensive, and pretty poorly written. It's so crazy to me to go from that to everything they're doing here.

I guess that's why I get so incredibly salty about people whining about what content they feel should be in the game, and especially the folks absolutely losing their shit over baby's first yandere, even to the point where it was making me upset - like, all these young kids with these incredibly conservative talking points who don't even realize it, because they use therapyspeak to make it sound woke(tm) - but... when I think back, it really is nothing new at all I guess. People go insane when presented with moral ambiguity and dark topics. Shit, some people can't even get their brains around goddamned children's cartoons. It gives me flashbacks to the reylo antis who told us we were degenerates for enjoying an enemies-to-lovers trope, gives me flashbacks to all the nasty Steven Universe discourse. I just wish they weren't so goddamned loud, I guess. I try to look around in the tags cause I want to see fans sharing thoughts, and I see some of the stalest discourse. If you don't like something, great, awesome, I do not give a shit. But no one cares about or wants to hear your moral judgement.

One last thought - I have seen an awful lot of discussion about what age groups this game is appropriate for, and some extremely wild things being said. Look, the bottom line is, the age ratings games have in the app stores are not made up on a whim. They are based on rules that outline what types of content will get what rating. If you take issue with how the ratings system that gets applied to ALL GAMES works, that is a totally separate discussion that you are free to begin somewhere else. Why are you clogging up the tags of this game specifically? Go take it up with the app stores.

Anyway, here's some thoughts.

....I'm getting a vibe, and I sincerely hope I'm wrong, that a lot of fans don't understand the symbolism behind apples and why it's Caleb's motif. I mean. It's a biblical reference, representing forbidden knowledge, and original sin. The fact that Caleb's story also has a dude with a... weird snake thing going on could arguably be related as well. Maybe. I... I hope you knew that. It's an extremely classic reference. This is why it's so important to learn, and read, and always be curious, and yes especially about things that are old and dry and boring. It creates this broader, richer appreciation of things, like adding extra colours to a limited colour palette. That one card (that I don’t have yet) that has a clip of the two of them about to bite into the apple together… holy shit.

Ooooof, guys, oof. Usually I try not to be an asshole about the english dub of things, but in this case, because it's AI (yes it is, please see my older post where I went over this in detail) I don't feel quite as bad in saying, ugh. Caleb's english voice. It's so bad, you guys. The voice they picked does an ok job as the teasing older brother in the very first intro chapters, but UFFF is it ever poorly equipped to do the sterner stuff. Please, if you only play the english, do yourself a big big favour and give the japanese audio a try (can't speak for the other languages cause I haven't played them). The japanese VA is great. He's done a lot of voice work as side characters but is Tuxedo Mask in that Sailor Moon Crystal series, so there's that. I've seen lots of people mention that they gave it a try and liked the japanese voice a lot better, please please check it out. Check it out just to prove me wrong! Fuck you, I like the english voice, it’s the best, well great! Listen to the japanese just to be able to tell me how stupid I am, then.

Anyways, because I am playing the japanese audio, I have noticed something that amuses me - the english translation has completely scrubbed every mention that they are adopted siblings. I mean obviously it can't remove the actual plot, but what I mean is, in the japanese audio MC is constantly referring to Caleb as her brother, whereas in the subtitles, it gets changed to "my childhood friend", "that guy", "that man", "he", etc. Caleb also sometimes refers to MC as his younger sister, which gets changed to "she". It is so DESPERATELY trying to understate their relationship. And it's funny, even with this sanitization of the translation, people still get weird about it. We truly are a very fragile culture, aren't we.

(another translation note - during the interrogation, after one of MC's responses, Caleb says "smart move" in english, but in japanese he says "good girl" instead, which I feel the fans would have preferred - odd choice there.

Caleb's story and character are a lot more interesting than I thought they'd be, and kudos to Infold for making a yandere character that I actually understand and even enjoy without my skin crawling. I gave it all an honest shot but it seems Sylus is still my ride-or-die. The monster that's tame ONLY for the main character is so specifically and utterly my jam. But! I support the Caleb girlies. Enjoy!

I am so, SO intrigued by the "coming soon" that remains at the bottom of the character list. Who on EARTH could that be??? There's no one left from the intro chapters who got cinematic animation but no romanceable character yet, and Infold has really covered all the basics now when it comes to what otome game stock characters are left.

I think back to all the old games I played, and really I feel like the only character who is missing is the younger childhood friend, who knew the MC for a long time but was never taken seriously as a viable romantic interest, sometimes because the relationship was so strictly platonic, sometimes because the character never saw the MC again, or sometimes because there is memory loss fuckery. This character is younger than the MC, or at least, younger than all the other guys, and usually their plot involves wanting to be taken seriously and trying to show the MC that they measure up, and (sometimes) make her remember how they knew each other. But I mean. We already have two childhood friends, and we have memory fuckery with every character's story, I don't think there's really any room for this character now.

Some folks have said maybe it would be one of the secondary characters from one of the guy's plots, like Dr Greyson or Thomas or whatever. I DID play a game once where each romance option also had a kind of friend character, and once the main characters were all introduced, they made kind of a special bonus where you could romance those friends if you wanted. The secondary characters in this game ARE suspiciously attractive, so who knows. My gosh though wtf, that would be so many characters in the wish pool. I wouldn't like that. Would it be a separate pool? How many characters does Infold typically add to their games? If it’s a large amount, how do they manage it? Man, I have so many questions.

(it would be neat if it was one of the girl characters - like Jenna - but I don't have any hope that will ever happen)

Maybe the last one will be some totally weird off the wall character, an alien emissary straight from Philos or something. It's definitely intriguing.

Did you guys notice that that bulletin info post thing (that you might have missed, because I never read them myself, usually) that came out with the period tracker is more informative than anything I was ever taught in sex ed class?

Anyways. Phew! So many updates. Caleb is a super cool take on the yandere trope, too bad I am absolutely married to my tame monster. This game is insane. I'm so happy it was recommended to me.

[hopeworth]

We're on a Nick roll lets go: questions 1, 4, 12, 13, 19!

oc tag game

UMBRA YOU'RE SPOILING ME

1. What was the first element of your OC that you remember considering (name, appearance, backstory, etc.)? 

this is actually a complicated question because nick started off as a character from an already existing story, but i au-ed them so much that i just decided to make an oc at this point haha. at this point she's pretty far from the character she started off as, but the au elements aka the first aspect of her own unique character is being a trans woman! so: transgender butch demon hunter woman who is a twin?

before i even got her name i just kept calling her not!dante lmao.

4. In developing their backstory, what elements of the world they live in played the most influential parts? 

the characters actually came first and everything else afterwards, but for the aspects that ARE the other way around, it is probably the power system. i vaguely had her and morgan as having some sort of supernatural origin, but i hadn't figured it out until i got some of the worldbuilding down - their 'mother' is the dimension that calls itself 'justice', and their father pledged himself to it as a kind of vigilante/prophet (it has a cult yes, and morgan considers herself a christ-like figure almost). 'justice' gifted their father twin children, who are just genetic clones of him because 'justice' does not have a human manifestation to take genetics from. the worldbuilding is a tad more complicated than i want to go into in one post haha, but yeah the power system informs their origin a bit

12. What have you found to be most difficult about creating art for your OC (any form of art: writing, drawing, edits, etc.)? 

okay, this applies to every OC, but i never want to actually start writing until i have a plan for a single unit of the story, but then i never actually finish the plan, so i never start writing djsfhkdsj. as for drawing, my biggest obstacle is actually sitting down and plugging my tablet in in the first place......

13. How far past the canon events that take place in their world have you extended their story, if at all? 

this story specifically i want to take the structure of monster of the week with an overarching/looming end of the world story, so i have extended the canon to a certain point? but i'm not even sure how i want to end nick's story like. i need more of how her character arc should end before i decide if she dies or not ajdsfhjskdfhksdl

19. What is your favorite fact about your OC?

HMMM she's butch. that is my absolute favourite thing about her. #i luv butchez. no but yeah, nick doesn't actually have an attachment to gender? she transed her gender because morgan transed her gender, she is quite literally copying her. she goes by she/her, but also doesn't care or even register for the most part when people use other pronouns on her (but she is weirded out if people call her a man pointedly in gender. she's not? why are you doing that?)

[girlfromthecrypt]

My first Writeblr tag game!!

Thanks so much for the tag @mthollowell-writes! This is one of my first ever tag-games, so I'm pumped. Also, this made me realize I rly need to do a WIP intro for my main project. It's a dark fantasy/horror with some romance, too. The working title is Fucked Up Fairytale. That aside, let's goooooo

1) What motivates you to write?

Anything and everything! Writing is my coping mechanism, for good times and bad. It helps me keep hold of happy feelings and release negative ones. 

2) A line/short snippet of your writing that you are most proud/happy of. If not maybe share a line of someone else's work you love (just please credit them)

I have multiple WIPs, but I'm going to refer to the one I plan on actually turning into a book. The working title is Fucked Up Fairytale. That may undergo revisions. Anyhow, I'll share two lines/snippets, if I may! Mainly because the first one is very short indeed. Here it is:

I braced myself for stupidity, and he didn’t let me down. —This is in the main character's (Margot's) narrative inner voice during a conversation with her little brother. 

And here's the other one, same chapter, same conversation! I feel like I may have gone a little overboard with Margot's world-weariness, but I kinda like it:

“The world I dream of has me making six figures at a job where my boss doesn’t need me to show him my tits,” I said, a chill creeping into my tone. “It has me going home at a reasonable hour so I can watch TV and fall asleep with a bag of spicy chips, preferably next to a spouse who doesn’t mind that they make me gassy.”

Neither of us spoke for a couple beats. Then, softly, my brother asked, "And where's the magic in that?"

"Nowhere, Callie. That's kind of the point."

3) Which OC makes you smile every time you think/talk about them and what are they like?

That would apply to Margot's love interest from Fucked Up Fairytale. He's, um… special. To me, and in general. Seeing as he's one of the Folk, it would be unwise to share his name, especially since not even Margot knows it as of right now. He calls himself the Huntsman, so that'll work for now.

He's this rather delicate-looking youngish man; slender, short and long-haired—he's quite pretty, really. And he's the smuggest, most self-satisfied dork you've ever met, but in a sweet, non-threatening way. I just love his and Margot's more wholesome exchanges. They clash a lot; she's a recent university graduate, has been a skeptic all her life and didn't mean to get roped up into any supernatural stuff, and he's this forest-dwelling fairy-like entity. But they end up being really good for each other, despite (or perhaps because of) their differences. Even though their dynamic starts off based purely on physical attraction, it grows into something more and their interactions really feel cathartic at times.

4) What process of writing do you enjoy the most?

I love what happens shortly after getting the idea for something. It's like a little twitch in the brain that grows and grows and it's just… awesome. And I'm not actually doing anything at that stage, so it's also the easiest step. Also, I just love writing dialogue.

5) What part of writing do you think you are the best at? (Yes stroke your own ego it's okay)

I think that's also writing dialogue! Not much else to say there. Oh, and nature descriptions sometimes. I've been told my nature descriptions are beautiful.

6) What is something in the writeblr community is most enjoyable?

How passionate everyone is! We all do the same thing, we write, and we all love doing it. And there's such an undertone of positivity to it all, of openness. That's really nice.

7) A writing tool/device you use that helps you with writing? (It could be speech to text, a writing program etc)

Oof. This one's too hard for me. I'm honestly struggling with a lot of writing software so… I don't have a good answer to that. 

8) A piece of worldbuilding that you like in your own story? (It could be the magic system, a particular place in the story, a law etc)

The majority of Fucked Up Fairytale takes place in a single location. It's a magical forest that is its own entity, almost deity-adjacent. Certain characters worship it to gain its protection and power, but it can also be dangerous, trapping humans and turning them into so something they're… not. 

I just really like that forest! I enjoy describing it, I enjoy creating new creatures it may be harboring, I enjoy lending this seemingly inanimate idyllic environment a personality that kind of shines through in a lot of scenes. I almost wish it were real. Almost.

9) What piece of advice would you say to encourage others to write if they are having a rough patch?

I'm with you.

That's all I, or anyone, can really offer, I believe. I've dealt with month-long dry spells, really horrible ones. I know it's shitty, I know it sucks. My advice, if I had any, would be to force yourself to write anyways. It's the only way to get back into it, and you should never ever give up writing. Writing is worth it.

10) Tag some people whose works you love/have been your biggest supporters

Well, obviously I'm gonna have to mention @prismatic-bell who once wrote a wonderful thirty-part fanfic to one of my stories and is, in fact, amazing. Xe has contributed greatly to a lot of my stories and I will be forever grateful for that. Also @rehnwriter who helped me set up my blog because I'm bad at internet stuff and need constant surveillance.

I'm tagging… uh… anyone who sees this and wants to participate! I'm really eager to get to know more folks from this community.

[cee-grice]

Happy WBW! I noticed your tags on a post where you mentioned magic ethics and I'm curious - are there any magical laws or anything else related to ethics with magic that you'd like to mention? I'd love to hear about how that functions in your world.

hi!! thanks for the ask!! it's such a fun one, because this IS a very interesting topic to me that I'd love to talk about more haha

also. I fucking lied. I said 'a slight bit' of discussion, but actually, there's a LOT of discussion of this in the story lmaoo. idk why I said a bit??? it's literally at the center of the conflict??? holy hell omg i'm tired

okay, so. magic ethics is HUGE in my setting, to the point where there's a whole separate branch of law that's dedicated to all the minutiae of it. it's... quite a complicated topic ahaha.

(also, I'm gonna be covering the ethics of magic in just One country, where the story takes place, but I wanted to mention that this stuff does vary from place to place)

so, first things first. to perform magic, you need a magia conduit. to get a magia conduit, you need a license. to get a license, you need to have finished appropriate studies in appropriate institutions (most commonly, magic-focused academies, but some specialized vocational schools offer it, too), so it's definitely not a thing Anyone can do. and you can very much lose that license for misconduct (this is, of course, not mentioning anything outside the law lol).

ethical violations are the most common reason people lose their licenses. broadly speaking, using magic on/against other people is, in most cases, not allowed. this affects some areas more than others - for example, charm magic, which is essentially manipulation of the psyche. this branch of magic is the most heavily regulated, for obvious reasons lol. it helps that, 1) in most cases, people can tell they've been charmed afterwards (it takes a very adept charm user to fully conceal it), and 2) magic always leaves a trace, so even if the person doesn't remember, it can still be uncovered if they'd been charmed, even a long time ago. rule of thumb is that you may only charm someone if they had given their consent, but even that can get pretty muddy lol

of course, an entirely different set of ethics apply to magic academies and research institutions. which is where some major parts of my story's conflict rise from, actually lol

essentially... wow, I'm struggling to condense everything here because the whole story is very much intertwined heavily with this topic, but. a huge part of magic advancements come from research done on people - specifically those afflicted with magical conditions. ''but wait!'' I hear you say. ''isn't it forbidden to do magic on people?" well! depends. to put it very simply, every study needs to get approved by an ethical committee, who weight the potential harm the subjects may experience vs the potential knowledge gained from the study. and potential knowledge is the most valued aspect of any study (or person).

thus, if you can prove that your study could hugely advance the understanding of some part of magic, then, in terms of ethics, you can get away with a lot.

now, this brings us to an interesting part of the justice system. depending on the severity of a mage's transgression, their punishment may range from a temporary suspension of their license to the death penalty (which, fun fact, Quil almost got HA). somewhere in the middle of that falls exile. and that is by far the most popular form of punishment for disgraced mages (only those who are deemed active threats to society get locked up, which in academia circles happens quite rarely).

why? well. I'd love to go in depth, but this is already getting too long lol. guess you'll have to wait to read the story to get the full picture! but, putting it shortly, remember what I mentioned about potential? yeah. there's also a reason why those exiled mages don't actually get their magia conduits confiscated... sure, other countries would confiscate them if they chose to travel there, but there's the whole Wilderness! you can do whatever there! you can even continue your...studies...that got you exiled.... hm. hmm.....

also, here, have this snippet:)

But of course she dared. From the moment he’d walked through Cielle Academy’s doors, he’d given them his life, and even death hadn’t been enough to release him. He’d died, and yet they still dragged him back. Because it hadn’t been the right time. Because they hadn’t given him permission. There was a reason, after all, why exile was such a popular punishment for disgraced mages. Let them see how life looked like beyond all they’d ever known, let them see exactly what they’d lost, and when the Academy graciously offered them forgiveness, they’d come running back like starved dogs. Never again would they dare step out of line. Never again would they betray the Academy's trust. Because it was where they belonged.

well, anyway. I love complicated and perhaps-kinda-immoral ethics lol

[code-es]

Codeblr tag game - realization

@a-fox-studies thank you for tagging me in this!!

At what point in your life did you decide that the world of computers was the one for you?

Heh this is a long one... So read if u want to know some code-es lore :p

But tldr: My dad was a software/computer engineer and his dedication and working spirit is my biggest inspiration, but programming was never a passion of mine - languages were my big thing. This was until I took a programming course and realized that programming is just like learning languages, but with rules that actually apply.

I want to tag: @xiacodes @web-dev-with-bea @compooter-blob @alica-tech @lazar-codes @zoeythebee @cloudycodes @04kid

Programming was always around me when i was younger. My father was a software systems engineer, so when i was a kid i would see him work on matrix looking code, and sometimes he'd even let me press buttons!

But i wasn't really interested in learning anything about computers... I was instead interested in art and especially languages, which was my biggest interest and passion. Then my dad passed away, and following that I'd get more and more interested in programming during my teens, partly to honor him and my family, because on my dad's side almost everyone's a software engineer. I also had an email friend I met on omegle when i was 14-15, and he was 30 something, which... now that i think of it, it was probably pretty a little weird that he wanted to be my friend... but anyways, he was a software engineer and explained what coding/programming was and following that I made my first webpage using only HTML and CSS, in my notepad hahaha!!

But... I didn't do much after that, until I was in my second last year of high school. I signed up to take a programming course for my next and final year. I've always been curious, and wanted all the knowledge I could get, so when a programming course was offered I had to take it! But it was just another small drop in my big lake of interests.

I don't think I realized that computers and programming was what I wanted to do until I visited my family in Mexico 2 years ago, weeks before starting that programming course. For some reason I always saw programming and computers as something out of my reach - i couldn't possibly learn this. However, to prove me wrong, my cousin, who studied software development at the time, showed me his projects, and what he was doing. And, I realized that omg - I could also be doing this? It's within reach!

And then I started learning python in school and I was kind of discouraged, it was so difficult! Most people had previous experience, and seeing what they could already do I felt overwhelmed, thinking I should also be doing that. But I kept coming back to the thought that this is just like learning a language: if I just expose myself to more and more content it will start making sense, and sooner or later I'll be able to form my own sentences and the computer will listen to me.

I've always loved the logic of languages, how the syntax is built, and how verbs are conjugated in accordance to gender, numerus and time in different languages. But... there are always exepctions and irregularities you just have to learn. However, programming is all logic, everything has an explanation, even the seemingly inexplicable concepts. There is always a solution, and my creativity is the limit, and that is what keeps me going.

And then! I was looking at university educations to apply for, when on a whim I found out about my current school, checked what courses they offer and saw something about frontend development. I read the description, and realized that oh my god - this is my type of programming! I get to do design and art AND code? And since studying here, I have realized that, yeah, this is exactly my field, and I love computers and I just want to learn more and more and more, always, and there are so many rabbit holes to fall into within programming.

During my time in school, I would envision myself working with something static in the future; like just going to uni, learning a job, and then doing it. Then, I remember being on studyblr, and seeing the quote "now is the only time in your life when your full time job is to learn" and I took it to heart, and that is what kept me motivated - I thought, what a privilege to just learn for a living. And that is exactly what working with software will be (:

My biggest weakness is finishing writing shit lol, my feedback in on essays was always: ok great, but dont have 3 different points where we think its gonna end but we're met with yet another finishing paragraph. So I'll just end it quickly here, thank you for reading!

[rawliverandgoronspice]

for the ask game: 5, 25, 26

Heyy thank you so much!!!

5. What's a tag you never want to use for your works even when it applies?

So I have never... not applied a tag, I think? I mean, if we're going to be completely transparent: I have once written a story that involves a lot of really icky themes and situations, but that are not in any way meant to be titilating. So I guess in these kind of contexts, I don't tag all of the sexual content the way other fics tend to do, because I don't want to attract the "wrong" kind of audience (aka people who expected a... certain type of experience and who would end up with a very depressing one instead). The tagging system in Ao3 can be really great and helpful in some cases, and kind of a headscratcher in others. RIght now I'm also facing the complicated case of: one of the biggest tags of one of my upcoming fic is a MASSIVE spoiler, but it would attract a lot more people if I did put it in from the get-go!! And I don't know what to do about it.

25. Is writing the whole thing beforehand better or worse than writing it as you go?

Hmmm. I have done both. I think both have advantages and inconveniences.

If you write as you go, you have the ongoing momentum. You can use the comments to fuel your motivation to continue, and you stay in the flow of things in a far more effective way. It's also better when you want to get stuff out without long-term commitment to the idea, which is a fine thing to do honestly. But, on the other hand, you lack full control over the experience, and you have to let go of the quality threshold you can reasonably aspire to reach. And if, like me, you just *do not* write linearly, you can end up with a very patchy draft where you have chapter 3 ready to go, but chapter 4 isn't. Chapter 5 to 7 is tho!! but then you have nothing, except for a couple of scenes and then the last one. And now you have to trudge through Chapter 4 to release the rest of it even though you'd much rather write something else, which could affect the quality of Chapter 4, which could have been much better if only I had waited for the "natural time" for me to come back to it. I think Descant suffered from this a couple of times, for example (but that's honestly an extremely Me problem)

On the other hand!! Writing everything at once allows you for a degree of control you just cannot have otherwise. I have done this several times, the most notable being the actual seven years I took writing Halfway Home, my Mass Effect fanfiction. When I reread it today (when I manage to push myself to do it, we'll come back to that), I just cannot deny how polished it is on a line level, and how I would have hurt the story if I had, as I originally planned to, released it one chapter at a time. Doing this allowed me to refine my craft and understand my story in a way I would have never ever accessed otherwise, and I have become a much better writer for it. But the cost of that was also quite great. I think there is such a thing as overworking your project, and I did cross over that limit while working on Halfway Home; some chapters have lost the flow and the easiness and spark of their first draft counterparts and became instead construction projects, where the goal was sturdiness rather than emotion, and I'm pretty sure you can feel that burnout in the finished product in places. Another thing is also: when you have worked on a project for that long and when that project ate such a huge part of your life, you can tell yourself that you don't care about reception, but there's a degree of that sentiment that has to become a lie. It's impossible not to feel a sense of grief once you see seven years of your life packaged and released and getting lost in the natural release flow of Ao3. Not to mention the risk (turned into a reality in my case) that the fandom will straight up die and interest will completely wane by the time you actually do put that project out.

Of course, this is a very extreme case, but I think my current stance on things is: trying to aim for a mixture of both? I feel confident enough in my writing toolbox that I know I can afford to lose some of that final quality and polish if it means not hurting myself creatively in the long run, only to gain an additional 5-10% of quality most people would not have noticed. So I'm kind of a 60% writing ahead of time / 40% writing as I go kind of person. My next project will not be fully completed when I begin to release it, but I will only do that when I'm confident its bones are sturdy enough to support its own weight to survive on its own out there, in the Big Wild Ao3.

26. What would you describe as OOC?

Oooo the big bad question. Hmm. I think my opinion is kind of weird a little less scientific than I would like, but I believe that every character has an internal emotion and/or yearning that makes them tick and gives them energy in whichever original canon context we find them in. I don't have to agree with every author about what that original energy/yearning is, but if the case made is compelling enough and this energy is carried over in other contexts, I am willing to accept most behaviors if the internal argumentation makes sense to this sort of original point from which every canon and fanon branch spread out. I think people lose me when their take become disconnected of that original appearance and begins to ride the wave of Popular Fanon, by which I mean: fanon archetypes that are not specific to the media we are talking about, but just general idea such as "brooding guy who secretely cares a lot", "very jealous love interest", "huge protective teddy bear"... I realize a lot of this has to do with allowing characters to have interiority, honestly. A lot of what I believe to be OoC trends have to do with a complete disinterest in some characters' internal lives to serve a fantasy crammed into a mold that doesn't necesserily fit, and without the work being done to make it fit or to make the necessary adjustments to make it specific to the characters involved. I think it's also why I'm not super big on general tropes or AUs in most fandoms --not because all of them are bad or even do this at all, some play with conventions and specificity very very well, or that the practice is worthless, who am I to decide that honestly (and it's not), but because the very appeal of them tends to be flattening characters in very indistinct shapes that can be easily swapped and replaced with each other, and this is not why I, personally, tend to be interested in fanfiction as a medium.