#I might have to scrap it and start over tbh

[quietly-sleeping]

Gnawing at the walls thinking about an au where spiritual beats have a society among those who were born with sapience or cultivate it.

This au, so far, has a strength based Society at the Center of it, much like demon, but with the problem of: they live too long.

Demons average 200-300 years old if they don't get murdered. Those with higher cultivation last even longer.

Spiritual Beasts on the other hand, once they reach the level of sapience, can live much much longer than that. They are capable of grudges that last thousands of years if they aren't killed or captured.

The current strongest Spiritual Beast doesn't change much, maybe once or twice since they decided to organize. The second strongest beast wanted to follow the newest thing the humans were doing. Have a monarch.

So now we have a very old Monarch of Spiritual Beasts. A title not many outside of the spiritual beasts know of.

After that, a crane takes over, this crane is of a dying species, as most spiritual beasts are, but this one has very recent ties to the Heavenly Realm.

The old Monarch is killed in the challenge, and the new Monarch ascends the throne bringing along with him the last of his species. His little sister.

This new Monarch is very well liked, strong, healthy, and vicious towards those who threaten those under his rule. As a major plus on his advisors opinions, he actually does paperwork.

The only drawback is the frequent qi deviations he experiences, they tend to wipe his memory every hundred years or so. But hey, that's fine, his personality doesn't change much despite the memory wipes.

As time goes on, roughly 700 years or so into this new Monarch's reign, he has another qi deviation, but this one is different, as it happened right after he broke through and managed to completely rid himself of anything holding him back from ascending.

As such, when he wakes, they almost expect him to be able to keep his memories this time, he's a step away from ascending back to the Heavenly Realm. He doesn't though, his memories are wiped, and they must talk him through who he is again.

Something is odd though, he seems to know more this time. Not of what he should know, but about things that have yet to happen. This can be explained, some species have varying ability to see into the future, but this wasn't a skill he shown before.

It came to a crescendo when the Monarch arrived back after roaming the world, with a young crane of his species. The first guess was a child from his younger sister, who had flings thought the centuries. That wasn't it though, this crane was completely unrelated to the Royal family.

The Monarch brought the young crane to stay with them, offering shelter and food so long as he didn't cause much trouble. Of course, all young beasts cause trouble, so it wasn't long before the Monarch had to sit down with the famously human loving Demons Lord.

The trouble wasn't that bad, it the end, but it did bring more headaches for court members. Since watching a Demon Lord and his wife, a particularly famous human cultivator, court the Monarch was a unique sort of stress they'd never encountered before.

Of course, once the young crane brought back his own circus of human cultivators, the court members simply wished for the mildly less stressful days where it was just a Demon Lord, his very rich and successful wife, and their ankle biter of a child.

[valiant-portabella-pirkko]

fun fact: I actually have not 1, not 2, but 3 dedicated playlists of OST-style music for my various Guild Wars 2 AUs, and... that, of all ways, is the closest I get to "outlining" my stories. every sequence has a dedicated track that I picked out according to what I'd imagine playing in-game if it was an actual playable story arc in Guild Wars 2.

Regrowth's playlist has 59 songs and Flourish has 28.

then the Tideturners have one too, with a grand total of 22.

......... I don't have a problem,

[saintobio]

Hello Saint! I think it's the first time I write around here, but I followed you since sincerely not was going out.

I've been waiting for the next chapter of sincerely yours, but I might recognise I've been nervous reading it because I was afraid of what would happen.

I really apreciate that finally Suguru (thanks to our queen Shoko ;) ) realise the pain's Yn has been suffering since she returned from New York and all that happened after. I completely understood his point of defending his best friend too. And also, I loved how he went for Gojo to tell him about the situation of main character.

The scene where yn is alone with her thoughts broke me in so many ways that I couldn't explain it with words. But what really had me on tears was when Satoru tells her about he gave his heart to her. And I was thinking: Yn has the pendant since he gave it to her in the hospital? In my mind, she would have taken it off after the revellation part. It was endearing to see how our main character held his heart even when she claimed she left it behind.

About Akemi, I don't know what to think. I'm still in a debate of caring for her pain (I'm a big defendant of trust and loyalty in a relationship) but in the other hand I couldn't stop being "happy" seeing her realise that her fairy tale, it was only that.

I have so many theories on my mind but I don't know how to put in words. Why Satoru followed Akemi? It was by Yn's request? Would main character be more confused about her fellings now that she feels remorse? I'm afraid of what's next, honestly speaking. I'm afraid that all of that causes more pain in the main character. And also, I'm afraid of little Sachiro. Why I can't stop thinking about how all of this is gonna have its consequences on the poor baby?

As I always thought, Saint I love reading your story and how do you express the emotions of all characters perfectly. I'll be waiting patiently for the next chapters. Thank you for reading me!

yesyes i recognize your user, and thank you for staying w me since sn days :’) it’s always to nice to hear from long time readers <33

if not for my decision to drop the sideplots, i honestly would have loved to go deeper into how suguru came into that realization (and tbh, before the wedding there was supposed to be a scene where suguru catches yn at a bar, sulking over her recent breakup with toji, and she tells him she doesn’t understand why other people are allowed to hurt her but she’s a terrible person if she does it to others) 🥹 i had to focus on the main characters, so that scene was scrapped off.

and yn only started to wear the necklace again during the wedding! it was her plan all along to throw it away, to let go of the last piece she has of gojo.

[moonlight-tmd]

SHOCKBEE SHOCKBEE SHOCKBEE

god they’re sooo dhbdbdbdnfbf; I was just thinking maybe shockwave would probably try and have a relationship with bb. you know, to get rid of him cause he suspects there’s a spy and what not totally ahhahah (shock just wants him to himself). and like they grow close, they date, shock never reveals himself as a con because I believe bee would immediately be betrayed and angered that he was dating a con.

I might draw them idk

Yea that's something Shockwave would try tbh-

Instead of twisting the gossips to point at Wasp he takes target on the main danger- the yellow minibot who's playing detective and actually being suspicious of him.

I guess Bee noticed Longarm wandering the halls after hours and he decided to investigate in secret, unfortunately Shockwave caught onto that pretty fast.

He thought Bee would get bored and leave after a while of not spying anything but he was so wrong- Bee was stubborn and just kept going.

So he took a different approach; he befriended the little mech and set up a whole scenario that would end in Bee's "accidental" murder.

It was simple, gain Bee's trust long and wait until Bee decided to take him to mess around some dangerous planet, then cover his death with some convenient accident.

Shockwave was doing a very good job at pretending to enjoy Bee's company and hyping up all he said, it was going just fine... until he actually started to enjoy Bee's company.

Bee was different from all the autobots there, something about him just made something click in Shock that he began enjoying his constant yapping and adorable antics.

When he finally realized he has strayed from his plan it was too late, the attachment has taken deep root into his spark and he couldn't bring himself to kill Bee.

It took him a while before making peace with that fact and deciding to go along with it, manipulating what Bee knew and saw so he would never think he is a spy. It seemed to work out fine but Shockwave couldn't help but feel guilty of lying to his beloved.

Bee and Longarm started dating and continued to do so after Bee was relocated to the repair crew. Things got really complicated after Bee went missing only to be found on earth few decades later. For Bee it was like a long nap but for Longarm it was years of constant loneliness and yearning. The fact other decepticons were on earth wasn't helping with anything...

I suppose at some point he got orders to go scout out the Nemesis on the moon for any remnants of functioning tech. That's when Bee discovered him-

Team Prime has detected some weird signal on the moon and it landed on Bee to go investigate (perks of being the scout, huh?) When he was investigating the ship and talking to his team on the comms he noticed the strange figure lurking there- a closer look revealed it to be Longarm, Bee wanted to surprise him from behind but then a second later Longarm shifted and Bee's happy expression was replaced with disbelief as he saw it was a Decepticon.

He stayed silent even when his team was asking for replies over his comms. He leaned on the ship remnant a bit too much which caused it to fall, alerting Shockwave of his presence.

Bee's team only got scraps of what he was saying, yelling something about being found before the contact cut with a crash...

Bee was trying to escape Shockwave and activated his boosters in hopes to fly back to earth... he didn't notice the ship wing in front and crashed right into it, wrecking his boosters and comms. Shockwave caught him before he drifted too far from the moon's gravity.

He took him inside the ship to patch him up, surprisingly the medbay was still functional on the most part. Bee woke up way sooner than Shock would've liked, he started panicking and trying to fight despite the very painful injuries- Shock had to hold him down so he wouldn't hurt himself more but it didn't stop Bee from spitting all the accusations. Bee knew Longarm was fake now, he could not be fooled anymore.

Shockwave stood there listening, trying to say something- he had to yell at Bee to shut up in order to explain; Yes, he was a decepticon. Yes, the rumors in boot camp were about him. But he never ever lied about his feelings about Bee. He never wanted any harm to come to him nor did he want him dead (anymore).

He explained that he wanted to tell the truth but feared Bee will not accept him or will run away the first chance he gets. He didn't want Bee to leave, and he felt horribly guilty for lying to him.

Bee only remained silent, not ever bothering to look at Shockwave. Shock thought it was over between them... but to his surprise Bee was okay with it- well, "okay" was a bit of an overstatement. He was still very upset about the deception and play-pretend but if Shockwave's feelings were true... maybe he could give him another chance.

Shockwave told him where they were and basics of what he was doing, he told him that he was a loose agent and could do what he wanted so long as he provided some information to the other side. But considering Megatron was absent he was on hiatus majority of the time. Bee insisted to explore the ship so Shockwave showed him around the parts that wouldn't contain leftover sensitive files. He lied about not being on the ship before so Bee wouldn't be suspicious if he tried to block him from going into a certain room... not that it wasn't true, he only been to Nemesis few times and haven't been in half of the rooms.

Bee told him the reason he was here, Shock wasn't surprised he failed to be stealthy. After everything was said and done, Shockwave took Bee to his mini-ship to head back to Steelhaven that was orbiting the earth. Bee felt weird seeing Longarm speak with Sentinel like nothing happened and lie about finding Bee drifting in space. He supposed it was convenient big-chin didn't question why Longarm was in a space shuttle to begin with and just steered the ship back to earth to return the mini to his team.

Everyone was so relieved when they saw Bee- Optimus in particular was stressing out thinking he had send Bee to a certain death, but hearing Sentinel saying that they found him made him ease up.

Bee was lucky to have found out about Shockwave cuz said mech gave him a plan on how to lie about his suddent loss of contact- it wasn't unusual for Bee to lie about what he did but it still felt weird not telling them the truth. For all the knew Bee found Lugnut there and he was punched out of the gravitational field.

It took a bit for Bee to speak with Longarm again; if Shockwave still wanted to date him he must agree to few of his conditions, one of them being that he won't lie to him again. Shockwave was more that happy to know their relationship wasn't lost, even if it meant having to walk on thin ice for a bit.

Idk I can't really put into words how they wouldn't stick together so i wrote them being happy. I would imagine Bee finds Shockwave's frame to be quite sexy. Anyway thank you for the ask!

[forgeofthenine]

So let’s say the three tiefling bachelors s/o is a Drakewarden ranger and the Drake has taken a liking to them. What sort of shenanigans would the Drake and the bachelor tieflings get into? (My own head cannon is that the drake acts like a giant cat and doesn’t realize it’s too big for lap time now)

This was a fun little prompt to write, I just love these guys with various little pets tbh. Enjoy everyone, and expect some more headcanons tomorrow :)

The bachelors with their partners drake companion

Dammon

Dammon and the drake got on like a house on fire

He's the type of guy that every animal he meets just loves him, you know the type

As soon as you introduce the two Dammon is already treating the person sized, red drake as if it's his new puppy

You'll see him scratching it's chin or sneaking it food scraps from the table

It's hard keeping an eye on them both to make sure he isn't instilling any bad habits into your companion

After you've been out with your drake for the day you'll find it eagerly scrambles up the stairs to reach Dammons forge

Sometimes you even dare to think that Dammon might be more excited to see the drake than he is to see you

The both of them have their tails wagging in excitement at the reunion, and it would be endearing if your drake didn't knock over your lovers work equipment

These two can often be found snuggling on the couch, your drake dwarfing Dammon as he calls you over to join them

Zevlor

Zevlor is slightly unsure of your drake at first

It's a silver beast that towers over anyone, himself included, and he feels justified keeping it at arms length

He watches as the beast snuggles with you or happily letting you ride it's back as if it were a horse, and he starts to realise it isn't so bad

It's a slow process of getting them used to each other, your drake a bit too forward and Zevlor a bit overly cautious

You start with having Zevlor feeding your companion various treats, first having him throw them and working him up to hand feeding

Once he's a bit more comfortable the two actually get on quite well

If you're hanging around the house or otherwise occupied, you'll often find your drake trailing around behind Zevlor as he goes about his duties

The drake is quite the good helper, carrying buckets and equipment from place to place as Zevlor cares for all your other animals

Despite a slightly rocky start, the two end up being quite close friends

Rolan

Rolan and the drake have the worst start of the lot

He's very grumpy about having a 'big, bumbling beast' in his tower, but he bites his tongue because he loves you

The two generally try to avoid each other as much as possible to start with, they much prefer trying to find one on one time with you

Until you leave them both home alone one day

You get back to them having a truce and a budding friendship and neither will give you a clue how it happened

Rolan definitely takes advantage of having a new purple drake friend, afterall they're both scarier when together

He also thinks he's sneaky when he gives it quick forehead kisses if the drake is pouting and you look away

Definitely puts on a magic show or two for it if you leave the room entirely, he's always happy to show off to an adoring audience

And the best part is Rolan doesn't mind now every time your drake clambers onto the couch with you both and completely takes over any available lap space

[whinlatter]

In your opinion when did Ginny start drifting away from Dean? What was it that made her decide she didn’t want to be with him anymore? I know it can’t just be him helping her through the door because it’s such a small reason to break up with someone. Did she start to notice Harry noticing her? Or did the relationship run it’s course?

are you ready for an unhinged galaxy brain take from me

I actually think Ginny started to suspect something had changed in Harry's feelings for her not long after he himself realised, after the Gryffindor-Hufflepuff match, early November. The scraps of evidence for this headcanon are few and far between but you can nonetheless prise them from my cold dead hands. Even before Harry himself realised he had feelings for Ginny, he was asking to hang out with her (on the train, in Hogsmeade) in ways that definitely would have seemed new. Then after the match itself:

'Laughing, Harry broke free of the rest of the team and hugged Ginny, but let go very quickly. Avoiding her gaze, he clapped a cheering Ron on the back instead as, all enmity forgotten, the Gryffindor team left the pitch arm in arm, punching the air and waving to their supporters.'

Ginny is a very good reader of Harry's emotions and responses at this point in the series. She seems to clock that Harry has just given her this very weird, out of character hug - weird both in that it's clearly very physically awkward and brief, but also weird in that Harry has given her a hug at all, when he's never initiated a hug with any other character before, let alone her. Then, this chat at the after party, immediately after Harry has just ditched a group of admiring (and extremely willing) girls flirting with him:

'“It looks like he’s eating her face, doesn’t it?” said Ginny dispassionately. “But I suppose he’s got to refine his technique somehow. Good game, Harry.” She patted him on the arm; Harry felt a swooping sensation in his stomach, but then she walked off to help herself to more butterbeer. Crookshanks trotted after her, his yellow eyes fixed upon Arnold.'

This is the first time Ginny touches Harry in the series. It's innocuous enough to anyone watching - Chaser pats Captain on the arm after a game - but given how unusual it is for Ginny to touch Harry, so soon after their previous strange interaction where Harry initiated touch with Ginny for the first time, I think we can see this interaction as Ginny testing her theory. (Tbh I think Harry's response to her here, including the fact that he literally doesn't even speak in front her lol, would give her even more reason for suspicion.)

I basically think Dean and Ginny are doomed after this. Not because I think Ginny would be like great Harry likes me time to break up with Dean - I think she's got months of pranging out about it ahead of her. But I think the stage is set for Ginny starting to actively compare Dean to Harry, and finding him wanting. Between the more morsels of evidence she gets in the following weeks (taking Luna to the ball, the maggot incident), and how miserable Ginny seems at the prospect of going back to Dean in the New Year, I think there's good reason to suspect she had clocked that Harry might, at long last, be returning feelings for her. (I tried to talk a bit about Ginny's view of Dean here).

I know a lot of fics and general fanon has Hermione working Harry's crush out first and pointing it out to Ginny, but I actually really don't buy this! There's no real proof of Hermione noticing Harry's changing feelings for Ginny until really late on. On the topic of Slughorn's party, she tells him to "just invite someone", and doesn't seem to suspect anything after he lies that there's no-one he wants to invite. I genuinely don't think Hermione knew until mid-March:

“Yeah, well, there was no need for Ginny and Dean to split up over it,” said Harry, still trying to sound casual. “Or are they still together?” “Yes, they are — but why are you so interested?” asked Hermione, giving Harry a sharp look. “I just don’t want my Quidditch team messed up again!” he said hastily, but Hermione continued to look suspicious, and he was most relieved when a voice behind them called, “Harry!” giving him an excuse to turn his back on her.

Of course, after this point, Hermione is in full super sleuth mode. To Hermione, Ginny's argument with Dean suddenly makes a lot more sense now she's realised that a) Harry likes Ginny and b) Ginny has already worked out Harry likes her and so is sabotaging her relationship with Dean. After Ginny and Dean break up while Harry is on Felix Felicis (subtle from HJP), Hermione knows for sure what's going on, and is deliciously smug and unsubtle about it in ways that makes me think if she had known before this, she would have let on. It's true that Harry is oblivious, but it's also true that Hermione has never passed up a chance to say I told you so (she's just like me fr)

[callsign-speedy]

my up to date thoughts about the mexico gp (everything in brackets is an afterthought)

- absolutely mental first lap feel bad for tsunoda.

- awh poor albon

- lando/ max incident absolutely mental. dangerous from max but rb engineer calling it whining…? it was a dangerous move and he deserved the 10 second penalty. frankly he deserved to give the place back but hey ho🤷‍♀️

- poor alonso having to retire didn’t hear the reason though, (if anyone did let me know in the comments please)

- hilarious comment ‘that’s a first world problem’ after leclerc mentions his water spilling while zig zagging to keep his tyres warm

- perez 10 second penalty as well for that start. how did no one see that at rb

- oh my god another 10 second penalty, will verstappen finish in the points? god i hope not🫣(absolutely shocking finish from max, thought i did expect it. well done verstappen)

- no 5 second penalty between lawson and perez, which might be the only good news they get today

- oop lap 26 and max’s tyres aren’t holding up. if lando holds on and waits he can overtake easily while max pits and takes his penalty.

- mental that this driver (verstappen) took a 20 second penalty and is still in 11th place. such a once in a generation talent

- piastri seventh, in the points. we’d like higher but for lap 31 we’re happy for now (we being me)

- take that back max is now 9th, feel like i’m watching history. i can despise his team but he’s such a talent that i can’t be anything but awed by the man. i’m not a redbull fan but by god am i a max verstappen fan

- lovely norris in 3rd and piastri up and on but gets overtaken again by hamilton.

- russell front flap broken, bad news for mercedes

- misfire for sainz out of turn three, whats happening there ( i did miss it, please let me know if it was mentioned)

- oop max’s tyres aren’t working again by his own words😁

- max overtaken lawson, nice work but lets see what these tyres are saying

- hopefully piastri holds off max

- poor franco and his steering, hopefully all stays well. the power steering system apparently but i’m hoping williams work that out

- russell can take carry on with that front wing, good for him

- piastri has just pitted so McLaren clearly don’t want him trying to hold off max and we’re higher than rb in the constructors championship and oscar is no wherenear the championship like lando is so no reason to scrap the car fighting max and hamilton is defending quite well 8 second gap to lewis i think

- max has reported he has no grip and perez in 17th, not good for redbull

- piastri back down the 12th so we’ll be fighting hard to get back in the points, but piastri is flying on his new tyres so thats a possibility and it is being said that with max hurting on his new tyres piastri can close the 20 sec gap between them and fight him off by the end of the race (clearly that didn’t happen but we tried our best and we’re in the points with a crucial constructors championship fight so i’m happy with that)

- piastri in 11th now so we can do it, especially with the way he’s chasing gasly down

- and on lap 44, oscar has chased down gasly and overtaken, we’re officially in the points

- norris has officially just taken fastest lap

- hamilton 0.607 from russell and closing, will there be an overtake?

- driver of the day voted for ✅ oscar ofc, some good overtaking there and i can’t think of anyone else to vote for tbh

- piastri 0.646 from hulkenberg hopefully we see a overtake

- oscar 6 seconds from nico, seems like he’s a P8 this race which is still okay he’s in the points and much higher than where he started

- lando’s a second from charles hopefully he can overtake take him in 10 laps

- 0.557 hamilton from russell, mercedes don’t want to tell george to give it up but hamilton might just do it himself (and he did)

- oop lando 0.667 from charles, can he overtake him?

- charles leclerc off the track, nearly into the barriers in lap 63, overtake from norris over charles, charles won’t be happy but he still has points and he’s still in the podium, so look up and on leclerc (P3, he’ll be upset but he’s up there so hopefully he doesn’t beat himself up too bad)

- 1.19.858 fastest lap for lando, an extra point which is vital for the constructors and drivers championship

- norris reporting wind has picked up, typically means rain is coming, how will they fare (thankfully it held off until the end of the race)

- lap 65 it’s a double ferrari podium and norris in the middle so far, if it stays like that… who knows🤷‍♀️( it did)

- hamilton trying an overtake on his teammate and no dice, shame for lewis having to sit and wait again

- and hamilton had overtaken on lap 66 with extra pace

- bit of damage for lawson taken from colapinto, sending him into the pits

- and race control have noted franco/liam incident in regards to colapinto taken off track and coming back into lawson (colapinto received a 10 second penalty)

- bit of jovial joking with perez being told there may be debris in turn 12 and being told he can check the highlights later, and he is ‘watching them now’

- being mentioned norris racing down the man he ‘started a bromance with’🤣

- norris 5 seconds from race leader sainz with 1 lap to go, can’t see him coming up to sainz now

- perez is being boxed for an attempt on fastest lap in what i assume is an attempt for an extra point but as far as my understanding goes it’s only given for top 10 and perez is 17th so…? (can anyone explain that to me)

- and race leader and pole holder carlos sainz wins the mexico grand prix, well done smooth operator and well done tifosi

- in more exciting news for me, norris in 2nd and a podium for mclaren, also tightening that gap between lando and max so thank god for that, well done lando and well done papaya army

(didn’t see who got driver of the day so if you know, please let me know and any errors i’ve made, don’t feel scared to mention them in the comments)

[twilights-800-cats]

Thoughts on the new arc + blurb:

Leafstar - I like the idea of seeing through the eyes of a leader who is failing physically and possibly mentally. I want to see the first leader of modern SkyClan pass on and feel as if she's finally done her job in ensuring her Clan's place in the world. I don't want Hawkwing to lead after her, tbh, he's old by now and hasn't done much of anything - I'd like to see a slightly younger, more interesting cat take over after Leafstar

Tawnypelt - I REALLY like the idea of being in her shoes again. The Erins make no bones about their Arc 2 favoritism so it was inevitable that they'd revisit the two Arc 2 characters that haven't gotten much spotlight (and didn't get PoVs in Arc 2 at all). Tawnypelt and Crowfeather going on another journey together sounds like it'll be a good, nostalgic time, and I'm here for Tawnypelt taking matters into her own hands again when her Clan ignores her. Pretty sure she's not making it through this arc, either, tbh. Doubts on Crowfeather, too

Moonpaw - I don't know anything about this one! Guessing she's a Night/Sun kit, but I saw a theory floated that she might be a personification of the Moonpool, which is being threatened by Twolegs? That's an interesting theory, but I'm not holding out hope for it lol. Sounds like she's set up to be another medicine cat/StarClan connection, which is typical of the series. Other than that, there's not much to go off of!

Twoleg threat - While I'm kind of excited to see a less metaphysical threat to the Clans this time around, I'm not buying the idea that we're moving away from the lake in this series. There would be some precedent for it if the Moonpool IS destroyed and the Clans are forced to find StarClan again, but I don't know, the lake seems very much like a permanent fixture, but the Erins have developed the location so pitifully these past eight arcs that sending us off to a new poorly developed location would be disappointing. I'm always happy to be wrong, though - we've been here eight arcs, and that might've been about four arcs too long lol

StarClan - We've spent the past three arcs looking into the Clan's relationship with StarClan and how rocky it's becoming. The concept is wearing a little thin. Either we scrap StarClan entirely or we restore the connection this arc and move on, imo. Personally, I do like the idea of StarClan existing in the story, I just wish they weren't so contradictory about how it worked or how much of an influence it can have, which is where I think a lot of frustration with it comes from.

As always, I want the arc to work, to be good, to try new things, and to go to new places (figuratively and literally, sure). I also, as always, kind of want it to be the last one, lol - at least, the last one with this present cast of characters. If Warriors has to keep going, let it start fresh somewhere in the future! But that's just a dream at this point I think.

idk. I'm still here for whatever is in store.

[honeybee-bard]

Writing Interview Tag Game

My internet is finally back! Thank you to @nyx-knox for the tag. It's a long one, so buckle the fuck up y'all.

When did you start writing?

I'm the child of two English majors and I wrote little stories in my journals as a kid, probably as young as five or six. I started writing fanfiction specifically when I was about 15 and wrote Ed Sheeran smut and putting it on tumblr, which I absolutely should not have been doing for internet safety reasons but what's done is done and tbh it was some solid writing. I then stopped writing for an entire decade due to mental health issues. I started writing my Falling Star fic in...April, probably? So between that and my WIPs, I went a decade without writing and then suddenly pumped out a couple hundred thousand words in less than six months. Go big or go home I guess!

Are there different themes or genres you enjoy reading than what you write?

Honestly, not really. I'm a slut for spawn Astarion smut what can I say.

Is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often?

There are none I can remember ever being compared to, but there are lots of other fic writers that I try to learn a little from each time I read their work.

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space?

I still live at home, so my writing space is at my gaming PC at the desk in my bedroom. The entire place is a huge mess and tbh it stresses me out a little but I have a lot going on right now so it is what it is. There's usually coffee and/or weed within arm's reach when I'm writing.

What's your most effective way to muster up a muse?

Something that's really surprised me in my return to creative writing is how easily inspiration has continued coming to me. Sometimes I worry that I'll lose it, but I keep having more ideas than I can get onto paper, and I've just barely begun exploring writing characters other than Astarion and Wynlana, so I think I'll have enough inspiration to continue writing for a very long time.

Are there any recurring themes in your writing? Do they surprise you?

Smut! So much of it! And it doesn't surprise me in the slightest because I am a terrible, horny little goblin bastard.

What is your reason for writing?

I love my job (I work in early childhood education), but I realized it was at the point where it was taking over my entire life. I went on medical leave after having top surgery, and I decided to spend a lot of the time writing. Having a creative outlet has been very good for me, and the added motivation of people actually liking it has been a huge confidence boost.

Is there any specific comment or type of comment you find particularly motivating?

One of the first comments I got was complimenting my prose and how everything flowed and I think about it nearly every time I write. Those had been some of my biggest concerns that delayed me posting the first few chapters of the fic, so that comment really meant a lot.

How do you want to be thought about by your readers?

I'd never really thought much about this tbh. I think a lot about how my writing will be perceived, but not so much about how I as a writer might be perceived. I care way too much about what people think of me irl so it's a nice break tbh

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

I'm a stubborn bitch which means I'll keep rewriting and reworking a scene until I'm truly proud of it. There have been scenes I've had to change significantly or cut for various reasons, but not many I've scrapped entirely. I'm very persistant.

How do you feel about your own writing?

Honestly, pretty confident! I thoroughly enjoy re-reading what I've written, and all of the feedback I've gotten so far has been positive. It's been a boost to my irl mental health to have something I both enjoy and am good at outside of work, and it's nice for it to be something lower stakes than "keeping 5+ toddlers at a time from trying to kill themselves in the most creative ways possible". I love them, but it's a lot of pressure!

When you write, are you influenced by what others might enjoy reading, or do you write purely for yourself, or a mix of both?

Everything I write is something I've decided I might enjoy writing, but sometimes I write something and get really excited knowing my readers are going to love it. The other day I was editing an emotional scene and couldn't wait to show my beta reader because I knew she was going to love it.

No-pressure tags (sorry if any of you have done it already and I just didn't see lol): @bardic-inspo @pinkberrytea @locallegume @marlowethebard @kimberbohwrites

[yeyinde]

with the new season of the bear coming out sunday is there any insight into the richie fic you had planned 😶? If you scrapped it I completely understand I was just thinking about it recently and started wondering, hope you’re doing well!!

i can't believe it's coming out so soon!! 😭 i'm not mentally/emotionally/spiritually prepared for it, tbh! or Richie. godddddd the ending of season 2 kept me up for two nights stressing. this show is stress osmosis, istg. but i'm still working on it! it's 23k and counting lmao. but i might split it into three parts to make it easier to read. part one should be up soonish if i do. probs next week since all i really have to do is edit it and refine the smut.

i added a wee snippet below of their official meeting 🖤

He's wearing a blue polyester tracksuit, one that you didn't think they sold anymore post nine-ninety five, and is covered in paint, dust. 

He stops when he sees you, brows knotting together confusion. Irritation, maybe. A tension falls, settles on your shoulders. 

You smile wide to try and break it, but it just makes him scoff.

"We're closed," he snaps, jabbing his finger toward the flipped sign dangling in the window. "Or can't you read, Princess?" 

The waspish tone makes your knuckles itch. You match ire with anger, and shrug. "I can read, but the door was unlocked, so—"

"So? You just let yourself in? Breaking and entering is real cute—"

"Thank you."

His jaw clenches. The divot between his brow drawing tighter together with his palpable irritation. You want to feed into it. To bask in his annoyance. To etch under his skin until you sit there, festering like a sickness. It's madness, maybe, but fuck. Fuck. You've been looking for something to sink your inches into since you stepped off the train in Chicago. 

He doesn't lash out, though. There's an ironclad control over his fury that sets your teeth on edge, that makes your finger itch with the urge to pull at the seams, at the ties that bind it together. 

It's childish, but you've always liked it best when people fought back. 

"What are you doing here anyway? We're not open," he snaps, and then he adds: "and we're not hiring, either." 

"Is that right?" You poke. "Pete sent me. Where is Natalie?" 

"Busy," he huffs, arms crossing over his chest. "Whaddya want?"

"Someone in charge."

The vein in his temple throbs. "I am in charge."

"Are you, though?"

"Been runnin' this place since before you could eat solid foods, Princess—"

He makes you want to bloody your knuckles on his teeth. 

We all have a breaking point—

Nat interrupts before you can find yours again. 

[bluelizze]

Ok so having black butler grell brainriot so I completely scrapped all my old black butler ocs to make a sorta self-insert oc kinda situation

(Click to read more about this handsome fella)

Some basic info

Elliott Allen (might change last name idk)

He’s transmasc and goes by he/they pronouns

He’s a vampire (I love vampires and I am one)

Works at a tailor with someone whom he known since their great grandfather (bc some backstory shenanigans)

He loves making outfits as a way to express himself and his feelings

Backstory

Not everything is set in stone but these are just some ideas I have

Obviously, Elliott was born a girl and for the most part was fine except that they felt more masculine on the inside while still enjoying feminine stuff

elliott was also known to be pretty fragile (ik very cliche) so he picked up sewing to pass the time but eventually starts to like it

I have no idea how elliott would become a vampire tbh, so if u have any ideas, lmk

anyways, what made elliott realized that he’s a man was a nice tailor he met when he was window shopping

he and the tailor became good friends and later he learned that it was ok to be a man while accepting his femininity

I should note that he met the tailor after becoming a vampire

He soon became a sort of assistant/apprentice and continue on doing so for every generation pass down

At one point, the tailor built a separate room for Elliott so kinda like a studio but adding a bedroom in the same room bc they learned that Elliott never really comes out of the shop (at this point, lives in the shop)

madam red and her husband were one of their regulars so elliott had some sort of attachment with them

which kinda leds to the next part

AKA MY FAV PART (AKA A PART WHERE SOME OF YOU MIGHT WANT TO STOP IF YOU DONT LIKE)

OC X CANON FT. GRELLE SUTCLIFF THE QUEEN OF REAPERS

The two met shortly after grell became a full ledge reaper and basically elliott was like “omg you are the one I need for this outfit I’m working on” and particularly pushed grell to their tailor to try on the outfit and omg grell looked so pretty

after that, grell would frequently stop by at the shop during closing hours bc she’s aware that that’s when elliott is pretty much active (she doesn’t know they’re a vampire yet)

it would mostly just grell talking about her work and complaining while elliott measures her for his next week or making the outfit has he actively listens

nothing really changes once the two learn of each other’s true nature but it just made the two fell of each other even more

well… for elliott. it takes grell even longer to kinda realize it

bc grell had always fancy other men, it made elliott somewhat jealous and insecure of himself for not fully being the man she wanted

which somewhat led to having the worst gender dyphoria of his life

grell later catches on and basically realizes that elliott was the man she wanted all her life

bc he did not care about the fact that she used to be a man, and loved her as a women and treated and cared for her like one

she realizes that elliott was basically treating her the way she has always dreamed of, for who she is inside and outside

buuuttt it took a while for her to get to elliott bc he was so emotionally closed off

this is where madam red comes in, she was sorta the stepping stone to help grell realizes elliott's pining love for her

she also helped grell by telling elliott that the commission was from someone she knows very well

anyways, elliott just made the dress as he was told only to find out that the person that madam red was talking about was grell and grell basically was like "sooo.... i didn't realize how much i was hurting you and i didn't really mean it..." (idk how to write this without making her out of character)

grell put on the dress and basically fell in love with elliott even harder and basically confessed her love to him by hugging and kissing him (yes in those cartoon fashion ways where lipstick stains was all over elliott's face as he gots heart eyes)

after that, elliott slowly becomes more open with his life and his emotions with grell

he does eventually learn that just because grell fancy other men, doesn't mean she feels any sort of romantic feelings towards them

it doesn't fully stop with elliott possessiveness and jealously towards other men but it wasn't as bad as before

pov: elliott grips grell's waist and basically says "trying to eye my lovely grell aye?" as grell shivers at the possessiveness in elliott's tone

when elliott meets sebastian, the jealously went somewhat off the roof

he was relieve when sebastian verbally shows that he isn't intersted in grell

but elliott was still jealous of him bc sebastian is partically elliott's dream masculinity (if you know what i mean)

it took some time for elliott to open about it with grell and when he did, grell basically spoils him for the rest of day

also yes, elliott does drink blood from grell and ofc grell enjoys it, a little too much but hey, it's a win win for the both of them

elliott did not fully liked the idea of sucking off from other people before he met grell

he still doesn't but he wouldn't mind if it's grell bc he loves her and she enjoys it

even tho it’s not rlly official (they both don’t know when it will be official), they like to call each other husband and wife

“why, this dress is for my lovely wife in red 😙”

“Isn’t my dress lovely 🥰? My hubby made it just for me 😘😘😘”

Trivia

besides the whole vampire aestheic, he was partically inspired by phantom of the oprea

he can dance, specically he can do ballet

he loves doing the waltz with his mannequin in dresses, but now he does it more with grell whenever she models for his outfits

══════════════════

edited: N/A

[stitching-in-time]

Voyager rewatch s1 ep15: Learning Curve

The final episode of the first season! This one has a lot of good stuff in it, not least of which is more of Captain Janeway's holonovel; any episode that starts off with this beautiful sight is already good in my book:

I love her, your honor!!!

As far as the rest of the episode, I liked both the A and B plots, and I liked how they intersected at the end to wrap up the episode neatly. Maybe a little too neatly, but it was the end of the season, and it ended on a positive note, so I'm cool with it. I'm surprised they didn't end the season with a big cliffhanger like TNG and DS9 usually did, but I'm actually not too bothered by that; I hated cliffhangers when the show originally aired, since it sucked to have to wait months to find out what happened. I honestly don't mind low-stakes character focused stories, and would be ok with more Trek shows chilling tf out with their wild season finale cliffhangers. Though this one is so laid back, I wonder if they planned something else for the finale and had to scrap it for some reason, falling back on this one instead.

I'm glad they had a story about some of the Maquis's dissatisfaction with having to be Starfleet, since I think overall they had the two crews become the Brady Bunch a little too early, and missed out on some good opportunites for drama. Since the whole point of having half the crew be Maquis was for the drama and conflict to shake up the usual Starfleet koombayah vibe, they should use it.

In universe, I don't think Tuvok would have been the best choice to lead the Maquis in remedial Starfleet etiquette, precisely because he is rigid and uptight like Neelix points out, but obviously story-wise it makes sense because he would have the biggest character arc in meeting the Maquis crewmen halfway, and I think it works well. The training sequence was kind of funny though, because the music was so grandiose, it sounded like it was trying to be the Rocky soundtrack- I half expected it to segway into 'Gonna Fly Now', lol. The guy playing Dalby was a little over the top in some of his line delivery, when he was giving his story about his past, he was playing it kind of cheesy, and I expected him to say, "actually, I just made that all up- I'm really just an asshole." Which would have been hilarious tbh, but I guess they just told him to play it that way, so idk.

But anyway, since we spent a whole episode getting to know these Maquis officers, I wish we'd have seen more of them later, even in small scenes here and there. Voyager has such a small crew, there's no way we wouldn't have seen them around again anywhere, and it's not like on other Star Trek shows where you can explain having different extras every episode as crewmembers transferring in and out. I always feel that Voyager missed an opportunity to build up a roster of supporting characters out of the background crew members. If I'd been writing on Voyager, I'd have kept a list of the background crew characters and fleshed them out bit by bit as time went on, it would have helped the show feel more real, and it would have been more impactful when a crewmember got killed off if we knew them and recognized them over the years. I get that it might not always have been possible to get the same actor again, but I feel like if they'd tried, they probably could have gotten a lot of them back at some point, which would have been really nice.

The bio-neural gelpacks getting 'sick' was a refreshingly different ship malfunction concept, and it gave us one of the classic Star Trek lines that sound that they're not real out of context when B'Elanna says 'take the cheese to sickbay'. Iconic.

Tl;dr: an entertaining episode that ends the first season on a positive (if unspectacular) note.

[shepherds-of-haven]

hii! i'm a new author working on my first if, and i'm really not doing great tbh. shepards of haven is (my current hyperfixation) sosososososo good and so expansive and just generally the best thing ever and i'm aware that you've been writing this story for years and that's probably why it's so amazing but i'm not having a fun time over here and i was wondering if you have any tips for worldbuilding or if you could share like a general overview of your process? thank you so much :))

Hi there, I'm sorry to hear you're not feeling great about your project at the moment! I think my #writing advice tag could be helpful to you, since that's where I stick all the posts and answers about writing tips and worldbuilding advice from this blog, as well as my @strangevoyages blog, which is exclusively focused on my authorial career and writing-related tips and tricks, so it might be easier to parse through for advice! This post I wrote last year, in particular, could be helpful for worldbuilding, as well! (As well as this post for my general tips for beginning writers of interactive fiction!)

On top of all that, though, I think the best piece of advice I can add on for you is to be patient with yourself! As you mentioned, I've been working on Shepherds for over 20 years now: it was basically the first story I ever wrote, and I still haven't published it in a complete form yet. My first novel, We Have Always Been Here, also took about four years to complete, and in that amount of time, I burned it completely to the ground and started it over from scratch FIVE TO EIGHT TIMES before I got so sick of looking at it I just had to submit it. And I thought I would start my second novel directly after that, starting a few months after WHABH's completion in 2019. It's been four years since then and I'm still figuring out the world and characters of that second novel, to the point that I've also started and completely scrapped the story three or four times... I didn't even settle on the main cast or their names until earlier this year, so that's like 3 years where I didn't even know their names, let alone how their world worked. 🥹 And in the last four years, I've still only gotten as far as about ten chapters on this series, and my most current draft is only at four! (And I'm about to scrap some of that and start over again... 🥹)

At some point, you finally iron things out and the story details settle and actually click, and then you might be off to the races--but you've got to give yourself the time, patience, and understanding to actually get there first! I know that things can feel frustrating when it feels like you've run up against a wall or you just aren't feeling inspired, but letting things simmer for a while just allows the flavors of your story to complexify and deepen. You're creating a whole new world in your head, so give yourself a break! It takes time. Like a good soup, sometimes you have to let it sit on the stove for a bit and bubble away without poking at it impatiently and wishing it would hurry up or dumping ingredients in it to make it cook faster. In the meantime, consuming media that inspires you or that you genuinely love and enjoy--without turning it into the work and chore of "research"--might uncork or illuminate something you didn't even know was brewing. That's what I most often do when I'm feeling uninspired! I just leave everything where it is, meander away, watch or read or play something that intrigues me, and that often naturally sparks inspiration when I'm not thinking too hard about it. A watched p(l)ot never boils, so to speak!

I hope that (and my other posts linked above) help you in some way. Good luck with your writing and again, try not to be too hard on yourself! You're not alone, every writer feels this way: it's just a part of the process, but one that we can mitigate by giving ourselves time and patience. :) And thank you for the kind words about Shepherds, I'm glad you're enjoying it!

[mlmvoreconfessionals]

Hey! I'm new in the fandom and I realy love your stories, specialy your last Captain America story with the gut crushing. I wanted to ask if it would be possible to have some more of him? As a pred or prey (I love both tbh). Maybe with some disposal and bones? Either way keep the great work!

Yeah, I could do more with him! He's kinda fun for as little as I actually know about the dude. So here's a long one because oops!

"This is really stupid," C.aps says with a frown. He's standing with a few other members of the team, which have presented him with by far the dumbest possible thing they could have.

"Come on, there's no way you can even do it," S.pider-Man retorts with a way of his hand. "We're all way stronger than your stomach. You just get one flex and then you have to let us out."

"The spider is right," T.hor agrees. "Even fi he might perish, my godly physique will never crumble to one man."

H.ulk snorts. "Too big," he says simply.

Captain A.merica rolls his eyes. He's supposed to be leading this team, not snuffing it out. But they've been pestering him about this all day and if they're that willing to throw their lives away over something this dumb...

"Fine, let's get this over with," C.ap says. He pulls S.pider-Man over first. "It was nice knowing you, kid." He opens wide and engulfs his head. Out of the three, S.pider-man is the smallest, with an average lean build. So it doesn't take C.ap long to devour him. He barely even gulps, just slurps the kid down like a massive noodle. His abs bloat out as the hero is forced to curl up inside.

"It's really tight in here!" S.pider-Man calls out, his body forcibly curled up in a bit of an awkward position. He can feel the stomach walls clenching tightly around him, holding him in place. "Let me just get ready and--" C.ap's stomach squeezes out on all sides, not letting the hero finish his sentence. On the outside, the other two onlookers got to watch the S.pider-Man-shaped bulge instantly vanish, returning to a set of abs in only one flex. Grisly crunches and snaps rang out as the kid's body was eviscerated in mere seconds and pumped away. A deep belch blasts out of C.ap, rattling the equipment in the room.

"One flex," C.ap says, patting his stomach gently. "You didn't say anything about prep time."

T.hor and H.ulk were a bit taken back by how quickly that transpired. T.hor clears his throat. "Is he already--?"

C.ap lifts one leg and grunts, blasting out a deep fart. "Yeah. Give me a second." With a bit of work, he gets his pants down and squats over the floor. Thick coils of shit immediately start sliding out and piling up on the ground in a heap. Broken bones litter the soft pile, as well as red and blue scraps of fabric. The pile builds up to C.ap's knees before he grunts and forces the skull out, letting it top the pile, the damaged mask still covering about half of it. In all but an instant, S.pider-Man was dead and left as nothing but a pile of shit.

C.ap stands up and carefully kicks his pants off before looking at the other two. "Still want to go in on this bet? We can call it off now."

T.hor, still confident despite the display, just smiles and thumps a hand to his chest. "Of course! The spider was just a mortal, but I am a god! And no stomach could possibly destroy a god so easily!"

"Alright then. Down you go." C.ap does the same to T.hor as he did to S.pider-Man, pulling him over and engulfing his head. But the muscular A.sgard isn't as easy to slurp down, so the hero has to take hard, thick gulps to get him packed away. Once he's over those broad shoulders, though, the god's muscular body slides down with relative ease. Over his pecs, past his arbs, and then slurping up two thicks legs. His stomach stretches even bigger, at least twice the same as his last meal, and C.ap lets out a belch as T.hor is dropped inside.

"Now, don't hold back on me!" T.hor declares. "I want to at least feel you try, even if you'll--" And like the last meal, T.hor isn't given a chance to finish as the stomach walls close in on him with a mighty flex. He's not decimated the same way S.pider-Man was, but even one clench causes the god's body to fold like a can, two loud cracks ringing out as he's broken in an instant. C.ap relaxes his stomach and it sloshes outward again, hanging low and limp. T.hor is dead, that much is clear, but judging bugling out his gut, not totally taken care of.

"Heh...god of stomach now," H.ulk says with a grin, giving C.ap's gut a jav with one large finger. It makes the hero belch deeply and a red cape ends up getting halfway up and hanging from his jaws. With a tug, it's out, and he lets it drop to the floor with a splat. With another flex of his stomach, it flattens, and T.hor is pumped away.

"Well, it took two, so I guess he won that bet," C.ap says with a slight frown. "But he wasn't in any condition to be let out...hopefully this doesn't cause any problems with the gods." Trying to explain T.hor did this willingly might not go well...but that's a problem for later. C.ap squats down, grunting as he lets out a very booming fart from his ass. Even as food, T.hor is nothing but gassy. Even so, dense logs begin to thump onto the ground, mostly intact bones baked into the heaping pile. It's twice as large as the last one, C.ap notices, as it nearly reaches his ass by the time he's forcing out the last few logs. With a bit of effort, he squeezes the skull out, and stands up with a deep breath.

"You can't possibly believe you'll survive it now," C.ap says, looking up at H.ulk. "Even if it takes more than one flex."

"H.ulk knows," the hero assures. He leans down, grinning. "But H.ulk want little man to try. Take H.ulk-sized shit."

C.ap shakes his head. "No, that's enough. I already killed S.pider-man and T.hor over this, I'm not--" Two large hands wedge themselves into his jaws mid-sentence. H.ulk continues to grin as he forces his thick arms deeper down C.ap's gullet. The big hero, it seems, wasn't asking.

C.ap squeezes his eyes shut as he's forced to take on his biggest meal yet. H.ulk forces himself deeper and deeper, getting his arms down, then forcing his head in. His broad shoulders are easier to take with his arms out of the way, and his massive pecs stretch C.ap's jaws more. By the time he's getting down to the man's waist, C.ap has to take over. He hoists H.ulk's legs up into the air and tilts his head back, letting the thick tree-trunk legs kick as they wiggle down his gullet. He can't even close his jaws behind H.ulk's enormous feet until they're a bulge gliding down his gullet.

C.ap takes a deep breath with his gullet free, left panting after a forceful meal. His stomach is stretched out enough to be touching the ground, fit to burst with a incredibly well-defined H.ulk shape. It takes C.ap a few breaths to get his bearing again. "F-Fine," the man huffs, "if that's how you feel...then just die!" C.ap closes his eyes and squeezes hsi gut as tightly as he can.

The H.ulk survives the longest of them all, if only by a few seconds. He feels his body cave in on itself, his impressive muscles and thick bones forced together in a fight for space. The way they crunch and snap sounds like bricks breaking, and all H.ulk feels is searing pain for the five seconds of awareness he gets before his entire body is mulched down into a thick slosh. Large bones stretch out C.ap's stomach, but he doesn't let up, forcing all of it deeper into him until there's just a lump in his bowels.

C.ap squats down as his middle rumbles. He lets out a belch that could have rivaled one of T.hor's and a bassy fart to match. Then comes his biggest challenge. C.ap's hold is stretched to its limits as H.ulk slides out in massive logs, making the hero groan from the effort of having to pass it. Each log is easily the size of C.ap's thigh but three times as heavy with hose dense it is. There's still plenty of whole bones as well, strong enough to survive the pressure of the hero's stomach.

The pile also smells the worst, even making the predator in question recoil at the stink. It feels like there's no end to it. Each log feels thicker and heavier than the last and hits the ground with a thud, building up a small mountain of shit that's outmatched T.hor's in only two logs. But it keeps going, minutes ticking on as C.ap is left to squeeze it all out.

After nearly ten minutes, the pile comes up to his chest, and there's something blocking the way. C.ap takes a deep breath, closes his eyes, and pushes. A massive skull stretches him out and...as embarrassing as it is, makes C.ap cum the second he's forced it through. Some smaller, softer logs follow right after, half burying the skull as the last bits of H.ulk are flushed from C.ap's system.

With a grumble, C.ap gets up, feeling sore as hell now. He takes T.hor's belched-up cape and wipes his ass with it, tossing it onto the owner's pile. The worst part is that he didn't gain anything from those meals. That's why he doesn't process them so quickly unless necessary--it makes all of it flush straight though his system and he has to crap out some 200 pounds of shit per meal. Though guys like T.hor and H.ulk definitely put that number to shame...

"I'll have to let the others know not to expect any of you anymore," C.ap says to the piles as he gets his clothes back on. "...and I'll make sure a janitor gets this cleaned up." Still a bit annoyed, moreso over the effort of it all than the loss of lives, C.ap walks out, leaving the three heroes to sit there and stink until they're inevitably cleaned up.

[bitchfitch]

It is time to finally get around to watching the Simone Giertz stained glass robot video,

and I am already much more optimistic about it than I was in the E+K one, Shes actually gotten into the craft and is doing this because it's two things she already likes. But Also. I am so jealous of her rn, that shop is Massive and Gorgeous. Like, I love the stained glass workbench, but if that place is a candy store, This one is willy Wonka's factory.

She's got a Proper grinder, and an aftermarket bit I'm legit jealous of, I need to get one of these things, it would make the little curves So much easier.

Her plan is to trace the chassis pieces of an already existent robot arm to re make it in glass. We haven't seen the arm in motion yet but I think that means these pieces shouldn't be taking any significant loads. They are going to be a lot heavier than the original pieces tho and the arm is one of those dinky toy ones so tbh, rn I suspect it's motor is going to be the week link in this. Ma'am knows what she's doing on both fronts and seems to be the only big name YouTuber to Actually give a shit about the craft instead of just using it for click bait.

I just really like the color grading in these shots. And also how good of a dog scraps is. Ive never met a dog I'd let anywhere near my sg stuff out of like, a concern for their safety but Scraps is being totally chill (It's ok to do most SG stuff around a dog so long as they're behaved and not likely to get up on the table. You do have to be careful about shard management and paw checks tho, Dogs are really good at getting Bits in-between their toes where they can hide and start causing infections. Cats groom themselves too much and might end up with shards in their mouths or throats if you let them in the room with you during cutting, most other common indoor pets are too sensitive to fumes for it to be safe for them to be in the room for any part of the process after the foil goes on. This is just an fyi)

So far the Big issue that's making this difficult is that she made the holes for the screws and such too small. She's doing the Tiffany method which means the screw holes are being made unpredictabily smaller by the copper foil and inconsistency in her soldering, This is not a skill issue and is kind just Part of things. She's going to have to melt off all of her pretty leading and pull off the tape to grind the holes bigger, effectively undoing a Decent number of hours of work and making more for herself. If your considering doing a similar project, hot tip, make the holes Massive, around the size of your screws Head, then fill them completely with solder while you do your leading, the lead is soft enough to drill through and tap with a standard hand drill like you would wood. I'd recommend a manual one over a motorized one just bc it'll stay cooler and stained glass doesn't like being vibrated that harshly.

after some adjustments to things it's most of the way put together and moving! And Yeah it looks Really Really Good. I'm kinda worried what that arm is going to do under load though, It looks like it might want to fold on itself and flex snap on the diagonal, or break the soldering away from the glass. Using thick c channel came around the edges would reinforce it pretty well if that's going to be the reason this video is called "making a robot out of stained glass was a stupid idea from the start"

It just got a wash, a base, and some patina. They put up a title card that said 'homestretch' Look at the progress bar.

Things have been going really well so far so I'm kinda worried about what could go wrong.

the mounts at the base of the arm where the pivot point is can't handle the stresses. Wrapping the outside edge of chassis pieces in came would let them flex without being able to pull away from each other. Bc the glass didn't break, the soldering gave out, came is applied in single long pieces that take some Doing to make fail like that since properly stretched came wants to flex and return to position before it wants to snap. that's why we use it in exterior windows instead of the Tiffany method.

She repaired the seam in the same way it was before glued the hardware in place, fixed up the base to make it match her expectations of it, and it failed again in the same way. This piece has a lot of play around it, obviously I don't know for certain if some c channel will 100% fix the problem, But. she does have the room to give it a shot without having to make any other alterations it looks like.

shes, very reasonably, gotten frustrated and decided to just replace the problem part with the metal piece from the original robot and it Does Seam Promising because everything else worked.

And it does!

she made tea with it. :]

(Video link here)

[merge-conflict]

18, 74, 26 for the fic writer asks! 🖤

Questions here

18. Do you title your fics before, during, or after the writing process? How do you come up with titles?

Yes. Yes. Yes.

I usually retitle a fic or chapter at least once. I used to sit and agonize over the coolest title and just could NOT move on until I've done it, but now I just relax because I know I can update it. Generally what it's named in my Scrivener project is just some sort of placeholder or feeling. My usual vibe is "lyrics from a song which vibes" (yes. it is often the mountain goats... but not always! sometimes it's brown bird.) or "common phrase, but changed slightly" or "technical in-joke". Whatever I find most amusing.

Recently posted a fic called "done dying" which was originally titled "anthem for the already defeated" both of them from song titles (the first is actually "When I Was Done Dying"). I wrote all of the "the binds that tie" (playing with "the ties that bind") before settling on the title, but in my drafts it was always 'sudo chown -R vim:vim .' (now the chapter title). I like to have my cake and eat it too whenever possible. For stuff I can't come up with names for I've started titling them 'scrap: brief summary' or something I think is grandiose or funny so I can stop obsessing over it and start writing lol.

74. You’ve posted a fic anonymously. How would someone be able to guess that you’d written it?

Gosh. I've been thinking about this lately, and I do think I have a distinctive style but it's hard to describe because it's just.. the way I write? I know I have a problem repeating adjectives like 'just' 'some' 'only' a lot, so that's one give away. My habit of just smash-cutting into the middle of a scene without much setup is probably another. My habit of using repetitive sentence construction to hammer in a point. My habit of writing too much damn banter.

26. Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?

Tbh the damn things overlap was created to be each damn thing overlapping the next, a huge mess, very little time to breathe (condensing the canon timeline down to about two weeks of Valentine going through main storyline stuff. ~a week of which is actually in the the fic!) I wanted to write a story where you feel relieved when characters get to sit down or take a nap, and I think I've succeeded thus far.

Honorable mention to when her edges soften, where Johnny and Valentine hit the town and each other. Straight from "I'm not gonna fuck you" to competitively tracking the number of orgasms they've both had in the past 3 hours while fucking in alleyways and cars. That might qualify as a sort of wild ride. :3