#Now you know!

[ferryfoam]

He has no idea he's like a daughter to me. My middle aged male daughter

ASIT is making me real sad and lately I have been spending every waking hour thinking about nothing but Elim Garak

I have also been reading this wonderful fic by Cucumbermoon and it is making me sadder but it's beautifully written and very good https://archiveofourown.org/works/30310065 I am very enthusiastic to read the sequel once I am finished (it is possibly correlated to the fact I am menstruating as of current but I cried multiple times while reading so. Really good!!!)

[ponydoodles]

Hey there pony nation! Mod Softie here with a small reminder post for a few things! This round of requests has been so much fun to look through, we’re excited by what y’all have been sending us! However, please keep in mind

- try to avoid requesting a specific mod in your ask, as it can be restrictive if said mod is not interested in the request! we may be firmer with this going forward since we’ve been more casual about it in the past 👍

- please do not request things like ocs, custom designs, or non-canon characters such as popular fan ponies! we only draw canon characters, but this includes the official comics, any of the generations, and the toys, so there’s plenty to choose from!

- please refer to muffins by the names muffins, bubbles, ditzy doo, or any of your chosen names for her rather than d * * py! we have that in our blog info along with the reasoning but have had it come up a bit more recently, possibly since we have a lot of new followers.

That’s all, thank you! In general if you’re new to the blog, pls check out our FAQ/RULES before sending an ask, we clarify all of this there!

- mod softie 💗

[heart-of-the-morningstar]

He stick…

[ceoofdestructix]

Now look at this fancy, well-adjusted gentlefrog. Wouldn't hurt a fly...

...Right?

[thecrumpler]

Sparkle doodles from various points in time

[jacksonscouts]

Hey Scouts!

The next fic on our self-rec list was written by me. It feels weird to write my own review, but also weird to skip myself, so if any other Scouts would be open to writing a review for "There's No Road That Will Lead Us Back", that'd be awesome(no pressure though!).

Instead of a self-review, I'd like to share my experience writing this fic. If you struggle with self-doubt, you might relate ❤️

When I started this story, I had this vision of what I wanted it to be: cinematic-level atmospheric vibes, engaging characterization that felt like canon, and prose that read just like my favorite books. You know, just easy, simple stuff. 😂

In all honesty, I had no faith that I could bring this vision to life. This belief only solidified as I drafted the first chapter. It was a weird kind of pain to love a story so much, but feel like I couldn't do it justice.

I kept trying though, not because I believed in myself, but because the setting, the plot, and the conflict all felt so real. It felt like living through the story alongside the characters.

By the third draft, the fic got pretty close to the story that had swirled around in my head for months. That's when my mindset switched. I went from having no faith in my writing abilities to feeling like I could tackle any story as long as I tried hard enough.

I know these are just silly little fics, but I experienced so much personal growth as well as growth in my writing abilities. I feel so grateful to this story for challenging me, showing me that I truly can write anything, and for loving me back.

Phrases I loved:

Sleep hovered beyond reach, pulling away at the sound of an owl, or wind, or someone shifting nearby.

Gravel made small scrapes against the bottoms of Ellie’s shoes, a repetitive sound growing just as familiar as the buzzing fans in her classrooms.

He had a stick up his ass—no a fucking log—and he’d called her cargo, like she was just one of their packs, like she hadn’t saved his sorry ass back in Kansas City.

Ellie knew how it felt when memories picked the side of the dead, hunting her down when she hid from them.

She was used to a sky that touched brick buildings, that stopped before it reached its horizon. The Nebraska sky was much greedier. It arched overhead and bent so low that it drank up the grass in the distance.

[consanguinitatum]

Random Thursday Thoughts

Random Thursday Thoughts is a thing I just made up, because it's Thursday, and because I have thoughts...and I'm super tired and still have to work while my brain has decided it's a grand idea to fuck off and take a holiday. So if you've ever wondered why my handle is consanguinitatum, there are two reasons:

I am a genealogist of 30+ years. I started doing it because I was spending time with my 90 yr old grandma (she'd lost my grandpa and was living alone and my parents lived far away, so 23-yr old me was responsible for checking in on her - we'd eat breakfast together and she'd pull out old tintype pics and tell stories and WOW! My history and research gene has always been strong!)

So a couple years later I was pregnant and on bed rest and bored, and my bestie had just given me a funky cool laptop for free (her company was updating theirs and she grabbed one of the older models for me). Keep in mind this was early 1993, my lovelies, so laptops were prohibitively expensive and heavy as hell. Mine was a Compaq and looked like this:

I could do genealogy on this thing called the internet. With BBS (bulletin boards). And AOL! And brrrrrrrrrr internet dial-up!

OH YEAH I WAS ROCKING!

So also I was (and am) a huge Monkees fan. And I'm particularly a fan of one of the Monkees, Michael Nesmith, who went on not only to have a highly influential solo career as a country-rock musician, he was also a pioneer of video music with PopClips and MTV.

And Michael has this brilliant song called "Propinquinity," and I loved it and needed to know what it meant. So I looked it up.

...."I've known of all the heartache And I've known of all the pain I've seen you when the sun shines And I've seen you when it rains

I've seen you make a look of love From just an icy stare I've known you for a long time But I've just begun to care

I know I've been blind To not have loved you all this time But the image of you wasn't clear I guess, I've been standing too near..."

Anyway, I decided I would take consanguinity ("the fact of being descended from the same ancestor") from genealogy, and propinquity ("the state of being close to someone or something; proximity") from Papa Nez's song, and blend them together.

And then I learned Latin had already done that for me:

So - Consanguinitatum I am!

[whatwooshkai]

⭐star⭐ now that second chance blues are over, tell us some stuff u wanted to talk abt!!!!

OHHHHHHH BOY

the whole plot point of "who actually put op here" went through 3 gazillion rewrites. the original version had it as primus being a sort of memelord who thought it was funny, shoving them together, but then I kind of kept reaching the conclusion that it was sort of manipulative and non-consenual? and if I was writing a darker story I would've leaned more into that, but I was writing a rom com so I really had to figure out a way to have that pay off in a good light, consistent with the fic's tone. I think I got it, though

for a while I toyed with the idea of the world being created specifically for optimus to have a second chance at life, but I didn't really want to delve into the morality of that, so we got what we got.

I decided to totally lean into the rom com idea of it, but second chance blues was almost something like a buddy cop film where megs and op worked together to try and finish the rom com to free the world of it's influence

[grumpyghostdoodles]

My body went from being passed out, only to rudely wake me up so that it could attempt to pass out again. Did not know that I could reach this level!

Last night, I woke up from intense menstrual cramps, and since im always on a 6-7 level in the pain scale, this added up one more level, so brain went "Nah love" and almost made me pass out from the pain. Cold sweat, vision blurring and darkening, shivering and thirsty, the whole package babes

I pat my own shoulder for keeping my bedside table stocked with meds, good job old me

My body keeps trying to kill me, but I'll keep scattering away like a cockroach every time! <3<3

[liquidstar]

Speaking of ocs (I say because I'm always thinking of them in my mind) I can't believe I didn't say it in the post but neptune being trans is partly a play on the phrase "trans neptunian object" lol

[stood-onthecliffside]

did i tell everyone how i had exile, hoax, this is me trying, mirrorball, my tears ricochet, happiness, coney island, dorothea and marjorie back to back on loop for weeks??

[barmadumet]

Pleas tell me about your PW AU!

WIP GAME

Omg not this one 🤭 Actually, I think you knew about this! Random idea for a Pretty Woman AU that came to me while watching the movie back in June. It strayed from the movie plot quite a bit, though. I had lots of ideas and wrote about 3k words one night, but never went back . . .Basically Anakin is a stripper (giggle), and one night he is leaving a bachelorette party dressed in a doctor costume. An intoxicated woman from the party follows him to the bus stop (heck, I would), and starts aggressively hitting on him. Obi-Wan has worked late at the Intergalactic Bank, and as he’s going to his car, he sees Anakin having a difficult time trying to politely dismiss the woman. HE ASSUMES ANAKIN IS A REAL DOCTOR, and goes over to help. He claims there is an injured bar patron down the street that needs medical attention, hoping to pull Anakin out of the bad situation. Ironically, a friend of the woman comes to intercept about the same time, keeping her from revealing that Anakin is not a real doctor. The two are left alone, and Anakin has missed the bus by this point, so he’s offered a ride home. Anakin doesn’t live in the city, so he declines…. And then the normally reserved and careful banker does something completely out of character and invites the intriguing young man to stay with him for the night; he’ll take him home in the morning when it’s not so late to make the long journey. 

Being the kind, sweet, brought-up-in-the-church boy he is, Anakin doesn’t want to be dishonest and tells Obi-Wan that he’s not a doctor almost right away. Now, Obi-Wan is silently panicking that he has a stripper in his car, but there’s no going back. But as Anakin gives him the short version of his difficult path, he can immediately see his goodness. He learns Anakin puts every penny he earns into fixing up a very modest home he owns in the suburbs that is in desperate need of repair. He has no family left and all he wants is to have a place that feels like a home - a sanctuary - a place to call his own. Ultimately, something will happen that makes the house inhabitable, and who do you think will offer the spare room in his city apartment indefinitely?

Cute, fun, and dramatic stuff would happen like Anakin falls in love with Obi-Wan’s cat (because he loves animals but can’t afford a pet). Obi-Wan will take Anakin to a work party as a “date.” Obi-Wan will open up about his estranged family who don’t agree with his life choices. Anakin's strong faith and positive outlook despite all he's been through in his short life, help Obi-Wan learn how to find joy through his own struggles.

I have NEVER been interested in AU until this idea randomly popped in my head. My philosophy was always if they aren't Jedi, I'm not interested. I honestly don't know how I became one of those obikins that can't watch a non Star Wars movie without thinking about an AU 😂 Shorty after beginning this work, I stumbled upon an AU called You're My Home by @stanakin96 and probably wouldn't have read it prior to this, and I'm so glad I did. So now I tag them for this game!

And thanks again for tagging me @justaminion ❤️And thank you for the ask!

[otlwoozi]

everyone being surprised abt my tags abt anan mag this is what my japanese friend sent me when i asked them abt it :D

[butchfalin]

the funniest meltdown ive ever had was in college when i got so overstimulated that i could Not speak, including over text. one of my friends was trying to talk me through it but i was solely using emojis because they were easier than trying to come up with words so he started using primarily emojis as well just to make things feel balanced. this was not the Most effective strategy... until. he tried to ask me "you okay?" but the way he chose to do that was by sending "👉🏼👌🏼❓" and i was so shocked by suddenly being asked if i was dtf that i was like WHAT???? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?????????? and thus was verbal again

[sylvies-kablooie]

i do unironically think the best artists of our generation are posting to get 20 notes and 3 reblogs btw. that fanfic with like 45 kudos is some of the best stuff ever written. those OCs you carry around have some of the richest backstories and worldbuilding someone has ever seen. please do not think that reaching only a few people when you post means your art isn't worth celebrating.

[yeah-yeah-beebiss-1]

in case you were wondering how things went down at the pokemon world championships this weekend:

-during the top 8 of the TCG masters division, chilean player fernando cifuentes was running a gimmick deck that consisted exclusively of four iron thorns ex and a whole ton of control-focused trainer cards in a strategy that either completely shuts down opponents or shits the bed entirely

-through skillful play and some good luck, fernando made it through 2 days in a tournament with over 1100 players to get to the quarterfinals

-fernando lost 2-0 to ian robb, who was running regidrago vstar (widely considered one of the best decks in the current format)

-in an overexuberant victory celebration, ian did what can only be described as a jacking-off gesture, on a stream with tens of thousands of viewers run by a company with very firm player conduct expectations

-the judges determined that this warranted a penalty of game loss, but for some reason, rather than applying it to ian’s next game in the semifinals, they applied it to the one he had just won in the top 8

-(it should be noted that the prize money for making top 8 is $15k while top 4 is $20k, so this jerking gesture cost ian robb $5,000)

-nearly an hour after fernando came to terms with his loss and the end of an impressive run, he was told that he was to get back on stream because he’s now playing in the semifinals due to winning by default

-the player he was up against in the semifinals was playing a deck (miraidon) that happens to get shut down hard by iron thorns’s gimmick, so fernando wins the semifinals

-said player, jesse parker, had notably had an undefeated run throughout the whole tournament up to this point, and likely would have continued that streak had his intended semifinal opponent not gotten a game loss penalty for miming a lewd act on stream

-meanwhile, the other semifinal winner is japan’s seinosuke shiokawa, running a deck (roaring moon) that players had largely written off as underwhelming months ago

-the grand finals are on the following day, so saturday evening was abuzz with a lot of people baffled by the absurdity of the situation

-come sunday afternoon, the grand finals are set to begin, with fernando cifuentes running iron thorns and seinosuke shiokawa running roaring moon

-it should be noted here that the roaring moon deck doesn’t rely very much on abilities, so iron thorns’s gimmick has very little effect - this is basically an even matchup

-fernando wins the first game of the set, and seinosuke wins the second

-the third and final game of the set is a bonafide cheek-clencher, with both players reaching a state where a single KO will win the game, but fernando manages to clinch it at the last minute

-and that’s the story of how a guy pretending to jork it led to the first instance of a pokemon world champion who also lost the quarterfinals