#I've been looking my drafts and finding tons of art I've done

[pearl-crystals]

Hi Stardust!

[despairforme]

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

[ Oh man this post got long (and surprisingly serious) fjfjfjffjjf I wrote this 2 days ahead of time because I was so excited about it ahahaha --- I'm wishing you all a wonderful 2024!!!!!

2023 was a year of surprising development for me. I don't know if it's because I'm getting older, or if I'm simply moving into a different mindset. I loved this year! It was awesome, and I'm so happy to see that I've written MORE for Nnoitra this year than I did in 2022 ( even though my overall word-count went down from 290 000 to 280 000 ). I can't say I completed many of my goals ( or any of them LOL ). I had lots of goals for 2023, but I was unable to complete them. The past few months, especially, have brought forth big changes in my creative flow and focus.

I've realized that I need to change my priorities, to better fit my new mindset.

Roleplaying is no longer going to be my main focus. In the past, whenever I've wanted to write, I've always focused on finishing drafts, asks ect. I've mostly written on here, since that's what I prefer. Or, rather - what I used to prefer. This is not to say I don't have muse for Nnoitra, because I always feel inspired for him. What's changed are my priorities. I've come to the conclusion that what's important to me is creating stories. Since Nnoitra's story ( main verse ) has become so stagnant, it feels less important to me. I know I can drive the story on, push it forward and thus find it important once more, but - I don't want to do that. I want to create my own, original stories instead. Becoming a professional writer has always been my dream, and that's simply not possible to do when I'm prioritizing rping. Roleplaying is going to have to take the backseat.

--- That being said, I'm absolutely not quitting! I can't imagine myself not writing for Nnoitra, so I'll be writing on here like before, and I'll even try to be more consistent. An enemy of mine in 2023 has been procrastination. One of my goals for 2024 is to conquer this, so that I can be more efficient with my time. I think that by dedicating less time to roleplay, I'll be more efficient when I do sit down and write for my muses. My activity the past few months have been spotty, so I'd love to get into a better flow.

2024 GOALS:

FOCUS ON PERSONAL PROJECTS. I have a lot of them. Two (three?) book projects, two long OC-centered fanfictions.

WRITE FANDOM PROJECTS. I have a lot of ideas for fanfictions, and I want to make the time to write them. Some are long, some are short. Getting feedback on my stories has always been a great feeling, and fanfiction is the best way to get that serotonin.

CHANGE MY WRITING HABITS. My habits are bad. They lead to a ton of procrastination and wasted time. I want to be more structured when it comes to my writing time (and my time in general, but especially my writing time). I want to stick to schedules, word-count goals, page goals ect. Conquering procrastination is going to be key.

CONSISTENT RP POSTING. Even though I won't be focusing on roleplaying, I still intend to do it regularly and get replies and asks out in a more timely manner. I'll probably set off some time in the evening to get replies done, and have some fun on the dash when others are online. I'll try to be consistent across my blogs, not just on Nnoitra.

CREATE THINGS THAT ARE PHYSICAL. I've come to realize that I love things that translate to the real world. Not just words on a screen, or a digital artwork, but things that you can touch. It's why I've absolutely fallen in love with watercolor painting. I'm going to try to print some of my writing work so that I have physical copies. I'm also going to print my art so that I can hold it in real life.

FIND A SHIP FOR NNOITRA. It's been so long since I wrote a ship for him, and I need it back in my life. I've been looking for a ship for him the whole time, but I need to put more effort in, and let him interact with more characters, as well as continue to develop the relationships he does have ( in case one of them turns romantic? ). I'd love for 2024 to be the year Nnoitra falls in love again.

I am SUPER excited for 2024! I love new years and fresh starts, and I feel so incredibly inspired by the changes in my mindset. I feel like I've been stuck for a good while with rping. Don't get me wrong, I've loved every second of it, and I've learnt so much about writing - and met the most amazing people. It's just that it's time for a change. Time for me to create other kinds of stories. I thought that things were aligned for me to write books last year, but I really didn't have the right mindset - but now I do! I'm hyped!! Hope you're ALL going to have the most amazing 2024 guys!! ]

[loquaciousquark]

One thing that I really appreciate about your fic is that you always have the whole thing prewritten and then you post on a regular schedule until the whole thing is out there. What made you decide to do it that way rather than post as you write? I'm currently once again waffling on just posting as I write or finishing my whole thing and then posting and it's driving me nuts!

Ahh, I'm still reeling from your lovely art! Let me try to compose myself and also try to get through the haze of cough syrup. There are four (and a half) main reasons I always finish my stuff before I start posting. I keep trying to qualify this post by saying they're personal reasons developed over many years and I don't know if they'll mean anything for anyone else, but I'm just dithering at this point, so let's get to it.

The biggest reason by far is that the pressure of knowing someone is waiting for me to write the next part is AWFUL. It's petrifying, honestly. I've only ever posted two fics as I wrote them, River Stone on the kinkmeme way back in whenever (like 2013 I think?), and Metamorphose for Thanzag last year (a three-parter with over a year between parts 2 and 3). I tried it again with Metamorphose because I thought, oh, it's been ten years since I last did this, surely I can now handle posting before finishing--NOPE. AWFUL. Every comment looking for the next part was like a little inquisitive set of eyes peering over my shoulder, and any free hobby time I spent doing other things I felt guilty about for months. Plus, I'm not quite satisfied with that last chapter even now, but the pressure of needing to get it done was stronger than my desire to hone. I hate having that pressure compromise my standards, and I won't be doing it again anytime soon. Plus, I get so much joy out of comments when I do it the other way--writing everything first and knowing that pressure to finish is gone--that the tradeoff of no comments during the writing process is beyond worth it to me. That's the selfish aspect of how I post; I want to be able to just marinate in the reactions without the pressure of trying to figure out what comes next. Yeah, this sometimes means I spend a metric ton of time writing stuff that then doesn't get a lot of feedback once I finally start posting. Ah, well, them's the breaks. I'm familiar enough by now with my creative juices that I know the next fic is just around the corner. .

I'm such a constructionist in my fics, heavily leaning on my outlines for the overall structure and framework, that I spend a lot of time after the first completed draft trying to really polish up themes, characterization, and plot from start to finish. On I think almost every major longfic I've ever written, @jadesabre301 has pointed out a serious gaping hole that needed immediate revision (occasionally very major revision) in order to get the fic to the quality I wanted it to be. I can't go back and add early scenes and theme/imagery reinforcement in chapters already posted, and if I want to make the piece as polished as possible, I need that editing freedom and flexibility. (And she needs to be able to see the whole structure of the piece to find those flaws.) Plus, if I don't force myself to write the interstitial or difficult scenes, I could very easily see myself stalling out after hitting the highlight scenes I'm excited about, and then that'd be the end of the progress. I got stuck in one place in Spire for like eight months before Jade pushed me through it, and if I'd been posting concurrently with that writing stall, I think I would have been miserable. .

I have a high tolerance for sitting down and really focusing on one project for hours at a time, and I have a job and lifestyle that allow that every now and then. I don't have kids, I have a career I'm very well established in (giving me some clear work/life boundaries and seasons when I know I'll be busy and when I know I'll have time to be creative), and I structure my free time in those periods in ways where I can write without interruption. I don't really need external impetus or praise to keep me going (in fact, as mentioned, it often makes me feel worse), so having that dedicated time lets me really sink my teeth into my projects, which makes it so much easier to reach my target goals. I also find completing and closing projects immensely personally satisfying, which helps drive that momentum during the more difficult parts of the process. .

It's important to me to finish my projects so that the stories are complete for the readers. Not just because I grew up on abandoned WIPs in the fandoms I cut my teeth on (Sailor Moon, Inuyasha, Harry Potter), either. I remember a particular author in the Inuyasha fandom named Rozefire who wrote what felt like dozens of incredible AUs that I followed religiously for years. However, she never finished more than...memory says a handful of them? And every header at the top of the new fic would talk about how she was still working on the previous one, but after several months I realized that as soon as that new fic went up, the previous one would never see another chapter. I still loved everything she wrote and I still devoured every word, but there were several things I desperately wanted to see completed, and I have so many dusty memories of sifting through those fics for updates every few weeks, pining for any little crumb, haha. I'm able to complete my projects and it's important to me to do so for the sake of any readers, so it's something I make a priority when I write. .

(really 4.5) Not finishing my projects makes me mentally unhappy. It doesn't destroy my mood or anything, but it becomes a persistent itch that poisons all my other hobbies, even if there aren't any comments looking forward to the next chapter. In some ways the ending of that de-aging Fenris/Hawke fic I wrote a million years ago where the story demands a conclusion was a veritable autobiography. There's a reason that of my, uh...63 works on AO3, the only ones not fully completed are the two WIPs I'm currently posting (which are completely written) and the two oneshot/ficlet collections. Those collections have been lifesavers as well in that they are homes for my little orphan ficlets, which also pleases the ruthless organizer part of my brain. I don't like clutter; I don't like tangled wires; I don't like untucked sheets or piles of abandoned craft projects or rooms of untamed chaos. I look at a lot of those cozy little cottagecore aesthetic posts and I honestly just want to straighten everything to right angles and buy them coasters and set up bookshelves so they can clean up the space. I used to organize my parents' VHS collection every summer--we had a spreadsheet with titles and reference numbers that went into the 500s. Finishing fics fits into the same space in my head; when they're finally done I can at last put the lid on the box and put it labelled neatly on the rack with all the rest of the boxes and I can mentally release it from my list of things to think about on the daily. (Which is, incidentally, the main reason I only work on one project at a time; too many open and cluttered boxes = a very unhappy me.)

Anyway! This was a very long answer about a very personal process, and I hope there's some part of it useful to you in some way! <3 At the end of the day, you'll have to decide your posting schedule for yourself based on the things that are important to you. There's no wrong way to do it--it's only whatever makes you happy and keeps you writing! <3<3<3

[theunwellkingdom]

Design Deep-Dive #12: Even More Tri-Lands!

A few months ago, I did a Deep-Dive on this set's tri-lands, and the inspirations behind their design. Since then, they've proven to be extremely successful... so much so that I decided to make more!

First, the good: after several rounds of playtesting, these lands have done exactly what I hoped they would. They feel fun, fair, and reliable! Their inclusion as commons means the official set cube has four copies of each, so players can expect to find several in a given draft.

They allow players to mana-fix into any 2-color combination, and even support some very solid 3-color decks (Black/Red/Green has been THE deck to beat so far), without letting games devolve into 5-color soup. As important as it is for lands to provide multiple colors for decks to function, it's crucial to maintain the restrictions of each color identity that are baked into the DNA of Magic.

So what's the problem? This original 5-card cycle was designed to ensure each color pair was represented, in much the way MtG has released triomes in their actual sets. However, This inherently means half of the pairs show up twice as often as others! This became a clear factor in pushing players toward certain colors and away from others when deckbuilding, more than I had expected.

It didn't help that one of these pairs, Red/Green, has been dominant so far, with a straightforward gameplan, tons of support, and some of the best top-end bombs the set has to offer (More on that in a future post). With both Bran Bramble and Cobbleston fueling these decks, it was was simply too good to pass up, while other archetypes like Blue/Red Wizards struggled to come together with only Glimmer to back them up.

With all that in mind, I set to work on an additional 5 lands to fully complete this cycle! With all 10 in the set, the math becomes much more stable -- each 3-color combination now has a dedicated land, and each color pair exists on 3 lands. My hope is that it will now feel more consistent for a player to build into any color combos they want.

This also introduces a new problem however... If these all remain Common, there are now DOUBLE the total tri-lands in the set cube. I don't have the wiggle room I'd need to shift all of them to Uncommons, but I liked the frequency of their appearance before. As a compromise, I've decided to keep them in the Common slot, but only include two copies of each. So players should expect to see them just as often as before, but now with a more even color distribution.

In all, I'm very excited about how these turned out! I haven't even touched on the art/theming, but it was a fun challenge to find 5 more fitting locations from our D&D campaign and illustrate them. I think they're visually some of my favorites in the whole set so far! Once it's time to print physical copies, there's a good chance our Commander pod will house-rule these to be legal outside of this homebrew set.

Click through for a closer look at each of them:

[nemirutami]

hi i was curious what fic you were refering to in your minato/akechi art :>??

It's a fic i've been writing on and off for a year now but i havent posted it anywhere yet haha.... unless?

In summary: It's about Akechi finding new work at a company called R.E.I (reliable, experienced, innovative) where Minato is the CEO (and widower) with a child Akechi comes to know as Rei (yep Minato named the company after his daughter). The fic focuses on all 3 influencing each other and helping each other cope/grow from their traumas but is also my biggest excuse to write cute scenes where Akechi gets to have an adopted daughter and be the dad he never got to be (he's terrible at it). If you're wondering "why would Minato hire Akechi" then don't worry. He has a very good reason. Minato hired Akechi because Akechi gave him shitty customer service and Minato took one look at him and said "I can adjust his attitude." now Akechi works for Minato bc he's an idiot. Most the fic is also me writing them comedically stupid and sad and very stupid. Oh, and I guess they kiss maybe. But really it's about broken people building a family w/o knowing. I made the fic as a joke and that's why it can't be named anything other than "Is it wrong to hit on my boss?" I've made a ton of art for it (some which I guess i've already posted alluding to the fic). I did make a cover sketch for it tho! There's a bunch of foreshadowing in the items on display (but it's too sketchy to make out I'm sure).

The 100k part of this fic is already up on patreon but I'm writing/editing the other 100K. So like, uh... 200+ pages of text and 29 chapters so far. In theory, the fic is already finished/has an ending, but I just need to fill in the gaps and tie plot points together.

If you're interested, I'll add the prelude/first chapter below the cut lmfao. It pretty much sets up the premise as tightly as possible in under 2K words. It has not been edited at all so take this abhorrently constructed first draft with no shame. You can judge my noodle words all you want but remember if you say a mean thing I will die.

Title: Is it wrong to hit on my boss?

Pair: Minake

Ch 1: That's not how this was supposed to go.

10 AM on the dot, to no one's surprise, he was flawlessly punctual as usual. Today was too important for missteps, and Akechi had carefully calculated each and every word he was going to use to land this job opportunity with one of Japan's biggest corporations in web development and online advertisement. Having worked at a low paying job for the most part (one with a boss that relentlessly attacked him and tried to convince him that he would amount to nothing, no less) didn’t prepare him for the call he received from R.E.I's founder about a new job opportunity. 

Cocky with confidence, he quit his job before the interview. 

After all, if this founder somehow went out of his way to request him, he must have done so with good reason.

With his hair tied back neatly into a ponytail and his shirt tucked beneath a more-than-a-little expensive looking business suit, he walked into the lobby, checked in, and got told to take the elevator up to the 3rd floor. He cocked his head curiously at the attendant before turning his gaze towards the elevator. Next to the elevator was a fire extinguisher for emergencies, and a metal plate outlining over 100 floors for the building. Naturally, there had to be some mistake. Floor 1 was considered the lobby, floor 2 was a storage for supplies and spare parts, and floor 3 was where their call center started. Their web developers were a fair bit higher up in the company, which made his directions only more confusing. What was a web developer supposed to do at a call center? While the thought of not having to fake a smile over the phone was comforting, the very image of having to do customer support 7 hours a day for the rest of his life put the fear of God in him.

"Pardon my rudeness, but there m-" Must be some mistake. The old lady at the counter was one step ahead of him and delivered her message with a sharp tone that left Akechi speechless.

"The founder's office is on the third floor," she interrupted her sentence with a huff, "-treat yourself to the coffee upstairs, you're gonna need it." and punctuated it with a dismissive wave of her hand. If more people hadn't entered the building and tried to take care of their own business, Akechi would have asked her to elaborate. But since he now for sure knew he was going to meet the founder, he decided not to make a scene.

"I… see. Thank you for the offer, but I must decline. I'm sure everything will go smoothly." But if they put him in a call center to provide customer support around the clock he was prepared to personally wire that black coffee maker into a homemade bomb and take down the whole building with him. While that thought crossed his mind, he smiled politely at the woman and took the elevator ride up.

Never in his life had he been so confused by a layout. He was aware of the building's size, but this was beyond ridiculous. The hallways almost looked like a maze, with paintings scribbled from wall to wall. Upon closer inspection, they looked like kids drawings. Either this was part of some PR stunt, or the founder was really into bright neon colors. If Akechi didn't hear the man on the other line himself and came here looking for a job, he'd expect to find a kindergarten at the other side of the many doors down the hall. His confidence was dwindling more and more with each step.

Once he reached the door he assumed would take him into the workplace where the founder was seated, he grasped at the handle only to find it locked. He blinked, and twisted the doorknob again, hoping it would open the door. When it didn't, he pulled a little harder until he heard a click from the other side, and noticed that the plate beneath the handle had the word "push" written in caps. Without thinking, he put far too much swing into his movement, and ended up smacking the poor sap on the other side that kindly unlocked the door for him, and the man's coffee poured right onto his suit and onto the floor in a loud mess.

"Ah, sorry!" He would have stayed and apologized properly if he wasn't at risk of running late. "If you give me a minute, I'll be right back and help you clean up!" and he was gone. He could have stayed and helped but chose to prioritize the meeting. In the end, that guy was out one cup of coffee and still had a stable income, whereas missing out on this interview might cost Akechi not only his career, but his livelihood. If this went south, he could wind up homeless. Unless he begged for his old job back.

No, the chill of winter would be less humiliating than going back on his hands and knees to the boss that not only demeaned him, but continuously plagiarized his work for his own benefit.

"Hewoo," In the midst of his early mid-twenties crisis, a soft voice spoke to him, but the only people he spotted were already head-deep in work. Another faint cry, this one, a bit more shy.

"Heo…" he turned his head down, and spotted a tiny girl hiding beneath a desk with her fist against her lips and her knees up to her chest. She looked about four years old, short curly hair with a clip-on to keep her bangs out of her eyes. Really, if she hadn't called out to him, he never would have spotted her in those shadows. He stared at her stupidly before turning his head up and asking if anyone brought their daughter to work. The girl shushed him, and got his attention once again.

"M, hidin…" 

"Ah," It was too early for a break, but he supposed someone might have taken some time off to call a responsible adult to come pick up their child from work. Still, he couldn't help but smile and crouch next to her, putting one finger over his lips with a whisper. "It's ok, I won't tell anyone." The little girl smiled so wide she was practically squinting. 

"Who r u…" He cocked his head slightly. Did she know most of the people on this floor? She spoke as if she knew he was a stranger. He shrugged it off. That can't be right. Must have been childish curiosity. 

"I'm Akechi Goro, and you?"

"Ake...ak...e...Aket…" She struggled and fumbled over her words, before she furrowed her brows with confidence and looked upset she couldn't yet pronounce his name.

"Gowo." He couldn't hold back a smile, and the little girl, now forgetting she's supposed to be hiding, shouts at him.

"Don't laff! That's mean!"

"Sorry!" His words said sorry, but his smile told her differently. At least, until his phone began beeping. It was now exactly 10 am.

"Sh-!" Too much in a hurry, he rushed to stand up quickly, and banged the back of his head against the table. He fell to his knees again, pushed down by the tabletop, and grabbed the back of his neck. The little girl, to no fault of her own, laughed at him without a shred of sympathy. Before he could get up on his feet, an arm patted him on the back.

"Hey, you ok?" He couldn't tell with his eyes closed, but the little girl mimicked the man's movements and reached her tiny hand out to pat Akechi's knee as if to comfort him. Before he could respond, he heard the man say "There you are!" followed by a tiny high pitched scream that honest to God was only giving Akechi a headache.

Still better than his old job, despite the abuse and trauma he's had to endure thus far.

When he opened his eyes, he saw the man that he accidentally slammed into squishing the little girl's cheeks, possibly as punishment.

"What did I tell you? You can't win."

"Mmmrmmmrrrr"

"Do you give up?" The child stubbornly stared him in the eye and only repeated her mumbling louder. The man sighed, but with the hint of a smile.

"Alright, go hide again." The joy in that little girl's eyes could part the skies on a cloudy day. She beamed and quickly ran off to hide elsewhere while the man covered his eyes and began counting. As soon as she was gone and he no longer heard the tip tap of feet, he got up and extended his hand towards Akechi.

"You look lost. Do you need any help?" This was humiliating. A kid laughing at him, he could handle, but a future coworker extending him his aid this early in their partnership was shameful. Especially since this was the same guy he left high and dry just moments ago.

"No, no, I'll be alr-" His voice was now much less sympathetic.

"Just take my hand." So much for debate. He didn't appreciate how everyone in this company cut him off mid-sentence, but took the other man's hand to get back up on his feet. As soon as he did, he got looked over rather thoroughly, a little too intensely to his liking.

"Doesn't look like you're bleeding, but if you're feeling dizzy, there's a nurse just two doors down to the left. She can examine you in case you've suffered any severe damage." His concern was flattering but unnecessary and sadly a waste of time.

"Haha, no worries. Actually... I need to get to the founder's office. Do you know where that is?" 

"Yes, but I wouldn't worry about t- Rei, don't climb the bookshelf! Junpei, will you-" 

"Aye, aye, boss! Come here you trouble bunny! How about you hop hop into bed and take a long looong nap? Man, uncle Junpei could use one too. I'll show you how it's done, like a pro!"

"Iori, sleep on the job and you're fired."

"Come on Philei, your dad is scary when he's talking to people that are not you!"

So much happened in the span of just a couple of seconds.

"...Rei?" He felt his blood run cold. "Her name is… Rei?" The man, somewhat confused that he was still standing there with a dumb look on his face, spoke as if this was basic knowledge Akechi should have known before stepping into the building.

"Of course, that's my daughter," he holds out his hand again, this time, expecting Akechi to shake it. "-and I'm the founder, Minato Arisato. And you are?"

Absolutely screwed.

[octosan]

Progress Update: Silence to the Eyes

Well! The new year is upon us, and as you have probably noticed, the game is not done. I'm disappointed, but I can also confidently say that it's not all my fault given what a year I've had. Still, one of my New Year's resolutions is to finish this game before 2024, so I wanted to share some of my progress on this point.

Art

I've made a lot of art progress! with the caveat that it's been a lot of progress considering I've had serious wrist pain issues throughout the year. The character portraits are all sketched up, and by now most of them have been fully lined, colored and shaded.

I've also been working on the in-game illustrations, though these are all rough WIPs and I have several more to draw.

I have roughly worked on the misc art needed like interface (I redrew the text box finally dfgkdsfk) but it's not really done. And in terms of backgrounds, I'm not the one making them so I don't really have to worry about it.

Looking at all that, I don't know what percentage of the art I'm done with, but I do thing I've made enough progress that I can reasonably finish before 2024.

Writing

In terms of the main story, I have what I consider a rough draft written up across all chapters of the game, with most of the chapters being roughly complete. The last chapter has some holes in it, but it's also meant to be the shortest chapter. Taking into account filling the gaps and doing revisions, I'd say I'm 1/3 of the way done on it.

In terms of the "side quests" for each chapter, I've got most of them fleshed out in terms of how the details are meant to go, but few of them have actually been written into the game (and of the ones that have, they are not complete.) So I've got a ways to go on those...

Music

I have made next to no progress on the soundtrack for this game. But I'm not super broken up about that, since as I recall that was one of the last things I finished on the last game. There's a few WIPs for important tracks, and I've been compiling a list of the sound effects I'll require in the future--obtaining them is the easiest part.

So yeah, not a lot of progress, but I think that once I get around to this I will be able to get through it relatively fast.

Misc

I learned a couple coding things this year, so that's neat! Mainly how to do character callbacks, but still.

In the future, I'm hoping to learn a more efficient way to code in a working inventory as well. The one I have in the demo is just a series of imagemaps, which I'm not averse to doing if I can't find a better way, but it seems like it could get tedious and complicated very quickly.

-

So yesssss. It's been slower than I'd like, but there has been progress. And hopefully in 2023, I'll have more of a handle on things and make a ton more. Fingers crossed!

[fountainpenguin]

dangggggggg I see why this chapter of dogs life took you a bit to figure out!!! I loved every word, you keep outdoing yourself each time and the worldbuildingggggggggg!!!!! Absolutely insane what you do with these characters keep it up!

Thank you so much… 🥺 I actually had another 5k words for this chapter I've been working with for weeks, but this weekend I finally called it quits and threw them in the scrap doc and started those scenes over, like I knew I should :'D

I loved the explosive screaming Martyn scene I'd written, but in my heart, I knew the way I wanted to do it was out of character (Too much over-explaining his emotions at a time he isn't thinking straight, and I just couldn't see him figuring out how he feels and putting it into words so soon after he gets this tense).

I'd like to bring it back in pieces throughout the rest of the story, so we'll see how much of that stays and goes!

There's a whole scene I wrote with TwoMuchGrian and PiglinMyNose gifting Rhetoric a welcome basket, but I've put it off for later because it wasn't working with the pacing and where I wanted reader's focus to be this chapter. They are so silly... I think we'll see them next time.

I recently made my Skeleton Train series on AO3 as a place to post scenes I liked, but scrapped… My Dog’s Life scrap doc is over 70k words, so you’ll probably see scenes there someday if I don't find a place for them later in the story. Not all my scraps are worth sharing, but there are some neat gems. The Martyn scene will definitely go in there if I don't find a place for it.

I thought I could fit the entire patrol interaction in this one chapter and it was intimidating, but splitting it was the right choice and really got me to the end. This chapter was a ton of work, so thank you; that means a lot (especially since when I went to bed, I felt like this ended up a "filler chapter that won't live up to expectations" and I was starting to regret dedicating that much time to it).

After sleeping and looking at it with fresh eyes, I'm very pleased with it and I do think it's nice, so I'm glad that a chapter that was giving me so much trouble ended up so well! That took a lot of work. The switch from writing the talk between BigB and Mumbo to scrapping that, instead showing them explaining what they talked about to Etho (who's tense because he disagrees with them) was my savior...

And the best news is, I’m currently at 8.8k words on the next chapter, largely due to the scraps. Jimmy's scene in that one has been written since 2023, so I'm looking forward to sharing it! It was one of the first things I wrote for Dog's Life and in my mind, it's what a lot of the story has been leading to.

I actually have pencil art for Jimmy that I won't get to post for this chapter because I'm giving all the intermission ones pixel art sprites instead, wheeze... He's the only character who hasn't gotten pencil-drawn chapter art yet because this scene was originally planned to be in Chapter 10 before I changed direction. Both my Jimmy sprites are super cute though - I have one of him with canary wings and another where he's dressed in pillager clothes with his pillager captain flag - so I'm excited!

The chapter after that focuses on Grian. It's been (almost) fully drafted since April and is one of my favorites, so I'm in a good position to pick up from here! Almost done with the intermission and then we'll be back for Session 3 on-server, which I've already decided will be 1 chapter per team (No more, no less). We'll see...! Dog's Life is really flowing through its plot, though, and I'm happy.

Thanks again for the support after a very tough chapter! I'm glad to have it off my plate and I’m so glad you like it :) It was nice to have my "Chalaza" buffer this month while I finished this, that's for sure.

[tencrowns]

OKAY SO. Maybe someone can weigh in on what’s going on here and tell me what to do with my life or at least commiserate with my absolute lack of ability to make a commitment.

Be forewarned, this represents a a little more than two decades of attempts to get my spiritual life together. For everything I flip through, realize there are 3x as many loose notes sitting on a shelf and tons of digital documents waiting to be codified.

My first SERIOUS attempt at a BoS from my college years:

Reasons for abandonment: a boyfriend had gifted me the journal, and I was reminded of him when I picked it up, it put me off handling it regularly. Also, while I loved the idea of no lines, it turns out I don’t actually love that for me. Also, I used a shitty pen and I don’t like the way my writing turned out.

Next book:

Another hardbound notebook (Peter Pauper Press, the same company that publishes that lovely blue and gold "Celestial Journal" that I've seen a lot of people use), but didn’t get far before I realized I was moving away from the kind of “intro to Wicca” beliefs that I had been working with and needed to reflect on what actually needed to be included. I didn’t fill out much here. Reasons for abandonment: tried a different, shittier writing style and spent a lot of time navel gazing and drafting things digitally.

Worked from digital for a while.

At some point, I lost my damn mind and got really into scrapbooking for like five minutes. My partner got me this very cool, but monstrous, scrapbook to grimoire it up in:

It looks pretty cool. The form factor (12"x12") is a little awkward? I like it in theory, but it’s post-bound rather than three ring, which makes reordering pages a pain in the ass, but at least it is possible, unlike with a hardbound book. I haven’t totally abandoned this, but as you may glimpse, it’s very incomplete and needs a lot of work to be “done.”

I thought a three-ring binder for 8.5"x11" might be easier and let me lose the plastic sheet protectors to be able to incorporate pockets and other interactive things like that, so I did “test layouts” of a couple of spells. This also would allow me to easily use printable pages that I’ve purchased through Etsy, or allow me to format my own from vintage art, etc.

I don’t hate it. I don’t love it. Maximum convenience.

But then, see, I found this image online a few years ago (if anyone knows where it comes from, let me know—all I have is an uncredited Pinterest post that doesn’t link anywhere):

I love it, I was inspired by it, but I didn’t really “get it” until I fell into bullet journaling to try and organize my life. I wanted to try it with the hopes that this time, this time, it’ll be the magical thing that allows me to develop a single, cohesive text.

So I have a blank B5 dot grid hardbound notebook—and I have experimented to find a proper pen/ink that is not shit!—and have got as far as laying out a frame to write an index.

Edited to add: I do want a physical book, I think. I am just unsure of how to proceed from where I am now, but it's becoming increasingly desperate to clean up the huge stack of notes and printouts and get them into some kind of form, so I welcome questions, comments and suggestions of any kind.

Hey, I don't see people talking about their grimoires/bos/witch book on my dashboard much anymore. Y'all still doing that? Do you keep a book? Document? Do you decorate it? How often do you add stuff to it?

[itefi-n-ferlet]

This is my translation of Mashima's sensei YT video, were he created Jerza's son. Take into account that even if I have made my best, it can have mistakes. 🙇🏻‍♀️

You can watch it here:

Btw, he is using a blue + scarlet outfit 😭 And a Grand Chariot in his chlotes, bc he is also loved by the seven stars 💙💜❤

Translation:

Hi, this is Mashima.

This time, I'd like to talk about the characters Erza and Jellal, who appear in Fairy Tail.

If these two had a child, what would it look like?

I'd like to show you what they would look like if they had a child.

First of all, for those of you who haven't seen it before.

I'd like to give a brief introduction of the work and the characters.

Fairy Tail: This story is about the activities of various mages who gathered at the mages guild, Fairy Tail.

Erza Scarlet

The most powerful female mage belonging to the mage guild Fairy Tail.

She's a very strong mage, even stronger than the main character.

She is usually cool, but she likes cute things and has a little bit of a girlish side to her.

Her fighting style is to switch her armor at a moment's notice.

Jellal Fernandes

For those of you who haven't read it yet, this could be a spoiler.

This character has been through a lot.

Right now, he's in a relationship with this woman, Erza. They're attracted to each other. This two are a couple.

It's a very popular coupling and it's a very popular coupling abroad.

I've received comments asking me to draw their children.

I get a lot of requests on my Twitter feed.

I'm not the type to respond to requests -because- I get tons of requests every day, and I always want to write/draw about what I like.

I don't usually respond to requests, but... the idea of Erza and Jellal's child... I thought it might make a good subject for a video.

So I came up with this idea.

One thing to note is that just because the author drew it, it is not part of the official/canon setting.

This is for fun.

It is a self-parody.

I would appreciate it if you could remember that and enjoy it.

Now, let's get on with it.

First of all, I'm not sure whether to draw a boy or a girl.

My image is a boy.

For now.

Let's set the age at about 10 years old.

Let's do it as we draw!

First of all, let's choose the boy's hair color.

Erza has red hair and this Jellal has blue hair, so the child... I don't know... purple, maybe?

Purple, a bit simple, isn't it?

I'm not sure if it's that simple.

They (children) often take it from the colour of the hair on one of the parents.

If one parent has blonde hair and the other pink, the child's hair will be one or the other. (Nalu reference)

This time I'm thinking of mixing it up a bit.

Yes, I've done a rough draft.

I've changed the characterisation a bit.

I said earlier that she (Erza) was a cool character.

But as I was drawing...

I thought maybe an "honour student" character would be better. I made him a bit more like an honour student.

The reason for this is simply because... Fairy Tail is a work of art. I'm just imagining it, but there are a few characters that are children of other characters and I wanted to find a balance between them (balance of personalities).

It's a story that's incomprehensible to people who don't know it, but in my mind... I've taken the liberty of balancing things out a bit.

(TN: Mashima sensei had a mental image of how the next gen personalities will combine in a posible story, so that's why he made him like this, looking like an honour student)

I made it look like an honour student character.   

Yes! Shall I go and put the pen in?

Yes! Yes! Generally, the body looks like this! (T/N: Not sure about this sentence)   

Let's go on with the colouring.

And here it is!

This is what it looks now. I'll give him a name...

This is Justin.      

This is Erza and Jellal's child.

I'm sorry to keep telling you this, but this is a self-parody/ just for fun..

Yes, if you understand that, please enjoy it!!

It's done!

And this is.

Jellal and Erza's son.

I thought it would be interesting to use it in derivative works as well.

I drew it for fun, like a child's setting, and this is how he turned out to be...

I've done it before with other characters.

If it does, it may appear in a second novel (TN: book/manga/ maybe nextgen spin off)  in the future.

That's all for this episode.

Thank you for watching until the end.

Please subscribe to our channel.

See you later!

FIN

SUSCRIBE TO MASHIMA SENSEI OFFICIAL YOU TUBE CHANNEL! ❤💜💙

[weathereyehorizon]

Valentine!

Hi! It’s me again! I’m trying to make up for lost time this week! Or maybe I’m feeling a bit more like Claire and just being random…😆.

Bring on the ridiculous fic! Sometimes you just need to laugh! I love a dramatic David when he’s just overexaggerating over something ridiculous. Do you have a favorite fic that you’ve written?

I completely understand why you don’t read WIPs. I do read WIPs when I have time. It would be insanely hypocritical of me to be anti-WIP since I may have one or two floating out in the universe. I’m actively working on finishing one now because honestly, I hate that they are just hanging out there. I have vowed to never publish a WIP once these are done. Next time I’ll at least have them roughly drafted so all I need to do is edit and then I can post on a fairly consistent basis.

Do you have a favorite show that you’re binging currently? I honestly don’t watch a ton of TV. Hubby and I are trying to catch up on a few series from COVID times not realizing they started airing again. Right now we’re watching New Amsterdam. We lost a season with COVID and can’t find it anywhere so I can’t help, but feel lost. I haven’t found a series to grab me since SC.

Yes, I see David doing more cooking in the cottage. Marcy gives him secret little cooking lessons that he surprises Patrick with. Takes David a while to come clean and share where he learned his vast array of knowledge in the kitchen.

I can do the texting skin and have used a few letter skins, but I absolutely love fics that can pull off the social media posts. That is a level of skin expertise I have not reached. We have so much talent in this fandom!! What do you think about fic art? Like banners or fic collages?

TGIF Valentine! Hope you have a wonderful evening and an even better weekend!

Talk soon!

😘

Hi Valentine! ❤️

Lovely to hear from you again! 😁

It's so hard to choose a favourite fic that I've written. I really love my Stevie & Patrick are Buds series because it's just such an ongoing passion project. They don't get a tonne of views because they're gen fics, so they really feel like something I truly write for myself. As for D/P fics, it all depends on the day. But, today I'll say Good Enough. I love Canadian music and song fics, and even though this one is one of the earlier things I wrote, it's soft and still like it very much.

I still binge SC often. I have a regular weekly watch party that I do with pals, as well as just popping on the odd comfort episode when the mood strikes. I've recently been bullied talked into watching 911, and now have also just started Lone Star. I also LOVE the olympics, so that's what I'll be binging for the next couple of weeks! ⛷️

I'm so impressed whenever anyone can do any kind of skins in their fic. It's my goal to learn how to do! As for fic art like banners and collages, I really like them, and play around with them a bit. If I want a decent looking one though, I talk nicely to one of my friends to make it for me. LOL!

It's been nice chatting with you today, Valentine. Talk to you soon!

~ weather 💛

[ngame989]

I'm new to writing fanfic, and always work solo, so when I saw you have a whole team at your disposal, it blew my mind. I've got a list of questions about that: 1. How did you guys find each other and get started? 2. How does your work flow look for a story vs. a page/chapter of the comic? 3. How much do you love having an editor? 4. How does your work change from draft to final? 5. The quality of your prose is very consistent, is that just you as a writer, or is it your team keeping you good?

1. Seddm, EA, and Dino were all good friends of mine from the fandom from before or during Season 3 (I started watching the show between 2B and BFM). Toxic started watching the show sometime in late 2018 and messaged me on Tumblr for some sort of formatting help, or tips and tricks for getting posts more noticed in the fandom or something? I don’t remember and Tumblr DMs are awful to navigate, but we quickly bonded over what really matters most.

Lawchan had been a longtime follower of the show and fanfic author who inspired me to get into it back after 3A and we started talking and became friends at some point in the last year or so. BMC popped into my askbox when I opened it up to headcanon suggestions and ended up sending me over 100 in a span of 3 days that were all wonderful and creative so we started talking more. This really is a “team” in a loose sense, I just have a ton of awesome and creative and supportive friends willing to help out with this.

Oddly enough, this project started less than a day after (and was inspired by) Lake House Fever. I had already been thinking about getting back into fanfiction writing after S4 ended and we were pissed and salty and just needed good Starco thoughts so I hit him up and we started chatting and thought “huh wait a Star and Marco section of a family photo album would be a cool concept for some sort of series” and it evolved from there. We’d planned out a lot of the basics for the comic before the show ended and were waiting on the canon resolution before going any further, and Cleaved shook a lot up for what the postcanon status quo would be, so my whole aforementioned group all sat in a Discord channel on and off for literally 8+ hours the day after Cleaved and roundtable’d the entire backbone of the Earthni timeline for almost every major character (so if there’s people in the credits for TGG that haven’t shown up directly in any works yet, that’s where they contributed).

2.  Overall I’m the project lead and head writer so the majority of specific ideas, what should this page have or where is the story going, etc, come from me although anything we do gets signed off on by at LEAST me, Toxic, and Seddm first.  For comics, I usually plan the concept (Star goes here, these people are talking to each other, happy or sad, etc) and then let Toxic do his thing - he’s great already but is SUUUUUUUUPER amazingly wonderful at reading my mind and making visuals that represent my thoughts even better than the visuals in my head for them. He’ll do a rough page layout and sketch, we workshop that, then he does line-art, we look for any issues or revisions there, then he colors as I make the dialogue.  Usually takes a few days of back and forth.

Honestly my workflow for writing fics is absolute ass and you should not learn from us (ESPECIALLY me) if you’re getting into the game, hahahaha. Every day that I say I’m gonna write something, I usually end up dicking around at my computer until 1 AM and THEN decide to write a little bit and lose sleep over it. A lot of Glow was written between 2 and 6 AM on a Saturday night. I’m ridiculously nitpicky of my own work and half the time before I even finish typing a sentence I’m already erasing it because I decided it was dumb or did something wrong, which makes drafts take F O R E V E R, but the silver lining is that my first draft is already very polished by the time it’s done.

Overall, we play to our strengths - Seddm and I are general idea guys, “wouldn’t it be funny/cool if X” or “we should tell a story about Y” etc, and Toxic is especially wonderful at coming up with fantastic visual designs or gags or whatever else. So there’s plenty of times where I’ll give him the rough outline for a comic page and he’ll slip in some goofy background thing that makes it so much better, or I’ll give him a joke idea and it’ll work amazingly. I also like to call Seddm my “internal debate moderator”. When I’m struggling to figure out what to do for something, I’m often torn between a few ideas. Getting outside advice on it can obviously be really helpful, but there are times that it leaves me even more confused about what to do. But because my and Seddm’s understandings of the characters and senses of design and humor are so damn similar, he can basically serve as both a neutral voice and still part of my own thought process at the same time, which really helps me get my own personal ideas in order before running them by others.

3. Editors are great and wonderful and perfect and I love my friends to death for graciously helping week in and week out with this when I ping them with “hey guys shat this out, sun has been up for an hour so im gonna go fucking die now bye”. As stated earlier, perhaps my need for one isn’t AS high because I self-edit so compulsively as I go, but it’s soooooooo easy to get caught up in your own head and intentions and not spot obvious issues with your own writing that outside voices help a ton.

4. Whoops I guess I answered already. Very little.

5. Given that edits don’t change much about the structure of my writing, I guess it’s me - thanks! But my team is great about keeping me in line with my own vision in editing and hitting any lines that just seem out of place. There was one particular cut line in Glow that I won’t post here that was easily a full standard deviation of naughty greater than the rest of the fic’s tone (unintentional, it was very late -_-) and that got caught and shot down real quick lmfao.

[frogsandfries]

You'll never guess what I found 🎶

🎶You'll never guess what I found which has made me so, so happy.🎶🎶

I found my Fiorentina when I was looking for a notebook that I could take on the bus. My Fiorentina which no one will recall is the notebook that I've been writing my original final draft in.

You may recall that I've been complaining about wasting my time on the bus, about wanting to shift my focus from trying to stitch on the bus, which can be tricky, and find something else to make that time productive in a way that allows me to work on this story.

There's a big huge chunk of the story which I just didn't write inside the notebook, and between rereading what's already in the notebook, and rewriting what isn't written in the notebook, I should be able to get back into the groove, maybe, and get back in touch with my story.

But alas, in my hurry to run out the door, I forgot my pen. And of course, I only grabbed one pen. I would grab my bag which is absolutely full of pens and just keep it worn me, but that's really not necessary, and also, I would be concerned they would just get broken.

Ugh, I'm so let down by myself right now. I'm also sort of nervous at having to tell someone that I absolutely can't make it at seven o'clock, that if it's necessary I come in that early, I need permission to be late. I already know I'm going to be late.

The bus is so full this morning, it's really weird. I'm stuck sitting next to this twitchy squirmy lady.

Anyway, so really, I guess if I'd sat down these past several years and really just focused on writing, this story probably could have been written. But I've had a lot of excuses, I've been busy with college, I was just going to give it up there for a while, I wanted to try making money from my art. Whatever the excuse, I had better things to do than take care if this thing that's been weighing on me.

I guess eventually, being the kind of person I am, as it has, an incomplete project--as much as my gut stubbornly says I wrote it, it's done, there's no finished product that I can pull up and read through or hold a physical copy in my hands-- would weigh on me until I said "fine!" and just sat down, prioritized it and finished.

And honestly, what better time to finish a project you can't seem to prioritize, than a block of time you can't figure out what to do with?

But, of course, I forgot my pen.

I think a lot of what's been inspiring me to finish this project was partly not knowing what else to work on, and wanting to try out cross-stitch and writing my own patterns. This led to listening to a ton of podcasts, which led back to occasionally listening to audiobooks, which of course, led to listening to Harry Potter. I think I can pretty certainly say Harry Potter was an enormous inspiration to me to start writing. Even if I turned out to write something that became pretty dark and probably unnecessarily cruel. It's funny how what I write is nothing like what I read.

I guess maybe that's not wholly true. I do enjoy trying to write dystopic science-fiction, and dystopic fiction is my FAVE. If you tell me it's dystopic, I will devour it. That's partly why I didn't like LoTR, apart from the ridiculously dense language. I like a good balance between florially (sp) dense and Twitter. It's hard to find a book anymore that's even written decently, let alone has a good story. Not that I'm saying I'm any better a writer or story teller, but I do try to maintain some of those writing conventions.