#AS I AM WRITING THIS IT IS CURRENTLY DECEMBER 1ST 2023

[static-scribblez]

“Our senses restored, never to be the same, whisper to us. They existed, they existed. We can be. Be and be better. For they existed.” - Maya Angelou, ‘Where Great Trees Fall’

Bonus:

[uselessmicrowave]

-• Rules + Other Information •-

DNI if: homophobic/transphobic, racist, ableist, a minor, a genuinely problematic person

-• Transformers Masterlist •-

-• 2nd Transformers Masterlist •-

-• The Legend of Zelda Masterlist •-

-• Call of Duty Masterlist •-

-• Kink(tober/cember) 2023 •-

-• Pick-a-Fic Masterlist •-

Pick-a-Fic events will take place on the first to second day of every month except for January, April, September, October and December.

-• Q&A will always be open! •-

All Requests Opened -> June 1st

Oneshots- closed

Headcanons- closed

Nsfw Alphabets- closed

Matchups- closed

Love Letters - closed

Doodles- closed

Call of Duty fandom requests are open- please ignore the space above if you'd like to request that! I will try to write for every character and not just my favorites I swear. (major brain rot wuh oh)

Want an answer? Just ask, this is a judgment free zone. Don’t worry about if your question is stupid.

Interact with me! I love it when followers or mutuals ask me something unrelated about writing or about opinions.

-• Rules for Writing Requests Below •-

Matchup Rules -> send the continuity and faction or fandom you want to be matched up with and some basic information about yourself (hobbies, favorite foods, smarts, bad habits, pet peeves, ect). You'll get some headcanons in return.

Love Letter Rules

Doodle Rules

Absolute No’s -> r^pe/noncon (dubcon is fine), beastiality, ped0philia, incest, crossovers, character x oc, female readers (all readers will use they/them or he/him wether afab or not), pregnancy/breeding (you can ask for it but it’s an iffy subject), religious topics, Q+/minority discrimination

I’ll say this one again: I Do Not Write For Female, Fem or Femme Readers at all. Your request will be deleted if it mentions a female reader. Afab readers are fine, female presenting and/or identifying readers make me uncomfortable to write and read.

Unless I know you personally, I will not be writing neutral readers anymore. Anonymously submitted requests will be male readers whether described as or not.

(The rule above is going to be enforced once I open and get new requests.)

Fandoms I write for -> Transformers (TFP, TFA, RB, RBA, RID15, G1, Cyberverse, MTMTE [Issues #1-#27], ROTB, War for Cybertron, ROTF, All AUs), Undertale (All AUs), BOTW/TOTK, Hasbin Hotel/Helluva Boss, Supernatural, The Dragon Prince, Breaking Bad, JJBA, Inside Job, Nimona, The Barbie Movie, Call of Duty

4 characters maximum per headcanon request.

I’d love to write for -> (TFA) Sentinel, Ratchet, rarepairs, angst, coregasm, degradation, stepping, sounding, (CoD) Soap, König, Ghost, Graves

Please include the fandom/continuity and themes/kinks you want in your request! If it’s just an ask with characters in it it’ll probably be discarded.

I may tend to write the requests that are not anonymous instead of the anonymous requests or doing the requests in order. The best bet to have your request finished first is to not be on anonymous.

-• Info ‘bout Me •-

I am transgender (female to male) and autistic. @gay4ratchet is my other SFW and TFA/RBA themed side blog. I’m fluent in English, I am currently learning German and need lots more practice. I have a lovely girlfriend (EEE @cyberrose2001 LOVE U POOKIE<3) and am quite happy with my cards in life, so to speak.

-• Tags •-

#valveplug -> where the nasties are.

#micro talks -> random thoughts, anons talking or asking questions, rambles or opinions on ideas.

#reblog wednesdays -> art or the occasional fic I reblog on wednesdays (CDT time).

#pick a fic -> where all of the Pick-A-Fic polls and fics are.

#micro matchups -> where all of the matchups are. they’re very personalized to individual people/not meant for every reader.

#love letter -> all of the love letters.

#nsfw alphabet -> all of the nsfw alphabets.

#micro’s kinktober -> where you’ll find all of the kinktober (and the kinkcember extension)event posts and fics.

#micro doodles -> where you'll find all of my art

[brandycranby]

asian reader moodboard series masterlist

While my inbox is always open for general writing and moodboard requests, this series is a special project dear to my heart. I see very little Asian representation in self-insert community spaces and personally, it hurts a lot. But what we make is what we see so here I am.

Currently, I make moodboards for mostly C. Evans characters, Bucky Barnes, and some other S. Stan characters. Feel free to inquire in my inbox. I do not do RPF (real person fiction).

You can be very specific in your reader request (such as Tamil!Reader, Shanghainese!Reader, Khmer!Reader) or more general (EA!Reader, Desi!Reader, SEA!Reader) but please include the aesthetic/vibe/prompt/colors you want as well. You're very welcome to specify that you want a darker model!! (FUCK COLORISM)

Anyone can request and anyone can reblog. In fact, please do or else no one will ever know about these 🥹

*The pictures I use are not mine, all are found on Pinterest*

A Morning in Mumbai - Bucky Barnes x Desi!Reader, for @emyearns (June 9th, 2021)

These Idle Hours - Ransom Drysdale x East Asian!Reader; light academia (December 17th, 2021)

Where the Green Grass Grows - Jake Jensen x Korean!Reader, for @babyjakes; cottagecore (July 3rd, 2023)

Glitter on Your Lips - Robert "Mr. Freezy" Pronge x Desi!Reader, for @astrorogers; 80s disco (September 1st, 2023)

---

m. masterlist

[therulerofallpotatos]

Now that October is over

I have made up a plan for the rest of the year in regards to my writing that is designed to let me chill the fuck out for a little bit.

I have not finished wyler week 2023's day 2. It turned out longer than anticipated, and I had intended to focus on it after the Summer of Smut Kink Bingo 2023. That did not happen. I will try to finish this fic by January 1st, 2024.

I did not finish writing the AI-Less Whumptober 2023 series, Tyler's Bad Year. I still have day 24-31 to write and post. I intend to do this by December 1st 2023.

I currently have approximately 40 thousand words written for I Bit Him So He's Mine. Also known as, my "Wednesday is a hyde" AU. Aka, one of my two Wyler novels that I will begin posting once I have finished them. I will be reading over and editing what I have before continuing onto Act 2 of this fic. I intend to do this by January 1st, 2024.

And, for my original writing separate from fandom, I intend to devote some time to planning out a short story for a writing contest next year. I will have something resembling a plan by January 1st, 2024 for that.

I will not be signing up for any new writing events until New Years. Ya'll aren't allowed to enable me in signing up for anything new. That means no Thanksgiving shit. No christmas bashes. no white elephant exchanges. no new years fics. I am focusing on my wips, and I'm going to finish some of them so help me god. and I'm going to try not to give myself another deadline induced fever again.

This doesn't mean this will be the only thing i work on. It's just going to be the priority.

[fanemag]

FANE MASTER POST

[Status December 1st 2023. Issue 1 now available in digital and print-on-demand formats! www.FANEmag.com | Currently accepting submissions of all kinds for Issue 2.]

{Contributors/contributions per category for next issue: Art (0), Photography (0), Interviews (0), Music Reviews (0), Print (0), Articles (0), Random (0), Letters (0)}

FANE is a digital & print zine with the intent to lift up artists of all kinds and expose them to new audiences. In every issue I hope to feature Musicians, Photographers, Illustrators, Poets, Painters, etc., along with life testimonials from marginalized peoples (are you a gender non conforming POC in the Crust Punk scene? I wanna know what that’s like. Are you transitioning in a rural area and want to share your experience? I want to help you do that. Do you love transgressive writing and like picking it apart? I wanna read those book reviews.). I am actively seeking out creatives in the LGBTQIA+ community who make the kinds of works that don’t get the attention or respect of mainstream queer culture. That said, FANE is all encompassing and we welcome submissions from peoples of all different walks of life (from CisHet to TransQueer, and everything before, in between, and after).

FANE is 100% volunteer. Everyone involved is donating their time and content. The digital version of the zine is available completely free. The print version will full color A4 Print-on-Demand by Lulu.com Any kind of profits made or donations received will go towards building an online presence, securing future hosting/domain related fees, etc.

Examples of what we’re looking for:

Music Reviews, Live Show Reports, Photography, Painting, interviews (both interviewers and those willing to be interviewed), indie film makers, queer activists/artists, anything that defies convention, short stories, poetry, anyone willing to share honestly their struggles with mental health or other health issues, anyone into body modification, anyone with an unconventional body structure comfortable showing their body and discussing it, anyone willing to share terrifying personal experiences they’ve overcome, comedic works as prose or illustration, sex workers willing to share what their lives are like. Anything & anyone who deserves their “15 minutes” currently denied by surface culture. Contributions don’t have to be small, and you don’t have to do any page layout/framing (we can set up the pages from your content/files). ‪Aesthetic: glitchy, dark, dusty, ash, noise, industrial, goth, experimental electronics, metal, punk, esoterica…‬

Examples of what we’re NOT looking for:

Pornography, edgelord shit for the sake of edgelord shit, right wing/conservative bullshit, Racists, animal cruelty, white nationalist propaganda, Nazi sympathizers, homophobes, transphobes, sexists, and other generally shitty human garbage. This doesn’t mean journalistic articles about such things can’t find inclusion, just that I don’t want to print the actual things themselves. ‪For legal reasons, we’re also not accepting fandom art, fan fiction, etc. We respect those of you who create such things, it’s just they’re not a good fit for us.‬

All submissions to FANE must be your original work or works you have the legal right to use. When submitting, you give FANE the right to reproduce your material in perpetuity within the context of magazine print runs, website/blog postings, publishing collected editions of the zine, etc. (we’re not going to sell your works as prints or shirts or mugs or any kind of similar shenanigans). You are NOT giving us exclusive rights to anything, and your works will always be yours to do with as you wish outside of the zine.

No matter what you’re submitting, we ask everyone for a photo of themselves in the portrait orientation. If you are uncomfortable sharing a photo of yourself, we can go with an artistic interpretation or simply a “No Photo Available” generic pic. There’s also a short questionnaire. Any question you don’t want to answer, you can put “No Comment” or something sassy, etc. The Bio bit should only be about a paragraph (2-5 sentences).

Name:

Age:

Pronouns:

Gender:

Location:

Primary Medium:

Other Mediums:

Bio:

Links:

For each visual artist that has contributed so far, I’ve created a Bio page for the issue. I don’t know how that will translate to written works (would make sense for poetry submissions, or long journalistic works, but probably not for short reviews, know what I mean?), but better to have the info/pic and not need it than the other way around.

Please make sure to include a direct link, or links, to your work. You can also send files via email, but keep in mind we’re not touching anything that looks shady (Archives, Executables, etc). Also be sure to tell us what it is we should be looking at, and what your contribution idea is (Example: Photographer who provides links to their photos and states they want to share new works for the zine.)

Questions? Suggestions? Contributions? You can contact me here on tumblr or use FANEmag at gmail. I’m working on other communication methods as well, but I’m an Elder Millennial so please be patient with me :)

Feel free to reblog/spread far & wide.

Here are some visuals from Issue 1 to give you an idea of what the overall “vibe” of the zine is. The full issue can be downloaded for free from FANEmag.com

Asked & Answered:

* Hey! What does the name FANE mean/stand for?

It’s a noun. It means a church or temple. I’m not a religious person, but the most spiritual I feel is when I’m submersed in the arts, hence the name choice. Major world religions aren’t exactly friendly to the LGBTQIA+ community, so the zine, in my head at least, is an alternate experience where people can find community, inspiration, and acceptance.

I’m a self deprecating sarcastic asshat too, so the fact it rhymes with “feign” as in “to feign interest in this boring zine” is absolutely intentional. As is the fact that it’s a four letter “F” word :)

* Who are you?

Hi, my name’s Rob, and I’m an alcoholic (recovering). I’m a married cisgendered gay white male who uses he/him pronouns living on the East Coast USA. I’m medicated for anxiety and depression, and I believe I may have undiagnosed ADHD and/or ASD. I’m an amateur creative that’s been doing the best I can for the last 30 or so years with zero professional training. I’ve put out a good chunk of experimental music, some of which is still available online (“Vermilion Sky” is my best if you go looking). I’ve also collaborated with other musicians, labels, etc. I’m currently working on histological and minimal photography, as well as graphic design and illustration (digital).

[tokidokitokyo]

2023年1月31日

Welcome to my first study log update of the year! The year is still fresh and I'm happy to report that my motivation is still high. I find that making these study logs to track my progress I can maintain my motivation throughout the year, even during times where life and work get really busy and I think I won't have as much time for study. So, let's start this off!

今年の初勉強記録へようこそ！新年はまだ新鮮のに勉強のモチベーションはまだ高くて頑張っています。この勉強記録を作るのは勉強のモチベーションの一つになります。一年中に書くと、モチベーションが下がったり、忙しくなったりするときでもやる気が出ます。それで、今から1月の記録を始めます！

My 2023 Goals Progress

I laid out some broad goals for my Japanese study in my 2023 Japanese Language Goals post. This is my first report on the progress I've made on these goals during the month of January!

1. Read one page a day of 日本の歴史366 (にほんのれきし366) everyday in 2023.

Since it's only a page to read, and the subject is history, I make time to read the page (and look up the vocabulary I don't know ^^) every day.

2. Finish 日本語総まとめ N3 (にほんごそうまとめ N3) workbooks.

The JLPT N3 workbooks I am using are a bit more involved, so I can't do the work daily, but when I do have the time (about once a week or so) I sit down and go through the Vocabulary, Kanji, Grammar, and Listening workbooks all at once.

3. Review and learn the first 6 levels of the 常用漢字 (じょうようかんじ), specifically the 教育漢字 (きょういくかんじ) up to grade 6.

Lately, I have been focusing more on new kanji rather than kanji review of the 常用漢字, but in February I will return my focus to the grade 2 kanji I was reviewing previously.

4. Read at least one book every two months.

I think I might have taken on too much in January, as I have been trying to finish up a book I started in December, then I picked up a new book and a new manga in the beginning of this year. I am going through the new book page-by-page and recording any words or I don't know, which is taking up a lot of time. I doubt I will finish it this month, but once I am done with it I think I will have learned a lot of new vocabulary.

5. Improve my speaking and writing by finding a tutor.

I have put this goal on hold because of work, but when things calm down in April I plan to search for a tutor and make a weekly tutoring schedule. I plan to use italki because it is the most popular platform.

6. Study Japanese for at least 10 minutes a day.

This goal has been a habit of mine since the beginning of 2022, and I am glad to see that I have been keeping up with it so far in 2023. I have a basic tracker set up in Notion, and this inspires me to do something every day so that I have something to record. I've also picked up a heat map tracker from No zero days in 2023 langblr challenge which provides another visual method for tracking my daily study.

These methods help me to be very mindful with my studying, which is what 2023 is all about for me!

January Study Log

Reading - I have started off strong with reading, although I've probably taken on more reading material than I have time for. Books I am currently reading:

コンビニ人間 - finishing from December (22% done)

満月珈琲店の星詠み - started Jan. 1st (15% done)

花野井くんと恋の病 (manga) - started Jan. 1st (30% done)

Vocabulary & Kanji - A lot of my vocab & kanji comes from my reading and making a vocab/kanji list from the 満月珈琲店 book I'm reading, but I also try to do vocabulary & kanji flash cards on a daily basis.

Vocabulary & Kanji flash cards (renshuu.org)

言葉で遊ぼう (Japanese wordle)

Listening - Primarily conversational listening with family and friends, or TV/movies, but with some 総まとめ workbook listening sprinkled in. I'd like to do some focused JLPT listening practice soon!

Grammar - Grammar videos are one of the best ways for me to study since they are about 15 minutes each and I take hand-written notes. This month I finished up the Nihongo no Mori JLPT N3 grammar videos!

日本語の森 N3

Going Forward in February

I would like to build upon the momentum I created this month, and while I'd like to continue with the routine I have right now, I would like to add in a few other things to try to mix things up and keep studying interesting.

Continue with the six primary goals I made at the beginning of 2023

Try focusing on a different skill category each month (January has been focused primarily on Reading - I'd like to focus on Listening in February)

Try out a new app - I've downloaded a few different apps that I would like to try out in some detail

Refocus my kanji study on 常用漢字

I hope your language learning journey in 2023 is everything you want it to be! Best of luck everyone ^.^

皆さん、2023年の勉強を努力しましょうね！とても生産的な一年になりますように ^.^

[themwordcic]

I’m currently writing this listening to the beautiful silky harmony of Lewis Hamilton’s 2013 Mercedes flying around Silverstone. It’s a real pinch me moment but then I remember everything I’ve faced in the past few hours that lead to this moment.

I waited tentatively for 2 months for the announcement that tickets to the 2023 Silverstone Festival were live. And December 1st during my very hated Game Design class my prayers were answered. The tickets were live! Did I know how I’d get to the event? No of course not. Did I know where I would possibly stay during the three days of thrill? Absolutely not! Did that matter? Have you met me?! All I needed to hear was Silverstone and Formula One! When I was planning this amazing trip I didn’t think of the little things that would cause that all too familiar gut wrenching anxiety. I didn’t think that since I was doing this by myself that I would have to walk through those gates, deal with security and other fans of motorsport all over the place. I just didn’t think, instead I was totally blindsided by the fact it was Silverstone!

In the past 72 hours (3 days) I’ve been challenged. Oh how I’ve been challenged! I’m talking almost crying in the company van repeating “I don’t think I want to go anymore” like a holy prayer. I mean after all it was my money, if I wanted to waste it because of the growing feeling of fear why the hell would it matter.

The list seemed small at first, but like a video game there were levels. Each time I thought I’d fought the big boss villain another entered in arena.

1. Dealing with the security at the entrance (with a little support on day 1)

2. Collecting my program (from a stall surrounded by strangers who seemed to know exactly what they were doing!)

3. Dealing with maps (I may have passed geography but map reading is not one of my skills)

4. Talking to strangers about the world of F1 based books (in fact my collection has grown by 11 in just 2 days)

5. Finally finding and collecting my radio on day 2 (after writing it off as a waste of £15 because I was too shy to ask)

6. Asking a family of strangers to look after my stuff for a few minutes (took over half an hour to hype myself up to ask)

7. Having to talk/maintain eye contact whilst ordering food or a much needed cider

8. Attending a concert and actually dancing and singing along without a care (because come on it’s The Sugababes)

9. Dealing with the stampede of people trying to exit at the end of the night. Very overwhelming not to mention it’s in the dark with only soft fairy lights to guide your way…. I’m clumsy enough in the day time!

10. Joining and waiting in a queue for the Ferris Wheel (Can now confirmed I am 100% scared of heights but the pretty race cars in the distance did help distract a little)

This list of ten doesn’t seem like a lot, but from an Autistic individual doing it solo I need to see it as a time of growth. A time of proving to myself I can do it!

So I’ll leave you with this… The anxiety is temporary, the memories are forever!

[aeori-o]

Happy New Year! 1/3 (Tumblr why)

My oldest posts that I did for New Year’s just started with that very simple title and I’m feeling nostalgic. But I also like the ‘Farewell’ of 2021 so I guess we’ll see what I stick with as time goes on. (Also dang, would you look at that, fucking COVID is still around.)

Part 2 || Part 3

It’s funny, the more time goes on the more I actually want (as in: I remember and am then driven) to get stuff done ahead of time. All through school (which was forever ago) I really struggled with doing any task that wasn’t immediate. Homework didn’t exist until the night before (and the only reason I didn’t forget entirely was because I talked to people who would ask if I was done and I’d go Oh Shit), any basic task anyone asked me to do I would forget existed because it couldn’t be done immediately (and I also chaffed under tasks being sprung on me out of nowhere that had to be done immediately). Now I get the urge to do things ahead of time, with the same focus and drive that usually only showed up when something was ‘due’. The former is still a problem for a lot of things but somehow my brain has decided that sometimes we can and will remember to do a task ahead of time and get it done.

Which is to say I am currently writing this from December 26, 2023 and whenever I get tired of writing it today I’ll pick up tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after, until I post it. I just decided: Fuck it, instead of binge-writing this right at the end of the year we’re basically at the end of the year and I just want to chill the fuck out. I just had a mad dash to write something for my sister I don’t want to mad-dash write again. I think I wrote last year’s write-up a few days before but this time I want to be so deliberately chill. I just want to gently coast up to the new year. Which is good because I did a stupid amount of things this year and this has been the longest year-wrap-up I’ve ever done. Is anyone actually going to read this to the end? Maybe but these are mostly for me. I always like scrolling back through these and this year is a doozy. Who gave me the gumption to do so much stuff. And despite all that I just said It is January 1st and I am mad-dashing writing the second half of this and editing it.

Without further ado let’s get into it.

I dropped my goal to 25 books because I was in the last week of the year at 26 out of 30 books read like “yeah I can read 4 books in a week” and then I was like “yeah but… fuck it let’s not.” Why barrel towards the end of the year, panic reading books to reach some arbitrary number I set for myself. That’s not really how I want to read and experience books so… I won’t. I read 26 books this year and 17 graphic novels for a total of 43. Which is only 4 lower than my total from last year so despite reading a lot less that’s not bad at all.

I kept it the same as the previous year: Read for 30m a day, catch up days allowed. At this point what I usually wind up doing is reading a lot on one day and counting it toward multiple days. Same amount of time reading, but doing it in chunks. If I read for 6 hours on one day I highlight 12 days (30 minutes a day) on the calendar. That might sound confusing but my main focus is having spent the time reading and doing a task every single day just does not work with my brain.

I do it this way because the time-spent is the same but filling out a calendar like this is way more satisfying than just highlighting one day that I spent a lot of time reading on. Anyway as you can see my summer was largely spent not reading. A huge chunk of my summer my brain was taken up by wrapping my sister’s car (more on that later), from May to August I basically read almost nothing. It’s hard to remember to highlight in the calendar for other tasks I do (especially when it’s a task where I don’t know exactly how much of my time it will be taking up) but I do think it would be fun to be able to have a highlight calendar (or time track in some other way) to be able to see what I was doing when something didn’t happen on another calendar. I don’t have a super feasible way to set that up, though (as fun as it would be) so I don’t think I’ll be doing that.

Anyway, as always, I love the goodreads yearly recap:

Once again my average rating is “high” not because every book I read this year ruled but because I now use stars as a “would recommend”, “would probably recommend”, “my feelings are so Nothing I neither recommend nor not recommend”, “mostly don’t recommend”, and “do not read this” instead of the recommended level of how much I liked it. This means not a lot of books wind up below 3 stars anymore. I am also increasingly perplexed when I look at reviews for a book, see someone said nothing but good things about a book… and rated it three stars. It’s like dang, what does three stars mean to you.

I was shocked to see how few people had shelved The Game of 100 Candles though. I don’t know if people are scared away from it because that series is technically part of a table top role-playing game universe but the books absolutely stand up as their own thing. I’ll talk about it more in a bit, and then probably again when the final book comes out. But here’s the wall of books I read this year:

When I was thinking about what I read this year I could only really think of the books I had read recently and was like “man I don’t think I really read anything super good this year” but I did have some fun, cozy reads in there. So as has become custom I’m going to talk about some. Just so I don’t keep going forever I’m going to do a ‘top five’ kind of thing and then some honorable mentions.

As mentioned I was utterly shocked that Marie Brennan’s The Game of 100 Candles was shelved so few times and looking back at the first book, The Night Parade of 100 Demons, it’s only been rated 132 times (which is still 100 times more than the second book). This series isn’t done yet but it’s such a delightful and heartwarming read. It’s basically this quiet samurai from a smaller clan who has a lot of secrets he has to keep a lid on for the best of his clan and himself who has to figure out what’s going on with the demons/yokai in this village on the edge of their territory. Meanwhile another, bigger and more wealthy, clan has sent one of their much more extroverted scholars to the same village to also see what’s going on. They both have things to hide from each other but wind up falling for each other. It’s a really fun fantasy romp with a very sweet gay relationship that grows out of it.

Then the second book has them re-meeting and understanding the consequences of something they did in the first book so it also has some chronic illness (even if it’s magical and not 1:1 with anything in real life) representation. I’ve found both books very good so far and if anyone reading this is inclined to pick up anything I recommend I really hope it’s these. They’re so good.

So I really, really did not like Uprooted by the same author, Naomi Novik. A friend read this though and liked it overall and my sister-in-law happened to give me her copy (she didn’t like it) so I figured I may as well give it a shot and I was so pleasantly surprised. The way the faeries (which aren’t called faeries but whatever) work in this world is so cool, the magic is so cool, I really loved how the author managed to ride that thin line between everything feeling cohesive and like it ‘makes sense’ while relying on not overly explaining anything which means she had to rely on things ‘intuitively’ making sense which can be very hit or miss. It really hit for me and it was always fun getting to a point in the book where it felt like the plot was winding down only for it to get back up again. I was so delighted by this one I wanted to include it here.

Similarly I wanted to include this duology, The Assassin’s Curse Series by Cassandra Rose Clarke. I’m not sure I recommend them. The narrative voice is a little strong (I think it gets better in the second book but I also might have become desensitized to it) and overall the plot and characters aren’t anything to write home about. It did really scratch an itch I didn’t know I had for the most ridiculous ‘refusing to communicate’ relationship dynamic ever. I had a great time but I mostly wanted to mark these here on my New Year’s post because I read these a decade ago around the same time in the year and they’re a fun marker of how far I’ve come and how much the way I track books has come. I only had a rating for these from 2013, and now I have a long document of notes. I don’t know if I actually will reread these in another decade, but if I do it will be fun to compare how I feel then to how I feel now, and I wish I could have done the same to my 2013 self.

Going forward, though, I do want to re-read something I read a decade ago at least once a year. I think it will be fun especially once I start butting up against the books that do have notes written on them. I had a really good time with these and I want to continue circling back to what I’ve read before.

Hold Me Tight by Dr. Sue Johnson is a great read even if you’re not doing the exercises inside it. It’s a self-help book which I tend to roll my eyes at (maybe that’s unfair of me) but Dr. Johnson uses examples from her own practice and backs up claims and theories with scientific studies. It’s a really solid and insightful read, it took me a long time to get through because with nonfiction I tend to be much more thorough in my notes and I was reading this at the same time as other books but it was a phenomenal read. Even though it’s catered to romantic-relationships I honestly think it applies and shows insights that are applicable to any close relationship (romantic or platonic). I really enjoyed reading it.

I don’t see asexual characters often so Loveless by Alice Oseman really touched me. It’s funny, the first time I encountered ace representation in a book I really didn’t like it. I was, unfairly, annoyed that the author hadn’t captured my experience. And oh boy do I see a lot of that in the reviews of this book online, non-ace people upset that the asexual lead “shames” sexual people (she just doesn’t get it, which is not the same as shaming someone). Asexual people are upset that this isn’t their experience and remember fellow readers there are other ways of being asexual even though this book pretends there’s only one! (The book is told from one POV, of course it only reflects one experience.) There were things I really related to in this one, and other things I didn’t but overall it was a great read and I am very glad that there is so much more representation to be found in books these days.

So my actual honourable mentions are: Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree which was just a very charming, fun romp. I enjoyed my time with it and look forward to reading the second book. The Deep by Rivers Solomon which was insightful, depressing, and hopeful. It’s very short so if you look up the content warnings and think you can handle it I would absolutely recommend it. And Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata which is a very wild book that is maybe making an argument for fair wages for all or maybe ‘just’ a story about a neurodivergent queen, I don’t know.

The final two books in the Market of Monsters series by Rebecca Schaefer are on there because I mentioned the first book in my write-up for last year and while I overall had a really good time with the series (I find there’s always something almost relaxing about a book/series where the protagonists are terrible people) the ending left something to be desired. I’m not crazy about characters just going ‘yeah, we’re evil and we like it that way’ especially when the rest of the series was the character’s doing “evil” things because the other option was having evil done unto them. Oh well.

And Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett is peeking in because as far as I can tell people love this book (it came out this year and has been popular) but it really didn’t work for me. I’m spoiled because Marie Brennan’s Lady Trent series does what this is trying to do but succeeds, I just could not buy into the fiction that this is this woman’s journal from out in the field. I would enjoy myself when I forgot it was supposed to be a journal and then get annoyed every time I was reminded. I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more if it hadn’t bothered with the “this is a journal” conceit (or if it had done that well) but what can you do. It is a fun book, I get why people like it, but it was driving me wild (in a bad way).

And before I move onto graphic novels here’s some fun stuff from storygraph:

Onto graphic novels.

Ducks by Kate Beaton was the standout one here. Really incredible auto-biographical comic. My Wandering Warrior Existence by Kabi Nagata and The Girl that can’t get a Girlfriend by Mieri Hiranishi which were both really interesting auto-biographical comics that both revolved around sexuality and identity. Kabi Nagata’s comics, in general, can be very stressful to read but they’re so good. And the rest were fun! I was recommended the Given series made by Natasuki Kizu by a friend and it was charming, it’s not done and I haven’t checked in a while if more is out in English but, while charming, it hasn’t really captured me. Harley Quinn: The Animated Series: The Eat. Bang! Kill. Tour by Tee Franklin (and art and colour by Max Sarin and Marissa Louise respectively) was a really delightful little romp—and I have not watched Harley Quinn: The Animated Series. The art is just so freaking cute and while I have basically no knowledge or investment in the DC universe it was really nice seeing Ivy and Harley together. Horizon Zero Dawn: The Sunhawk by Anne Toole (and Ann Maulina doing the art) was mostly just amusing, I think it came out before Horizon Forbidden West did but I happened to read it right in the middle of Talanah’s quest in that game so I read the comic and then got to hear Talanah tell me about it in the game when I played it two days later. And finally The Adventure Zone: The Eleventh Hour was fun and, like always, just made me want to go and relisten to the podcast.

I’m making my goal 30 books again, and if some unforeseen project takes up the majority of my brain space I have no problem with dropping it to whatever it winds up being at the end of the year. And my filled in boxes will count for 30 minutes a day again. I’ve been setting the goodreads goal for the graphic novels to 5 just because chances are I’ll probably read at least five but it’s also not a hard goal.

Last year I mentioned wanting to read one book I own in my tbr pile for every library book I took out and looking at the books (not graphic novels) 15 out of the 26 were ones I owned (or were in my book pile being loaned to me by others) so that’s not bad! (The graphic novels I am also less pressed on this front—I have a small stack of them waiting to be read but 12 graphic novels take a lot less time for me to read than 12 novels.) I am pleased to have 15 fewer books in my tbr pile! Granted, two of those were books I had read a long time ago so they were previously on my not-tbr shelves but… well whatever.

I’m probably going to be watching a few more films after writing this as part of the lead up to New Years (I did, I have changed the numbers to reflect that) but, once again, the amount of movies/shows/etc. I’ve watched has again worked out to be in the 40s. I have watched 46 things this year, which is the exact same amount as last year. I am finding it really interesting that it always seems to work out to being in the 40s. I am extra tickled it’s the exact same amount as last year. Film I don’t really feel any desire nor make any effort to meet any sort of quota each year, I just sort’ve watch what I want to watch (or what I get roped into watching) and for the past four years it seems to work out to low-40s every single time. I am so, so curious to see if this is some sort of bizarre fluke or if this will continue into the future.

Just like with books, because a year is such a long length of time, without tracking what I watched this year it’s easy to sit here at the end of the year thinking I didn’t really see much. But then I look at my list of things I watched and go “holy shit I watched so many good things this year.” The power of tracking things, it’s incredible. As for new films/films-I-watched-for-the-first-time…

There’s some films from this year that I contemplated including on the graphic just to have them easy to spot as a reference point in time—like the Barbie movie and The Last of Us—because they were such big hits and while there’s more I really liked this year I didn’t want to make the image preposterously huge (says guy who wrote this before writing later sections in which they made preposterously huge images). And I also didn’t want to cram everything on in the weirdest way possible like I did last year (why did I do that).

Steph actually had me watch Knives Out and Glass Onion on New Year’s Day (which I don’t remember but that’s what I wrote down) and I really enjoyed both! I had been avoiding them because they just didn’t seem like my kind of thing but I was very glad to have been proven wrong.

I feel like I’ve been mostly out of the anime/manga world for a long time so I was surprised to see how much I had watched this year. Most of it I watched with friends and all of it was a good time even when the shows sucked. Chainsaw Man also surprised me, both because it is (so far) a very good show (I will cry if there is some kind of horrible training arc), and because Steph recommended it after not being sure if they would even finish the first season. I am very glad they did because this show is wicked cool. And then Trigun Stampede was so good that I started re-watching the 1998 show, and then all the friends I watched Stampede with wanted to watch the 1998 show so I stopped, and then nobody watched the 1998 show. Trigun Stampede was overall a delight even if I am mildly perplexed at the 1998 show had way more female characters than the new show does (but also Vash isn’t putting on a weird lecherous front and is just Baby so, it works out).

I waffled on whether or not to included Dungeons & Dragons: Honor among Thieves because it’s not like it was life changing or anything but I had a really good time watching it, and I had a really good time talking about it. It’s just a really fun film that didn’t feel like it was bogged down by trying to be anything else.

The Green Knight I had wanted to see since it came out and finally got around to it this year, twice, because the first time I watched it with someone who will usually fight me on putting on subtitles so I just had no idea what 90% of the words spoken meant the first time I watched it. Despite understanding almost nobody I really enjoyed every other aspect of the film and it was surprisingly watchable. Gorgeous film, great acting, great soundtrack, all over a fantastic time. The second time I watched it was with subtitles on and it still ruled.

It’s been such a long time since I read Nimona. I read it in its entirety when it was still online for free so I don’t know how long ago that was. After watching the film I wondered about going back to re-read it online and found that (I assume since being traditionally published) it’s no longer available. I’m glad for the author but also sad that we live in a capitalist hellscape that can’t let things be free. I have yet to re-read the comic and still plan to but the movie is gorgeous. I am so, so glad that more 3D movies are breaking away from the default style Disney had established when moving to 3D that everyone seemed afraid to stray too far from. I am genuinely so thankful we’re getting 3D movies with style now. Not to go on a tangent but I saw some video (or maybe it was a post?) recently where someone was going on about how the different art styles movies are being made in is now ‘less special’ because everyone is doing it and I don’t understand how someone could think more diverse styles could ever be a bad thing. People don’t do it to be ‘special’ people do it because they see beauty in different ways. Anyway. Nimona made me cry three times. I absolutely recommend it.

And of course, Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse. I went into this not knowing it was a two parter and I think that’s my only real upset with this movie. I was getting so nervous toward the end when I realized the runtime was almost up and there were so many loose ends to tie up, and then I realized it must be a two-parter. I was relieved to be right but also wish I went in knowing so I wouldn’t have to have the HOW ON EARTH ARE THEY GOING TO PULL THIS OFF stress. Otherwise this movie is more gorgeous than the original and I’m really liking where the story is going. I’ve been meaning to re-watch it and haven’t gotten around to it (I could not understand Hobbie on the first viewing) but this movie made me realize that physical media is getting harder to get. All the big stores have basically eradicated their movie/show sections and replaced all of that with one little ‘recent releases’ stand. Older things can still be ordered online but I am very nervous about all our media being in the hands of streaming companies and harder to own.

There were some other things I saw this year like, as mentioned, Barbie and The Last of Us that I also really enjoyed. Steph had me watched Midnight Mass which was sad but good. Vin and I watched the Lockwood & Co adaptation which was surprisingly good (and, of course, cancelled because why market something when you can just decide it failed). I’ve been watching a show called The Afterparty which I’m really enjoying.

I also re-watched a lot of things this year, many with friends.

I found out Vin hadn’t seen Moulin Rouge so I had to fix that. I don’t remember when the last time I watched this movie was but it’s so much fun and it looks like everyone had a good time acting in it. We had actually watched Van Helsing first (which ruled, for some reason in my memory this movie sucked but it was awesome and they do some astonishingly good looking stuff considering its age) and I can’t quite remember how Moulin Rouge came up (I am certain it was RP related, though) but when I realized the Duke in Moulin Rouge was the same actor as Count Dracula in Van Helsing that sealed the deal. I need to watch more of that man’s work, he’s a delight onscreen. I was also just totally shocked that it was Hugh Jackman as Van Helsing. I’m terrible with actors but when one I know is in something like this it’s always surprising to me.

Steph played the original Silent Hill game for all of us (which was also very fun) and we decided to watch the first Silent Hill movie afterwards as well. This was another one I hadn’t watched in years, I probably hadn’t watched it since I was a teen, and by default I seem to assume anything I saw a long time ago probably sucks. Once again I was proven wrong, the film’s not perfect but overall it’s a great watch. The costuming is incredible (especially for the monsters) which I did remember, but also:

Wow she looks awesome. Everyone was hooting and hollering when her helmet came off. (Shame about the jacket, though, and being a cop). And then Steph found us every lesbian amv they could with Cybil and Rose. It ruled.

We watched Darker than Black because, again, Vin had never seen it. I’ve rewatched this show a few times over the years and this is the first time I’ve watched further than Season 1. I didn’t enjoy Season 2 when I originally watched this show and never finished it, and still didn’t like Season 2 this time but the OVA for Season 2 was mysteriously really good. Izanagi’s design was awesome, though, even if nothing else was. The first season was also still really good, really cool, and I always forget about the weird this-must-have-been-inspired-by-Evangelion bit at the end. I will absolutely be watching the first season again at some point in the future, and maybe season 2’s OVA but not the rest. I’m not strong enough.

And I had the pleasure of showing my step-sister Howl’s Moving Castle. She had seen The Boy and the Heron and was interested in watching more Ghibli films and knew I liked them, so I decided to start with the one that everyone I’ve talked to lately says is their favourite Ghibli film (or one of their favourites if they can’t choose). It’s been a while since I last watched Howl and it was great to see it again. Steph and I also watched some more Ghibli films for New Year’s Eve and Princess Mononoke still rules and The Cat Returns remains as charming as ever.

I also rewatched Kill Bill this year which I enjoyed this time around a lot more than I did the last time I watched. Part of me is like: I should also write down my movie/show thoughts. The other part of me is like: Let’s not make homework for ourselves for everything we do. With stuff like this though it’s like man why did it hit so different. I rewatched some other stuff, too, of course but nothing I have much to say about.

I started 32 games this year and finished 32 (and 100%’d 4 of those). Spoilers: A huge chunk of that total number are Humongous Entertainment (HE) games that I played as a child. Let��s get into it.

I don’t know what happened last year with Nintendo’s thing but they are back to giving more info, unfortunately I barely touched my Switch this year.

By which I mean I played it a lot, but only two games. I think I almost exclusively played Splatfests this year after finishing the single player campaign and Pokemon Scarlet I have been picking at so slowly that I am still not done it (DLC just came out but I am still in the middle of the preceding DLC).

I’m assuming I missed the July splatfest, and I also missed the November one though I swear I chose a team so I don’t know what happened there. I guess I just got immediately distracted somehow. You may be wondering where Tears of the Kingdom is because everyone with a Switch played it this year. After hunting down a collector’s copy of Tears of the Kingdom, because I missed the pre-order for it somehow, instead of playing it I, for no real reason, decided I was going to play every single other Zelda instead and end it off with TotK.

So my 3DS and my N64 got more of a workout than my Switch did this year. For my Zelda-replay I mostly want to go in order but I wanted to start with the N64 titles first as those were my childhood Zeldas. Majora’s Mask is my favourite in the franchise, it’s the first Zelda I ever beat, and Ocarina of Time I never beat before starting this project. As a kid my friend’s brother would play on my OoT cartridge (his save file is still on it and I will never get rid of it) and then I’d just go mess around in his file. I was pretty familiar with the young-Link dungeons but almost all of the adult temples were a mystery to me. I got the 3DS version of the game at some point with the intention of finally playing OoT myself… and then still didn’t until this year. So I have now played: Majora’s Mask 3DS, Majora’s Mask N64, Ocarina of Time 3DS, Ocarina of Time: Master Quest 3DS, and before watching Ghibli films Steph and I finished off Ocarina of Time N64.

Images that make you feel nostalgic (I took this when trying to do the archery courses in Majora’s Mask because aiming is very hard when you only have one stick to do it on).

I don’t think I’m going to be playing every version available for the other entries in the Zelda series but as these ones have a special place in my heart and life I thought I’d do them justice that way. I’ve gone from knowing very little about Ocarina of Time to knowing where everything is in the game almost as well as I know Majora. I still think Majora is the stronger game overall and playing it like this it’s really clear to see how Majora, as a direct sequel, was improved on after Ocarina but it definitely has some totally mystifying problems that Ocarina didn’t have. (That said: The 3DS version ruins all the bosses in the game, they’re terrible, the N64 version is much better in how it feels to play. If you are going to play Majora’s Mask I recommend following a walkthrough, I adore this game but it definitely helps that at this point I know it so well that I almost never have to just wait around for things to happen because I can cram other things in if I have to wait for something.)

I don’t know how much time I spent playing the N64 Zeldas, but the 3DS does track that stuff and I played Majora’s Mask 3DS for 29 hours (sometimes a co-worker would play so I’m not sure how much of that time was her messing around) and Ocarina of Time 3D was almost 60 hours (so I’m assuming 30 hours for regular and 30 hours for Master Quest). I’m really looking forward to playing the rest of the Zeldas! My plan right now is to (finally) finish up some other games and play BotW as I play the oldest Zelda games just because it seems like TotK builds off BotW so I’m worried if I do those two in order I’ll wind up burnt out on TotK. I might not, but I also don’t want to risk it. Here’s my graphic for games I wanted to finish this year from last year:

Of the games I said I wanted to finish last year I was right in being so confident about Fahrenheit and Haunting Ground. As games that I was playing for friends it was a lot easier to be on top of them and beat them. Fahrenheit I even 100%’d because I have a weird obsession with 100%ing David Cage games (it was still a terrible game but was very fun to play with friends). Haunting Ground was a delight from start to finish, I know people want a remake but I’m not sure it’s the kind of game that would get made today.

.hack//G.U. I’m not too fussed on not finishing, it’s a long game and I was trying to show it to Vin so I’m not surprised it got lost in the shuffle. Pokemon Scarlet I’m also not fussed on having not finished because its DLC just came out—I beat all the base game stuff but haven’t done the DLC yet (well, I’m partway through the first DLC). That one I’ll finish this year, for sure. .hack//G.U. I’m not sure when I’ll return to it.

Horizon Forbidden West and Pokemon Legends Arceus I’m not sure how they kept slipping behind but I really want to beat those, preferably soon. I’m very good at getting busy with things, though, and then I feel too guilty to play games outside of times when I’m not doing it as a social activity with friends. I need to figure that out. Anyway for this upcoming year the ongoing games I have that I want to beat are:

I didn’t realize until I was reviewing this image that I accidentally went red-blue, blue-red, red-blue and I’m kind of laughing at how that turned out. I realize Folklore is more pink-y and Hades is really dark but the back and forth of red and blue games is amusing to me.

Three of these are the ones that slipped through the cracks this year that I already mentioned. Folklore I’m playing for friends right now (I’m having a good time but also what is even going on) so I’m pretty confident I’ll have that beat sooner than later. Hades I’ve been meaning to get back to forever, I mentioned it in my New Year’s post last year but maybe if I make it as a thing I can check-off next year I’ll actually get to it (or maybe not, who knows). And Tears of the Kingdom is here because that (should) be the last Zelda I play in my weird sudden desire for a Zelda marathon so by getting to and beating that one it means I’ve played all the rest.

Before I go over to steam I wanted to start chronicling the seasons of Fortnite I play through. I count each season as a game-played, and even though the experience is mostly social I still sink as many hours into a season of Fortnite as I would any single other game, so I wanted to start posting the season pictures as a memory-thing. Here they are:

And the most recent season is ongoing and won’t be done until sometime in 2024 (so I’ll post it on next year’s). I find it’s a fun social game to play, easy to hop on and off of, and while there’s a story the game is so gameplay focused that it really doesn’t matter if you do not pay attention to whatever anyone is yammering on about. I was shocked to discover there’s a community of people really into the Fortnite story. Good for them, I’m here to drive cars around the map excessively and be the quest-Adderall for my friends.

A friend had me try Destiny 2 earlier this year but I found the game weirdly ‘hostile.’ The gameplay itself is great, it feels really good to play, but the game does nothing to try and draw new players into the story in a way that feels good. We played for a while, I got up to rank 5 or something? Level 5? There was some weird progression thing and we got through all the basic-stuff and it was really trying to drive us into Lightfall-stuff (I think it was Lightfall that just released at the time) but the story was just incomprehensible. People are telling us to go places and do things and that some-guy is doing something and so on and so forth and it just felt weird. It didn’t help that I was having some bizarre computer issues at the time. I don’t know if I want to play more of it, honestly. I still have it on my computer and keep it updated just in case but I’m starting to wonder if I should free up that 100GB (jesus). Right now I really don’t need to, but I think about it.

The other social game I really got into this year was Plate Up!

I was introduced to it by a streamer, TheScareLab on Twitch, and it is so much fun. It’s a great game for me if I have a few minutes and don’t really want to get into something I can fire it up and work away at trying to make a fully automated restaurant (rng hates me) but it’s also very fun to play with others. Mostly it’s just me and my partner who play but sometimes other folks join in. The screencap is from their Halloween event I was delighting in being able to make hamburgers float in midair. There’s another holiday event on right now, actually, but I’ve been too busy with irl holiday stuff to check it out.

I love the steam recaps, both mine and looking at all my friends’ but I’ll just post mine here--OOPS Tumblr only lets you do 30 images per post and I'm unhinged, I'm unstoppable. To be continued in part two! I'll link it once it's up! Tumblr Why.

Next >>

[voyageofthenautilus]

hello! is there a calendar of some kind showing which days we can expect entries?

Mod Blue: Hello anon! I have written one out and will share it below!

I personally like the updates to surprise me (even though I'm the one who scheduled them all), so in case anyone else feels that way, I'm hiding this below a cut. But here's the calendar for anyone who wants to count down the days to when they'll receive a message from the Nautilus again!

Voyage of the Nautilus Timeline

2022

November 1st: Chapter One, “A Runaway Reef,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

November 2nd: Chapter Two, “The Pros and Cons,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

November 3rd: Chapter Three, “As Master Wishes,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

November 4th: Chapter Four, “Ned Land,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

November 5th: Chapter Five, “At Random,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST. Chapter Six, “At Full Steam,” scheduled to post at 5 PM EST.

November 6th: Chapter Seven, “A Whale of Unknown Species,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST. Chapter Eight, “Mobilis In Mobili,” scheduled to post at 5 PM EST.

November 7th: Chapter Nine, “The Tantrums of Ned Land,” scheduled to post at 8 AM EST. Chapter Ten, “The Man of the Waters,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST. Chapter Eleven, “The Nautilus,” scheduled to post at 5 PM EST. 

November 8th: Chapter Twelve, “Everything Through Electricity,” scheduled to post at 8 AM EST. Chapter Thirteen, “Some Figures,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST. Chapter Fourteen, “The Black Current,” scheduled to post at 5 PM EST.

November 9th: The first part of Chapter Fifteen, “An Invitation in Writing,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

November 10th: The second part of Chapter Fifteen, “An Invitation in Writing,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST. 

November 11th: The third part of Chapter Fifteen, “An Invitation in Writing,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

November 16th: The fourth part of Chapter Fifteen, “An Invitation in Writing,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

November 17th: Chapter Sixteen, “Strolling the Plains,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST. Chapter Seventeen, “An Underwater Forest,” scheduled to post at 5 PM EST.

November 18th: The first part of Chapter Eighteen, “Four Thousand Leagues Under the Pacific,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

November 27th: The second part of Chapter Eighteen, “Four Thousand Leagues Under the Pacific,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

December 9th: The third part of Chapter Eighteen, “Four Thousand Leagues Under the Pacific,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

December 11th: The fourth part of Chapter Eighteen, “Four Thousand Leagues Under the Pacific,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

December 12th: The first part of Chapter Nineteen, “Vanikoro,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

December 15th: The second part of Chapter Nineteen, “Vanikoro,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

December 25th: The third part of Chapter Nineteen, “Vanikoro,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

December 27th: The fourth part of Chapter Nineteen, “Vanikoro,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

2023

January 1st: The first part of Chapter 20, “The Torres Strait,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

January 2nd: The second part of Chapter 20, “The Torres Strait,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST. 

January 4th: The third part of Chapter 20, “The Torres Strait,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

January 5th: The fourth part of Chapter 20, “The Torres Strait,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST. The first part of Chapter 21, “Some Days Ashore,” scheduled to post at 5 PM EST.

January 6th: The second part of Chapter 21, “Some Days Ashore,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST. 

January 7th: The first part of Chapter 22, “The Lightning Bolts of Captain Nemo,” scheduled to post at 5 PM EST.

January 8th: The second part of Chapter 22, “The Lightning Bolts of Captain Nemo,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

January 9th: The third part of Chapter 22, “The Lightning Bolts of Captain Nemo,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

January 10th: The first part of Chapter 23, “Aegri Somnia,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST. 

January 11th: The second part of Chapter 23, “Aegri Somnia,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

January 13th: The third part of Chapter 23, “Aegri Somnia, scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

January 14th: The fourth part of Chapter 23, “Aegri Somnia,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST. 

January 15th: The fifth part of Chapter 23, “Aegri Somnia,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

January 16th: The sixth part of Chapter 23, “Aegri Somnia,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

January 18th: The seventh part of Chapter 23, “Aegri Somnia,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

January 19th: The first part of Chapter 24, “The Coral Realm,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

January 20th: The second part of Chapter 24, “The Coral Realm,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

January 21st: The first part of Chapter 1 (of the second half of the story), “The Indian Ocean,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

January 24th: The second part of Chapter 1, “The Indian Ocean,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

January 25th: The third part of Chapter 1, “The Indian Ocean,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

January 26th: The fourth part of Chapter 1, “The Indian Ocean,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

January 27th: The fifth part of Chapter 1, “The Indian Ocean,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

January 28th: Chapter 2, “A New Proposition From Captain Nemo,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

January 29th: Chapter 3, “A Pearl Worth Ten Million,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

January 30th: The first part of Chapter 4, “The Red Sea,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

February 3rd: The second part of Chapter 4, “The Red Sea,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

February 6th: The third part of Chapter 4, “The Red Sea,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

February 7th: The fourth part of Chapter 4, “The Red Sea,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

February 8th: The fifth part of Chapter 4, “The Red Sea,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

February 9th: The sixth part of Chapter 4, “The Red Sea,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST. The first part of Chapter 5, “Arabian Tunnel,” scheduled to post at 5 PM EST.

February 10th: The second part of Chapter 5, “Arabian Tunnel,” scheduled to post at 5 PM EST.

February 11th: The third part of Chapter 5, “Arabian Tunnel,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

February 12th: The first part of Chapter 6, “The Greek Islands,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

February 14th: The second part of Chapter 6, “The Greek Islands,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

February 16th: The first part of Chapter 7, “The Mediterranean in Forty-Eight Hours,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

February 17th: The second part of Chapter 7, “The Mediterranean in Forty-Eight Hours,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST. 

February 18th: Chapter 8, “The Bay of Vigo,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

February 19th: Chapter 9, “A Lost Continent,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

February 20th: The first part of Chapter 10, “The Underwater Coalfields,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

February 21st: The second part of Chapter 10, “The Underwater Coalfields,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

February 22nd: The first part of Chapter 11, “The Sargasso Sea,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

March 13th: The second part of Chapter 11, “The Sargasso Sea,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

March 14th: Chapter 12, “Sperm Whales and Baleen Whales,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST. The first part of Chapter 13, “The Ice Bank,” scheduled to post at 5 PM EST.

March 15th: The second part of Chapter 13, “The Ice Bank,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

March 16th: The third part of Chapter 13, “The Ice Bank,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

March 18th: The fourth part of Chapter 13, “The Ice Bank,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

March 19th: The first part of Chapter 14, “The South Pole,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

March 20th: The second part of Chapter 14, “The South Pole,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

March 21st: The third part of Chapter 14, “The South Pole,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

March 22nd: The first part of Chapter 15, “Accident or Incident?,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

March 23rd: The second part of Chapter 15, “Accident or Incident?,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST. 

March 25th: The first part of Chapter 16, “Shortage of Air,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

March 26th: The second part of Chapter 16, “Shortage of Air,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST. 

March 27th: The third part of Chapter 16, “Shortage of Air,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

March 28th: The fourth part of Chapter 16, “Shortage of Air,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST. The first part of Chapter 17, “From Cape Horn to the Amazon,” scheduled to post at 5 PM EST.

March 31st: The second part of Chapter 17, “From Cape Horn to the Amazon,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST. 

April 1st: The third part of Chapter 17, “From Cape Horn to the Amazon,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

April 3rd: The fourth part of Chapter 17, “From Cape Horn to the Amazon,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

April 9th: The fifth part of Chapter 17, “From Cape Horn to the Amazon,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

April 11th: The sixth part of Chapter 17, “From Cape Horn to the Amazon,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

April 12th: The seventh part of Chapter 17, “From Cape Horn to the Amazon,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

April 16th: The first part of Chapter 18, “The Devilfish,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

April 20th: The second part of Chapter 18, “The Devilfish,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

May 1st: The first part of Chapter 19, “The Gulf Stream,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

May 8th: The second part of Chapter 19, “The Gulf Stream,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

May 13th: The third part of Chapter 19, “The Gulf Stream,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

May 15th: The first part of Chapter 20, “In Latitude 47° 24’ and Longitude 17° 28’,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

May 17th: The second part of Chapter 20, “In Latitude 47° 24’ and Longitude 17° 28’,�� scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

May 25th: The third part of Chapter 20, “In Latitude 47° 24’ and Longitude 17° 28’,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

May 28th: The fourth part of Chapter 20, “In Latitude 47° 24’ and Longitude 17° 28’,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

May 31st: The fifth part of Chapter 20, “In Latitude 47° 24’ and Longitude 17° 28’,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

June 1st: The sixth part of Chapter 20, “In Latitude 47° 24’ and Longitude 17° 28’,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.  The first part of Chapter 21, “A Mass Execution,” scheduled to post at 5 PM EST.

June 2nd: The second part of Chapter 21, “A Mass Execution,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST. The first part of Chapter 22, “The Last Words of Captain Nemo,” scheduled to post at 5 PM EST.

June 3rd: The second part of Chapter 22, “The Last Words of Captain Nemo,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

June 4th: Chapter 23, “Conclusion,” scheduled to post at 11 AM EST.

[id-rather-be-an-outsider]

2023 Blog Schedule

Heyyy bestiesss, Emile here, how are you guys? I hope your 2023 has started off better than mine — I’m currently recovering from COVID after testing positive on January 1st :/ It’s been an awful experience so far, please get vaccinated and get your boosters! I’ve had mine, and had most of my boosters but put off getting the most recent one, and now I’m suffering for it. I don’t want any of you having to experience what I am!

Moving on from that, I’ve decided that from here on out I’m going to have a yearly schedule for this blog! I want to post more content without putting tons of pressure on myself, so this year, I’m going to be focused on twelve major projects, one for each month! Keep in mind that I will also be posting some flash fiction for Dead by Daylight at the same time — that’s because I’m in a writing club for it and it’s only 200 words a week, which is pretty low stakes for me, and some of these projects will be centered on the long-term projects going on in that club (signified by an asterisk). Anywho, I want to get into the current list, with their summaries:

January — Jean Kierstein x Pregnant!Reader

posted on 31 Jan 2023 — Cashmere and Cradles

February — Margaret Yamaoka (DBD OC)*

posted on 27 Feb 2023 — My Name is Margaret

March — Porco Galliard x Reader (College AU)

who knew that the aftereffects of a night of drinking would turn out to be so much more than just a hangover?

April — DBD Killers*

ya’ll remember HISHE’s superhero cafe and villain pub? yea, well… here’s my take on it

May — Fezco x Elle (Euphoria OC)

Elle, a girl from way out of town, visits her college friend McKay’s hometown for a weekend.

June — Adiris x Carmina Mora*

happy pride, from two beautiful, cursed, tall ladies in the fog to you!

July — Aaron Davis x Reader (already in progress)

when young and educated y/n’s given the opportunity of a lifetime, she plans accordingly. her life is finally starting to be perfect, until suddenly, it’s not anymore. her friendly neighborhood bachelor, Aaron Davis, helps her pick up the pieces, as she unknowingly makes him see that there’s more to life than being a villain.

August — TBD*

this bi-monthly community challenge has yet to be set.

September — Twee (Bella Sara)

Twee is often treated differently by other horses in North of North, and eventually the foal strikes out on their own.

October — Jester!Ji-Woon Hak x Princess!Reader*

Ji-Woon mysteriously appears in y/n’s kingdom as the new court jester, but he’s come for more than just laughs.

November — Ekko x Anemone (Arcane OC)

A child twice-orphaned fighting to bring power to the people, and a child without her mother, being used as a pawn in her remaining family’s struggle for power. This is the story of what happens when flowers manage to bloom in unexpected places.

December — TBD*

this bi-monthly community challenge has yet to be set.

If any of these projects interest you, please let me know which and I’ll place you on a taglist for them when I post them! I’m intending to limit myself to just these, but if I feel inspired I’ll probably pump out some other works, especially during Spring cleaning since I have so many babies sitting in the drafts, haha. Oh! Also, some of these are multi-chapters, like the Aaron Davis x Reader, Ekko x Anemone and Jester!Ji-Woon x Princess!Reader :) Happy browsing and happy new year!

[bardicbeany]

Happy New Year’s everyone! 🎆

As the last day of 2022 winds down for me, I thought I’d talk about all the new ttrpgs I played this year, as well as what stuff I’d like to play in 2023!

The TTRPGs I tried for the 1st time in 2022:

🎲 FATE Core and FATE Accelerated. FATE is a system that’s been on my to-try list for years and I’m so happy I finally got to play it! There’s lots of things I greatly enjoyed about playing FATE, but there was also something that just... didn’t quite click for my group? Still had lots of fun though.

🎲 Clever Girl.  Clever Girl is a Jurassic Park themed ttrpg that can be played solo or with two players, and you play as a human employee of the park or as a raptor that’s escaped. The game I’ve been playing is a two-player co-op version where we’re both raptors. Still gotta finish that play through at some point... and when I do I plan to write a post about it on here!

🎲 TOKEN. I talked in more detail about playing this game in this post here! As previously mentioned, I really enjoyed it and want to play it again some time!

🎲 Definitely Wizards.  I actually played this charming little comedy game about not being a wizard yesterday! The whole group had a bunch of laughs while playing this game! I’ll go more in depth on it in a future post.

TTRPG Things I want to try in 2023:

(This doesn’t list everything I’d like to try in 2023, but it covers my biggest wants!)

🎲 Play more GMless 2-player/duet games! I loved TOKEN and am enjoying Clever Girl. I’m hungry for more duet games!

🎲 Do a full play through of at least one solo ttrpg! I’ve got a handful of solo games I’ve been itching to play and empty journals to write them in. Some of the solo rpgs I’m currently eyeing are Thousand Year Old Vampire, Lost in the Deep, The Sealed Library, and La Bête.

🎲 Play a winter holiday themed game! So far I’ve been unable to play a winter holiday themed game during December. (To be fair, everyone is usually very busy during the holidays.) Maybe it can happen next year? I have a couple options in mind, namely Hometown Holiday and Kissmas Spirit.

🎲 Play Bloodheist! This vampire heist game is something I got during a past ZineQuest. Maybe I’ll be lucky enough to have a go at this game sometime during October next year?

🎲 Play Blades in the Dark (and more Forged in the Dark games in general). FitD has become one of my fav systems in recent years and I want more!! I also just really want to play a game in the BitD setting.

[alexvonstar247]

this just how i actually, seriously be feeling lately.

like i'm literally about to be 30 years old and i can say for a solid fact that i never have and most likely never will be in love with someone that's equally in love with me. which doesn't make sense in my honest opinion bc wtf is so bad about me? what is SO negative about me that it overides my good qualities?

the only thing will EVER consider bad at all about myself is the fact that i'm so peaceful and lovely and nice to everyone, when definitely over half of the population i've encountered simply DOES NOT desrve it.....

i'm working full time now, well i have been since probably march of this year.... i started working at my current job as an activities aide at a retirement/assisted living/nursing home around the 1st of december, 2023 and it's already the last week of 2024's august.

i not only work on my feet at LEAST seven of my eight hour shifts, but this job takes a lot of patience and resilience and loving sympathy and empathy, and i also have the loving responsibility of my beloved husky's wellbeing, and my soul literally thrives when i GET to play guitar and sing, and i really enjoy going to the gym because (despite what my mom says,) i can't get the same exercises in at home, and being in nature is legitimately therapeutic for my soul, and i'm too greedy for money to tell the men whom i clean house for that they need to find a new house keeper, AND!!! I HAVE A SERIOUS TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY!!!!!! AND I AM FUCKING TIRED...

see, i agreed to checking in on 2 cute little kitties for a man while cleaning his house today (for cash payment of course), and cleaning for his neighbor up the mountain tomorrow. AND I WORKED Tuesday through saturday this week, and i had jury duty on monday, and i did a lot earlier shift all week because my coworker needed a vacation from work........

it seriously never ends.

wtf is the point of anything?

all i'm noticing that life is about-is making money and driving cars and paying for everything and then dying.

i really wish i could make the difference that i know a lot of people would love to see....

i started writing this around 11pm on august 24th, 2024. i've been tired all day and eager to go to bed, but i've been even more eager to write lately. i know that this is my personal form of therapy, and i know that i've needed it.

i'm not even going to read and edit~i really need to sleep.

mrow.

[unfliteredone]

I think I want to make a 5 year plan or something like that. Maybe if I set real goals for myself I can make things happen. You think? Let’s give it a shot at least.

I’m only just writing this now. This is the first time I have ever written a real plan for myself. If we are being honest and blunt I really thought I would kill self by now. Yeah when I made it past high school it was a shock to me but now college. Yeah I’m a little impressed with myself. I suffer from a lot for trauma and mental illness. I have a lot of shit that goes on in my head and In my life and well shit was a mess. Throughout that all I succeeded. Now here I am. Standing at the doorway to the rest of my life and I am 100% about to go with it.

With my little sister about to enter high school in the fall I see her distancing herself from us to find herself. I think she will be busy and family time will be hard to come by. I am going to love this because the guilt will not be there to stay home or have to be around. Yes we will definitely still schedule time to be around each other and I think we’ll have a good time when that comes but I want to use these next 4/5 years to put in place something for myself. So here we go.

I feel like with this being a draft. I also also hate putting shit in stone I’m going to let myself come back and edit my plan as time goes on. Im hoping that Quarantine won’t go past the fall at least and will let me like stay on track with a plan of some sort.

Today’s Date is April 25 2020 11:25 pm when I write this.

Date of 1st Edit:

-

By December 2020 I want to have taken the GRE exam and hopefully done well enough. I’ll probably end up taking a second one in January 2021 just to make myself feel better.

One year From now (April 2021) I want to say I have. Traveled by myself at least once. Traveled with my friends at least once. Gotten another tattoo or 2. (covid pandemic permitting).

By June of 2021 I want to be done apply to my Grad school program(s) (so far I have one picked out but I’m going to look to apply to one may two others)

Current Grad school program(s)

- Master’s in Childhood education and Early Childhood education @ Queens college for no childhood education degree holders

(that’s me I have a bachelors in criminal justice. Yeah featuring that degree was a big mistake I’ll tell you and a huge waste of time).

By Fall of 2021 I want to be in my masters Program. I would also like to have paid off my credit card By this point. I would like to have bought myself a new laptop and an iPad with all it’s accessories. (Yes I think these will be very important for school)

By December 2021 I want to have a 3.5 GPA in school. I want to be working a relaxed full time job that allows me to go out on the weekends to see my friends. (I’m asking for a lot I know).

By June 2022 (I’m picking very odd months at this point). I want to have gained my motorcycle license and possibly a motorcycle. I want to also travel to Texas by myself by this point.

September 2022 I want to be entering my second year of grad school. (If I don’t do a dual program this would be my last year, the dual program adds just one extra semester) (don’t let that stop you from doing that!)

At this point I want to start looking for either my own place or a place to move if my family has not already moved by this point.

January 2023 I want to spend out of state. Possibly with friends but definitely not in New York.

April 2023 (Three years from today.) I want to have grown my beard. Been going to the gym semi constantly at this point. Saved at least 10,000 dollars. Paid off my car loan. Be more financially responsible.

August of 2023 I want to spend this entire month at the beach in some way. Just a thought.

September 2023 I would be entering the last semester in my dual program I think. (my 26th birthday ) I want to spend this birthday out of state somehow with friends.

December 2023 Graduate with my Master’s degree. Start planning to pay off student debt and grind hard to get a teaching job.

January 2024 take the next possible exam to get my teaching license or apply for my license (however it works)

April 2024 (4 years from now) look for apartments or places to put down payments to live forever possibly. Possibly look into buying secon car if the money is there.

Sept 2024 (Turning 27) get my 1st teaching job! I don’t care how I have to do it I want to be teaching by this point. I want to have a classroom or somethinf to call my own and be a full on teacher.

January 2025 I want to spend my 1st Christmas break as a teacher enjoying everything I have so far in life. I also want to be playing piano still and drums. I want to have invest money in drawing tablets or programs and cameras to take pictures. I want to make a little money on my artwork on the side if I can. It would also be nice to be in a relationship by this point in my life just saying.

April 2025 (Five years from now) I want to be in a good spot financially to have hopefully moved out by myself or something or that nature. I want to have traveled a lot and have gotten plenty of tattoos. I want to be going out and seeing my friends often enough. Overall I want to be happy.

So there it is my five year plan thus far. It is a work in progress it won’t be finished until April 2025. I have a long way to go. Hopefully I’m still doing this in five years.

[tokidokitokyo]

2023年2月28日

February was busier than January (how can it possibly be busier? ^^), but having habits in place makes it easier to study Japanese daily. I tried focusing on Reading skills in January and Listening skills in February, and I enjoyed having a specific area to focus on, so I think I will continue to focus on a specific skill area each month.

なんか2月は1月よりもっと忙しかったのに、毎日日本語を勉強する習慣があるのはとても役に立つですね。1月は読解に集中して、そして2月は聴解に目的して、これからも月々一つのスキルに力を込めるつもりです。

My 2023 Goals Progress

I laid out some broad goals for my Japanese study in my 2023 Japanese Language Goals post, so here I will update my progress towards these goals.

1. Read one page a day of 日本の歴史366 (にほんのれきし366) everyday in 2023.

Going very well! I have been keeping up (I fell behind once and it took a while to catch back up after only 2 days) and I take notes on vocabulary I don't know.

2. Finish 日本語総まとめ N3 (にほんごそうまとめ N3) workbooks.

I haven't had as much time to go through the Sou-matome N3 workbooks as I would like, but I hope that once work calms down in mid-March I can make more progress on them.

3. Review and learn the first 6 levels of the 常用漢字 (じょうようかんじ), specifically the 教育漢字 (きょういくかんじ) up to grade 6.

I haven't been tackling the Joyo Kanji as much as I had hoped, and instead I have been working with kanji from my readings, so I will again try to bring this goal to the forefront for my March studies.

4. Read at least one book every two months.

I definitely took on too many books in January, and in February I still struggled to get through them. I haven't finished any of the books I wanted to, but I also haven't picked up any new books. One of the books I have been going through and recording the vocabulary I don't know page-by-page, so that is taking up a lot of time. I hope to finish it by April, and perhaps take some time to read manga (and not vocabulary-mine) in between.

5. Improve my speaking and writing by finding a tutor.

This goal is still on hold until April due to work. I am trying to write in the meantime though, and then I hope to search for a tutor on italki and make a weekly tutoring schedule.

6. Study Japanese for at least 10 minutes a day.

Going strong! Having a 10 minute goal often leads to a jumping-off point where I spend more time than I had intended on studying Japanese. This isn't a bad thing, but I find that I am more often actively studying Japanese in place of watching shows or consuming other media, and sometimes I need to remind myself to take a break ^.^

February Study Log

Compared with January, my study time with each skill area hasn't varied too greatly. That being said, I spent relatively less time with vocabulary and kanji, and more time with reading, grammar, writing, and speaking.

Vocabulary & Kanji - I am still going strong with vocabulary and kanji, thanks to flashcards and vocabulary mining from reading.

Vocabulary & Kanji flash cards (renshuu.org)

言葉で遊ぼう (Japanese wordle)

Reading - I have started off strong with reading, although I've probably taken on more reading material than I have time for. Books I am currently reading:

コンビニ人間 - started in December 2022 (22% done - currently on pause)

満月珈琲店の星詠み - started Jan. 1st (23% done)

花野井くんと恋の病 (manga) - started Jan. 1st (30% done - currently on pause)

Listening - I focused on listening to podcasts in February, especially during my commute. I have done JLPT-focused listening practice a couple of times this month and will try to do one JLPT listening practice a week going forward.

Going Forward in March

Study 常用漢字 more frequently and purposefully

Focus on my Writing in March by writing one sentence every day (and getting them corrected at the end of the week)

Try out a new app - I've downloaded a few different apps that I would like to try out in some detail

Read 満月珈琲店の星詠み to the halfway point

I feel like this year is already flying by, so I am trying to be very mindful and conscientious of what I am studying. I am trying to keep my goals manageable for the time I have available and the things that I want to accomplish. Working towards what you want to accomplish is important, but don't forget to take time to do something fun and take a break every once in a while!

光陰矢のごとし。もう2月が終わって、やりたいこともたくさんあります。今年ちゃんとした目的を作ったり、その目的の為に勉強に集中しています。しかし、頑張っている最中に休んだり楽しんだりするのも忘れないでください！