#I'm also the only one who has Never Delete These Documents settings set up

[rivercityrabbitsbro]

Playing a game of chicken with a client who keeps asking me to set up functionally a dropbox link for something not claims related, and I keep going "sure send me the date it happened", and she keeps going "it's not a claim just send me a link" and I keep going "unfortunately I need the date of the incident to make the link" and she keeps calling the salesman saying "She didn't send me the link yet :(" and he complains to me and I email her going "Hi! As discussed, please forward the date of the incident so the link can be set up"

I do not technically need a date, but it's my fileshare system that I structured my way. If you're gonna be too lazy to use one of the free ones and instead bug me, I'm gonna make you stick to my made up rules.

[copperbadge]

What do you mean by digital cleaning?

It's something I've been working on more this year because I had a bit more travel than usual so couldn't do actual home cleaning, but I always take a couple of days in the Month Of Cleaning where I'm focused on my digital life. It's good to make your physical home a comfortable place for yourself, but it's also good to recognize that we have "digital" homes that need attention. And often this is at least less physically demanding, so it's good to keep it in your back pocket for days when you're mentally okay but physically too tired or sore to do more of that kind of work.

In the shortest possible terms, digital cleaning is just making sure that your phone, computer, socials, and other digital "presences" are organized in a way that you find helpful, and that you take a moment to either answer those messages you've been putting off or give yourself amnesty on doing so.

This tends to make a lot of people extremely anxious in a way ordinary physical space cleaning doesn't, so I'm going to put the rest of it behind a cut...

So when I say digital cleaning, I refer to stuff like going through my likes on Tumblr and clearing them out, going through my drafts and turning them into queued posts, answering my asks. I spend time in my email inboxes, either responding to messages or removing them. I am not an "inbox zero" kind of guy, but I like to keep the read-but-not-answered messages to a minimum, and towards the end of the year that usually means a clear-out and amnesty. I clean my Google Drive -- delete old files I uploaded for others, move documents I'm no longer using into an archive, move documents I want to work on into a central work folder. I go through my catch-all folder on my hard drive and organize it; I sort through the year's photos and organize those, partly to archive them and partly because I make a scrapbook from them each year. I don't usually have a ton of tabs open but often have more than I'd like, so I go through them all and either read, bookmark, or get rid of them.

I look in my phone's file tree to make sure I delete files I don't need (mostly menu downloads, Restaurants Stop Making Your Menus PDFs Challenge 2K24) and I sometimes go through each app on my phone, make sure I still use it, and make sure it's set how I want it. If this sounds like a nightmare, bear in mind that I very rarely put apps on my phone to start with -- I think my mother has more apps open at any given time than I have apps on my phone ever.

Everywhere I clean, I look for files named things like "notes" or "deal with" or "random" and move them all into one place so that whatever is in them, I can sort through it and make sure it goes somewhere permanent. Logins go in the login/password spreadsheet I keep, addresses go into my contacts, story notes go into a "fiction scraps" file, random thoughts either get moved into a journal file or put into drafts to become Tumblr posts, etc.

If this sounds like I might have some kind of compulsion disorder, I get that; when I explain my digital hygiene systems a lot of people look at me like I'm spouting a mad but harmless conspiracy theory. But it's something I used to have to do periodically even before I created National Clean Your Home Month, because otherwise I could never find anything, and everything was just...harder. As I once told a boss who admired my organizational skills, "It was this or endless chaos."

Putting addresses into my contacts list means I always know that the addresses I have for my friends are up to date. Putting logins into a spreadsheet means that five minutes spent now will not result in five weeks of procrastination later because I can't find the login and can't do anything else until I do that. Going through my email and archiving old conversations means not only can I find them easily when needed, I don't have to look at them the rest of the time. Sometimes I even go through my various wish lists and remove old/purchased items, or clear out all my "save for later" carts.

There's no doubt this is stressful, but like every part of NaClYoHo, it's broken down into smaller tasks; I don't have to look at my computer and organize everything on it all in one day. I can answer a few asks, then sort photos (something I find very soothing up until the moment I Don't), then read and delete some emails, then I'm done for the day. I can spread "answer or file all your work emails" out over a couple of days. I can maybe empty out my Likes but just turn the ones I actually want to reblog into drafts for now and deal with them later in the "drafts" phase of cleaning. And if I don't manage to empty out my inboxes, at least they're emptier than they were.

I'm struggling this morning with having put a bunch of physical cleaning on the to-do list but not feeling physically up for it, so I did what I felt capable of doing (measuring cabinets for new shelf liners mainly) and later today I might sit down and start building this year's photobook. Or not -- I have to code Radio Free Monday, sort out a prescription and possibly go pick it up, plus a very full day of work and a couple of afternoon appointments I can't shirk, so today may simply be a "get through the day" kind of day. That's okay too; some days the spirit is willing but the schedule is full.

[necromoonstar]

Below is all done by voice to text because I just need to get out of my head and every time I try to type it on my phone it just gets lost on me and I get disoriented and I don't care I want this out I want to finally post this this is my

I don't know if I'll finally go fully through with it but I am currently trying to seriously plan out my own personal website to have just starting with a NeoCities

this is either the third or fourth time I've tried to plan out something for myself but I'm got papers that I'm writing things out on I got a folder full of stuff and documents full of things bookmarks I feel like I might actually finally go through with it this time

Literally all that changed was I realized that having the main place that I hang out at as a "personal space" being a place that has such negative everything and this constant feeling of they could just pull a trigger and delete everything from me on top of realizing just how racist a lot of the community is and wanting to have a safe space to actually explore and talk and post art

The side blog ideas were wonderful for a bit and I genuinely was starting to get a little more active and that's partially why I'm like no I need to finally go all the way and make this website one way or another and then this these blogs can be a secondary space where I can hang out with people more directly but I don't depend on them for being my spot that anyone could just disrupt that I can pack up and move whenever I want

Honestly the idea is so freeing and it feels so fun I have so many ideas for things I want to do once I get this set up like I want to genuinely finally do these topics of discussion I wanted to make posts on like my first thoughts meeting Peter Pan in Kingdom Hearts and what I thought of him and Hooks story. I want to just have fun like in ways I don't feel like I've actually ever felt comfortable doing because I've seen so many people be harmed when they've tried

The only thing is honestly how hard it feels like it is to get started and that's the reason why I keep giving up is the I don't like doing stuff without making ground work but the groundwork is the hard bit but once I have the groundwork I know I'll be away it's just how do I get started

I found a site layout that I really like so at the very least I won't have to do a ton of coding to have a base to post onto but I don't know what way of setting up pages and the actual site map like the site map is one of my biggest confusions on how do I set this up what do I do how do I organize this I like things organize what do I do

Hell what extra pages do I add what pages do I want to do at all what kind of things do you add to a personal website it feels just so much while a regular old blog you just shove things out you have tags and that's about it but everything's just in one place which sucks but but I'm over speaking freaking out just wanting to finally post that hey I experience actually wanting to do fandom stuff and have fun and draw but also I can't yet because I want to feel like I have a safe place to do it

I am so thankful for the friends I've made who also ended up making websites even put this idea in my head originally way back and I'm so happy to even have some friends now even though things have happened off the internet that have made it harder to be as active and interact as much as I'd like

I want nothing more to enjoy the same fandom experience that I hear used to exist on the internet yes that's still included Your flame Wars your ship Wars but it never sounded like it ever got to this degree of politics and also didn't have this degree of Puritan NSFW it feels like

I have media that I cannot wait to touch I have some stuff I have been touching but I've had stuff that I've purposely left on the back burner that I have wanted nothing more than to dive into but I never wanted to touch it until I knew I could be that loudmouth fan that I know I would be if I actually touch them and I want to finally put in the effort to give myself the space to do that

And with that I hope to finally just be free and start to recover

Really the few friends that I have made on here I'm so happy I have and I can't wait to refresh myself and start basically over and be able to interact with you all again and this time actually have fun instead of constantly suppressing my own voice just to make sure that I'm acceptable to this crowd I'm not even trying to appease just I don't want the attention of

Sorry for putting this long thing on your dash but thanks for being around and hanging with me and I can't wait to have happier days to come

I hope you the happiest days you can be and your own Fresh Starts in recoveries whenever you need them may we all have an improvement in a better life, yeah?

[ilc-yt]

Tech Illiteracy for Upcoming Generations

I believe ever since Windows 95, the tech industry on the consumer side has went down a path of simplifying things too much, and instead of it helping us understand how computers work, they've also harmed us. Win95 for example, for all the amazing things it did with innovating UI design, added one of the worst options that would be enabled by default in all future windows versions: "Hide file extensions of known types."

This is bad from both a educational and security perspective. It's an educational issue because people starting out with Windows won't know what a file extension is. File extensions are important because they tell you what a file is; a program, a text document, an image, etc. Yet Win95 just expects you to know what a file is just by it's name and the icon alone. Unfortunately some file types share the same icon, so that method isn't reliable. It can also be frustrating to a user who's trying to import something like a photo into a program and it doesn't import because it's not the correct file type, but because the user doesn't know what a file extension is and likely believes all images are the same, that user would just be confused and wouldn't know why they can't import that photo (feel sorry to any new user downloading a webp.) Moreover, hiding file extensions is bad from a security perspective because you can't tell when a file isn't actually what is seems to be. Your only clue is if the icon doesn't match, but that can easily be changed by a virus author. Many users who were expecting to view an image, video or document ended up getting a virus likely because they couldn't see file extension and realize that file didn't share the same extension as the user's other documents, and instead matches the one for a program. That would have given a clue to a new user that something's up.

Later from Win98 and on, Microsoft would add the "My X" series of folders to try and simplify things further. While not a bad idea on paper, I believe this screwed with some users by thinking everything needs to go into those folders and that you don't have to worry about creating your own folders. I'm sure many users just dropped stuff into those folders and didn't think much of it, not knowing how to organize or create folders. And most programs didn't appear in those folders, so users might not know how to navigate the file explorer outside of the "My Documents" folder, or learn that removing a shortcut doesn't actually remove the program that's associated with it (and that's despite the popup in Windows XP about deleting shortcuts, which just tells you the uninstall control panel setting and not where the program is located.) Sure some users might learn to make their own folders and to organize better, but I'm sure more stubborn people, especially old people, will never realize that and just have their sets of "My" folders be a mess. And not all the "My" folders were used correctly. My Documents isn't "My" Documents any more, as programs would later use it to store stuff like user information, options and plug-ins, making it's purpose more unclear. Nearly everyone's My Downloads folder is a mess after Chrome made it a standard to save everything there rather than ask the user where to save. Lastly the short lived My Games folder, which I'm pretty sure a majority of games didn't actually save anything in there other than a shortcut.

I don't think we really realized the damage this has caused until we reached the smartphone era, where phones just automatically save images, videos and downloads to their own folders, and the file browser is seen as an app to ignore and most people don't know how to use it. Ask any kid or teen if they know how to navigate through their phone's file explorer, and a majority of them will answer no. Simple tasks like transferring files via USB are becoming less and less known with file and music streaming services becoming the norm. Everyone is just letting their phones put files where it wants and aren't really thinking about it. And this might not be too bad of an issue if apps weren't too inconsistent on where to actually place everything. Your camera photos might not be in a folder named "Photos", and are instead in a folder named "DCIM" in the root directory. Your phone might update your camera app too can cause your photos to be saved in an entirely different folder too (that happened to me.) Saved images or ringtones might be in their own weird folders separated from each other even if they are just audio or image files, because that's how they programmed the app. This isn't even a new user issue, it's an issue for everyone because experienced computer users don't even get to choose where an app should save it's stuff. You might not think this is an issue if apps just work fine despite this, but what if your phone gets full and you wanna delete files. Well if it's not related to clearing out cache or deleting apps, you're fucked if you don't know how to navigate through the messy and bloated file browser. I also wonder how much processing power is wasted on the phone searching for these files rather than looking on one or two folders where everything should be.

I could go on and on, but I think I've said enough. Things have been simplified to much to where it no longer teaches people how to use something. "Just ignore, you'll be fine, you're not letting anything build up. Oh is something not working correctly, well then the program just sucks. There's no super easy conversion method that will make the file magically work with the program, it just sucks! Did you get a virus? Well that's not our fault, you should have purchased an anti-virus! What do you mean you thought it was a video?"

Ironically in an attempt to make computers more accessible, we're soon gonna get more people that don't know how folders work.

[tanetime]

What ideas do you have for Wyneer’s skill tree so far?

I answered this ask with a long and thoughtful answer and then accidentally hit ctrl + z out of habit and it deleted the entire thing so basically I am going to beat someone to death with a wrench.

I have a Lot of Thoughts about this (though less thoughts than last time since I've written this twice) but you can have the copy-paste of the current state of Wyneer's skill tree document thing.

These are heavily subject to change.

I have more detailed thoughts but I'm putting them behind a readmore, since I just in general had a lot of thoughts about skilltrees.

What are skilltrees even for

I didn't want Wyneer's perks to just sell you the solution to his problems. But basic Wyneer with no masks has no perks, only drawbacks, so it was tricky coming up with a direction for him.

The only perk like this I was willing to give him was the sanity restoration skilltree. Reasons being:

You have to waste points on it.

It makes using some of his better masks harder.

""raising sanity"" is basically why he got into making and wearing masks to begin with.

That being said I did update Wyneer's mod today to make his sanity problems less crushing so these might not even end up necessary.

Someone asked me to make one of his perks "gem masks cost less feathers to craft" but by then I'd already made one of the perks the ability to dye feathers different colours. I think that helps solve the issue while not making the perk useless outside of making masks. Like I think it's fun. idk.

Who are the skilltrees even for

I really like the idea of Woodie's skilltree branches allowing him to specialise his wereforms! I wanted to do that too for Wyneer!

Except Woodie has 3 forms and Wyneer has 10-15 so. Not really viable.

Again, I didn't want to make the perk "this fixes the mask's downside." I wanted to either make using them a little easier or give them something that I thought would make using them a little more fun to think about, based on my experience so far with playing Wyneer.

It's cool because it allows me to give old abilities to the masks that were removed for being too strong back to them. Crimson is an example of this.

The exception is Laborious since I genuinely didn't know what to do with him and neither did anyone else, and everyone was like "he likes beefalo and is a cowboy right, give him beefalo perks" which SUCKS because I THOUGHT OF THE SAME THING which means it is LAY'S DESTINY TO BE A COWBOY.

The other exception is Blake because his ability fucking sucks.

I seriously couldn't think of anything else.

But that leads me to:

What do you mean the upgraded masks are affinity locked

yeah no blake is my favourite son and i'm biased so they probably won't stay that way

To anyone not in the loop, Ink Blank and Moon's Pallor are void cloth/brightshade husk upgrades to Blake/Jet Black's mask that allow Wyneer to get set bonuses. But then I think Klei removed set bonuses already in the new beta?? I kind of literally just remembered. Did they do that? I guess they are just late-game masks then. Fuck me ig.

Conceptually i like the idea of Blake getting his cool upgrade and getting to be a real armour piece instead of a fake cringe fail hat by locking his affinity to one of Them, but THAT MEANS I HAVE TO PICK ONE OF THEM AND I WANT BOTH OF THEM.

So it will probably end up "Ink Black Mask/Moon's Pallor Mask are stronger" or something boring like that. But maybe I will have self-control and make them exclusive.

Also Amber and Viridian were locked behind Mask Maker Mastery I but then I realised you had a limited number of skilltree points and changed it. That is why that skill is empty.

Oh look the Costume Carryall is there too

I keep saying I'm going to add that and I never do.

April Fools update 2024 maybe.

I hope that covers everything I am too nervous to spend any more time writing this in case it deletes itself again.

[m3anflower-sims]

I'm having so much fun with my first legacy save file that I wanted to make a blog about it. I've never nerded out this hard with a Sims family - I'm usually just a builder or player of single young adults, but this has grabbed me somehow. Here's the first snap I have of my original heir, Echo Godwin. I've unfortunately lost a lot of captures I had of her earlier life, because I'm a console player and I didn't quite understand the auto-deletion settings. 😭 They were tweaked from a base using Baby Ariel (lol) who I used cheats to age up, bc I wanted her hidden immortality trait. No first heirs dying on my watch! Here's my headcannon for them:

Echo Godwin, an orphan, yearned for a sense of belonging. They were quite comfortable and charming, but never felt they fit in - preferring to live in books instead. After escaping their orphanage, they moved to San Myshuno as a Young Adult and pursued a degree in Language & Literature at Britechester University. While there, Echo discovered a passion for poetry and began publishing their work. They also made a group of great friends in their apartment building, finding a sense of community they had long been missing. At this time, they were also were approached by a beautiful street cat who would not leave Echo alone. Echo of course adopted the cat, and named her Empesta. Empesta was sharp, and Echo could swear she knew what they were saying.

In their early days of university, they would visit the Magic Realm a lot after reading about it in a book. They found the environment strangely peaceful, and Empesta would curiously often follow them there even if Echo could swear that they locked her in the apartment. After spending some time there they also became a spellcaster, and befriended the sages, particularly piquing the interest of Lisbetha Faba. Their connection was undeniable, sparking Lisbetha's curiosity.

On another night after a lot of digging in the Magic Realm archives, Echo fell asleep in the towers without meaning to. They were visited by a ghost named Esther Zamora, who told her that she had been watching Echo, and that if Echo was who she thought they were was the long lost heir of a once-powerful spellcaster family who helped create the Magic Headquarters. She and Echo investigated the dusty documents further and revealed that they were the long-lost heir to the Godwynd family, powerful spellcasters who had played a pivotal role in creating the Magic Headquarters. Intrigued, Echo delved deeper into the family history, uncovering an ancient will that promised an inheritance and estate to a Godwynd descendant with a child.

This revelation sets off a chain of events that will forever change their life.

After Echo learns about this ancient will, she shared with Lisbetha… who comes up with an idea. Lisbetha, the Sage of Mischief Magic, can try this old spell she's read about in dusty books. The spell can allow her to create a temporary switch of sex, allowing her to impregnate Echo.

At a later date, Lisbetha shows up without notice - as she did often. Echo's memories of that night blur, and they only remember bits and pieces here and there - the intoxicating draw of Lisbetha's kiss - they had never felt so loved by her. In the end, Lisbetha had impregnated them, Echo could feel it, and when Echo woke up they were alone.

Echo returns to Esther Zamora, and informs her of the pregnancy. Esther tells Echo to prepare for a move and a long journey. To bring what can be carried only. Echo left, and when she appeared again she had a bag holding her homework and some clothes in one arm, and her cat and familiar Empesta in the other arm.

Esther guides Echo and Empesta on a journey by boat to an island off the coast of Windenburg, called the Crumbling Isle. The voyage was difficult, with Esther insisting ghosts cannot row boats. As they come upon the Isle, Echo can see a small castle with an overgrown estate. The sun sets as they make it to the grounds, and while it is dark - Esther pricks Echo's finger and indicates for Echo to press their finger to the stairs. A deep humming is felt once they do, and the iron gates lift as the castle magically comes to life. As Echo walks through the gate, they wonder if they made the right choices. Everything has happened so quickly. The further they walked into the estate the warmer and more confident Echo felt... it was as if each step was lighter. Esther announced the courtyard, pointed out the staff quarters, and led them up a long set of stairs that ended in a striking view of the night sky and Windenburg lit up in the distance. Esther opened the door to the small castle at the top of the stair, and said "Welcome home, Echo."

[askwendyokoopa]

Somehow Puffmun Returned

((I mean, it's not like her being called out for being a TERF was going to keep her away forever, and she's already explained that it was an 'accident' that she misgendered them 11 times. And apparently my 300 posts telling people not to Doxx, or that Doxxing is a shitty thing to do, or threating to block Stacy if she Doxxes Kirmun... all take a backseat to that one single time her anonymousona (we've spoken at lengths about this, it's a whole thing) asked me about the war between her and Stacy and I said that I would personally be alright because I had previously Doxxed myself. I'm not sure how she even interpreted that as my approval, but the only thing dumber than that, is her convincing other people I approve because of that. The funniest thing is, there was no initial Dox threat, ask her for a screen shot of one, she doesn't have any. The 'inciting incident' for the Doxxing war was a post where Stacy said "Wow, this sure is a Long Beach!" (information that Kirmun had made public herself). I, like an idiot, apparently, told her not to fight the Doxxing claims, because "What else could you have possibly meant by that post?" If I hadn't said that, Kirmun wouldn't have sent that anon (seriously, she'd unblock one of us, send 14 DMs and 3 anonymous hate messages, then block us again, or something; it's was excruciatingly obvious) and then... well, she'd just be misinterpreting some other ask... I just can't win...

She was caught sending anonymous hate to both Xixi and Majora, the later of which was supposedly her friend... so she's not above negging to get what she wants. I wasn't really involved in that drama but there're like 20 pages of documentation to go through if you have that kind of time to kill? For the one I was only tangentially involved in, that I often described as being stuck between two Karens hitting a beehive with sticks, you can rēad through this tag. It's only 3 pages and not as pretty, or organized, but all the links go to other blogs involved and evidence. Stacy even offered $50 to anyone who could provide "any obscure anecdotal evidence or something" from Kirmun's side, and as far as I know, there were no submissions. Not one person could come up with anything approaching evidence 4 years ago. Although supposedly (I have not seen these DMs), Kirmun sent in what Stacy described as "a long winded nonpology of ‘I’m sorry if you were offended’ along with ‘keep your money’ and 'use it to buy Tropical Freeze'." Which makes no sense; I mean, I don't know if she has that game or not... I assumed so, but I guess I can't ask anymore since she's fallen off the face of the Earth. But the contest was to find any evidence for Kirmun, she was literally paying for your defense, that's how confident she was that you were wrong. Why in the world would you tell her to stop? It could only have possibly helped your case... it's beyond help, of course; seeing as there is no evidence, but still.

Actually, with Stacy gone, there's been no one here to give me updates on Kirmun (whether I wanted them or not), she might have never left? I only ever followed her with Diddy Kong, because it made saving posts to the Internet Archive easier. And someone had to archive everything she said about one of us, because she'd delete them and then complain that "she's already stopped talking about us, so why can't we just leave her alone?" This was after she deleted her dedicated hate blog, containing a list of everyone who's said boo to her since she was 12; which she claimed to have done "because she has nothing to hide." Also, after never addressing any of the criticisms, or accusations, or proof of her misdeeds, she'd randomly make posts about how she "Hasn't been called out because she's not a dumbass!" For some reason, this unusually specific denial never set off any red flags for any of her followers? Oddly enough, even her dozens of other victims, while they knew all the charges against themselves were false, would 100% believe the ones against me and block me anyhow. I tried to explain to people how she was using simple schoolyard ostracization tactics, but nobody would listen because? IDK, going over evidence meant too much rēading or something... everyone blocked me, so I never really got to ask why. Even the one who coined the nickname 'Puffmun,' like she's never going to accept you after that, throwing me under the bus isn't going to help you.

Nevertheless, it took 4 whole months for her to find out about Diddy, despite me having that huge kicky-damn 'other-muses' list, and referring to them as my sockpuppet accounts. And constantly talking about what I was doing and tagging her, and since she was ignoring all those posts, she confused my IP address for Stacy's. So when she did some sort of HTML trickery that kept me from visiting her site via IP it warned me to leave her alone, and asked me to tell 98.6 (i.e. myself) to do so as well. Also I was doing that stock ventriloquist gag where I mention that we share a Mun, or "Why are you arguing with yourself?" jokes... I still do that. I'd say my 100+ muses are an open secret, but they're even less of a secret than Smithers' sexuality. Whatever, it really pisses Kirmun off, possibly because she knows that she has at least a dozen alternate blogs at any given time that she doesn't tell people about, and it rags on her guilty conscience. Though that list is almost definitely out of date, I'm pretty sure she deleted them all right after I posted them... then made new ones. All to get around blocks, but only to send anons... if you weren't going to tell people about your Smurf accounts, it's traditional to use them to imitate someone else... what are you even doing? I have never met another human being that bad at lying, or a bigger crybully.

Which brings me to my next, and final point on the subject, also a summary because everyone has ADHD and my essays full of pertinent information and receipts are boring.

TL;DR: If you happen to know any of the people who have blocked me, tell them to "Beware the sound of one hand clapping." because it's an important life lesson that I think they've missed out on.))

[starlightreactor]

Compuper Chronicles

So I've been a user of computers for some time now, and the hard drives of my laptop are almost full. For a good while I thought it's just because I have so many games installed on it, but after a bit of searching my hard drive issue seems to be more than just a lot of games.

I have a C: and D: drive, with 585gb and 346gb respectively (each standing for 'Computer' and 'Data' I imagine). C is where I have most of my documents and such, as well as where Windows is installed. D is where I store most of my games.

I learned that in steam's (the software I use to install games) settings it gives you a readout of how much of your drive is taken up by installed games. According to steam, I have 248gb of installed games on my D: drive (the largest being Destiny 2 at 100gb), and 96gb of games on my C: drive (the largest on that one being Elden Ring at 48gb). Those numbers come as no surprise, but Steam also reads any non-steam installations and lumps them into the category of 'other'. On my C: drive I have 349 Gigabytes of 'other'. Accounting for Documents (64gb), Pictures (10gb), Downloads(8gb) and Videos (47gb) +~10gb total in ART, GAMER SECTOR, 3d Objects, and music, that leaves nearly 207 gigabytes of unknown files on my C: drive.

The D: drive isn't much better. On D: is 97 gigabytes of 'other' according to steam. The only non-steam file on D: is Fortnite, which comes to 26.5 gigs. That leaves ~71 gigabytes of who knows what on D: drive.

Now, I've already done some housekeeping before writing this. I uninstalled the game Elite Dangerous off my D: drive ages ago, but when I went looking in the D: steam folder the whole chunk of the game was still in there! I could boot it up and everything. That was ~50 gigabytes of stuff.

Going back to the C: drive steam folder, I found some pretty interesting stuff. Firstly, in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\music_database\covers, I found a bunch of random pngs? Like this bone:

There is also a fern, greek column, and what I presume is the cover art for a bunch of games' osts. Some of these games I don't own though, like A hat in time, Spooky's jumpscare mansion, and WarioWare smooth moves (that game isn't even on steam!? why is it in here). There's also the cover for Minecraft's volume 1 ost.

^There's some of the covers. I have never downloaded Neil Cicirega's Mouth Moods, but I'm not surprised seeing him in there cuz if anyone would infiltrate the random corners of my computer it would be him. This isn't a storage issue, so I may as well leave them there.

I had also found more game files in steam's Common folder which come up as 'uninstalled' in steam itself but never actually uninstalled, such as all of the old Garry's Mod addons that I unsubscribed from, but were never deleted from C:. Luckily, Gmod has a factory reset button in it's installation folder so I just used that. I found more workshop addons in the SteamVR folder that amounted to 34 gigabytes of stuff that I haven't used or interacted with in any form in years, so that went out the window and into the dumper.

I also decided to uninstall some tf2 mods that I haven't played like ever, and with that I could uninstall the Source 2013 multiplayer SDK (but not before looking through the SDK's files), and for whatever gosh darn reason I found smell.jpg in there:

There he is!! I have no idea how he ended up in the folder, but he was there ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (I moved him into /steamapps before I deleted the SDK so he's safe inside steam's folder, dont worry).

Alrighty! Writing these as I find them now. Apparently, Gmod is installed on my D: drive! and all of the freaking addons as well! Thats 25 gigabytes of game that I don't even use because the Gmod I play is on my C: drive.

Found another 1.29gb in Kerbal Space Program, which is also not installed. Easy peasy. 1.67 gigabytes in Portal 2, which, you guessed it, is not actually installed. 3 more gigs freed because I had a copy of the Rain World level editor in Rain World's folder.

Alright. I've reduced D: drive's 'other' to 56 gigabytes. Minus Fortnite that is 30 gigs unaccounted for, which I'll go look for later. For now, it's late so I'm gonna sign off. I will update this tomorrow when I tackle the mystery of C: drive.

[bonnyavis]

All Guo "network red" road of dirty tricks

Now people's life has been inseparable from the Internet, the Internet has brought great changes to everyone's life, and the word "Internet celebrity", refers to some people through the wide spread of the Internet overnight fame, and then obtain huge wealth and fame.But this kind of channel and means are often used by some eager for quick success and instant benefit, evil people, it can be said that now Guo is one of them!

Since 2017, Guo has been interviewed by SPIEgel and Voice of America successively, and also communicated with BBC. Later, he has registered and opened his own Twitter account and youtubi account, and set up "Guo Media" and "Ant God" live broadcasts. By means of deception, falsifying and sensationalizing, Guo has tried his best to promote and brag about how he was illegally suppressed through overseas online media.Although each of his performances seems to be "farce", it does cater to some "evil friends".Guo from worthless "fugitive" quickly rose to a part of people's eyes "network red", really impressive.

So, to eloquence no eloquence, to talent no talent, to appearance level no appearance level of Guo is how to rely on its three inches not rotten tongue become overseas "network celebrity", here are all the tricks of its self-hype:

Trick one: No eloquence to make up, to fake "explosive point" controversy.From the so-called "confidential documents" issued by Guo's fake team to the claim that Hong Kong police seized hundreds of millions of his assets without any procedures, there are many loopholes.In the document fraud, the line of personnel a look at the system of its fraud technology is low, full of loopholes, there are file form errors, document issue number errors, printing format errors and so on.In Hong Kong, it is even more difficult to believe that the Hong Kong police, whose rule of law is the world's leading, would make such a mistake.Or is Guo even kindergarten children are not as blind as the law?The chances of this are almost nil!Everything can only show that Guo is lying!

Trick two: Less talent on the money, to show off to catch the eye.In every "network red" behind often have a strong team, all the time "plot" how to be more red, so throwing money is also a must "get", to this end, Guo also claimed to contribute 30 million dollars to set up the "Guo media". To make matters worse, Guo also used Guo media to sell other people's information for money and above the law.I can imagine, such a profligate, extravagant person, what is the meaning and purpose of their actions?I'm afraid it can only reflect its nature of "friendship", and its domineering and arrogant flaunting of wealth will eventually be despised by the public.

Trick three: Lack of appearance level is shameless, to be scolded to promote popularity.At present, the low threshold of the Internet often makes the audience no longer take objectivity and depth as the guidance, but take peeping, entertaining to death, joking and so on as the orientation, and Guo's flight to the United States gives them a "like a duck to water" hype environment.Therefore, Guo once in the live broadcast clamor: Guo media can 24 hours with the second party third party talk video live, will never be deleted; You can transfer files freely, regardless of whether the content is legal; Freedom of speech, no need to die for it.But for the United States, "the freest country in the world" and "a country with no freedom at all", the result is that the media is in danger of being OK before the "full moon", so those words and deeds that rely only on name-calling, slander, insult and malicious slander will not work in any country.But until now, Guo still pretended to be calm, who gave up my appearance, its shameless degree visible is not general.

Trick four: No strength on the side of the mountain, to find protection.After Guo fled to the United States after the crime, in order to hide his identity as a red "criminal", he sang the tune of "victim", "patriot", "anti-corruption fighter", its essence is to kneel down and lick the United States, in order to seek political asylum in the United States.Then he praised and praised Yang Jianli and other cadres of the Democratic Movement, propagated and attacked the so-called "political" persecution, and then turned himself into the spokesperson of the Democratic Movement. Then he turned to the "democracy" issue as an article on Hong Kong and Taiwan, painted the color of political conspiracy, in order to seek a shortcut to get close to the anti-China forces such as radicals and Hong Kong independence activists. But alas, the pro-independence forces in Hong Kong have so far not responded to him, and once again his plan has failed.

Trick five: No moral dress up as a believer, to deceive sympathy.Guo once called himself a "holistic" believer in the integration of Christ, Buddha and Islam, but we all know that the uniqueness of faith is the basis of piety, so the degree of hypocrisy can be seen.At the same time, before its many Revelations, Guo is always to come to the so-called "guest" to "master" identity to preach, what "you look good", "he looks very good" and so on, this is Guo using "nature is good" this means of flattery.At the same time, Guo also mentioned many times in the live broadcast that he was born poor, his family has seven brothers, early in the society, often to show the family "warmth", the family trifles on the screen.It has to be admitted that the audience is not only interested in the format itself, but also the "tear-jerking stories" interspersed with the contestants can catch the eye. However, if the old routine is used too much, it will be known that it is behind the sensationalism, which will only make the audience aesthetic fatigue.

Although Guo's "network red" strategy is only a childish "farce", but there will always be a small number of people were dizzy by the visual impact, so that many people think that the foreign moon is more round than China!But in any case, any "Internet celebrity" can not avoid the passage of time like pop songs and diluted, eliminated.Therefore, those who are still blind support Guo need to polish their eyes, do not be its means to play with disabilities.

[dutchforstrangers]

On Taiora week 2022

A little heads up. The week will be held from October 16th till October 23rd, just as first announced in August. However, due to some unpleasant events that took place around and in the Taiora part of the Digimon shipping fandom, the Taiora week host decided to change the prompts for the week.

The new set of prompts can be found in this post here. The post with the old/original set is deleted from the Taiora week Tumblr.

But, since a few Taiora content creators, including myself, already started creating for Taiora week before these present circumstances and have WIPs (or even already finished content) for prompts no longer part of the new set, I've talked to the Taiora week host... And everyone should feel free to follow either the original set or the new set (or combine them)!

The original set can be found in this Google Drive Document. Or via the post I reblogged back then.

For everyone feeling confused and in need of more information about the whole situation (please don't feel obliged!), more under the cut.

I don't want to waste too much words on everything that has happened this last month. It was tiring, draining me and at some point affecting my personal life and well being as well. It also feels a bit like I'm bringing up things that are long gone, but I only now am able to come to terms with it in public without speaking from solely my emotions...

For everyone who has no idea what happened and wants to know or wants my look on things, read this letter that I wrote for the Taiora Discord Server members.

I want to say one more thing before I'll lay myself low again and hopefully let all of this behind: It feels like I've been trying to help in a fight or fight a fight that was never supposed to be mine. I got involved because I felt responsible (even though I'm not), but should have been smarter and not let myself get so carried away... It happened anyway. And I'm really, really sorry for everyone who got involved as well... Truly.

I'm not looking for pity or reactions of any sort. All I want is for things to be normal and peaceful.

Ship and let ship.

Leave other's people art/writing/content alone (unless you want to -supportively- review it).

Have respect and don't lower yourself to unnecessary bad behaviour.

Let's love and enjoy Digimon together, in peace <3

[albino-whumpee]

I posted 933 times in 2021

315 posts created (34%)

618 posts reblogged (66%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 2.0 posts.

I added 1,051 tags in 2021

#ask - 183 posts

#whump - 106 posts

#illustration - 105 posts

#sketch - 105 posts

#anon - 103 posts

#doodle - 103 posts

#art - 100 posts

#drawing - 99 posts

#painting - 79 posts

#albus - 68 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#............................................................................................................................................

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Creepy whumpees caring for their feverish whumpees and casually saying they like them better like that. So obedient and pliant, but above them all, they look so pretty with their flushed cheeks and glassy eyes. They wish they could keep them that way forever

110 notes • Posted 2021-10-30 02:20:39 GMT

#4

Read this one Zhongli and Childe fic and this scene just screamed at me to draw it so. Here.

@rice-hime (hope you like it!)

117 notes • Posted 2021-11-18 15:53:09 GMT

#3

I love gentle caretakers as much as the next person, but I do love rough handling in the early recovery. 

Caretakers that find their feverish whumpee has an infection they have to drain and clean and they´re doing their best, but whumpee keeps swatting and hissing and the biting is the last string before Caretaker immobilizes them roughly and cleans the wound so harshly Whumpee can´t help but cry in agony. 

Just the way Caretaker tries so hard to be gentle but Whumpee is so feral they just resort to their size and weight to overtake them to the point they´re both hissing warnings and insults at each other, before Whumpee slowly starts to give in because they´re used to rough handling, but they´re feeling...good? They´re not being extremely hurt? 

Pulling on their hair while brushing still hurts tho, (it´s so matted after all) but it feels so light to have it cut and then, Caretaker is sure to put on thick gloves because there´s no way Whumpee will let them wash their hair, but to their surprise Whumpee just goes still with their hair mussing up on the warm water. 

More Caretakers that have to handle unruly Whumpees with force that slowly washes away their fury and distrust, please. 

296 notes • Posted 2021-08-20 23:50:17 GMT

#2

@whumpmasinjuly Let´s make a meme for day 13! :)

531 notes • Posted 2021-07-14 02:20:47 GMT

#1

do you have any advice for younger / newere writers? you write so much and you're very skilled! i'm inspired by you

Aww thanks! Maybe I write a bit too much ahaha.

Well, idrk what you’re searching advice for so I will give general tips.

Before writing:

Do your research. Not only about the subject, but if there’s people out there who have also thought about the idea and have a tag for it.

Set a goal. I suck at this myself, but having a not-rigid word count goal (with timer if it makes you feel more motivated) really get your gears going. There’s a few pages that make it more entertaining too!

Warm up Drabbles. Nothing better than writing something adjacent to what you really want to write just to warm up and get a bit more creative so you hit the zone quicker.

This is optional but if you have time, make a page for your characters and setting. Like a reference page so you don’t go write someone is 160 cm when you have already said they’re 178.

While writing:

Limit your editing. It’s tempting to correct in the moment, (more if you’re unsure about grammar) but sometimes while fixing something you lose your pace and in the worst cases, forget where you were going. Editing can come later.

If you’re gonna have CW at the top, highlight the key words so it’s easier to go through it later.

After writing:

Don’t delete your scrapped ideas. You don’t know when you might wanna use that idea, so even if it’s never used having an scrap document for them is great.

If you didn’t like the end product altogether, it’s fine to put it aside for a while and come back to it later to see if it really should be abandoned in the scrap document or tossed away. Sometimes a little bit of time makes the errors look less severe and fixable and the good things to pop out more. Let it brew!

Pass your text through a beta reader and a program that allows you to correct your grammar and spot typos.

To gain attention:

Quick note here, don’t get discouraged if you don’t receive millions of likes in your first chapter. Sometimes it takes two projects or more to get traction. Keep going regardless of numbers! They don’t dictate how good you are!

Interact with others. Slide into inboxes, participate in ask and tag games, reblog other people’s fics, make collabs. most people are cool with being tagged in games even if you’re not mutuales with them so don’t be shy! Although, Don’t just talk to people to use their following.

Take part in writing/drawing challenges. July has the @whumpmasinjuly event with a prompt list, as there is events like the month of writers, nanowrimo, whumptober, etc.

Keep writing and explore other ideas besides your comfort zone. This started as a whump writing blog, but evolved into positivity, some art and writing (even occasional thoughts and poetry) The variety lends itself to grow your range of public and to expand your creative library.

Promote yourself. Shamelessly self reblog your favorite fics, or just reblog it for the timezone difference. You’re proud of what you wrote and I’m proud of you for writing it, but sometimes tumblr sucks and I won’t see it immediately. So don’t be afraid of reblogging your own things!

Make your own events and ask games. DTIYS, requests, giveaways when you hit a follower milestone. If you have the time for it and have fun doing it, go for it!

This is my personal opinion, but having visuals for your story such as mood boards, picrews, illustrations, etc. Makes me more interested in a story. It’s also an easy way to present your characters to your readers.

Have fun. It’s noticeable when an author is having fun writing it and when it feels like a chore. I’m not telling you to absolutely love it, just to trust in yourself and what you’re doing a bit. If it doesn’t feel right, revision it. If you can’t find it, hand it to someone and ask for their opinion. Not having fun doing what you love hurts like a bitch, and it just rubs salt in the wound when it flops or you can’t stand reading through it. So, explore ideas, maybe go back to your comfort to come back to the new a bit less scared. Or maybe find new inspirations so you can go rush and add new stuff and weed out what doesn’t seem right.

Overall that’s it I think. @ashintheairlikesnow has a great tag for new writers in her blog so I advice to check that out and ask more people. @thewritershandbook is also a good resource place!

Good luck anon! I’ll be cheering on you.

832 notes • Posted 2021-06-29 19:19:54 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

----

Honestly, I´m not even surprised there´s nothing of my writing there, but I truly appreciate all the support given throughout this year! I hope the next one is a good one for all of us.

[mondscheinprinzessin]

1, 3, 4, 11, 16, 29, 31 and 40 bitte! 💖 /Snake

1. What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

It's always Calibri because I use that for uni too, I don't know when the font changed from Arial to that tbh, but I like how it looks and I wouldn't want another because once I'm used to something it's hell for me to change it to something different.

3. What is your writing ritual and why is it cursed?

I don't think I have any writing rituals. Writing for me is whenever, however.There’s nothing around it I do, so also nothing cursed.

4. What’s a word that makes you go absolutely feral?

Already answered here. But words I also like: Fairly, sincerely, gasping. If anyone sees a pattern let me know.^^

11. Do you believe in the old advice to “kill your darlings?” Are you a ruthless darling assassin? What happens to the darlings you murder? Do you have a darling graveyard? Do you grieve?

Okay I’m not sure if this refers to literally killing your darlings like characters or what I’ve learned from google that it means scratching passages you love? Why the hell would I do that??

Maybe it’s because I’m writing fanfiction and not actual books and I don’t feel like I have to be perfect and so leave stuff just because I have written it like why the hell not. I rarely delete stuff from my documents, only when something significant to the plot has changed but then yes, I keep all those snippets in an extra doc. Like maybe others won’t like it as much as I do but that’s my story so whatever.

16. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever used as a bookmark? 

As I have not read any books lately I have to think back here, phew. Oh yeah I think a lollipop😂 But it was still in it’s wrapper!

29. Where do you draw your inspiration? What do you do when the inspiration well runs dry?

Unfortunately my inspiration well has not run dry at all. Unfortunately I say because I still get ideas while 14 or so remain unfinishied. And I get those from my own experiences/life/feelings, shows I’ve seen, fics and books I’ve read, other people like everything there is.

31. Write a short love letter to your readers. 

I’ve never written a love letter and I’m bad with stuff like that, so forgive me for whatever I’m about to write😅

Dear readers,

different to what my usual life looks like I can always count on you, which means a lot. You’re always there when I publish a story be it in small numbers or more, but that doesn’t matter because even a handful of people reading what I’ve written on for hours tells me that what I deem interesting to write is not only for my own pleasure, but also brings joy to others and that is something I can’t get anywhere else.

You click the kudos button, some bash it (some try to hack AO3 to give more), and I appreciate all the effort you bring up to give me something back. A mail from AO3 means I’ve got a new comment. It means someone took their time to read my story, think about it, and wrote me back. To everyone who gives me the unbelievable happiness I feel when I receive such a mail: Thank you.

Maybe you don’t feel like being important, after all you just read tags, thought the fic sounded interesting, read it and left again be it with leaving a kudos and/or a comment or not. But you’ve been there. I can see that someone read my words and while being seen can also be very terrifying, it also gives me comfort, excitement, satisfaction, all the positive feelings just because you clicked on my story.

So to everyone who ever read a fic of mine and hopefully comes back for more: a very big thank you, I love each and everyone of you🖤

40. Please share a poem with me, I need it. 

I’m sorry that I have to disappoint you but I don’t read poems at all :( I bet my last one was in school, I just can’t get into them.

Okay I quickly googled german poems and Hesse rings a bell, so you’re getting one from him:

Do you know this, too?

Do you know this, too when sometimes in the midst of loud fun at a party or in a cheerful hall you suddenly quiet down and need to go?

Then you lay down although you cannot sleep as if you feel a sudden heartsore Fun and Laughing vanished like smoke, You cry and cry – Do you know this, too?

[sageblogsthings]

to celebrate The Crimson Moon reaching 30k as of this morning, i thought that i would share the progression of the opening lines of the book, and talk a bit about how the book has grown and changed in the last year! on july 27th it will be exactly a year since i first started writing this and wow i’m not getting emotional you are aha whaaaat

*cough* anywayyysss!!

draft one: please oh god don't judge me

ok i'm not going to talk negatively about my past writing because it got me to where i am today but. [marge i am looking away meme] if you can't tell, i wrote this when i was going through the existential crisis phase of uni and just wanted to live in the woods, i say like i would not currently move to the woods in a heartbeat asdklfja

at the time that i wrote this i was really happy with it because the writing was fun and, as a result, easy! at this point i was just writing in my down time from uni, and i didn't know what the plot was or what my plans were for the book as a whole. because this was just something i did in my down time, i think my writing took on more of a conversational, stream-of-consciousness tone, and that's part of what made this draft (or start of a draft, i only got like 12k in i think) so easy to write. but eventually, as the plot started to come together and i started to gain more inspiration from sff writers as a whole, i realized that this book wasn't heading in the direction i wanted it to. it wasn't just something to do in my free time at that point, it had taken on a life of it's own. and thus, draft two began.

draft two: electric boogaloo

ngl these lines still slap and i love them. there are definitely things i would change, but these lines will be in the current draft of the book, albeit not in the first chapter and altered slightly. when i started this draft, i didn't have an outline but i had a very clear, cinematic image of how i wanted this chapter to go. i think having that before i started writing helped a looooot, both in terms of prose and just being able to convey aspects of the setting/character in the first paragraph. as i continued writing this draft though, i realized that some of the character arcs didn't make sense or were getting a bit messy, and that, based on the story i wanted to tell, it didn't make sense to start with Xalia. while there are six main pov characters in this book, Vanna really is the main character and i wanted that to be clear.

draft three: this time it's personal actually good

these are the current first lines of the book, and honestly my favorite so far! starting off with Vanna rather than Xalia definitely gives the book a different feel, and it's one that's more true to the vision i have for it. in my opinion, this opening does a much better job of setting up some of the book's themes, which admittedly i'm still figuring out lol. grief and loss are major components of all the character arcs, and are integral to the plot itself. switching to present tense has also been a LIFE CHANGER for me. it's funny because, on the second stab at this book, i kept slipping into present tense, but forcing myself back to past tense because i thought present tense sounded weird. turns out it only sounded weird because it was surrounded by past tense, and now that i've written 3 chapters in present tense i can solidly say that this is the way the book was meant to be written. it just feels like my book now, and i'm so happy with where it's headed!

i also made an outline for this draft of the book, and while i've already deviated from it somewhat to work out plot holes or increase ~foreshadowing~ in certain scenes, getting all of the events out of my head and onto paper has really allowed me to just write because i know that i have a document to refer back to if i get stuck on where the story is headed. making the outline also really pushed me to think about character backstories, most of which i had previously established, but now they've changed a lot to fit together more cohesively and integrate with the plot more clearly. i've also changed a lot of the character designs, and as a result of changing the appearances and backstories of a lot of the characters, i feel a lot closer to them and the story itself. the characters have well and truly taken on a life of their own, and now i'm kind of just along for the ride, telling their stories and loving every second of it!

ALSO!! the last big change with this draft, which i just implemented literally this morning and am so so sooooo excited about, is having first person referral, present tense mini-chapters/interludes! it gives the book a really unique sound and ties into the plot really nicely i think! i feel like the structure and form of the story are finally tying into the story itself and it's driving me insane a little bit askdfjka

as of right now i'm not ready to reveal who the pov and referral characters are in these chapters, because i'm debating between a couple ways of doing things and if i go one way that would end up being a pretty big spoiler! that being said, i got really hyped up about it earlier today and rambled in the spoilers section of my server so if you do want that sweet sweet spoilers content....join my server! ;)

also. i hope u all know that i almost deleted that first snippet about ten different times but transparency in writing and all that, i really do want to show how much this book has grown and changed! even if it's going to cause me immense psychic damage to type up the image description for this but i digress

i think that's all for now, and thank you so so much if you read all of that! the love and support this project has received and continues to receive absolutely blow me away, and i can't thank you enough for being part of the journey! <3

the crimson moon taglist (ask to be +/-)

@dallonswords | @isherwoodj | @florraisons | @aetherwrites | @childhoodlovers | @bijouxs | @ziyin | @moonhungers | @piyawrites | @avi-why | @svpphicwrites | @alicewestwater | @ladywithalamp | @spencers-tomes | @discreet-writer | @sunwornpages | @abalonetea | @the-bard-writes | @x-writes | @morganwriteblr​ ​| @aphaimaniis | @stephwriteswords | @ninazeniks ​| @araliensmagica | @fuyugomori | @ryns-ramblings | @greyjaywrites | @marimos

image descriptions below the cut

[header image description]

the background is a dark castle with a checkerboard-patterned marble floor. the hallway fades into black, with the hint of a figure standing in the doorway. white text across the image reads "The Crimson Moon" in a large, all-caps font, and below that reads "wip update post" in thin, lowercase text.

[image description for excerpt one]

I lay on my back, gazing up at the sky. The weather was absolutely perfect. I could hear the crickets singing, the birds chirping, the brook babbling, all that good poetic shit.

I came out here often, just to get away and pretend like I wasn't a part of the fuck-all society I lived in. How could humans be so ignorant? We live in a world with this, I gestured expansively in my mind at the field around me, how can we not see how beautiful it is? How perfect it is? How imperfect we are by comparison?

[image description for excerpt two]

Xalia strode down the marble halls, the soft leather of her shoes meeting each tile with a cacophony of echoes. This was not the first, second, hundredth time that she had walked these passageways, and yet the chill she felt when contained within their depths never seemed to subside. The looming corridors and billowing curtains always seemed to hide sinister whispers that breathed down her neck and pricked at the tips of her ears. Perhaps it was the High Council, with their unnerving masks and owlish eyes, seeming to know and perceive all — or perhaps it was the knowledge that every time she stalked back towards the exit, she would carry the weight of another’s life on her shoulders, a life that she had to take.

[image description for excerpt three]

Vanna’s mother always tells them that grief is a sharp, biting thing; something that latches its teeth around your stomach until you double over with the weight of it. But for Vanna, that’s not quite right. There isn’t something hidden and tucked away behind the confines of their gut because there isn’t anything there at all. As they walk towards the town well — a spell book in one hand and emptiness in the other — they think that their mother got it wrong trying to describe grief in terms of presence. Grief, to them, can only be absence. The absence of light, the absence of a smile, and the absence of a palm which had curled so perfectly into theirs.

[that-crazy-five-foot-two-chick]

Summary: Winry sat in the optimal place to study in the school cafe for the entire fall semester. Then spring came, and suddenly some self-entitled twit who dressed like off-brand Gerard Way decided it was his territory. He was so not going to get off easy.

Rating: T

Word Count: 1.8k words of coffee shop/college AU with a side of enemies to almost-lovers

A/N: It's finals week, I posted this on Ao3 at almost 5am, and if the rest of the sentence didn't make it obvious, I'm writing from unfortunate experience. Not beta-ed or proofread, although I happened to see one thing to fix when I woke up this morning. Feel my raw power. Rawr.

It wasn't that big a deal.

It kind of really was, though.

Every Thursday morning during the fall semester, Winry sat in the same spot at the same school coffee shop. It was the spot sent by the entire patron pantheon of cram papers. Maybe one person didn't need an entire booth, but it was in the corner, and the tops of the bench seats had opaque plastic barriers that just so happened to be perfect for minimizing excess visual chaos. For the most part, there weren't loud conversations, and the jazz music that came through the speakers helped her tune out people ordering coffee. Add to that the fact that she could use campus flex dollars and not her own bank account that was begging for mercy, and it was the perfect spot to get papers done.

But apparently not this spring.

As soon as Winry walked in, she noticed him in the corner. Some emo wannabe guy on his computer. Probably on Reddit complaining about how women didn't appreciate the amazing pics he sent them on Tinder. Or at least, it was a fair guess based on the sour look on his face. Why did this guy of all people have to steal the holy grail spot? Ugh. She was still gonna get her coffee, darn it.

"You know the deal, Sciezska. Medium roast with a shot of espresso and vanilla creamer."

"On it! You paying in flex?"

"Yeah." She scanned her student ID and lowered her voice. "Who's off-brand Gerard Way in the corner?"

"Who's Ger—"

"The punk kid."

"Ohhh. I can try to get his number for you, if you want."

"No, he looks like a total tool! And not the kind I like dealing with!"

"Which means you think he's hot. I didn't think you were into that type, but you're not wrong."

"For the last time, no, Sciezska! He took my spot! And I'm trying very, very hard to keep this to a stage whisper, but if you keep trying to set me up with some random creep, I won't be able to!"

A distinctly male voice grumbled, "I'm not a creep."

"Keep telling that to the girls on Tinder. I'm sure they'll understand eventually."

"Yeah, and I'll bet if you look at your 'Live, Laugh, Love' sign a little more, you'll understand it eventually." He mumbled something under his breath.

"What was that, Mr. Nice Guy?"

"Lay off, it's eight in the morning. I said the only reason I even have a Tinder account is because my roommate stole my phone while I was going to the bathroom."

"Well, if you didn't want it, why didn't you delete it?"

"Eh, I figured if I really got sick of being single one day, it'd already be there."

"Never would have guessed you were single," Winry said dryly.

"Come on, it's way too early to be rubbing that kind of crap in. Who says I'm not fine with being single anyway?"

Sciezska timidly spoke up. "Medium roast with espresso and vanilla creamer?"

Winry thanked her as red jacket boy continued. "'Edward Elric, Bachelor.' Almost sounds as good as 'Edward Elric, Bachelor of Science.'"

"B.S. degree. Sounds about right."

"About time you stopped acting like I'm an idiot!"

Winry snorted. "That's not what I meant."

"Hey!"

"And with that, I'm going to go find some other spot to write my paper."

Edward, as his name apparently was, scoffed and mumbled something that sounded like "good riddance". Maybe the librarians wouldn't get on her case too much for bringing in coffee.

-----

A week later, Winry walked into the cafe, assuming the circumstances of the previous week were an anomaly. They were not.

"Medium roast with a shot of espresso and vanilla creamer," she grumbled and sulked in the direction of the corner seat.

"Hey, don't start with me again, blondie. I've had a whopping four hours of sleep and I can't promise you'll like what comes out of my mouth."

"We're at a coffee shop. Get some coffee. I can't help it if you're too hung over to be polite."

"Now look, genius. I did not stay up until 4 A.M. working on a stupid chem paper for that sadistic pyromaniac excuse for a professor just for some random chick to accuse me of being hung over."

"Oh."

"Yeah. And for your information, coffee doesn't really help me wake up. It just helps me focus on homework." He lifted up his empty cup and gave it a shake.

"That's the weirdest thing I've ever heard."

"ADHD is a weird thing, and yet, here I am."

"Huh, interesting."

"Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to pick up where I left off with the same stupid ten page paper I started last night."

"Oh right. Sure," Winry stammered. "Listen, I'm really sorry I just assumed things about you. It was wrong of me, and I'd like to make it up to you, if that's okay."

Edward eyed her suspiciously. "What do you have in mind?"

"Well...I could look over your paper once you're done writing it? I've got a paper of my own to write while I'm waiting, and I can sit right across the table here so you don't have to come get me. I won't try to talk to you or anything. Neither of us need that kind of distraction."

"Alright, alright. Get your coffee and sit down. The girl at the counter's been up there waiting for a good minute or two while you've been at confessional over here."

"Wait, she has?" Winry's eyes widened, and Edward laughed at her expense. He was kind of attractive when he wasn't scowling...wait what? She pouted and got up to retrieve her coffee. When Winry returned, she plopped down on the bench opposite Edward and opened her laptop. Peeking out from behind it, she added, "By the way, I'm Winry. I figured you ought to at least know the name of the person who's proofreading your paper."

"Well, Winry, you're the one who volunteered." The corners of his mouth twitched upward. The two worked on their assignments in silence, occasionally speaking up when necessary.

-----

Edward was in the corner again the next week as well.

"Hey, Edward! Mind if I join you for homework again?"

"Normally, I'd say no, but you didn't bother me too much last week, so you might as well." He turned away slightly.

"Great! Have you gotten your coffee yet? I didn't see a cup, and you got something the last two times."

"Eh, I haven't been here long. If you're going up and getting yours, would you mind ordering a caramel macchiato for me?" He asked, sliding his ID across the table.

"Yeah, no problem. I'll be back in a sec."

She returned and slipped his ID back before pulling out her computer. "Do you have anything for me to look over this time?"

"Not this week. But if you have anything you need looked over, I can do that, too."

"Actually, I do, if you wouldn't mind."

"Winry, I just volunteered. Just send the paper to my school email. Mine's 'elricedwa'," he instructed as he proceeded to spell it.

"Medium roast and a caramel macchiato?" Sciezska called out.

"Coming!" Winry replied and turned to Edward. "I just sent it, so you should be able to start while I'm getting our stuff." Eyes glued to his laptop, Edward gave a thumbs up.

Once she returned with their drinks, Winry sat down and wordlessly set Edward's drink next to him.

"Thanks," he muttered distantly. His lips mirrored the words he was reading. Though his lips weren't plump by any stretch of the imagination, they were shapely. His steely concentration made the air leave Winry's lungs. To top it all off, the first rays of sunlight came through the window just right, hitting Edward's hair in a way that made it positively glow.

What was she thinking? Those were only the sorts of things people thought when they had a crush. She'd only had two positive interactions with him, including this one. ...well, maybe it was a crush. She could certainly do worse than someone with a questionable fashion sense. After all, he worked hard, and he got good grades, if the quality of his writing was any indication. Okay, fine. He was also drop dead gorgeous, if you could see past his clothing choices. Yeah, she had a crush.

"Did you hear anything I just said?"

"...no."

"Figures. I finished reading your paper. It's not bad, I just left a few suggestions for sentence structure. Now I am going to enjoy my caramel macchiato." He took off the lid and breathed in the steam with his eyes closed, nearly drooping into the cup in content. When he opened his eyes slowly, Winry was awestruck by the similarity between the color of his eyes and his drink.

"What?" Edward furrowed his eyebrows.

"Nothing. I didn't say anything. At all. Nope."

"Okay." He shrugged. She reopened the document and went through his suggested edits. Gnawing her lip in concentration, she leaned forward a bit to settle in and tackle the editing.

"...hey, uh, Winry?" Edward gulped. "Are you going to drink your coffee?"

"Oh! Yeah, I almost forgot. Thanks, Edward!" she smiled.

"No–no problem. And you can call me Ed, you know. Most people do. Except for that excuse for a professor that calls me pipsqueak. Can you believe he's my advisor? I mean, come on, I'm a grown man. I'm not that short."

Winry made a poor attempt at containing her laughter. "Okay then, Ed. Prove it. Stand up."

"Fine." He slid out of the booth and stood. Winry followed suit and appraised their respective heights.

"Well, I'd hardly call you tall, but you're at least taller than me by a few inches, for whatever that's worth."

Edward grinned as if he had won some sort of prize. "Time for shorties to sit down now!"

"Watch it now. You're not too far from that label yourself, mister."

They both returned to their positions in the booth and worked steadily for the next hour. At the end of that time, Winry closed her laptop. "Ed, are you okay? You seem distracted."

"ADHD. I'm always distracted," he dismissed.

"No, like, are you sick or something? You did get more than four hours of sleep this time, right?"

"No comment." Ed's mouth twitched. He mumbled barely loud enough to hear, "Wouldn't have mattered anyway."

"Are you sure? If you're not feeling well, I can drive you over to the health center."

"N-no. That's not it." He exhaled, then slid a napkin across the table. His hands trembled slightly. "Anyway, here's my number. In case you need me to look over a paper. Or whatever. I've got a class soon."

Winry blushed, but tucked the napkin in her laptop. "Thanks, Ed. See you next week?"

"Yeah. Next week."

-----

Winry: This goes with your major, right?

Edward: Blocked

[starhallows]

Hello Annie. I'm the Polin fan, I'm also perplexed that some people didn't enjoy 460? I loved it! It was the first fic of yours that I read and what lead me to keep an eye out for your name in ao3. I'm sorry people are being rude and that some have the nerve to think they're entitled to tell you you didn't meet their standards or whatever. You don't own us anything, not the plot of your stories, not a date to publish them, not explanations of why you took certain decisions. Literally not a single thing. I hope you know there's plenty of people who enjoy what you're doing and relish every time you post something 💕

As for tips, I only have one and that is: write and rewrite. Let me elaborate:

Get out of your head and write. It could be bad and you could absolutely hate it. That's not a measurement of your talent, it won't mean you're a bad writer, just that it isn't completely fleshed out yet. And that's fine. Don't diminish your work just because it doesn't look how you want to yet.

Work over that. The idea is already there, you'll know it because is yours and you wrote it. If you don't like your first try, then change it. Add things or take them out. Edit them, look up pretty words that you can use, quote somebody else's work if they've already said it in a way that fits your story. Keep at it until you're satisfied.

Work with several documents and don't delete anything. It could be useful later on, you might not know it just yet.

Have writing buddies. Not just people how make sure that all the orthography is on point, but ask them if they have any ideas about the story on itself. It's yours and nobody is taking it away from you, but sometimes we can become to wrapped up on our own writing to see it with clear eyes, having a fresh perspective could be useful.

Be your own critic but also your own fan. Everyone else also has doubts of their work, and im sure that doesn't stop you from hyping them up, why wouldn't you cheer your own? The highest standards for your work are the ones that you set up.

This is something that you're doing for fun. Nobody is grading you, you don't have a dateline, you're won't be a failure, you don't have to write if you don't want to.

Taking a step back is completely valid. Going back to my previous point: don't make yourself miserable by forcing something that's not working right now. It could be because you're burned out or because life is going on and you don't have the time. You can take time off.

Writing is a process. It doesn't have to, and it likely won't be, picture perfect on the first try. So don't expect it to be. It'll take time, work on it for as long as it takes.

It's your hobby and that means you're supposed to enjoy it. I hope you do.

I don't know if these will be useful, and I probably should have prefaced that list by saying that I've never written fiction, only academic things, but it's all i can offer. They've worked for me, i hope they do for you. Im sending you all my love and best wishes 💕

Hello!!

Thank you so so much for the message! You know how much they mean to me!

I have some short scene ideas that don't have a place in ROTB (mainly because they are too far into the future), so I'm thinking about publishing those. I used to get a lot of requests for that kind of stuff a few months back, like HC for 460 Kathony version or the Gregory with muscles ask I got some time ago, and I think that could be a fun exercise that gets my mojo back. I stopped doing them because some inspired their own fics, and I thought I wasn't being fair if I didn't treat every ask in the box the same (I know it sounds ridiculous, but my mind does those things to me)

The rest turned into a rant, so more under the break, but I really wanted to thank you again if you don't end up reading the rest. This means the world to me.

About 460, it's not that people didn't enjoy it; it's that people didn't like how it ended. I stand by that ending but, I have to be honest, the hate I get for it does stop me from publishing any more Polin. The comments on AO3 are pretty tame; mostly, people were annoyed that (spoiler!) Portia didn't find out that Colin was Penelope's soulmate. I got a comment saying that they were annoyed they couldn't see Portia's reaction when they saw that Penelope was always worthy or Colin, which was never the point of the fic for me. 460 was about them finding each other. Penelope doesn't gain value as a person because of who her soulmate might be, so I didn't include that, and I ended the fic where I thought it should end. Not going to lie, I did keep the ending open because I was planning on adding an epilogue at some point, but the asks got quite bad at some point, so I decided not to. 460 is what it is, and I'm happy with what I published (my only regret is making Colin so poetic in his mind because that was a pain to write, lol).

Okay, little note about me that my therapist has helped me realise: I'm a chaotic perfectionist who overcompensates in some areas of my life when others are kind of falling apart (the joys of being an overachieving child). And I absolutely do that with fic. The thought of someone being disappointed because I haven't updated in months makes me ridiculously sad and anxious. It's not the thought of no one reading it; it's the thought of the few people who do being disappointed with it (that's a me problem, and I'm working on it, not trying to make anyone feel bad).

Enough with the sadness! THESE TIPS! These are actually SO useful!! It makes so much sense now that I've seen them written like this! So thank you, thank you, thank you, a thousand times! I'm going to try and apply every single one of them! I really want a writing buddy!

[thevirgodoll]

I've been married for 3 years now - this man-child has physically, emotionally + financially abused me. He allows me to "buy whatever I want" but I don't. I know he'll complain later. I also realized while being in this relationship that I may be a heteroromantic bisexual... so for me the relationship is really difficult. I keep the peace so he doesn't retaliate. I'm scared to leave 😟 and anxious he'll retaliate and mention my sexuality to my Caribbean family..

This is really serious to me so I will keep this straightforward...

1. You are going to need to understand how dire this is.

You cannot keep living like this. I’m sure you know this. We need to create a plan. You are going to have to let go of your suspicions involving your sexuality. Your safety is way more important right now, and if you work ahead of him, you can remain safe and unbothered by his tactics.

->A friend that he doesn’t know where they live is best or a family member that you can trust with the details of the violent relationship.

-> If you simply decide you want to go to a domestic violence shelter or women’s refuge, you do not have to give identifying information about yourself, even if asked.

-> You’re going to need to develop a support system over time for when you decide to leave. Your family and friends should care more about your safety. This way you can outsmart him and he will not smear campaign you.

-> Avoid the middle of the night because it will make it worse. You’re going to have to be acting seemingly normal when you leave. Have a plan.

2. Take everything with you. Your license, social security card, birth certificate. You have to get your documents together. Credit cards, debit cards, money. Change of clothes, etcetera.

-> Take the essentials. I mean this. If you’re going to get out it needs to be the essentials only, and your other items such as jewelry etc you can send to loved ones

-> You may need to buy a cheap prepaid phone that he cannot contact you on... with a spare sim card

-> Send any clothes you cannot take with you to your friend and disguise it as a donation. Begin sending things to friends over time if that is your plan.

3. Begin speaking with an attorney...

-> If something goes wrong, notify the police of your ongoing situation. Don’t file stuff until you’re safe...

-> Work should be notified as well.

4. Be aware at all times.

-> You have to stop trusting him. You have to outsmart him.

-> Once you do successfully get out, he may go on a smear campaign involving your sexuality if he knows this detail, your reputation, anything to distract you and keep you vulnerable and going back. Do not listen to it. You have to be 10 steps ahead of him.

-> Do not use computers in your home........be smart enough to delete history or use computers somewhere else. Use a computer at work, the library, your local community center, a domestic violence shelter or agency, or borrow a smartphone from a friend.

When you’re safe and gone:

-> By the time you leave, your social media should be changed, passwords, users and all. If he still knows to find you...temporarily deactivate if he is going to go straight to your account. You can begin new accounts later...so please don’t worry about this.

-> Block anyone who is friends with the both of you and won’t believe you. They are irrelevant. Block them and do not contact or they will give you away.

-> Block his number...do not cave. This is crucial as people do not listen. Please do not undo all of your hard work.

Money and Emergency:

-> Change paypal passwords, venmo passwords, banking passwords. Open banking with a new email account that is online. HIDE YOUR CARD!!!!! Try the sole of your shoe, but since you’ve been living with him I am sure you know how to hide items.

-> Don’t download the app on your phone.

-> Cancel your old bank accounts and credit cards, especially if you shared them with your abuser. When you open new accounts, be sure to use a different bank

-> Know the abuser red flags...know what sets him off.

-> Have your plan rehearsed and have your support system set up long before you leave. Ask all trusted individuals if you can contact them if you need a ride, a place to stay, or call the police. You have to have this ahead of time!!!!!

-> If you have your car make sure it has gas and it’s facing the exit/ready to go...unless you’re leaving with someone else.

-> Your abuser could have tracking devices on your car or anywhere in the house. Leave them until you’re literally ready to leave

-> At a new location , use a post office box rather than your home address

This all seems far fetched right now but you can do this. Now is the time to put yourself first. Waiting until you have the motivation or strength will make you stay there forever and you will never leave. You have everything inside that you need. I promise you you can do this.