#I haven't checked the website in about a year too which means there's so much for me to catch up on!

[drawbudd]

its been almost a year since I've drawn this little guy! How time flies huh

[papaya-inspiration]

Foreach 2024 Reader Survey Results

So, my buddy @lumsel makes a lil webcomic called Foreach. I help 'em out with it sometimes. The comic's website doesn't have a comment section, so I thought it'd be fun to do a little year-end survey to see who was reading and what they think!

We had an incredible response, with 279 respondents to the survey--more than are in the Foreach discord server! So let's get into it.

Character Popularity Poll

Alright, let's start with the thing I know y'all are most excited about. As the comic creators, we love all our characters equally... but clearly you guys don't!

☀️ SUNNY SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!!! ☀️

Y'all REALLY like Sunny, eh? Don't worry, us too. In fact, 80.3% of you listed her in your top 3 favorite characters. Hell yeah.

The next top four characters are the four game protagonists, with Jiro ranking top, then Nix, Cliff and Coral. A lot of readers also mentioned Jiro as particularly relatable/lovable in the write in box at the end of the form. (Don't worry, I won't tell him y'all like him this much. Though with this many Love Warriors, Proteus won't stand a chance invading the island.) I was a bit surprised to see Jasper/Coral ranked as the lowest of the four protagonists! Given that the comic initially presents her as the "anchor" character and a jumping off point for the story as a whole--but that also means she's among the least unusual of the four protagonists, and thus stands out less? It's a hypothesis.

After that, we have Polyta (which makes a lot of sense, she's had some of the most page time of the side characters), then Mercy and Doctor Kree'zik. I wonder if some of this is recency bias, partiularly in Kree'zik's case, seeing as we haven't gotten much past xer character introduction yet. I'll be curious to see how these numbers shift if we run this again next year!

We also got some minor character write ins! Several people said they enjoyed various Aveans, with two votes specifically for the Avean Captains and someone else voting for the avean grunt from page 106 who says "Thanks a bundle!" And I agree: they're pretty adorable. Another person listed "the author" as their favorite character which... you know what, it is a fairly meta comic, so I'll allow it. (Even though, hilariously, Lum is the only member of the creative team to have not had a character cameo in the comic yet.)

Also shout out to the person who wrote in that they almost listed the character cameos for Peri and Kiki (the rat and the rabbit from pgs 24-25) as their favorites. I see you and appreciate you <3

Game Popularity Poll

Not a ton to say about this. People seem to like cozy-ish indie games and furry aesthetics. Makes sense to me.

Comic Info

How are people finding Foreach?

As always, word of mouth is CRUCIAL for indie webcomics getting off the ground. You guys sharing and linking it to friends and communities is really the engine behind getting eyes onto our art--so thank you!

We got another big boost from joining the @spiderforestcomics webcomic collective. So far, it's been a great experience and we've been loving the community over there. So if you're in the market for more comics, definitely go check out some of theirs!

I should note that there is definitely some overlap between these categories. We let people mark multiple answers, so many people marked "Word of Mouth (online)" in addition to other categories like Tumblr and other discord servers. In that broader category, there where several places that people specifically noted finding the comic including:

Our reader Digamma has been tirelessly reposting the comic to the Something Awful forums, and it looks like quite a few people have been keeping up from there! Thanks, Digamma, you're a certified super-spreader!

Dan of @thewebcomicsreview has linked to Foreach several times!

People also mentioned finding it through various discord communities, including the Star Impact server, a server for puzzle games, Foxglove Comics, and others

Rilly had a cameo in @erinptah's webcomic, Leif and Thorne!

Several people discovered it directly through the Neocities discover page!

Cohost, Cloudhiker, and a fairly lukewarm substack review... which nonetheless garnered us a few readers. I'll take it!

Currently, Foreach doesn't pay for traditional banner ads of any kind. So everytime you tell a friend about the comic or share a link to it, you're helping us out a ton! Thank you!

How are people keeping up with comic updates?

Not too much to say on this. Lots of manual checkers, and it looks like we're getting good mileage out of that RSS feed. Excellent!

Readership Info

Discord Membership

We had more survey responses than people currently in the Foreach discord. But even more excitingly, only about one third of survey respondents are also in the discord. Which is exciting, because it means there's more of a readership out there checking the comic updates than we knew previously!

Additionally, I'm personally excited by this result because hearing from those quieter members of our reader base is precisely why I wanted to put out this survey. We have a lovely, active community in the discord, but as a side effect that means we're hearing a lot of opinions from just one, disproportionately vocal part of our reader base. My hope with this survey was that we'd get a chance to hear some voices that we don't usually get to interact with... So for all you silent majority readers out there: Hello! Thanks so much for chiming in!

Patreon Membership

Most of our readers don't back the patreon. Which is to be expected! We actually got a few new patrons signing up after the survey was posted, which is absolutely lovely of y'all. (Hi new patrons! 👋)

If you're wondering what the Patreon money gets used for, it's a mixture of funding extras the comic and supporting Lum's future creative endeavors. This year, we used a big chunk of the funding to commission the Love Bomb portraits for the new Cast Page, which were done by the talented Beajrb (go check out their work!) In the future, some of it may be used for commission work related to the comic, and also for the long term goal for Lum to take some time off their day job to draw comics/make games/etc.

We also asked what else people might like to see us do with the patreon. Right now, we post author commentary on pages with about a 2-chapter lag time, and people seem pretty happy with that over all. There were a few requests for bonus character art, pin ups, or character-asks, and we'll keep that in mind going forward. Since all of us are working full time, there's only limited time we have for making additional content, but who knows what the future holds!

Reader Geography

So where in the world are our readers? Well, I I thought it'd be fun to make this cute little map:

...which turned out to be a huge pain in the ass and a little misleading with the color ranges. So here it is another way:

Our reader base is very American-heavy. Honestly a little moreso than I was expecting? Maybe it's the magnetic charisma of Cliff Mason that keeps drawing them in?

But is it a good comic?

According to our readers, it's a 5.35/5 star comic. Make of that what you will :3

Final Thoughts

At the end of the form, we had an open response box for anything else y'all might want to say to us. And let me just say: y'all blew us away. Thank you so much.

So many of the comments were incredibly kind. People told us about characters they connected to, about how excited they were for to see what happens next. Some of them were sweet, some were horny, some of you compared Foreach to some of OUR favorite webcomics, (which was absolutely unreal to read!) Some of you guys wrote whole freakin' essays! I can't recap everything, but please know that we read every single one of them.

Thank you again for joining us on this journey. Here's to a great 2025--and another year of Freachin' it together!

[fuedalreesespieces]

ramble-y post incoming:

tldr: is the inukag to izanori pipeline real, and am i falling headfirst into it? yes, yes i am.

[This post does contain spoilers for Kanata Kara and Inuyasha.]

recently (and by that i mean two days ago) i decided i wanted to start a shojo manga that wasn't too long, something I could read in between lectures. i checked some of my saved manga on the website i use, and found one that i had saved purely because i'd been enthralled by the cover art, which looked like this:

(i mean, look at them!!)

...that, and it was 14 volumes, so I thought i could finish it within a week or two, reading a few chapters every day.

i was wrong. i'm on volume ten and it's been a day and a half.

i haven't finished and I'm making this post (partly because i've been rambling about it in ballistic keysmash-consistent twitter posts) to say that Kanata Kara is good. very, very good. damn that one-star review on the site i'm using, because that shit has to be an accidental click. I love the world-building, the diverse cast of characters, and the art is magnificent. I think my favorite thing of all has to be the themes represented so far in the manga, perpetuated by our titular characters noriko and izark. I may make a future post about that when i finish the manga, but there is one thing i noticed while reading that struck me as really interesting: the dynamic between izark and noriko, and the characters themselves, remind me a lot of inuyasha and kagome.

now i'm gonna preface this by saying i'm not trying to say that these are the same dynamics or something, because they aren't - I just want to point out parallels i thought were really interesting, as someone who loves both relationships in their respective mangas. i also want to establish that Kanata Kara predates Inuyasha by three to five years*- so what I really should be saying is that inuyasha and kagome remind me of izark and noriko, but you get the picture. you could argue a number of things with this in mind, but i'm not here to discuss any of that. this isn't meant to be some sort of dumb gotcha; both series are good in their own ways, and some of the similarities i'm highlighting can be attributed to similar tropes being at play!

*(sources vary, some say 1993, others say 1995)

izark/inuyasha

demons - inuyasha is half inu-youkai, whereas izark is the sky demon from a prophecy that makes up much of the manga's internal and external conflict for him. an interesting contrast i found was that while inuyasha's half-demon features are present for the majority of the manga and his human side shows up only a handful of times, it's the exact opposite for izark, whose "human" appearance reigns for the majority of the manga.

both characters were shunned by their respective communities (and humanity at large, though inuyasha had his mother for some time, and izark's mother tried to kill him). when both parents died, they began living on the fringes of society, never interacting with anyone and, according to them, "preferring to be alone."

both share moments where their demon sides take over and they are unable to control themselves - unless, of course, their loved one is present to help them. otherwise, both are trapped in a violent, bloodthirsty state of mind that makes them lose parts of their identity each time transformation is undergone. both try to avoid this part of them out of fear of losing themselves, but when occasions rise where they are in those forms, their respective loved ones pull them out of it/help them ground themselves.

powerful fighters willing to quite literally put everything on the line for their respective loved ones - i'm talking half-dead-dragging their-bodies-across-the floor and thinking "well, at least she's okay."

one interesting difference to me is how izark and inuyasha approach their humanity. izark is constantly shown in his "human" form and is only in his demon form a handful of times, and the exact opposite is true for inuyasha. izark's earlier (brief) plan of doing away with noriko is spurned from his desire to avoid the tragic fate tied with his demonic form, whereas inuyasha's earlier actions are motivated by his desire to become a full demon. izark relates his demon side to inevitability, to the idea that he might just become the monster everyone prophesied him to be; inuyasha (in the beginning) views his humanity with scorn and associates it with weakness. he wants to embrace the possibility of achieving full demon status, and why? is it just because he wants power? in my opinion, no - I think it's a way of finding a place; being free to go where he wants. inuyasha is already powerful in his own right, and even when he's given the opportunity to claim a formidable weapon like his father's sword, he says he has no interest in it (until, of course, kagome mentions he could try to claim it just to spite sesshomaru, and only then is his interest peaked.) inuyasha seeks freedom by assimilating into a full demon identity, izark seeks freedom from that full demon identity, and only then will he feel in control of his life.

kagome/noriko

both from modern era japan and get isekaied into another world - kagome's instance is time-travel, though - noriko is transported to a whole other world with different culture, geography, and language (noriko having to learn the language of the people there and taking part in their customs is one of my favorite things about the manga!!)

the beacon of light in their respective groups/found family, bringing everyone together

key players in a "Prophecy of Doom" - kagome's "destiny" is to continue the cycle of the shikon jewel; noriko's "destiny" is to awaken the Sky Demon (izark). both girls, and their loved ones, change their futures.

damsels? maybe, but never in distress:

and, of course, the most prominent parallel for me: their acceptance of their lovers and the ripple effect that love has on their lovers' relationships and life:

"i'm not leaving you no matter what happens, no matter who you are - I will stay by your side":

"you changed my life for the better":

"i've opened up and become more vulnerable":

there are a ton of other examples i could use for this bullet, since it has a pretty broad spectrum of events that could fall under it, but these are my favorites.

i also want to draw attention to the way noriko deals with feeling powerless - both she and kagome are surrounded by powerful, experienced individuals, but unlike noriko, kagome has a reign on her archery and spiritual skills pretty early on in the manga, so she contributes in battles one way or another. one of noriko's longest internal conflicts is that she feels guilty that she can't do anything to help and that people are getting hurt on her behalf:

i absolutely love the advice given to her, and how it ties into the themes of the manga. noriko feels like she isn't helping, but even a simple thank you helps - even if it's just thanking one person for a single deed, everyone is intricately tied, and that goodwill spreads. it grows. it becomes a part of everyone. you don't have to be a fighter to spread good.

conclusion: the parallels are neat and READ KANATA KARA!

[reasonsforhope]

Do you have a tag specifically for stuff about the climate crisis/what is being done/can be done to help stop or reverse its effects?

Basically just read a post that was "I'm not trying to be alarmist but- *spends seven paragraphs about how climate change is inevitable, we will never possibly recover from it, it's not global warming anymore its global "boiling", none of the damage can ever be undone and we're all going to be dead in the next five generations*" and I'm trying.. very hard not to spiral from it.

Sorry for bothering you 🙏

The "climate crisis" "climate change" and "climate hope" tags should do the trick.

Of those, "climate change" is the one that has the most content by far, just because the others are more narrow and "climate hope" is a much more recent term, so to speak, because I keep forgetting about it lol

I don't post anything that's not good news, so you can go through the general "climate change" tag without fear

Also, while I'm at it, that person is wrong. For a lot of reasons, including that we're actively fixing a lot of damage to ecosystems literally right now. And also also, GLOBAL WARMING WILL BE AT LEAST SOMEWHAT REVERSIBLE

Why? Well, the rise in average global temperatures is caused by excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. As we keep fixing the planet, restoring ecosystems, and stop burning fossil fuels, nature will siphon more and more of the carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

And if there's less carbon dioxide (and other greenhouse gasses) in the atmosphere, then more heat can once again escape the planet and radiate out into space

Will this be easy? Probably not! This planet's natural systems are incomprehensibly complicated - but that also means there are solutions out there that we haven't even discovered. There are some additional problems to overcome, like the fact that the oceans will be surfacing excess heat for a few decades after we stop CO2 emissions, and also "natural gas" and "carbon capture" are fake solutions/oil company traps.

But we can do it. I so, so, so sincerely believe that.

One term that I think we'll be seeing more and more of in the coming years is "Drawdown": "Climate drawdown refers to the future point in time when levels of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline.[1] Drawdown is a milestone in reversing climate change and eventually reducing global average temperatures." (from wikipedia)

We can achieve drawdown. Will life in the future look very different? Yes, in both good and bad ways.

Climate change is the earth's "feedback" to humanity: "Fix your shit or die."

People are, in general, really, really, really committed to finding ways not to die.

I genuinely believe the rest of us can overcome the few dozen billionaires trying to screw the rest of us over. Money is powerful, but the remaining 7 billion plus people on this planet are more so. And the fortunes of billlionaires are made off the backs of the rest of us - which means we can make those fortunes run dry.

Sources for this answer (warning, these talk about the negative side of things a lot too, they're not the uplifting reads themselves. that's next): x, x, x, x, x, x, x, x

Other sources to read for hope: FutureCrunch, Project Drawdown and Project Regeneration good news websites in general such as Positive News and Goodgoodgood, which I think are the best content fits for what you're looking for. Make sure to check out Goodgoodgood's roundups specifically. And know that there are way, way more good news stories - and way bigger ones, too - than I've had time to post about lately, because work has been really hectic

[kpopsexstories]

Is there any chance for you to write a story where the NCT Dream members masturbate together? For the scenario, I let your imagination do the work. You always do an amazing job.

I would also like one with RIIZE. For the scenario, I would like the story to take place in the shower of their dorm. Since they told that they shower together sometimes to buy time, so they are not late for their schedule. I really enjoyed your TXT skinny dipping story.

I'm sorry to ask so much.

Oh my gosh, thank you for saying this! When I first published the TXT skinny dipping story and the TXT public shower masturbation story I didn't think anyone would enjoy them, because they were kind of long with no actual sex (well, the shower one does have gay sex). They also never got that many likes compared to other stories.

But they keep being mentioned by you guys which tells me there's a small but dedicated fan base for this kind of story, and that really inspires me because I really like writing them 😉

Let me reflect on the two ideas in your request:

NCT Dream masturbating together: I feel like I've done waaay to much NCT Dream recently, and with more already coming I don't feel like I'll prioritize this one anytime soon. I'm also not quite sure what the situation and setting would be.

There's actually a Quick Fix Gay story coming next week (January 23, 2025) about all of them jerking off together as the clock strikes midnight on New Year's Eve, but that's not a story I would compare to the TXT stories. It's short, more direct and just crazy and fun, without the fluff and build-up.

Maybe send me a separate request for just Dream with a short premise of where/in what situation this scenario would happen, like how you imagined the Riize suggestion? That might inspire me to write something sooner rather than later 😉

RIIZE masturbating together: Now this one I really like! I've featured Riize before but they're under-represented on the blog, mainly because they're not as popular as other groups. I want to do more with them and this idea is perfect!

Also thanks for providing the setting, that really helps. I can almost guarantee straight away that there will be a Riize shower masturbation story in the future, because this request stands out to me and is something I really want to do. Can't tell you when though.

New on Story Finder: 🗨️ Author Comments on Requests

On the subject of requests, I want to find a way to make it clearer to you what requests others have sent in and what the status of your requests are. The list is simply too long, and even stories I'm writing today are months away from being published, so it can't be easy to understand what is coming, what I'm working on at the moment, and which requests I choose to ignore for now despite including them on my "maybe in the future" list (sorry that I can't respond to everything immediately).

Unless you're new here you already know about my external website Story Finder and the requests page on there. At least with that page you know that I've seen your request and can get a vague idea of what is happening to it. But because the list is long it can be hard to find specific ones (though there is a search feature in case you haven't noticed).

One idea I had recently was to add an "Author Comment" section to some requests. I did this a few days ago. It's basically just me adding a comment with my thoughts on the request, and so far I've only skimmed through the list and commented on those I really do want to make something of (that doesn't mean a lack of a comment means I won't do anything with it ever).

I just know I'll suck at keeping the comments up to date though. I fear it's not a viable long-term solution to making the status of requests clearer to you. I might completely remake the page one day, adding sections and automating things better to make it less time consuming for me to manage.

Stay tuned for that, and if you're curious, check out the comments I just added before I remove them (which I might if they prove too much to maintain) ☺️

Oh, and one more thing: Never apologize for too many requests 😅 I love receiving every single one! You never know what sticks, and even though the list of unresponded requests has grown out of control and I'll never catch up, many up-coming stories are responses to requests – both new and old ones.

[satancopilotsmytardis]

How do you settle down to write? Like do you put music on, have a certain set up, a snack?

I’m mainly asking because I have multiple fanfic on hiatus (some for 3 years 💀💀💀) because I can’t just sit down and write 😭

I have all this inspiration, and all these ideas (I have 582 open docs 0-0) but struggle to write more than a few sentences a week. I’m not short on ideas by any means, I just can’t WRITE them.

Okay so you gotta figure out what works for you. I read this and my immediate reaction was "well I can't answer that, I just sit down and write, that's not going to be helpful". And I do just sit down and write, I have a lot of things I'm working on, but I pick one or two a day to do and then I just write.

BUT I use 4thewords which is a website that creates an RPG around writing. Every amount you write can progress the story, give you in-game rewards, and help you build a writing streak (at the time of writing I am at 999 days in my streak (I have absolutely missed days but you can recover those with stempos)). I'll be honest, I haven't read a single game pop-up that actually explains the story, I literally don't care about it. But I knew I wrote the most when I was at school participating in Nanowrimo where I could do word sprints and word crawls with other people, and I couldn't hold myself accountable to do them on my own. But the monsters on 4thewords and the quests that can be done help me to stay on track and keep writing.

On days when I don't want to write, I still often end up groaning and saying ugh, if I just defeat ten monsters that each are only 44 words, then I can earn my daily chest, that won't take that long. And I do it. Or if I'm at 3.8k words and I want to stop, ugh there's another reward if I hit 4k, so I might as well just finish the last 200 words. And then, oh wait, there's another reward at 5k, how long will 1k more take me?

I use this site because it has built-in goals and rewards so that I have accountability outside of myself to keep me motivated and producing words. That's the method that I've found works best for me. If you're someone who likes external goals and deadlines, then that might work for you too (or a different similar site-- this one does have a paid subscription, but there is also a free trial to give it a go if you'd like).

If you think that having outside deadlines is too much pressure, then this probably isn't the method for you. Do you edit too much as you write? Try writing in white font on a white page (or whatever color you'd like) so that you can't see what you're writing. Do you get distracted researching something that will amount to one line of text? Put that thing [in brackets] and don't research it until you are going back to edit and adjust from there (same works with naming places or characters). Do you need other people to motivate you? Join a forum (4thewords has lots of these but I don't visit them) or have an IRL buddy who will check in with you and ask you if you wrote that day. Is your writing space uncomfortable? Too comfortable? Optimize it for you! No motivation due to mental illness? Been there, fully understandable, take the time you need to work on that first and other things will start to fall back into place as the brain recuperates.

Not writing when you want to write means that something else is going on, and it has to be you who figures out what that is and makes the changes that are needed to get you writing again. Idk if this was actually helpful, but literally I roll out of bed every day thinking about doing my dailies like a mobile gamer so like... this is all I've got, sorry!

[aqualovesart]

I haven't quite finished all of them and some of them might only be sketches at the moment, but I REALLY wanted to share these drawings I made of the FNAF 1 gang that I've been working on for at least a month now. And believe it or not, this is the first time I'm drawing them too.

Yeah. I was into FNAF in my early teenage years, but I was mostly into the fandom side of things, like the animations by Tony Crynight and Zajcu37 and of course I really liked the FNAF 1 song by The Living Tombstone, I wasn't really into FNAF as a series that much, but I did think it was interesting from what I saw from it. Keep in mind it was around the time FNAF 4 and FNAF World came out that I was into it at that point in time of my life that I'm referring to, and that's about where my FNAF phase at the time began and ended, just not too long before Sister Location came out (which sucks because things were just getting more interesting in the series with Sister Location in my opinion when I look back on it, but that's a story for another time).

But then I actually got into the series again early this year and I am really into it now because of Security Breach, checking out all of the games, actually playing the first four of them and even Sister Location with my younger cousin (on websites where they were mostly terribly emulated because we didn't own them at the time but still, I did play them and I do hope to own them and play them for myself one day, so take that information as you will), and I just kept drawing FNAF characters since then, and again, bonding over the franchise with some of my friends and younger cousins who were also big fans of the franchise.

Before that, I only drew The Puppet because I really liked them as a character, and I remember attempting to draw Freddy, but I never continued or finished the drawing. And I'm really happy having finally drawn them now that I'm actually into FNAF and having watched the movie and becoming more endeared by them as a result, and now as a young adult and having improved as an artist. What do you guys think? And feel free to comment if you feel like it. Just be polite if you do so and not be mean about it.

[lianabrooks]

How To Keep Your (Found) Family Happy

A friend posted a cartoon about weaponized incompetence on another website and talked about how every family has this. In fact, most groups of humans have run into this at some point, it's pretty normal for humans to try to find a way to take the easiest route (even if it means more work for others).

Despite all that, I've been with the same person since 2001. We've been married most of that time, had four kids together, and moved countless times as we restarted jobs, hunted promotions, and switched career fields. And we've managed to avoid most of the pitfalls. Here's how my spouse and I have avoid fights, weaponized incompetence, bitter feelings, and feeling neglected in our relationship for over 20 years (Hint: there's a lot of communication going on)... P.S. These are all very family/relationship-centric but you can absolutely adapt them for the workplace, school, or anything else.

MAKING CHOICES AHEAD OF TIME ... the menu is made at the start of the month, money is allocated before major events, we plan trips sometimes years in advance. All of that reduces the choice making later and is one less stress to handle. This is purely a decision making fatigue thing, if you have to make a decision, it requires brain power, and after a long day you'll have none. So why not sit down on a quiet day and make all the decisions you need to make for the next week? Poof! Brain power is freed up and there is less stress!

MONTHLY & WEEKLY CALENDAR SCRUBS... we sit down and make the menu around the first of the month, and we fill in the calendar with schedules so we know which days someone will be too busy to do things like cook, wash up, or something else.

DAILY CHECK-INS... whoever is home together in the morning does a morning devotional (yoga, dance time, scriptures, motivational quote, prayers, whatever works for you) and review what's happening so everyone is tracking major tests, work meetings, stressors, ect. Then we try to have dinner together if possible (even if it means eating at 5) and then a bedtime check-in before light's out (usually scriptures, prayers, and chatting, then bedtime stories for the littles). If people are working from home, we might have lunch together too. That means we have 2-4 planned meetings a day so we can course correct. -> If you're not religious, don't stress it. Pull out some Terry Pratchett quotes, favorite poems, pick a theme song for the week and dance to it. Just give you and your people five minutes to do something happy together. -> If this is at work this might mean a team meeting at the start of the day or a 12 minute check-in at 1:30 when everyone is back from lunch. The goal is to make sure everyone is on schedule for what they need, haven't run into an emergencies, and no one has questions. A supported work team gets more done.

SPENDING LIMITS... we got married in college when we lived off college stipends of $400/m. And we had a kid. Our rule was never to spend $20 without consulting the other person. We never changed that. We discuss everything from birthday presents to grocery lists and when we're getting gas in the cars even though we're much more financially stable. It means everyone spending out of the main accounts is tracking where the money is going so we don't over-splurge.

CHORE SCHEDULES... when we were first married we'd set aside an hour or so to clean the house together. It worked. As the kids got older this got more complicated (they needed to learn how to clean). But now we're at a point where everyone has assigned chores and we put bounties on chores that need to get done and are unassigned. And then we have one cleaning day (usually Friday or Saturday) where we take an hour and all clean the shared spaces. It takes 30-60 minutes to clean the entire house if you have six people working together. Laundry has assigned days for every load. The dishwasher and cooking have assigned days. It works. Everyone helps to the best of their abilities. -> With this is a lot of Adjusted Expectations. My house is not color coordinated with everything in a bin. My family is all neurodivergent. Most our dishes live on the counters because putting them away makes them vanish. This works great for us but might be overwhelming for other people. Who cares? It's our house, we're doing what works for us and the person mad about messes on Instagram can suck a lemon. -> If you really cannot do chores, cosplay it. Roll the dice and make it a game. Set a timer. Bribe yourself. Make it work for you.

ONE-ON-ONE TIME... not just for me and hubby, but for parents and kids. We try to make sure everyone gets some alone time where they are the focus of attention and we can check-in and make sure their emotional needs are met. Kids need a space to vent. Adults to a space to not be parents. -> This is super important for friendships too. Make time for people in your life! -> At work, this means managers need to make time to talk with their employees, check-in, and assess who needs things (and consider the people's needs first, not the CEO's bonus)

SCHEDULED DOWNTIME... usually this is Sunday for us (the Sabbath day for our religion), but it can be whenever, and we might have more downtime scheduled on a stressful week than in an easy one. The goal here is to make sure everyone gets time to not work, not lead, not think, and just chill. They can play, listen to music, nap, whatever their brain needs, and they can do it without upsetting anyone or feeling guilty because it's part of the schedule. -> In an office this would mean not lean staffing, maybe having an early release day once a week (or a late start) or long lunches. Give your people space to zone out and chill so they can come back refreshed. -> Quiet Quitting only exists because management is trying to exploit their staff. Don't be that boss. (P.S. Join Your Union)

SOME THINGS DON'T HAPPEN... our kids are limited to one after-school activity a year and one AP class for high schoolers. We've tried other ways and found it generates too much stress. I limit projects I take on because I have a set quitting time, even though I work from home. My husband passes up on some away-from-home events with friends because we prioritize family time. Figuring out that balance is something you have to decide as a family. What works for one person won't work for all. -> In business this means doing sustainable, slow growth over rapid booms that overextend and hurt the system. Stop looking for the short term boost when long term is better.

ADAPT TO WHAT YOUR GROUP NEEDS!... this is the most important one, because what we've done over the years has changed in reaction to the needs of people around us. My kids in college need something different than the one starting middle school. My team at the lab needed something than my team at a newspaper. If you have a bunch of introverts, they probably don't want a dance party, they want a three minute meeting with a heads up about any major disturbances and then ten minutes of silence to prepare their souls for any human interaction. Do what works.

[hpowellsmith]

Hey! I love seeing all your very exciting and intriguing posts that give us little glimpses into your writing & game making processes. I was wondering how you found/find the coding side of IF?

I'm currently having to do some on my IF course and hateeeeee it. I have always hated coding and find it's really ruining the fun of the writing for me. I'm wondering what your experiences have been and if it was a hurdle you had to overcome (or not!)?

Ahhh thank you so much, that's really kind! and apologies if this ends up posting after your course is done!

I'm fortunate in that my dad was in game development when I was young so I had computers at home growing up in the 90s/00s. Although I haven't had formal training beyond IT lessons in Year 9 I messed around making websites when I was a young teen, and then I taught myself to make mods in my mid teens. So when I started using Twine in earnest in 2014 I was coming at it with a head start... which is a massive issue in tech and games and really highlights how important accessible tools are for people who aren't programmers or who otherwise don't have that kind of foundation (and although I'm confident with a bunch of IF tools, I'm very much not a programmer!).

Soapbox aside! Everyone is different and I love hearing about other people's processes but what I like to do is:

Figure out the plot and branches, usually on paper, sometimes digitally, with bullet points or mind maps/branch diagrams

Create functional code before writing, with placeholder descriptions/dialogue. Check that it works as intended, playing through and/or using automated testing depending what engine you're using. (With ChoiceScript this is when I check difficulty balance using RandomTest. With Twine or inky, I check for errors as I go, then playtest. Other software's functionality varies but either way I'll do some sort of testing to check it hangs together.)

Write prose and/or dialogue. I'll sometimes realise I need to rethink something in the code or add, remove or move something. But because it's all placeholder and relatively short, it's not too unwieldy to shuffle around as needed.

Playtest and revise as needed.

I didn't use to do it like this - in my earlier IF projects I wrote and coded at the same time, but that ended up being less efficient and more difficult. I still do small sections like that, such as when adding stuff at the writing stage, but I've settled on this method because it means I have a clear line between "design mode" and "writing mode" rather than trying to cover both at once, which suits my brain. I also find doing the design/code stage like this means I notice and troubleshoot plot or mechanics problems more quickly.

My wife does a similar method for her ChoiceScript projects but she finds it helpful to alternate coding and writing in shorter cycles. So she'll plan out a chapter, code a chunk of it, write an early section, code a later chunk, write some more, and so on like that. It means her brain doesn't get fatigued by longer periods of solely writing or coding, and the variety keeps up her momentum.

I do recommend trying a variety of IF tools if you haven't already because you may find one that clicks for you better than others! I hope the course has gone well, and good luck!

[cy-cyborg]

So, you're old, (no hate but it's true) so that must mean you were on the internet during the AOL days. Which websites are good to post fanfics too? I realise not everyone uses FFN, so should I also upload them to Tumblr? DA? Facebook? How did you start your internet career? Ao3 needs an invite >>

Lmao I'm not even 30 yet, damn 😂 (no offence taken btw, I did get a good laugh from that start to the question though)

While I was technically around then, my home town was a good 10-15yrs behind the rest of the world in regards to the internet, so we didn't get reliable/constant internet access at my house until I was in high school so I missed a lot of that era - and even when we did get it, it was expensive, so my sister and I were only allowed to use it occasionally.

I got my start on Deviantart, but I'm not sure if I can still recommend it - they got bought out a few years ago and have been... not great, ever since. The brought in a lot of changes which drove away pretty much all of the userbase outside of scammers, crypto-bros and AI "artists". I don't know how good they are for writers now but I can't imagine they're much better. I still log on and post occasionally but unless you have nostalgia for DeviantArt, I don't think it's worth it, not for new users. Inkblot might be a good alternative though - they specialise in art but do allow you to upload written works too! I never had any luck there but I know a few others who have, so it's worth checking out.

I'd also recommend against Facebook. I know there are writing communities there, but most of the ones I found were a much older demographic - the few that weren't were not exactly welcoming to anyone who wasn't a straight/cis, white, able-bodoed man. I also know facebook has policies that allow them to use your content without permission - probably not something you need to worry about for fanfiction since it's usually based on existing work but still worth being aware of.

I haven't done this myself, but my partner used to post fan fiction to Reddit for a bit and had some luck there - you just have to find the right subreddits for the fandom you want to create for. some are more active than others, but I know there's a fairly active community there if you know where to look. They can be pretty brutal though, so be prepared.

Honestly, outside of AO3, Tumblr and FFN seem to be the two big platforms today for fan fiction and related content. I'm pretty out of the loop though, I haven't been heavily involved in fandom communities in years so take all this with a grain of salt (if anyone has better advice please feel free to leave it). Honestly, since leaving Deviantart I've jumped around between a lot of different platforms, basically just throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what stuck lol. Tumblr, Mastodon and Tik Tok were the three where I got the most traction for my stuff, but Tumblr is the only one where my fandom-related stuff consistently gets any sort of traction.

Also is the Ao3 invite a new thing? I could have sworn I had an account but don't remeber getting an invite lol. Maybe I'm thinking of something else.... fuck I do sound old lmao

[woozapooza]

hi there! is there a lancelot post or anything that talks ab how insane lancelot is? i’m trying to just find basic info ab him for a start. i know he’s incredibly noble but i’ve heard he was also a bit of a freakazoid and i wanted to know how and what are the things he’s said and done that makes him insane ! thank you

Oh man I wish I could give a better answer, but I'll do my best. The best tumblr post I'm aware of that matches what you're looking for has got to be this hilarious ancient relic from 2014, but if you're the person who was going through my Lancelot tag a few days ago (nothing wrong with that—on the contrary, much respect) you've already come across that post. If by "post" you mean anything on the internet in general, not specifically tumblr, you could check out this post from a website whose existence I had almost entirely forgotten until right now, but which gave me countless hours of entertainment circa 2013. That second post is mostly based on Thomas Berger's novel Arthur Rex, but the episode it retells is drawn from Chretien de Troyes' poem Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart, which is the oldest (known) text about Lancelot, and which is the origin of some of the wackiest things he does. To give just one example, there's one part in the poem where he breaks into Guinevere's room through the window and cuts his hand in the process, but he doesn't notice, I guess because he's too horny to feel pain? And they spend the night together and neither of them notices that he's bleeding all over the sheets—again, I guess they were just having too much fun—so she gets in trouble because clearly someone was in her room, so he has to fight a duel to prove that she's innocent because that's how logic worked back then. So if you're interested in checking out a "canonical" (for lack of a better word) Arthurian text with some Category 5 Lancelot Moments, I recommend starting there!

P.S. I was just in the Arthuriana tag and I see that someone else had received a similar question (presumably from you) and gave you a much more thoughtful and detailed answer. Well, even so, hopefully my recommendation of The Knight of the Cart counts for something! I haven't actually read it in several years and, alas, I don't have my copy with me, but I do remember that it's a good time.

[spaceorphan18]

I was wondering how you felt about the centralization of fandom. I feel like now, I'm so used to hop on AO3 that as soon as I'm looking for something I might not find there, like meta, theories or simply fics for an older (related to AO3) fandom like Glee, I don't have a clue anymore where to look for them. I never used LiveJournal so I don't have the habit of checking it out. FFNET feels obsolete after spending so much time on AO3, and as for Tumblr... the search function is a mess (and I dislike the fact that so many people post fanfics directly in text posts, of course they do what they want but it's frustrating to search for like analysis or simple thoughts and only find docs).

Fanlore is often lacking (although I worked myself on filling some stuff a few times).

I was used to HP being my main fandom: it had its own very charming fan websites with tons of content that often still exist, but are different somehow.

So I guess my question is actually several questions:

- what do you think of fandom being generally more centralized nowadays

- where do you go if you seek stuff like writeups (AO3 allows them but doesn't feature so much of them, but I know the Glee fandom was THRIVING and full of stuff,I guess the waves of mass post deletions are part of the issue)?

- finally, how are you? 🤗 I'm always happy to see your posts on my dash even if my Glee hyperfixation has come and gone

Sorry, it may be a confusing post 😂 Too much stuff going on

Hmm - I guess I wonder what you mean by more centralized? Like that we find everything in one place? Do we find everything in one placed? I guess I'm a little confused (but I often am)

What do you mean by write ups? Do you mean things like meta and analysis? I just want to make sure I'm understanding correctly.

If I'm being honest, my relationship with media has changed and I'm not necessarily seeking out fandoms to engage with. (This is not a denouncement of fandom at all! Just that I'm busier and how I interact with things just is different now) I haven't hyperfixed on anything since Glee - and I'm okay with that.

I don't really know where people can go /now/ to dig into fandoms. I think Discord is one of the places - but you almost have to be engaged already and invited into one. I don't know where people are putting their thoughts and feelings these days.

For me - I listen to a lot of podcasts now (as well as YouTube) where I can hear people's takes on such things, but I can't necessarily engage with it (I mean, I suppose commenting is a thing but it's not my thing) and that seems to fulfill a lot of my desire to hear someone else's thoughts.

And, I mean, I've made a group of good friends on Tumblr that if I want a more personalized discussion on something I'll hit one of them up and spark a convo. (Of course I have people not on the internet with whom I do that, too.)

But I can see where it can be hard for someone who is just starting out on their fandom journey to find a place where they can really dig in with others. Tumblr would be nicer if it was more organized and if tagging did actually work.

And, you know, I kinda treat Tumblr like a journal - and just create my own content. I'm not necessarily writing for all of you, but to sort things out in my own mind. Having people read and enjoy my thoughts is just an added bonus. ;)

I'm not sure if I've answered or addressed all of your thoughts - but hopefully, some of that makes sense?

In the mean time, I am doing well. I'm in a better place personally, which is nice, because then I can get back to all the fun projects I enjoyed before the year of my mental health crisis. Hope you are well yourself! <3

[somethingwittyandweird]

Dawn of a New Year- 2024

Getting a bit of a later start on this one than last year's, which went out day of. But, there's a few days yet before the fresh shiny coating falls off this new year completely. Plenty of time to do some reflection on the last one and looking forward to this one. So, with that said...

It's been another year that passed for certain. Again, it's been pretty devoid of watershed moments or drastic living situation shifts for me. When I made this post this time last year, I said that I knew a change would happen, but it hadn't happened then and it didn't look as though it would anytime soon. In that, at least, the projection didn't change. And this is good! Like it was last year, it says a lot that I'm in a comfortable and secure environment on nobody's timetable to change but my own. That's a blessing of a sort that I wouldn't take for granted.

But, if there's anything that does differ from last year to this, I get the impress I'm closer to that change. Literally, in the broad sense that time is constantly moving me closer to every future point. But, it's also in a more specific sense- the things that I know are going to change haven't changed yet, but I feel like they're closer to it than they were last time this post rolled by. If nothing else, this year I'll have to get my own health insurance, so that's the first sign that the times of change are rolling in. That's why I intend to look into that over the coming months, and in the process, potentially look into other things too. It's finally time for part of that uncertain change to come at me for certain, so I'd better meet it head on.

But, before we get there, that's not to say I did nothing this year at all. It was another good year of time spent with friends, in online communities familiar and new- being in tabletop sessions, sitting in voice calls, chilling in plenty of livestreams, and much more. I'm lucky again to be part of so many communities of people from all over the world, and I'm lucky to be finding more such communities to join all the time. It means the world to me whenever a friend or mutual decides I'd be a good addition to an undiscovered circle of theirs.

I posted all my swordtember art to Tumblr this year, realizing that I had as much audience here as any other site, and I intend to keep that going as long as I'm around. I could resolve to try and draw more things outside of that month, but conjuring creative inspiration on command remains a difficult prospect. That said, I think it would be wonderful if the year ahead had a big project in store that I could really get the gears turning with. I'm optimistic about the possibility.

I already made my post about the games that I enjoyed in 2023, and I'm delighted here at the end of the year to report that here at the end of the year I'm within sight of the endings to a few more backlog titles (Just to name one, in between now and then I've beaten the main story of Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia and I'm working on the postgame). Along with these, this year had me flipping out when The Owl House's final episodes aired, and the wry, informative humor of Well There's Your Problem began accompanying my work commute. For 2024, I don't know if there's any particular media I'm anticipating (most of my home franchises chose this past year for their new entry) but even so I'm certain I'll find something new to check out. Perhaps it'll be a good year to get into one or more of the series my friends have long raved about...

As I write all this up, I would like to give a special shoutout to one of the aforementioned new friends/friend circles that I came into in 2023: @skysometric. Aside from being funny, a great friend, and just a general boon to know, something I really have enjoyed about coming into her space is seeing how intentional her online presence is. From her custom website to her commentary posts on her projects to the way she uses her blog as, of all things, a blog in the original and traditional sense, she puts herself out there very visibly, creating and urging others to create by example. And I've come to really appreciate that.

That's the thing about existing online: you have to be speaking up for your presence to be felt. Being around is one thing, but if you never say a word, it can be easy to just be one username of many. And as someone who trends towards simply lurking and being around myself, there's nothing wrong with that. But, for as much as I enjoy seeing the things my friends get up to, I think I could be a little more visible in talking about my own activities- give them more of a chance to enjoy seeing what I'm up to. I want to be present in other people's lives as much as they are in mine.

I said it last year, but it bears repeating: I don't get to know how long someone's in my life for. Websites can close, friend groups can drift apart, people can leave this life for the next. Perhaps I think too much about the fact that someday that change will come. But since I don't get to know that and can't do anything about that, the only thing I really can do is cherish others now, and let the future be its own concern. And I intend to.

Thank you, all of my dear friends and beloved mutuals. I hope I can keep sharing this online space with you for a long time to come. You brighten my days with your presence. I hope 2024 has good things in store for you, be that strength, love, reassurance, a much-needed sea change, or whatever you've been needing in your life. Once again, the best year I can wish for is one where every day is better than the last, and every evening we all go to bed just a little more improved than the evening before.

Happy 2024.

[bigthingsforeverintheworks]

Ok I almost took a media literacy L here before I decided to check out their website. First off it is just a publishing company, they're not writing them with AI or writing them at all.

The core business model is that you pay them a (relatively small, starting at $1500 dollars, they say up to $5000) sum of money up front and then they publish it, and you get all of the royalties, and much quicker than normal at that. Now that may seem odd, how are they making money from this?

Luckily their website has a list of famous company names

no clue what that means but those sure are companies (they do say on a different webpage that these are places they have "appeared in". Always glad to see that a company has articles that were made about it.

They have this testimony and yep the book sure does exist and was published by these guys, you can buy it from 6 different sites (none of them have any reviews but some have a preview and I mean. it looks fine, I don't know a lot about it but it doesn't seem that good on first glance).

So what they do is:

Proofreading (there's an option to get a human to do it for a "small extra fee", no numbers are given), this seems fine enough although I'm sure a human could do it. But weirdly enough they have this testimonial

First off this guy is talking about editing not proofreading which. kind of weird. But also it's just one of those things where like. Granted I haven't published a book but generally my understanding is editors are not evil and these types of people tend to be too protective of their work. Also this is just digging at traditional publishing.

2. AI design covers for you

Sure why not. I mean it won't be as good & you're not paying artists but whatever.

Stunning picture of a guy who discovered what AI does

3. They make AI audiobook & does advertising/printing (unclear if you need to pay for this)

Now looking at their blog-posts. First off we see this wonderful one where they explain how online publishers work.

Hm. Any conflict of interest there? This is a relatively standard practice (at least among tech companies) to put your own product in the same "objective" stance.

Anyhow they also have one about AI publishers.

Shockingly they're talking about it from a "make the numbers gooder" perspective but it's fine (besides the part where they don't link their sources but ok). They do keep talking about how editing in a way that makes it just seem like "that thing you do where you pay a company money and then they let you publish it" instead of a process wherein another person tries to help you improve the book.

A lot of it is just stuff where I have to either take their word on it or not.

Like ok optimizing a book for marketability is already on the wrong track but if i wanted to do so is AI the right place for that? Who knows. I do have a suspicion these articles are written by AI not just based on the AI-generated images

(look at the keyboards) but the redundancy and their classic list format does make it seem somewhat likely, Granted they do have human authors listed & I'm not really that interested in AI-vestigating companies but worth noting.

As for the article screenshotted in the original post, https://www.thebookseller.com/news/new-publisher-spines-aims-to-disrupt-industry-by-using-ai-to-publish-8000-books-in-2025-alone

For the record they were already in publishing before shifting to AI

And... they just seemingly don't get the point? Or they view all of these professions as just obstacles to the core essence of the book. But this is pretty clearly a non-answer.

Now for how they make money.

let's do some quick math. We assume they have 6 books at 20 ratings each, and 1 in 5 people leaves a review. Each book costs around 15 dollars (based on looking up one of the book's prices). That means they make 9000 dollars. (Probably less given the book sellers take a cut) but still that would be a decent profit for the author. Except I don't know where the 100% royalties they boast comes from. On their terms and service they say this:

and this is only when you earn more than $25 in a certain period (the period gets shorter as you pay them more)

But don't worry about literally anything financial that's not the point!

"I want to help bring books to the masses" yeah that's what publishing does. Ok but he means writing books as a hobby and/or legacy, same thing. Well no the writing you do on your own it's the publishing. Because the physical copies are very necessary. Like I don't know if i'm in the minority but I'd rather read a free PDF than buy something with an AI-generated cover, and if authors don't care about profit then they should too.

This guardian article has points about how it actually works & its similarities to existing types of publishing.

Initial reactions that still hold:

Why that image?

Why are they called Spine?

What are they even disrupting?

Things that don't really hold: Oh ew they're writing 8000 books with AI? Why?

Things I'm mixed on:

Anything about the actual humans; they do actually employ as of now 15 people who provide some services (e.g. a production manager) but also their goal is mostly to replace the traditional humans (who they view with disdain) with as much AI as possible before it becomes bad

Everyone involved in this should be catapulted into the sun.

A new publisher plans to churn out 8000 books in 2025 using AI. Everything about this from the massive waste of energy to the absence of any creative curiosity is utterly fucking depressing.

[nightclimes]

ao3 wrapped: 1, 3, 12, 18

This got STUPIDLY LONG woops

1. How many words have you written this year?

I honestly cannot tell you.

If we go by AO3 statistics, it's 147,999. This is incorrect because it includes all of Bloodstains - which I wrote in 2022/23 and posted the final 8 chapters of it this year. That removed, it's 27,999... which is still incorrect because three of the remaining five fics posted I didn't write this year (one I was holding for my January 1st ouihaw tradition, another I left for a few months and came back to later to touch up and post, another is a very dusty threeway I wrote as concept exploration that I am even now still uncertain about) and i have fic yet to post this year. What is it about wraps and not including December...

The next number problem is... i write a lot of words on my phone. Some of these are musings and dialogue and whole passages which have successfully been incorporated into fic. Others are editing thoughts for things I haven't begun touching up in earnest. A significant number of these are never-see-the-light-of-day words that I don't ever intend to share; I genuinely do not know how many of these there are. Somewhere between 50-100k if i had to guess. (I know one of them is 30k because i checked when the notes app got extremely slow in loading it, lmao :'))

The actual number of words written this year, in documents, that I can feasibly track, is 93,899. This includes nanowrimo. This does not include two websites worth of notes, one which is around 9k words and the other in excess of 23k. Guess which of those isn't finished.

3. What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?

almost crystal, almost ascian, an FF14 fic about a potential friendship and the parallels between Minfilia and the Crystal Exarch on The First.

Minfilia and her role in those 100 years before the wol arrives is not really explored in depth in game and the two of them are so similar and alone, pursuing the same end but with different means, and they didn't have to do what they did but they did. for the person that inspired, inspires them the most. Frankly I don't think she gets enough credit or consideration at all so this is me addressing the balance; and I still think about this fic often. I have inspired other people to think about this too and that's all I could ask for really. Forever feral about it.

I'm also really proud of lay your curses out to rest but for entirely differing reasons, because I really nailed the feeling and exploration of grief I was going for.

12. How many WIP's do you have in your docs for next year?

Let me answer this in a roundabout way: I want to post Midnight Hour (11k) - the final fic in the ongoing arc of Viper's Kiss - before the end of the month, so I can post the accompanying spice element (3k) on January 1st. See ouihaw fic tradition.

Then I have two more spicy fics to post at some point. I don't anticipate them needing much in the way of further edits, which is why they have escaped notes app purgatory and landed in their own shiny documents.

There is also. Zero spice. That I would like to free, I think. idk if I should change Ashe to be more generic, but it has some solid vibes. I just really like writing Ashe with women rediscovering their humanity, what can I say.

I guess Ashe site also counts for this question?? I wrote about half of it in October, took a break for Nano, didn't go back to it yet because I'm waiting for the new hero release next week, because Hazard effects a lot of what I previously wrote - she might have a whole person she knows in the roster that isn't the man who betrayed her - and I need to hear their interactions, as well as just, his in general. Because she's less out on a limb with her gang than she used to be. I also need to see if all the potential that could be given to her if she was utilised in lore has been transferred on to their new poster rebel and his found family instead. I'm not optimistic it hasn't because lol, she's a woman. Don't you dare forget about Ashe's familial relationship with an omnic, Blizzard. We'll see if I need to make angry grumblings.

I'm also going to start hopefully editing a 121k behemoth, Let's start some trouble, that I wrote in 2021, sometime next year. I read it back in September: my nonsense, she needs help. I have to rework a lot of motivations based on lore drops and me having written it way out of order. It's kind of daunting if I'm being honest; with my health I like to have at least a second round of edits done for the whole fic before dividing it into chunks of maybe four chapters at a time to fully focus on for final round to aid my poor memory and really get it right, but I might have to tackle this one chapter by chapter, which will make an upload schedule very erratic to say the least, and again, my memory is poor...

18. The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?

Amélie. She isn't difficult for me to write at this point, but writing Amélie is always slow because she's very methodical and precise and kind of blunt - one word sentences, less is more, very felt. Ashe in comparison is very breezy? It's less a trouble thing and more just specifics. Sometimes writing Amélie going through the human experience requires me to be in an exact mood, or sit and painstakingly pick raw words to use, or to wait for the Amélie Hours to even try, which are usually in the middle of the night. She is simply a unique challenge.

Only the best for my love, though. She deserves it.

[scumlafeccia]

Coming from someone who was truscum in the 2010's, I think you being gendercrit and also chest dysphoric is a sign of some major cognitive dissonance and self-hatred that you really should talk over with someone outside of this hellsite. Doesn't necessarily mean you're trans—how you label yourself is entirely up to you—but you clearly have a complicated relationship with gender that will not be improved here.

That being said, I've been binding for years and can say with confidence that binders are very much a personal preference thing, so your mileage may vary with these suggestions:

Underworks: My absolute go-to for years. Their tri-top binders are my tried-and-tested favorite, but I also own a compression T-shirt from them that also binds pretty well, and I've heard good things about their econo binders as well. Sizes also go up to 3X, which is nice. The fabric can take some getting used to, being about three degrees of separation from trampoline material, but the arm holes being on the wider side makes up for that in my book.

Phluid: Honestly not sure if they even sell these anymore. I found mine in the back of a Spencer's, and I haven't found it online at all beyond a few websites talking about Phluid partnering with Spencer's to sell binders. That being said, the binder I picked up from them is surprisingly comfortable and binds incredibly well, so they're worth a shot if you do find one. Be wary though: they absolutely go by Hot Topic sizing. The sizes go up to 2XL and they run small. I'm a large in Underworks sizing, but an XL in Phluid sizing.

gc2b: More of an anti-suggestion. I never really liked their binders, and I've heard they've been using lower-quality materials in recent years. For me personally, the arm holes always felt too small for my comfort, and the fabric on the tanks had a habit of bunching up throughout the day (though this was about eight odd years ago so who knows). That said, they're the most fat friendly option that I'm familiar with, running up to 5XL, and have a wider variety of colors and prints. You'd probably be able to wear some of their tank binders out in public and just have people assume you were wearing a normal tank top. They might work out better for you depending on your preferences and circumstances.

In terms of general advice and suggestions: pick up a fabric tape measure if you don't have one already and take your chest measurements. If you wear bras already (like, ones with cup sizes) you might be able to guesstimate your chest size, but it's better to have more precise measurements for binders. Always, always check the size charts of any binder company you shop from to be sure you're buying the right size and, when in doubt, pick the larger size rather than the smaller one.

If the binder fastens with a zipper or clasp system, avoid it. Best case scenario, you're just getting a very low quality product. Worst case scenario, the pressure is being distributed very unevenly due to a flawed design that prioritizes profit over safety and you could bust a rib. No matter what binder you end up getting, don't do any strenuous exercise in it, try to stick to around eight hours of usage per day maximum, and hand wash those suckers (or at the very least use the delicate and cold water settings on your machine washer) to prolong the effectiveness of the compression material.

I hope this helps. Best of luck out there.

anon, you misunderstood. I have kind of figured out why I am dysphoric, and it's got nothing to do with being trans, even from a truscum point of view. I'm not looking to figure out my "relationship with gender" on tumblr, but I know that there's other women on here who are dysphoric and don't plan to transition, and I dont think it's bad to confront experiences. as for the binder suggestions, I've been keeping updated on tips on how to buy one since I was 14, and I'm not american so I'd need to look elsewhere anyway. thanks for the thought tho, that's appreciated