#Starting and finishing this in the first days of January was a big challenge

[midostree-art]

This is my piece for the Underworld fanzine hosted by @saintseiya-zone ! thank you so much for hosting and designing this beautiful zine!

[grac3333]

generations pt2

georgia stanway x reader

“aye wyls if you hug me any tighter i’ll pop” you laughed as the georgia’s younger brother wound his arms around you tightly.

“well sorry for missing you” he said sarcastically but still holding onto you.

it had been 2 months since you had seen him. the last time being while they were all at the airport seeing you off.

wyll unwound his arms from you as you reached out for the woman standing next to him.

“how’s germany treating you then hunny” g’s mum joanne had asked, hugging you just as tightly as wyll.

“it’s everything i hoped it would be” you replied with a smile thinking about the place that had quickly become home to you.

over the january transfer window of 2022 you had decided to make a big move over to germany. to bayern munich specifically. while at chelsea you had won everything there was to be won in england. you were ready for a change. a challenge. even though it meant leaving behind friends and family.

the city was lovely, the people were lovely and the girls at bayern were lovely.

you had slotted straight in with the team making such close friends over a short period of time.

but when for the first time in your life you had to live by yourself, you started to struggle. you were a social person who enjoyed the company of your friends so the second you felt like that, you were on a plane and back in the arms of your favourite people.

you had england camp soon so you used that as an excuse to come over earlier and drive down with g.

“oh i’m glad and you look gorgeous darling” joanne said beaming while holding you at an arms length. your cheeks flushed at the complement.

-

“wooooooo go g!” you screamed from your seat, standing up and clapping. you could have sworn that over the past months she had gotten fitter. a hand shot up and pulled you back down.

“oh god y/n all she did was pass the ball” he sighed and rolled his eyes at you.

“oi I’m being supportive cheer up” you grinned poking at his sides. you would never admit it out loud but wyll was your favourite out of g’s family and it was obvious he loved you as well.

“does she even know your here” he questioned and you shook your head in response, smiling. g thought you were coming over a day later but you were offered the earlier flight and took it. you had always loved watching g play. anyone could tell how she was in her element doing what she did best and it never failed to make you smile seeing her so content.

“is olly here?” you wondered a bitter taste in your mouth at his name, and you frowned on your own accord. the mother and son next to you shared a look at your facial expressions. your opinion on georgias boyfriend was clear from a mile off and even after spending too long with him in lockdown, the two of you just couldn’t get along.

“no he’s got training today don’t worry” wyll replied grinned and it was your turn to roll your eyes.

“what you grinning for” you swung your arm over his shoulders, your accent thickening on the words.

“nothing just don’t quit your day job for acting any time soon” he chuckled laughing at his own joke.

you frowned “what”

“it’s so obvious you don’t like him!” he exclaimed at you clearly not getting the hint.

you gasped pretending to take offence “i do like him!”

“the fact that your smiling right now tells me your lying” he teased pinching your cheeks while you swatted his hands away.

-

the game had finished 3-0 to city which of course you were buzzing about. the girls were doing their lap around as you made your way to the barrier. you were ready to launch yourself at g after far to long apart in your opinion (2 months).

georgia was chatting to keira, then two slowly toddling around.

“do they wanna walk any slower man” you huffed leaning on wyll.

“it’s not easy is it” he teased and you pinched his arm.

-

you giggled as fimilar arms entrapped you and the sent of a coconut shampoo, that you were very used to, flooded over you. you were quick to wrap your arms around her, pushing your face into her shoulder.

“what you are doing here!” she smiled brightly at you, breaking apart but still holing you.

“come to see my fav girl of course. kie come over here!” you pretended to call over kiera.

g gasped dramatically making you giggle at her and pull her in to another bone crushing hug.

“missed you” she mumbled against the skin of your neck.

you giggled in response (g always seemed to make you giggle) and hugged her tighter.

-

you decided to spend the afternoon at g’s house, the latter driving you back, not wanting to leave your side. the two of you spent the drive catching up after missing her much more that you were ready to admit.

“so germanys going well then” g asked eyes flicking from the road to you.

“oh georgie it’s gorgeous, everyone is dead nice and the girls have been so lovely to me” you gushed about the city that had grow on you.

“good love i’m glad you are happy. even if i wish it was closer” she said smiling at you, making you smile.

“i missed you g. so much” you said softly.

“it was only 2 months” she teased but you could tell she missed you just as much.

“i know but all of a sudden i live by myself and” you paused, never being good at talking about how you feel.

g took one had off the arm rest and laced your fingers together.

“i dunno it’s just lonely georgie and i’m not used to it” you sighed and she squeezed your hand.

“oh love i’m only ever a call away” she reminded, her thumb stroking the back of your hand.

your cheeks flushed at the small action. unfortunately for you, you were still hopelessly in love with your best friend, who currently had a boyfriend.

“thanks g i will definitely take you up on that” you smiled squeezing her hand.

“love you” she said making your heart skip a beat.

“love you more”

-

“no olly tonight” you asked subconsciously frowning while putting your plate in the dishwasher.

“nah we fought so he’s staying at a mates house tonight” she said sighing.

“oh babe do you wanna talk about it” you offered kissing the top of her head.

“well yeah cause there is somthing i wanna talk to you about as well” she said taking your hand and leading you into the living room, a frown forming between your brows.

the both of you settled on the sofa, g pulling your legs onto her lap and milo curling up on top of you.

“okay right what’s up g” you asked.

she reached her hand up to smooth out the frown with her thumb.

“my contract with city is ending and i don’t think i’m going to renew it” she admitted.

“oh my god”

“uh! i knew it! you think its a shit idea, nowhere else is going to want me-“ she stood up suddenly pacing around.

you stood up as well taking her hands and making her look at you.

“georgie no! i’m excited for you. and don’t say that i could name you about 50 clubs that would love to sign you” you sighed as the girl in front of you rested her forehead on your shoulder.

“so you think it’s a good idea?”

“no i think it’s a shit idea- of course i do you dickhead” you laughed and she flicked your ear at the comment.

“thank you” she mumbled and pressed a light kiss to your shoulder, making you so glad she couldn’t see you bright red cheeks right now.

“always”

-

part one here

thank so much for all the love and support on part one. I have so many ideas for this little series and can’t waittt. sorry this took so long to get out. thank youuuuu xx

[gaiaseyes451]

2024 Fic Roundup / AO3 Ask Game

Oi, so many tags! Thank you @nosferatini, @kotias and @cheeseplants!

What fandoms do you write in?

Good Omens

How many words have you published in 2024?

Not including collaborative works: 129,329. Good grief, that feels like a lot.

What is your greatest achievement this year?

Honestly, I'm proud of myself for writing to deadlines this year. A lot of my writing was for events and I'm always terrified I won't make it but I did! I also art'd for the first time for @the-literal-kj

What are your favourite top three fics you've written this year?

Ostinato - Pianist Crowley summons Aziraphale back from Heaven. This let me lean into my pianist background, I loved writing this for the High Pollen Count event.

Breathless - The breath play kink fic that was never planned but @sixbynine-da demanded. I've never had a scene flow out of me like this and it isn't angst!

A Little Life - My first long fic. Folks say it's sad and it is, but to me it also... isn't... Forever indebted to @fuzzygoblin for the music prompt for the Good Omens Song and Poetry exchange and for gamely agreeing despite all the trigger warnings (before they knew it was me writing it). <3

What was your biggest pit of despair moment?

Truthfully, I'm in my lowest point of the year right now. Haven't written a word since finishing Breathless. But I've got amazing friends in this community who have my back. I'll be okay.

What have you learned?

Tell the story you want to tell. Better to write for yourself and the handful of people the story will resonate with than to force a story you think will appeal to the masses. If it's pulling at you, it's pulling for a reason.

Reach out to your idols, I've yet to find one of the people I perceive as BNF's to be anything but kind and encouraging.

I'm pretty sure I can HTML just about anything with a general guide now.

What fic did you want to do but never made it off the ground?

I still have a roughly 20k draft of 1941 that I wanted to finish. It needs to be rewritten, but I will finish it.

Did you beta any fics? Any favs you want to shout out?

I beta for a lot of folks! I'm going to miss people, I'm so sorry. @adverbian's Is This Desire?

@kneelbeforeyourdogbabylon's Sins of Knowledge

@sixbynine-da's A Tricky Situation

@spectrallydistracted's If I Loved You Less ... We Could Have Coffee

Most everything by @the-literal-kj and @hakunahistata but particularly KJ's Show the Way and Haku's 21 Grams

What three fics have you read this year that you love?

Someone is Calling Him Shorewards by @harlotofupdog - The first fic that made me break my "I don't read WIPs" rule. Gorgeous and atmospheric and sexy and heartwrenching and mysterious. I don't know how I got the title of angst queen in our little group when Harlot wrote Shorewards.

Quite Contrary by @gingiekittycat - Poor Gingie has listened to me write honest to someone literary analysis of this fic as well as beg for multiple historical prequels. This one lives rent free in my head and will for a long time.

Play for Me the Music of Your Heart by @leviosally - There is one chapter left to go that I (and everyone else) am waiting for with baited breath, but now is a perfect time to start a read if you haven't yet. This is, in my opinion, the quintessential musician AU written by someone with a deep love and understanding of music. Spellbinding.

What ideas are percolating for next year?

@the-literal-kj and I are already working on our Heaven before the Fall story that we've been calling Bitter Things! The other big fic I'd like to get out is a Human AU where Peter Pan collides with Peaky Blinders. And, in January, expect.... wait for it... fluff

Who do you want to thank?

@hakunahistata, @the-literal-kj and @adverbian - You three cheer and challenge and cackle and cry and you make things better, both my writing and my day to day life. I'm grateful for you as beta's and I'm humbled to call you my friends.

@kneelbeforeyourdogbabylon, @dbacklot99 and @sixbynine-da - Y'all are the first real collaborators I've worked with on an as of yet unspoken project. I have so enjoyed working with you three and also becoming friends! Thank you for the randomness and the wonderful angst spirals and that utterly AMAZING Lucicrow birthday gift - Changing Keys

@goodomensafterdark community and all the wonderful folks who are following me here or have taken the time to kudos and/or comment on my work. Seeing what y'all create and hearing from you brightens my day immensely! I'm so grateful for this amazing, welcoming, exuberant fandom!

No pressure tags: I have no idea who hasn't been tagged yet, if you're mentioned above please take it as a tag. If you see this and want to play, please do and tag me!

[thevikingwoman]

AO3 Year End Roundup 2024

Tagged by @myreia and @galadrieljones, thank you friends!!

Tagging: I am even later, but let me tag @roguelioness @redinkofshame @wickedwitchofthewilds @astrology-bf @superfluouskeys

@galadae @buttsonthebeach

—Words posted: 34,520 (including the ffxivwrite2024 pieces I didn't get together to post to ao3 until today, but it was up on tumblr in sept!)

—Additional Words Written: Unknown! My words written counter is a little less than this, as some of the works posted was started in 2023 or earlier.

—Grand total of words: My counter says around 28,500 written in 2024

—Fandoms: FFXIV, Wayfarer, Dragon Age Inquisition (AU)

—Works: 17 (inlcuding ffxivwrite2024 anothology)

—Highest Kudos: Casual Fun (Dragon Age solavellan, explicit). Not really a big surprise that a major pairing in a large fandom with lots of writer love beat out my rare pairs in a fandom with less writing/reading focus.

—Highest Hit One-shot: Also Casual Fun

—New Things I Tried: I did ffxivwrite for the first time, and it was a ton of fun! I've done a prompt/day challenge before, but this was the first one where the prompts are not known before hand. I didn't do all days, but the ones that spoke to me, and it was great! it was my most productive month.

I also wrote explicit m/m for the first time in To the Victor, the Spoils (FFXIV Magnai/Hien, explicit). I can't believe I did before, but I haven't. I was quite pleased with it!

—Fic I Spent the Most Time On: The Lovers (Meryta/Tansui, explicit). This fic is listed as "relationship talk" in my tracking sheet, and it's something I worked on intermittently from January to May - and it's been in my mind longer.

It was really important to me to write how Meryta's and Tansui's relationship changes. It's a physical fling first that grows, and I wanted to have an honest and mature conversation about exclusivity that worked in the world. And to stay true to their cheeky and teasing nature. I'm really pleased with the Xaela lore I weaved in along with both how intense Tansui feels about it, their different approaches to a relationship (Meryta is demi-romantic) and also their playfulness (it started as a silly thought, which is how they always behave in my head). It meant a lot to me and it took a lot of work; I actually went and wrote part of their conversation from both their POVs to figure out what was going on.

—Fic I Spent the Least Time On: Stamp, which I've not even counted in my ao3 count, since it's so silly, not canon, and not going on ao3.

For published fics, Casual Fun, since it was finishing something that was a few years old for "finish your WIP February" and I just cleaned it up and wrapped in up in 3 days (short for me!)

—Favourite Thing I Wrote: This is a very hard question! I did love writing The Lovers, and my Hien/Magnai fics, and all my Meryta/Tansui fics - they're just ughghgh to me.

but I think my favorite things was actually Choices, which is a Meryta introspective Shadowbringers piece - it's short and deals with the lack of agency and the Exarch and all the feelings she's going through in the story. I just really loved fleshing this out.

—Favorite Thing I Read: I'm going to be extremely selfish and say Familiar Shores by @myreia, your wrote my blorbos and you wrote them so well and I'm just SO happy reading it.

otherwise, I read many great things - I love all of what @myreia writes, and I had other fun things I read, like see me bare my teeth for you by meepfather, such a lovely and wellwritten piece and I love the aura head canons.

I also re-read @ellstersmash's nothing on my tongue for the umpteenth time, a perpetual favorite

—Something I Finished: I tend to write one-shots, so I finished many things! I love writing one shots, and it's much easier for me to write a moment than a story arch. I started out 2024 by finishing Solace and Breakfast, which really was the groundwork for all my Meryta/Tansui fics, and the productivity I had this year

—Miscellaneous Highlights: My word count was pretty typical for a "productive" year for me, and I'm glad I found footing in writing ffxiv and Meryta - along with Hien and Magnai. I have not been writing much since my interest in writing Dragon Age tapered off, Iwyn settled with Solas in my mind. I was excited to pick up writing more again!

I also tracked my writing and tried to write every day. it did fall apart in the summer, and after October, but overall it's a good goal to have, and I'll pick it up again (next week. hehe).

I'm also really happy to revisit my Wayfarers for a small Wayfarer event, I love them and the story so much!

Lastly, I was very happy to write a small piece for @myreia, I do love writing gift fics, but it's also a bit nervewrecking writing other people's characters. Meryta-as-an-adventurer was fun to visit and how she'd see Aureia!

—Writing Goals for 2025:

I want to write more Meryta. I love her, and there's lots to fill out. I started and outlined a multichapter of her time on the Steppe in Stormblood - as this turned out so important for her. I do hope to get to write more on it.

I also have more Tansui and Meryta ideas, and I am SO close to finishing Endwalker - I want to flesh out how their relationship develops during that time. in addition, I think I'll try to do @yearoftheotpevent! I'm excited for the prompts.

I would love to do ffxivwrite again, and I'd love to revisit my Wayfarers. Then I will probably play veilguard, and who knows if that will make me return to Dragon Age.

—Final Thoughts:

I really like being a multifandom, and multiship writer. While right now 80% of my brain is Meryta and Tansui, it's so fun to have other things to explore. I have a half-written estimeric piece, I have more Hien and Magnai ideas...

I think I'm still struggling with writing a rarepair and ffxiv's lack of writer engagement, but I will carry on and forward and remember the joy writing bring me in it's self - and the dear people reading my writing 💚

[femslashfeb]

HELLO ALL

TLDR

No reblogging from the blog this year - posting prompts tomorrow the 31st

For the past few years I've very much struggled with reblogging everyone's activity in the tag. So this year I will not be doing so.

(OR maybe I will? I just don't want to commit)

Even if I knew how to make a bot that reblogs - a lot of people still use the unique tag to tag outside challenges. So I've always had to hand submit. However it became too stressful for me and for the past few years I ended up avoiding it until later weeks or even months.

If you noticed I didn't finish reblogging last year so- I've just given up on that.

Honestly I've struggled a lot with depression for the last 7 years or so. It's been harder and harder to find my way back to tumblr. It doesn't help that my phone can barely handle the amount of apps it already has.

My main account @puff-pink hardly ever updates because of my big sad. And I don't know if I'll ever get back on the horse in the same way I did before.

Some of you know me as an artist, and tho I still churn out subpar art for my day-job I've struggled a lot to make art for myself during my depression. Partially because one year I overworked my hand - and still deal in continual wrist aches. Even the weeks I don't pick up a drawing tool.

I intended this challenge for myself and maybe the small fandoms I was in at the time. But it took off among writers and creators of all types across all fandoms.

One year I even tried to tally the most popular fandoms but there were honestly too many to keep track of- and I stopped after the first three pages of submissions.

I don't claim to have invented the concept of FemSlash February. Before I started the prompts I swear I had heard the phrase somewhere. Tho not sure where. Perhaps it had been amongst my friends on Skype. Back when I had online friends and Skype(I'm still not sold on Discord🤷‍♀️).

However that January I thought it would be fun to partake in a challenge of some kind. But scouring tumblr and the general internet. I could only find half hearted efforts on fanfiction sites from years past.

I'm so proud of all my Sapphic creators on here that have partaken every year. Even if I've never shown favoritism or awarded anyone. I do notice those that actually complete the challenge AND those that keep coming back each year(looking at you H20 writer(I don't remember your username but there's a mermaid writer that's a writing machine)). I truly am proud of you especially in my shriveled state of creativity. Thank you for your efforts. For your hype. And for your love of women of all kinds across all the universes.

Each year I'm surprised to find even more categories I never thought to include. From mood boards, to doll photography, to ofc the classic art and writing. May your pencils forever be in union with your sister mediums.

On that note. There is a strict NO AI GENERATED ART or writing this year.

Not that I could physically stop anyone who does use AI. But I do not want that sort of thing associated with this challenge. It's become scarily good in 2023 to the point it can't always be identified. So I simply ask for the honor system when it comes to AI generated creations.

That being said. If you've made it to the end of this post:

Prompts will be posted tomorrow.

I usually prefer to give yall more of a buffer, but I've been busy. Both with Big Sad, rescuing some feral cats, my own life, errands, chores and work.

If you're still here- here is a preview of the first three days.

FEB 1 - black

FEB 2 - spring

FEB 3 - cake

The 14th as usual will be some sort of Valentine romance type theme(haven't decided specifically yet) and as always there will be a Rest Day.

Expect some repeat prompts. In the past I tried to avoid them but idc anymore.

It's also a Leap Year this year so expect one extra prompt to throw off the symmetry of what's normally 28 days.

Thanks for coming back this year. And thank you to those that still check on this blog.

❤️🧡🤍💜🩷

Keep loving girls

-PuffPink

[moonfromearth]

My Top 24(-ish) Screenshots of 2024!!

Thank you so much for the tag @salemssimblr!! I thought I wouldn't even find 24 screenshots to post but turns out I had more than I thought 😅

January

Me Before Looking Through Archive: I haven't been playing or posting that much so nothing really changed in 2024.

Me After Looking Through Archive: What do you mean Thunder was still a foal in January?? 😨

So this is about when I realized that I had done more during the year than I thought 😆 This tag was actually really good because I've felt bad about how little I did but looking back we actually made a lot of stuff and now I'm happy! 🥰

February

February was a slower month (and about when I started stalling on a big HR edit that didn't get posted until the end of the year 😆😅).

However, I did finished these sims to submit to @bunnithechubs and @butteredfrogs and I still think they're adorable.

March

I was so sad because I thought I didn't do anything with Corey this year but I forgot about the trading cards I can't believe that was just in 2024!! 🤩🤩

Credits to @squea and @butteredfrogs for the challenge and template it was a highlight of my year. So much fun to see everyone's cards and I learned some new editing tricks making them that helped me later in the year 😉

April

I made up the entire cast of the book I was writing that month (to procrastinate working on said book) and I'm so proud of how each of them turned out! Originally I had all of them in here but I ran out of image space so I had to narrow it down 😢

Anyway, the two on the left are the main characters and they look exactly like they do in my head which is so cool. Also the other character on the right turned out awesome. This year I downloaded a lot of wrinkle details to make better adult/elder sims and they look so good I'm so happy with them now and I've even gotten better at using them throughout the year than even here (sorry that was long lol).

May

Thank you again @havenroyals for putting together the simblr MET gala because it produced some of my best screenshots of the year!! 🤩 It was my first time experimenting with deco sims which was fun and I had an amazing time dressing my sims to theme. And giving them after party looks was the best.

Seeing everyone's sims attending the event was just such a good time and a great moment in the community this year 🥰

June

I almost forgot about the music tag that went around this month and these have to be some of my best of the year 😆 It's some of the most editing I've done and I love how they turned out!! These two especially were the best because they translated from concept to actuality so perfect and I can't wait to actually post the stories they're from 🥰🥰

(there are too many good screenshots from this month I didn't even get to the Edgewave submission!! 😭)

July

July I had several sim submissions I did, but this sim for @thebramblewood is my favorite! I finally got to use some of the historical cc that I download once in a while, plus her cane and personality were so clear and I love her (also the post she featured in was amazing thanks again bramblewood!!).

August - September

I moved during August and apparently forgot how to post because it took me forever to get back into it (and I'm still working on consistently posting but that's a problem for 2025 😆).

October

October is my favorite month for posts because of my beloved Slashed challenge by @folkling. I'm too much of a baby to even watch slasher films but these are some of my favorite characters and I have so many scenes with them that I will finally make one day!!

Unfortunately I couldn't fit all of their 2024 makeovers here, so just a few favorites. Carrie our final girl is iconic as always. Her design has been so consistent since I made her the first time with only a few upgrades in skin/blood details. Also Keaton the hunter got a major glow up from his first edition, which I liked the concept of but wasn't in love with the execution of. And Alicia is still one of my favorites she's so cool 😆

Also included is my experiment with my Rose gen sim from the Not So Berry Challenge in a move that re-inspired me to work on the challenge again (coming some time in 2025 😉). I literally went into cas just to put her in these two cc outfits and got totally invested in going back to the challenge 🤣

November

I finally decided to make myself finish the screenshot retakes I'd been putting off since January and I'm so happy with how they came out. So much had to get done for those scenes, from building the competition grounds from scratch, to retaking the screenshots three times, to editing this article about our favorite mysterious benefactor (who I can't wait to write more of)!!

Even though there's some things I'm still not totally happy with, I'm so glad I finally posted it, and proud of the skills I've learned over the year that made it possible (like the trading cards, which taught me new editing tricks that I used in this and some future websites and articles that you'll see next year 😉😉).

December

Aaaaand theres's nothing except this for December (oops 😅).

This reflection actually turned a bit into a gratitude post because I tagged so many people who used my sims or who's challenges I loved (sorry hopefully that wasn't annoying!!). Given how little I worked on my actually gameplay/story this year, it was the challenges made by other talented people here that really kept me involved with the community, and who made all of the creative screenshots I took this year possible. So, thank you to the simblr community for another amazing year (I'd list you all individually but I'd run out of space 😆).

Anyway, a final thank you to anyone who read this, which turned out way longer than it was supposed to be, and turned into a vent about how happy I am that I had more screenshots than I thought (seriously thought I'd only have two months filled in I posted so much more than I expected 😭).

Happy holidays to anyone celebrating and see you next year! ❤️

[hardearnedwisdom]

I am Profoundly excited for Dragon Age: The Veilgaurd.

TL;DR—Dragon Age: The Veilgaurd coming out is very big for me personally, and this is why.

I remember the first time I played a Dragon Age game. The year was 2014, I was obsessed with The Sims 4, and my dad was helping me set something up on my computer. He insisted that we check in Origin, EA’s infamous game launcher, had any free games. That day, the free game was Dragon Age: Origins. Now, when I first played Dragon Age: Origins, I was nine years old and never made it past the Dalish Rouge backstory and tutorial.

That same year, my dad got his prized PlayStation 4. I remember holding the sleek black controller, controlling the second player avatar for Knack, and feeling the haptic feedback for the first time. I was astounded that this was something that was possible with gaming. I felt like I was a part of the world.

At some point, my dad got Dragon Age: Inquisition. I remember him telling me about the hole in the sky that you needed to close, and how that was just the beginning of your story. I was instantly intrigued. I made my first inquisitor, a Dalish Elf Rouge named Lyme, and never got past the tutorial.

Flash forward a couple of years to December of 2018. I’m fourteen, it’s winter break, and three weeks prior I had been dumped. I didn’t know what to do with myself, and so I decided to pick up the PlayStation remote and take on the world I had been thinking about for years but had never had the time—or skill—to explore. That December, I spent hours exploring the Hinterlands, battling dragons on the storm coast, and making alliances. After my first heartbreak, I found solace in Solas, the kind elf who liked my inquisitor—and by extension, me—for my wit and intelligence. January came too soon, and I had to put down the controller and return to the frightening world of middle school.

I changed schools for High School, and the world shut down the spring of my freshman year. I found myself coming back to gaming and fantasy RPG’s to escape the world around me and connect with friends and family. I started playing World of Warcraft with my dad and my friends, and I came back to Inquisition. I moved from the PlayStation to the PC, and I had to start the game over again, but I didn’t mind. It just gave me an excuse to stay in Thedas for longer. My inquisitor, Elvera Levellan, embodied the strength, grit, and intelligence that I needed to channel during such a difficult and confusing time. I found myself falling again for the quiet elf, siding with the mages, and immersing myself in the intrigue of the conflict occurring around me.

Solas was everything I wanted from a boyfriend when I was younger. He was kind, flirted with his wit, kissed passionately, he took things slow, and danced with me at the ball. I was gutted when he left my inquisitor. Years prior I had projected my heartbreak onto him, naively thinking that there was no way this nerdy elf would break my heart. Boy was I wrong.

I finished the base game after one hundred and twenty hours of playtime, and I saved the DLC for hard moments in my life when I needed to return to Thedas. The last time I was in Thedas was in the spring of 2021 when I finished Trespasser. I don’t recall the decisions I made regarding the fate of the Inquisition or who became the divine, but I remember Iron Bull's betrayal, and how my heartache and need to find Solas through the Elluvians mirrored that of my inquisitor. We both needed answers. We both wanted closure. I was angry and hurt and mad at an egg for gods sake.

In my life's most challenging moments, I have looked to Elvera--my inquisitor—for strength to borrow. From getting molds taken of my mouth at the orthodontist (an experience which I hate) to comforting a friend on their deathbed, she has been a source of strength, a suit of armor to don in my most vulnerable moments when I cannot falter. That strength looks different in a dentist's chair and on a deathbed, but It is strength nonetheless.

Needless to say, I am so excited to return to Thedas in thirty days. Every week for the past several years, I had done a quick Google search for “Dragon Age 4”, desperate for news of the next installment. I always felt a pang of disappointment each time I found that there was no news, but I never gave up hope. I delayed travel plans this summer so that I could watch the first gameplay demo with my dad this summer.

The Dragon Age series, and Inquisition in particular hold such a special place in my heart. They were part of my introduction to gaming, and you never forget your first games. They brought me comfort and an escape from the world when I felt as if a hole had been blown in our sky. The characters have lent me strength when I have needed it most.

I cannot wait to create my Rook and explore Tevinter. I can only hope that my inquisitor can finally get the closure that we both need. I am excited to fall in love with Dragon Age and Thedas all over again.

[amtrak12]

AO3 Wrapped: 2024 Edition!

I did this last year and it's been really fun comparing my 2024 stats to my 2023 ones. So let's get started! :D

Note: I won't link directly to my own fics because... I'm lazy :P But here's my AO3 profile if you're interested in a fic mentioned here. Others' works, though, will be linked.

Overall Stats:

Works Published: 21 (😱) plus 10 new chapters of my WIP (shockingly, not a record for me. 2016 and Ghostbusters still holds the title in this category.)

Word Count: 107,567 (new personal record!)

Kudos: 1770 (also a new personal record, but Lucifer is a much bigger fandom than I've ever written for before)

Hits: 31,177 (probably a record for the same reason the Kudos was, but who knows lol)

... apparently I included bookmarks and subscriptions last year, but I didn't write down how many of those were for my ongoing WIP. So I can't say for sure how many new bookmarks and work subscriptions I got in 2024. Ah well. Those numbers fluctuate up and down anyway. The stats above are static, so we'll stick with those.

Individual Work Stats:

*I will be excluding my ongoing WIP "Can We Keep Her". Even if you subtract the metrics it racked up in 2023, it would still top every category again this year and that's boring lol So, newly published in 2024 fics only for this section.

Most Popular by Kudos: Partners in Wing (Lucifer, my first COMPLETED soulmate AU!) with 196

Most Hits: also Partners in Wing with 1652

Longest: Partners in Wing at 17,032 -- okay so it's still a sweep, but at least it's not a Can We Keep Her sweep again :P

Shortest: Fair Play (Warehouse 13), a double drabble (200 words) I did for the Seasons of Drabbles Exchange this summer.

Most Comments: Partners in Wing with 21

In the Community:

Gifts: I gifted three fics during the Seasons of Drabble Exchange, summer round (including my first pinch hit!! 😄) and was gifted one fic during the same event.

Collaborations: I planned a fic challenge and Comment Fest with the Lucifer Discord for the January anniversary of the show's premiere. I'm excited for both! I also pulled together a masterlist of fanworks for Lucitober (an October Lucifer event), if that counts as a collaboration. I feel like it should.

Events: Seasons of Drabble Exchange summer round and Lucitober. I also wrote a fic for International Fanworks Day in February and wrote three fics for AO3's 14th Anniversary Prompt Challenge in November. Big event year for me! And also a new personal record! I can write to deadlines and prompts now, you guys 😁

AO3 Milestones Reached (All Years Stats):

1000 comment threads

1000 bookmarks

100,000 hits

7000 kudos

New Fandom - MASH

Reading:

Fics that made me cry:

OldDog9 wrote a Lucifer time travel fic ("Universum Turbato") while I was on medical hiatus in the spring because they missed reading my time travel fic that much 😭 I was so touched!

"My Baby Just Cares for Me" by @cassiopeiasara (Athena/Bobby, 911) I mean, I guess I was still sobbing from watching Athena Begins rather than her fic, but it is the perfect coda to that ep. 12/10, do recommend 💜

Fics that made me smile:

The Hanged Man by ash_madrone (Bering and Wells, Warehouse 13) -- I finally got around to reading this! I remember being super intrigued by the summary during the Bering and Wells Big Bang, and it did not disappoint! I thoroughly enjoyed both the fic and just reading B&W again, in general. Good times.

"A swan and a pistol" by echidnoodle (Olivia/Alex, Law and Order: SVU) -- HNNGG!! I subbed to the author after I stumbled across their incredible Olivia/Barba fic. When I noted (approvingly) the hint of a past Olivia/Alex relationship in there, the author told me they actually had a partially written Olivia/Alex fic. "Maybe I should go back and finish that" -- AND THEN THEY DID! Or wrote an entirely different one from scratch, idk. EITHER WAY I WON THE FIC LOTTERY THIS YEAR! I legit screamed when that AO3 email came through. 🤩

And now I've cherry-picked some questions from this AO3 wrapped ask game to answer, but I'm putting them under the cut so this post doesn't become too unwieldy for your dash.

#5 - What work of yours got more feedback than you expected?

Should Have Been a Peacock (Warehouse 13) -- I wrote this, totally spur of the moment, during AO3's anniversary prompts, and I thought I'd get maybe 2 comments, like I got for my WH13 drabbles over the summer. Wrong! I GOT SIX ENTIRE COMMENTS!! 😱 We were all missing silly warehouse antics apparently. :') It made me super happy, and it actually inspired me to try and write more WH13 fics this year.

#6 - Favorite title you used

Credible Death Threats Are Usually a Turn-Off (Lucifer) -- I just love that Lucifer named their episodes after lines of dialogue. It lets me do some really silly things with my own fic titles XD

#9 - Favorite pairing you wrote for this year?

Romantic relationship, I most enjoyed writing Bering and Wells. It just felt so damn good to revisit Warehouse 13 again after nearly a decade away! Platonic relationship, I most enjoyed writing Trixie & Lucifer. They never fail to make me laugh. :P

#10 - What work was the quickest to write?

Ooo, toss-up between Pennies on the Dollar and As Per the Rules (both for Lucifer). Both were inspired by prompts and I wrote and posted both within hours of seeing those prompts. Like, I'm not talking the same day here. I mean within the same evenings. And you know what? They both actually hold up.

Oh crap, Still Clothes in Play was also written and posted in a matter of hours. So, I have THREE impulse fics from 2024. Still Clothes in Play was written in a desperate attempt to rid the Pierce ick from my mind since I didn't have any brain bleach on hand 🤢 It's not as good as my other impulse fics, but the title makes people click on it more often so I've nicknamed it my catfishing fic lol

#15 - What WIP are you taking into next year with you?

The same one I started 2024 with: Can We Keep Her 😩 I hope to god I don't have to drag it along into 2026 too, but I'm also too wise to declare finishing it as one of my 2025 goals. If it happens this year, great. If it doesn't, well... fine! 😩 We'll just keep trudging along with it.

#17 - Your favorite character to write this year?

Trixie (Lucifer) delights me so much. I always have fun writing her. Though toddler Rory (Lucifer) is also fun at times, and it felt really good to write my boy Pete (WH13) again too.

#18 - The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year?

Maze (Lucifer) 😩 Man, her POV scenes gave me so much grief this year. One day, I'll get better at them, but that day was not in 2024.

#19 - What's one pairing you want to explore next year?

I'm treating this as new pairings, so for writing that's Dan/Charlotte (Lucifer). Really, I just want to write any Charlotte fic. That's definitely on my 2025 goals. Reading, I'd love to finally check out Wednesday/Enid fic. I keep meaning to, but I'm not really reading any fic lately so I haven't gotten around to it yet. Also now that I'm caught up on 911, I'd love to go read the rest of @cassiopeiasara's 911 fic and then maybe branch out into the Maddie/Chimney tag. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ We'll see.

#30 - Biggest surprise while writing this year?

Learning I can write to deadlines for fic events????? That seemed like it came out of nowhere! And it's super shocking given my past history of either panicking and writing absolute garbage or having to back out of an event. I give the credit to my WIP. It's super long and wants to kill me, but it's also given me a TON of practice at finding 'the end' because I've had to write so many scenes. Maybe I'm still struggling to reach the overall end of that epic-length story, but it did make the shorter stuff feel super easy! 😜

[iantimony]

2024 year in review - roundup style, plus bonus graphs!

we're so back! doing things in a slightly different order than last year: first, reviewing the 2024 resolutions.

--> get back on a regular workout schedule: swimming 1x a week, weights once or twice a week. would like to try and work towards my One Pullup goal again. would also be cool to try and work towards a hand/headstand. Ha Ha. yeah. no. did not do great with this one. definitely did a non-zero amount of exercise but I probably averaged about 1 gym visit a week, if that. I think I am going to add a "working out" section to next year's weekly roundup, right now I've been posting that on dreamwidth under my 'gains' tag but I think slapping it in the weekly roundup will help a lot. I've been doing a lot more yoga than normal in December so I would like to keep that going in the new year - I paid for down dog last summer and have actually used it which is good, and I'm doing their 'every day January' challenge thingy so that should be a good place to start. realistically after January I will not do yoga Every Day but I bet I can make it happen 2x a week. more on that in the 2025 resolutions section.

--> try and be more mindful. i'm going to continue the grief therapy but also think about meditating more, doing more yoga, and so on. I got ghosted by my grief therapist at the end of January lol <3 and was quite bad about meditating and journaling especially this year - in 2023 I was really good about regularly journaling and I think it was really good for me but that fell off almost entirely this year.

--> there's a gallery on main street that solicits work from local artists for bimonthy themed exhibitions and i really want to submit at least one thing to it this year! the one due by end of january is themed 'florals', and the one two months after that is 'layers', so i'd really like to submit something to one of those. weeps cries throws up. I didn't even submit to the artists' choice show for December. I should have though - I peeked in the gallery and based on the caliber of work. I absolutely would have made it in. Oh well.

--> more weird art! use that big canvas i bought in literally 2022! paint!!! did essentially Zero painting this year besides some watercolor in a travel journal, Ha Ha. did not do anything particularly weird or fun.

--> finally put together that travel journal from korea & japan (and also scrapbook-ify the papers i have leftover in a pile from that) also did not do this :'D I DID work on my travel journal for England somewhat though.

--> also, maybe do current scrapbook a little different? might need a new binder at the very least. kind of! I did portion off the current binder into just 2021-2022, I have separate 2023 and 24 events in chronological binder sleeves but now that those years are done I think it would be cool to do them in a more traditional book format.

--> hang up that expensive quilt i bought in august IT IS STILL IN A PLASTIC BAG IN MY CLOSET …. however, I DID move into my own place this summer, and my boyfriend is going to help me hang it up in January when he's visiting after the holidays, so. it wasn't done but it's imminent.

--> speaking of quilt: do some hand quilting, english paper piercing! i have so much fucking fabric! did do some of this! have not finished that exact project but I did do some of it! I also have done a lot of Thinking about fabric projects which I know doesn't count but it has been marinating is all I'm saying.

--> find a new apartment to move into that hopefully won't suck! completed! only sucked a little bit to do, and the actual apartment itself is good, if a little dire in terms of insulation!

--> try to secure some sort of summer internship or project that will let me develop some new skillsets that i might not be getting with my current research this failed for last summer but I learned a lot from the process and am very optimistic about this coming summer.

--> finish the masters degree did do this!

--> write…a paper? for the work i just presented??? did not do this! it's complicated! big pain in the ass!

--> keep tweaking neocities and make some more pages basically didn't touch neocities at all this year.

--> keep track of recipes this year as well in my making section this was a success!

i might start a little spreadsheet this year to keep better track of all my stuff because i really did Not want to go through all my separate listening and reading sections and extract what i liked the most, etc. this post required me to first back up a few extra early tuesdayposts from this year to dreamwidth, and then skim all of them to accumulate the above, and that was kinda a pain. and i love an excuse to start a new spreadsheet. I did not actually MAKE the spreadsheet til December but fucking whatever I did do it. and it was great.

of those roughly 15 notes, if I am very generous in what I count as a success, I accomplished about 7 of them! about a 50% success rate implies to me that I was a little too ambitious. this was a 2023 not 2024 resolution but I did partake in bandcamp Friday this year also so that's fun!

now. THE DATA. there is a part of me that really, really wants to whip out some old bokeh macros to sexy-ify this data. that could be fun to host on neocities and/or my real-name website as an example of my data viz prowess. but for now, google sheets plots will suffice. they are not very accessible (color blindness, etc) unfortunately.

behold! a bar chart! this data isn't necessarily 100% correct or perfect, some of these numbers are deffo estimates.

listening: saw more live music this year for sure - saw Haken, St. Vincent, ELO, and Sammy Rae live and they all slapped. lots of podcasts, even more music. April doing some heavy lifting there due to the spotify algorithm playlists, especially the release radar but also other miscellaneous generated playlists.

my bigass 2024 playlist!

reading: I THINK I read significantly less AO3 this year but I read a lot of other articles and a few books! notables were Bunny (bad) and The Left Hand Of Darkness (good) (which I think mirrors last year, which was also [modern lit book] bad [ursula le guin] good if I recall right)

watching: more youtube in the second half of the year than the first. something about background noise maybe.

playing: largely dnd with a smattering of video games and magic the gathering.

making: mostly pottery with some fiber art in there.

eating: yay recipes :-) adding this section was a roaring success. considering compiling a 'favs of 2024' pdf to distribute. should be pretty easy to do so stay tuned for that.

misc: finished masters degree! saw the eclipse in April! became a member of my local temple this year! england/scotland trip!

the 2025 goals!

once again: workout routine! setting this at 1 day of cardio, 1 day of yoga/adjacent, and 1 day of weights per week. this feels sustainable. would like to make it through the yoga every day down dog challenge for January.

reintegrate journaling into my day-to-day.

clean up some digital clutter; organize photos and files, empty..my tumblr likes …… [80k posts]

generally move away from perfectionist tendencies (in writing/journaling (feeling compelled to record Everything), painting, etc)

submit to the gallery on main street for real this time

finish the travel journals

learn some quilting

get back into neocities! maybe start crossposting these on there?

read like...10 books this year

pass my prelim exams ;_;

onwards and upwards. good night and good luck. here's to 2025 :-)

[wrestlingisfake]

G1 Climax night 1 preview

This is the opening night of New Japan's annual heavyweight singles tournament. This year's format involves twenty men, divided into two blocks of ten. Over the next month, each participant will have one match against each of the other nine men in his block. The goal is to have the best win-loss record among your block.

The top three in each block advance to a knockout stage on July 15 and 17. This is a pretty big change that I'm excited about, because it means more wrestlers will be mathematically alive much later in the block stage. Basically it'll be #2 vs. #3, for the right to face #1, to decide the block winner. Finally, on July 18, the winner of A Block meets the winner of B Block, with the winner earning a trophy, a flag, and the right to challenge the IWGP world champion on January 4, at Wrestle Kingdom in the Tokyo Dome.

A Block: Tetsuya Naito vs. Shingo Takagi - Naito regained the IWGP world title a couple of weeks ago in New York; the title is not at stake throughout the tournament. If Naito wins the G1, he'd earn the right to choose the challenger for Wrestle Kingdom, but I don't expect that to happen. On the other hand, if anyone beats Naito during the tournament, they'll likely get a title shot within the next couple of months, and I definitely see that happening.

Naito won the tournament in 2013, 2017, and 2023. Takagi's personal best is 7-2-1, which would probably be good enough to get out of the blocks this year. This is only the second time these two have met one-on-one; Naito won their last encounter.

Star power aside, the big draw here is that Naito and Shingo are members of the same faction, Los Ingobernables de Japon. I don't expect any dissension in the ranks, but they're also not going to go easy on each other. Takagi's whole style is to clobber the fuck out of dudes, which is a problem when Naito has been visibly banged up for years. The most exciting finish would be for Shingo to score a bit of an upset over his leader, the world champion. But I can't really see them running this match back in September, so I'm picking Naito to win.

B Block: Yota Tsuji vs. Konosuke Takeshita - This is Tsuji's second trip to the G1; last year he debuted with a 3-3-1 record that I found somewhat disappointing given all the hype around him. Takeshita is new to the tournament. He's been affiliated with DDT for years, and his big claim to fame is AEW, but if he's representing any group it's probably the Don Callis Family. Not counting crossover shows like Forbidden Door and All Together, I think this is his first time stepping onto New Japan's cerulean blue canvas.

I like that Tsuji is second from the top because he's one of the guys they need to elevate, and quickly. I don't know that I'd pick him to win the tournament, but I would definitely give him a a lot of key wins, and probably finish in the top three. But he's got a tough draw tonight, because this is a must-win situation for Takeshita.

I think Takeshita will probably end up in the middle of the pack, maybe finishing around 4-5. Newcomers and outsiders tend to only do so well in the G1, and he's both at once. But in light of that, New Japan knows he needs a strong start, and Tsuji is the kind of guy they can feed to someone who needs a strong start.

A Block: EVIL vs. Gabe Kidd - Evil reached the semifinals last year, mostly to tease what a debacle it would be if he won the whole thing, without actually doing it. I can't imagine they'll take it that far again this year. Kidd, the STRONG men's champion, debuted last year with a 2-4-1 record, because he's more concerned with hurting people and freaking out than figuring out how to win. That's a good character for him to play, but this tournament is about results, not tantrums, so he's probably not going to be competitive in the G1 for a couple more years.

Back in the day, whenever two Bullet Club guys faced off in a tournament, they'd do a comedy routine about how one of them is willing to lay down for the other, but then they'd have second thoughts and end up having an actual match. Nowadays, though, they don't even bother to act like collusion is possible--the War Dogs (such as Kidd) are too belligerent, and everybody in House of Torture (like Evil) is too devious. My guess is that Kidd will come out swinging, and Evil will hit a low blow (or get someone else to do it) to level the playing field. Evil should probably win here, although I don't expect him to be a major factor late in the tournament.

B Block: David Finlay vs. Yuya Uemura - Finlay is the IWGP global champion, and he was one of the quarterfinalists in last year's G1. Uemura returned from excursion last fall, so this is his first trip to the big dance. Typically when Young Lions graduate to full-time wrestlers and qualify for the G1, they do very poorly in the first year, so it'll be a moral victory for Yuya to secure even one win. But he's definitely not going to pick up that win here. I expect Finlay to start very strong and then stumble in the home stretch. This is going to be a mugging.

A Block: SANADA vs. Jake Lee - Sanada won the 2020 tournament; last year he went 7-0 in block matches, so you'd have to figure he's a heavy favorite. Lee, coming in from Pro Wrestling NOAH, is appearing in the tournament for the first time.

The big story is that, on July 13, Lee disbanded NOAH's Good Looking Guys stable, turned on his ex-partners, aligned with New Japan's War Dogs, and declared his exit from NOAH altogether. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but this will be our first glimpse of Lee and whatever repackaging he'll undergo for this new direction.

Sanada is an easy pick to win the G1, simply because he lost the world title at the last Wrestle Kingdom, and it'd be straightforward to tell a story about him getting it back one year later. But the easiest story to tell for Sanada in this tournament is if he stumbles early and has to climb out of a hole. So Lee is my pick to win here.

B Block: Jeff Cobb vs. Hirooki Goto - Cobb, the NJPW World television champion, went 8-1 in the 2021 tournament, so he's got what it takes. Goto has won the whole thing, but that was waaaay back in 2008; even his big second-place finish in 2016 feels like a lifetime ago. Much has been made of the way this year's tournament excluded aging mainstays like Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tomohiro Ishii, and KENTA; the fact Goto made the cut suggests they have a purpose for him here. But I suspect that purpose is to finish 2-7 so he can put over a bunch of guys like Cobb.

A Block: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Great-O-Khan - Sabre was a quarterfinalist last year. Khan (the KOPW champion, for whatever that's worth) has never scored better than 4 wins and 5 losses. Throughout 2024, Sabre has been acting like he knows big things are awaiting him on the horizon, and he's repeatedly commented that he needs to win the G1 this year. He sounds like someone who's been told he's getting a big push. Now, I don't know why he would telegraph that to the audience in such a blatant fashion. So I could be totally off the mark, or he could be feeding us a red herring.

Regardless, I think Sabre will finish in the top 3 for the block. To create suspense about that, though, he should give up some wins against weaker opponents, and I think Khan fits the bill nicely.

B Block: HENARE vs. El Phantasmo - Henare only won one match in his first G1, and only two in his second, and that really pissed me off. I'm always pulling for this guy and being bitterly disappointed. Hopefully that's going to change after he recently won the NEVER championship in the biggest match of his career so far. Phantasmo's personal best isn't much better--three wins, three losses--but I'm not as worried about him finding ways to get ahead.

In 2023 Phantasmo was turfed out of Bullet Club, and he went into last year's G1 feeling incredibly isolated until the Guerillas of Destiny invited him into their stable. In 2024, all the Tongans in GOD have left to join the Bloodline in WWE, so Phantasmo is headed into this year's G1 feeling even more isolated. Will Jado still be by his side? Will he introduce a new look or something? Will he just be a sad sack devoid of motivation? This match will answer those questions. I just hope ELP protects his neck, or Henare will run him down like a truck.

A Block: Shota Umino vs. Callum Newman - You'd think Umino would be pushed as the future of the company, but his G1 debut last year with a 2-3-2 record suggests otherwise. He needs to post a higher score, and it'd be pretty hard not to. Newman is a newcomer, and I wouldn't have expected him to make the cut in 2024 except that he won a six-man tournament to qualify, scoring upset wins over the likes of Kenta and YOSHI-HASHI.

Umino ran into some trouble a month ago when he suffered hip and back injuries in a routine AEW match. I was real curious if he'd even make it to the G1, and he didn't confirm so until this past Monday. I doubt they would rebook the tournament to give him more losses on account of that. But if he's still hurting, this could be a particularly grueling tournament for him. I don't expect Shota to get out of the block, but he could surprise me. As for Newman, he's at the "just happy to be here" level where a 0-9 record is very possible; he's the heavy underdog in all of his matches, including this one.

B Block: Ren Narita vs. Oleg Boltin - Narita debuted in the G1 last year with an anemic 3-4 record. Boltin is entering for the first time, following a six-man qualifying tournament where he knocked Toru Yano, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Taichi out of the field.

Boltin was a Young Lion when he, Tanahashi, and Toru Yano captured the NEVER trios title a few months ago. I expected that to effectively "graudate" him out of the Young Lions system, and he'd get to pick out custom gear and have his own entrance music. But so far, he's had none of that--even when he qualified for this spot, he was wearing the plain black trunks and they played the generic curtain jerker theme. So maybe this match will be his big coming out moment. Or maybe he just doesn't give a crap, I don't know.

If any other Young Lion made it into the G1 like this, I'd expect him to lose every match. But Oleg is 265 pounds of solid muscle, and they've given him Brock Lesnar's finisher. They have big plans for this guy. Big enough to get past the chicanery Ren Narita brings to the table? Well, we'll see. I think this one could go either way.

[the-stars-in-between]

Conclusion after my first Whumptober participation: 11 stories. Not too bad, more than I expected, but the moment I realized I was allowed to sleep instead of continuing to write it was over for me. Overall it was a fun experience — for me, not for the characters — and the prompts gave me ideas I never would have thought of without it, so thank you @whumptober.

However! I will finish this challenge whether it is finishing the stories I already started or those that are not yet written. I am not giving up. My goal is to finish by the end of January considering that I have a big break for Christmas but nothing is guaranteed.

I leave you now the links of the stories that are already posted and I will update each time I post a new story.

DAY 1 & DAY 19: Every Day You Fight Like You're Running Out Of Time (Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester)

Sam gets lost in the forest. This action has consequences.

No. 1: RACE AGAINST THE CLOCK Search Party | Panic Attack | "If only we could hold on.” (Icysami x Renegaderr, Strangers.)

No. 19: BLOOD TRAIL Abandoned Cabin | One Way Out | "Is there anybody alive out there?" (Bruce Springsteen, Radio Nowhere)

Luffy relives the worst day of his life, over and over again.

DAY 2: Again. (Monkey D. Luffy)

No. 2: ALTERNATIVE  Time Loop

Dean is going to die, Sam doesn't know what to think about it.

DAY 3: Did You Bring Me Some Pie? (Sam Winchester)

No. 3: SET UP FOR FAILURE Fingerprints | Wrongfully Arrested | "I warned you."

Law can't escape, even in his dreams. Especially in his dreams.

DAY 4: A Good Night's Sleep (Trafalgar D. Water Law)

No. 4: HALLUCINATIONS Hypnosis | Sensory Deprivation | “You're still alive in my head.” (Billy Lockett, More)

Luffy can stretch and stretch, but he can't escape his pain.

DAY 5: If My Pain Will Stretch That Far (Monkey D. Luffy)

No. 5: SUNBURN Healing Salve | Heatstroke | "If my pain will stretch that far." (Lottery Winners, Burning House)

Bobby is bleeding out, but family doesn't end in blood.

DAY 6: Blood On The Car Seats (Bobby Singer)

No. 6: NOT REALIZING THEY'RE INJURED Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms | Healed Wrong | "It's not my blood."

The heart of a demon, willingly given, is a powerful weapon for the one who wields it.

DAY 7: The Heart of a Demon (Crowley)

No. 7: ONLY FOR EMERGENCIES Unconventional Weapon | Magic with a Cost | "It's us or them."

Zoro can't sleep, ghosts come to keep him company.

DAY 8: Nightmares Don't Sleep (Roronoa Zoro)

No. 8: SLEEP DEPRIVATION Isolation Chamber | Forced to Stay Awake | "Leave the lights on." (Coldplay, Midnight)

Castiel is learning to be human. It hurts. In more ways than one.

DAY 10: Did It Hurt When You Fell From Heaven? (Castiel)

No. 10: BLOW TO THE HEAD Slurred Words | Passing Out from Pain | "I can't think straight."

No. 11: SEEING DOUBLE Convenience Store | Loneliness | “Leave no trace behind, like you don't even exist.” (Taylor Swift, Illicit Affairs)

DAY 11: Fade Away Into The Sunset (Sam Winchester)

No. 12: STARVATION Underground Caverns | Cannibalism | "Just a little more."

DAY 12: (Nico Robin)

The end of a crew. The end of a legend.

DAY 13: Till Death Do Us Part (Straw Hat Pirates)

No. 13: TEAM AS A FAMILY Familial Curse | Multiple Whumpees | "Death will do us part." (Set It Off, Partner's In Crime)

No. 14: LEFT FOR DEAD Hunting Gear | Blackmail | “Because I want you to know what it feels like to be haunted” (tiLLie, kooL aiD mAn)

DAY 14: (Shanks)

The cycle repeats itself.

DAY 15: The Father's Mistakes Fall on the Son's Shoulders (Dean Winchester, Jack Kline)

No. 15: CHILDHOOD TRAUMA Painful Hug | Moment of Clarity | "I did good, right?"

No. 16: NECROSIS Swamp | Wound Cleaning | "No, I can't feel anything."

DAY 16: Where Dreams Go To Die (Sanji)

No. 17: NOWHERE ELSE TO GO Ruined Map | Shipwrecked | "We had a good run."

DAY 17: In the Dark You Can't Tell Ink and Blood Apart (Nami)

No. 18: REVENGE Unreliable Narrator | Loss of Identity | “I see what's mine and take it.” (Panic! at the Disco, Emperor's New Clothes)

DAY 18: (Sabo)

No. 20: EMOTIONAL ANGST Shoulder to Cry On | Giving Permission to Die | "It's not your fault."

DAY 20: (Charlie Bradbury)

No. 21: BODY HORROR Body Horror | Tattoo Gun | Spirit Possession | “Let the bedsheet soak up the tears.” (Apparat feat. Soap & Skin, Goodbye)

DAY 21: D.E.A.T.H. (Trafalgar D. Water Law)

No. 22: BLEEDING THROUGH BANDAGES Tourniquet | Reopening Wounds | "Oh that's not good."

DAY 22: (Jack Kline)

No. 9: OBSESSION Broken Window | Bruises | “Frame me up on the wall, just to keep me out of trouble.” (Fall Out Boy, Irresistible) No. 23: FORCED CHOICE Public Display | Broken Pedestal | "I'm doing this for you."

DAY 23 (+DAY 9): The Hand That Saves Is The Same As The Hand That Wounds (Gabriel)

No. 24: RADIATION POISONING Collapsed Building | Equipment Failure | “I never knew daylight could be so violent.” (Florence + The Machine, No Light, No Light)

DAY 24: Embracing the Sun (Portgas D. Ace)

No. 25: SURGERY Stitches | Being Monitored | "It's for your own good."

DAY 25: Grit Your Teeth, Everything Will Be Fine (Sam Winchester)

No. 26: NIGHTMARES Breakfast Table | Parting Words of Regret | “I'm haunted by the lies that I have loved, the actions I have hated.” (Poe, Haunted)

DAY 26: (Claire Novak)

No. 27: VOICELESS Laboratory | Muzzled | “I have no mouth and I must scream.”

DAY 27: EX-FL02 (Portgas D. Ace)

No. 29: FATIGUE Labyrinth | Burnout | "Who said you could rest?"

DAY 29: Run Rabbit, Run (Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester)

No. 30: RECOVERY Hospital Bed | Holding Back Tears | "What have I done?" No. 28: ALTERNATIVE  No-Holds-Barred Beatdown

DAY 30 (+DAY 28): When the Sun Dies, the Stars Go With It (Portgas D. Ace, Sabo)

No. 31: ASKING FOR HELP Therapy | Making Amends | "I'm alive, I'm just not well." (Elliot Lee, Alive, Not Well.)

DAY 31: The Hardest Things To Say (Dean Winchester)

[just-my-latest-hyperfixation]

I was tagged by @medusapelagia, thx love ❤️

January

My year truly started with a bang. I published the first chapter of Hic sunt dracones on January 16th, and was immediately blown away by the wave of positive feedback. I was still very new to the fandom, had just gotten back into writing after a 15yr break, and had never dreamed of this sort of reaction. I didn't know it then, of course, but HSD would go on to become my fic of the year and probably the one I'm best known for. 🐉❤️

February

Didn’t publish anything new, but continued working on my WIPs and signed up for the @steddiebang

March

Finished Someone who cares and got a bunch of lovely comments. I had been writing it since October 2022, publishing it since early December. The first-ever fic I finished, the first I ever shared publicly, the one that rekindled my passion for writing, and still one I'm immensely proud of. 👪❤️

Started working on my BB fic (You got me) in the palm of your hand 

April

Published See you in a crown, which got over 700 hits in the first 24 hours. Feral bathroom mirror sex with added tiara really seemed to do it for a lot of ppl. 🤣💕

May

Didn’t publish anything new, but was hella busy with my WIPs. 

June

Published Someone like you, a bonus chapter to Someone who cares. 

Also trembled my way through the BB claims weekend and ended up with not one, but two lovely artists, @xgumiho and @peachypurr. 💕

July

Finished Hic sunt dracones (on the day of the big AO3 blackout no less), cried over the lovely comments and the fucking FANART

Wrote my first microfic for the @steddiemicrofic challenge, found it sooo hard. 🤣

Started writing Just add water and Possession 

August

Published Just add water, which was such a feel-good fic for me. I loved writing it, it always put me in a good mood. 🧜‍♂️❤️

September

Published the first chapter of Possession 🦇

Also wrote three Microfics for the “charm” prompt ✨️

October:

Published (You got me) in the palm of your hand throughout the month. The feedback was lovely, and so many ppl told me how they remembered me from the claims sheets! 🔮

Finished Just add water. Was honestly sad to let it go, even though I only worked on it for a little more than 2 months.

November:

Continued working on Possession

Also wrote a lot for the @steddieholidaydrabbles and developed the first ideas for a longer fic and art project based on Blast to the past/The kings's gift together with @house-of-the-moving-image

December

Published Let me be good to you, a sequel to See you in a crown

Published the holiday drabbles, which was such fun! ❄️❤️ Ended up with exactly 50 published works for 2023, wow!!

Next year: 

I'll Finish Possession some time in March or April if everything goes according to plan 

I've got two fics for the ST Reverse Big Bang coming up in March, which are keeping me very busy rn

Turn Blast to the Past into a chaptered fic and art project, together with @house-of-the-moving-image 

I'll also probably hit 1k followers on tumblr early this year and have something special planned, so stay tuned! 🥰

No pressure tags: @penny00dreadful, @rainbow-nerdss, @sourw0lfs, @wynnyfryd, @aidaronan

[duhragonball]

Other Months

You know, I was sort of hoping that by now, there would be some sort of course correction from Nanowrimo. I mean, the backlash seems pretty substantial. I keep looking for updates on the situation, and I keep expecting Nano to issue some weak apology, or at least acknowledge the outcry. But instead, I just find news articles about the backlash, or sponsors pulling out because they can see which way the wind is blowing.

And I'm not entirely surprised, but I guess I thought the people running that organization were a little more savvy than this. Then again, all these pro-AI types only seem to know how to double-down, so I guess Nanowrimo has already demonstrated the depths of their incompetence. If they were smart enough try to clean up this mess they never would have issued that statement in the first place.

So I probably gave them too much credit, but... I mean, what other reaction could they have expected? Their whole deal depends on large numbers of human writers coming together to do this challenge every year. By refusing to condemn AI, they basically said that the efforts of the human writers are extraneous, when it's very much the other way around. The Nanowrimo organization thinks it's too big to fail, but without the writers' participation, they're nothing. Even if their sponsors are paying big bucks for AI promotion, it won't do any good if there's no one around to sell the products to. This seems blindingly obvious, but apparently Nanowrimo can't figure it out.

Anyway, enough about them. I'm planning to proceed on schedule from November 1-30, but I started thinking about what to do in the future. The rest of the world may settle on some agreed-upon "official month" to do the 50k challenge, but I'm more interested in picking something that works best for me. I'll run through some options under the cut.

NOVEMBER

Pro: Traditional. I'm familiar with this thrity-day span, so why rock the boat?

Con: The Thanksgiving four-day weekend is a pain in the ass to plan around. Also my mom's birthday is in November, and I usually drive to her place and take her out to lunch, so that's another day where I schedule minimal writing. Oh, and AEW runs the Full Gear PPV, and the NJPW World Tag League starts up in November, so it's actually kind of busy. My normal strategy is to try to get as big a lead as possible in the first week in order to finish well before all this other stuff can slow me down.

DECEMBER

Pro: None. This would suck.

Con: This would just be a harder version of November, since Christmas always falls on a different day of the week.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY

Pro: There's not much happening in these months, and I usually schedule some days off from work here just so I might miss a few lousy commutes in cold weather. February's only 28 days, but I've finished so many past 50k challenges early that it probably doesn't matter anymore.

Con: I've tried to do "Janwum" challenges in the past, but it's tough to get into gear so soon after completing one in November. I kind of had this vision of doing four writing months every year, but the non-November ones were always tough. Maybe January 2026 would be better if I didn't do any writing for November 2025. So that would push me towards...

MARCH-SEPTEMBER

Pro: I dunno.

Con: I feel like a lot of stuff happens during these months, which makes it difficult to make solid plans. Then again, this is probably just because I've devoted so much planning to making sure Novembers are as clear as I can make them.

OCTOBER

Pro: It's like November, but sooner. Fewer holidays, wrestling shows, and so forth.

Con: That's when OC-tober happens, and I really would like to keep doing that in October if I can. True, I've only done the challenge once in 2021, but I want to get back to it, so I need to start re-evaluating my priorities.

OCTOBER 20-NOVEMBER 18

Pro: This would mostly eliminate my problems with November. I always get a little anxious to start in the last week of October, so maybe I should just go ahead and start early.

Con: Well, the OC-tober stuff would still be a conflict, if nothing else.

I'm not sure I've come to any strong conclusions here, except that I might want to do these in January, but I need to schedule 2025's challenge for the middle of the year. Like... June-ish? Well, that would get it out of the way in time for the G1 Climax. Huh.

[sidworldfans]

SID 20th Anniversary 「GRAND FINAL "The Place We Love Most"」 LIVE Report from Natalie music

The culmination of SID’s 20th anniversary and the start of the second chapter in their “place they love most”

SID held its 20th anniversary live concert 『SID 20th Anniversary GRAND FINAL ‘The Place We Love Most』at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, on December 27.

Formed in 2003 with Mao (Vo) and Aki (B) as the core members, SID has been active since 2004 with the current line-up including Shinji (G) and Yuuya (Dr). In 2023, which marked the 20th anniversary of their formation, the band has held a series of live performances and releases, starting with a fan-club-only concert at LINE CUBE SHIBUYA (Shibuya Public Hall) in Tokyo in January. The Budokan, where they have stood many times, was prepared as a place to conclude a fulfilling year.

New challenges on the 20th anniversary of the formation

A large chandelier and a huge pure white fabric draped from the ceiling to the floor. The first song was the ballad Ajisai (Hydrangea), a song about crazy emotions. “Wow!” was raised in joy and surprise.

After NOMAD, the band started with Anniversary, a fitting song for the day’s live. The band’s bright ensemble made the audience’s hearts skip a beat, and the mirror ball shone with glittering lights. The smiles on their faces on the screen told the audience that they were enjoying this stage to the fullest.

After performing a series of popular songs from their indies days, including Alibi, Wana (Trap) and Mousou Nikki (Delusional Diary), the members talked about their feelings on their 20th anniversary.

Then Mao said: “We’ve made a medley as a new challenge”, and Yuuya started stick-counting as a cue. Here, the hit songs Monokuro no Kiss (Monochrome Kiss), Ranbu no Melody (Melody of a Wild Dance), Uso (Lie) and V.I.P, which have represented SID since their major label debut, were delivered as “SID 20th Special Medley”, impressing the audience with the breadth of SID’s musicality.

Solos that appealed to the audience with their individuality

In the subsequent block, starting with Yuuya, the members entered the solo corner. While Yuuya performed a slow-paced performance using tracks, Aki excited the audience with his rock-inspired bass playing. Shinji played a hard-rock instrumental immediately after playing his smoldering guitar. The three players showed off their versatility with their three different performances.

Mao returned to the stage after receiving the baton from Shinji, and sings Kowairo (Tone of Voice) with special guest Hiroaki Hayama playing the piano. Hayama’s melody resonates close to Mao’s delicate “tone of voice”... At the climax of the song, Mao sings a cappella as if exploding with emotion. His singing voice, with all his heart and soul, was met with applause.

Immediately after finishing the song, Mao jokingly said: “It’s been a long time since I performed a cappella at Budokan. What you need to be able to perform this a cappella is courage.” Following his words: “Because it’s a big deal”, the five-piece lineup of SID and Hiroaki Hayama performed their new ballad Omokage (Vestige) which was just released as the opening theme song for the TV anime Heaven Official’s Blessing.

Aki’s provocation: “It’s going to get more and more intense from here on out, but can you all keep up?” was the starting point for the four of them to drop a rock number that revealed the aggressive expressions of SID. Before Propose, Mao charmingly declared: “It’s been 20 years, so it’s time to get married.” A loud cheer echoed through the venue.

The song that the four members prepared to conclude the main part was Yoshikai Manabu 17-sai (mushoku) (Yoshikai Manabu 17 years old (unemployed)), which was released 20 years ago. Mao, Shinji, and Aki dance in front of the rapt audience, and Yuuya supports them with a rock-solid rhythm.

A monolithic performance was etched into the Budokan, and the main part came to an end with a strong afterglow.

Mao’s confession: This is where I am alive

The four of them returned to the stage in response to the endless “Encore!” and continued with their new song Soyokaze (Breeze) which they wrote to express their memories of the 20th anniversary, followed by Natsukoi (Summer Love) and Dear Tokyo which have been loved since their indie days. They sang Natsukoi and Dear Tokyo with their fans, expressing the bond they have developed over the past 20 years in the form of a sense of unity.

Before the start of Ichiban Sukina Basho (The Place We Love Most) which is also the title of the live performance, Mao expressed his feelings in a hoarse voice:

“For the past few years, I’ve been going on stage thinking about things like whether I’ll be able to sing well or whether my throat will be okay, but I was really looking forward to today’s live show even before it started”, he says. “Of course it feels good to sing well, but no matter how good you sing, if you lack the feeling of having fun, it will be completely different. Today, I am thinking about how we can properly convey the footsteps of our 20 years.”

Looking back on the two-hour live performance, he said: “I sang with the only thought of whether I could deliver the love I’ve received over the years... It was a very satisfying live from the bottom of my heart.” He added: “With the support of many people, I was able to reach this stage. About two years ago, there was a time when I couldn’t sing an entire song or at all. That was due to technical issues, but it was also a time when I was struggling mentally. From then on, I started singing more and more songs. I’ve gotten to this point by increasing the amount and trying things out little by little. That’s why I think the second chapter of SID begins today”, he declared.

Mao then said: “This is where I am alive, and the place I like the most is this live stage. And I can’t do it without everyone there, and I can’t do it without all the members and staff. I'm going to sing from my heart without thinking about whether I'm good or not at the end," signaling the beginning of Ichiban Sukina Basho (The Place We Love Most).

Sparkling confetti fell from the ceiling as if to celebrate new beginnings of the four of them, and the live performance reached its finale in a gorgeous atmosphere. At the end, the members looked back on the days that passed through the anniversary year one by one and promised to reunite with their fans.

Mao standing in the middle of the stage, shouted “I love you!” with the mic off, and then wrapped his arms around the fans and hugged them tightly.

SID, that has entered the second chapter, will release a new single “Omokage” early in 2024. Furthermore, on May 18th and 19th, they will perform live “SID LIVE 2024 -Star Forest-” at Kawaguchiko Stellar Theater in Yamanashi. The Nippon Budokan performance will be broadcast/distributed on WOWOW in April.

Set list

SID “SID 20th Anniversary GRAND FINAL “The Place We Love Most” December 27, 2023 Nippon Budokan

01. Ajisai

02. NOMAD

03. ANNIVERSARY

04. Alibi

05. Wana

06. Mousou Nikki

07. SID 20th Special Medley (Monochrome Kiss ~ Ranbu no Melody ~ Uso ~ V.I.P)

08. Kowairo

09. Omokage

10. Junkan

11. Propose

12. park

13. Memai

14. Yoshikai Manabu 17-sai (mushoku)

<Encore>

15. Soyokaze

16. Natsukoi

17. Dear Tokyo

18. Ichiban Sukina Basho

The original article with images: https://natalie.mu/music/news/555701

[yearofradicalselfbelief]

Part Four [Progess & Foundation Laying] - 16/12/23

Hello! I actually have a non-depressing update to write today, what a time to be alive. Discussions of 2024 goals, and changes to my writing schedule ahead.

I’ve spent the last week or so basically already making a start on my goals for 2024, so that once January hits, all I need to actually do is maintain the momentum instead of spending the first few weeks undoing whatever bad habits I could let myself slip into just because it’s the holiday season.

My big goals for 2024 are nothing new. I go into every year wanting to read more, write more, and exercise more. The thing is, there was a time when I’d have these goals and each one truly would be starting from scratch. Before I started writing daily as a rule, weeks would go by where I didn’t write a single word, then I’d feel bad about not writing, which would make me want to write even less, and create that great little feedback loop from hell. I also went through a ridiculous reading dry spell during/following my uni years, because nothing makes you want to read less than doing an English Lit degree, and honestly I’d never been big into fitness beyond a few weeks-long health kicks up until I hit my 20s, either.

So when I’d first have these goals, none of the foundation would be there, and I was basically expecting my habits to go from 0 to 100 the second the clock struck midnight for the New Year. Recently, I’ve been doing things smarter.

Starting my daily writing streak on 1st January 2020 was a great starting point, because I haven’t missed a day since, and I’ll be hitting my 1500th consecutive day of writing sometime in the first quarter of next year. The year that followed that, 2021, I started to take my fitness way more seriously. I worked out on and off before that, but 2021 was the year where I did my first ever 75Hard challenge – successfully – in the summer, then another the following autumn, and I’ve done several since.

2022, as I’ve said, was a bit of a write-off because of everything I went through, but 2023 has been the year of upping the reading habit. Last year I read 14 books, this year I read 41 – with ~5 more being in progress, but I probably won’t finish those til New Year. My goal for next year is 50.

The thing is though, juggling these habits means that it’s been pretty common so far for one thing to fall by the wayside while I focus on the other two. When I did flufftober this year, I didn’t have the time to do a single workout the whole month. Or when I do a workout challenge, my writing output halves because it gets to the evening time and it’s just a struggle to stay conscious during the evening hours where I’d ordinarily get my best words in.

So my overarching goal for 2024 is to have a year where I just absolutely ace all three of those habits. I want to read lots, write lots, and get a great level of consistency with my workouts. I do have more minor goals that fall within all of that too, like finding a way of using social media that isn’t all or nothing. This year, my screen time has either been insanely high, or I’ve been on Instagram breaks for months at a time. Then I hang around until I can see it’s wearing on my mentally, and disappear again for a long stretch. I really want to find a middle ground with that – one that doesn’t have me being so terminally online that I feel like shit, but also one that doesn’t have me constantly missing out on cheering on overseas friends, with whom IG is my only source of real communication.

And, as I said on my main blog, another big thing I’m changing is really controlling where my energy goes with my writing, and when. Because I do have a bad habit of focusing on fanfic more than I focus on the novel. There are a few reasons for that, and honestly I don’t even regret it – yet. But if I don’t make any changes, there will be a day on the horizon where I do.

Fanfic has been, and still is, great for me. It gave me a community of amazing, kind, supportive, and generous people when I was in the lowest point of my life (and I cannot overstate how much that made that time bearable for me), and it has improved my writing by miles. I’ve had people in my life who do openly view it as me wasting my time because it hasn’t gotten me further in my writing career when you only look at the basic facts, and there have even been times when I’ve been tempted to give into their way of thinking. However, earlier this year I read some very early drafts of the novel – from way back before I even started Little By Little – and they were just not good at all. Then, I look at the chapters I’m producing now, and seeing how much better they are, and that change is thanks to the sheer amount of fic I’ve produced in the last few years.

In part it’s because of the fact that writing so often is bound to improve said writing, but it’s also because of the feedback I’ve gotten on those fics. Feedback doesn’t always only limit itself to reflecting on the specific story that feedback pertains to. Sure, sometimes it’s a case of “I wasn’t a fan of this plot point” or “I don’t like this character”, but other times it’s “I feel like there has been too much introspection in these last few chapters” (which was a big problem with my writing at the start of this decade, and really showed in early novel drafts), or “I really enjoy the humour you put in your stories” – because allowing myself to have fun and be silly with the narration in Catch the Wind, and seeing not only how much fun I had with that, but how much people liked that, really freed me up to add the same thing into the novel itself.

It all contributes, and while I do have a tendency to get upset at myself for reaching the ripe old age of 27 without having yet even queried a single novel, I look back on the stuff I was writing at the ages when I really wanted it to happen that specific year, and I can see that my writing just wasn’t ready for it. Now, thanks to fic, it is.

But that still leaves me with the fact that I now really do need to start prioritising my time. The discrepancy with fic and original work comes in the form of instant validation. With fic, I can finish a chapter, and if it’s a popular story I might have a comment on it within an hour. And it’s not that I feel like I can’t write without that, but because it’s such a help with my own anxiety when it comes to writing. I have a tendency to finish every chapter thinking it’s shit, and I don’t believe otherwise until I have that first comment telling me someone enjoyed it. With novel work, it doesn’t work that way. And because the novel means so much to me, that adds to the anxiety, until there are times when I’m so anxious about working on it that I can’t even enjoy working on it, because I’m just telling myself “what if this is shit? What if you’ve wasted ten years of your life building this world and creating this thing, and it ends up being for nothing?”

And I mean, it won’t be for nothing. If no agent wants to take it on, I’m not averse to the idea of doing a patreon type thing with it once I’ve exhausted every other avenue, but it is just that initial anxiety. I know it’s irrational, and my beta readers are really enjoying it, but the fact remains that I am a Frightened Bitch. It’s genetic.

But I need to overcome that, and I won’t overcome that if I’m running to the safety blanket and instant validation of fanfic whenever my anxiety spikes.

This is something I’d resolved to fix for quite a few years now, but I’ve never gone in with a specific game-plan, which means I then fall back into usual habits very quickly, because “idk I’ll figure it out” isn’t cutting it here.

So, I’m imposing a rule where I can only post one fic chapter, total, a week. Not one chapter of each fic, just one chapter of one fic. Fridays will be fanfic days, and I’ll post my chapter, and then I’ll go back to novel work. If a few months go by and I’m especially happy with novel progress, I might up that. I still want to take part in flufftober, but I’m really hoping that by then novel work will be so far along that doing so won’t be a problem, because it’ll be a nice break from edits rather than all-out rewrites. The plan is to also decide at the start of each week what will be updated next, let you guys know what it will be so you’re not waiting only to find out it’s a fic you don’t even read, and then rotate between that and the novel during that week. My current way of doing things is to have like 12 word docs open at any given time and just add to each one here and there until something is finished, but that isn’t the most efficient way to go about this.

I do have other set outlines as to how I’m going to achieve my other goals, rather than just “read more” and “exercise more”, because breaking them down into concise weekly targets to hit makes so much more sense. As for the screen time/social media dilemma, I’m going to be taking every Monday off of social media – with the exception of answering IG messages, because I use that in place of texting and I don’t want to completely self-isolate, just lessen the scrolling and the posting. I’ll also be limiting how often I can post, because the folk who follow me over there will know that my IG stories get a bit unhinged re: length at times. If I need more than that, which I think I will, I’ll extend the break to Tuesdays, too.

And the 50 book goal is pretty neat, because I can then just set myself with the goal of one book per week, or aim for 100 pages a day, which is fairly doable most days.

It’s going well, so far! I worked out five times this week, I’ve done quite a bit of reading, and I’m currently in the progress of updating every fic that I want to update before this once a week rule comes in (HTWA, Free, and Fallen Through Time are the top priorities – then, I think HWFG should roll around to be the first thing I update come New Year).

And to finish things off, I mentioned in my last post that I’m forcing myself to go out and do fun things for the sake of doing fun things at least once per month, beyond just errands and stuff that needs to be done, even if it just means a solo cinema trip or whatever. I did that this month, so have my proof of that in parting. Went to the city centre for lunch with a friend, and to take in the Christmas lights and snoop at the pretty clothbound classics.

So happy to be able to post something actually positive on here for once! I intend to keep that up, and I’m very grateful to the people who are following along on here!

[dgdraws]

My art year in review!

I learned so much this year and made a ton of cool stuff! These are my favorites from each month, but it was so hard to choose. A lot of stuff didn't even get posted--I'll be sure to at least post the ones that made it to this list!

It's amazing to see how much I've changed and learned over this year, and to see the things that are emerging as part of "my style."

Here's to another year of delight, creation, connection and fun!

Some monthly reflections beneath the cut, but here's the highlights:

I participated in 3 art challenges, Artfight, OC-tober and Huevember.

I made fanart for the first time!

I created a piece I conceived of before I started drawing

Made some big breakthroughs in techniques and skills in April, July and November

January: My first branch into full character design, Rodd is the culmination of training on Hero Forge renders to make dnd portraits! I was doing this cool thing with neon rim lighting, I should bring that back!

February: I saw a piece on here with this amazing glowing effect, so I color picked it and experimented to figure out what relationship between the colors was making it do that! The answer was saturation. This rose is meant to be glowing from within, and I think I did a good job for my knowledge level at the time! As Chuck Tingle would tell us, it's beautiful because only I could have made it in that moment on the timeline.

March: I spent a million years on every detail of this one, it has at least 5 clipping overlay/saturation layers for lighting, multiple line work groups and I want to rework that background but! I never felt more accomplished than I did when I finished this one. I learned a lot, especially about things I could skip or simplify. And the symbolism really pops off ngl

April: I read Gideon the Ninth for the first time this month and I immediately needed to draw Jeannemary Chatur, Cavalier of the Fourth House, the worst teen to do it. She's the first fanart I ever made and posted! I also discovered a new pen tool with this one, which CHANGED THE GAME.

May: This one is an idea I had written down before I ever picked up the tablet and stylus. I thought I might commission someone to make it, the image of it came to me so clearly during our VTM session I just had to make it real somehow. Well I did it! This is one I will come back to redraw in like 5 years bc I love the concept so much. Also rife with symbolism and inside nods to the Low Kings.

June: I made a bunch of ref sheets in the run-up to Artfight in July. Caleb hadn't even been in my plans to upload, but I had time and inspiration! I will be uploading this and a few more of him <3

July: This is one of my faves from Artfight! This character is Blueberry, by way of OrchidEatsBread on artfight. I have still never played... rainworld? But I love me a slug cat. In July I drew a TON of people, it really drilled anatomy basics into me and how to get clothes looking like actual clothes a bit more. Also solidified some things I would consider "my style" at the moment, like no irises, and my approach to noses and mouths and fingers!

August: Another fanart for the Locked Tomb series, I never posted this!!! Will be rectifying that soon.

September: I got really into javascript and css this month, and I made this to be a landing page image on my neocities website XD I'll get back around to that eventually...

October: At the last minute, I discovered OC-tober and the prompts from @/bweirdart, a worthy follow up to the rush of Artfight two months previous. I developed so much stuff for the Low Kings, including this drawing/character, Amayah/Girl-Z, who has been a figment of my pintrest board for 2+ years.

Huevember: Chasing that OC-tober high, I found Huevember! I did not expect to actually do every day, but it proved to be an amazing exercise! I learned so, so much about color, discovered amazing new brushes and techniques and found I really enjoy working in those one day capsules! I loved a lot of the stuff that came out of this month, including my highest note post ever!!!, but this one is still my phone background and I'm maybe developing an OC world around it. We'll see what happens in 2024.

December: I got hit HARD with the writing bug this month, so this was my only choice for this month but I WOULDA CHOSEN IT ANYWAY. I unlocked something here that I'm really excited to visit again, in fact I'm working on a companion piece rn! This is also fanart btw, prepare for me to get even weirder about this guy in the coming months.

If you've read this far, thank you so much! I have so much fun writing these little reflections and making my posts on here.

xoxo, wren