#Do I have a bunch of old ideas saved up in my drafts?

[rainyrambles-overcod]

Posted something like this on the last blog but,,

maybe a reader who works as an analyst or some kind of intelligence/surveillance for the cia under one Kate Laswell, who gets assigned to the 141 to go and work under her once more.

Whom, HOWEVER, despite being a bit of a computer geek/one smart individual,

is very much not afraid to absolutely fuck a bitch up you do work for Laswell for a reason, y’know-

We need more feral/fuck a bitch up readers out there, y’all ✊😪

[maxwell-grant]

Me, yesterday: Yeah you know, I like M.Bison but I'm really not a fan of him coming back, he's had his time already, he undermines a lot of current characters and storylines by coming back, we really don't need him again, it was always inevitable but I don't know man maybe oh my GOD is that the RAUL JULIA HORSE? 10/10 100/10 bring him back forever

Okay but more seriously: As one of the dead last characters I wanted to come back, the trailer had me totally flip on that stance. I mean yes it helps I'm a mark for the guy, it helps SF6 is infuriatingly good at character presentation even for characters I don't care for, but I actually think they found a very neat way to reintroduce Bison to the series this time around basically by doing to him what they did with Seth: Destroying and rebuilding him as a shell of his former self, with a whole new design, and thus a new personality and angle to approach him from, and in no position to be the Final Boss from the get-go (since it's not like they have much of a story to insert him in). But where as with Seth they leaned into the tragedy of it, Bison is now a ticking time bomb, a looming disaster waiting to happen, which fits him looking like a Horseman of Death.

It was pretty blatant even back in V that Bison was always going to come back, with Phantom Bison existing and Rose's prophecy and characters hallucinating him left and right and all the Shadaloo plot points in 6 spelling it outright. His iconic status aside, his return was telegraphed since forever, so I'm glad that they did it in a way that doesn't actually bring him back all the way to his usual self. Even putting him at the start of a new DLC Year, rather than building a big endgame show out of him like they did with Akuma, also goes a long way towards undercutting the idea that he's coming back to be the Final Boss again.

I'm really impressed with his new design because it is the perfected version of an idea they've been kicking around ever since the drafts for SFIV, that was Bison coming back all battered and torn and fucked-up. Much like older/bearded Ryu, it's an idea they saved into alternate costumes but now are finally willing to go through with as the direction for the character moving onwards. "From riches to rags" is the idea described, and they achieved it by flipping around the kind of old-school overlord he represents. Instead of General Washizaki/Yasunori Kato, he is now Raoh/Violence Jack, the ruler of the wastelands, galloping mightily onwards. (And given Ryu is based on Kenshiro, the biggest villain of this world being Raoh feels like a decision that was waiting to happen)

They've made it so they get to have it both ways: You can have M.Bison in the game looking like his old self with the classic costume, and he's here playable doing all the good Bison stuff and a bunch of new sick shit for you to love, but in the story/lore, he couldn't be further away from being like his old self, and now there is a big mystery box on what is gonna be his deal moving forward. Bison is so well-established to the playerbase that every little thing they do differently can mean something, not just in the design but also in smaller details like his light-blue flames that potentially indicate Soul Power (and that he uses to tame himself in his victory animation), or even the fact that he has visible pupils now.

I think a large part of the pushback against Bison has to do with him being so big in V's storyline and A Shadow Falls dissappointing, and the fear that they'll do it again now that he's back, but there isn't really a storyline for him. The World Tour story is set, the DLC characters add extra stuff to it but are mostly self-contained, I don't think Bison is set to bring another boring world domination plot with him this time around. It's unclear if he even wants it. I could be very wrong here, because I don't want another Bison Doomsday Plot either, I don't want another A Shadow Falls, but my interest is piqued because of how far he seems to be from doing that.

He doesn't know who or what he is, he is a homeless wanderer in Metro City, he is having a hard time keeping his power under control, and Shadaloo is currently warring between factions that want to bring him back and factions trying to ensure he stays dead, nevermind the fact that most if not all of the characters have moved past him (and Ryu still has the power to destroy him, and if Ryu isn't that much fessed up anymore about Akuma, he's definitely not gonna be that concerned about Bison), and the first thing he did when he came back was revive a horse from the dead.

I'm not gonna say this Bison is poised to turn a new leaf, but they did say he is "searching for an identity to make him smile".

Maybe the real world domination was the horses we befriended along the way.

[andradrawsstuff]

Second chapter of my fic ✨

I’ve had this saved in my drafts for a few days and forgot to post it lmao

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 2: San Francisco

The screeching of train wheels echoed as they arrived at the Embarcadero and Stockton station that stood before pier 39. The scorching sun was already beaming through the windows of the train, creating a sauna for the animals inside. Kowalski carefully drove the train forward and pushed a bunch of colourful buttons, which he clearly installed at some point. The train’s wheels switched to tires one by one. Evidently, this was an upgrade that the penguins installed fairly recently, as this certainly wasn’t there before. Miraculously, the train could now be driven on regular roads.

“How close are we to our destination?” Asked Skipper

“Only a few minutes.” Replied Kowalski, who was once again pushing those colourful buttons.

A polite knock was heard at the door. It was Mason, holding what appeared to be an old discontinued Nokia Brick. It was 2008, after all. Phil tagged along behind him, presumably to translate the messages Mason was about to present.

“The park rangers have notified us.” Announced Mason. “We have the go, Great Meadow Park is ours for the week.”

“Great news, thanks Mason.” Greeted Skipper.

Phil shot him a disapproving look

“Uh, and you, Phil.” Skipper added nervously.

The now car-train hybrid cruised through traffic and finally came to a halt on the short cut grass of the park. The circus folk gathered their equipment and wasted no time, rushing to pitch their mile-high tent.

“Yay!” Cheered young Private. “We’re here!”

Rico trudged back to the boys with a pathetic-looking Julien attached to his leg, crying about his dance time being cut short.

“Relax, Ringtail.” Skipper reassured. “We’re here. Once the tent is set up, you can party all you want.”

“Ugh… fine.” He muttered. “You’re all boring.”

The king let go and hopped out of the train to greet his beloved Sonya. The penguins stood and watched for a few moments, analysing their strange relationship. Kowalski awkwardly broke the silence to eagerly debate the plan for his new invention.

“So…” He uttered. “About my new… idea, so to speak…”

“Spit it out Kowalski.” Boomed Skipper, starting to get impatient.

He stuttered. “Well… we may need more than just the-“ He sighs. “…elemental core…” He really disliked having to simplify scientific terms.

“Well, what else do you need?” Asked Skipper. “The entire state of Kentucky? Ooo, how about Ohio! Heard its real nice this time of year.” He mocked. The grumpy penguin seemed to regain some of his charm back, and sarcasm appeared to be the first step.

Kowalski wasn’t impressed. “No,” He stated. “But you do have a point… we could use some helping hands…”

“Where would we even find that?” Skipper asked. “Everyone’s busy setting up their beloved circus, no one has time!” He pointed out.

“Aha!” Kowalski exclaimed. He was climbing onto his high horse. “There is an aquarium down on Pier 39. I’d like to assume that they’d be willing to lend a helping hand, with the right payment…”

Kowalski appeared to have a suspiciously good idea of his plan and the general area, which piqued Skipper’s interest. He squinted as he studied his brother’s increasingly anxious face.

“Kowalski…” He interrogated. “Is this… core-thingy also in San Fransisco?” He shot him an “I figured you out” gaze.

“Well, ha-ha…” He nervously replied, his entire plan being dug out simultaneously. “Will you look at that, it IS!”

Skipper raised a brow. “Really?” His tone changed to a sarcastic one. “Have you been tracking it? Did you perhaps… plan this entire trip around that? Hm?”

“…Maybe…” Kowalski muttered.

Skipper noticed Kowalski’s shame, realising he shouldn’t have lashed out. “I’m not mad at your plan, Kowalski.” He sighed. “I’m annoyed because you hid it from us! Why? Did you think I’d say no?” He remarked.

Before Kowalski could say anything, the train shook as the animals tried to migrate all their equipment.

“Oh, for Pete’s sake!” Skipper facepalmed. “Alright, where is this thing?”

Kowalski answered almost too eagerly. “Funnily enough, it’s at the aquarium!” Skipper crossed his flippers and Kowalski cleared his throat, scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment.

Skipper shouted for Private and Rico, as they already trailed off during their argument, whilst Kowalski revealed a small kids car that he had started to fix up. Its bright pink paint adorned with yellow flower decals stood out against the dark brown background of the inside of the train. It had no number plate yet, since they were still looking for one. It was no Ferrari, by all means, but it got the job done for now. The group gathered round and Skipper briefed them before they set off on the mission. Now, all they needed to do was get there in one piece.

[riddles-n-games]

Chasing Ghosts

Pairing: N/A Summary: Rewrite of Ch. 21 in The Hawthorne Legacy featuring Avery and Oren. Length: Short Story Type: Rewrite

A/N: Hi guys! Here's an old draft of mine from my rewrite era that I finally decided to finish although I can assure you that it's not the only one I have left. There's a bunch to come and please comment or message me if you want to be put on a tag list for my future fics.

My head of security laid it out for me. "Tobias Hawthorne the Second. You think he's alive."

“I know he is.”

Oren was silent for a long moment. “Have I told you how I came to be in Mr. Hawthorne’s employ?”

I had no idea where that question had come from. “No.”

“I was career military, ages eighteen to thirty-two. I would have stayed in until I hit twenty years, but there was an incident.” The way Oren said the word incident sent ice down my spine. “Everyone in my unit was killed except me. By the time Mr. Hawthorne found me a year later, I was in bad shape.”

I couldn’t picture Oren out of control. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because,” Oren said, “I need you to understand that I owe Mr. Hawthorne my life. He gave me a purpose. He dragged me back into the light. And the last thing he asked of me was that I stay on to head your security team.” Oren let that sink in.  “Whatever I have to do to keep you safe,” he continued, his voice low, “I will do it.”

“Do you think there’s a threat?” I asked him. “A real one? Are you worried about whoever left that heart?”

“I’m worried,” Oren replied, “about what you and the boys are doing. About the ghosts you’re digging up."

I scoffed at that and shook my head. “Speak of the ironies, Oren. Haven’t you concluded yet that the so-called “ghosts” we’re digging up are because of your former boss? Why do you think me and the brothers have been going at this for three weeks? Because Tobias requested it. You know what Xander’s clue was after the first game? Find Tobias Hawthorne the Second. Why would he want his own grandson who would be put in a perilous position to find his uncle if he didn’t want him to dig up said ghosts?”

He gave me a long hard look but stayed quiet. I continued, “You say that he saved your life and for that you owe him. So tell me why the same man just asked another to risk theirs?” I was scared for Xander. If Oren was right about one thing, this mission was a dangerous one. We were digging up the past and when that was a billionaire’s past, only God knew what that would bring up from the depths. Blackmail, shady dealings, dark web connections, the list went on. I shivered at the thought.

Oren sighed. “Mr. Hawthorne had a… particular way of doing things. They weren’t always savory. That extends to the way he raised them. The boys, as good as they are, never really learned not getting their way, at least in the case of his games.” 

I considered that. The brothers weren’t all bad and for all the assumptions I may have had about rich boys, they were the best bunch to be around. However, the amount of family drama they had clearly influenced certain behaviors and attitudes. “This is why I’m concerned for your safety. These boys, they’re grieving and while I’m sure this final hurrah of his helps them cope with his death, it’s not wise to pick up a cold case. Somebody could get involved that he crossed, that’s why we have the List. And furthermore, his son being alive could mean your ironclad status as heir could be very easily dismantled. Why risk it?”

Yes, why risk it all? I rolled the question around in my mind, thinking up the insinuations, the consequences, the pros, the answers we’d get if we solved it, the questions if we didn’t. But there was something more. “I have to know,” I whispered.

“What was that?” 

“I need to know. Oren…” I looked up and met his gaze. “I’m sorry.” I shuffled around the desk and made my way to the door.

“Where are you going?” he called after me. “Hey!”

“I’m sorry, Oren. I’m so sorry but I got to do this. I can’t give this up.” 

“Avery, explain what you’re thinking. What are you doin-” The last part of his question cut off as I found the nearest passage and the entrance turned back into the wall. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. Then I reached for my phone and texted Jameson.

[incandescent-creativity]

Your blog summary says that you’re the “accidental creator of the comic sans WIP posts”, can you share the story? (Also is that the sort of slide show/powerpoint-style text posts people make of their ocs and wips?)

Yes, that’s exactly it!

It’s not exactly an original idea; I’ve seen that kind of goofy comic sans powerpoint format used before, most often in fandom circles (why this character is gay, why you should watch this show, etc).

But nobody was doing them about their wips, which is primarily what we talk about here on writeblr.

So one day in 2018, with the encouragement of my dear friend @mecharose , I threw together this post and put it up. To date, I think it’s still the post about my writing that has the most notes.

People thought it was great fun, and started making them for their own wips. It was honestly such a fun time; I’m really honored to have been a part of popularizing it around here.

I’ve since made similar posts for all my other wips, and so many other people have done the same! I saved everyone I see to read and comment on; I think I still have a bunch of my drafts that I should get to.

Maybe I’ll do that soon! It’s not the most efficient way to do things, because after I’ve saved them up, sometimes the stories have changed and I’m spreading old information, but I still enjoy doing it. These days, the ones I see usually say something along the lines of “I know this is a dead trend,” but I don’t consider it dead as long as I’m still here! It just takes me a second to get to them lol

[goron-king-darunia]

Annon-Guy: Everything okay?

Yeah, I'm doing pretty good. Catching up on Tumblr is really difficult though. Every time I take a break to do anything there are like 30000 posts to look at. I might just have to contend with the fact that there's no catching up. Internet FOMO. My brain keeps going "Well what if someone made a really funny post while I was away?!" And like... If it was really that funny it would come back around.

I still have no idea where that ask I answered went and I'm too burnt out still to try to retype it.

I am still cranking out fanfic and I am enjoying the 1.6 update of Stardew Valley though. And I made a yummy pasta dinner yesterday.

So overall I'm just... Tumblr exhausted. Everyone makes too many good posts all the time and the need/desire to tag all of them appropriately is massively kneecapping my ability to interact. Couple that with my IRL responsibilities of taking care of my Mom and handling my own adult life just means I spend my limited free time on meatspace tasks like knitting/crocheting and embroidery or on actually gaming or writing instead of my old routine which was... scrolling tumblr until I caught up for the day, usually dumping more than half of the posts in my drafts for future me, and then using whatever free time I have left to write or game. So I'm okay. But I think I'm honestly just... not going to be able to be available on Tumblr indefinitely. This legitimately might have to just be a hobby place now where I pop in to check up on friends, post notable things like finished projects, and then just dip out and ignore most posts. there's simply not enough time in my life to engage with all the fun things I want to.

But even though I'm a bit burnt out, I'm happy. I get to eat better food now that I cook more, I get to make more cool things now that I knit and crochet and embroider more. I get to handle more of my life which is honestly needlessly complicated (I will rage against taxes being obtuse on purpose forever), but it means I have more control over what happens which isn't much, but it helps me feel like a functional adult instead of a leaf in a stream. And I still have time for fun stuff. That fun stuff just... isn't on Tumblr so much.

All my fruitless efforts to "catch up" on here have done is just give me more drafts to dig through than I can manage and kept me away from doing more of the things I love.

So I'm going to try to do more targeted things on here. Post more original content, reblog a bit less, give up on catching up, and just try to give whatever energy I have on here to specific friends.

Feel free to keep sending me DotNW stuff. I almost always have energy for that. But I don't think I have the time and energy in me to go over a bunch of new things.

Physically I'm drained, mentally I'm fried. But it's okay. I think that I just have to let go and deal with the fact that having to step up and be an adult means I have to choose what's really important to me. And scrolling through memes on Tumblr is fun. But it's not fulfilling. I don't really want to spend 6 hours every day just catching up on what everyone else is sharing and then another 10 hours some other day scrolling through stuff I saved for later because I was too tired to read it the first time.

I want to spend more time creating my own things.

So I think from now on I'm just going to be extra picky about what I engage with on Tumblr, especially because engaging with stuff on here with only half my brain because I'm exhausted means I can only give half the attention to things that they deserve. I will try to post more of my own things so you know I'm still around and I will try to answer more often. But I think including Tumblr in my routine is no longer a sustainable thing.

It's like trying to live at a themepark. There's a lot of good stuff here, but very little of it helps me be the person I want to be. I don't want to just consume other people's content. I want to make stuff.

So I'll be around. But I think I'm going to start making really hard decisions about what I can and can't give attention to.

That said, seeing you build your own little community by hosting polls and engaging with other fandom blogs is really nice. I'm glad you're able to reach out and connect with so many new people. Tumblr is really great for that. I'm happy to be your DotNW contact, but I think I may have to trim down my engagement on Tumblr to just that. DotNW, maybe some legend of Zelda, maybe some cat memes and positivity. I'm going to trim away a lot of political stuff first and foremost because I'm pretty bad with that and I'm going to try to limit my meme engagement and long posts and see how that does. And if I need to trim down even more, then I will. But from now on, I think I just have to be decisive.

And I've decided the best use of my time is much less Tumblr.

I'll still be around, but it's definitely going to be sporadic. Doesn't mean we're not friends. Just means I'll get to all the fun things you want to share in a much longer timeframe.

I hope you are well, too. I think this is just one of those things where I have to completely transform my life. It's not bad. It's just different. I'm still doing all the things I love. I'm just putting more effort into the things that I love more.

Sorry for the long post. I think this is as "back" on Tumblr as I can be.

Thank you for loving me and sharing your joy of gaming with me! Even if I can't be on Tumblr as much, I will try to make space for you in my life!

[ovaryacted]

hi hi! could I please ask these? 💖

🧃 ⇢ share some personal lore you never posted about before

🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction? 

hope you’re having a good day!!

Hi hun. Hope you had a good day too and have more coming up! 🫶

🧃 ⇢ share some personal lore you never posted about before

I don't think I've talked about this but essentially, I almost became a military wife at the age of 21 with my former partner. Thank fucking God I caught the ick though and had some sense knocked into me cause I did not want to put I was married on my financial aid application for college, it would ruin the hot girl vibes I was trying to embody. Fuck him though, hope he's suffering MUAH! #TOFREEDOM! (I've been through some shit with men okay).

🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction?

Hmm, my first introduction to fandom was during the first season of Attack on Titan literally in 2013/2014 and I was a teenager at the time getting my first taste at anime after watching Soul Eater and Tokyo Ghoul (big miss steak). I ran a really popular fan account on instagram for a while and met some people my age who were into roleplay which was a good way to learn how to write, and after that I just wanted to share my original ideas. I was super hyperfixated on Levi Ackerman for a while, and I drafted out a very drawn out and complex plotline for a fic on Wattpad of him being in the mafia and a bunch of other shit that delved into the dark content genre. Looking back, I was a genius cause that idea was fucking good and I'd revisit it but with another interest I currently have (cough Joel Miller cough).

I never finished the story or even got past the first 2 chapters and deleted it cause my friends at the time found my account and made fun of me for it, so I stopped writing altogether until I got back into it last year. I do however have transcripts of my old RP responses and outlines saved deep in my google docs lmao. I read through them sometimes and think how crazy I am for the eloquent ideas I came up with - Priest AU, Boxing AU, you name it. Always had my stroke of creative genius, cool to tap into it again after all of these years.

WRITER TRUTH OR DARE GAME

[pigswithwings]

i'm really interested in poetry but im not sure how to start writing it, do you have any tips for someone new to writing poetry?

i don't know how to write poetry either ummm. here's just what i do for writing in general.

i usually take small ideas such as: i know this old story and i want to retell it. i want to write something like it's a diary in a horror movie. i want to write like it's a letter to someone. i want to talk about a fictional animal. i want to describe this daydream that i just had. and then i start describing the scene. how do i feel about it? of course the regular adjectives (sad / happy / angry / loving) are there to encompass it, but i like to avoid that stuff. i try to not use things like "i feel" and instead just go into a bunch of detail to put someone in a scene.

for example: you can say "they love each other", but i like describing what they do. do they know each other's voices very well? how well? can you envision a moment in which they do this? do they miss each other? what can demonstrate this - how would i demonstrate this?

you can say "it feels like my heart is being wrenched out". and it is true. but i like to branch out into other ways to say it. you can try a gorier side of describing it - when a real heart is wrenched out, what happens? what does it smell like? what would you hear? what happens to someone's pulse? something about Show, Not Tell.

also i write kind of short. instead of saying the obvious i try letting people imagine it because it is more fun that way. i write a scene or a very visceral /compelling line and then i let it go. sometimes i feel like my writing is very weak but it does work

another thing - i do what's easier. it takes time to develop a certain way to say things, why not just take a story trope and write about it as practice? i wrote about theseus and the minotaur because i knew a bit about the story and because i very much admire the one post about icarus. so the theseus post was sort of a study of that. i tend to write in very short bursts without saving my drafts, usually just finding an idea and putting down / picking up my phone over the course of some time. i always keep the post / document / whatever I'm writing on open so i can remember the mood i am going for. i try not to get too long and i try not to make things too hard to read. i write about familiar things because i can remember them easier. i come back to old writing sometimes and try to make it better, my friends do this too.

i don't know if this is the advice you are looking for so this is the last thing i will say: you can do it. this is just how I write. i like to think that the sentiment of my writing resembles my inspirations, but truly everyone will describe a scene differently. it's cool to see new perspectives. you can do it

[ohmypawsandwhiskers]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Spread the self-love ❤️

Oh my goodness! I love this idea! Thank you for the message!

Alright, let's see...

Of Devils and Monsters (Attack on Titan; Erwin x OC) Status: In Progress (7/??) This has to be my first one up, because it's one that has my full attention and entire heart!

Summary: Fate brings two old friends together again and sets them on the path to truth. In a last ditch effort to save her own skin, Lozen Daniella Pierce reaches out to an old friend in hopes of gaining her freedom. In doing so, she and Erwin Smith find themselves thrust on a path to truth- the truth behind the walls, behind secret organizations, and the truth of who they turned into. Rating will go up, but I am setting it at M for now. Eventual Levi x OC in later chapters.

Read it here on Ao3! I will probably start cross-posting to tumblr for non-Ao3 users in the near future due to the change in privacy settings because AI and bots are big bags of wet and smelly socks.

2. If It's True (Dragon Age: Inquisition; Solas x OC) Status: In progress, but on hold for the time being This is another one of my babies near and dear to my heart that I plan on picking up soon once I replay DAI.

Summary: Before the veil was erected, the Elvhenan empire was a sight to behold, with towering cities of crystal and gold, plenty of resources to go around, and Elves and Spirits lived in harmony. But there was a dark underbelly rarely acknowledged- at least until Solas encounters a woman who changes his views of his beloved people and puts him on the path to ending the tyranny of the Evanuris.

Read it here on Ao3! Again, if people are interested, I can cross-post here.

The next are drabbles I have posted to reddit in the past for the Dragon Age OC from #2, taking point post-veil. I haven't posted them on tumblr or Ao3- I don't believe, so I can link them below. Please excuse the summaries! I am not great with coming up with them on the fly.

3. Prompt 4: Something that was lost but now regained, regret, a wish, a window, touch. (Nehna x Solas)

Summary: Nehna decides on how to tell Solas that she recovered parts of her memories- parts in which she knew him.

Read it here!

4. Out of Time (Dragon Age)

A bunch of Halloween prompts thrown together for another round of Nehna and Solas!

Summary: In a brief reprieve from war, while she is hiding out from the Evanuris, Nehna awakes to a nightmare

Read it here!

5. Smoke, Gun Fire, and a Sense of Deja-vu (Mass Effect; Garrus x OC)

Summary: As Kei and her team work against the clock to save the colonists of Horizon, she struggles to separate past from present.

I will put this one below a read more, since it's not officially shared anywhere else besides discord, I believe. It will be part of a story or series of one-shots I eventually share, but for now, it remains in my drafts!

2170

Acrid odor assaulted her senses as Makeda pulled her friend along through the burning prefab building, hard spilling out of the corners of her eyes as smoke stung her eyes. Gunfire and screams took over any thought as instinct kicked in- where that instinct came from, she had no idea, but Makeda wasn’t about to question it now.

“What the hell is going on?” Cindy screamed as they scrambled over rubble. 

“Why would I know? Just run!” Just as they rounded the corner, they were met with a beeping followed by a force that sent the pair flying.

Present 

“Shepard! Shepard! Kei-” A hand pulled her down beside a hedge as a cutting beam narrowly missed her left ear as  she was brought back. Horizon, the Collectors. Abducted colonists. Everything was a blur since they touched down.

Specks of blue cleared the fog from her brain just enough for her to pick up on the worried twitch of mandibles. “We’re pinned down, Shep. Any ideas?” 

Kei peered over the barrier to be greeted by a line of husks ambling beside a praetorian. She took a shot at one of the mindless puppets before taking cover. It crumbled to the ground, twitching just a moment before it went completely still. “What’s the heat clip situation?” Kei asked as she summoned her drone to distract the enemies. With a beep and a whirl, as if it was assenting to unspoken orders, it was off, zooming the crowded field to distract their enemies for a moment. 

“Would advise using abilities as much as possible until another cache,” came Mordin’s voice over comms. “Did find particle beam dropped by assassin drone- could be useful against biotic barrier of the praetorian.” His efficiency with words always brought a smile to her face in the heat of battle. 

“Right, Garrus, cover me. Mordin, get that gun prepped.”

2170

“Mark, get down,” Cindy hissed from their hiding spot under the rubble, trying to get their classmate to hide from sight. Her voice didn’t carry over the conflict around them, and Mark fell right before their eyes. Before Cindy could scream, Makeda covered her mouth. 

“You want them to find us?” Makeda whispered, trying her best to stop her voice from shaking. “We need to keep moving. If we make it to my place, we can at least defend ourselves.” 

Silent tears streaked through the ash on her friends face as she nodded. 

“At least he can be a distraction. We need to move, and quickly.” Without waiting for an answer, Makeda began to belly crawl from under the fallen wall. The Batarians wouldn’t get her or her family. 

Present

The vibration radiating from the particle beam made the aiming difficult as Makeda tried to balance not dropping the damned thing while evading the constant stream of deadly energy from the last remaining enemy. In her periphery, she saw Mordin and Garrus alternating their shots in an attempt give her a break from the seemingly singular focus of the Praetorian. For a brief moment, the enemy’s beam was interrupted, giving her time to duck behind a crate and quickly catch her breath.  “I think we have it,” she yelled. “Just one final push. When it’s back in the air, I’ll take down its biotic barrier with a taste of its own medicine, and then Mordin and Garrus, throw everything you’ve got at it.”

2170

The ground beneath her shook as the bombardment against her house continued. Cindy’s body remained unmoving from it’s fetal position- any sign of life had left hours ago. It had been a mistake coming here to try and find her family. All that had greeted them was an empty house, already rifled through for any supplies or survivors. 

Crisp air and soot made her eyes water.

Makeda hugged her knees into her chest, rocking back and forth as though it would be the only thing keeping the sobs at bay.  Should she wait or continue in hopes of finding her family?

Present

Makeda lept from cover sending the remaining power of the gun careening into the floating creature. One final push. That was all it took until the creature shuddered and then evaporated into dust. Feeling uneasy, Makeda’s legs gave away beneath her, and she welcomed the thud of reality. The visions would stop. 

‘They will, won’t they?’

Footsteps from either side of her came running up to her position as Mordin began applying medi-gel to the burns sustained from the Praetorian’s beam. She welcomed the cold the medicine brought in hopes it would just serve as additional grounding to reality. 

“Good call on the Collector’s gun, Mordin,” Makeda said, and her eyes flickered over to Garrus, hoping he didn’t catch the waiver in her voice. 

Mordin went to respond, but was interrupted by the cowardly colonist they had run into hurling curses and insults their way. Garrus helped her to feet and tried to keep a steadying talon on her shoulder to be brushed off as Makeda rounded on the mechanic. 

“What the hell did you want us to do, huh? Most of the colonists were gone by the time we made a dent in their forces. I wanted to save them as much as you did-”

“Bullshit! Why would you care about a bunch of colonists out in the sticks?”

A voice stopped all of them in their tracks. “Show some reverence, Trevor, you’re standing in the presence of a ghost.”

That voice. She knew that voice. 

All anger dissipated as she turned to see the one face she needed to see. Needed to know was alright. “Kaidan!”

[linksondreamhomes]

Hello everyone! It's been a while.

So. I still have a bunch of houses saved in drafts I never posted because I never made their blueprint. I'm the kind of ADHD that I struggle to do anything ever unless I'm actively hyperfixating on it in the moment, and also my life has been rather hectic so I've reached the conclusion that I have no idea when I will ever find the time and energy to make said blueprints.

I know I designed my original blueprint system to be easy to rearrange into something usable, but I didn't figure out until I was decently far along that I had done the measurements incorrectly, so I spent twice as long driving myself nuts trying to make it look right each time. I really don't have the energy or motivation to remake the whole thing right now when the whole point of the project was I was doing it for fun.

So! I have decided I'm going to queue up the remaining houses that I have, and post then as just the video. I might draw someone of them out on paper since it's something I could do quickly, but if I do I will probably post them in a reblog or edit.

I apologize for the inconvenience! I made this blog not just to post what I came up with but to give people the chance to build it themselves, and it kinda fails in the second half by just posting them without the blueprint. I figured it's better to post the video than just leaving them to rot in my drafts though.

With that said, while I cannot promise when I will return to build new houses, I do in fact own a switch capture card now, and I could always record instruction videos on how to build the old houses as well as new ones. Hopefully one day I will find the time and energy to do so.

EDIT: I did in fact build some new houses! People seem to be liking them so I've started fiddling around in the game again. I already have some new ones added to the queue.

Still not sure on when I will have the time to make tutorials, but hopefully I will in the summer. I forgot how much fun it was messing around with this game, it's kinda like a combination of the Sims 4 and legos to me.

[circle-bircle]

purging a bunch of stuff from my drive... gosh there are still a lot of things i want to write but it's hard to tell what's there when some of my file names are "gh384t90g8h" or "2" as i look through the drive i will put in this readmore any cool ideas i come across (mostly ff some fe and gbf and will sort them by fandom if ur into it)

please know i am deleting all of these drafts as i go along so if you want me to post snippets of what i have tell me in like 3 days before they are permanently deleted

fic titled "virgin in the dynamo" where i make vigorous reference to henry adams in my ff2 emperor redemption fic... well ok then!

doc called "BACK ON MY BULLSHIT" is an isekai for ff2. i've written a few of those but i haven't liked how any of them have turned out. idea for another day

more emperor fics; i have some where y/n gets fired as a servant, some reverse isekai drafts, and i have about a good long chunk of drafting for another vampire au where (spoiler alert) the emperor is not a nice guy and murders a bunch of people in the first chapter. the drafts are still there but i just don't know where to take the fic in the last stretch.

another emperor fic but this time it's an arranged marriage au (y/n is a noble of altair and i take the book canon and shake it vigorously)

edward chris von muir reverse isekai - i remember writing this. some really bad irl stuff happened and edward was the character i wrote a fuckton of to cheer me up. i'd still like to write it properly. in another fic i wrote an arranged marriage au and i still think i could write it and it'd be fun

doc titled "k"; rewrite of an old fic with zidane & kuja with the in veno veritas vibes... i'd like to post it but it's not done so it won't get posted

i write a 210 fic in firion's pov where tidus gets lost and firion comes to help him. hehe!

more tidus ideas; one of them was where y/n was a nurse taking care of tidus, another idea that i still might write where y/n is a total stalker of tidus and makes him love them... i still want to write that.

seymour fic with another isekai... circle be creative sometimes smh!

some gorefic of ravus nox fleuret... i really don't talk about ffxv but ravus is one of my favs i think he's so cool

"2" is a fe15 gray high school au. it's goofy i guess

more kurth ideas; i wrote a dreamsharing fic with him as well as a timeloop? i could have SWORN i published the timeloop fic but i don't think i did. i got 4k words into the draft. whatever, down the trash it goes!

doc titled "UNKIE JANNIE" where janaff takes care of a wounded shinon...

i've written a janaff/reader and a janaff/reader/ulki but not an ulki/reader. none of the ideas i have have been any good though and i still feel like they're not cute enough.

"the ranch fic" where shinon fucks a bottle of ranch. nsfw but an ex-friend did it out of curiosity and then he told me not to tell anyone but then he aired my dirty laundry so i air his dirty laundry back.

more in lewd news for shinon/janaff i tried to write a motivation chapter 2 but i never could decide on what shinon was going to do. i had a couple ideas, like shinon and janaff meeting up and fucking or continuing their parasocial relationship. in my latest drafts of it shinon was going to doxx janaff and say the most egregious sort of stuff before going back to his NEET ways (now without a purpose because janaff would be disinterested) but i couldn't make it as sexy as the first chapter so i just didn't finish it

nordion vampireverse multichap fic titled "diarmuid chomps" where it's not actually about diarmuid at all and febail gets really sexy and saves y/n from the evil vampires... i wrote that fic twice but neither are any good. idea for another time

speaking about nordion vamps, doc titled "sex sex sex sex sex sex" where the vamps get down and dirty with y/n. OTL i want to post it but it's incompleted as FUCK so it won't see the light of day ever

kempf mermaid au i would have posted for mermay if i knew how to write it. but every draft i did just wasn't right and i think fe is too technologically historic(?) for what i want to happen so i might write it with some other fandom instead

found my resume! been lookin 4 that

a kyd wykkyd fic... i had a moment

did i ever post a grimnir fic about hanahaki? i've written it a couple times but i don't think i liked any one of the drafts i wrote. an idea for another day!

there's also a lobelia fic where the captain goes to try and find him a hobby that isn't death related. music didn't work and at the end of the draft djeeta is trying word searches and crossword puzzles. i guess miscellaneous stuff, i wrote more lobelia fluff that wasn't published soo

i feel like i kept up deleting stuff so there is not much else. but that's all!!!!

[mayordea]

i wanted to get back into the old “gray painting -> EZ color overlay” style just for the silly! also wanted to get into the groove of posting more wips here :D cuz i really need to stop caring about aesthetics and whatnot on my page. dumping more info/previous drafts under a cut tho teehee

anyway i’m painting god mode mariyam from qualia automata again because i still have some art ideas for it 😊 i originally wanted to do a more dynamic pose as well as combine their original monochromatic design, but it just didn’t pan out as i desired. so i’m taking a much more simplistic and plain approach and focusing more on colors and textures once i get to that phase. i should try dynamic posing more tho…. maybe another day 😅

might as well share my old passes actually. again, wanna be more open w what i share here. cuz i think wips and scrapped ideas are cool! 🥺

left: original plan. very much improvised the pose because i have effectively given up on using pose apps to help (magic poser is unfortunately a shell of its former self 😔). i’m pretty satisfied with it from that standpoint, but idk it was just not clicking with me. the glitch transition could have been better executed to save but idk. it’s chillin in the bin for now

right: after i was kinda meh on the initial pass i tried sketching around with the design. i had another one but it was just a bunch of vague lines so wasn’t really worth sharing haha

this is probs gonna take a while (usually my approach with doing mono values first is to do all the rendering in that pass before applying colors to the whole painting. it’s flawed but it’s gotten the job done for me in the past) but i’m willing to stick it out >:3 cuz i like where it’s going so far

[royalphantompain]

I'm posting some info about one of my characters because as much as I love my four main guys, I want to talk about some of my other guys as well.

So when I got her, I was originally going to make her one of the main characters of a story (That may have took some inspiration off of Pokémon Mystery Dungeons) where she works as a sweet but skittish mail carrier and she meets a weird lost canine and they partner up with each other and go on a bunch of wacky adventures together. I would share the backstory I did make for her, but I may still use a big chunk of that for her, but an idea I'd scrap is that after dying, she was reborn into a puppy again and only has a few faint memories from her past life. (And in the old version of her, that's why she was a demon despite never doing anything wrong in her life)

But uhh, what if she wasn't reborn into a sweet, kind soul, and instead, she was a bit of an evil gaslighting gatekeeping girlboss? You know I have another character partly dead and partly plush! Maybe Pandora sees the similarities they share :>

But also her name for a while was Real Life to match the name of the character she was supposed to be partners with, Death Wish, who I completely changed because she was too similar to Charming (Mostly in backstory but also a decent amount in personality but Charming is better) and I'll probably name her something different because now she's the shy one. But also, I want to save the name Real Life and Death Wish for another duo.

So yeah, the reason why I decided to change her and her partner was because it was way too similar to my main original story, Second Draft. Actually, this one was supposed to have that name, but Second Draft just fit the name of the other story more since a lot of writing and art is involved.

Her and the character who was originally supposed to be her partner will probably never interact now, but they are in the same universe.

[dontmindme2600]

Things that have happened to in Fallout 3 so far as I go into the game not knowing anything at all about it, part 3 (part two is in the reblogs of the og post I just don’t want to make it any longer lol):

-Game just straight up crashed randomly (love u Bethesda) but thankfully it was like soon after I turned it on so I didn’t really lose anything important. What was weird though is that after closing it and reopening it, it was still crashing. Like it just froze with glitched audio on the title screen. Also somehow when I tried to open a whole other game to give it a break the glitching sound continued over to a whole other goddamn game for some reason. I am using past tense here but I actively write this stuff as it happens (I have this post drafted) and literally have no idea what to do rn because I’m playing on Xbox GamePass and like wha (I’ll figure it out)

-I found the mechanist and tried to do that speech thing on him where you try to tell him he’s become just as big of a problem as the AntAgonizer, the first time it didn’t work and he killed me. The second time it immediately worked, and after like 3 lines of dialogue he took the suit off and I completed the entire quest. Like. Like the whole thing. What the fuck. I don’t even know what the AntAgonizer looks like yet. I was. I was expecting a little more there

-Was hanging out in the Rivet city marketplace for the first time, got some pre-war clothes, gossiped with some NPC’s, all of sudden one of them starts running and I’m getting shot at, I leave and come back and everything’s normal, don’t know what that was about but I LIVED THIS TIME THOUGH HA

-Was going through hell in DC as you do and started repeatedly clipping through the ground with every step I took, had to reload a save to get it back to normal

-Whatever you do, do not take a left after you discover Friendship Heights

-Found an area that was full of raiders to practice my combat and the raiders just like. Hung a bunch of dismembered bodies from the ceiling of one room and I will not lie I was a bit aghast. Appalled if you would. Flabbergasted. Like have some class???

-Made it to the underworld, I’m considering killing Ahzrukhal to learn more about Charon without having to pay, but the people there already probably don’t trust me and I don’t want them to become hostile because I killed him lmao

-Found a glitched like,,, floating armor I think??? It was just a chest plate and mask floating in midair in some closed off area of an underground metro station, and I’m not joking it scared the shit out of me because it looked like a floating corpse staring straight at me alsjdhakksj. When I walked into it gravity kicked in and it fell to the ground, but when I went back into the same area again later it respawned, floating again.

-I’ve realized that there’s a counter for “pants exploded” in your stats and I am,,, very curious on when that will be a thing I can do

Notes:

-I still have absolutely NO idea how to use V.A.T.S. properly, so I avoid it, so I’m absolutely dogshit at any combat in the game. I kind of think that at this point I should probably work on it because I’m struggling to make any major progress with the quests. So I’ll make sure to practice sometime

-From now on I’ll tag these posts as “fo3 with Stupid” (the old ones are tagged with this as well)

[darksideofthemamon]

My art recap for 2022! (LONG POST)

(I can't save drafts anymore over on Twitter so uhh guess I'll have to do this earlier than I would have wanted XD )

I was busy this year, and that’s why I didn’t get to make as much art as I did the previous years. My goal was to make at least 1 piece a month, but ended up cutting it down to having enough for this collage. I could go on about how I wish I could do more, but doing this recap made me think about the things to be grateful for, which I’ll focus on instead: 

1) I was able to pick up on old concepts and finish them. 

My initial sketch for this Klarion piece may have been from around 2020, but this design along with all my Klarion ideas were much, much, older. It feels good to be able to follow through on old idea. 

2) I made art for fandoms I hadn’t before. 

I’ve been into Sandman and Hellblazer for years but it’s only now I’ve made fanart for them. FOTF is out of my comfort zone and I often struggle with fanart for live action shows (which Desire here is from), yet I’m happy with the results. I think it shows that back then I wasn’t there YET, but I am NOW. 

3) I challenged myself and came through. 

This Keykid piece is my most complex from this year. I had a hard time with the details and foreshortening. I could have gone the easy route several times but kept pushing to achieve my vision. In the end, I’m happy with the result. 

4) Things did get better. 

This food piece is nothing special and I could have swapped it with my much nicer Keykid piece. But I did the food one during an art block when I felt hopeless and thought I wouldn’t be able to draw anymore or have time for it. But by the end of the year, I did achieve more than I thought I would, so I kept it in. 

5) I was still able to do things for my CT AU. 

I finally posted a 2-year old WIP fanfic (read here!), and also started doing asks and occasional RP-ing. I also made this Halloween idea I’ve had for just as long. Even though the AU didn’t get much this year, I was still able to accomplish some firsts. 

6) In the end, I had more than enough for the collage. More than I thought I’d have at the start of the year. 

So what’s my takeaway from this year? Sometimes we don’t achieve things because it’s not the right time, but that doesn’t mean never. It just means NOT YET. So at the end of the year 2022, I will think not about what I “didn’t do”, but instead what I did, and what I didn’t do YET.

On that note, I capped this year's art this month to focus on busy life stuff and also prepare a bunch of concepts in advance for next year! I'm excited for it and hope to make great stuff. 

Happy holidays everyone! 

[yama951]

Found this in my drafts and has been left for a year. May as well just post what I could at the very least.

------------------

Inspired by that post which expanded on the Nope joke manga idea

------------------

The truth of the world is this.

Greatness comes in three forms. You are either born great, achieve greatness, or have greatness thrust upon you.

There is another truth to this world.

It is the nature of greatness to be tested by the world in some way.

Me? I wasn't born great nor do I have the desire to achieve greatness. Just a regular old Sen, living out my life going from cafe to cafe, trying out their coffees and pastries, mostly the iced coffee frappes really. But that was how I noticed the ones born great.

It was easy to tell after enough people watching and looking for patterns. Thought I was crazy when I noticed it for the first time.

The born great are really obvious in hindsight. They seem to give off an aura of confidence around them when they get really serious. The more obvious aspects is their features and body language. Their features are much more loud, more unusual. Girls with pink hair, guys with blue eyes that glow when they control water, even their clothes could go loud like one edgy guy missing a sleeve and wearing a bunch of belts. Saved my life when early in my people watching some horror stuff happened and nearly ended up killed by some vampire zombie. That also kept me in my cafes. Feels safer when I'm in those.

The achievers are more noticeable by their personality and body language, almost like they're over compensating with the lack of bright hair or eye colors or lack of scars or tattoos or some other marks. Their smiles are bigger. Their whole bodies move in their anguish. Their voices are loud enough to be the focus of the ears of whoever's listening yet somehow not loud enough for people to look at them. One bossy classmate of mine likes to shout and order her friends around while they go on their club activities. They get rather chill events when I watch them, mostly because her friends are naturally born great people trying to keep her in the dark. Even got activities with a rival club from another school. I think the second in command guy is another achiever given how much he groaned and sighed at another idea boss lady gets. Dodged a bullet there, personally speaking. I might have ended up as the token normal guy or voice of reason or something.

The third type are those thrusted with greatness, usually those stumbling into the scenarios where such thrusting happens. Again, lucky to have dodged that when edgy guy saved me. They're either the most normal or they go weird physically or mentally over time. The school's occult club weren't the same mentally when they did the whole seven mysteries thing one night. They freaked out bad when they were told that there was no girl named Ai Emma in class. They claimed she was their fourth member and apparently the fourth school mystery.

An example of the physical change is the school rivals-turned-sweethearts that is Shao Rin and Hanako Sakura. Shao could turn into some part demon warrior and Hanako could turn into a magical girl. Their love square was both hilarious and aggravating. Rivals in both school and work, yet they were pining for their alternate identities each. They were both fighting for some hundred and eight magic jewel enchanted magic cards. Something about a wish or something? I only got into their shenanigans when they were some forty something cards in. At least they figured out each other's identities and started working together, though the stakes has went up with the monsters popping up more frequently.