#also like the content of this blog is honestly barely going to change from what it has been for like 3 weeks now

[kalashtars]

kalashtars -> ivegotallthisringing

thank you @thekidsarentalright <3

*goes feral* *goes feral* *goes feral*

[buthowboutno]

ONE YEAR OF "AND THEY WERE LAB PARTNERS" ✨✨✨

Thank you to everyone who participated in the one year anniversary poll!! I still maintain that it would be funny as /fuck/ to just delete “And They Were Lab Partners” in a memento mori fashion, but alas; Only one person voted for it.

Cowards /j

In any case, the majority voted for the behind the scenes stuff, so here we are! The tidbits of how ATWLP turned into the fucking beast it is.

I would like to personally blame @morning-sun-brah , @hitechlatte, and @ordin-arily for being such big inspirations in this corner of the fandom. You guys are amazing and I probably wouldn't be where I am today without your works.

Shout out to all my losers in the backrooms for keeping me going and being such terrible influences. You are all responsible for the horrors that have been unleashed. A solid third of my content exists because of your sins /aff. 

@beckerboopin is the best beta anyone could ask for and has only brought this story up to the next level. I would die for you becks <3

Also @betyoudidntcthatcoming-blog is the love of my life that I only met ‘cause of this fic or whatever. They’re pretty neat. I guess. :p

ANYWAYS, /CONTENT/

(Major Spoilers Ahead Pre-Chapter 23)

—

I would like to remind everyone that ATWLP was only supposed to be 50k words. You can still witness my naivety in the notes of “Pudge ‘Preciation.” 

How… simple those times were. 

How I so firmly believed the idiots would be kissing by chapter 16. How a projected word count of 150k words seemed unfathomable for a single work, much less a work with multiple published and planned companion pieces.

Crazy. (I was crazy once.)

There was a lot of ATWLP that ended up getting scrapped as I got further into the story. The idiots had a lot of opinions and tugged at me a few different ways as I got to know them better. (aka they wouldn’t listen to me when I told them to fucking kiss already.)

Anyways, some of the few major structural changes:

Casey was originally supposed to reveal that he knew Sweet’s in the bad timeline during the “Intro to Sparring” chapter. That chapter was also originally slotted to happen /before/ the kidnapping debacle, but it just so happened to fit in better later

The stage kiss from “Hit the Club” was going to be in the Nerd Prom chapter. It felt too corny at the time (and lowkey still feels corny) so I put that in my pocket for later. For as much as y’all yelled at me for it, it barely made the final cut lmao.

The way the idiots are going to confess to each other is a COMPLETE 180 from how I planned the story from the beginning, which was already entirely different from the first idea for this fic. I wrote a whole ass chapter about an accidental kiss being the tipping point of them positively macking on each other, which I did end up cutting into convenient pieces for other stuff. (I PUT A PART OF IT DOWN BELOW)

Sweets was going to be kidnapped twice and the whole Purple Dragons debacle was going to be drawn out more. There was a lot more action planned than slice of life content at ATWLP’s conception. For better or for worse, this is where the story led us.

Donnie’s mating season wasn’t going to be as involved in the story, if in it at all. I grew to be hornier and less ashamed. You’re welcome.

The first title for this fic was “Lab Rat: a Story of Nerds Falling in Love.” For the life of me I cannot remember what compelled me to change it, but holy shit am I glad I did.

I was going to use (y/n) in this fic. No hate to those who do, but stylistically I’m pretty happy with not doing that.

And because I have no control over the idiots, quick rundown of the chapters that weren’t supposed to happen.

Kart Conflict

The Christmas Issue

The Recovery: Day Two 

Valentine’s Day Episode

Hit the Club

Aquarium? Hardly Know ‘Em

****Pool Excursion

****Beach Episodes

****honestly just like the entire endgame of this fic

All the ficlets/ alternate POV’s

All the smut! I still have it written down in my original notes that ATWLP was gonna be completely PG lmao. Once again y’all have @morning-sun-brah and her fucking fabulous fics to blame for that

The Valentines’ and aquarium chapters are COMPLETELY different than how I had originally planned, even with being forced to include them in my chart. The Valentine’s day plans that the brothers had “ditched” with Sweets was the og plot for the chapter. The aquarium chapter was supposed to be a rooftop picnic with feels~~, no aquarium even fucking mentioned in my outline.

I don’t have much control over what happens tbh. I am praying that the 37 planned chapters will be the final chapters. 

We’ll…. we’ll just have to see how that turns out.

The scrapped plots as a little treat for y’all <3 ~~~

Cut Stage Kiss (after the lift in Nerd Prom)

You leaned closer to Donnie’s face, intent on screeching in his ear for pulling that stunt.

“Kiss them already!” May yelled from the inner edge of the crowd. You turned bright red, blinking at her. You shook your head at her, but the crowd started to catch onto the idea. 

“Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!”

Donnie laughed, a little incredulous. He leaned in close to your ear, whispering, “Theatre kid protocol?”

You nodded in agreement, allowing him to put a hand to your face. He leans into your mouth, making the crowd go wild. You giggle against the thumb separating your lips, smiling against it. Donnie pulled away from you with a dramatic ‘mwah’. You threw your head back, fully laughing as Donnie lifted you up from the dip. 

First Valentine’s Day Outline

The final four move to the living room

Sweets: “We’re making friendship bracelets while we watch the most romantic movie of all time.”

Raph: “Shrek 2!”

Donnie: “This is ridiculous”

Sweets: “This holiday is ridiculous, now pick out your five favourite colors of embroidery floss”

Donnie: “....Fine."

Donnie is actually terrible at making bracelets lmao while mikey has wristfuls of them

Donnie: “I don’t understand! I’m following the blueprints exactly!”

Mikey: “The... instructions?”

Donnie: “Whatever! How are you making those so fast? You don’t even have that many friends!”

Mikey: “Physical therapy is a hell of a time, my brother.”

Sweets: “Is Donnie being ableist again?”

Mikey: “I do believe he is.”

Donnie: “I am autistic!”

Sweets: “Bless you.”

ORIGINAL CONFESSION

And it all starts like most things in your life do: a silly mistake.

“Donnie,” you whined. You were working on your physics homework at his desk while he was soldering a new motherboard for the Turtle Tank’s controls.

“Little pest,” he mimicked your tone without looking up. He kept on soldering as you stared at him, not a care in the world. 

“Would you be so kind as to look over my work for this problem? I’m following the steps but I’m not getting the right answer.”

“Mmm,” Donnie said. At that moment, a spark flew from his project and caught his exposed cheek. He flinched back, dropping his wire and soldering rod on the table and rubbing his face. You batted your eyes at him while he scowled. 

“I don’t know how, but I blame you for that.”

“I would *never*,” you teased. You pushed your chair to the side a bit so Donnie could stand next to you. 

He moved his goggles to his head and put his left arm over the back of your chair, leaning over you. He parsed through your work for a minute and tilted his head down to tell you what you needed to fix.

It just so happened that you tilted your head up to ask him a question at the same time, the two of you meeting in the middle with a kiss. 

Well, it wasn’t so much of a kiss as it was the two of you accidentally brushing your lips together for a moment. Seconds, almost nothing at all. 

But the way that Donnie looked at you when the two of you jumped apart…

That…that wasn’t nothing. 

You could almost laugh at the ridiculousness of this situation. You could’ve cracked a joke, played up your ridiculous game of pet names and intellectual bravado. 

(To be honest, you almost did.)

But then you thought about the way Donnie’s lips felt against yours. You thought about the way you’d dream of that moment and then proceed to do everything in your power to banish those thoughts away. Your mouth hung open slightly as you looked up at him, trying to will yourself to do anything, anything at all.

Donnie ended up making that decision for you. That oh, so familiar churring started emanating from his chest. He took your face in his hands, looking into your eyes for just a hint of confirmation before leaning in for a real kiss.

Oh.

*Oh*.

(Yeah, you could get used to this.)

There was nothing more you could do than press yourself against him, against his touch. You felt him smiling into the kiss, pressing you down into the chair. 

Donnie was *everywhere*, like he was trying to encompass you. His hand moved to your hair, the other to your hip. You smiled when you remembered his adoration for your love-handles all that time ago. You traced along his plastron, making nonsense shapes and mapping out every scar.

He was so responsive. The chirring increased tenfold for every touch to his chest, every soft bite you gave his lips. You recalled all the times he would make noises from you touching along his shell. You pressed your hands fully against him, doing your best to draw out more and more of those sounds.

What Donnie lacked in experience he made up for in enthusiasm. He followed your lead, matching your pace every step of the way. You licked along the seam of his lips, gasping as his mouth opened for you. Donnie’s tongue against yours was tentative, shy even. You did everything in your power to ease Donnie into deepening the kiss. 

When he moved from your lips and started kissing down your throat, your soul could have left your body right there. He was so…*gentle*. 

Donnie always has been. From when he was slinging his arms around you to kicking your ass in sparring, Donnie has never failed to treat you with care and reverence. 

You feel it now, with every soft bite he gives you, every gentle peck behind your ear.

Donnie pulled away from you after what felt like decades. (Never enough, it would never be enough.) You leaned forward after him, trying to close the space he was creating. He looked bashful.

“This might be the proper time to tell you that I have a massive crush on you,” Donnie said. His face was fraught with nervous determination. 

“Yeah, no fucking shit,” you said. You stood up from the chair and used your body to push Donnie against the desk. You wrapped your arms around his shoulders, pulling him down to your height.

“I’ve been wanting to kiss you for forever, can we get on with it?” you said, looking into his eyes. Donnie turned bright red.

“But– you? Do you?” Donnie stammered a bit.

“Donnie,” you deadpanned, crowding into his space, “I’ve had a crush on you for a year, thanks for noticing. Will you *please* lean your face down a bit so I can reach it?” 

Donnie looked at you a bit incredulously, like you were a problem he didn’t know how to solve yet. He made quite a picture, all red faced and calculating with a dumb half-smile while he looked at you. But, giving in, he put his arms around you and leaned in to kiss you again.

“Aye, aye, captain.”

You smiled into the kiss, humming with contentment.

He likes you.

He likes you.

—

Aaaaand some random headcanons because I love you guys and I am truly so thankful to this kickass community <3 I truly do not know where I would be without the support y’all have given me.

Donnie has a hella oral fixation

NOT IN A KINKY WAY (most of the time) But as an autist, Donnie do be biting

One of his biggest shows of trust if he bites you while just chilling

Like if donnie is big spoon, he just nom on a shoulder and stay there chillin

Or if reader is body pillow, he’ll lean around and bite their bicep

Good sensations

Donnie draws on eyebrows every day, he for sure would be very good at doing intricate makeup on reader

Gently holds their chin up, concentrated as hell while reader blushes like mad

Donnie keeps getting banned off of roblox

Didn’t matter tbh, he knew how to hack into it to get his account reinstated

Also makes money off of roblox??

never explains to Sweets, very suspicious

Sweets likes to kiss along donnie’s neck/where his battle shell usually sits

The word here is reverence

Donnie is egotistical, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have insecurities about being a mutant turtle and you being a human

Lots of tracing along his arms, his face, his shell

Donnie likes his coffee to be half coffee, half milk to cut down on bitterness. Sweets is a tea drinker normally, but opts for coffee when they can’t focus (which ends up being most of the semester).

Sweets drinks black coffee when they’re on the struggle bus

To quote them, “Black coffee can’t hurt me more than Calc II already has”

But they prefer two creamers and two sugars when they have it in their dorm.

That’s all, congrats on making it to the bottom of this long ass post lmao <3

[nautiscarader]

Announcing my semi-retirement

This is a post I have been putting of writing for quite some time, and I make it with heavy heart... But first, tl;dr!

Most importantly, Don't Panic!

No, I'm not going anywhere.

I am also not deleting anything.

I simply don't want to give you false expectations about my activity here. I will keep writing, just at my (very) own pace.

Right, do we all have towels, and some refreshments of your choice?

Cool, let's dive right in - it will be over soon.

(oh and usual minor content warning regarding health stuff applies)

...what have I just said? I am not going anywhere! ...or at least not by my choice.

Yeah, in the past 10 months I have disappeared without a trace to the point that some of you thought I have snuffed it. 2.5 months, two weeks here or there, month and then another month out of nowhere...

The sad truth is that my illness, multiple sclerosis, is spreading, plus I have some other health issues that do need looking at occasionally. In fact, I might be going to some new clinic in September/October, but that's TBA.

As a result, I have become steadily more and more unreliable when it comes to delivering prompts, or even basic asks - and I cannot let that stay. Not to mention the length and quality of my works got hit by that - some of you have noticed that and pointed out/asked me about it in the most delicate way - and I thank you deeply for that.

me_irl

And I can already hear you...err...type: "We don't care! Take your time!" Guys, I have taken so much time that the Time Lords will soon be on my ass asking for it back with interest.

I... simply don't want to give you guys false hope and expectations.

I believe I heard it in Hank Green's cancer vlog that once such illness hits you, it "becomes your job". So think of it like that. Me having a really taxing job, often requiring my presence at inconvenient times.

Or maybe think of me going on holidays! To... hospitals...

So that is it, from now, I free myself from the shackles and obligations of prompts and writing weeks... though of course I have been falling out of rhythm for a loooong time, so... I think it is fair to say you are already used to it...

I will keep writing and publishing stuff... very occasionally, though. And I may one day just decide I am feeling strong enough for some quick round of prompts. In fact I will be updating some prompt hubs with old tumblr asks, so keep an eye on that.

Aaand of course I am not leaving you alone!

I can wholeheartedly recommend @fereality-indy, @animation-recaps-by-sean, @noblechaton, @billythsquid, @noblesnook, @thatguywiththefaceog and so many more writers here and on Ao3 - feel free to browse my bookmarks there!

Oh, and speaking of Ao3, don't forget it that it has excellent backup function! As for tumblr, there is tumblrThree, a program to back up any blog, if you are afraid of someone disappearing! You can download mine! it only weights...

...seventy-seven gigabytes, that is a lot of lolcats.

Anyway, that is it. Honestly, not much is going to change. I have been barely writing, and I will continue to do so - it's just I now have medical papers as an excuse.

Thanks to all of you for understanding and for your many messages of concern and support!

Oh, one more thing - H-Hotel!

Feel free to invite your own crazy crossover couples there and use this gif, I mean it, just credit and tag me.

...the only thing is, there is this huge boiler in the basement, and someone will need to check if it doesn't overheat. And since it runs on stardust, it would be bad for the multiverse if it exploded.

But I'm sure you will remember.

Anyway, see you later!

[sleepingdeath-light]

winter king smut hcs ; 18+

requested by ; 🍾 anon (30/11/23)

fandom(s) ; fionna & cake

fandom masterlist(s) ; here

character(s) ; winter king

outline ; “Winter King nsfw and dating hcs :3c ~ 🍾”

warning(s) ; sexually explicit content, dominant!winter king, bondage in various forms, suspension, lingerie kink, pet name kink, vocal!winter king, edging mentioned

minors and ageless blogs will be blocked

winter king is someone who strives for complete control over his life and relationships, so it only stands to reason that he’d lean towards dominance in the bedroom — swinging between harder and softer styles of dominance with you depending on his mood at the time and whether you were more bratty or well behaved during the day (at least according to the rules the two of you had agreed upon)

he’s a big fan of bondage in all of its forms and knows enough about it in order to experiment with positions, materials, and forms whilst also keeping you completely safe — from standard rope-and-chain bondage to complete or partial suspension to using other bondage aids like stocks, really the only limiting factors are your personal boundaries and his imagination (he’ll find a way to make anything work if it’s something you’re both excited to try)

he definitely enjoys having you dress up for him in one way or another when it comes to sex — bonus points if it’s something pretty, frilly, and blue (e.g. lingerie that matches the general aesthetic of his kingdom) — but he’s also happy to ‘pretty things up’ himself, so to speak, which usually means planning ahead to prepare the room you’re going to be intimate in, or forgoing practical bondage for something more intentional and, well, nicer to look at as he makes a complete mess of you

his pet names for you don’t change when you���re in private, but he definitely appreciates it when you address him in a more formal way when he’s taking care of you (e.g. ‘my king��) — especially if you combine the formal title with tears of desperation and lots of begging for him to do whatever it is you want

he’s very vocal in the bedroom and loves the sound of his own voice — whether that’s him praising you for one reason or another, describing what he’s going to do to you next in explicit detail (which is as close as he gets to dirty talk honestly), checking in to make sure you’re alright, making you beg for something and teasing you for your reactions, or just the sounds he makes when he’s a bit too far gone to talk

(e.g. when his hair has fallen over his forehead and his eyes have slipped closed as a string of grunts and groans and breathy moans spill from his lips — just barely loud enough for you to hear over the slapping of skin against skin, more whisper than real sound as by then he’s too caught up in the moment to do anything but focus on reaching his climax)

when you’re behaving and he’s in a good mood, winter king leans towards a softer style of dominance: touching you like you’re made of glass, lots of slow foreplay focusing on him pleasuring you with his mouth, very mild temperature play (which is unavoidable because of his low body temperature), lots of praise with only some light teasing and comments on how you’re behaving, taking things slow and actually making love to you instead of fucking you

but when you’ve been something of a brat or he’s in a bad mood, it’s almost like a switch has flipped inside of his mind — he’s never outright sadistic or mean but he gets colder and a bit rougher in how he handles you: he gets quieter, foreplay is minimal (just enough to prep you for what’s to come and little more), you’re still mostly clothed by the time you’re dragged to bed or bent over one of his desks, he’s much rougher with you and doesn’t shy away from leaving his mark on your body, he’ll edge you until you’re sobbing and begging for release and even then he’ll continue punishing you if you don’t do it right, and so on — all the while panting and smiling a disingenuous smile above you as he watches you fall apart

(he’ll still take care of you afterwards no matter his mood though, of course — he may not be the most kind person in the world, but you’re still his significant other and he doesn’t want to leave any lasting damage behind when he’s been a bit rougher on you than usual)

[mdhwrites]

Fantasy Versus Reality As a Theme: Does TOH Have It?

I REALLY wanted to make this a Jumbled Thoughts blog but honestly talking about The Owl House’s elements in this regard, and if it’s even capable of the theme properly, is too all encompassing to use as simply an example. That’s what the media references in my Jumbled Thoughts blogs are meant to be after all: An example to help reinforce and demonstrate the main point of the blog. For this though, I want to talk about the fact that I talk a lot about The Owl House having this theme. Fantasy versus Reality. Kind of like calling Belos boring, it’s one of those concepts I still fundamentally agree with but I’ve never properly supported in argument so I want to do that now because anyone who disagrees has good reason to do so. After all, the majority of TOH is fairly basic adventure fantasy. For all of its attempts at subversion, most of its answers to problems are either classic or lazy fantasy answers. How it brings characters together, the outcomes of situations, etc. like that map pretty closely to normal fantasy. And... I actually don’t mean that in the way of magic. When we talk about this theme, it’s much more about escapism. It’s actually what makes Luz’s commentary in the second episode so important. She explicitly talks about escapist and romantic literature tropes that she is hoping to fall into. That she is destined for greatness. That this is where she always belonged. The escapism King demonstrates in the first episode and many of his B plots where he doesn’t see the world around him as it is but this romantic version where he is its ruler is actually in theory playing into this as well. Both characters want a version of reality that is not what is actually around them. This is not a terrible base... And it’s also not anything special when it comes to criticism of the fantasy genre. When it comes to trying to subvert it. As an example: I really like a game called Sunless Skies and it has DOZENS of different takes on fantasy and eldritch stories. There’s one where you help lead a rebellion on a work world, look like you’re going to make a real impact... And it barely improves anything. The revolutionary you helped just becomes the new governer of the place because if the workers stop working, if the conditions are changed too drastically... Everyone there will freeze and die. From their lower position, the workers can’t see that so the main thing you gain for them is that instead of forcing them to pretend to be happy for tourists, now people can go see the actual work conditions and sympathize with these people trapped in fantasy sweatshops. Also, they will rebel again if you do not keep them happy on subsequent visits. And this is just ONE story in that game. I can’t 100% recommend the game because it is a TIME SINK (I have over 50 hours into my most recent file and are by no means through all the content) but it is a very good one and I suggest checking it out to see if it looks like something you’d like. I bring this example up partially because it highlights two of the core elements in making this theme work: Consequences and follow through. See, one of the biggest problems for the fantasy genre is that a lot of things get cleaned up a bit too neatly. You beat the big bad emperor and the entire empire gives up. You do something nice for a dragon and that dragon is now a proper ally and going to win you the war effort. When used bluntly and without follow through, this stuff, from people who don’t like the genre, can feel cheap and bad. It can feel like just bad storytelling while a lot of fans of fantasy will say that the journey to beating the big bad or the cost in order to get the dragon to help is what makes it compelling and makes them suspend disbelief for the ending. Consequences and Follow Through demand two things though: Focus and complexity. If the consequences don’t make sense, the theme is going to feel cheap and so they need to be reasonably complex to the solution presented. You also need focus so that it feels like what is happening is actually because of previous events and not because of it just being the plot of the day. I have talked at length about how TOH lacks both of these, though much more the focus than complexity so let’s talk about complexity and we’ll do it with one of the most obvious failures of this: Willow and Amity. A common trope to escapism and kids shows says that once you have your big emotional moment, you two are friends. It doesn’t matter what came before. You two are now allies and ready to fight for each other, if maybe not die. This is done because it allows whatever cost it took to get here to have a satisfying payoff and now the characters can interact freely without having to come up with reason as to why they’re hanging out. It can feel cheap but it’s a very useful narrative tool to boil it down to one act of kindness and one act of forgiveness. But that is fantasy. In reality, if you’ve hurt someone for years and the original mark was incredibly cruel, it can take much more than that to heal. This is why Willow states that she isn’t ready to be friends yet. The problem is that this won’t get brought up again for over half a season and by that time, Amity will have been made into a full good guy, full stop, the girlfriend to the main character and also played Grudgby side by side with Willow in order to save Luz’s ass.

So, to put it mildly, follow through is fucked here. How about complexity? Well, that comes down to how the two actually do finally become friends because the show does decide to pretend that the statement wasn’t just a blatant lie. Amity shows up at Willow’s house and asks if invading her girlfriend’s privacy is okay. Now... A reminder. Willow has categorically had the best morals in the series. She spoke up multiple times throughout S1 about those morals. Anytime someone wanted to break the rules, she was the first to say something besides Hooty’s Moving Hassle. She’s the one who makes the broadcast in support of saving Eda. As a note, this is part of why I think Willow repressing emotions is kind of bullshit. And here is Amity, her bully for NINE YEARS, asking for her permission to betray a friend’s trust and privacy. And yet Willow doesn’t lose it, doesn’t say it’s wrong, doesn’t call Amity out for not having actually changed but instead shrugs at the question and comments on it being weird to have Amity over at her house. Then she asks for her hair to be braided. And then the only other time this gets brought up has to do with Willow wanting Amity to respect how strong of a witch she is which frankly at that point makes Amity appear to be blind and deaf since how powerful her magic is is like 80% of her character in S2, if not the show in general. Which... Brings it back around to Amity needing to just have a heart to heart with Willow and now they’re best friends fighting together. Which just loops us right back around to the initial point with a lot more time wasted. And this is EVERY time that the show tries to make this theme have any bit to it. You do have Eda in the first half of S1 actually making statements for it because she’s just mean and sarcastic at Luz for most of that portion of the show and openly mocking every attempt Luz has about the world being fantastical or trying to apply normal fantasy or escapist tropes to things. But none of it really sticks. In fact, for half the show, the writing just isn’t willing to be mean enough to Luz in order for the escapism to be questioned and make Eda feel like she’s making real statements. After all, ALL of Hexide is textbook escapism. Two immediate best friends who are at the top of their fields and love you, a rival who you can show up, bonus points for them actually being your romantic interest because BOY is TOH not the progenitor of rivals to lovers, and you immediately are the most special kid in school, logic be damned. Worse yet, Luz straight up equates shit between her and Amity to the Azura series and NOT being refuted on it. Not having that bite her and have her lose points with Amity. Instead, those wants for escapism and re-enactment explicitly lead to some of the biggest moments in which she grows closest to Amity. Adventure in the Elements is even like this where her wanting a shortcut with magic to play the witch is what leads to her getting a power up and saving the day. So... Why do I claim that TOH still was at bare minimum trying to go for this theme even if it so obviously failed? Well... Because it is the explicit theme of Luz’s character for HALF THE SHOW. In a really smart show, Yesterday’s Lie is when that other foot drops. It shows how much damage Luz’s fantasy has done to others and calls her out properly for it, forcing Luz to actually change how she behaves and interacts with things. Hollow Mind does the same thing but even more severely. Luz states the latter multiple times while Vee herself screams at Luz about how good her reality was and yet she threw it away for a fantasy. That is explicitly trying to make this theme and change Luz’s behavior for it. The problem is the inciting incident of one of these two is AFTER THE FIRST ONE. Elsewhere Elsewhen is S2B after all where Luz doesn’t question her lies, how a person is reacting to things, the fact that things are going so easily for her, etc. like that. She’s treating it still like a fantasy tale. So Vee’s words obviously didn’t stick. This is even more demonstrated by the fact that her promise to her mother is haunting her far more in Falls and Follies than anything to do with her having actually fucked up. She’s more worried, explicitly, about losing the fantasy than introspecting on what she has in front of her. Now yes, this all is handled EXTREMELY poorly. I’ve talked about how Luz’s ‘trauma’ is really poorly written, especially from a fantasy standpoint. If we want to talk about escapism and simple answers to complex problems, we just have to look at Luz’s character finish. She takes the question of accidentally having helped bad people achieve bad goals and somehow turns that into “All I needed was to be understood” and that gets her to stop questioning her actions or feeling bad. It is... bonkers how badly the fall outs from Hollow Mind and Yesterday’s Lie are handled. But it almost doesn’t matter for this blog. How poorly or well it’s handled is good to interrogate but the question is if this is a theme of the show? Is it proper to criticize the show for not following through on it, contradicting it, etc. like that. And normally how well a show does a theme actually does determine if it’s a theme of the show. But TOH states it. TOH makes it explicit. They have, in multiple episodes, stated as a thesis of the show, character arcs, etc. like that, in the text of the show, that this is a theme. That this is the point. That there are consequences to you living out your fantasy and denying reality. It makes arguing that it doesn’t impossible because the writers make it clear that this was part of the intent. Much like how you have to judge Eda, King and Luz’s relationship as found family rather than just as friends because the show makes them explicitly a family. Explicitly tries to make itself about found family. Regardless of how true that is.

It’s another one of those elements of the show that make it appear to be BEGGING to be analyzed. After all, most shows prioritize, I dunno, showing off their concepts more than their themes because the concept matters more. The themes people get out of the work is a secondary, more academic enjoyment. This is, yes, normally considered a higher class of enjoyment but I think as a content creator, if that’s your focus then you need to get your head out of your ass unless you are explicitly writing something that’s trippy as balls where the symbolism is also the substance. An adventure, comedy show for kids is not that. The themes should be a secondary priority after just telling a good, engaging, morally rich narrative. Avatar the Last Airbender has themes but when the show starts, those aren’t the point. It’s about meeting Aang, Zuko, Sokka, Katara, understanding their dynamics, understanding their world, their viewpoints etc. like that. It focuses on engaging you through these elements before it gets into its deeper lessons or goals. Even then, those elements are usually still explicitly tied to the characters. Episode 2 of TOH doesn’t do that though. Most of the elements in that episode will be contracted by season 2 (cool to be threatening the child you adopted with rent Eda. Real cool.), we don’t learn much about any of these characters that we didn’t know from the first episode, it doesn’t really establish their dynamic because S1 struggles to have a dynamic with the three of them because Luz is so busy with Hexide stuff and so... The point to the second episode is about that theme. About having a message of “There are no chosen ones” and “Luz, you can’t treat this like you’re the hero in a fantasy book.” And the only reason I’m not commenting on how much the finale is a complete failure of these themes is because I’m waiting until Saturday to do that. But trust me, a show as loud and blunt as TOH as to have thesis statements in the show really couldn’t finish without admitting it had failed to stay on point, somewhat like this rambling blog. And a final note while I’m rambling: It is good for stories to have themes. I’m not saying they shouldn’t. Some will even state their themes, like Amphibia did at the end of its series. But... They usually do it at the end either from a position of strength where they can go back, evaluate their story, etc. like that and say it with confidence, or it can feel like they’re pulling nothing out of their ass right at the end to act like there was a deeper point to the story. TOH is more unique in that it pulled shit out of its ass MID STORY and then didn’t follow up on it. It knew, explicitly, what it wanted its themes to be and still failed to properly follow through or execute on the majority of them and that’s MIND BOGGLING. After all, if you have a theme in mind, your narrative and characters should support that. And I hope I’ve made it clear how much that’s not the case, bare minimum with this theme. ======== I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too.

[mocksfate]

LET'S GET REACQUAINTED ! hey rpc ! lets be honest, datv brought us all back in one way or another either you're a veteran or new, i'm sure there is stuff that has changed or we don't know each other so let's have a game about it to reintroduce each other ! repost this to do the same & tag some pals if you want !

Name / Penname: nora! from eleonora. ppl irl call me ele, but online i've always gone with nora. for veterans, did you go by something previously ? name &/or penname: nope, i'm nora wherever i go. forever. age & gender ( if comfortable sharing ): 27 yrs old, a girliepop 😔 what was your first dragon age muse: idt i had a first muse. i'm p sure i started with a multimuse because of my inability of writing just one (1) character at the time. my fondest memories go to zev.ran, of course. he is and always be my favorite character of the franchise. do you have any other darp muses / blogs: i used to have a single muse blog for my surana (which ended up being a ton of fun while it lasted) but again, i just have too much muse for other little guys and they're constantly rattling the bars of their cages. what muses / blogs do you have outside of darp: i had other multimuses (a hsr one & a general gaming-animanga one but they're inactive rn) and obv my main @malewifezevran ✨ thedas has two moons: and they're lovers 🩷

single line, para, or novella: max i can do is 2k words on a good day chief....... language barrier + my bare ass script writing style don't help. i prefer one-two paras replies. plotting or winging it: i'm a plotting kinda girl. i like to put muses into Situations, but i prefer to figure out a possible dynamic or how the thread might develop with my writing partner ^_^ fighting threads, you bold enough for them? i have written very few in these ten years, but idt i'd mind? my vocabulary might not be as large to get a satisfying one. what content warnings are on your blog?: i honestly try to avoid triggering topics on my blogs, and if there are some, they're in the backstory of my characters which i won't openly write about unless my partner is cool with that. everything gets tagged, obviously. what things do you need tagged for your comfort?: mostly irl nsf.w pictures? those give me a bit of a ick. noncon (i follow nobody who writes it so thankfully i never have to read anything abt it), syringes and childbirth also are big nonos.

shipping preferences: single | multi | no ship | polyship. aw god, i'm THE multishipper. i cherish all kind of dynamics and i think so many characters just have the potential(tm). poly i'd be down only with close friends, cuz i know we can always write to each other/there's plenty of communication. shipping boundaries: never jump on/force a ship with me - we will lose mutualship as it makes me uncomfortable (exception to this rule are close friends with whom the ship has been developed beforehand in dms): i am here for the slow burn. i also don't like +13-15yrs age gaps (but nora, you write emmri- I PLAYED WITH A 46 YRS OLD ROOK, NEXT) and inc3st (duh).

fun facts about yourself that may have changed since in the past ten years: i'm way chiller and i can easily shrug things off than i used to omd. i sadly was one of those 'weh nobody wants to write with me ):' roleplayers and dear lord. thank you for the character development me @ me

be honest, did you miss darp. come on now-- did i.......... uh, i didn't miss it as a whole, but i did miss specific people because it was so fun to thread with them. i'm glad some are back 🥺

challenge round! put a small top five facts unrelated to dragon age ! - - i've been dungeon mastering for 5 years and i'm super proud 🩷 - i'm enjoying dos2 a bit too much and that scares me, chat - i own a big, fat cat named puka - my favorite dessert is the one and only tiramisù despite not being fond of coffee (yes, i got my italian citizenship card revoked for that) - i've never gone ice skating and it breaks my heart........

tagging: @venombloom ; @fatewoven ; @mcurnwatch & @celestrahl 🫵 (if you want to, of course)

[capricores]

hi! i absolutely love all your astrological takes i've read about on this blog; i can resonate heavily to what you say, and learn so much! sorry for the long ask, but i was wondering if you could summarise the difference between sun and/or mercury in the 8th house vs sun and/or mercury in the 9th house? the placement of my sun and mercury change between those two houses when i switch from placidus to whole sign, but when i research about the qualities attached to those placements in those houses, they honestly seem so similar? it's not that i want to believe in one system over the other, but more so i want to be more educated when it comes to my study of astrology. i hope that makes sense! :)

hi angel!! oh my gosh, this message made my entire week!! i'm so, so happy my content resonates with you and that you're able to learn from my blog too, that makes me so so happy! thank you so much for following me and reading my content, it means the world to me 🤍

but absolutely! i completely understand what you mean. i bounce between placidus and equal house systems, so i really get what you mean in regards to certain placements moving around in the different systems, and trying to make sense of it all/find which house system resonates the most for you!

i would say the main differences between an 8th house sun/mercury and a 9th house sun/mercury are (and of course, this will be impacted by the aspects to these planets + the sign they're in):

8th house suns + mercurys are generally more reserved, private, cautious. 9th house suns are more outgoing, extroverted, social

adding to the last point, 8h sun/mercurys are extremely secretive, even the more talkative signs/signs that usually overshare like gemini/leo. 8h sun/mercury tend to share very little about their plans, lives, emotions except with those very close to them (and even then, it can take a lot). 9h suns/mercurys are not very secretive nor reserved in this manner whatsoever

8th house suns are more homebodies, 9th house suns tend to constantly have the travel bug/love going out to explore

8th sun/mercurys are very investigative; 9h sun/mercurys are very inquisitive. 9h sun/mercury is always learning something new and changes their hobbies/studies pretty often. 8h sun/mercury is more settled and tends to dive extremely deep into one subject/topic at a time. 8h sun/mercury is more the psycho-analyzing every thing someone said in a brief convo type, lol, but 9h sun/mercury is more the 'i don't rly care about our convo, i have bigger philosophical things to study'

8h sun/mercury tend to tie their identity to their past and their loved ones > 9h sun/mercury are pretty detached and fluid with their identity, they can let go of the past significantly easier

both 8h + 9h sun/mercurys are prone to change > the 8h sun/mercury individual is going to go through several large, likely emotionally impactful, changes in their life; and they often won't be chosen. the 9h sun/mercury is more likely to make constant, willful changes (small) throughout their life (8h sun/mercury > changes are like death/rebirth, always very large, life-altering changes can be frequent. 9h sun/mercury > small changes can be barely noticeable, usually just altering their personality/hobbies/interests regularly, etc)

also, if you've had immense financial struggles within life, i'd go ahead and say you may be more the 8h sun/mercury (although that's also dependent on your venus/aspects); the 9h sun/mercury placements in my experience tend to have an easier financial time throughout life (although can be prone to reckless spending depending on their venus/jupiter as well)

8h sun/mercury people i've noticed tend to feel inherently unlucky, 9h sun/mercury people often feel like they're quite lucky

8h sun/mercury is usually pessimistic/realist, 9h sun/mercury is more the optimist/somewhat realist

i also think a helpful comparison is looking over the different themes of the two houses:

eighth house | is all about emotional security! this person is fueled by deeper connection, emotional understanding, etc. they prefer to make deep, lasting connections with others in which they use to feel secure and better understand themselves.

ninth house | is all about greater understanding! by this i mean, they're more fueled by education, philosophical discovery, etc. they prefer to make a variety of connections; even fleeting, to discover more about others and satisfy their need to understand the world around them.

these two houses definitely have a bit of overlapping themes, but these are just a few stand-out differences i tried to highlight as best as i could!

[genlossneg]

First off. The first 2 minutes of the FC is literally Ranboo breathing (and really fucking loudly for some reason??) and walking around and saying 'what the hell' over and over and I think that's really funny. Because the breathing was not in the og stream why was it added

Anyways hey guys, remember when Ranboo said that Founder's Cut would be PRIMARILY episode 3??? Also also guys remember when they said that it would be like watching a whole new experience??? Because. Where is that. I'm 90% sure I did not hallucinate them saying that.

If Ranboo keeps making false promises they're going to end up losing their audience's trust. This is a repeated theme with them with GL now and IK that they're excited as hell for this! I would be too if I got the chance to do something similar! But he's promising too many things and then not following through.

I feel like I just watched all three episodes again with a few more editing effects, angles, and the finale scene changed up a bit. They did remove a lot of the massive filler stuff which I think helped a LOT but it's still. Just the streams

Also nearly none of the plot holes were fixed. I literally pulled up my year-old miro board titled 'Genloss Hell' with literally every detail I could process and. Nothing

I honestly don't know how it could've been improved with the material they had to work with but I did just watch all three episodes again. I don't have much to say about the ending bit since it's like 40 seconds of material and the reward video is just a promo for the vhs.

I do wish them + the teams that he hires the best but I feel this generation could have been done SO much better in so many ways. The issues have been said by everyone under the sun here so I won't go into that but I agree that the fan content PRE g1 felt better. And that's probably not a good thing. I'll begrudgingly follow the series to its end because I want to see GL improve. Hopefully it does. Either way I will be a frequent of this blog

Also the reverb effect on the voices is too fucking much I can't hear a damn thing they're saying although that's maybe an APD thing. They would benefit from captions though I think Ranboo can afford getting someone to do captions.

ok ive been sitting on this a few days because i haven't watched the founders cut but i still haven't so i might as well answer it now lol. i can't speak to the content being the same throughout but i did watch about 10 minutes somewhere in the middle at the carousel bit and it definitely felt very similar except the cuts would feel kind of random and skip forward? im glad a lot of the filler was cut though. also for real it took him a year to make this i feel like subtitles is the bare minimum

[ronearoundblindly]

sending this w love but it's really hard to read ur comments if they're purple *and* tiny

First and foremost, thank you. That is good to know, that is a great example of constructive criticism, and I appreciate you helping me make what I write more user-friendly for readers.

Second, this has stirred something in me that I cannot tamp down, and so here goes a well-meaning rant. Sorry in advance (especially if this is one of my moots on anon).

There are several reasons I do the tiny, purple text; among them are personal esthetics, good conditioning, and bad conditioning.

I don't know why I've sorta chosen purple/lavender/etc as a theme for a while, but meh, I like it, and to have purple text show up works with the theme. Speaking of themes, Tumblr has various ways you can see your dash, called 'palettes' I think, and mine is set to idk 'goth rave' or something which has purple text on black as the default. It's easier on my eyes and makes the tiny, purple text stand out nicely in my draft posts. Because that's how I see them when formatting, I didn't notice it might be much harder on a white background or any of the other palettes. Thank you for pointing it out! I hadn't thought of that.

This might also be me as a distracted person, but the visual of a divider such as this:

...doesn't seem like enough of an end-cap to the actual story portion of the post, so I change the way the A/N looks afterward to really separate the two. (Special shoutout to the fact that the divider's message seems utterly useless in encouraging/reminding readers to leave comments or reblog. You've all heard that tirade. Let's just say I know the reminder is ignored, so I gotta try something else as a transition.)

Writing/posting on this platform, as you may have heard, is a bit of a crapshoot mixed bag. Readers feel limited both in number and in time, so we creators tend to try various things to make our posts stand out, to make them appealing. Color or text variation is one of those ways. Now, I have no flippin' idea how to get rainbow or gradient text; I barely figured out how to put hyperlinks into my bio, bless my heart, so there's little chance of my blog looking super unique or fancy. Instead I vary the look between actual prose and my notes/warnings/summaries, which leads me to the sad bit.

I am conditioned by this site and others to understand that you are here to consume content. That content is the writing that I have curated and edited into a story which doesn't involve me, just the character of 'you' and other OCs or canon IP, so my thoughts and opinions are not and never have been the reason anyone follows me. Those are quite literally small compared to the actual work I generate.

I still think of comment reblogs as flooding your dash with stuff most of you have already seen. I think I'm being annoying--even though I know it's the only way to have my writing go farther on this site--and because I will do so very, very much IRL to *not* annoy anyone, I put opinion and random side comments and little thoughts in small text that is color-coded so you can ignore it as "not-story bits."

It is taking everything in me to NOT make this small text or purple. Honestly, my palms are sweating so badly, I've wiped my computer keyboard four times.

No, I don't want anything to be hard for you to see or read. Yes, I am really grateful you pointed this out. *Do* please remember that we are all doing the best we can to get the experience we want from Tumblr by customizing what we can.

*

The comment I posted in tiny, purple text immediately before this was sent to me has been changed to regular, default color. Hopefully that helps, and I will try to keep in mind how things will look in the future.

**

I did purposefully choose to not put a readmore in this post fwiw.

[kyunsies]

life update

hello my beloved friends, i have neglected this blog for quite some time. i’ve had a lot of things happening in my life it seems for the past 6 months and it has taken me all but now to finally come here and write down my thoughts. i want to first say i’m really sorry for not making content as much as i used to — i was always one to say to myself “no matter how busy life gets, i will always make time for tumbly and my mutuals here!”. however, things have gone really differently and before i knew it time was really slipping away from me and i found myself not having much energy to come here :( but life works in silly ways and i am met with another new chapter in my life, and i’ve wanted to share it with you all for a while now, so without further ado, here’s what i’ve been up to, here’s what i’ve been dealing with day to day, so grab a snackie or a coffee and i’ll update you with my life <3

the biggest change that has occurred is that i have decided to switch from inpatient hospital nursing (working in the hospital) to a new outpatient nursing opportunity. as you know, i moved away from my family not only to receive my nursing degree, but to also start my dream job working in one of the most prestigious children’s hospitals in the country, working in the neonatal intensive care unit. those who have known me well here know that this was literally my dream job and i wanted so badly to work at this hospital. my orientation would be 6 months and i would feel prepared to take on the sickest of babies. things were going well until i started to care for sicker, more critical infants. all the medication, the constant monitoring, the stress of screwing something up, the fear of having to quite literally revive a baby if they were to deteriorate — it was a lot for me. i thought i could handle it, but month after month i would start to fear what type of assignments i would get. i got very little sleep due to stress and i took it home with me every day, not to mention the crippling self doubt i felt as a new graduate nurse in an intensive care unit. i wasn’t happy, i was dreading work, and i was stressed beyond belief. i really talked this out with my family and best friend/roommate (who is also a nurse) and we came to this conclusion: life is too short to be miserable, and nursing can burn you out in a week, a month, or even years. what was the point of going on if i was so miserable and unhappy inside? i didn’t want the stress anymore, i couldn’t bare it and my mental health was suffering. so with that, i took a leap of faith and landed a job in a pediatric office that gives me a better work-life balance, as well as less stress. i actually start tomorrow !!!! so i’m excited to move on, to not be disappointed with myself, and to heal :)

another huge change in my personal life is that i have found love <3 i have been dating my current boyfriend since the beginning of january and i honestly have never been this content with my personal life ever :) i have been spending a lot of time with him and he makes me so incredibly happy, makes me very loved and treats me with respect and patience and most of all kindness. i’m being cringe as HELL but we love each other dearly and i’m gonna tell you something i’ve learned about falling in love: you realize how insignificant a lot of things are and that you’ll do a lot of things with someone you care about <3 i’ve found myself gravitating less and less to my phone when we spend time together, and honestly it’s probably healthy. so yeah, don’t wanna be too fringe but ya girl is in a happy healthy and committed relationship 10/10 would recommend hehe :)

i’ve been healing. ever since i’ve had this turmoil with my job, it has made me think a lot about what my worth as a nurse is. like, will people ever think less of me as a nurse if i’m not stressing myself to the max at a really difficult floor in a top hospital? i felt like i was being shamed by choosing to work in a pediatric office. i felt like my identity as a nurse was stripped away just because i’m not pursuing conventional nursing paths. i still have a long ways to go mentally as i navigate this weird transition in my life. there have been a lot of tears, a lot of doubt, a lot of sadness and frustration, but i’m just realizing that again, life is too short to be miserable and i need to do things that make me happy and give me fulfillment. i’m hoping i can heal my mental health and start focusing on my path as opposed to what others think of me, and i encourage you all to do that as well <3

so, what’s next?

i’m really going to try my best and be back on here! try giffing some content i’ve neglected and pave more present bc i do really miss blogging and creating at the end of the day! i miss interacting with you all and goofing around :) it might take a while but i’ll be here popping in and around don’t you worry! i just want to say this before i go — pls prioritize your mental health and happiness over anything else. i love you all very much and see you soon xx

[mokkamicci]

Kataang vs Zutara: a small chat

So most of you who follow my blog on here will know that much of the content that I reblog and post are Miraculous-related. But I also post ATLA and Zutara content occasionally. I am a massive Zutara fan and I’m here to talk about something that I’ve noticed within the ship wars between Zutara and Kataang.

So starting off, while Zutara fans criticise the Kataang ship wiith facts and logic, sometimes I feel like some of these people go a little too far with their criticism, claiming that Kataang is misogynistc, makes Katara out to be some kind of trophy for Aang and is just all around nothing more than an unbalanced relationship. Obviously they’re not wrong, but sometimes they forget that Aang is just a kid, just like Katara is. Relationships at that age aren’t gonna be the healthiest because they’re going through a developmental phase at that time (aka puberty). You could argue the same thing could happen if Zutara became canon instead, because they’re both teenagers. Not to mention Zuko and Katara can both be hot headed at times. Combine that with hormones and growing into young adulthood... yeah it’s not exactly a fun time.

I also think that Zutarans often end up mischaracterising Aang completely in order to justify their arguments to the point where it’s barely recognisable from the canon Aang. Like the way some people talk about him, it’s almost as if they make him out to be like some kind of incel. Y’all are really jumping through a lot of hoops to make that kind of conclusion. This is almost like the time Adrien/Chat Noir salters in the Miraculous fandom called Chat Noir a sexual harasser. It’s really funny the way they think.

Another toxic trait they apply to Aang is him being an evil abuser who stifles Katara’s freedom and who also has his feelings coddled by her. The fact that he is selfish and puts his own comfort and feelings over her own has somehow become fuel to harshly criticise Aang. Like he is 12! Of course he’s gonna be a little selfish and immature! I don’t think his not-so-likable character traits justify belittling his relationship with Katara.

I don’t think it necessarily helps when Zutara fans stoop to the level of Kataang fans. I understand Zutara fans’ frustrations, because many Zutara blogs have expressed that they’ve been mocked and belittled the most, by both Kataang fans and even the show’s creators themselves. It only seems fair that Zutara fans get a little payback to treat Kataang fans the way the former have been treated. But I also think by doing this, it’s created an even bigger divide between the two. What happened to “ship and let ship”?

DISCLAIMER: I’m not trying to discredit Zutara, I LOVE Zutara with my whole being. I just think that when it comes to ship wars, people should be a bit nicer to each other rather than making them feel bad about the couple they choose to ship in the show. I’m also not very fond of Kataang either, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to absolutely crucify someone just because they happen to prefer that ship over Zutara. I honestly don’t think Kataang deserves the amount of hate it’s gotten recently. In fact, before I fully got into the ATLA fandom, I used to prefer Kataang over Zutara myself. I thought it was a nice wholesome ship. While my opinion on this ship has changed, I still think there are some parts of it that are cute based on canon moments in the show.

I’m probably gonna get some hate for this, and you know what, I’ll accept it. I’ll listen to what everyone has to say.

[kaleidosouls]

hi. (pulls out uke)

IM JOKING but i havent posted here in forever huh, are ppl still around? i guess ill comment on like, whats been going in in the time i havent posted

so a long time ago now i wanted to like, cut off from twitter, so i deleted the kaleidosouls twitter, and wanted to keep my art stuff just on insta mostly, trying to move since twitter is a sinking ship right. then my instagram got deleted for no reason (and so did my pinterest that was ful of refs and honestly that was more upseting than insta getting deletedand losing all my art following)

ive been mildly caught up in IRL/college stuff in the meantime,having da depression, and the exec dysfunction same as awlays like. not much has actually been happening but ive been going acutally all over the place trying to figure out what im gonna do with my internet social media stuff. im looking into internships (other field) and im like, i havent given up being an artist professionally exactly but i think im like fuck it. fuck this like, building my Internet career or whatever. like, im gona wokr on my art portfolio and try to find art job stuf thats not really about how popular my art is on twitter or smth. none of that shit rly matters anymoer. same w here, i probably wouldve delted this tumblr if it wasnt the main like, blog so all my other blogs dpened on this one right.

im not like, done posting art online but ive been changing how im going about it and i still havent found my like, place yet. i did remake instagram, a main one and one for creature/pokemon stuff. idk im figuring out my life but i guess the main point is that its all a mess, and its not a disaster like things are going bad or anythin just that ive been in this inertia of disorder for a long time. im getting old. really tired lately, barely draw that much

i still rly love and am holding onto my personal ideas/projects that i want to execute oveer time altho they cant be a priority rn becuase of stuff in life. i got a really bad attention span so ill probably like, work on smth a lot for a few ays and then pick it up again in a year or more. the SU stuff is one of those. i actually ammaking this post bc i got really fucking dickhead comments and i was thinking of going off but my social media paranoia PR brain is like weighting on how i cant do that bc itll make my brand look bad and immature, and its like exhausting to live like that yk. altho it Is wise to restrain myself from being mean dsgkj but i also think itd be funny to cuss ppl off so :( life is very hard as an adult!

anyway point is. thigns are a mess rn and they will continue to be for the time being. my accoutns got obliterated so if you wanna keep up with me maybe follow my instagram if you want, i keep forgetting tumblr exists so tahst why i post so little on here. i do like postingt here though, nad i like making little blogs. i like ppls tags on ym art and replies. even the pricky ones like, i get to engage my brain a litlte bit adn its like ppl are out there yk? seieng my stuff, rather than just like, a bunch of numbers of how many likes or reblogs smth has.

most of the stuff left on this blog is for SU reclaimed and i still rly like the idea and its good coping for me and i want to pick it up sometimes but idk what to do with it wrt how i wanna present the content. ive considerd many times making a separate tumblr for it and i am considering that Again but maybe i should just quit it and post it here and forget about that. and find a different way to present the totality of the contents of the AU and use this tumblr as a way to just post it like, a 'devblog' (i am not developing SHIT this is just conceptual design writing stuff)

if theres anyone still following thats like engaged/interested in SU reclaimed feel free to comment with your thoughts or suggestions,i guess i could make an instagram for it? but ehh... idt thats how i wanna like, execute it. welp. i guess if i do make smth ill post about it here,i guess the point is that maybe i can try to post on here moreoften, idk, like i want my instagrams to be more tidy and like, impersonal. i deleted twitter bc i dont want to engage that personalyl at ALL anymore as an artist w viewers. not to mention it sinking. but i guess tumblr Is the perfect place to keep that unprofessional, slightly casual blogging artist experience. maybe if i get to cuss ppl out :D but then i dont wanna get harassed later over it. hm.. sucks to exist online tbh

thank u if youve read this far. if youre a mutual (somehow) or a long time follower and wanna know how to better keep up w me since i know im disappearing a lot feel free to dm

[if-confessions]

Reader - sorry to those authors, but I really hate it when they put every single one of their posts in the general ‘interactive fiction’ tag. I end up blocking half the blogs that do it and scrolling right by the rest :/

Tumblr wilderness into action, where there is no real rule and the tagging "conventions" would probably not be followed anyway...

It is true that the tag is flooded with essentially everything barely related to Interactive Fiction nowadays, from questionably relevant asks to essentially shitpost polls.

With the #interactive fiction tag being the one-stop-for-all to find IF games*, it's not surprising some authors will tag everything this way to gain more followings or some sort of interaction***. In other terms, to stay relevant**. Even if that means flooding the tag with random stuff and burying other people's projects... *people use tags as a way to organise their posts, more than trying to be seen. **no shade to those authors doing this, it is a marketing strategy, even if a frustrating one for the targeted users. ***also not a guarantee to get interaction...

What do you think should be/not be allowed in the #interactive fiction tag? Should we have a consensus on a tagging etiquette? If so, how do we go at it?

Under the cut is my answer to the first question... so just me theoretically gatekeeping stuff because I can. And because no one will end up following those point, anyway.

What I think should be in there:

Project introductions (obviously) and teasers

Project updates (added content, change of status, etc...) and update teasers

Dev logs/periodical check in

Reviews (<- there's not enough of those)

Interactive Fiction resources (theory, history of the genre, gameplay systems, program resource lists [not tutorials, I would put that in #coding if or something], communities [discords, forums...])

Event announcements [Competitions, Jams, Award ceremonies...]

Interactive Fiction discourse (a.k.a. callout posts about community shenanigans, sometimes we need to be shown we are the black kettle)

Recommendations lists

Patreon/Ko-fi/Commission posts

What I think is irrelevantly tagged as interactive-fiction:

Asks in general (sorry, but we don't need anons proposing to characters...) save for the ones related to the categories above

Polls, same as for the asks. Unless it's directly related to above, nope, pass. Results of polls as well.

Just art posts (like portrait, settings, background, random doodles, etc...) that do not fall in any of the categories above UNLESS the project is a VN or asset heavy IF.

Inspo posts. Nope nope nope... That counts for playlists or pinterest-like mood boards* *unless it's character introductions, then see below

One like post about how much [coding/writing/marketing/other IF activity] is annoying/the worst/etc...

Those conga-line/tagging posts about personal questions

Organisations lists for tags/prompts/other pages, or FAQ

Honestly, the ask posts are the main ones flooding the tag. That's probably the most annoying one out there.

What I am on the fence about:

Character introductions: does this count as a teaser? Honestly, probably more in the irrelevant pile.

UI screenshots: kind of an update, also kind of superfluous...

Fan art stuff: from the author, I'd say no... but from the fandom, yeah...

Snippets/Prompts: eeeeehhhhh... does it count as like a teaser for the writing to expect in the game? or bonus content? except non-canon shit (that goes in the nope pile)

Bonus content.

I'm probably missing some types of posts... but there it is.

Do you have to follow this? No. I don't make the rules about what you should tag or how you should tag it. Do you think this is horseshit? Comment on the post (or send an ask)

[theangryjikooker]

It's funny how your last update is about taking a step away from the fandom a little while for me, I'm taking my first step into this fandom space in three years. I became a fan in the DNA era and stopped keeping up in the persona era due to the pandemic, college being rough and my personal taste in music diverging from what they were putting out at the time. It's wild how I remember them last as versus how they've grown and changed since then, with Jin doing military service, and all of them doing their own solo stuff, which is probably the most distance they've had for the first time in years. Of course, they still work in the same company, but now they don't have to go everywhere together as a group to do promotions anymore for the foreseeable future. It's all just incredible honestly, how much I feel like I missed, despite me only really being a dedicated fan for a year and a half. Maybe that makes me less of a fan, but I think it's unhealthy to put too much of yourself in other people, especially people who you do not know personally, especially with how fervent some of these shippers get. It's even funnier when coming back, so many relatively big jikook tumblr accounts I used to follow back in 2019 for content have deactivated.

While away, I really did stop viewing jikook or any bts member in any particular "shipping" light, I basically went full disconnect mode. I do still remember how it was I got into bts and jikook at separate times, and how I felt when I stopped and just saw them as a successful kpop group I once was pretty invested jn. Coming back, I'm re-experiencing my adoration of these men and the fun memories they gave me, but I'm also fully aware once I get busy with life again, I will disconnect with them again. In a very similar way, I always viewed shipping as a personal interpretation of a one dimensional pov. We see maybe 1/10 of their lives at most, and it will inevitably grow smaller as they grow outward to their own destinies. Still, jikook is special to me, whether they're "together" or not, and I consider my shipping of them to be a fun past time more than anything. The shipping community online has always been quite contentious and toxic, even in fictional fandoms, I can only imagine how much worse that toxicity is when projected onto real people who have to see that shit. I wish that it weren't the case, but seems to be an inevitable fact of fandom, especially ones as passionate as bts's. Regardless, while I'm still here and watching what they do, I'll support them in my heart.

Anyways, not sure what exactly I was going with this, hope you do well in your irl endeavors! Your blog certainly is very thoughtful and in line with how I feel about bts and jikook in general :)

Well, welcome back! Although it's a bit odd for me to say, as I gather you may be more of a veteran than I am.

If it makes you feel any better, I've barely been gone that long, and already I feel like I've missed out on so much and that a lot of things have been happening.

I wasn't much of an ardent shipper before I left, and I would argue that I'm even less so than before. It'd certainly affect how I view some things going forward (unless I let myself be consumed by the same content and rhetoric over and over). As you mentioned, disconnecting from shipping and from this fandom overall can reset your perceptions (for the average person), and I wholly recommend it to anyone able to do so. Fandom has a way of turning people obsessive, which I don't find particularly healthy or inviting.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, and just thank you in general for the kind words.

[writing-nebula]

Actually y'know what screw later this week I'm gonna do this now

SO, as I'm sure anybody following me knows very well, Aura tends to update very slowly, and unfortunately I often have writers block for it specifically, and honestly chapter 2 of AWU has been sitting basically untouched at like the third-to-last scene for at least a month now. Almost done! But who knows when I'll actually have the mind to finish it, because I certainly have no clue lol

Because of the slow updates/slow writing that happens for Aura, I also tend to forget about this blog about 90% of the time. Hell, I barely remember it when I'm posting Aura. And since Aura takes so long, that means this blog is basically never used, aside from the occasional ask thing that nobody ever uses and writing tips I'll sometimes reblog.

BUT, even though I haven't been writing Aura, that doesn't mean I haven't been writing at all- as shown by the post I reblogged yesterday! I've recently gotten back into Yugioh, and fic brain is Going To Town

I'll also be participating in Mayblade next month, and I have a few assorted stories half started or planned out in my notes- so writing in general has been going pretty good! Just. Not for Aura, so you haven't heard anything about it.

So with all that said, I've come to a decision- I'm going to be turning this blog into a general writing blog of my works!

I won't be backposting any of the stuff already on AO3, but I will start posting my fics to Tumblr as well as AO3, hopefully on the same day but definitely within a couple days, I want to keep better track of these things lol

I still have full intention to finish Aura: A World Unseen!! But right now, writing it just isn't working out, and I don't want to limit myself to only posting something that updates maybe once a year, if that.

So over the next few days, I'll be reorganizing this place a bit, changing up the pictures and messing with the theme probably (honestly I have no idea what the theme even is, Eko set that up and I only look at the blog on mobile lol) and then I'll probably start with fic posting on May 1st- again, for Mayblade! If someone from the Beyblade fandom has found their way here, you know what's about to happen lol

I want to thank everyone following me here So Much for your support, and while I'm sorry the content you signed up for is taking so long to come out, I do hope you'll stick around and see what other stuff I'll be writing in the meantime!

[a-tale-never-told]

…This feels like a barely modified version of Mod Bubble’s post he posted just before Christmas about that comic about how you are supposed to cut people off who are too toxic to handle and that comic is actually sending a damage message. To the point it borders on plagiarism. Some of the literal text in the post is completely identical.

//Apologies for the delayed response to this particular ask, but in complete regard to this bold claim, I honestly can't deny it, because that's basically what the entirety of that post was. I'm not going to bother giving myself any justifiable explanation for this, other than I was genuinely hoping to send out an actually helpful response, using the Chrismas post as a template for what I was going to create, but I'd ended up copying it because I seriously didn't know what life-changing advice I could even offer for a situation like this, other than reiterating the same talking points.

//Frankly, it wasn't my intention to directly plagiarize Bubble's work, because that's a clear violation of honest integrity when it comes to creating original content. Rather, I was merely attempting to use his work as an example of how to give meaningful and healthy solutions to real-life issues, and trying to reverse-engineer that valuable message and apply that formula as a prototype for what I was going to originally address, but I must've gotten sidetracked again or forgotten other ways on how I could properly address a damaging topic, and as a result, I accidentally plagiarized the whole thing.

//Perhaps I should have reinstated the vital message of the entire post, which was about gradually overcoming Social Anxiety Disorder and how it negatively affects your mental well-being, isolating those who suffer from social problems from the rest of society, preventing them from interacting with others and creating worthwhile connections, unintentionally harming their social capabilities and such. Instead, I sort of misjudged how the majority of my audience was going to react to this unexpected change of tone for the blog

//Regardless, I hope you all understand that I sincerely meant when I said I wanted to offer truly helpful advice when it comes to addressing real-life issues because I wanna encourage more positivity and kindness in this blog, not just toward other people, but also toward yourselves, and I really want to show that I value your supportive comments tremendously and that I'm not appearing as disingenuous or uncaring about your personal issues and mental wellbeing, because that's not who I am as a person or an individual

//It's just incredibly disappointing and shameful that I had to basically plagiarize another moderator's work which had a considerable amount of time and effort into creating it and addressing a concerning subject, just to plunder it and modify it to make it suitable for my own intentions, even if it was well-intentioned.