#I don't want to go into a ton of details about it but I'll tag just in case

[superconductivebean]

#405

sometimes The Fic attacks me with its estimated size however knowing myself I'll say it's going to be a tightly-packed but still a little lengthy piece, however.

here's the catch: i might start to post it after i'm done with half of the chapters because i will incorporate a structure of sorts, to further empathize on magic in general and Wrights perception of it; and because it's all about Wright…

why does she have such a colourful view on things, writing her is like painting a page in a medieval book and colour the letters altogether.

[reachartwork]

the process

a lot of people like to ask me about my process and how ai can be "creative" because they're under the impression that it's just kind of a big slot machine. you pull a lever and art uncontrollably comes out. well, let me show you my process

this is going to be a long thread tagged with #long post, blacklist that if you want to skip it.

so how it starts like most art is that i have an idea. in this case, earlier i made a post about witch-knights "surfing" on swords, so i'm going to try and make that - a witch-knight flying through the air atop one of her swords.

it starts with this picture.

i think this picture is dogshit so i discard basically all of it to try and find something closer to my original intent. there's a couple of uninteresting regenerations so it's clear i have to go back to the drawing board and teach the machine what it is i'm trying to do

let's start with a witch-knight on a broom. it's definitely not great but it gives us a better pose that i can work with.

i start by erasing the broom and replacing it with a skateboard - the machine understands skating better for what i need it to do.

there's a ton of small, subtle errors in this image and it overall looks like dogshit but the most important part right now is blocking and the overall pose structure - i need her "surfing" a large, lengthwise object, in the sky. i start by erasing pieces of the skateboard

now we have a sword, which is good. but the sword itself looks... bad. i'll spare you the abortive attempts at selective regeneration of the sword and just show you what happened when i rolled it back a couple of times from this pose and let it regen entirely.

again, tons of small little shitty errors, but this is something i can work with. i do another regen for a less shitty sword. her boob armor gets replaced with, like, generic scale mail.

this image has a great sword and decent pose but like... everything else is kind of futzy and i dont like it. instead of trying to pick and choose i just throw it back into the oven for a second. much better! but now she's going to cut herself on the sword, oh no!

again, i'll save you the agonizing thirty minutes of trying to get it to understand where the foot should go. unlike before i didn't really have a choice except to muscle through. there! now she's surfing safely :)

so it's done, right? well, i mean, i could post this. and it would probably do okay. but *i'm* not satisfied with it. there's stiffness. dozens of minor errors. the eyes look weird when you zoom in. let's start by fixing her hat, and then maybe her hands?

but she's missing fingers on her left hand so let's go ahead and fix that too. and i don't really like the tip of her sword and the ocean looks really flat and boring. so, VERY CAREFULLY, i have to etch out the parts of the sword and her body i have to keep, and also write an entirely new prompt to tell it "i want an ocean w/ rolling waves please :)"

this is better but not great. i try again - serendipitously, it makes this really cool variant with a shadow over the water, but i know working with that will take more wrangling so i'm considering it an evolutionary dead end and discarding it for now.

i proceed to spend 30 minutes trying to make the ocean look better but it's really not working imo. i'm gonna go back to the shadow version and see how that works

i'll spare you the other 8 minutes - i'm satisfied with the following picture. the sword isn't *perfectly* straight, her eyes aren't perfectly textured, the scale mail is... weird, in texture, but anything else would be greasing the wheel and i think beyond the machine's ability to do fine detail.

i've also attached the starting picture for comparison - it has better, "higher quality" clouds and ocean but i personally cared more about the pose and the sword surfing - the background is mostly tangential. could i get back ocean and clouds of that quality with another two hours of painstakingly cutting and re-generating bits of the background without destroying any of my existing work on the pose? probably. but i don't want to.

total time spent on this piece from start to finish was one hour and twenty one minutes. and now you know!

[intervex]

What Pride Flags Mean, Part 1: Gender and Attraction

Welcome to the latest installment of my autistic hyperfixation on flags! I wanted to figure out a common language of Colour X means Thing Y. Like how pink is consistently used for feminine.

Having a common language for flag meanings matters because it improves cognitive accessibility of flags. ♿️💙

But I didn't want to be prescriptive about what colours should mean what. Just because I think Thing X should go with Colour Y doesn't mean everybody else would.

So this turned into a descriptive, empirical project. I gathered a data set of 2060 pride flag colour choices to figure out what are the most common colour-meaning combinations. Some of the results:

And here are the abstract modifiers: these are modifiers that were generally shared between the genders and the attractions. For example, black is used to indicate having no gender as well as having no attraction.

Click here for tables with okLCH values, hex values, definitions, and notes - I've put a more detailed write-up on my Wikimedia Commons userpage. (Mediawiki supports sortable tables and Tumblr does not.)

METHODS-AT-A-GLANCE

To make the figures above, I assembled a data set of pride flag colours. It contains 2060 colour choices from 624 pride flags, representing 1587 unique colours. Click here for a detailed description of how I gathered and tagged the pride flag colours and tagged them.

For each tag, I converted every colour to okLCH colour space and computed a median colour. OkLCH colour space is an alternative to RGB/hex and HSL/HSV. Unlike RGB/hex and HSL/HSV, okLCH is a perceptual colour space, meaning that it is actually based on human colour perception. 🌈

In okLCH space, a colour has three values:

- Lightness (0-100%): how light the colour is. 100% is pure white.

- Chroma (0-0.37+): how vibrant the colour is. 0 is monochromatic. 0.37 is currently the most vibrant things can get with current computer monitor technologies. But as computer monitor technologies improve to allow for even more vibrant colours, higher chroma values will be unlocked.

- Hue (0-360°): where on the colour wheel the colour goes - 0° is pink and 180° is teal, and colours are actually 180° opposite from their perceptual complements.

The important thing to know is that okLCH Hue is not the same Hue from HSV/HSL - the values are different! (HSL and HSV are a hot mess and do not align with human colour perception!)

You can learn more about okLCH through my little write up, which was heavily influenced by these helpful articles by Geoff Graham, Lea Verou, and Keith J Grant.

You can play with an okLCH colour picker and converter at oklch.com

🌈

MORE RESULTS: COLOUR DISTRIBUTIONS

Back when I started tagging my data, I divided my data into five main chunks: Gender qualities (e.g. masculine, androgynous), Attraction (e.g. platonic, sexual), Values (e.g. community, joy), Disability (e.g. Deaf, blind), and Other.

I'll talk about Disability and Values in future posts! But for an alternate view of the data, here are the full distributions of the colours that were placed in each tag.

They come in three parts: tags I created for Gender, tags for Attraction, and tags from Other. The abstract modifiers are spread between the first two, though their contents transcend Gender and Attraction.

Some distributions have a lot more variance within them than others. Generally speaking, major attraction types tended to have the least variance: sensual attraction is really consistently orange, platonic is really consistently yellow, etc.

Variance and size do not correlate. Many of the smaller tags are quite internally consistent. I don't have a ton of tags in "current gender" but they're all the same dark purple. Xenine/xenogender has a whole bunch of entries, and there's a really big spread from blue to yellow.

Some tags, like intersex as well as kink/fetish show there are a small number of different colours that are very consistently used. Whereas other tags like masculine show a very smooth range - in this case from cyan to purple.

Overall I'm pretty satisfied with how things wound up! 🥳 It makes sense to me that an umbrella term like xenogender would have a lot of variance. What honestly makes me happiest is just how many tags wound up 180 or 90 degrees from their opposites/complements. 🤩

Not everything lined up nicely (the opposite of drag is .... neuroqueer? awkward.) 🤨 Some things lined up in hilarious ways, like how initially I had the opposite of kink/fetish being Christian (amazing.)

But as a whole, there's a lot of structure and logic to where things landed! I hope this makes sense for other people and can help inform both flag making as well as flag interpreting (e.g. writing alt-text for existing flags). 🌈

I'm hoping to post the Disability and Values analyses in the coming days! If you want to learn more, my detailed notes along with tables etc are over on my Wikimedia Commons userspace. 💜

Everything here is Creative Commons Sharealike 4.0, which means you're free to reuse and build on my visualizations, tables, etc. Enjoy!

[candlewaxandp0lar0ids]

How to Leave Comments on Fanfiction

So, I recently made a poll to know if people might find it helpful to have a list of things they could talk about when leaving comments on fanfictions, be it on Ao3 or on here. A majority of people were interested in seeing the post so, well, I'm making it. I started writing and posting stuff online when I was a teenager, on a website where leaving constructive criticism was the norm. It's by far the place where I've gotten the most feedback and it was an incredibly formative experience for me as a young writer — and it taught me how to leave detailed comments.

Writing comments doesn't necessarily come easy. It's something that you may need to learn how to do, but the good news is that you can learn how to do it, so don't worry if you don't know what to say at first. Hopefully this list will give you some pointers on how to do that.

This is more or less the list I go through when I want to leave a detailed comment. Even if I don't have a specific idea at first, I'll go through the steps and I never come out empty-handed.

Comment etiquette:

What became apparent with the poll I made was that a lot of people worry about how they'll be perceived by the writers if they leave a comment. Now, obviously, writers aren't a monolith, but 99% of the time writers will be thrilled that you took the time to leave a comment to let them know what you enjoyed in their fic. I cannot stress this enough. We're not going to judge someone based on a positive comment they leave.

As it stands, on Tumblr and Ao3, it's seen as rude to leave negative feedback, unless the author has explicitly asked for it/agreed to it, so that's what I'll be going over here. Since quite a few writers did say on that post that they would like to get constructive comments as well, stay tuned, I'm trying to get something together to do that for authors. Other than that, you're good to go.

The main ways to let an author know your thoughts on a fic on Tumblr are:

reblogging a fic with your thoughts underneath it

reblogging with your thoughts in the tags, which is often less formal

leaving a comment as a 'reaction'

sending in an ask if they're activated on the blog (which means you can stay anonymous, if anon asks are allowed)

Reblogging means that your followers will see the post as well, and is therefore really appreciated on Tumblr.

As a note, you may find different systems work for different fics! Maybe leaving tag rambles works for you when commenting on drabbles, for example for me it's the system I use to leave comments on smut.

General advice:

Everything I'm saying in here is for people who want to be able to leave longer/more detailed comments and don't always know where to start. If, for whatever reason, you're not comfortable or you don't have time to do it at the moment, a simple "I love the fic, thank you for writing it" always goes a long way for an author.

The key thing to keep in mind if you're trying to find something else to say, I think, is to try making the comment specific to the fic you're leaving it on. It shows the writer what you took away from the fic and the fic's strong points, which is both meaningful and helpful to an author.

Comments don't have to be long to be meaningful. Don't stress about writing a ton; a one-sentence comment highlighting the fic's humor or how emotional it made you can be incredibly impactful.

With this out of the way, I'll go through things you can talk about in a comment, starting with what I think is the easiest and moving on to things that could require more thought. You don't have to do all of that. You may never use some of the things on that list. Leaving comments should not be a source of anxiety. So take what you want from the list, maybe come back to it if you need more inspiration, and don't worry too much about it :)

Favorite line(s) : pull from the fic to let the author know what your favorite line was. If you wish, you can expand on that by saying why it was your favorite: did it make you laugh? Did it make you feel something specific? Did the author nail the characterization with it? Was there some incredible metaphor? Did you find it beautiful or poetic even if you can't go into detail? Is there one line in particular at the beginning of the fic that hooked you in and made you want to keep reading?

All of that is very valuable for a writer to know. Some of my favorite comments I've gotten were a list of a reader's favorite lines from a fic with one or two sentences to explain why they liked them, so don't hesitate to do that more than once if you can!

Emotions:  if there’s one thing I know about writers, it’s that we’re thrilled when we’ve made you cry. So tell us: how did the writing make you feel? Did you laugh out loud? If you did, was it the dialogue, or the narrator? Did it make you cry? Which part? Could you relate to one of the characters? Did it make you feel seen? Did the fluff make you feel all fuzzy inside or did the angst twist knots in your stomach? This isn't an exhaustive list, and emotions are great to draw from when you're leaving a comment!

Favorite element of the writing: Is there one thing in the writing that struck you as being particularly good, or what was your favorite thing to read? Is the author a master at writing dialogue? Are their descriptions so good you could see the whole scene? Are they really good at getting in a character's head and describing their emotions? Were you hooked from the start and couldn't stop until you reached the end?

Characterization: Now, this might be less instinctive, but if you've been in a fandom for a while, you'll probably be able to identify these things fairly easily. You can tell the author if you think they've nailed one aspect of a character. Did you have a favorite character in the fic? What did you think of them? Did the author manage to capture their voice? Was the attitude spot-on? Which parts of the character, if you can name them? Were there aspects of the character you particularly enjoyed? Did the author shine a light on something you hadn't considered or on something you don't think is highlighted often enough? Is there one thing from the fic you can actually picture/hear a character doing/saying in your head?

Style: I'd argue this is the hardest part, and you shouldn't feel bad if it's not something you can really comment on. As someone whose first language isn't English, I know I struggle with it. Style can be perceived as the way the author's voice comes through in the text. It can come through in punctuation, in the way sentences are formed, in the choice of the words themselves. If, when you read, you feel something intangible that doesn't fit well in the other categories, it just might be the author's style.

Here are some things (non-exhaustive list, of course) you could say about an author's style: it can be direct, straight to the point. The author doesn't bother with ornaments. Every sentence feels impactful. Maybe the writing feels intense. You're overwhelmed by the characters and their feelings and you feel truly engulfed in the story. Maybe the style is light and airy. It's so easy to read you don't even notice you are reading. Maybe the writing is intricate. Going through it is like piecing a puzzle together, sentences are foreshadowing and metaphors reveal deep truths about the characters. Maybe the style is rich. While not always the easiest, it's a pleasure to read through it, the author has a wide vocabulary, and you might want to compare it to a well-written novel.

If you identify specific elements of that style (metaphors, interesting use of punctuation, etc.), don't hesitate to point them out and let the author know you enjoy them!

That is it for this post, hopefully it doesn't look too daunting — again, you absolutely do not need to do all that in any comment, but maybe going through this list can help you leave comments for authors you enjoy.

I like to end my comments with 'Thank you for writing and sharing this with us', so I'll tell you thank you for reading, I hope this was helpful, and please consider reblogging if you'd like to save this or if you think it could help someone else!

As a bonus, my friend @elidebrey and I (but mostly her) made a 'checklist' for commenting, to help remember all this if that's something you'd like, so use at will!

A big thank you to @elidebrey, @yoongihan and @antoniorhinothethird for their precious opinions on this ♥

[gallavichthings]

Gallavich Masquerade 2024

Let's have a New Year's Masquerade Ball!

This time it'll be a mixed one, for fic writers and fanartists! The fanworks will be revealed on December 31st and people will have up to January 31st to cast their votes.

As you now know, in a Masquerade, creators (fic authors and fanartists) will produce their works anonymously. These fanworks will all be revealed at the same time on December 31st - our New Year's Masquerade Ball! - and fans (previously called readers and admirers) will have a month to attempt to guess who's behind each mask, that is, who made what. Creators are encouraged to try to fool everyone!

Details after the read more, but don't forget to please spread the word. This will be fun!

Requirements

All fics must have between 2,000 and 5,000 words. For art, there are no requirements. (Needless to say, AI "works" are not allowed.)

No theme is required or forbidden, but, as this is an event in which the goal is to have as many people checking out our work as possible, fanworks in niche categories are not advised. Regardless of what you do, please tag accordingly.

I don't know what to write/draw about!

You can get inspiration from anything you want. It can be canon-compliant, canon-divergent, after the show ended, AU...

But, if you still need some ideas, you can find some here, here or here (not to mention @callivich always has tons of prompts lists).

Sign-ups

Signing-up is required and can be done here. For this event, sign-ups can be done up to the time of posting. Unlike other events, this is one where you will need to sign-up only at the end, after the fanwork is done. You'll be required to add your AO3 username and the title of your fanwork.

What if I don't have an AO3 account?

Then I'm very sorry, but in this case, you won't be able to participate (as a creator). For this event, having an AO3 account is mandatory so that you can post in the collection. That being said, a lot of people have AO3 invites, so ask right now and someone may be able to send you one.

Posting

Posting will be done on AO3 and AO3 only! This is because the Masquerade Collection will be unrevealed and anonymous. All posting must be done until December 29th. On December 31st, all fics will be revealed and available for the readers. (The two days different is to ensure that everyone has posted before I reveal them.) The fanworks will remain anonymous until January 31st, when the game ends. (Please take note that this may be extended if there are a large number of fics). On February 1st, the authors' identities will be disclosed (and your fic will appear under your account just like any other fic).

As an creator, all you have to do is, when posting on AO3, choose to do it under the Gallavich Masquerade 2024 Collection (as in the picture below). I'll take care of the rest. It's important to do so when posting and not after, or it won't work. You can go to My Works > Works in Collections to confirm that it worked.

Voting

Voting will be done via a new form, which will be disclosed only after the fanworks are posted. All titles will be displayed and fans will chose from a menu who they think the creator is. This time, voting is mandatory in all three guesses. If you don't know who to vote for or if you haven't had a chance to read a fic, for example, just take a guess. Also, you might as well guess three different creators to increase your chances, even if you think you're sure who it is.

Points

There are two ways of winning this game, as a creator and as a fan.

Creators are awarded 1 point for each person who correctly guesses their fic/fanart on the first try, 2 for correct second guesses, 3 for correct third guesses and 7 points for each person who wrongly guesses it (that is, matches three different creators to your fanwork). That's right, you get more points if you're actually able to deceive everyone.

Fans are awarded 5 points for each fanwork they guess correctly on the first guess, 3 for each correct second guess and 1 for each correct third guess (obviously the points are only awarded once, so there's no need to guess the same work more than once). No points are being deducted this time.

Creators can also be fans, so they have twice the chance of winning. There will be separate winners for artists and writers.

Prizes

Winners will get boasting rights! XD Plus, of course, a special post for them.

If anyone would like to make fanworks for the winners (like art for the winning writers, fics for the winning artists, edits, whatever), please let me know, that would be super nice!

[otomes-world]

Interviewing witnesses

In the end, I'm still not sure about the outcome, but I don't want to delete or keep this post in drafts. If the characters don't look like themselves, I apologize. I haven't written dialogue for a long time. Just let me know and I'll add the OOC tag Prologue

Chasing two birds is not your style. Of course, you could have limited yourself to general information, briefly write about everything that was happening. However, your internal professionalism and the desire to do everything right, since you had already get half of payment, did their job. You decided to focus on one rumor and process it as well as you could. After all, the client did not specify what exactly and about whom they wanted to know.

Voluntarily getting involved in matters concerning royal families was like trying on the role of a beast tamer. The same one who stuck head into the open mouth of a lion or a tiger. In this case, a lion or a dragon. Not a very attractive prospect.

So you took the path that promised all the juiciest details, regardless of where the investigation led you. Whose rumor sounded the most interesting of all? Of course, about the head of Octavinelle, a young student from a decent family, consistently ranking high in grades and owning a thriving business on the college campus.

Whose deputy and his twin brother did different jobs.

The Coral Sea had long attracted with its mystery, a culture completely different from others. To contribute and become the discoverer of its secrets sounded too attractive to refuse.

Following the target directly was the last and most reckless thing to do. Of course, this way you could collect more reliable information from the first person, but the risks also increased many times over. There was no point in burning extra candles.

In addition, no one was stopping you from changing direction in case of failure and trying to find out about another rumor. For example, Ashengrotto himself. The secret that lay behind the promise to fulfill any desires was a sure-fire lottery ticket for any journalist. It's a pity that you didn't have your own publishing house. How exactly the customer was going to dispose of the received material was entirely their right. Your work ended exactly at the moment of handing over the treasured envelope.

The investigation began surprisingly standardly. Classic phrases thrown here and there to get a random student to talk didn't give you anything you hadn't heard.

A model student

Polite with teachers and others

Always with a friendly smile on face

However, keeping in mind the ingrained phrase 'the quietest ones turn out to be maniacs', you refused to give in. There was definitely more to this than met the eye. Of course, it was too early to talk about criminal inclinations, but there was a grain of truth in every rumor. To single it out from a ton of lies was the true reward.

"Huh? Leech?" Ace, whom you decided to pester during your joint punishment, reacted very characteristically. "If twins deliver what is left of you to Riddle, I will not grieve. What were you thinking-.. No, you weren't thinking at all"

"You sounds like I'm about to get into something dangerous," casually waving your brush so that excess paint flew to the sides, you gave Trappola an eloquent look.

"Don't do that here, I'm just curious," the boy parodied your voice, deliberately batting his eyelashes. "Save that crap for the head. The very last time you asked about Kingscholar-senpai, you returned to Heartslabyul flying by having received a kick in the ass"

Another swing, this time more directed, made Ace jump back, dodging the flying drops.

"Said the one who walked around the college with an anemone on his head."

"That's in the past--!"

"So what happened?"

The first year let out a sigh full of irritation, putting his hands on his hips and looking at you as if you were the embodiment of the word "problem". He could make any face he wanted if it meant he would open his mouth and tell you the details.

"There were so many students involved in this situation, but no one talked about it. Yuu is silent as well. What's the reason?" Each question was accompanied by a step forward, forcing Ace to take one step back. "Was it the principal's decision? Or is the content so embarrassing that you and Deuce agreed to never talk about it again?"

"How this--" Trappola tripped over a stone and fell with a loud thud. You tried your best to suppress a caustic grin, continuing to act like an eccentric student. "Ugh! If you're so interested, go pester Leech yourself. I refuse to participate in this, no-no-no. Get up and go find trouble yourself."

Blowing a strand of hair that fell into your eyes, you straightened up, looking at the almost painted roses. So the role of a exentric student didn't work. Well, it wasn't a great loss. You just need to choose a different type. One that won't arouse suspicion and won't contradict the current one.

Throwing the brush into the bucket of paint, you walked steadily to change, ignoring Ace's indignant cries.

Jade Leech's image was a perfect cover for your next step in gathering more personal information. Of course, who could blame you for "suddenly realizing you're in love"? Many people. Especially the trio of first years, looking at you as if you've finally lost your mind. As if Riddle's punishments had knocked out the last functioning brain cells from your head.

Now the other students, looking at you added new labels "Idiot in Love" and "Love is Really Blind". Even though at first you wanted to quietly and peacefully collect material and disappear, a new wave of rumors about you untied your hands. Reputation was a small price to pay for freedom of action.

To be honest, you didn't doubt for a second that Leech knew about everything. As an experienced detective, you noticed things that others usually turned a blind eye to. How his polite smile never left his face, but his eyes narrowed into knowing slits, forcing you to re-check the mask on your face. Perhaps he was amused by your performance, or perhaps he simply did not consider you worthy of attention. A hindrance that could exist exactly until it began to interfere into his deals.

However, as long as he did not come personally, you could let him think whatever he wanted.

"Who else," you allowed a smile to bloom on your face. "You probably know about my… feelings. How embarrassing," you continued to play the student in love, touching your cheeks with your hands and looking away. "I want to prepare a gift for your vice-leader. Could you answer me a few questions? If you don't mind, of course!"

"I'm sorry, please wait!" You were pursuing another goal. This time it was Octavinelle A student. He looked like an easy target and was unlikely to blab too much.

"Y-yes?" The boy looked around nervously, but fortunately stopped. "Are you talking to me?"

"Me? Y-you mean me?" The boy glanced down the empty corridor once more, and then his eyes widened in fear. "S-sorry, I'll go!"

You let the mask fall from your face for a moment, watching the student run away, as if he was afraid for his life. Feeling movement behind you, you turned around abruptly. There stood Jade himself with a grin. He smiled like that only when talking to Azul or Floyd, planning something what you were trying so hard to find out.

"Good afternoon," you tried to smooth over the previous reaction. "Can I help you with something?"

"Aren't you the one who needs my help, Name-san?" The tone of his voice was soft and calm, but the sparkle in his eyes gave away something completely different. "You wanted to talk about me or should I say about us. Please, correct me if I'm wrong."

"Oh, but you're absolutely right!" It was too late to retreat, if you had to play the role, then until the very end. "Speaking so directly is beyond my strength, forgive me for having such a weak heart. I swear, I was planning anything bad! Really!"

"By searching for and collecting information about me?" He took a step forward while you forced yourself to stand still. "Interviewing your classmates and other students?"

"I just wanted to get to know you better," it wasn't really a lie. "I didn't think it was right to bother you with such trifles. I apologize if I caused you any inconvenience with my actions."

You looked down guiltily at the floor, secretly hoping that your acting was good enough. You mentally ran through the possible outcomes of events in your head. If he convincingly asked you to stop, even better. You would have to revise your role and add a few details, but nothing complicated.

What? For a second, you lost control of your facial expression again, allowing genuine surprise to show.

"I admit honestly, you really added troubles to my plate," you allowed yourself to glance at the young man who continued to tower over you. Contrary to popular belief, this was the first time you were standing so close, and therefore his height made you feel very small. "If you were so interested in me, instead of being content with information from others, you could have approached me personally."

"What do you mean?"

The phrase was said more for the sake of it, to buy some time and come up with a solution.

"Oh, it's so sudden," you touched your cheeks with your hands again, hiding your darting gaze. "This is a joke, right? You're not going to play with a fragile heart in love, are you?"

"Fufufu," Jade only chuckled, touching his chin with hand and baring sharp teeth in a smile, while everything inside you went cold. "You, let me remind, mentioned to others your little crush, am I right?" You nodded mechanically. "What if I express my desire, just like yours, to get to know you better?"

A gloved hand took one of your palms away from your face, forcing you to straighten up and look forward. It was a miracle you didn't snatch it away that second, allowing him to hold your hand and even brush his lips against it in a light kiss.

"Is that enough to dispel all your fears, Name-san?"

There was an unspoken, 'you add another one,' hanging in the air, but you forced yourself to smile as if he had said the sweetest thing in the world. You glanced back furtively, horrified at how long his shadow was, and how it had completely swallowed up yours.

The question of whether you should continue farce for the sake of work remained open.

[expanding-hyrule]

This is largely a repost of the original version I did on @amelias-zelda-calamity-quintet to add to the pinned post, but for the sake of having it here on this blog too as its own post:

The Expanding Hyrule Community Discord!

Much like the name Expanding Hyrule and Original Legends, all of this is very new. And open to feedback 110%. But, much like the fact that there is no name for this niche of the Zelda community, there's not a place either. So we need one so we can pick a name together!

A lot of the assets are temp reused stuff from my fic, MoaH, but the asset is also a guild symbol and what better way to start an adventure with adventurers than with a guild! Union metaphor, adventure tie in, it'll get changed, but until a name gets picked, the acronym would be "EH" which is not as enthusiastic as I'd like to be about this. So, what is the server now!

At the top, I want to mention that I am solo-modding this at the moment, so the scale of what the server can do will scale based on that and whenever I get a mod situation figured out. Which is why:

Server is 16+. For this particular brand of building community, I want to have a space open to new storytellers and established storytellers alike. I am however only one person and until I have more Discord savvy folks to help, I don't know that I have the energy to deal with very young folks.

To the meat of it: this server is, for the purposes of this post, what I'm currently calling "Original Legend" Zelda stories. These are stories that aren't based on any particular game, they would be their own games if they were ever adapted. If you tell stories in that niche or are interested in those kinds of stories, here's your place to help us pick a name for this community and support it!

If you write Original Legend fic, have an Original Legend comic, or generally make fanworks in this niche, you can get your own subcategory set up on the server for boosting and promoting your Hyrule. A community of book clubs is the idea. All you gotta do is head to the Expanding Hyrule section of the server, give me some details on how you want to set up your subsection of the server, and there you go, a place to collect resources for your work maybe a little easier than shifting through a blog or hoping the tags don't break. Here's a few of mine on the server already as examples:

(Some of these subcategories can get big, so minimized for space, here's mine for example)

Continuing on that point, the events section is open for request. If you upload on a schedule or one off but you know the day, I'll get an event set up so folks can get reminders of your releases. Additionally, if you do streams for your art or art for creators in this space, will also happily add those into the events.

For folks that like engaging with Zelda fanworks, yo! You get to help us build a new part of the community! This fandom has built niches before, like the Links Meet niche. Here's another one that we can set up together! And as creators in this space, we need your help because this genre has no central identity for us to organize behind. You get to help create that!

What are y'all waiting for? The pic is linked with the invite, here it is again (x), and it's on the pinned post for this blog.

(This post has external links, so reblogs help a ton!)

[may--hawk]

Writer's Interview Meme

I was tagged by @possibility-left - thanks! This was a blast to noodle over.

How many works do you have on ao3?

34 works if you don't count each chapter of the mixtape series as its own oneshot - which I do. If you count it that way, it's 75 works.

What’s your total word count?

353,780.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. some of these days, AKA the South Downs one.

2. always crashing (in the same car), AKA the time loop one.

3. fall at the foot of thee, which was a huge surprise to me! Yet another "they're not talking" fic. (Mind the rating).

4. this must be the place, which was my first experiment in writing a multi-chapter plotty fic. AKA the Orpheus one.

5. you are wild (i'm in your possession) AKA my first "they're not talking" fic. (Another mind the rating).

Do you respond to comments? Why/why not?

Yes! I am overjoyed when people take the time to comment. Each and every comment I've received is wildly precious to me. Responding to comments has led to a few fantastic friendships. <3

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

always crashing (in the same car), AKA the time loop one. Or, in the mixtape series, love song from a dog.

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

some of these days, AKA the South Downs one. Or, in the mixtape series, here comes the knight (AKA the Lady Aziraphale one.)

Do you write crossovers?

I wrote my first crossover recently - a Good Omens/Jeeves and Wooster crossover, featuring Jeeves as an honest-to-goodness demon. All Hail Jeeves. Probably the one and only crossover I will write, but it begged to be written.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I have not. Maybe way back in the day, but if so, it's blocked out of my memory by now.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I do, but tend to keep it pretty tame (in my opinion) as far as these things go. It's more about the opportunity for *pining*, y'know?

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have not; although I have had someone kind enough to ask, I'm tentative on the real-world applications.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have not!

What's your all-time favourite ship?

I've shipped Aziraphale/Crowley for nearly two decades. It's got to go to them. (I cannot adequately explain how wild it is to me that they are canon in the TV show!)

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

@possibility-left I definitely want to read your WIP if you ever finish it! No pressure!

For my own WIP I will likely never finish, I've got a through-the-ages fic with Aziraphale and Crowley, working title the first love of the world. The reason I think I'll never finish it is that I keep robbing from it to write one-shots. I think it may end up dissected and spread across a hundred different possibilities.

What are your writing strengths?

I think I can pull a reader into a scene in all its details. (I hope). I enjoy world-building a broader history outside the immediate scope of the story, namely through footnotes and backstories (which I usually get inspired by to write other stories).

What are your writing weaknesses?

Ha. Emotionally satisfying happy endings in longer pieces. A complete and utter inability to use the right "awhile" (thanks @benjamental for your eternal corrections.)

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

All English for me so far*- if it were relevant for the characters and story I would do it as necessary.

*This being said, I've got two Greek words in an upcoming fic that I put in Greek, because it was relevant to the character and what I was trying to convey.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Stargate Atlantis, Sheppard/McKay. But that was in another country, and besides, that livejournal* is dead.

*WOW I went digging for that old livejournal and, although it is deleted, found caches of me apparently writing in a ton of fandoms I'd completely forgotten I'd written for. That was a trip.

What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

Discworld, VetVimes. I've got half a rough draft started but haven't worked up my nerve yet. STP's voice is such a tough one to nail and I want to make sure I get those two right before I start.

What's your favourite fic you've written?

@possibility-left Your Michael fic sounds awesome and has been added to my TBR list immediately.

For my own fav fic, I love all my children equally.*

*earlier that day: I don't care for Gob.

Short answer? Usually whatever story I'm currently working on, unless it's giving me a hard time, in which case, it rapidly becomes my least favorite story ever.

Long answer? always crashing (in the same car). I'd been writing straightforward fiction for so long that I relished the opportunity to write something a little weird. In the mixtape series, where some of my favorite stuff is, expresso love or real real gone. In other stuff, Doves' Eyes, which is a collection of A&C pining through the ages organized around Aziraphale's eyes, or and into strange vagaries fall, which is a pre-Fall Beelzebub fic where Beelzebub and Crowley are besties up in the Heavenly Engineering & Development Department. I know, I know, I'm sorry I love all my children equally.

Tagging!! Please feel free to take this if you see it - this was an unexpectedly huge amount of fun. My tags are @chlorine-and-daisies, @hopelesslysleepy, @lvndrlondonfog, and @adverbian.

[g00mbers]

• Chester x Reader (Fluff) 》

On behalf and request of someone!

- - - - - - - - -

You've decided to visit your Jester boyfriend , who fortunately had nothing to do but be funny on most of his shifts , which worked perfectly for him!.

You can't really remember when you fell for him , but in some way he fell for you too , and like hard , slipping on a banana peel type of falling. 

You finally arrived at your destination , You arrived with a basket of sweets of all sorts. It was kind of ironic to bring more sweets to a sweet kingdom but you'd thought it would make a nice touch of detail.

As you arrived the first person to welcome you was Mandy , she opened the door and to be honest , she fortunately seemed a bit more accessible and in a good mood , if you could tell , Chester hasn't played a prank on her ,yet.

"Hey Mandy!" You spoke , grabbing a bit more tightly the basket of sweets you had in hand. 

"Oh , Hey there! , Chester's been waiting for you All day!"

You tilted your head a bit in confusion 

"What do you mean?"

"He hasn't stopped talking about you , which I'm kinda thankful for that , since he has absolutely forgotten to play a prank on me today" She said proudly , placing her hand on her chest.

"Oh no I haven't!" Chester said as he grabbed a rope , and you automatically backed up , As chester pulled it , it motioned a Bucket on the top of the door , full of confetti and glitter , to fall in Mandy's Head 

"UGH! CHESTER how many times- These will be so hard to clean!!!" Mandy said in desperation as she got the bucket out and coughed glitter out

"WOOPS!" Chester giggled smoothly as he slides in the scene

"I'll kill you!" Mandy said glaring at him with pure hate

"Nuh uh! If you get the glitter and confetti fast enough then it'll be easier to get rid of~" He spoke in an "singing" kind of way 

Mandy groaned as she rapidly stormed off the room to clean her clothes

"Woah , it's the first time i have ever seen Mandy let you go so easily" You chuckled before looking back at him

"She doesn't usually attack me in front of customers" Chester shrugged in a cheery way

You could only giggle at his response , before realizing you were still holding your basket , and immediately offering it to him.

"Awww for me? You didn't have t-" Chester said as he Coed mockingly , and reached in for the basket.

 You immediately snapped shut the Picnic Basket before his hand touched it 

"Not now! , it's a surprise , silly!" You smirked 

"Ow you almost cut off my hand!" He said in an exaggerated and pained expression as he held his own hand

You could only laugh as you took his hand and began leading him

 "I hope your hand isn't hurt enough for this then" You said while still holding his hand

"Ready for the date of your life? I'll  make sure to tag you if I take pics!" Chester began to trot in place while slightly pulling you motioning you for a "let's go!" , he was clearly excited to see all the sweets you brought!.

After walking for a bit , you finally made it to a comfy spot , just down the tree where the shade hit perfectly , where you two placed the picnic down in the floor and began accommodating the blankets

 , food and stuff.

"Now we're all settled!" You chirped happily as you sat down , patting a place for him to sit besides you

"Alrighty , coming down!" He tried to sit down but seated in an uncomfortable motion, there were also some noises that sounded like wrapping papers...

"You got something there?" You asked  curiously.

"Well...You thought only my bells made noise? , because!" He said as he lifted up one of his pants leg a bit , dropping tons of candy that were hidden in Chester's pants

"...You had those there the entire time?" You pointed at the fallen candy as you looked confused

"I mean...not the entire day! But I stole a few from Mandy!" Chester picked up some candy from the blanket as he began unwrapping it and throwing them to his mouth

"But if i gotta be honest , we probably don't want to tell her!" He whispered before backing up , still eating the candy with a smug look on his face.

You then continued chuckling as you grabbed the candy and began unwrapping and eating one by one , until you finally spoke again

"Got any more surprises"? You leaned in closer to his face , as he flushed red for a second before looking to the side and playing it off as a laugh.

"Only one" He looked to the floor as he then pointed up , as you lifted your view up , you could see a mistletoe hanging on a tree branch. 

You looked up for some seconds , before realizing what was he talking about and you began speaking

...

"Chester it's nowhere near christma-" before you could continue speaking , Chester planted a soft kiss in your lips , You got completely caught off guard as he did this , but soon enough you warmed up to it and leaned in to kiss him back , but unfortunately , the kiss was soon cut short as he leaned back and smiled to himself proudly , meanwhile you looked absolutely flustered and confused , but happy.

"Oh by the way you got a little something  on your face" He said smugly , before getting up and wiping off the dust of the floor off his pants 

"Sorry for the short time! It's probably best if I come back before Mandy makes confetti out of me... But it was good to see you though!" He blew a kiss at you ,  before trotting off again , still giggling to himself

As you saw him go , you noticed that his lips were tinted in a weird blueish-color ...was he wearing something?. 

You immediately took your phone  and searched for the camera as you remembered the "You got a little something" comment

And then you saw yourself with the same lipstick color smeared in your face , and as you tried to wipe it out...the color didn't even move.

You just continued staring at him as you saw him go , your face still red and thinking about him and the whole situation , before realizing you just got both charmed and pranked on the same day.

Now you guess you'll have to walk all around Starr park looking like a clown... But it was still a part of your wonderfully funny Jester boyfriend. 

[amelias-zelda-calamity-quintet]

Ok, I think I have this pivot done, but nothing is permanent so let's start somewhere and build the rest together! So, reintroducing:

The Expanding Hyrule Community Discord!

Much like the name Expanding Hyrule and Original Legends, all of this is very new. And open to feedback 110%. But, much like the fact that there is no name for this niche of the Zelda community, there's not a place either. So we need one so we can pick a name together!

A lot of the assets are temp reused stuff from my fic, MoaH, but the asset is also a guild symbol and what better way to start an adventure with adventurers than with a guild! Union metaphor, adventure tie in, it'll get changed, but until a name gets picked, the acronym would be "EH" which is not as enthusiastic as I'd like to be about this. So, what is the server now!

At the top, I want to mention that I am solo-modding this at the moment, so the scale of what the server can do will scale based on that and whenever I get a mod situation figured out. Which is why:

Server is 16+. For this particular brand of building community, I want to have a space open to new storytellers and established storytellers alike. I am however only one person and until I have more Discord savvy folks to help, I don't know that I have the energy to deal with very young folks.

To the meat of it: this server is, for the purposes of this post, what I'm currently calling "Original Legend" Zelda stories. These are stories that aren't based on any particular game, they would be their own games if they were ever adapted. If you tell stories in that niche or are interested in those kinds of stories, here's your place to help us pick a name for this community and support it!

If you write Original Legend fic or have an Original Legend comic, you can get your own subcategory set up on the server for boosting and promoting your Hyrule. A community of book clubs is the idea. All you gotta do is head to the Expanding Hyrule section of the server, give me some details on how you want to set up your subsection of the server, and there you go, a place to collect resources for your work maybe a little easier than shifting through a blog or hoping the tags don't break. Here's a few of mine on the server already as examples:

Continuing on that point, the events section is open for request. If you upload on a schedule or one off but you know the day, I'll get an event set up so folks can get reminders of your releases. Additionally, if you do streams for your art or art for creators in this space, will also happily add those into the events.

For folks that like reading Zelda fic & comics, yo! You get to help us build a new part of the community! This fandom has built niches before, like the Links Meet niche. Here's another one that we can set up together! And as creators in this space, we need your help because this genre has no central identity for us to organize behind. You get to help create that!

What are y'all waiting for? The pic is linked with the invite, here it is again (x), and it's on the pinned post for this blog.

(This post has external links, so reblogs help a ton!)

[not-poignant]

Any writing advice that works for you and you feel like sharing? with the understanding that no advice is universal of course

28. Any writing advice that works for you and you feel like sharing?

So I have a ton of stuff in the Pia on Writing tag that goes into a lot of detail but (with the caveat to ignore anything that doesn't work for you):

Learn to love your mistakes, because you must make a lot of them to get good at writing, so if you hold back because you're worried about your writing being bad, your shooting yourself in the foot. Your writing HAS to be bad for it to get better. Or: You need manure/shit (bad writing) to grow a really good garden (good writing). You want a good garden? Start shoveling the shit in, lol.

Clever marketing won't solve not putting the hours in to hone your craft.

In fanfiction, make sure it's fun. That doesn't mean it can't be hard sometimes, that you can't dread editing sometimes or drafting, that you can't have sadder times, but make sure that the overall net is always positive. Otherwise, take a break.

In professional writing, learn how to stop waiting for inspiration to strike, and learn to turn up on that dance floor on your own. Inspiration is a fickle dance partner, it often won't turn up unless you develop the discipline to turn up first.

Sometimes the writing you absolutely slog through that feels stilted and bad is some of your best writing. Just because it feels clunky when you're writing, doesn't mean it reads clunky. Just because it feels smooth when you're writing, doesn't mean it reads smooth. Your emotional state at the time of writing does not determine the quality of writing. Feeling good while you're writing =/= good writing. Likewise feeling bad while writing =/= bad writing.

You do not need a daily habit to be good at writing. Develop one if you want one, but personally I don't have one and I'm super happy that way. Take your weekends, have your leisure time, goddamn it, don't be a terrible boss to yourself.

Writing can be both lonely and exhausting - make some non-douchey writer friends (or artist or creative friends), and make sure you take breaks. Because writing is so cerebral, you'd be surprised how much physical activity can help with recovery, like stretching, gentle walks, workouts, etc.

Eat brain food. Snacking during writing is actually normal. I have nuts on hand for protein boosts, but I'll also eat chocolate or snack on quick energy boosts.

Stay hydrated.

Ignore any writing advice that goes 'you must do this in order to be a writer' or 'you have to do this one thing to be successful.' They're wrong. There is no one-true-path in writing with the exception that you do have to write in order to like...be a writer, imho.

You are going to want to compare yourself to others, but be very aware of who you're comparing yourself to. If you're new, why are you comparing yourself to someone with 10-20 years of experience? If you're disabled and fatigued, why are you comparing yourself to able-bodied writers? Stop competing with people outside of your metaphorical weight class, they're not your competition. I'm not going to tell you not to compare yourself to others, but be very careful of how you compare yourself to others. I've had new writers be like 'I could never do your wordcounts (so I'm not as good of a writer)' and like, no friend, neither could I 10 years ago. This is literally a decade of hard work and practice. Some skills really just come with time. (Also most writers are more successful after writing less words than me so y'know lol).

If you get shitty comments/critiques, remind yourself that if you wouldn't take personal advice from a complete stranger like this (and you wouldn't), then their shitty comments/critiques aren't worth your time either.

On AO3, the delete, block, moderate comments function and mute buttons are all free. USE THEM. Don't bother giving haters airtime on your fics. Elsewhere on the internet, as much as you can, try and ignore review sites. Like seriously.

Learn your writing style. Practice planning, plantsing and pantsing! Practice writing one thing or more than one thing at a time. Practice different genres. You might be surprised at what fits you as a person! Think of it like being a musician, you're not trying to be a band that already exists, you're trying to be your band and you're trying to find your sound.

You're probably very good at noticing your weaknesses, get good at noticing your strengths, and use those to shore up the places where you're still building skills.

Do writing prompts. I cannot stress this enough, but learn how to write settings. Describe the dialogue of a friend. Write a character dossier on a television character. Practice worldbuilding, practice character building.

Fill the well. Read broadly across many genres. Watch many different types of media. Listen to many audiobooks. The best way to not sound derivative of a particular order is to saturate yourself with inspiration from hundreds of different places.

That's probably enough! dklsjfdas

~

From this meme!

[kosomolski-dolls]

How to spot a Recast store.

First of all, what is a recast?

A recast is an unlicensed copy of a BJD, a knockoff, a fake. Usually the dolls are bought from a legit company (sometimes not even from the recast company itself, but from supporters), a mold is made (either making a physical mold or a 3D scan) and then the dolls can be mass produced. Usually made in China, but there are exceptions to this.

I'm not going into detail here on why they are a big problem, there are tons of posts about this on the internet. They are bad, they destroy the dollmakers and artists that I love, if you're fine with that, this blog isn't for you.

This blog is for those, that want to buy legit BJDs and don't want to accidentally buy a recast, which is getting harder and harder.

I'll put this under a cut, because this is gonna get a bit lengthy.

What not to do: Google "buy BJD", you'll literally get a ton of Ali Express listings of knockoff BJDs.

You will have to do some research up front, you need to know what company you want to buy. For that, you can go to the BJD hashtag, here, on instagram, sometimes even Twitter, and see if there is something you like. Usually people also tag the company and sculpt, and if not, asking usually gets the reply.

You can also go to one of the many official dealer pages and just click through their dolls to see if you find something that you like.

Stay away from Ali Express and Amazon. Both of these pages are riddled with knockoffs. Idk if there are actually any legit sellers on Ali, if there are, they are few. I think Dollzone sells on Amazon, but seriously, most of the dolls there are fakes.

Ebay and Etsy are also full of recasts, but you can find some legit dolls there.

So, how do you spot a recast store? Let me show you some hints, that are usually a dead giveaway.

A lot of different styles.

This is the header of an etsy shop. While the two on the left might be from the same maker, the other two are very different. (The one on the right is a doll from Fairyland, one of the, if not the most recasted company out there).

Different styles only make sense, if the seller is a distributor/dealer. If it's not a dealer, back out.

Which brings us to the next point:

Generic names.

If a shop were a dealer, they would give you the names of the companies and sculpts.

Example from an official dealer:

See how you can choose the company, size, and then the sculpts? Recast shops don't give you that (there's one exception, that I'll mention later).

They give you "1/4 BJD Doll MSD", "Girl BJD 1/6" or if they wanna go all out "1/3 BJD Doll 60.5CM Full Set BJD Doll With Clothes Resin Toys Best Gift for Girls Hand Made Doll Custom Dolls OOAK Art Doll diy Dolls".

They want to stay as generic as possible, so the newbies that google for "buy bjd" will be redirected to their pages.

If you find generic names, back the hell out of there. I don't know a single company or dealer, that do not tell you what doll exactly you're buying!

Short production time

BJDs take time to make. They are not mass produced dolls, they are casted, sanded, strung and packed by small companies. Even the big names in this hobby usually are just a hand full of people. So it takes time.

Usually between 2-6 months. I don't know any company that actually gives you an estimate below 60 days. Sometimes they ship faster (maybe it's a popular sculpt and they have actually made some for stock, maybe they didn't have a lot of orders during that time, etc), but they don't usually give you a shorter timeline.

If your listing claims the doll will be shipped in 1-2 weeks? Bad news for you, that's usually a recast store.

Price

I hate to say it, but this is an expensive hobby. Dolls usually cost at least $200, oftentimes more. There are some companies that have cheaper prices, but if it goes below $150, I would definitely have a closer look.

Now, the price is usually the last thing that I mention, because before the price tag, you should check for all the things mentioned above. Only if you have a consistent style, specific names, and a timeline that makes sense, then you should check for the price.

I say that, because I know of one Recast store, that tries so hard to look legit, they actually put effort in it.

And that is the BJD Shop.

Look at that. You have company names, you have sculpt names, it looks like a legit dealer (if you ignore that their production time is 1-4 weeks).

But now look at the prices.

Not taking into account that this specific sculpt isn't even available from Fairyland anymore, the price? Is not even $100 (for blank doll).

Now let's look at the actual price by FL:

Rule of thumb: If a price is too good to be true, it very likely is.

So I recommend actually looking for the doll company, if you find a dealer you're not sure is legit, and compare the prices.

A good page for information is Den Of Angels. It's a forum, but a lot of things are easily available without account through Google. For example their dealer list. Is it complete? I don't know, maybe not, but it's a good start.

I hope this is helpful for anyone who isn't sure about a shop they want to buy from.

[kaydeefalls]

20 questions for writers

tagged by @lindstromm - thanks! I'm in a bleh mood so a good askmeme is right up my alley at the moment.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

229, which include any fic I've written going back to 2002. About 30 of those works are vids instead.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

1,518,992! I just passed the 1.5mil mark with my last fic, and am very pleased with that. Especially because I remember only passing the 1mil mark early on in TOG fandom, so I've written quite a lot of those words just in the past few years. (By my standards, at least, that's a lot!)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Many. I am very multifannish at heart. I tend to settle into one primary fandom for a few years at a time, but even then, I'm still writing the occasional oneshot for random other fandoms. Most recent primary fandoms were The Old Guard and X-Men, most recent fic posted was for Heartstopper (and I'll likely linger in that fandom for a bit now that I'm here).

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Logical Deduction (HP, Remus/Sirius) - a very silly fic from 2006 that has, to my mild dismay, somehow risen the kudos ranks (6245 kudos?!) by virtue of the sheer enormity of HP fandom. So it goes.

it's like one of us woke up (X-Men, Charles/Erik) - XMFC canon divergence / fix-it fic. I'm still unsure why this is my most popular Cherik fic, but I'm not mad about it.

she's the one that they call old whatsername (Star Trek AOS, Kirk/Spock) - my only non-crossover Trek fic, and always-a-girl!Kirk to boot. I do love this one, still.

The Pond Continuum (Doctor Who, Amy/Rory) - in which Amy and Rory unwittingly encounter various other companions as they live out their post-Doctor life on the slow path. I am fond.

life is very long (Old Guard, Nicky/Joe) - my first TOG fic, posted like a week after the movie hit fandom like a ton of bricks, and reaping the kudos benefits of being in the right place at the right time. It was a good entry point into a new fandom for me, for sure!

I do love that my top 5 are all completely different fandoms; that feels very reflective of me as a writer. (Top 6, actually, since #6 is MCU.)

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes, always, if only with a quick thanks. Because I really appreciate receiving them, and want the commenters to know.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

The angstiest ENDING? I have to dig deeper into the past for those, because I was more prone to writing them when I was much younger. These days, while I do enjoy a bit of angst along the way, I NEED a happy ending. Probably one of my old Remus/Sirius fics, but I'm not going trawling for a link now.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Most of them, lately. I need to believe in happiness. Fandom is my escapism from an increasingly grimdark reality.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Very rarely, fortunately. Let's keep it that way. The backbutton is right there if you don't like any of my fics, no hard feelings.

9. Do you write smut?

Not really? Sex scenes, yeah, sometimes, but I've only got 4 fics (out of 229) rated as Explicit, and honestly, glancing over them now, they probably only really warrant an M rating. I have no interest in describing bits and bodily fluids in graphic detail, I don't personally find that sexy. But sex is a significant element of human connection for many folks, so yeah, I'll include it where it feels appropriate.

10. Do you write crossovers?

Yes, though I prefer fusions (characters from one verse written into another) to more literal crossovers (character A from fandom A meets character B from fandom B). But I've certainly written a few. They're fun!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, several! I'm always excited and honored when that happens.

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

Nope, never. I'd be curious to try that out someday, though honestly, writing is such a private/internal activity for me that I'm not sure I'd be any good at it.

14. What is your all time favorite ship?

I do NOT play favorites in this way. I love all my OTPs in all their unique and individual ways, and I'll always happily revisit them years and years later (as a reader, at least). Here, let's just say that Mulder/Scully was my very first ever OTP, so they will always have a special place in my heart.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I've never abandoned a WIP once I've started posting it (though a couple took YEARS to finish, ugh), so really, now we're just looking at my personal WIP folder in gdocs. There are a few in there I'm sad about leaving unfinished. Um, let's go with an old Doctor Who/Torchwood fic, which I've got like 15k words written for but have long since moved on from. Every few years I'll dig it up and reread what I wrote and quietly mourn the fact that I never finished it, but there's no way I'll ever get back into that particular headspace (and the fandom is a very different place now).

16. What are your writing strengths?

Character voices. I'm a good mimic.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Sex scenes/action scenes. I despise writing these. Smut I avoid, but action scenes are sometimes necessary, and they drive me up a fucking wall.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language during a fic?

If it's just a few words/brief phrases sprinkled in, because that's how the character in question would speak, great. If there's extended dialogue - well, still depends on the character POV to me. If the character DOES speak the other language, I'd write it out in English (since that's the language I write fic in) and indicate through the narration that they're actually speaking Italian, or French, or what have you. If the POV character does NOT speak the language themself but is overhearing it, I don't include the dialogue at all, just narration to describe it. It's all about whose POV we're in and what's actually being understood, to me.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

X-Files. You will not find those fics on my AO3. I was very young then.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

NO FAVORITES. TOO MANY FICS. My most recent fic is usually my current favorite, anyway, so have one last plug for and we have all the time in the world (to get it right) if you're into Heartstopper, and let's move on. 😉

No-pressure tagging @andrea-lyn, @knoepfchen, @polarcell and anyone who's in the mood to play!

[fandomfluffandfuck]

S that latest poll answer makes me sad for you. Did that inspire that fic you wrote about Sebastians body image and thr beetle?

related to my tags on this poll & this fic of mine "The Kids Aren't Alright"

This gets personal and kind of intense, so it goes below the cut!

Trigger warning for discussion of general poor mental health, depression, suicidal ideation/self harm, eating disorders, body image issues, etc.

The short answer is an overwhelming yes.

"The Kids Aren't Alright" was very much something that I wrote because it struck a chord in me--Sebastian talking about his experience with body dysmorphia always hits home for me as a guy with body dysmorphic disorder, and the first time I heard Mackie admittedly very affectionately teasing him, saying he got stuck in the VW Beetle, I was a little horrified, I mean, secondhand embarrassement, imagining embarrasment so vividly it was horrible, really. So, naturally, I had to make it into a fic.

Also, I hope you don't mind, sweets, before going on, I'm adding onto your ask with another that I got even more recently:

youre very generous with what you share, so ignore this if im over the line, but its mens mental health month and that suicidal ideation post made me think of your mental health, whats been your experience with it?? i dont have a lot of men in my life who are willing to share with me, so i thought i would ask you 🥰🥰 please delete this if youre uncomfy tho

which is related to this

Both of you are such sweethearts!

Thanks, though, I don't exactly try to share a shit ton 🤷🏻‍♂️ I guess, eh, being somewhat anonymous in this corner of the internet yet being honest in the form of the spectrum of emotion from raw feral angst to private domestic fluff to shameless shut coaxes me into being so forthcoming? Not that I'm, like, super reserved otherwise, lmao.

I'll start with a short answer again before I go into deeper detail, which is just to say: my experience with it has been rough. I, a queer man, grew up in a small, red town with a very traditional family, so... yeah. It was not fun.

Okay, longer answer now because when given the opportunity, I. will. yap.

I think I will start with masculinity here because I feel as though a lot of my experiences with mental health and issues with my body tie directly into my masculinity. I don't have problems with being a man, I love being a man, it's who I am, I just don't love some of the expectations of being a man on a grand societal and interpersonal level, y'know?

Masculinity, to me, was always presented as the thing you have to be or else. Or else my parents were disappointed; or else the other boys wouldn't like me; or else I felt bad about myself: or else there must be something wrong with me; or else I must be gay; or else.

I have older siblings, and my older brother was in Boy Scouts when we were kids. Both of my parents fucking love the outdoors. So, of course, they loved that. My dad, specifically, spent all his time doing Scouts shit with my brother or organizing similar activities just for them when not at work. (I had a traditional western family unit, my dad worked, my mom was a stay-at-home mom.) And while I do enjoy the outdoors and camping and hiking and all that, just in smaller doses, I never wanted to join Scouts. I nearly immediately attached myself to art, so I just didn't have the interest. I can't do art if I'm outside digging in dirt, fighting with sticks, practicing knots, doing target practice, and backpacking (or whatever else the boys in the troop were doing), can I? That meant, if I wanted to draw or do crafts or something creative, I was inside, and my mom was looking after me and my sister while my dad and brother were out.

That did not sit well with my dad. He wanted me outside, joining Boy Scouts and fixing cars, playing mechanics with my brother. I did not want to. He tried very hard to get me to be as interested in more stereotypically manly activities with him and my brother, and it didn't work.

I'm just more artistic. That was always a clear disappointment.

To add on, as I grew up, I was not physically traditionally masculine, either. I've cracked jokes here and there that I'm not too dissimilar to pre-serum Steve before. It's not far off. I'm about 5'6", a little taller, and skinny.

I grew up waiting desperately for puberty, waiting for my muscles and growth spurt and... it didn't happen. My voice dropped way deep (which meant it cracked wildly and super noticeably, and, of course, I got shit for it), and I enjoyed that. I never had a pressing issue with my dick, I mean, I would hazard a guess that anyone with a dick worries about size at some point just because that's something etched deep in social sexuality, but I had more pressing things to obsess over. Like, at first, when body hair started to kick in, I was psyched to see it, and then it kept coming and suddenly guys in the locker room were pointing it out and making fun of me for being a "little guy" with so much body hair. Puberty also did fuck my face up with acne which destroyed a lot of my self-esteem, too. I had to go on Accutane not once, not twice, but three times. I still have a robust routine to keep my skin clear (but it is clear these days and I'm still reeling thinking about it, it took someone telling me I had really nice skin for me to snap out of it and realize I wasn't still covered with acne, actually. And that was recent!).

I didn't have my pre- to post-serum sudden increase in height and muscle moment, so I continued to feel scrawny and weak. Having pectus excavatum, a birth defect where my sterum curves in instead of going down in a straight line, never helped, either--I got made fun of for that, of course. I remember a comment about how one guy in a locker room wasn't going to dare to hit me/slap me on the back because he would clearly just break me... yeah, that didn't help feeling like the odd one out, unmasculine, fragile, and unattractive.

My self-esteem is much better these days, I will gladly say, but I genuinely used to get sick to my stomach just thinking about what I looked like, never mind actually looking in the mirror. I felt horrible that I had to go out in public and subject people to looking at my face. I'm an avid journal-er, and I have old entries where I just go on and on and on and on about how I felt like a monster. Disgusting and hideous.

It doesn't matter that I know, objectively, that I have a fairly masculine and even an attractive face. My jaw is square, I can grow a beard, I have a deep voice, my eyes are green, I've been very lucky to have straight, white teeth without braces and all that. Plus, people seem to like my cheekbones and curly hair. My voice, too, people seem to enjoy my voice and my mouth. So, evidently, others seem to appreciate my face. So many people spread over so many years have no real reason to lie. I'm complimented. I've not had problems when it comes to dating and relationships or whatever. Yet still, it's just not what I see. I say I know objectively what I look like because I know facts about myself, but I...

I don't really know what I look like, if that makes sense? My reflection shifts a lot, over the years I have had a problem with every part of my face, every part of my body, and I know I can't trust what I see in the mirror. I fixate on things, and it consumes my viewing experience.

Part of the consequences of all... that... all those issues above have been my experience with eating disorders. I've had some fun [sarcastic] mix of orthorexia, binge eating disorder, and anorexia over most of my conscious life. From the moment I was aware of myself and my own body, I've had problems fueling my body. It's a cycle over years and years that's been going on since late elementary school (around 10, 11), where I'm fucking sick and tired of feeling weak and useless and not masculine, so I push myself too hard in the gym and kitchen--working out until I'm physcially ill, blacking out, blistering from running and lifting, I've torn a few things that way, while obsessing with healthy foods at the same time to the point that it's unhealthy. That happens for however long I can take it. Then, eventually, I break. And I get into a cycle of binging that destroys my ability to go to the gym, so it's just binging. Cycles of it, uncontrollable. That morphs into feeling too big and disgusted with myself in the opposite way that I started with, so my brain fixates on restricting. What goes up must come down, though, so with enough of that... then I feel too small again and, yeah. It starts over. 🙃

I have worked very hard to break it with the help of friends and a short lived experience with therapy (he was a terrible therapist, then my insurance stopped covering it, so I couldn't afford to go or find a new one), but I've--dare, I say--gotten into some kind of balance more recently.

To end on perhaps a hilariously on-theme note and something happier, what I have found is that sex helps. Therapy and supportive friends and good environment are obviously irreplaceable. But, sex is good, too. When I was in the thick of all that, younger with my mental health challenges way more out of control, I'm sure I was just getting away from the numbness and hurt--endorphins, oxytocin, y'know, all that.

Then, I'm sure it was added to by the fact that suddenly, with sex, women (I am queer but when I started fucking around, I only felt safe enough to be with women, I didn't think I could be out where I was, and now... that's just the way it's worked out. It happens to have been women) were enjoying me. Enjoying what I could give them. Complimenting me explicitly or implicitly. Saying I'm hot or, clearly, if we're having sex, I'm not so disgusting that you don't want to fuck me.

But, sex helps beyond those rudimentary things, too. Finding kinky people and sex-positive people has inadvertently led me to find body positive people and find examples of real bodies--people really actually enjoying themselves. Spending more time naked is beneficial, too, haha. Slowly, I'm learning to appreciate myself more. This is my body. It's the only one I have to live in, I may as well make peace with it. And I will take the pleasure that my body can give others. I appreciate that I can do that. I like making people feel good, I like having their faith put in me to make them feel good and treat them and their bodies well, like they're desired, or not 😏, depending on what they're into. I want to pull that pleasure out of them. I want to make them feel good, bad, whatever. I want them to feel in their body.

Did that answer the question, lmao? I just rambled 💀💀

[therealbl0om-blog]

About Me! (UPDATED)

Hello! As some of the people that follow me, remember my old about me.. Well, I have deleted that one and decided to update it. This will be my new About me for now. Keep in touch!

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

Hello, my name is Bloom! I'd rather keep most of my stuff private, such as my age, address, etc. I myself am a writer, mostly a role-player, I love to draw tons of stuff, drawing Kaiju's is my favorite topic to draw! (Ex. Godzilla...) and/or some backgrounds, aesthetic sunsets, sunrises, sky, stuff like that! I am IN LOVE, MADLY in love with two characters from my favorite show (Transformers: Rescue Bots) and those two characters are Kade and Heatwave. I would die for stories about Kadewave, or talk about them 24/7 I just LOVE their dynamic in the show and It's the only thing I'd mainly write about, role-play about or talk about!

I would love to write about Kadewave, stories, plots, head-cannons, It's just my thing man. But I can write other stories for custom-characters, made up-characters, and so on. ˘˘

STORIES THAT I ACCEPT:

Romance

Comedy

Horror

LGBTQ+ Stories (Gay, Bi, etc)

Adventures

Journey's

Mysteries

STORIES THAT I DON'T ACCEPT:

Hara**ments

Abus**ents (Ex. abusing relationship, family, friend...)

Se*ual Actions

Involving Alcohol

^^

I DON'T write about those topics, but I am fine with talking about them (besides the Se*ual Actions topic). Such as characters being harassed, abused, drunk (basically their past, etc). That I am fine with, only if we keep it at a low limit! Going over the limit, I am sorry but we can no longer talk about that topic.

I don't do commissions for art just yet because of some personal issues about credit cards, paypal, stuff like that so I won't be doing commissions until then, till the problem is solved. Although, I can do requests. Unfortunately I have been in a lack of drawing so I lost my skills from the past and my art has been getting worse and worse each attempt I try to do. ˘˘

STUFF THAT I CAN DRAW:

Kaiju's (Godzilla, Shin Godzilla, Destoroyah, MAYBE Ghidorah,...)

Background's (Sunsets, Sunrises, Forests, Oceans, The Sky, Space,...)

Dragon's (Night Furies, Light Furies, Any Type Dragon FOR NOW.)

Only Portraits, not full body!

Simple Animals (Parrot, Owl, Mouse,...)

STUFF THAT I CAN'T DRAW:

Human Bodies

Robots (Transformers, Animal Robots,...)

Mythical Creatures

Animals (Dogs, Cats, Horses,...)

Earthly Vehicles (Cars, Planes, Boats (Maybe), Motorcycles,...)

As I've mentioned before, yes, I do role-play and I role-play QUITE A LOT. Thanks to role-playing my writing has evolved and gotten better since the first time I did my writing story. I love role-playing about Kadewave (Where are my Kadewave people!?!?!). I mostly love to play as Kade and have a whole angst on him and have the world turn on him, think everything is his fault, bla bla but there can be angst on Heatwave as well and I'm fine with that! I love to role-play about their partnership, not involving other Rescue Bots, Humans. Just them in the role-play, as if the others don't exist but the plot can have them 'off island' or the two can be far off in a different country, having a break, or whatever.

I role-play on Discord 24/7, that's the only platform I can role-play on but I can gladly role-play here on Tumblr in the Messages, just by using (Kade)/(Heatwave)/(CHARACTER NAME) at the start to know who were playing as. I'm very detailed in my role-play parts, and when I say detailed.. I at least have a lot of words in my part (100 (Min)-1000(Max)). I use a bot on Discord called the Tupperbox, where you can make your own bot for the role-play and play as it! It won't say your name, it will only say [The Bots Name] and will have the tag 'Bot' as every bot does!

If you want to role-play with me, on Tumblr, on Discord, feel free to ask. Send me a question, or message me, I'll respond as fast as I can. Although, I have a few topics that I'm fine with role-playing, and some that I'm not fine and I'd be glad to put those in.

TOPICS THAT I'M FINE WITH:

Depression

Self-Harm

Self-Suicide

Anxiety

LGBTQ (Having two characters same gender, fall in love,...)

Traumatizing Backstories

Comedy

Adventures

Journey's

Arguments

Partnership's

Friendship's

Gore / Horror

TOPICS THAT I'M NOT FINE WITH:

Se*ual Energy/Actions

Harassments Energy/Actions

Abusing Energy/Actions

Vore

Harassments, Abusing and Se*uality CAN be mentioned but there won't be any actions (The characters doing those topics in the role-play)! If you're asking for these actions to appear they will NOT, and the role-play plot will be CANCELLED!

If you're a Discord user, you can freely message me and/or ask me for my Discord user, first we will talk about the plot of the role-play, the character and the whole topic about it here on Tumblr, after that's settled we'll be heading on Discord and I'll teach you about the Tupperbox if you don't know already.

That's it for now!

[anubiarts]

hi ! I have to learn pixel art for a game development class im taking.... do you have any tips to perhaps get started? (i have aseprite alr :3) thank u!!!!!!!!

Hi! I'm not the best person to ask this (my only projects for game dev were unfinished projects very early on), but I'll try to help

There's 3 important things that I'd say you should know about pixel art for game development specifically: Tiles/Tilesets, Character Animation, and Consistent Sizing

Let's go for one by one

Tiles/Tilesets

While you can make completely hand-drawn scenes for games, it's certainly way harder to do, as it requires a lot more time to achieve, and with things like deadlines on the way, you'll probably have to crunch yourself to achieve it on time, which I wouldn't recommend, especially if you're just starting out

This is where the Tiles/Tilesets come in handy. To put it simply, a Tile is a pattern that can either repeat horizontally/vertically/in all sides, or also a pattern that doesn't exactly repeat in any direction, but can be used to give a smoother end to something, like a corner. There's way more uses for Tiles, but these two are the most common types you'll see

A tileset is a collection of tiles, commonly with the tiles being together with those they work well with

Below is an example of a (messy) tileset along with how the tiles work together!

Basically these two allow you to make scenes quickier and easier, which is a lifesaver most of the time

Below is the most common type of tileset (for platformers and side-view games)!

There's a variant of this which adds slopes and smoother cornes on the insides, but this is still a good starting point

Basically these tiles allow you to cover most sizes regarding ground/wall tiles, which work well in things like gameboy games for example

As for Aseprite, in the latest update they added tileset layers, which makes it way easier to reorganize tiles, along with the existing Tiled mode, which duplicates your current canvas in all axis (or a specific one, depending on which one you pick) to see how the tile connects with their surroundings

You can enable Tiled mode by going into View > Tiled Mode and picking the best option that suits your tile. As for the tileset layers, there's this video that goes far more into detail on how it works:

Character Animation

I want you to look at this set of animations

How many frames do you think were used for each one?

The answer is 4 or less!

The idle animation has 3 frames, the walking/running animation has 4, and the sliding animation has 2! (which technically is the exact same image, but slightly moved left and right between each frame)

If you're starting out with pixel art, I'd really recommend to minimize the amount of frames you use in total, as it'll make it way easier to work with if you don't know much about pixel art/animation, plus you can still manage to add tons of personality into each frame

In Aseprite, you can add tags (by clicking the frame number and "Add Tag"), which helps to separate specific animations. Also, depending on your game engine/tool, it'll pick animations either by a sprite-sheet or by separate png files. I'll cover spritesheets here as that's the most common method

In Aseprite, if you go to File > Export, you can choose to export a Spritesheet, which is essentialy a set of frames connected into a single image, which can then be imported into a game engine/tool and be tweaked there

There's 4 buttons in the Export Spritesheet prompt, "Layout", "Sprite", "Borders" and "Output"

In "Layout" you can select how the frames should be arranged, along with setting constraints on them

In "Sprite", you can select the source of these frames, along with specifying if you want to export a specific layer/tag or all of them

in "Borders" you can specify if you want to add padding or remove space from your exported file

and in "Output" you can enable the option to export the spritesheet (in "Output file") along with a JSON data file if you want

Tweak these options depending on how your game engine/tool handles spritesheets, and you should be good to go!

Consistent Sizing

if you do art with backgrounds already, this shouldn't be hard to do, but it's still important!

This one should be straightforward; Keep the sizes of the characters and scenarios around the same size! Unless you're making something like Grounded, a character will look out of place with a normal house 20 times it's size

Work between the sizes of the tiles and characters to make consistent sizes all around

You can break this rule somewhat if it helps portray better your idea, like here:

but don't go too over the top with it!

I hope this helped a bit ^^

(sorry for the delay with this btw)