#I'm currently working on a new house which is actually one I drafted in a Creative test world a while back

[squidkidcelebi]

Started a new Minecraft world cause I got the urge to play again and here are some highlights:

West from spawn, just a little ways away, is a village, and further west from that is ANOTHER village (which I settled down in)

A savanna village even further west with a Warm Ocean Ruin right in front which hid not one but TWO Sniffer eggs

A BIG MUSHROOM ISLAND FUTHER WEST FROM THAT (I've never found one legitimately in Survival before :D)

A teeny tiny Mushroom Island somewhere south west (only a handful of blocks big)

A huge, HUGE Mesa bordering a GIANT Mangrove swamp (like it just keeps on going, mangrove as far as the eye can see lol) which also borders a coral reef

Also in that Mesa are 3 exposed cave spider spawners from the same Mineshaft pretty much right next to each other

Several villages, SEVERAL Ocean Monuments (some of which are within render distance of each other, fr why would you ever need the Ocean Map trade), a pillager outpost (no Allays sadly) next to a Cherry Grove (which I might explore underground to see if I can find a Deep Dark and possibly Ancient City), and have so far found 2 Dungeons (A skeleton spawner and spider spawner, the latter of which is actually p much right under my house)

I currently have every available sapling (minus the Nether trees cause I haven't even stepped foot into the Nether yet) and have about 40 diamonds to my name, most of which were either from loot chests or exploring a giant Lush Cave that I found

Also SIX TIDE ARMOR TRIMS from shipwrecks I found; three 'wrecks (not in a row) with two in each

Oh and I have 8 tamed wolves and two axolotls :)

[verysium]

if you had to associate a city from the world w any bllk character of your liking which cities with who and why? sorry for the odd question lmao it just crossed my mind. love ur works btw!💗

i love unconventional questions like these cus then i have to really think hard to come up with a good answer. i will admit i am slightly biased because i feel that the current teams they play for already represent them well, so some of these might be a repeat. also i am not that well-travelled (wish i could if i had the money), so i'm merely going off the reputed description of each city.

rin would be paris. i know it sounds unoriginal, but pxg rin has already grown 10x prettier than he was during the u-20 arc, so something in that city air must be doing him right. also i feel like he just dresses like a stereotypical european lol. the winter coat and scarf combo plus the perpetual scowl on his face. he probably walks super quickly down the metro too. i have this fic in the drafts where rin and reader meet up at his shitty parisian apartment and eat hotpot and smoke cigs on a random sidewalk in winter. rin is also high class. it just comes naturally to him. like if u ever take a walk near place charles de gaulle (the arc de triomphe area), there's this quiet luxury that is prominent in the fancy hotels and brand stores that make up the vicinity. even better if u go during christmas time because they have these intricately detailed light fixtures. i remember seeing this one cartier store with a giant glittering jaguar on the front. not to mention their swarovski christmas tree. rin's like that. i feel like in a few years once he goes fully professional, the media would go wild over his poise and refined grace. he just has that subtly enticing aura, like a silent glamour.

sae would be madrid. not just because it's canon but also because i feel like the city is just the polar opposite of him. madrid is one of the hottest cities in europe, and sae's just perpetually cold. even in the literal sense, i feel like he would have cold hands and feet too. if u see those wes anderson style travel commercials of madrid, it's always some variation of pastel houses, sunshine, and bikini beaches. that is exactly what sae is not like. i also chose this for...*ahem* spoiler reasons in my upcoming fic chapter which i'm not going to delve too much into. but the gist is that the contrast is why sae fits so well in madrid and also why it's a bit tragic to see how drastically he has to change in order to adapt to a new environment. if not spain, i feel like he'd still end up somewhere with a large coastline because of how fundamental the sea is to him throughout his childhood. it's sort of his safe space. if i had the choice to assign two cities, i'd also include his hometown of kamakura since he seems like the type to be secretly sentimental. i picture sae as someone who values his roots even though he constantly says he has bigger and better places to be. like he would tell everyone that he was born in the wrong country but then proceed to sigh melodramatically whenever he actually misses home.

kaiser is a weird mix of munich, new york, and las vegas. i chose munich largely because of his german roots. i also picture him as bavarian. new york and las vegas are mostly attributed to the duality of his character. when we first see kaiser, he's this figure of flamboyance. his entrance was hands-down the most theatrically dramatic one, and there are theatre motifs throughout his dialogue (eg. roles on a stage, rejecting yoichi's script/play). i feel like this would fit well with the extravagant nightlife las vegas is known for and, of course, broadway in NYC. furthermore, kaiser is this prime example of clawing your way to the top. he seems charismatic and welcoming at first, but then we see his internal motives and well...it's something. he is cutthroat when it comes to competition, and he's not afraid of using others in his ascent to the top. i mean...he literally holds people by the hair as if they're mere objects. that seems pretty ruthless and machiavellian to me. i doubt he even humanizes any of his rivals; rather, he views them as opponents to his ideology. there's also a reason why they say if you make it in new york, you can make it anywhere. there's a highly individualistic mindset, and if you really want something, the resources are there for you to achieve it. kaiser is like that in the sense he is willing to put his all into getting something he desires, even up to an obsessive degree.

yukimiya is london. like u know what taylor swift said about the english? that's yukimiya for you. he treats his mother right, sleeps 8 hours a day, and said his first love was when his friend's 16-year-old sister kissed him on the forehead. he cannot be any more perfect. not to mention he's a literal model. like hello? IMG is calling.

shidou is somewhere in ohio. i'm not going to elaborate. the man's just weird.

isagi is somewhere rural. idk why but he strikes me as a country boy. probably helps his parents on the rice farm and bikes long distances to school. i found a lot of parallels between him and hinata shoyo from haikyu mostly because they're both from a smaller, lesser known neighborhood, have a pretty ordinary childhood, and become inspired by this influential role model. my secondary reason is just that isagi doesn't seem like he'd even be familiar with the urban landscape. he's lived his life in humble origins, so i think there might be some culture shock once he actually gets to the city. like...boy was genuinely amazed when he entered that blue lock facility. never seen so much high-end equipment and technology in his life.

ego lives in a sewer. i cannot tell u his precise location just that he probably hasn't washed his hair in 45 days and is still surviving off processed ramen noodles. please pray for him.

barou is los angeles and if not socal, then he's from the bay area. i took one good look at his artificially dyed red hair and the answer was clear. he is not immune to trends guys. it's almost embarrassing. furthermore, i think the general silicon valley area is known to be hardworking, and that encapsulates barou pretty well. he is disciplined to the core, and he knows that success is not going to come to him without him actively trying to reach it. he's also...(let's be real guys)...just a teensy weensy bit arrogant. he calls himself a king, as in a literal monarch. and he says this in the most serious tone too. now he rightfully earned that title, but it doesn't erase the secondhand cringe i felt from reading that dialogue LOL.

[the-east-art]

IDK if this counts as a Hagstone ask, but what is Hagstone? Could you give me the rundown? Or do you have a post where you explain the basics already?

Yes!!! It definitely counts!!! Let me tell you about my OCs and their story!

Hagstone is a story that I've been working on with @browniefox on and off for about seven years now! We've made at least one or two complete drafts of the first book, and I'm currently going through and rewriting the first book for (hopefully) the last time! and then it will be done! Hagstone is intended to be a duology, so just two books long.

enjoy this seven year old art when I was first developing the characters! The tag is Hagstone, but to find ALL the art I've ever done on it check the tag wtgp - it had the temporary title of 'Way to go Paul' for like... four or five years, referencing a Vine which I can't remember why we did that haha. There aren't any characters named Paul in it.

The story is about Kyle - a recent college dropout - who has to find new housing after an Event at his old place. He moves in with the eclectic Eldan - and over the course of the book gains new housemates (none of who are actually human) and discovers a dark danger lurking under the town.

(are by @browniefox) The story itself focuses on themes of struggling to let go of the past and face the future, dealing with grief, depression, and combatting loneliness.

One of the reasons I wrote this story was that I was really tired of stories that constantly have a 'normal' character who later realizes they're Secretly half witch or a fea or whatever so a big part of the story is the fact that Kyle is a very Human person with no magical abilities and how he interacts with the magical world.

The main characters are Kyle (of course) an anxious, depressed, and self conscious guy with a special interest in bugs and anger issues.

Eldan - the oldest living Fae who always seems to know more than everyone else and has been reportedly 'in a funk' (didn't leave his house) for many decades leading up to the story.

Marion - An acerbic vampire only a century or two old with trust issues and a secret soft side. He has been ostracized by the local vampire covens for reasons not yet known.

Ollie (Oleander) - Hailing from a family of monster hunters, Ollie is a sweet boy who can transform into a giant beast. His family are technically a line of Gargoyles but many centuries ago Eldan blessed them, hence the furriness of the transformation and the lack of being made of stone. However, something has happened recently causing him to go to Eldan on behalf of his family for help.

and Jonah! - Jonah is the ghost that haunts the house with few memories of his time alive whose death is connected to the darkness that lurks under the town.

(if you look you can see that Jonah and Ollie were recently renamed. Ollie was originally Leander but that read and wrote too similarly to the name 'Eldan', so we changed his name to Oleander and have him go by 'Ollie'. But THEN that was too close to the name Odon, so we changed Odons' name to Jonah. I'm much happier with these names and I think they are now distinct enough from one another, but it may be confusing if you're looking at old stuff)

That's the basic so please feel free to ask questions about the story, the characters, or if you want to meet some of the side characters in the story!

[bbsmuts]

Reminder

Due to several recent issues, I want to clarify the regulations of how this account works. I wouldn't bother normally, but this is becoming a recurring (and bothersome) problem and I want to address it now.

Firstly, I am not accepting fic requests right now, as was made clear on the questions icon in my profile. I hate to turn down people who have ideas, but I want to work through at least most of my draft list before piling more onto my plate. Requests are closed until further notice, so please, stop sending me pitches.

Secondly, since I've had some asks with this theme recently, I'd like to remind my readers that I only write for idols who are 18 OR ABOVE, no exceptions. Turning 18 in a few months doesn't cut it; if she's not legal yet then I'm not writing it. I get it if you weren't aware that the idol was still underage, but that doesn't change the fact that I do not write for under-18s. Check before you pitch.

Thirdly: NO CREEPY SHIT. I also made this abundantly clear in my introduction post. I do not under any circumstance write scat play, blood play, beating, stalking, etc. There are other people who do, so take your freaky fantasies to them. And again, I do write noncon/dubcon, but I'll only take that so far.

Fourth, to clarify, I only write for K-Pop and a very selective number of people outside of it. I am open to new people, but still very selective. If you have a suggestion for a new non-K-Pop girl, feel free to ask about her. Here's the current list. • Over-18 female K-pop idols • Allissa Shin • Pokimane • SNH48 • Rocket Girls • Pretty much any female J-Pop idols

Fifth, I beg of you people, please stop sending me requests for money. I'm very sorry if your house got blown away by an Israeli missile, but I don't give my money or banking details to random strangers on the Internet, especially on a site like Tumblr. And besides, if you're actually living off scraps in a tent in the middle of nowhere in the Palestinian desert, how are you contacting me online?

And lastly, no, I'm not in prison. After my post about not being on Tumblr anymore (which has since been revised, check it out), I got at least a dozen DMs asking me if I'd been sentenced to prison. The answer is no; as a law-abiding citizen, I am not in jail. What's keeping me from being active a lot is personal life reasons and a hike in the amount of work I have to do for my very time-consuming job. Writing is a hobby, my job is what keeps the food on the table and the extortionate bills payed. You can imagine which one I prioritize. (Seriously, though, why does water cost so much)

Thank you to everyone for your support, and please bear these points in mind when interacting with me.

-상훈

[kytsuine-blog]

Ok so I'm going to do a better, Tumblr-focused writeup soon and also track down those blogs to talk about them more specifically, but I fell for a misinformation scheme today and want to talk about how and why. Here's an email I sent my little cousin about it.

This morning, I encountered a Tumblr post talking about the TikTok ban and the government's attempt to severely curtail digital privacy rights as part of it.

I had heard that the TikTok ban was currently up for debate in the Senate, after passing the House with strong bipartisan support. I was not surprised by the information in the screenshots; it matched with things I knew the government had tried to do often in the past, and often under similar circumstances. I looked up the bill linked to verify, and yeah, it was an active bill that had been introduced in the Senate. (I should have realized then that there was an issue with what I was reading, but in my defense it was about 6:00 AM, and I was just glancing over things in the parking lot before going in to work.)

Concerned for the digital privacy and security of my family, and especially the ones I can't just drive to, I drafted the following message to you:

"I haven't had time to read all the way through the RESTRICT act that the Senate proposed, but summaries I've seen indicate that as written it's a massive overreach. It's better known as the TikTok ban; the news has been focusing on that part as it passes through Congress so far.

I always sign my emails to you with my public key. Both of you should look up how to use PGP to send me encrypted emails with that. It may become even more important soon to normalize secure encryption in Internet communications, and there may also be things that we wish to discuss that state or federal laws may frown on in the future.

I planned to introduce topics related to computer and information security more gradually, but making sure that talking about those is possible at all is an important part of that.

Congress.gov page on the bill

Tweet thread"

(As an aside, I do still think that normalizing encryption is a very worthwhile thing to do; it makes the web a safer place for activists and informants needing a way to communicate without surveillance, without being singled out as enemies of the surveillance state.)

I then checked through the notes of the Tumblr post to see if there was more context I wanted to share, and noticed people who called out a detail that I missed. That post was first posted in March of 2023, a little over a year ago. It refers to an entirely different bill than the TikTok ban which is currently going through the Senate, one which activists successfully stalled (and likely killed) last year. This year's bill is much more targeted (though, as implemented, I still have issues with it); its text can be found here.

This is a classic example of how misinformation spreads. I did not have bad intent when I went to share that commentary on last year's bill with you, and I did not find it from someone with bad intent (in fact, she subsequently shared a commentary I posted on the actual bill, in reply to her original incorrect post.) From what I can tell, on March 14, a number of mostly inactive politically-focused blogs all shared that post directly from the original poster (not from someone who had it in their feed, like a normal Tumblr interaction). Each of these was tagged with fairly popular political tags. None of these blogs has posted since, keeping it at the top of their page to get more eyes on it.

Misinformation is spread deliberately, and it takes caution and checking of your biases to combat it. I almost fell for this one because I expected it to be true. I should have checked on it before sharing anything at all. Looking at it now, I ask: who benefits from this?

Most directly, proponents of the current TikTok ban benefit from activist efforts being directed towards a functionally dead bill. This, apparently, includes the strong majority of the House, on both sides of the aisle; it may be assumed that it also includes the government's surveillance agencies (as it is easier to compel data from American companies than from foreign ones, particularly Chinese ones). It could also include other social media sites, especially those like YouTube and Instagram that compete directly with TikTok in the realm of algorithmically driven short videos.

More abstractly, though, this misinformation benefits the status quo, and conservatism as a whole. By causing people who are invested in the TikTok ban (mostly left-leaning people) to engage with more stringent and concerning bills, stress is increased on activists and burnout becomes more likely. Targeting the mental health of left-leaning activists is a tactic we've seen multiple times recently in misinformation campaigns; another example is the "the Guardian is doing a story on DIY HRT" hoax that recently circulated among my trans friends. This type of stressful lie misinformation serves the dual purpose of causing activists to burn out and decreasing trust among communities that share it.

This is a new specific strategy to me, but the solution is the same as ever. Check your sources when you speak publicly, check how your biases affect what ideas seem "clearly correct", and aim for your statements to maximize quality, rather than quantity. That's a discipline I still need to refine, but it's not hard. Just requires a bit of diligence.

[sawrinwrites]

March Content Plans (Long Update)

As it is now the 25th here in frosty England, it has officially been 2 months since I published my first piece of fan fiction. In that time, I've released:

A one-shot containing my first ever attempt at both monster smut and an explicit F/F sex scene (which is currently my most popular work????)

A low angst (I know, I can't believe it either) romantic one-shot from the POV of a golden retriever

4 chapters of an emotionally intense story that is so far from my usual writing style I have to re-read earlier chapters to remind myself how to write it (a deliberate stylistic choice but boy, am I paying for it)

3 chapters of what was meant to be a fun side project and is quickly turning into something deep and dark and wonderful in its own right

All in all, that's 4 bodies of work spanning 57.7k words released over a period of 9 weeks (not including the 15-20k which got rewritten / replaced / outright cut). Which is, for me, insane. It's also a pace that I won't be able to maintain going forward, so for the sake of setting expectations (my own, more than anyone else's), here's the current plan for March:

The Monsters At My Side And In My Shadow Ch 1-3 update Given that this has gone from "werewolf smut hiding in a multi-chapter fic" to "multi-fic exploration of abuse with a healthy dollop of smut", I want to revise what's already been released to better align with what I have going forward. There won't be any plot / event changes, scenes that get altered will be getting either an expansion or a rewrite, depending on the work needed (which will include adding more smut-adjacent content because it's currently lacking and I want it to be better).

Untitled - An Ember POV Story to Celebrate 1yr Since The Bees Kissed (March 25th) @reeves3 put the idea in my head and now I have a collection of outlines covering various points in Yang and Blake's relationship all told from the perspective of the Best Girl. They won't come out in chronological order as I'm looking to line them up with various events, but the current plan is that March 25th will cover the introduction of a new member into the Xiao Long-Belladonna pack.

Additionally, I'd like to release the following chapters but I am forcing myself to accept that these will likely get bumped to April:

The Monsters At My Side And In My Shadow Ch 4

Shattered Divinity Ch 5

There's a few reasons for the (temporary) slowdown in content:

I am supposed to draft 1 - 3 OC novels this year (the mistake of mixing alcohol with an empty resolutions boards and the word "bet") and I need to dedicate more time than I have done to those projects to have any hope of doing that.

Rather than wait for the fan fic writer's curse to hit, I've gone and done it to myself by buying my first house. The offer got accepted yesterday, so now I have to deal with the joys of legal and financial paperwork. And start prepping for a move. And every other stressful time consuming thing that comes from this period. Don't get me wrong, I am fucking ecstatic, not least because it means me having an actual bedroom for the first time in almost 4 years, but the next steps are going to take a chunk out of my usual writing time.

@kaelidascope is about to drop a veritable feast of content. Look, I'm not subtle about how much I enjoy her work. She's my favourite fan fic writer. She's probably one of my favourite writers period on account of the emotional damage and veritable joy Mightnight Menagerie has brought me. And I'm not just saying this because she's been exceptionally complimentary of my own work (which, by the way, I am still freaking out over). She is one of the main reasons I started writing fan fiction. If it wasn't for the original Beestfic, I'd never have written The Hunt. Which means I'd never have had the concept ideas that initially led to starting The Monsters At My Side And In My Shadow, and without that fic, I wouldn't have had the 3 experimental scenes between Yang and her grimm which ended up inspiring the idea to write Best Laid Plans from Ember's POV. So I will be setting aside some time (translation: every waking moment I have during release weekend) to thoroughly immerse myself in the relaunch. Also there's two Menagerie chapters due and the previews are already threatening my analytics brain and unfortunately it takes time to launch that kind of assault on AO3's comment section.

So yeah. A few things going on in March. I'm gonna try and do this as a rolling monthly thing going forward in lieu of trying to have a timed release schedule. Hopefully the April one will be a bit lot shorter.

[hollowed-theory-hall]

I love your wizarding politics meta! I'm a LLB student in New Zealand, so I found it incredibly interesting to read. I did have a thought though regarding the drafting of bills/legislation (such as the one Arthur Weasley wrote) when we're making UK govt comparisons: the Ministry departments are probably analogous to the UK govt departments, which are ministerial. Could it then make sense that the Wizengamot (our House of Lords) is comprised of both Lords and heads of department?

It would make sense, to me, that a Dept Head wouldn't be considered/called a member of the Wizengamot itself per se, because the Wizengamot = Lords, but that each department would have a representative seat at the Wizengamot, and that perhaps they were only invited/able to be involved in decisions relevant to their area of oversight. Arthur would have been involved in the law due to its relevancy to muggle artifacts and their potential misuse. Perhaps, if all Lords + Heads of Dept can propose laws, it stands that the actual voting on any laws is done solely by the primary Wizengamot (the Lords), because of its history + social superiority complex.

Hi, thank you so much! 💛

Great to hear it made sense since I'm not a law student, I'm just a woman who loves reading on the Internet.

Like, the thing is, Arthur isn't really a department head but an office head. Like, how the ministry is built, it seems to me at least, is that you have the departments, that are similar to the UK ministries. I believe these heads of department are all part of the House of Lords/Wizengamont/Confederation of Warlocks because of how the ministers used to be chosen in the UK in the past and even today.

Like, ministers in the House of Lords are usually required to be members of the parliament and legislature — which means they are from the House of Lords (or the House of Commons, but that doesn't seem to exist in the Wizarding World):

Most ministers in the House of Lords have been, and continue to be, selected from existing members of the House.

(lordslibrary.parliament.uk)

In Commonwealth realm jurisdictions which use the Westminster system of government, ministers are usually required to be members of one of the houses of Parliament or legislature, and are usually from the political party that controls a majority in the lower house of the legislature.

(Wikipedia)

So, I'm under the impression the wizarding world is similar, as in the big department heads (DMLE, DoM, and so forth) that act as ministries are chosen from within members of the Wizengamot except for unique exceptions on occasion. They are likely appointed by the current Minister of Magic and perhaps the Wizengamot can veto the decision, but it's also possible they can't.

Arthur Weasley is the head of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, which is a division of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, meaning he likely works directly under Amalia Bones, who is the head of the DMLE and likely appointed by her or other subordinates of her and not the full Wizengamot/Minister of Magic.

I do agree with you it's possible that the Wizengamot brings in office/division heads to discussions in their area of expertise but that said office heads aren't part of the voting process for said laws, while the department heads above them are. I'd also assume, if it worked like this, Amalia would've had to look over Arthur's bill and approve it before it went into discussion before the whole Wizengamot and the later vote. You're definitely right that I don't see the Wizengamot allowing a non-noble member who isn't a lord to vote on laws (except the minister, but it's only cause they have too. Like, from the list of past Ministers of Magic, it seems like it might be common enough even for the Minister to be chosen from the Wizengamot, or at least, be a relative of a Wizengamot family, but you get more non-lords in that position).

Honestly, I'd love to hear if you have more insights about this.

[getinthehandbasket]

Cross-disciplinary training for artists

My entire life I thought of myself as a writer. A nearly-failed author, because I had such a hard time writing, but a writer all the same.

I had no framework for writing anything more than drabbles or vignettes. Anything more than 2k fizzled out. Let's not even talk about papers when I was in high school and college. I thought I had to get it all out mostly-perfect all at once, the first time, and that was so overwhelming that I just.. didn't.

No one taught me about stages. No one taught me about outlining, filling in, refining, etc.

About ten years ago I decided I wanted to branch out beyond my fiber arts (a thing which I am good at) and my writing (a thing which I was not good at). I decided to learn how to paint, how to do multimedia art journaling, how to draw, how to do anything as a visual (but not digital) artist because I like making things.

The thing that surprised me the most was this: artists work in layers. The first few - hell, sometimes even the first MANY - layers are foundations. Underpaintings. Sketches. Blobs of color. Things that look nothing like what the final will be. Art is built up in layers, even fiber arts. All art, I have found, is made of layers and stages.

Now I'm back to writing. I write fanfic. I am now writing it using a "layering" strategy.

I laid out a very VERY vague timeline, and a few notes about a couple of scenes that made me want to write the fic to give those scenes a home.

Then I started noting down beats, and assigning them to different spots in my timeline. Now I had an actual outline.

NOW I'm filling in the outline with scenes. They're not necessarily good. Sometimes it's just a sentence or two saying something like "first threesome here" or "X goes to Y's house to hang out - reason??". Sometimes it's a 2k scene where I meant to do one thing and the characters decided to flirt prematurely instead. I'm not even writing in the perspective (or possibly the tense) I plan to use in the final. I'm currently writing everything from a 3rd person present-tense somewhat omnicient POV. The final fic will have first-person probably present-tense limited omniscience POV, bouncing between my MCs as the POV character.

I'm not even calling it my first draft. To keep that pressure off of myself, it's entirely within a "planning document" and I'm informally calling it my 0 Draft. I'm just telling myself the story, and not necessarily in order.

When I'm done with it, I will open up a new document and start retyping everything, editing in the process, rewriting a bunch of stuff, changing to the correct tense/POV, etc. That will be my first draft, because for some reason (*cough* bad English teachers who thought they weren't the ones responsible for teaching their students how to write essays, papers, or anything else, who required us to turn in "first drafts" of our papers basically for copyediting and that's it *cough*) I have it drilled into my head that a First Draft must be complete and ready to be copyedited. A First Draft can be a shitty draft, sure, but in my head it also had to be nearly the final form. So now I'm calling what most people would call their 1st Draft my 0 Draft.

And once I am done with my "1st Draft" (which is really my 2nd), THEN I will retype it one more time to catch any spelling or grammar or plothole mistakes. That's the version I will have betas read for last-minute checks, and that's the version I will post.

TL;DR - setting writing down for a while and learning other artistic disciplines, even if I nowhere near mastered them, has granted me so much insight into a better way to write. It's given me joy instead of anxiety in my most treasured creative hobby.

I'm not even halfway through telling myself the story and I'm already 13.5k in. After cutting some of my darlings out and moving them to a different doc.

"Cross-training" makes everything easier.

[no-where-new-hero]

Thank you @batrachised for tagging me in a 20 questions fanfic author game!

1-How many works do you have on AO3?

Currently 2, will soon be 3 :)

2-What's your total AO3 word count?

Currently 10,518.

3-What fandoms do you write for?

LM Montgomery novels and Tale of the Nine-Tailed at the moment.

4-What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

"A Dream of the Woodland," my Barney Snaith pov fic, has the most kudos simply because the Blue Castle Book Club are lovely and generous people!

5-Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do because I'm still new enough to this that every comment has me giggling and kicking my feet, and I want the commenter to feel like their time was spent well on typing out a reaction! It also feels like a mini-conversation about my favorite thing (my work hehe).

6-What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I mean, "The One who Takes" will automatically be the angstiest because it's canon compliant, basically a canon novelization, and I spent the previous 4800 words leading up to the finale shaping the characters to deliver the maximum possible pain out of an already painful situation. I have to admit I enjoy writing angst; I enjoy happy endings but until now the main feedback I've gotten on my works and pairings is that they're "sweet" and that feels like a vital misrepresentation of my core self lol.

7-What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

"A Dream of the Woodland" probably, again canon compliancy. The two drafts I have growing won't be happy to the same extent.

8-Do you get hate on fics?

Not yet 👀

9-Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I've become a very fade to black writer after several years of struggling to walk a fine line between graphic, which I guess is the point but not always, and merely allusive, which ends up kind of...unnecessarily poetic (me staring at the sex scene in Divine Rivals, which had me convinced the writer was Christian). This is me standing on my bandbox, but unless it's explicit, I find including smut incredibly awkward. And sometimes being explicit simply doesn't fit the story, and pwp is not my thing. So I've decided to start steering clear of it until I've found a way to toe that line (Starling House comes closest to achieving this for me, but it's almost not a smut scene? Like you know they're having sex but it's so barely there? OT).

10-Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

Not yet, but I'm still percolating elements for the Dean Priest x Barney Snaith x Walter Blythe fic. After that discussion about Dean being bisexual or at least closetedly in love with Douglas, that idea surged back into my consciousness again.

11-Have you ever had a fic stolen?

No, luckily. I'm not famous enough for that to happen lol.

12-Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope, but that sounds like a huge honor.

13-Have you ever cowritten a fic before?

No, but I'm open to the idea!

14-What's your all-time favourite ship?

Oh lord what a question. It's hard because I have a few but so often I want to keep them sacrosanct from fanfiction because I have the only correct interpretation of the ship and won't accept others lol. The one exception is that "euchronology" story about Dean x Emily, but otherwise yeah I tend to avoid reading about ships that are special to me.

15-What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I mean, that LMM sad guy crossover feels a bit ambitious for my time right now, even though I have the elements in place. We'll see.

16-What are your writing strengths?

The prose. I've been doing this for so long that getting pretty words out onto the screen stops feeling like effort.

17-What are your writing weaknesses?

I think I get stuck in my prose and forget that a story needs momentum. And also a shape. Learning how to outline would be great haha.

18-Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

This is actually interesting considering I'm writing for a media created in another language that I partially know, so while writing the new dialogue in "The One who Takes," I was very conscious of not just "would he say that" but also "what would the sentence structure feel like" and "I am also aware that I am filtering this awareness of speech pattern through translation." I don't think I did very well, but it was a thought process.

19-First fandom you wrote for?

I mean, the first "real" OG writing I ever did was very very thinly veiled The Hero and the Crown fanfic (by Robin McKinley, another of my formative books), so I guess that one? Though I feel like I only entered fandom properly this year with The Blue Castle.

20-Favorite fic you've ever written?

"The One who Takes." I don't see that getting dethroned by any of my other ideas any time soon. I love my murder children, I achieved what I wanted with it, I feel like I was writing at the top of my form. It has every element I ever loved in a fic (star-crossed love, hurt/comfort, charged mentor/mentee relationship, unhappy ending) and the form satisfied me (unlinear, lyrical, close 3rd person POV, thematically circular). ANYWAY I'm gassing this one up so you can all check it out here if you haven't already :)))

Tagging (if you haven't done this already): @mollywog @kehlana-wolhamonao3 @thesweetnessofspring

[sheliesshattered]

I did a lot of sewing in 2023, and spent more time on my sewing projects than on any of my other hobbies, even though I ended up with relatively few finished products. I drafted patterns, fitted mock-ups, and worked with specialty fabrics, several of them new to me. I'm pleased with how all of them came out, and feel like I improved my skills in both sewing and drafting. And most importantly, I had a ton of fun wearing each one of these projects!

The majority of the year was spent on my Rhaenyra Targaryen cosplay, starting last January with drafting a pattern from my measurements, sewing a mock-up, fitting the mock-up to achieve a more screen-accurate look, and adjusting the pattern accordingly. I worked with silk for the very first time, black silk organza for the underdress and red silk jacquard (woven by a small maker in India) for the main dress. I dyed lacing cords to match, hand-sewed several yards of trim, set a couple dozen grommets by hand, sewed on several different types of beads, and did a lot of handsewing to complete the whole thing. I worked on it continuously for just over seven months, in between work and alongside other sewing projects in the last month or so.

The other major sewing project last summer was the sequin shorts for my Harley Quinn/Taylor Swift mashup cosplay. I based them on the sequin shorts in the first Suicide Squad movie, but made them red and black to match both Harley's more typical color scheme and Taylor Swift's Red color scheme. I drafted a pattern by altering a swimsuit pattern I drafted in 2020, and made a lining out of swimsuit fabric to check the fit, then cut out the exterior sequin fabric. I'd worked with sequin fabric before, but never one with sequins attached in one continuous chain of stitches, which took a little while to figure out how to best handle to keep from unraveling when cut. I ended up handsewing extra sequins onto places of the shorts where the sequins had fallen off.

I purchased the Taylor Swift tshirt but added quite a lot of hand-sewn details, to make it look more like the Suicide Squad tshirt. In July and August I also finished a bunch of other small cosplay crafting items, everything from wig styling and jewelry making, to gluing rhinestones to a pair of bunny ears, repairing the beading on a purchased dress, and adding a hidden pocket to a purchased skirt, all in preparation for Dragon Con at the end of August.

After Dragon Con I needed a couple of months to recover, and while I did start (but not yet finish) a simple knitting project, I didn't do any sewing or pattern drafting again until late November. At that point I knew I wanted to make a cozy stay-at-home winter dress and get it finished just as soon as possible, so I could start wearing it as the weather turned colder.

I drafted a new dress pattern based on the pattern I drafted for Rhaenyra's dress, and a pair of funky wide legged pants from a pajama pant pattern I'd drafted in 2022. The whole project, from drafting the pattern and ordering a sample of the heavy fleece fabric I wanted to use, to the final hand stitching on the hem, took just under a month -- much faster than the Rhaenyra project, with much less fussy fabric and far fewer details. Now that I've gotten to wear it around the house over the last week and a half, there are a few small changes I may make to it in the future, but generally I'm very happy with it.

Currently I actually have two other sewing projects in process, too: hand-sewing/quilting the print from an old tshirt onto the back of a hoodie for Jack (slow going but getting close to done), and a surprise birthday gift for a family member. I'll post pictures of each once they're done, but probably won't post about the surprise project until the gift has been given.

After that, I have plans to start making some layering pieces to put over (and under) the fleece dress. I have some scrap fabric from older projects I'd like to turn into wearable things, and that bolt of cotton herringbone fabric I got a good deal on on Ebay arrived the other day, and needs to be washed and ironed and such before I start figuring out what I want to do with it.

I'm hoping to continue my streak of 2023 sewing into 2024, with that focus on more practical, everyday wearable items, rather than on cosplay. I don't know yet if I'm going to have any cosplay events to attend this year, and even if I do, I'd be quite happy bringing older projects, including those I finished in 2023, out to play again. As much as I love making those big show pieces for conventions, and pushing myself with new-to-me fabric types like silk and sequins, I'll get a lot more use out of everyday pieces, and feel better about my day to day wardrobe at the same time.

Thank you to everyone who liked and commented on my sewing posts throughout the year! I mostly post about my projects here as a way to document them for myself, but it's always so wonderful to hear that other people like my work, too. I hope 2024 treats all of us well, and to any of you out there with sewing projects you're working on, may your thread stay untangled and your scissors sharp!

[cornflowershade]

thanks for tagging me @distant-screaming <333

Current time: 12:18pm

Current activity: Making some tea 🫖

Currently thinking about: ...how I don't want to go to work today lol. I love what I do but today I feel yicky (hence the tea) so I'm not looking forward to leaving my house. Especially since I have to be there for an extra hour bc of a staff meeting.

Current favourite song: c'mon I don't do favorites 😭 I've been liking Ordinary by Tilly Birds a lot though! :D

Currently reading: Wish I had something interesting to put here but uh. I'm not currently reading anything.

Currently watching: The Shipper! This show is WACK. And I love it. It's just. So wild, and funny. Also, First's acting is literally SO good. The way he sells the body swap I just. AGH. Also cute lil Ohm is there. And Jennie. It's a good time and I appreciate how unpredictable it is. It's been my little happy evening watch lately.

Current favourite character: I think this was my answer last time I got tagged in one of these but. Ray from Only Friends. He's just so!! <3

Current WIP: I have a few fanvids in progress. Not gonna say they're still going at a promising pace but, I want them to be done so bad! I have a really fancy fun edit going to New Rules for SandRay & NickBoston. I also have a Buffy Summers edit going.

Aside from that I have a few fics but—while I certainly haven't given up on them—I'm not sure I'd call them WIPs considering the amount of time it's been since I last touched them.

Other things I've been working on include writing down Thai words I know on flashcards, which has been a fun if time-consuming process! It's a personal goal of mine to work on learning Thai. I've actually never learned a second language but have always wanted to, so it's rather special to me! I don't know a ton yet but I'm proud that I haven't given up on it. And it's honestly so satisfying when I'm watching something or listening to music and realize I understood something small without having to read subs, or understand a teeny tiny joke that wouldn't come across in English.

Besides that, I was doing a giant WIP in October which I didn't get that far on, but that's making the floofy Wednesday Addams dress. I've at least finished drafting a really nice fitted undershirt and making most of the detailed leather belt with a thick pleather material I had—it just needs to be assembled but I didn't do that bit yet bc my sewing machine was having issues for a while there (anyway I cut out 110 little shapes for the belt by hand with an xacto knife bless my SOUL). Hopefully I'll get back to the project when I'm feeling more energetic again!

Alright, tagging some lovely mutuals :D @lamonnaie @softpran @celestial-sapphicss @justafriend-ql @firstkanaphans @khaofirsts

[nikki-pondtheauthor]

9/28/2023 - not dead again

Still alive. I'm just not happy with the chapters enough to publish it.

I've been mostly bouncing between new WIPs whenever the mood strikes me. Lots of plot bunnies hitting me out of nowhere. Dammit.

And I got this "one-shot" (which was meant to be part of the dpxdc family week) with 4 potential endings because I got cursed with a plot bunny and I keep changing it again and again.

So if you're asking when will I "update" my current WIPs published? Well, my first priority at the moment is still Blood doesn't always mean Family before I tackle other fics like Animals, Legacy, Two of a Kind, etc.

I just honestly need to be in a "very specific mood" when it comes to certain fics. For example, I write best in BDAMF when I'm "angry". With House of Memories, I have to be able to channel "grief" Don't judge me, it's just how I work best and writing has always been my best method to channel my emotions.

I actually got 2 new Death Defying fics that I want to publish (both of them 2k+ words) but I'm not satisfied with the current state and I just want to keep editing the whole thing again (because I'm a very messy writer. Too many drafts)

[jokerfic]

Hey!! Are you currently writing anything?

Hi!! Yeah I am! I actually spent the weekend going through some WIPs and seeing which ones have legs. Right this second I'm finishing up the rough draft for a Far Cry 5 longfic that'll conclude the little series I started-- I'm about 90% done with it and it's almost 90k words so far, which is about 30k words longer than I thought it would be, lol.

On the Joker/Batverse side of things, Alice's fic is at around 20k, and out of nowhere a couple months ago I started working on a totally new idea, a Joker-centric psychological horror (tentatively titled "there's something in the basement") and I have no idea if that'll go anywhere but it could be fun. on the Bad Jokes side of things I intend to add to Funny Business at the very least, though I think there might also be another longer story in there. I'm definitely going to follow up my Gotham fic as well-- Jerome and Isabel have my heart.

And on the not-Joker side of things, I have a hefty chunk of a Red Dead Redemption 2 draft (like, 100 pages so far, it's going to be BEEFY cause I love westerns and I'm thrilled to write one), there's about 25 pages of an Adrian Chase/Vigilante-centered Peacemaker fic that I think could be a lot of fun to finish (he's SO messy and a blast to write), I started writing an Eddie Munson Stranger Things fic last summer then got mad at how the season ended but I'll probably pick it back up regardless, there's a House of Wax (2005) story in the works that's super self-indulgent-- and speaking of self-indulgent, I'm working on a Castle Rock fic because I'm FURIOUS that it was canceled before I got the answers I wanted. So I'm going to attempt to fill in the gaps myself. :)

There are more, including some original stuff, but those are the ones I'm excited about right now. It's been a long drought but I'm already writing (and reading!) more this year than I was this time last year, so I'm hopeful I can share several things with you all over the next few months.

[reginarubie]

Hey Regina!!

Big fan of your Jonsa stories and the current FIRESTEEL one🔥

Just wanted to ask/know will there be any updates on any of your Jonsa fics?

Cause gosh honestly I'm missing yours (ours) dark and unhinged and possessive LORD OF THE WORLD🤤😅 (empress of the world)😉

But seriously any Jonsa updates will be appreciated 😭🤗

Ciao anon!,

First of all thank you! It’s amazing to know how much you appreciate my stories (Jonsa, darkJonsa and Firesteel).

Tbh I’ve been working on-and-off on next chapter of Like Wolves in the Darkness lately though I’m having some issue with the new POV, next chapter will be a double POV chapter and the first POV of it will be new and I want to make it plausible, accorded to the story but also canon which is giving me some issue, though I am halfway through that, so expect some good news on it soon!

I am kind of outlining next chapter of Soulbonded as well, and of Don’t go in the Forest, but it’s a slow process because both are very intense to write (especially Soulbonded since I added so much lore and basically wrote myself in a corner which means I have to be twice as mindful of all the lore I added in the coming chapters for future chapters reasons ™️).

The time of wolves new chapter is under review, btw, so yep… at one point I should be able to update that too.

I’ve also had the draft of coming chapter of the Chanson du sun’s son and his queen wolf and I actually have mapped and half written all the coming chapters of Wind of Ice, thought as they’re not Jonsa stories you had no asked after them — sorry to use this reply this way but I guess it kind of has become an update on how I am doing on my fics — hope you don’t mind.

Also you are in luck because guess on which story I’ve been working parallel with Firesteel these last days? Empress of the World! (Also because of these amazing portraits made with an AI, because tbh I’m very bad at art which have inspired me)

Lady Favorite Sansa of House Stark, officially taking a more active role in the court of Valyria and being officially associated with the throne of the Empress during a court session and the trial of lord Domeric of House Bolton.

Emperor Jaehaerys III, emperor of all Valyria, Noble Father, the Liberator of Braavos and New Ghis, … though I can’t tell you what he’ll be doing next chapter (🤫)

Their son in a couple of years, Jacaerys Brandon of Houses Targaryen and Stark, heir to the throne of Valyria and of Winter, prince of Tyria and Winterfell.

Princess Rhaenys of Houses Targaryen and Martell, current lady of Dragonstone, Prime Achor of Valyria and dragon rider.

The Lady Mother of the Emperor, lady Lyanna Karstark, concubine of emperor Rhaegar Targaryen.

Princess Daenerys of House Targaryen, lady governor of Meereen and Pentos, dragon rider, adoptive mother to her brother-husband bastards and in collusion for power with the lady Favorite and the Emperor.

Yeah, I know they are only crumbles but know it’s just a taste of the whole meal that’ll be the chapter! More food (aesthetic if nothing else) for your Emperor Jaehaerys and his Empress’ needs!

As always thank you for dropping by! You don’t know how happy that makes me! Sending all my love ~G.

Ps once i have updated the new chapter of Empress I’m really curious to learn what you think of it, so if you wanna, drop by again! ♥️

[longeyelashedtragedy]

tag ppl you want to know better game - tagged by @heffer-wen many many days ago! (i had so much fun reading your answers!)

last song: "shrike" by hozier. i liked this song fine when the album first came out, but 5 years later all of a sudden it's everything my brain needs to hear. something about how his voice sounds when it gets Loud--it's just filling all the spaces that are empty and expanding my lungs and i can breathe. yknow?

currently watching: nothing, sincerely. i've got a pandemic era frank interview queued up, but that requires actually staring at a video and paying attention, and i'm not very good at that. i mean i guess i've poked around a couple old youtube videos that are too incriminating to discuss. but!

in seriousness...i'm trash at watching anything most of the time. tv/movies were on a near-total ban in my house as a kid and i think i'm a product of this parenting choice (recommend!)

three ships: frank x mason, big gabi x willo, XHAKARTETA. hard to pick a favorite frank ship though...that could go in a lot of directions.

favorite color: Heff did i see hot pink and black? YES! my favorite colors are pink and black. runners-up: red and purple, though some reds and purples are better than others.

first ship: gosh...honestly, i think it was McLennon, hahah. that was the first ship i realized was a ship, though, because my friend introduced me to ff.n via that ship the summer after 8th grade. before that, i was informally shipping katarina witt with a whole bunch of people myself included. but yes, John & Paul. i didn't really have headcanons or anything though, i just read some stuff. the first ship where i was like I SHIP IT and went to read fanfic on LJ for it was *sigh* bellatrix/narcissa from harry potter. say what we will about JKR now, and i'm sure we all have, but some of the fanfic on livejournal went HARD. as a mere teenager, i was in awe of the adults writing all this stuff, and felt so privileged to lurk amongst them and occasionally comment. Would that fandoms were still like this!!!

place of birth: new york, ny in a hospital that's about to close. i was six days late because i was destined to be a sag and not a scorpio. i knew even then!

current location: just across the river and a little bit southeast.

relationship status: hardcore in my aromantic era. i used to be obsessed with love and having a special person and all that, but i don't know...the idea of having to have someone up in my business, entitled to knowledge about me, sharing a space with me all the time...it all just feels like a big NO these days. it actively makes my skin feel crawly. of course, life is designed for you to have a partner which is pretty frustrating. sincerely i'd rather just have a bunch of loving and interesting friends who all live near me. now, am i down for a hookup? sure, but the only part of me worth seeing is my head, so we move!

last movie: "encounter in the air," it's a movie directed by this albanian director whose stuff i love. he doesn't use music in his films, and films on location in/near his hometown in northern albania, and the...soundscape? is so rich and bountiful and gorgeous. you don't realize how noisy movies are till you watch one of these. (this was one of the very rare times when i watch something)

currently working on: reading my way through my library book pile, decluttering my leggings shelf, thinking of how i want to structure a potential fic about a ~75 year-old man having a drunk fuck with his son's wife (with motivations currently unknown to me--and what tone it should have? not my usual pedestrian tone, but how to do it differently? i do have some interesting sentences written down in the draft. i like the sight and then the memory of wet footprints on the hallway floor & mud from the football pitch and carelessly worn boots tracked through the house). also how i'd write some frank/anthony gordon england NT callup dubcon phone sex. now that was a whole serving of word salad. shit, imagine if i was writing TAA/szoboszlai or pedri/gavi.

tagging: @thatbrightblueshine @kvaradonaa @protect-daniel-james @medicalwastebouquet @thundercrack (answer on whichever of your blogs hahaha) and i KNOW i'm leaving people out so...YOU. if you want!!!! no pressure at all.

[iamthunderhearmehowl]

Baulder's Gate 3 AU Halsin's Daughter: "Circle of Decay"

Description: All Faeryl wanted was her freedom – Her home was life was messy, abusive, and shrouded in secrecy. Being the bastard daughter of noble drow princess and an unknown father has caused the hierarchy in her house to become out of order. Because of this, she is treated like a house servant behind closed doors. However, in the public eye , she is one of the best escorts and spies of her Noble House. One day, during her older sister's engagement party, she finds out that her mother is selling her innocence to one of the highest bidders there. This causes her to spill wine on a guest, which in turn causes a downward spiral of events leading to her to run from the underdark. Once on the surface world, she makes her way towards Baulder's Gate where she meets Mol and Arabella. Two tieflings who work for “The Guild" doing their mercenary and heist jobs. The two take Faeryl under their wings and show her the ropes; they soon become and unstoppable team and are given a new mission: Kill the Eldest Son of House Vandree, Alistair, Faeryl's half brother. Unfortunately, the steps and misadventures needed in order to finish this mission push the girls to the edge as they struggle with reminants of their pasts.

Main Characters:

Faeryl:

Class: Druid / Circle of the Moon / Circle of Shadows

Race: Wood Elf / Drow

Age: 90 (ish)

Mol:

Class: Rogue / Theif / Assassin

Race: Tiefling

Age: 22

Arabella:

Class: Sorceress / Wild Magic / Shadow Magic

Race: Tiefling

Age: 20

Other Notes:

Faeryl is ( basically - even though she's hopping off the back of Halsin ) an OC - shes NOT cannon.

This takes place 10-ish years after the events of BG3

This is 100% a fan fiction and NOT cannon

This honestly started out with me making a character for my voice reel to practice - and what do you know Faeryl became a full fledge character in my head :')

The setting / events / information in this AU changes based off of new information I get on the main game - IT IS NOT A FINISHED WORK

Will I write out this fan fiction into an actual written series? Eventually - right now it's all out of order headcannons/ mainly because using my imagination to create this pulled me out of a deep depression (Lmao I almost went on a grippy sock vacation)

I currently have a rough draft written - it will take me forever but bear (lmao) with me

I know this doesn't get a lot of attention - I am screaming into a void - but I really do enjoy this AU I've created and if at least ONE other person enjoys it as well - I am happy.

The Links to everything are on my masterpost that is pinned to the top of my page! But I'll also link it below <3

Links:

Master Post -> ( Click Me )

All Content Page (holds every post regarding this AU) -> ( Click Me )

I'm also doing everything I can to make this accurate so if anyone has books / links / articles in regards to DND /BG3 please send them my way

Thanks <3