#(guess which poll option i picked lol)

[chaos-monkeyy]

A random poll for you today because I'm curious

[seraphinitegames]

The Wayhaven Chronicles - Update 01/Mar/2024

Ended up being a super busy week this week!

I finished up the last of the love triangle scene, but I decided to add in just a small bit of text to hint at who the MC is drawn to more, or if it’s equal. I really, really like it! It’s just a subtle little line that fits narratively but gets an important game mechanic across to the player too.

I like to try and add everything in so it makes narrative sense, but sometimes you do just have to make a choice or mechanic obvious to the player. Thankfully I could add this bit in so it fit with the story!

And after that, I was going to move on to testing…except I totally forgot about the non-romance opening scene, lol! :D

The non-romance route was set up in Book One as just a way for people to get to know the vampires before picking out a love interest, which is why there’s actually a warning in there about getting a lot less content if you keep going with it- because obviously Wayhaven is romance-focused! What I should have done is taken it out in Book Two, I guess, BUT it has meant that this villain romance has become an option now so I’m glad I didn’t, hehe! ;D

So with the non-romance route having that option to branch into the villain romance, I will be making sure it has the same weight as the actual romance routes for Book Four.

I was seriously pleased how it came out in the end! I’ve done things like write different scenes for each BFF seeing as there’s no specific LI to have a scene with, instead of picking just one vampire and using them for the scene like I would normally do in the friend route.

But even with that unexpected scene, I was absolutely determined to get it finished and I did! The I got back on schedule and moved onto the testing! I always get seriously excited when I start actually seeing it as a story instead of just writing with coding! :D

Next week, I’ll continue with testing, and it’s also social media days as well the Patreon poll for the Spring Scenario specials! Then I will be moving onto the next scene, which doesn’t involve the vampires at all for a change, hehe!

Hope you all have the most fabulous weekend! We’ll be offline as usual, so I’ll talk to you all again next week!

[d3f3n3str4t10n]

October Poll Results!

It's November 1st, and I was very relieved to see that we got another update! It's a small one, which is to be expected, given the announcement in the last Progress Report, but knowing that updates in general will remain monthly is still good to know!

I'll skip the teaser images to get to the Poll Results first, since they shouldn't be too surprising, if you checked them at any point. In a nearly 5:2 ratio, the option to ship Episodes 3A (Decay) and Episode 4 together has won. (An option with Nemlei interestingly calls "Poetry" several times.) Again, I expected this, even though I voted to ship Decay by itself. The most interesting part of this section to me, are the last couple sentences. In it, Nemlei seems to basically confirm that Decay is finished, or at least very close to being finished, and the majority of work will now shift onto Episode 4. I don't expect Episode 4 to take a year to make, unlike what Nemlei seems to cheekily be implying. The impression I've got to far is that it's the resolution to the story. The Climax ( ;) ) and Falling Action. It's not going to be very long, is what I mean. Nowhere near as long as Episode 3A, anyway. So, with that settled, let's check out those teaser images!

First, we see Andrew and Ashley hanging out in some strange looking lighthouse. The large eye in the middle might remind you of Six Eyes, which is very well might be, but... that eye doesn't look very demonic to me. It's got a big pupil and lashes, with a star in the middle, and the windows surrounding it are also plastered with stars, and are different shades of bright colors. Looks more... wizard-like, to me. It very well could be the same lighthouse... or a version of the same lighthouse, that we saw Ashley trying to climb as the unreachable stair taunted her, but we'll have to wait and see. More importantly... why are they here in the first place? Is it JUST a hideout?

Next image is a bit more interesting. Judging by Ashley's pose, it's possible that this is the middle, or the end, of a small argument between the two. It's the camping section again, which we've seen quite a bit of, now. Andrew saying "You bring my demons out." with that smug look has some BIG implications. Obviously, it's related to the demon world, but what specifically? Did we get a glimpse at Andrew's SOUL? Did Andrew summon a demon of his own, or is this the aftermath of Ashley bringing Andrew with her into the demon world, like she was asked? I'd say it's probably some combination of the first and third, given we don't see any evidence of a ritual here. Though they easily could've just cleaned it up. But, what could they be arguing about? Maybe the Demon's reasoning for wanting Andrew to tag along wasn't something Ashley was happy with. Or maybe she just saw something about Andrew she didn't like. Whatever it was, I reckon it'll probably have a choice for us to pick.

Lastly, we have this silly little comic. I quite like it when Andrew and Ashley are drawn like this lol. But hey, it seems that Decay will have more options than I thought! We also got a glimpse at the main conflict of this route, it seems. Andrew's morals decaying. We already got glimpses of that, given the whole murder-suicide thing going on. (Though I'd argue that would be the most noble thing Andrew would've done, even if for the wrong reasons.) But it seems we also have the ability to go deeper into the relationship between Andrew and Ashley... in more ways than one!

Ashley herself looks a little indifferent to it all. Could just be a joke for the comic, but Ashley has always shown relative indifference towards this idea... when she isn't trying to get Julia to kill herself, anyway. Knowing that we'll be having all these options puts some of the previous teaser images in a bit of a different light, and it also make me wonder what the main theme of Burial will be. I guess instead of having these options with their relationship, they'll just... bury their feelings? And depending on how successfully that goes, you get different paths.

That's all I have for now. Thanks for reading!

[cigarettesandinevitablebetrayal]

Two Truths & a Lie: Remus Edition

So, @glitchy-npc technically tagged "anyone who wants to", so I'll take the invitation lol

RULES: post a 24-hour poll containing two truths and one lie about your OC. have your followers try to guess which is the lie.

(Art by @autistic-sidestep/@aurriearts, because this doodle still makes me laugh)

So, here are the options:

I'm tagging @idlenight, @swordsandspectacles, and @disastersteps this time around

[splatooshy]

winner from the au poll: 🦇🔮

it’s the least developed au of the lot, so. you guys chose wrong. ANYwho—

🦇🔮

aka, “the promise.” (working title).

denzo are bonnie’s fairy godmothers (and the rest of the bennett line’s) due to damon’s promise to emily. kol’s there too, at some point. it’s basically the step sister of the eternal teenager verse. just with more witchy shenanigans & denzo getting themselves into trouble in the name of helping bonnie learn magic. damon gets turned into a cat at one point, and is one for over a week. it only takes a day to figure out the counterspell, he just likes being a cat. only turns back on accident, mopes about it for a while.

seriously this au is underdeveloped as fuck why would you guys choose this option.

there’s two diverging storylines because i have never made a decision in my life. one is where denzo escape augustine together, the other is where they don’t. the second one is more angsty but the first is really fun.

storyline 1 general outline:

denzo escape together, damon’s like “hey i’m supposed to be babysitting these witchies but i sort of neglected them the last five years. sure hope they haven’t gotten themselves into any trouble.” cue teenage sheila in the background running amok and using her magic to trip people over. enzo instantly takes a liking to her & joins in. damon and amelia are severely unimpressed. amelia is a witch doctor / therapist & helps denzo readjust to life, sheila is a menace and should not be left unsupervised lest she overthrow the government and give the president an aneurysm.

damon’s like “oh you were such a sweet child. so polite and shy. the loveliest ten year old.” and now sheila’s the loveliest sixteen year old and she’s angry at the world.

anyways, haven’t decided on what happens with the abby situation — maybe she spells denzo inside the house while she goes to confront mikael?? no way they’re letting her go alone, and no way she’s letting them come with (the bennetts keep getting more stubborn by the generation).

little baby bonnie is the cutest cutie to exist. she loves being carried around at vamp speed & thrown up in the air. she has a habit of accidentally turning people into frogs - turns enzo into one & goes to find some more frogs. lines them up in a little row and makes damon guess which one is enzo. he guesses it first try (one of them looks far more smug than the others.) and has to kiss frog!enzo to turn him back. bonnie thinks she’s hilarious & runs off to tell grams about her new spell. she has a sparkly purple diary grimoire (with a voice activated passcode) and writes in it with her smiggle gel pens.

when bonnie’s ten, someone’s picking on her at school, so she tells denzo. it goes a little something like this:

denzo: right let’s go beat up a ten year old.

bonnie: NO! you can’t do that!

denzo: fine. we’ll compel them to stop?

bonnie: no. that’s not fair.

denzo: what if we compelled them to embarrass themselves, completely unrelated to your predicament?

bonnie: …perhaps…

also also also! grams won’t let denzo into her house. mostly for the lols. it’s become a running joke by this point. they have dinner on her patio once a month, but aren’t invited in because they’d get into everything and touch the wrong spelled object and blow the house up. she has a ward up to keep pests out, claims that’s why they can’t get in.

i haven’t figured out canon yet, but it’ll probs be similar to etv (just with bonnie also knowing denzo. she finds them hilarious, stefan disagrees.)

storyline 2 general outline:

damon escapes alone, next few decades occur a la canon. sheila hates damon because he wasn’t there to save abby. damon… doesn’t care.

damon goes out of his way to get the tomb opened only to discover that katherine isn't there, becomes disillusioned with her, and by extension, elena. his humanity comes back around this time, decides he might as well keep his promise to emily, even if she didn’t keep her end. mostly because he needs something to live for & it’ll annoy stefan.

damon and stefan still butt heads, causing elena (and stefan, and isobel, and pretty much everyone because elena makes a Big Deal about it) to think he's romantically interested in her, when in reality damon is just looking out for stefan and bonnie in his own way (the typical, hardcore damon way). bonnie starts to withdraw from her friends, damon swoops in (literally. he keeps his powers) to save the day / piss off his brother even more. she doesn’t trust him & makes that very clear, but eventually they come to some sort of mutual ground. damon probably shares stories about emily, brings bonnie spells that he thinks would be fun. there are… a Lot of spells. he probably writes down some harry potter ones to see if they’d work. bonnie just raises an eyebrow at him. they start to form a bestiehood. cue stefan and elena’s meddling.

bonnie goes on a college tour of whitmore?? something seems off, so she tells damon. who in turn scopes the college out to just… check what’s going on. finds enzo. brain stops functioning, somehow he gets enzo out & back to the boarding house. calls bonnie in the middle of the night and actually BEGS for her help. she and damon get enzo back up and at ‘em, denzo cautiously reform their friendship & eventual romance. they probably hook up multiple times by accident before they’re actually on good terms. more stefan and elena (and caroline) meddling.

instead of college, because the whitmore thing really freaked her out, denzo take her on a trip to NOLA. klaus is there, frenemies with damon & begrudgingly on decent terms with enzo (nobody knows how that happened). bonnie and rebekah end up together, she also becomes good friends with davina. kol is having a wonderful time, reunited with his old pals (iykyk) and tormenting his siblings. elijah sighs more often than usual. freya misses her coffin. finn misses his. but sage shows up and she and freya are BFFS (finn is not displeased with this, but he does wish they would refrain from teasing him). marcel keeps trying to ban damon from the quarter (again), but it doesn’t stick. idk.

elena dies, either in some ritual or because she stuck her nose into someplace she shouldn’t have. stefan shows up in new orleans, rebefriends klaus, bonds with damon. stefan/hayley/klaus love triangle??? it’s not quite clear.

and yeah. that’s what it is so far.

[k-s-morgan]

Hi, praying you're safe and getting some rest where you can ❤️.

Thank you for the new chapter, it was wonderful! Seeing how everyone fulfilled their roles was hilarious, and I had a grand time trying to guess everyone's assignments. My guess is that Bard and Mey-Rin are the false suspects, their over-the-top cold behaviour did not convince me that either is trying to get away with murder 😂. Oh, and Ciel being disturbed by this change in his two servants was hilarious. Not including Tanaka in this because Ciel was on him from the beginning, and Finny is acting normal. Which in the current context is suspicious...

Now! The scene which has been in my mind and which I have been picking apart since I read it. The hand holding "experiment"!

There are a couple loosely formed theories in my mind which I would like to share bc I have to discuss themmm. First, most worrisome, is that Sebastian has some clue as to Ciel's real feelings towards him and this was an observational test meant to see if this is true, as well as the extent of it. If he were to find out the truth, and exploit what he sees as a weakness to his own advantage, it could create a chasm between them from which they couldn't return. Or... Ciel would find a way to turn it around on him, which would be relatively easy at this point as he is not fully aware of his feelings and their implications, although some feelings would be hurt, and Ciel would surely remember this attempt at bringing him down. In the aftermath I imagine he would continuously tear into Sebastian and his 'delusions' (chapter 19 vibes) until his last breath. A last breath which may come sooner rather than later with the way he taunts Sebastian with no restraints 😂.

Second theory is that Sebastian is testing whether the reactions he has to things like Ciel's proximity, his laugh, etc. are normal human reactions, and whether Ciel has the same reactions towards him. He may still be concerned about his human body's functioning, some chapters ago he did seem worried about the odd reactions it was producing. How odd that all of them were in some way related to Ciel. Oh, he laughed? Best sound ever, nothing else exists. He smiled at him? The world might have stopped for a second. Ciel did absolutely anything? That's weird, the fleshy air bags, which are essential to survival, stopped working...

Not to mention the comedy of him calling it an "experiment" because he can't admit that he enjoys Ciel's company, and the physical proximity they usually share in their routines.

This chapter had so many great scenes in it, time to re-read it and consolidate my guesses! (Would you consider doing a poll to see what people's guesses are before the chapter where it ends comes out?)

Hi! Thank you so much, I'm always so excited to get your comments - and I'm thrilled that you enjoyed this new chapter!

Reading your observations and conclusions was so fascinating, I can't even tell you. You and some other people noticed that Finnie is acting too normally, and yeah, he really is, so I've been very curious to see what everyone thinks about it.

You might be on to something about Bard and Mey-Rin, although the role of at least one of them will probably surprise most readers.

I really enjoyed reading your thoughts about the hand-holding 'experiment' Sebastian has initiated! Since the specifics of it will only become clear in the chapters from Sebastian's POV, I can offer some hints. First of all, no worries, Sebastian isn't aware of Ciel's crush and its magnitude - he remains an oblivious idiot in this regard :D If he did notice it and tried to use it against Ciel, then yes, Ciel would absolutely fight back despite his mortification. Sebastian would end up getting beaten down again and again for his misstep, and they would both inflict so many wounds on each other that healing from it would take ages.

Your second option had me in stitches! This is so like Sebastian. "Fleshy air bags" - lol, so fitting, it's absolutely something he would say.

Some from this theory is true, Sebastian has been testing himself and his feelings for Ciel, only in a somewhat new way. He cannot see Ciel's soul, cannot sense it - he actually feels disgust and disappointment, but despite his automatic prejudice, he keeps falling under Ciel's spell again and again. So this time, he decided to try stabilizing the bond between them in a more physical manner. He's trying to absorb Ciel, his pulse, his breath, his heartbeat, the feel of his skin, his scent as something completely separate from his soul. He's attempting to focus on him without paying any attention to what used to matter most to him (in his opinion).

The process, the motivation, and the results will be fleshed out when we return to this stubborn demon's head))

I'd love to do a poll but I honestly have no idea how to even approach it because there are many players and many roles involved! If someone has any guesses about who is playing what role, I'd be very excited to hear it - in notes, comments, asks, it doesn't matter. There were some very accurate observations made already and it's so interesting to see how you perceive everything.

[sundial-bee-scribbles]

this was supposed to be longer but i got tired (and realized maybe this wasn't such a good idea) so i kinda bs'd this to just finish it up. sorry it doesn't look all that good lol

transcript of my shitty handwriting + more rambling under cut

panel 1:

len: rin, just leave him—

rin: NO! i'm not going to give up now—

len: i know you're upset, but all you're doing is—

rin: HE'S NOT GONE YET!

panel 2:

rin: i know he still remembers, he has to...

panel 3:

rin: kaito-san, it's me; rin. you tried singing one of len and i's songs the other day. you got the melody right, remember? meiko-san's birthday is soon. remember her? a few weeks ago you said you needed to buy her a present. what were you going to get her? do you remember? tell me.

---

aight yea so this is what yall get for picking that ❄️📺❔🕚💾🪦 option on the poll (which btw was related to this drawing)

i'll just keep it simple: basically kaito gets dementia (or i guess the robot equivalent of it??). yeah.

not sure if this takes place on the cusp of v3 happening and just this specific kaito v1 module was unable to be updated for some reason? or if they're all still stuck in v2 and v3 hasn't happened yet/will not happen for a while... but i do know its def before v4 happened, so people like fukase and una don't exist yet

anyways though as you might expect, it pretty much sucks all around for everyone involved. not just the other 5 cryptonloids watching their close friend so previously full of life deteriorate into a husk of his former self, but for kaito himself too. he suddenly can't remember things like where he is or who the people around him are, and its incredibly frustrating b/c he knows he did have the memories at some point, its just as if they got misplaced... there's random bits of recollections that do come sometimes but as much as he tries to hold onto them they flicker and fade away just as quick as they appeared. left sinking back into a feeling of hopelessness that then becomes pure emptiness, as you can feel how you're losing yourself but there's quite literally nothing you can do

visually the static is used to represent a lot of that "foggy" feeling as things become more and more unclear, and given the robot/android nature it makes sense i guess? it's not really seen here but just as an actual machine might be when breaking down, his visual + audio processors begin to malfunction, causing a literal static overlay on his vision with faces/objects he can't recognize occasionally glitching out as well as constant white noise in his hearing and the sound of people talking to him becoming garbled and unintelligible. as time goes on he also loses his own ability to synthesize speech so aside from becoming withdrawn and quiet out of fear he'll say something that makes no sense, he then literally just becomes incapable of responding at all

again (as you might expect), the other cryptons aren't doing very well as this is happening. rin and len see kaito almost like a father, so watching one of your parental figures slowly march towards death is... not great. rin (as seen here) is still trying to hold on, because she swears kaito has had a few good days where he does recall more, where he seems much more like his old self, and maybe, just maybe if they wait a bit more he'll get better [tbh she's speedrunning the 7 stages of grief but goes between being stuck in some of the earlier stages its... not good]. len's grief on the other hand is manifesting itself in a way more similar to meiko's: he's not as distant as her, but he has already recognized that there's pretty much nothing that can be done and just wants to minimize kaito's suffering. len's just as shattered as rin though, but he's not showing it openly, figuring he has to accept it, as fighting against the grief like his sister won't help anything.

i just mentioned meiko so speaking of her: this is also probably extremely difficult on her, as, yknow, the counterpart v1 to kaito. she's withdrawn herself away from kaito, as she doesn't want to cause him pain in case he happens to recognize her, remember something about their relationship, but not comprehend what it means and just become confused/distressed. at least, that's what she says; it's more or so she can't bear to see him in this state, as he slowly loses more parts of himself, so she isolates herself in hopes the pain will be somewhat less when its all over, for having seen him less and not having false hopes of his recovery. that being said though she has definitely still been around him and tried to keep her composure... from kaito's pov, in moments of recollection, its disheartening seeing your wife close friend suddenly ignoring you, almost like she's mad or sad about something, but you can't remember why. did you forget to do the laundry? is it something unrelated? you want to ask her but she won't tell you; why? did she already and you just forgot? why...

miku's usual cheeriness has also crumbled, as even with rin's attempts, she can't find anything to be optimistic about in this scenario. she just feels this immense guilt, that she should've done something about this; she has influence as the most popular of the entire group, surely she could do something to make it all better. but aside from the arguments and indecisiveness regarding ethics and not wanting to do something without everyone's collective decision, she does know deep down its not her fault. maybe someone like one of the technicians or programmers would be more at fault, but she doesn't want to blindly throw accusations either, because surely they hadn't foreseen this happening either; nobody would intentionally throw in such a cruel fate for someone, it was an unfortunate system glitch that they were working to fix, but even if they did come up with a patch for it, it would be far too late for kaito at that point. she doesn't want to dwell too much on the logistics of it, miku just wants to be there for everyone else, because she knows how deep in despair the others are—she is too—and doesn't want their whole group to fall apart after such a devastating event.

as for luka: i would assume we're kind of actually seeing everything from her perspective, so as an audience lens she'd be more objective about presenting everything as it is without putting too much of her own bias/thoughts into it. but she's not completely unfeeling either. she tries interacting with kaito quite often, despite some of the others warning her about doing that too much. she tries talking to him about random things, not necessarily aiming to get him to remember anything in specific, though if any of his memories do surface in conversation she'll def address them and ask if he recalls anything more (and if not that's alright too). on some occasions she's been accused of being insensitive, but she doesn't want his death to be this huge tragedy, she would want him to be somewhat happy in his last moments. after everything that's happened, he deserves to leave in peace, in her opinion.

i've mentioned death a few times and there's a literal gravestone in the original emoji combo so safe to say, yeah, he dies. unfortunately the damage to his hardware is beyond repair from the critical/fatal errors and glitches, and it's decided that it'd be best to ultimately just deactivate him and delete all his files to not prolong any pain he might've been in for any longer. not exactly sure what would happen afterwards (aside from an obvious aftermath of the grief): if this is before/on the verge of v3 happening, there's the situation i thought about of them receiving a new replacement v3 kaito module, which has its own angst w/ it: its almost like seeing a fucking ghost, but it's not the same one they all remember, nor does it have all those memories. and this v3 kaito himself experiencing conflicted feelings as someone who was brought in to try and give back happiness to this group, only to seem to cause more despair for being so similar to someone long gone that he'll never truly replace. again though i'm not sure if i'd actually have that happen for the sake of everyone involved's sanity but it is something interesting to think about

i've been typing this for like 3 fcking hours now and i have no idea if this makes any goddamn sense lolol uhhh. like all my things it sounds way better in my head than when i actually put it on paper 😭 but congrats if you actually went thru the effort of reading all this. i might do more explanations like this of my things if anyone's interested, like of the other poll options, but we'll see

[hot-take-tournament]

by the way, i've been wondering

if we do go back to the preliminary polls after the mini-bracket

what do we, like, call them...?

i mean, realistically, we should stop calling them preliminaries now, right?

because, at least for the forseeable future, we'll never do the bracket - so calling them preliminaries will just be confusing for anyone who finds this blog in the future and doesn't know the context behind it

so, we should obviously stop calling them preliminaries, and call them something else - that just makes sense

...

but

the take you guys validated wasn't 'we should cancel the bracket', it was 'the bracket should never start'

and according to the rules of the tournament that were laid out from the beginning, if that take is generally considered to be true, it means the actual bracket, the one in the master post, hasn't actually started yet, and also isn't actually cancelled

it's just that we're stuck in an endless hot take time loop of preliminaries and we'll never actually do it, which is different - we haven't officially decided not to do it, it's more like... we'll just never quite get around to it

and after all, i didn't actually decide to do the mini bracket until after i posted the miku vs chicken smoothie matchup, which was unironically randomly selected out of hundreds of possible takes - that's why it doesn't have '#1' in the title, it was intended more as a sneak peek of the actual bracket, and also because it's insanely cursed. i only decided to add the other 6 takes after that one was posted

so the bracket we're doing now is still a preliminary bracket, just one with (mostly) unselected takes - it might be a bracket, but it's not the bracket, which was never technically cancelled

so really, we are still doing preliminaries - it's just that we'll be doing them forever, for a bracket that will forever be just out of reach

like sisyphus endlessly pushing his boulder up the hill, but never quite getting to the top

and despite it clearly being the worst option, honestly the idea of still calling them preliminaries forever but just never reaching the actual intended bracket is weirdly hilarious to me

tl;dr: basically, it's either do the sensible and helpful thing by changing the poll titles so the blog is more accessible to everyone - or choose the infinitely worse and more cursed and confusing option of vehemently following the rules and keep calling them preliminaries forever

because it's got the same cursed energy i've come to expect from this blog

i know the first choice is clearly the better option from pretty much every angle, but the second one is weirdly tempting

so i'll just go with whatever you guys decide

lawful good or chaotic evil

i think i know you guys well enough by now to know which one you'll pick so i'm going to write down my guess and if i get it wrong i'll drink orange joe lol

[opttagoyeo]

Thank you for @chloelapomme (omg) and @dayseternal-blog (double omg) for tagging me with @secrettastemakerland idea of wip game! 

Pick a bunch of your WIPs and summarize them as badly as possible, then ask your followers to vote on which one they'd be most likely to read. Multiple/all/none options are completely optional.

I'm truly sorry because it took me roughly 3 days (I guess??? idk anymore TT) to even think of badly summaries (that will actually not spoil the whole premise of each of my WIPs) 🥲🥲… I don't know if this is bad enough but please understand I'm not really good at summarizing it bad (even summarizing it good is no-no to me)

Okay I actually put genderbend on the last two because those two are actually my two genderbend naruhina I was supposed to post this month but since they weren't actually still flesh out just yet, it might take some time for them to be posted (probably within this year, lol I do hope so).

The last one is actually a WIP of mine that I wrote last year. I actually love the premise I've built with it in my head (lol) but only ¼ of what should be written is written so I doubt if I would actually post this or not lol! To be honest, when I saw this tag game the first thing that came to my mind was hold up, do I even have WIP?!! But then I remembered about my two genderbend nh! They saved me hehe… honestly I just jump back and forth to some unfinished ideas of mine and then somehow will continue it if some inspiration struck me (I'm truly just a beginner in this so I'm super sorry) or maybe not and they'll never see the light outside my notes.

I just realized you can't edit the poll once it was published 😭🥲, so now I can't even edit the poll because I've summarize them a teeny bit longer than necessary that tumblr had the audacity to cut them off :') so I'll put the five of them here to prevent confusion! ^^

1. the sunset is beautiful isn't it? oh wait, are those tears?

2. the heart wants what it wants but maybe not this time

3. naruko just wants to visit the apartment and meet the poodle goddamnit (genderbend)

4. naruko thinks she's hallucinating, or she hit her head so bad with a rock (genderbend)

5. so it's really weird to call you by that name when we look just the same, you know?

I'm really nervous about who I should tag so I'm sorry in advance to the people I will tag (hehe) I hope I'm not coming off as rude TT! I wanna see all of your WIP!!! @happyocelot @powerful-niya @opal-chan @diyas-diaries-98 @wickermayne @sessakag

[shyficwriter]

No context poll

I've done these before, but this is the first time I've done it with the poll option lol

So, with no context, (I know what it's for, and it's probably easy to guess, but I'm not telling anyway lol) choose your fighter lol

I realize a couple of these could potentially be the same outcome, but oh well lol.

[willowthegraycat]

Finkit and Fern

So, here's some news about Finkit and Fern!

I have completed drawing the clan areas, and those are now available to be seen as illustrations for each place listed under 'tri-clan area' on this page: https://finkitandfern.miraheze.org/wiki/Tri-clan_area

Speaking of that page, this is the first time I'm publicly sharing this wiki that I've been working on. It'll be a lot more impressive once actual episodes come out, because then I can add more information to it, but it has a fair amount of background info on it already, as well as drawings of the clan locations and all the characters. It's not finished, since I have more things to add, but it feels complete enough to share. You can get a good idea of what the finished wiki will look like by checking out the Ducky Momo Show section of the wiki, which acts as a mini wiki in of itself.

Of course, any requests for things to add will be done! I haven't gotten a request yet, maybe I'm not asking enough, but I'd really find it fun to get requests for things to add in particular if you want something added so keep that in mind I guess haha

Next up for me in drawing the backgrounds would be to draw the town, Tigrillo Town. The issue here is that I'm not done building it in minecraft, and building an entire town takes a lot longer than building a forest, even with all the extra areas and such. I have a lot of main buildings done, but there's still a lot of empty space, so I'm going to be working on that more passively when I feel like making more buildings, rather than forcing myself to make like 20 houses in one day. I really don't want to get burnt out with this project, so I want to switch up my focus and work on something else now.

So I'm doing another poll! Tell me what you want to see.

I'm making the poll only go for a day this time, but feel free to request things even if you missed it or your choice didn't get picked. I'll rewrite songs and share/design characters on demand happily, provided they exist inside my plans for this au. (most characters and songs do though, and I might make an exception for those that don't if you really want to see something, I can make like an au-au for stuff I left out of this au lol)

Also! I might not be drawing the buildings from Tigrillo town, but instead making labeled floorplans and light sketches of the outsides of the buildings. Once the town is built entirely, I will be making a Town Map, similar to the Tri-Clan Area Map I made.

If I give each building a page on my wiki, I would want to include who lives/works there as well, so that would mean design humans would be my next priority.

Just some thoughts

@cantdanceflynn

[hekateinhell]

OH THANK GOD. Honestly it’s not an easy choice either lmao but I’m confident I’ll be able to pick one ☝️ before the night is over (I have now narrowed my choices down to 3 yay). Thank you once again for your service to the community ♥️ some further thots 💭 about the previous poll (it’s the trauma starting to unravel I fear). Back in my days as a VC newbie, it was pretty much accepted that Marius was the love of Armand’s life, like no one really ever put that into question or tried to dispute the claims and there was no discourse whatsoever about the relationship being side eye worthy like there is now. Slowly but surely things started changing and Daniel became the people’s princess, fair and square, and that’s a narrative that has for the most part prevailed even if now there is more room for (brilliant, life altering) discourse re: his relationship with Lestat, after it was disregarded by a lot of fans for years as nothing more than a rivalry with a good dose of UST, even though their love for each other has been explicit in the books since the very beginning. But I guess it’s one of those plot points people just preferred to ignore (to favor Loustat maybe? Idk idk). And then Armand himself told Lestat he was the one he’d loved the most. But then again Louis is the person Armand’s been with for the longest and is (arguably) his most functional relationship. What I’m trying to say here is that this truly the impossible choice and it’s making me anxious lmaooo why is Armand like this???? Truly the Helen of Troy of VC 😔 still love ya tho xoxo DA

Let me know what you end up choosing for the kink poll omg PLEASE ♥️

LMAO LISTEN... we all have trauma, it's why we're on Armandblr.

(Never forget that your therapist most likely also has a therapist)

Yeah, my first experience in VC fandom was like that too! 2007ish? REMEMBER BURNTRICE ON LIVEJOURNAL 🫣

I was a baby though lol a very young 12, and I read TVA and TVL first which made me decide that Marius and Lestat were the ones for Armand. I didn't truly appreciate Devil's Minion until I was around 16-17 and the subtler themes really stood out to me, but then it was like Daniel wasn't a viable option for Armand anymore?? At least in the fandom sphere. And Louis and Armand as a couple had ended on such a tragic and seemingly final note, so baby me didn't pick up on all the juicy little tidbits Anne sneaked in there throughout VC for them.

I went cold on Marius as I got older, but I was an L/A girlie FROM DAY ONE EVEN IF I WAS THE ONLY ONE I DIDN'T CARE 😭 there's definitely massive Loustat blinders on a lot of the fandom, but I've got Armand blinders so I can't really blame them, can I? And then PL happened and Trinity Gate is a thing!! Daniel's back!!! Blood Communion validated the heck out of my L/A feelings!!!!

Anne gave me crumbs but oh, what delicious crumbs they are! Bless her. 💖

[notmeobsessedw60y-o-rockstars]

Say Hello 2 Heaven is amazing. Such a beautiful song. You could tell how much Andy meant to Chris and the fact he wanted to include his MLB band mates was such a kind and sweet gesture. Chris Cornell was a truly genuine soul.

Have you listened to any Mother Love Bone? It's definitely of its time if you know what I mean. But it's fun music. Not super glam but a little. Some of Andy's lyrics were out there but then he has the beautiful Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns. It can be bittersweet sweet to think about how his death was the reason we have Pearl Jam but that's how life works sometimes.

Ooh fav love show?? That's a hard one. But I gotta go with funnily enough a PinkPop one too!! Pearl Jam played PinkPop in 92 and that concert is amazing. I can't even begin to tally how many times I've rewatched that show.

I've thought about reordering track listings. What an interesting idea though. There are times when I'm listening to PJs No Code when I think they should have put Hail Hail first. It's 2nd but it's definitely an opener you know. It's more heavy than Sometimes, which is a beautiful song but should have been more in the back lol. But No Code is their record that fans have a lot to say about. It has a spoken word track. It was their record that was trying to test their fans I guess. See who would stay and who would go. But it's probably my fav of their albums. It's different and quirky but still them. Sorry that's a lot of words. I feel very deeply for No Code. PJ don't have any bad albums but sometimes I forget a couple of theirs mostly cause I just don't listen to them enough. Does that ever happen to you?

That's so lovely though that you'd want to connect to your roots. I live in a very beautiful scenic spot that most people would give anything to visit or live in. I try not to take that for granted.

You said this is your first year doing Secret Rocker Santa, so are you new to Tumblr? I've not gone through your blog yet but I see that you have a poll blog. I have one too! I just think they're fun. So though I can't actually send you a poll I'll ask you if you could only meet one rock star between the options of Chris Cornell or John Paul Jones, who would you pick? Era of either is up to you.

🧑🏻‍🎄

ive listened to some mlb but not much actually. Honestly I think a band being "of its time" can even improve the experience lol, cause I always seem to be very interested in culture of the years way before I was born.

That doesn't really happen to me, honestly! There are some albums by bands I love that I don't listen to much, like led zepp ii, but none that I really forget about. I guess most of the bands I listen to don't have as expansive of a discography as Pearl Jam lol

To ask an extra question, recently I've been really obsessed w the new abnormal by the strokes, which is kinda not the subgenre of music I usually listen to. Have you experienced anything like that recently? What have you been most into these past weeks?

I'm not entirely new, per se, but definitely not like a veteran or anything 😭 I've been on Tumblr for a bit over a year.

And to answer your either-or question... as much as I love JPJ, theres just no comparison 😭 I'd do so much to meet Chris it's crazy. Him and his music have really changed my perspective and taste on so many things as well as help me process my emotions. For example I love listening to Down on the Upside when I'm angry because it helps me both reflect and silently let out my anger. Do you have any albums or songs you listen to specifically when you feel a certain way?

[itsjustascarecrow]

lol just so i'm not adding more tags onto that least fave horror genre poll, i'm gonna throw some more thoughts under a readmore b/c i have a lot of feelings about it for some reason, lmao

initially i was just gonna point out that zombies also wasn't on the list, unless op was categorizing them under something else?? but considering all the others i noticed weren't present (folk, spacial, and creature feature; also anthology if you wanna count that, but it's more of a format), i figure it was merely a case of like the limitations of that kind of post like only having so many options. i've also seen people make the argument that zombies isn't really a genre, just a type of creature; same w/ like all these vampire and frankstein themed films we've been getting this past year or so. so idk if universal monsters would be it's own subgenre separate from something like a standard creature feature (i.e. jaws, the godzilla films, any sort of man vs. beast type movie), vs. like. idk, do people consider the predator and alien films slashers??? i think that may be the case w/ like the leprechaun and puppetmaster series, for example; it's not a singular masked killer, but it's someone/thing(s) killing people off until we're left w/ a final girl of some description. alien is sci-fi horror, sure, but most slasher series tend to have at least the one obligatory "in space" installment, so i guess?? one can argue alien just does that from the start and never leaves. and setting goes back and forth w/ predator, but that's even more so a slasher-type set up, so. idk, some of these definitely start to get too muddled where it may just come down to personal interpretation (like i was just posting about re-animator earlier today and just thought to myself it's technically a sci-fi zombie movie, lmao). some may have an objective answer, but part of me wants to play devil's advocate and leave it open.

speaking of, devil/possession films were also absent from the list; i tend to steer away from them mostly b/c of the religious aspect. partly it's overplayed, partly i just don't care for it. when evil lurks was a fantastic break from form by removing that element, but it may be just about the only example i can think of that does possession through infection as opposed to some kind of demon. in any case, would've been interesting to see where that would've placed; my guess would be either very high or very low. given that gothic was the lowest, my assumption is that maybe people just like the aesthetic?? esp when taking a tumblr audience into account, lol.

body horror being second surprised me; maybe people just think it's gross? which tbf was why i almost picked that, but then i had two thoughts about it: 1) it's another blind spot for me (and what little i have seen i liked) so didn't feel like a good enough reason, and 2) as someone who's gnc, picking it would've felt like some sort of betrayal, lmao. like i've not undergone any surgeries or hrt, anything like that, but still lol, felt almost hypocritical (and again esp given that this is a tumblr audience being polled). of course the works of cronenberg are prob what first come to mind for most people, which sure, he's not for everyone; i'll even admit that the ulterior motives and themes he tries to tackle kind of go over my head at first, but i think i just need to take more time w/ it. b/c at a base level, when i finally watched videdrome for the first time a couple weeks ago, i was enthralled by the actual body horror elements when i was actually seeing them instead of just imagining it based on reputation. same w/ og hellraiser; that shit is gnarly, so yeah, if you're at all squeamish, you're not gonna have a good time. but if you're desensitized and willing to explore the why of what's going on, it can be fascinating. or, if nothing else just enjoying the incredible practical effects (here's looking at you, the shunting scene from society).

and i was a lil surprised fantasy wasn't higher up b/c it seems like people who do watch them end up hating it, but it's prob something not a lot even know about or have seen. or, my other speculation is perhaps people just think it's too campy, too childish, too goofy, somewhere in that vein like too close to comedy where it can be really hit or miss. again, i'll mention the leprechaun series b/c while that has supernatural/slasher elements, it's specifically a fantastical creature (or a version of one) at the helm. but realistically, it really is most likely a case of people not having enough experience/examples of it to give it a vote as compared to anything else.

another i almost went with was psychological; person i rb'ed from said they're boring which i can understand. the only real argument i have can honestly be said for any of these but like if it's done well, then they're plenty fun and interesting. but given nowadays most examples tend to fall into "elevated horror," it seems divisive. personally, i just take it on a case-by-case situation; some i like, some i don't. again, same can be said for all these genres. as a side note, i wonder if op of the poll considers giallo under this umbrella; i tend to like most giallo films but, i'm also a sucker for a lot of 70s horror when those were more popular. i recently watched berberian sound studio which was a 2014 sort of homage to 70s giallo, and yes it was slow, not particularly scary/not a lot of big scares or very bloody, and ended somewhat abruptly w/o explaining much. but i fucking loved it; can't pinpoint why exactly, and i could see why a lot of the reviews said they were so bored w/ it. thrillers/psych horror is a weird one b/c they can end up being predictable and/or drag on a bit, so idk, maybe i'm just more forgiving. plus i can see why it's more appealing to those who hate slashers, etc., and how that same reason is why others don't like it.

ultimately, i figure no matter how many subgenres you throw in there, slashers will always end up the least fave. personally, i've enjoyed most of the ones i've bothered to watch (b/c there's plenty i've just not cared to bother with), but i understand it's considered schlock to casual and hardcore fans alike, esp the older stuff when it was way more abundant. and i guess one can argue it technically hasn't gotten much better at its core, like technically the kills (the how and who) are more diverse, but it's the overall setup/plot that people feel is just way too overdone at this point. which is fair. it feels like a staple of horror as a whole, even tho it's not where the genre got its start, but it's clearly given way to stuff like the torture porn years of the 20-oughts that really turned people away from horror as a whole. my first instinct is to say i'm not too familiar w/ neo-slashers to make the comparison, but that could just be a term for any slasher made after a certain year, idk. if anything, i think as much as some may complain it's just the same thing over and over again, clearly the formula still works.

basically all of this to say i can see the arguments for and against for each subgenre and now i would love to see a more in-depth poll (or perhaps multiple, more specified polls) reach a wider horror audience.

[pizzapasta23045]

Some commentary now it's over and i can't influence voting.

I was higlhly surpised when, in the beginning, the sword option was winning, to be honest. This is because this is a quote from one of my ocs who goes thorugh a hell of a lot of trauma. As @bluberimufim said over on discord,

Which yeah, that is what i meant by tempering in my mind. It wasn't just like, training. It was a fuck ton of mental trauma. It's also got implications of you yourself becoming the weapon of war/mass discrution others wanted you to be. I guess some people took it as able to defend one's self, which yeah my oc at the end does get her freedom and is no longer fighting for her life, but she has to relearn how to actually be a person lol.

The last two ones are the nightmare ones and the you will be first one, which yeah, those are very ominous lol. The you will be first actually took some revisiting tbh. It started out as "You will be first, you will be remebered, you will not be last." but it wasn't giving dethroned monarch enough so i changed it to the significantly more ominous "you will not be long."

Duty is also low. Which i get. I think @bluberimufim said it well themselves lol. This is also based on an oc of mine and he does not have fun.

Next is the buring one. I do not like that prophecy would not pick it ever lol. Barely get the appeal myself. @satorustan's thoughts were good so i'll add those.

The you wil break many chains was almost winning too and i get it. While it does not bring you yourself joy it is one of the only ones who will almost certainly bring joy to other. Or will it...

I think it'd be fun to explore this prophecy in an evil sense though. Breaking chains sometimes only frees monsters that were chained for a reason... The good way this prophecy does is kinda boring, tbh.

The you will be killed by the one you love won at the lasst minute tbh. Very unexpected considering how little it got picked in the beginning. But again sword was winning. This is the situation that inspired the prophecy.

And ending it off with this banger of a message. Thank you for voting on the poll and listening to my rambles.

CHOOSE YOUR FATE:

(These may or may not be metaphorical but you're not allowed to know. The oracle that told you is known to use colorful words and be intentionally confusing. But it could also be literal.)

[kinetic-elaboration]

April 5: Evaluating WIP Big Bang Choices

Sign-ups for WIP Big Bang have started but I've been too distracted with Troped Madness to really think about it. I'm leaning toward signing up but not pairing with an artist, mostly because I doubt there will be anyone else from T100 doing this, and I just don't want to have to worry about it or feel like anyone is obligated to make anything for me, etc. It's also not really that important to me that I'm paired with an artist for this. I just want, like, some kinda structure for finishing these things. I like signing up for events. I liked watching people brag at the end of the last round. I continue to be of the naive mistake that THIS event or THIS particular structure will fix me. So. I want to sign up for those reasons, but if I don't finish--eh, it won't put anyone else out to drop out.

So I think there's no downside to signing up.

As to with what... I looked through my fics and didn't find that many that fit the requirements, surprisingly: 500+ words written and at least 7,500 to finish. This is probably because I call something a "WIP" even if I only have a few vague notes for it lol.

In my poll-experiment, the Southern Gothic AU won, which is not surprising to me, since it's the one I talk about the most often and have talked about the most recently. Sleeping Beauty came in second, and my other 2 options, Troped Horror 2022and Troped Madness Horror Round, were last. Probably how I would rank them as a reader, myself, especially with how vague I've been about them.

Here are my thoughts on each, and their respective pros/cons.

Southern Gothic: The pros are that I'm very invested in this story, I think it is/could be one of the best thing I've ever written, and I could definitely use a kick to actually finish it. At this point, I've moved from putting off writing to putting off planning to putting off thinking about planning and I always have so many excuses about it. I'm pretty overwhelmed both by the expectations I've set for it and the still-semi-scattered notes etc. on it. Never mind the sheer number of words still left. In particular, I'm scared that I lost my chance to finish this, that it was of a certain time and now it's just... too late.

The con is that I would want to post it closer to Halloween and posting for the Big Bang ends on October 31, with non-extension posting ending in mid-October. I guess if I picked one of the last dates, it would be still decidedly spooky season? Idk if this is a really lame excuse to put this off again.

Sleeping Beauty: The pros are, again, I need the stupid push because I wanted to resurrect and finish this in, like, late 2020 and STILL have not. I did some significant work in May 2021 and then it fizzled again. I don't have that much to write--almost certainly more than 7.5k, but not a lot compared to the total word count and I just... refuse to consider this functionally abandoned fic to be abandoned because that would mean trashing so much work that I haven't even shared with anyone. But again, it's just never more important than other stuff.

The con is that I don't like this fic as much as SGAU and if I had to pick one to see completed, it would be SGAU.

Troped Madness Horror Round: The pros of this is that, even though I do think I have more than 7.5k left, this fic is much shorter and simpler than the first two. It's not even multi-chap. So it feels like maybe a more do-able goal? On the other hand, still a worthwhile one, because I am really overwhelmed by it and what I want it to be so, again, having a structured event to help force me to make it a priority might be helpful.

The con is that I have a better chance of working on/finishing this without the Big Bang so perhaps I should put that effort somewhere else.

Troped Horror 2022: This is, appropriately given the poll, the exact same situation. This fic is easier than Madness Horror in that it's much more... plot-y and less concerned with trying to explore a theme and actually say something meaningful. The main twist/difficulty with it is that I think it is the rare fic where I need to scrap huge chunks, possibly everything, that I have already written and re-plot, re-write. I realized at some point while I was frantically scribbling that it didn't make sense or feel right and I should have made a different choice way earlier. And at that point, I didn't have the time to re-write it for the event so I just put it aside to think on some more.

This one is probably the weakest contender for the Big Bang because the work is really more in the planning and outlining, and I think when I get to writing, it won't be as hard. Writing the first version was easy and fun. It was just WHAT I was writing that I didn't like. I do need a certain amount of set time and energy to get back into this but when I do, I don't know that I'll need an event structure to help me, and I'm also... not in as much of a hurry about it as I am with the other three.