#(I'm amazed I can keep this blog organized sometimes tbh)

[ofblackskies]

So this blog has hit 1'000 followers recently, and that gives me all sorts of warm fuzzies about all the people I've met along the way. The ones I talk to every day, the ones I've fallen out of touch with or who are no longer a part of the community, and the ones I keep on my dash even though we never speak. This blog is one of my safe spaces and that's primarily because of all the amazing people I keep around. So I figured this was the perfect time to give all y'all a little extra love.

My ride or dies here, my hoes before bros, the loves of my life, these are the people who make every day on here worth it. These are the people I hope I never ever lose contact with - and if I do it's their fault and they deserve to be punished for it tbh.

@devilsanddarlings - Chrissy and I have been friends for 12 years both on and off of tumblr, but more importantly before tumblr and after tumblr. I have no doubt in my mind that we'll be friends until the end of time. I would trust you with my passwords, but I would also trust you with my life, and I do trust you with all my secrets. You've been with me through the epic highs and lows of high school football everything, and if we ever lose touch it'll be because I'm dead. And even then? I'mma haunt your ass. So be ready.

@acourtcfmuses - Alana! You and I are going on 8 years knowing each other, and you're so awesome. You're one of my oldest friends from this hellsite, and the only one who's really active anymore. And when I say active, I mean active. Nobody has more characters than you. I've finally broken 100 and I'm still nowhere near being able to be in the same race! Not only that, but you do so well with all your canons, and your ocs are all so well put together. Thank you for always being around when I need you - even if we are on completely different time lines, you always reply when you can and that means a lot.

@hellgiven - Charli, you're one of the few people that I would follow to any blog they made. I don't care what the fandom is, I don't care who the character is, so long as it's you writing them, I know it will be good and I know that we'll find a fun pairing to write! I tell you things I don't tell hardly anyone, and you let me bitch when I need to but you don't ever take it to heart, and I love that. I love you <3

@snnydcys - Lumi, I know I give most of my attention when it comes to our friendship to Channy, and I know I'm terrible at getting to replies in a timely manner - but Channy deserves the attention, and you never bully me about how slow I can be. You've adapted Sonny into this multi-fandom baddie, and you did it in such an organic way that I could never have imagined could be done with a Disney character. I'm always so impressed by the way you've made her fit everywhere. And I promise I will get to doing other things with your other characters. I promise.

@carp3diems - Bluejayyyyy! First of all, obligatory mention of the soulmates: Cal and Del are everything and I swear any time I go to write a reply for him that isn't for her, he's in my head whinging and asking where she is. The fact that I have an oc who's so obsessed with yours is honestly such a vibe because I too, am obsessed with you. You're a great friend, and you only pressure me to write when I explicitly ask you to - which is exactly what I need sometimes. I'm a sucker for all of our little ships and plots and dynamics, even the ones that we're just getting started, and I adore youuuu.

@unitcd - Fabian, we share a love of Jeremiah and a hatred on Conrad, and them there could be fighting words to a lot of people, but we get along so well! Even without that basis, I think we would have become friends eventually, and I'm really glad we did! Even if I'm terrible and don't reply fast enough.

These are the blogs I follow that either I don't write with much, or just haven't had the chance to get out of that 'new follower' stalking vibe with yet! This is also where I'm sticking those people I just don't talk with much ooc (at least not on a daily basis) but I still love so much! I adore you all, and thank you for making my experience on the dash so awesome, it wouldn't be this good without being able to read your threads

@unbearablyindifferent / @tobeblamed / @seesgood / @klaeus / @salvatoraes / @stanfordprepped / @tvintedspvrk / @fcntasyadvcnturc / @localsalt / @takeflight / @lcvelj / @lcveblossomed / @fuckedprophet / @inspotlight / @gunchamber / @benbraeden / @sunsymbols / @malka-lisitsa / @rhaegore / @stcllla / @shesdaylight / @cruelprincae / @sarcasticsnackpack / @saltzitivo (!!! I would say a lot more about you but you know. We don't do a lot here on tumblr anymore, but Hallie is one of my absolute favorite people on the planet alwaysss, my aussie sister <3)

@thcdarlingboy - Blair isn't active right now, but she will forever be one of my favorite people I've ever met on this hellsite. Every day I hope she comes back to throw her characters at me, and because I think of her on such a frequent basis, she deserved an honorable mention on this list despite the fact that her blog hasn't been active since 2020. Blairbear, if you do pop on at any point in time and see this, I want you to know that I love you and I miss you &lt;3

Now, if you've gotten through all of that and made it all the way down here, you deserve something special. So anyone who reblogs either this post or my promo by this time next week will get entered to win some sort of graphics prize. We can chat about what you want if you win, but the realm of options is anything from base icons, to a promo or blog graphics. I'll be picking two randomly generated people, and one person by hand. The only rules are that you have to be following me (this is a follow forever giveaway, after all), and you have to reblog either this post or my promo. Reblogging this post will gain you two entries, because I really want to give the loves of my life some love and get their names out there a little more! But I know it's long as hell, so no pressure! And good luck! May the odds be ever in your favor.

[bunny-hoodlum]

#20, 33, 34, and 35 please!!

Sorry this is late! Wanted to think about my answers more, but I forgot to even read the original questions this whole time, so I def' didn't get to think about my answers, whups. 😅

Thank you for ask, @dayseternal-blog!! 🥰

How do you approach action sequences or intense moments?

I haven't written anything action, it makes me cringe because I don't think I know what I'm doing, but I read that short sentences are best for this and I would agree. Choppy, curt sentences would give that sense of blow for blow feeling that action needs, and it would give the sense of it happening seconds of each other, or even simultaneously. I would probably look for an action scene to copy tbh, and try to write the choreography in a choppy way. Emotionally intense moments can be the same, I suppose. Idk what I do personally, I think I'm an Intuitive writer. Once I'm in the emotion of the scene or character, I just go for it and my heart beats really fast usually and it's wrenching and it's awesome and then it just exists and it feels right. (Until I reread it a month or so later. 🙈 Jk, time isn't the problem, my inconsistent headspace is. 🤭)

How do you incorporate world-building elements into your fics?

So, at this point and as you know, I'm veryyyyy comfortable writing my modern AUs as if they were based in Japan. Even though I don't think Konoha could feasibly be as big as Tokyo with the size of Hi no Kuni, I just write it as if it is. 😅 I pull from the real world to some extent, usually Uzushio is a mix of Okinawa and Taiwan, but I also have some AU where it's pretty damn impoverished, so it's going to be a mix of Macau and Haiti. Sometimes Suna is a mix of Macau and Vegas, haha. I guess Dubai and Macau would probably be more... unique. 🤔 I focus on food and architecture more than deeper things like politics and style of governance and whatnot, because my characters only experience those things passively as ordinary citizens do. Whenever I get back to Powerless, the shady secret government program plotline will actually matter more than Slice of Life stuff, so in that instance I will have to map out history, organizations and their affiliations, how secret programs are run, etc. It just depends on what my story needs. Usually backstory kind of comes to me on its own and that informs me of the world. Can't really think of anything else. 🤔 Making things familiar is the main aim every time, though. Dango to a Japanese is like sugar-cinnamon pretzels to us in the US or whatever, it's a familiar snack you can get pretty easily. That's the kind of immersion I try to keep in mind.

Are there any fic writing tips or tricks you've learning along the way that you'd like to share?

Proofread before posting. Proofread again when you wake up the next day after posting. You'll always miss something, but give yourself the first week to catch all the typos you might've missed. 😂

I guess I recommend reading your dialogue aloud? Maybe your whole fic? My inner monologue is pretty damn loud, so I like to trust my word flow is good because I'm practically reading it aloud in my head. I recommend letting characters interrupt each other. Unless perhaps both parties are really solemn about getting to the bottom of the issue or respect each other or both, that neither interrupts the other, but their emotions would be raging to speak up in the midst of all that patience. Figure out your own writing process. If outlining sucks out the fun, try writing the whole thing without guidance but be sure to analyze the story's direction with what you produce. I recommend the flashlight method for pantsers like myself, there are other methods as well, but a little organization goes a long way. I lastly recommend the "One Stop for Writers" site, their Emotion Thesaurus is such an amazing tool. When you just need to reference things quickly, it's very robust.

What do you enjoy the most about being a fic writer?

Between the community aspect and kind of being known for certain things, I think those are pretty even. I enjoy the act of creation and all that, but having something I experienced along the way and having the pride of it being mine is pretty damn cool. And the community makes that feeling even better.

[morethanaprincess-a]

@trinitytalents​ asked:  Meta Mun

Send in ‘Meta Mun’ and the Mun will give commentary about the blog!

I have a bunch of small, behind-the-scenes sorts of things of how I currently run my blog! So I thought I'd gather them all up and share them for this reply:

I love the tumblr queue system and I use it quite often! It helps me from getting overwhelmed with replies and from flooding my dash with too much IC content at once. However, I don't trust the queue at all. I've had too many instances where tumblr has eaten a reply that took over an hour to write, various research and breaks aside. And the last thing I wanted to do was try to recollect every bit of dialogue, character thoughts, and other misc info that went into the post. So now I write everything first in google email drafts. I should use docs, but there's something refreshing about opening a blank email at the beginning of the week as I start working through my replies. So I'm just going to have 300+ email drafts which are all a week or a half-week's worth of IC replies, complete with HTML formatting.

I used to be a big stickler about replying to everything in order, only going in the order of when various drafts were added to the list. If it was Thursday and I had four drafts starting with a reply I received Monday, I'd start with replying to the Monday thread first and proceed accordingly. This tended to give me a lot of stress for several reasons, but primarily it was due to burnout on some threads and interactions and/or replying to multiple threads with the same mun and muse, because they'd replied to several threads at once. So now I work with what I've got muse for and try to write at least two IC posts per weekday, whether they're answering an IC meme or replying to a thread. At this point, that's about what I'm comfortable with as I balance work and other things. RP is still my biggest hobby right now and I love it, but changing that up helps me stay in love with it. I've also gotten better at reaching out to muns and explaining that I'm out of ideas and need some guidance about what their expectations are with our threads and interactions.

I feel like I should have coordinating icons for this blog, but as long as I have some sort of icon showing Sonia's expression for thread or part of a thread, I'm good.

In general, I try to give at least 24 hours before I reply to anything. For the most part, that's usually due to the amount of drafts I need to write and if I'm posting two per day, it naturally takes several days to post a reply to a thread. But mostly I do it because I don't want to overwhelm my writing partners, especially if the threads are multi-para to novella in size. It takes a significant amount of time to write those responses, including any research you might have to do. Not to mention replying to all of your writing partners in a timely fashion. So no matter how thrilled I am about a thread, I try to give at least 24 hours before posting a reply (though I may write it and queue it immediately!). The only exception is when a mun tells me they aren't overwhelmed by quick turnarounds and to please post things whenever I feel like it. Then I don't hesitate to reply back quickly.

[meowzfordayz]

hello !

just stumbled upon this blog while scrolling and got curious about who i'd get matched up with . this is not at all urgent or anything btw , i'm doing pretty well :3

it can be platonic , romantic , whatever ! i don't mind any gender too . no requirements for my match , except .. don't give me romantic kyoujurou headcanons bc i see him as a dad

i dunno how much info i have to put here but

i like to consider myself a silly funny person . i am generally chill and friendly i think lol ! i love playing rhythm games and i'm basically addicted to music

i occasionally doodle for fun , mostly of kny characters as cats because i love cats omg . i also do semi literate roleplay sometimes .

i have this strange thing where sometimes i'm calmish n soft n kinda excitable tbh n also kinda anxiety tbh but sometimes i'm kinda insensitive n chaotic n adrenaline hungry .. idk i just seem to have 2 sides

i like food . i like snacks . i like sweets . but i'm also surprisingly picky for some reason

i'm akaza kinnie :3 and catkin

if u need more info u can look at my carrd mayb idk wjbxjsbxksj https://koyukislover.carrd.co

djudhddhdjbd nervous

hope this is good !!!

MILESTONE 10.0

💞: Hashibira Inosuke

favorite pastime is playing board games, card games, drawing games, video games—GAMES—with you. He keeps a running score of everything from Monopoly to Scrabble; Egyptian Ratslap to Kaboom; Super Mario Kart to Beat Saber — only the drawing games are a team effort. He’s highkey a sore loser, but also a stubborn loser, and will insist on, “Another round!” until you get annoyed/bored/tired.

maintains a cupboard full of snacks for you. If you even slightly hint at liking something, then he promptly buys a fuckton of that thing, stuffs it in the cupboard, and forgets about it. He’s motivated partially by dreading your hanger, but mostly by how excited and surprised you are whenever you open the cupboard. “Am I the best?” he grunts proudly. “Maybe,” you grin, eyes shining, crinkly bag clutched possessively in your hand, “Ask me after I’ve emptied the bag.”

birthday card doodles are your annual tradition, started because he wouldn’t shut up about how amazing his birthday card was when you first spontaneously doodled on it. Sometimes they’re detailed, other times vague, but he cherishes all of them equally — they’re the only paper he bothers organizing and storing in a plastic binder.

[anyways-wonderwall]

Album of the Week #9

Aqualung

(1971)

By Jethro Tull

Overall Rating: 10/10

TL;DR: Flute and electric guitar come together perfectly giving this statement on God a fun medieval flair.

Folks, this marks the first organic 10/10 on this blog. I had not listened to this album at all before picking it up (minus the super famous title track) and did it just because I had generally heard it was a really good album. Well, let me tell you, "really good" doesn't begin to cover it.

(Also this album turned 50 this March! I've now realized that the 1970s were 50 years ago how bonkers is that.)

General Thoughts

I don't know how many times I've mentioned it on here, but one of my greatest beliefs in life is that the flute is a grossly underrated instrument. For far too long has it been confined to solemn songs and orchestras, let the flute break free! This album is the perfect example of the range the instrument has and it gives each song a much more raw feeling than other wind instruments. Sometimes brass and saxes can leave a song sounding over-produced if they are mixed wrong, while the flute gives it a light feeling that doesn't jeopardize the rest of the song.

Okay not to keep talking about the flute but something else it adds to this album is this weird medieval feel that I've never really heard in rock music before. It works really well for songs like "Mother Goose", a song that depends on reaching into the depths of folklore and telling a story through tropes that have been with us since the beginning of time. Using the flute and mostly acoustic instruments gives it a full folk experience that is amazing.

Another thing I love about this album is the short little drabbles it has with simple thoughts and relaxed yet incredible playing "Cheap Day Return" and "Wond'ring Around" are both little ditties that just make me want to lay in a hammock and smile. Truly beautiful little songs.

The only complaint I would have is that some of the songs sound really segmented to the point you are wondering if you are still listening to the same song. "Cross-Eyed Mary"'s intro is my favorite thing I have ever heard. It is absolutely beautiful and yet it ends so quickly and dips into a different-sounding song. The title track also does this, unfortunately. (And tbh it's my least favorite song off of the album. I don't know if it's because I've heard it too many times, but it just sounds unoriginal and boring.) Almost all the songs past 2 minutes do some intense jumps and some of them handle it better than others.

I'll save you a whole essay on my favorite song off the album but I have to mention it just a bit. "Up to Me" is one of my new favorite songs of all time, with the most attitude I have ever heard coming from a flute. Mix that with the electric guitar and what sounds like a different mode (it might not be, but I swear there's something making it sound medieval and that might be it) and you have a masterpiece. A truly holy combo.

Speaking of holy, I find it strange that this is often considered a concept album with an overarching statement on religion. Like yeah, the second side of the album undoubtedly tells that story, and the final song perfectly concludes it and makes the message clear, but it is only the second side. You can't look me in the eye and tell me that "Aqualung" is about fighting the church. I honestly like this half approach more because it still gives the artist freedom while having a (half) concept album. How I feel about the message? Well, I'm not religious so I'll leave that up to other people to discuss.

Final Verdict

I just got a new computer so I recently had to go through my whole CD collection and put my favorites on my phone. While going through one of the giant books full of CDs yesterday I found Aqualung and it makes up for the hours I had to spend putting stuff on this computer. Even if I didn't have it I would not hesitate to buy it, especially since you can probably find it for $5 at a used-book store. I mean this is a solid 10/10, I don't know what else to say other than to drop everything you're doing and listen to it now.