#also thinking about legacy and future really inspires me

[elephant-in-the-pride-parade]

Prodigy Recap

I love it I love it I love it I could watch it forever

I'm truly irrevokably in love. I'm done for. I'm probably going to rewatch this all month before I am satisfied I've fully taken it all in. I NEED to rewatch Mindwalk and Supernova again ASAP because knowing what I know now about the memories HJ had just recovered. I know it is going to wreck me to watch her in those episodes with S2 in mind.

My ship HELD HANDS GUYSSS. HE TOLD HER SHES HIS HOME. HE DIDNT FEEL LIKE HE BELONGED ANYWHERE UNTIL THEY MET. SHE BROKE TIME FOR HIM AGAIN AND AGAIN. HER EYES GOT SO BIG! THAT HUG LOOKED SO GOOD. (I'm getting off topic a lot but i need to get the "my ship is canon - in a way i don't hate!!!" fangirling out of my system.) breathe. breathe. okay gonna keep going.

Its gonna take me a few more watch throughs to fully wrap my head around the paradox. And around how you fit a humpback whale in the original ISS Voyager (seriously. has that been there the whole time? does OG Voyager have a whale? was she retrofitted in the AQ? did Mirror J steal a whale from 1996?) And if that timeline where KJ was lost on the infinity means shes also trapped on future solum with Chakotay or just dead. and and and... so many things. so many fic ideas. so many plot bunnies

(wait no -- shoves the plot bunnies away -- go away. not ready for more wips yet)

There. was. so. much. that I loved. it was such an ambitious story to tell in 2 seasons and oh my god, i really feel they mostly pulled it off. They brought back Voyagers legacy characters and put them to work in a plot that fit them, and it was such a joy to see them again. They stay true to who they were on Voyager - thoroughly wonderfully 100x better than on Voyager in Chakotays case. and i really believe theyre the same characters with a few more years of life since ive last met them.

And the new characters too. I love Dal and Gwyn and Rok and Murf and Zero and Jankom and Maj'el to pieces. (Majel!!! is such a perfect tribute!) I want to see so much more of Noum and Tysses. I am in tears over Adreek. God how much i want Season 3 just to see how their stories continue.

But I think... what strikes me most and what I appreciated the most was how much this show wholeheartedly respects its fans!!!

It never dumbs things down or babies it's younger audience. its very mature for a kids show. it is a great introduction to star trek and the universe without over explaining. there are storylines in these 40 episodes that would be right at home in TNG or Voyager. it's really more of a fun for the whole family show than a kids show in that way. (it says something that it's the first "cartoon" my parents have ever cared for and they are watching it wholely for themselves.) It really manages to tell the story in a framing thats aimed at kids without taking anything away from the story its telling for all ages.

And it's adult audience...

I worried about how it would feel to have enjoyed such a rich fanon universe in the 3 decades since the show ended. There were advantages to having a ship with very little canon. the fan universe thrived on how much room there was to work within. After that - having headcanoned and written and imagined so many futures for the characters - I feared having some new canon come in and make a new story for them that would invalidate so much if that imagination, or create something so unsatisfying or rigid or antithical to their last canon encounter that nothing new would be inspired by it. (P/C in Picard was like that for me)

Prodigy didnt do that. Prodigy made no grand sweeping canon for the years in between Voyagers homecoming and the new show. Prodigy didnt shoe horn any character into a rigid relationship status. Prodigy picked them up, set them on a new adventure, sprinkled in tantalyzing new details, and left a wealth of room around the events of the season and the relationships between the characters for so much fan imagination to thrive. The possibilities before and during and after the seasons for the characters are bountiful and perfect for imagining their other adventures. I couldnt have imagined my ship becoming canon (or maybe affirmed by the canon is a clearer way to put it) in a better way.

And then they went and added Tank Top Action Janeway in there as a treat.

Truly a masterpiece. i'm so grateful for this show. i hope it gets the 3rd season it so dearly deserves.

[lacrimosathedark]

I have so many reasons why I love JayRoy, but there is one that is a surprisingly big factor while also completely meaningless and coincidental, but adorable to think about.

Allow me to show you Lian Harper of Earth-22, aka the Kingdom Come universe.

This pretty freckled redhead is indeed, believe it or not, Lian Harper. Unfortunately there are no good pictures of her in her originating story.

Lucky for us, her and her team of Titans appear in Titans 23-25

and the team includes other Titans kids

Darkstar, (possibly) Robert Long, Donna's son Nightstar, Mar'i Grayson, Dick and Kori's daughter Kid Flash, Irey West, Wally's daughter Aquagirl, Tula, Garth's daughter

I'm not sure where the name "Darkstar" comes from if I'm completely honest, but Nightstar is obviously just smashing Nightwing and Starfire together, and the other two are legacy names. Lian's name is...not like that. And it's hilarious to me. Just...

You read that correctly. There is a future version of Lian Harper whose superhero name is Red Hood.

Now this is more because one of the names Roy used was Red Arrow, and with Arrowfam's whole Robin Hood schtick, Little Red Riding Hood seemed like a fun play. And this is before Graduation Day, so I'm not sure if Jason was even planned to return yet. It literally has nothing to do with Jason or Joker but that's kind of why I love it so much. This literally has nothing to do with who we know as Red Hood AND YET. THE CONNECTION IS THERE.

It's just one of those funny coincidences that I love.

For funsies, here's more pictures of her.

You can tell Roy has a toddler because while not knowing this is also his daughter, he is talking to her like a naughty dog lmao

Despite the red hair, she looks like her mom...and as much as I hate Cheshire, that's still kinda sweet and really cute.

They're only there for a short while, and then the Titans forget they existed immediately after, but it's still nice.

This outfit also inspired my redesign for Lian's hero costume. I love the shoulder cape. Just give the hood some cat ears and we're good.

Lian is my favorite.

[inbarfink]

Alrighty, so a second season of ‘Fionna and Cake’ is now Officially Confirmed! I was being very cautious about speculating and getting my hopes up until it was Actually Announced, but now that it has, I can’t say I am necessarily shocked that there is going to be a continuation. Looking back on what we can now confidently call ‘Season 1’, there are a few peculiar threads which seem like they are probably meant as a set up for this second season.

Now, everything in this post is going to be very speculative. This is just me going over aspects of Season 1 which seems weird from a perspective of set-up and payoff or just feel like they need more elaboration and thinking what might be done with them in S2. With basically nothing to go on for what will Actually Happen in Season 2 save for the fact that it will exist, just remember to put a huge caveat of ‘I don’t actually know anything yet!’ next to everything I type lol

Fionnaworld Stuff

I wanna start by talking about the one part of Fionna and Cake’s Season 2 we can be pretty certain about - which is that it’s going to feature Fionna and Cake and probably the rest of the Fionnaworld gang. Although, to be perfectly honest… Right now, I am struggling to think of a clear ‘loose thread’ that can hint at where these characters will go in future. Season 1 seemed to have left everyone fairly content. 

I’m not saying that there’s no place to explore these characters further - obviously I’m sure Season 2 will find whole new unexpected angles to develop them. I’m just saying that Season 1 doesn’t really have any clear threads you can point at as a basis for a prediction. At least nothing I can really see myself. 

Perhaps we can give more focus to the Fionna/Hunter stuff we hinted at during Season 1, but wasn’t really given center stage? Or something about Fionna learning how she can be an adventurer on her own terms, after her Season 1 experiences kinda convinced her she couldn’t at all? Or maybe since Season 1 was kinda Fionna-focused, we’re going to get a more Cake-Focused Season 2?

That’s all I got for now, at least. I guess with ‘Fionna and Cake’ being a very character-focused show, and the idea of a renewal probably not being certain when S1 was developed - it makes sense to prioritize giving a strong sense of closure for the main characters and keep the ‘sequel teasing’ stuff to just Lore/Plot hints. Like, if there’s a little Hint of Things to Come that doesn’t amount to anything because the show got canceled that’s just like a Little Weird, but leaving the main characters’ arcs/relationships feeling unresolved forever would be a much bigger problem for the show’s legacy. And speaking of which…

Prismo Stuff

And here’s the real Interesting Stuff that inspired me to make this post in the first place. I think the most notable potential ‘sequel tease’ in F&C Season 1, the thing I always noted as Odd before the second season was confirmed, the main reason I suspected a second season was probably in the works -  is definitely this little moment with Prismo during the ending…

Where he seems to ‘glitch’ for a moment.

What could this possibly mean? I am not sure, but I feel pretty confident that it’s Plot Relevant. It’s a quick but pretty noticeable Moment that doesn’t really seem to have a clear explanation within the first season, especially as it happens just as everything is wrapping up. Perhaps this is the first sign of Prismo becoming sick/malfunctioning/infected, and Season 2 is going to be about unglitching him?

Speaking of which, going into more character-related stuff… while Prismo's grief-induced-depression-spiral from Jake’s death is constantly hinted at throughout the first season - it’s never really confronted directly. I mean, we can assume that between helping out F&C and having Scarab around as a personal assistant - that could’ve helped him get a new lease on life… But maybe a second season could explore Prismo’s grief more deeply?

And then there are also these two

That’s another thing I always found very peculiar in a “hmm, are they planning on making an S2??” sort of way. Like, they spend a minute-and-a-half establishing the Core and the way it works... when I first watched it I was pretty certain it was going to come back later. Like, Simon is going to try to fuck with Time Itself to get Betty back or something. But then they just… loop back to it. It was just a piece of Lore Trivia and a background for the Actually Lore Relevant Infodump.

It might indeed be just that. Just an extra bit of Worldbuilding and a neat change of scenery in the middle of the chase scene. But I still suspect that these Time Titans will become plot-relevant at some future point. 

Multiverse Stuff

Well, out of the myriad worlds that F&C have already visited, it seems like the one that has really left a lot of lingering questions in the minds of the AT Fandom is Farmworld, and those questions are primarily…

HEY!? What the FUCK??? Is he okay?? Is he dead??

So yeah, some sort of confirmation of whatever or not Farmworld Finn is/isn’t dead, and if he is dead - some sort of confirmation of how his kids are getting by considering that their eldest brother just fucked-off to another universe one day… that would be nice and give a better sense of closure on the Farmworld segment of F&C Season 1.

But personally…I think the Multiverse Moment that really rings to me the most as a ‘probable future plot point’, is definitely this little moment in Vampireworld.

The show deliberately emphasizes the moment where the Vampire King saw our Trio use God’s Remote Control to warp to another world. And personally, the vibes here seem… meaningful.

With Bonnie also drawing attention to the fact the Vampires have over-hunted the humans and basically doomed both the world in general and Vampirekind specifically… Could this be the Vampire King’s solution to that problem? Now that he has seen ‘a new thing’, a hint at the existence of the Multiverse - will he try to find a whole new world for his children to feast on?

Well… that’s an alright villain concept and a decent plot hook. My current problem with it is just… the Mainworld Vampire King made for an intriguing and interesting character due both to his compelling dynamic with Marceline and the way he has been changed by the destruction of his people into a very contemplative and complex person. Vampireworld Vampire King doesn’t really have that, as a Vampire King who has never known defeat, he's just a Very Dramatic Evil Vampire. And I feel like Adventure Time aspires to more unique antagonists than Very Dramatic Evil Vampires. 

Now, it’s not impossible to make Vampireworld Vampire King a bit more Interesting if he ever takes center stage - maybe the population collapse of Vampireworld affected him in similar ways to Mainworld Vampire King, or maybe it affected him in a totally different direction, maybe we can give a bit more focus on the influence the Crown has or doesn’t have on him, maybe something else completely out-of-left-field could happen to him.

Or maybe the Star did end up surviving the Doomed Yuri Freefall and she’ll be the one trying out for Vampiric Multiverse Conqueror. She was always the, well, Star of Vampireworld - and she has the potential to be a very fun antagonist with cool thematic implications. I mean, like, Imagine her in contrast to Marshall. He gave up on a comfortable life in the laps of luxury due to wanting some freedom from his over-controlling mom and also it seems some level of moral outrage at her Landlordy ways

And the Star is a Daddy’s Girl Evil Vampire Princess and basically everything he has tried not to be. And yet… will he see a bit of himself in the Star?

Also, I wonder if we’ll see some more of the Alternative Universes Simon stumbled on during his trip back to Ooo. You know, the ones we haven’t actually seen in the main plot.

Simon Stuff

Okay, so… even before the announcement was made official, I have seen a lot of people assume that F&C Season 2 will be just as Simon-Focused as the first season. But personally, I am not sure about it just yet. I mean, I’m a huge Simon Fan, being part of the Petricollective ever since I started to watch the show, so I sure as hell will not complain but… it is important to remember the show is called “Fionna and Cake” and not “Fionna and Cake and Simon”.

I can see the idea being that Simon works as more of a ‘link’ between regular ‘Adventure Time’ and ‘Fionna and Cake’. You know, he’s a fan-favorite and the one major ‘loose thread’ in the original show that can draw old fans into this series which is mostly an all-new cast (considering the Fionnaworld Crew consider themselves to be distinctive from their old magical counterparts).... Kinda like he was the link between Fionnaworld and the rest of the Multiverse, actually. So he’s around as a major character for the first season and from then on he takes more of a secondary role. Since he is a good friend of F&C by this point and their main connection to Ooo, I doubt he’ll disappear completely, but he just might not be as central a character. Or maybe the theme of ‘Fionna and Cake’ is F&C teaming up with different Mainworld characters for different kinds of adventures? 

I mean, it still could go either way. Simon’s arc feels pretty well-concluded to me but the same is true for the Fionnaworld crew and… obviously they’re going to have more Character Stuff in the upcoming season and it’s the whole thing about how it’s important to make your character arcs feel concluded if you don’t know if you’re getting another season. We’ve talked about this already. 

And also… There is one aspect of Simon’s Problems at the start of the show that didn’t truly get to a satisfactory conclusion by the end of the first season. Namely, his loving-but-rocky relationships with both Marceline and Finn.

Like, y’know, he’s generally handling his Stuff better by the end of the season so I guess we can assume he’s also better at communicating with his loved ones but… it is very peculiar that we didn’t actually get to see it. Even as just a moment in his Happy Ending Montage when we see him hanging out and being happy with Finn and/or Marcy. Like, there is certainly a Point to be made about the importance of Simon making friends with people who didn’t know him much as Ice King for the sake of his recovery…

But the total absence of Finn and Marcy from Simon’s epilogue still feels… odd. So that could be something to return to in a future season. Like, I did speculate the F&C ‘format’ might be the Fionnaworld Crew + a different Mainworld character given focus every season. So maybe Simon’s still-not-fully-concluded interpersonal issues could be a launchpad to a F&C season with a primary focus on Finn and/or Marceline.

Finn and Fionna adventuring together would be pretty neat, and if we’re going to give more focus to Prismo’s Grief Problem, it would be very Thematically Appropriate. But also....confronting Finn’s own Jake Grief Problems is actually kinda challenging because we already had a whole special about it.

And that special is happening way way farther in the timeline and explicitly established that Finn never truly got over the grief of losing Jake.

So making an F&C adventure that tackles Finn’s grief in a satisfying manner without feeling it steps over Together Again’s toes… Well, it’s not impossible, but it is quite a tall feat.

Meanwhile, Marceline has less Obvious Issues That Need to Be Addressed right now but also… if we do have the Vampire King and/or the Star as a major threat for this new season, she would clearly be the one to get the Maximum Amount of Drama out of it, so…

Other Ooo Stuff

Okay, so speaking of Finn and things established early on in F&C which then didn’t really come back by the end of the first season, let’s talk a bit about the Heart of the Forest.

So this whole thing could be just a Joke. It could just be a gag about Finn disregarding Huntress Wizard’s warnings and taking his depressed middle-aged friend hiking in the Most Sacred and Ancient Forest in all of Ooo, as a joke. Haha, oh this Finn, so irresponsible! But also…

Finn and Simon were being watched. By a being wearing the same mask as the ‘Evil Bear’

But one that does not quite move like a bear world…

And then of course, this supposedly ‘Evil Bear’ only attacks Simon after he tries to get his little nerdy hands on this peculiar and important-looking tree. 

This really seems to have some implications that the ‘Evil Bear’ is not just one more random ‘evil’ monster that Finn and Simon stumbled across. That they might be some sort of Guardian for the Heart of the Forest, and that their shapeshifting abilities also extend to having some sort of humanoid form, and that they are not quite as monstrous or bestial or ‘evil’ as Finn pegged them out to be.

But all that happens is that Finn kills them, and then the whole matter is not brought up again…. Well, as of Season 1, that is…

So if we are doing some sort of Finn Focused Season, that might be something to bring up. Especially if it’s paired up with some of the Fionna/Hunter stuff I brought up above. 

Again, everything here is just Wild Wild Speculation at this point. This is just a bunch of Stuff that felt Weird resolution-wise in Season 1, and some loose ideas about how they might connect. If you guys have your own ideas and observations, I would love to hear them too!

[manicdiana]

my purpose, my will to live and to not k1l mys3lfve (yet)

I will get skinnier in a sk1ns and 🦴s, deadly, emanciated, tragic, supermodel, poetic, iconic and inspiration story with before and after pictures way. And then if I don't die of the physical complications fast enough then i'll k1l mys3lfve or something. J7mp1ng or öv3rd0s1ng

I want it. I will get it. I already did very extreme things so i'll do it again, because they don't see anything anymore now. They just see my overweight ass confort eating constantly, hiding in the bathroom, miserable and insufferable, staying inside all day in bed and never moving because of social anxiety...

I have so much hatred, soo much sadness. My body will take it all. And everyone will see, the portrait of my distress and melancholy in a metaphysical horrific way, or more like of an artistic work that will make it nearly impossible for them to take their eyes away from me. Because my body IS a temple, it's just that it's a basic one... one without History. What makes a temple of ruins alluring is the knowledge of past glory and History. That's why saying that it looks normal is one of the biggest insults ever. Because think of it.. we are all artists, in this community, the 3dtumblr community. We craft our body into oblivion, visible bones defined cheeks, shades of grey under our eyes... We have our own set of pencils and brushes ; diet coke, sugar-free gum, precise forms of exercice, precise c0unt1ng 0f c4ls, precise ritu4ls around m34ls, even just the use of d1et1ing

I don't want to be nothing. I don't want to be a black piece of paper. I want too to have a legacy. But it takes some work for a blank piece of paper to become shades of complex blues... I think that's what I failed to realise prior to writing this post, I spended the two last months painting with my eyes and my head instead of my hands... I want to be more than a mere insect who's only relevency is the disgust that could come from looking at it a bit longer like i've been feeling like since the past 2.. 3 years? It takes some form of will to take action. Oh my dear lord, I wish so much that I was a exercice obsessed bitch. How can people have depression and a restrictive 3d at the same time? Personaly, I can't. Or at least I couldn't for the past two last months, the worst months of my life alongside the worst birthday day I had personaly

I also want people to leave me alone in some way, to the voices and anxiety to fuck off. I honestly cry every single day, there's really no exception... instead the days in which I f4st, I suddendly feel so numb when I f4st, and it's not even in a bad way it's genuiely in a good way, like "yay" "i'm alive!" "I still don't like life in general but in this present moment i feel really ok!"

F4st1ng is a way to cleanse your body globally, to pause and make a "summary", a redo, a rebranding, a rising sun. To reorganise all the google and youtube tabs left on your computer so that your device can be faster and more organised. To take all the raging colors and merge them into pure white or pitch black, shades of grey maybe?

This post is full of angst, I feel like i'm going to cringe in the future looking back at this post and have trouble sleeping at night knowing some people would have seen it nooo

Anyways, staying cold when i'm alone on purpose and taking cold showers is harsh, like i'm on a survival based tv reality show lol. And purposesly not sleeping at night so that I can sleep during the day or just be really tired so that i have less chances to think about or to actually eat food...

[teadreamsims]

The sun was high in the sky. The summer breeze tickled and cooled Melissa and Diana's skin as they made their way to the chateua gardens.

Melissa was nervous. Hell, she was more than nervous, she was sick with anxiety and the fear of rejection. However, in the space of just under a year she had grown to fall so deeply in love with Diana that she was convinced this kind of love was once in a lifetime. That any other love or romance would pale in comparison to what she and Diana had. And for that reason, she knew exactly what she needed to do and she finally had the confidence to do it.

As Melissa got down on one knee, she dived into the speech that she'd prepared. She told Diana everything that she was feeling. The love that ran so deep that it coursed through every vein and artery. The adoration she felt for her beloved every single day. Her inability to ever picture a future without Diana or Elisha in her life. She knew at the core of her soul and who she was that Diana was the woman for her and that she wanted to build a life with her and Elisha and any other kids that they may adopt in the future. For Melissa, this was it and there would never be anyone after Diana because Diana and Elisha were all she needed. By the end of her speech, the two of them were crying as Diana said yes and jumped into her arms, elated and just as madly in love as Melissa was.

Thank you so much to everyone who followed this current household from start to end! Playing without the aim of a legacy or building up a family was just the reset I needed to get me excited for playing with a family and family oriented gameplay again. In my next queued post, you'll start getting introduced to my Growing Together family (I've already played up until my main sims have their first child, so there's plenty of screenshots to edit and posts to queue up!). For now, however, I'm going to give a couple of fun facts about Melissa and her gameplay!

So, when I first made Melissa I was greatly inspired by Oshin and Shiipty's current households over on YouTube! I wanted to make a sim I could play with casually but added in an aspiration I wanted to do that I've never completed before. And so, Melissa was born!

I also intended originally when I first started playing for Melissa to have a fling with Don Lothario! I wanted to create some drama around her having a failed relationship with him and throwing herself into all of her hobbies, but then I saw the way that Melissa and Diana were drawn to each other and how Melissa would cancel out of actions to talk to her and I realised what Melissa's story really was. Melissa's story wasn't destined to be one of a failed relationship with a man who treated her badly. She was instead destined to fall for the girl upstairs who was always happy to see her and supported her in all of her hobbies and skills.

This last fun fact is more about Diana than Melissa. When I first made Diana, it was with the intention of exploring the Snowy Escape pack and the extreme sports aspiration. I loved the idea of an athlete falling in love with Mt Komorebi and eventually moving there, but I ended up never playing that out. So, when I started looking through my old sims to move into the same building as Melissa I thought Diana would make a great addition and even become a best friend for Melissa. Little did I know that that would turn into a romance that genuinely had me welling up with emotion when Melissa proposed.

Thank you once again to everyone for all your support for this current household! Hopefully this won't be the last we see of Melissa, Diana, and Elisha. I'm thinking of playing with them in my own time and watching them grow up and then MAYBE using one of the kids to explore the romantic expansion we're getting. But yeah, this definitely won't be the last we see of these sims ❤️

[ljjsims]

Greek Goddess Legacy Challenge: Generation #6 Hecate: Complete

Ready for a bit of magic? Please meet our next generation: Hecate!

You are, like your mother, neither good nor bad. You're not evil, but you know sometimes for good to happen, you need to do bad things. You are the perfect middle of both your sisters. You have dedicated yourself to protecting those who ask you to and need it. When you and your sisters find a secret passage to a magical world, you don't need to be asked twice to participate in it! As it turns out, you and your sisters have a talent for this strange power. You and your sister Macaria decide to use this for good. But, sometimes, you do find yourself drawn to the ancient spells, which are a bit dangerous. A bit of mischief isn't evil, right? You might even be able to use these dark powers in the future!

When you were younger, your mother used to call you little Kore (maiden). a name as forgettable as your mother seems to think you are. You love her, really you do, but you wish she wouldn’t be so strict. You need to be inside the house before dark. Hell, you can’t even leave your mothers property, because she is so scared you’ll meet bad people… How are you supposed to know what you can bring the world if you can never try to become someone? You want to make a difference! So when you meet a young man standing at your mother’s fence, you take your chance and tell him to take you home. Finally free from your mother’s clutches you can finally discover the world and yourself.

Little bit explanation with the sheets in this challenge: - First sheet is for describing your current generation, with the challenges you need to do each life-stage. Also, because I love the myths, a bit of mythological background. May it inspire you :) - Second sheet is the preparation sheet for this generation, with important characters for your story. It is technically optional, but I love seeing sims with a backstory in my world, so I would highly recommend it. - Third sheet is for your gens children. They all have their own little challenges if your interested in those. I try to make all of them a bit different from each other, so it doesn’t get boring. Your heir is also on this sheet, but I’ve put their challenges on their own sheets. Stay tuned for those ;) - Fourth sheet is completely optional. If you want sims with names from the myths and love making sims to see them in your world, this is for you! All with a little mythological background ofc, you know me.

Next Generation is Athena! Previous Generation was Persephone First Generation is Gaia

The Greek Goddesses Challenge by LJJ-Sims is a challenge based on the ancient mythical creatures and stories from Greece. I fell in love with Greek mythology in high school and have not let that love go since. In this challenge you will follow 10 deities in their journey through life. Every goddess has a different take on and goal in life. Special about this challenge?  All your kids have little challenges of their own, not only your heir. These challenges are optional, so if you feel like these are too much or just too restricting for you: by all means let them go. I also have sheets for characters that you can make before you start each generation. This gives your challenge a lot more personality and makes it frankly easier and more fun!

A little disclaimer: because I made these gods and goddesses into a legacy challenge, the relationships in the myths don’t exactly match the relationship in this challenge. There is a lot of keep it in the family in mythology, to put it lightly. And apart from the fact that you can’t do that in the Sims, I don’t really like that part. So I didn’t include it, thus the inconsistency. An example: Ares is now Hera’s stepfather instead of her son, which she conceived with her brother  and husband Zeus. This inconsistency can also be found in the stories. It’s just based on and not copied exactly, as Sims live lives that are a lot shorter than those of immortal gods. And it takes a way from the creativity if we just copy the myths. Even if we wanted to do that, it’s quite hard, as every myths has its fair share of variations and some are just completely different stories.

I use the MCCC-mod to alter the length of life states. You can find the days-years ratio here: the boring stuff.

[alonelystargazer]

For the 'send me a fandom' post, Kagurabachi!!

Yay Kagurabachi my new favorite series! Well, not so new to me because I've been following it since March. It still might be too early to tell with some of these, but it will be fun to look back on this post in the future and see if anything has changed!

The first character I first fell in love with: 

I think it was Shiba. I really like mentor characters, he's devoted to keeping the Rokuhira legacy alive and untainted, and he has a mysterious past that I want to know more about. I NEED to know what it was like for him during the war! I just know he did some bad shit, but I wanna see it anyway. And I also wanna see more of his sorcery and fighting prowess on screen. Also, let's not forget that he's hot as hell! The rolled up sleeves and the slutty exposed ankle and the loose strand of hair! 🔥🔥🔥

I'm putting the rest under a read more because this is also a really long post.

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: 

It feels wrong of me to say that I didn't like the main character Chihiro, but that's what it was like for me at first. I think I got a bad first impression of him as this cold edgy guy who just slices people up for fun from dudebros on twt, but he's really not like that. He isn't built for this lifestyle of taking revenge and murdering people. He only kept that cold facade because it's the only way he could keep his mission going, otherwise he would crumble. He's really kind and understanding on the inside and that bleeds through his exterior. We've seen how he acts towards Char and Mr. Inazuma, they're kids but he doesn't belittle them and he's protective of them. And he has an immense amount of trust in him, and he's supportive and is a source of inspiration for him, and in fact sees him as his equal (or even more) because of how much Hakuri has grown. There's more I could say, but this is already too long.

The character everyone else loves that I don’t: 

I think this mostly applies to JP fans, but I really despise Soya. Most Western fans hate Soya for being the worst older brother with a sick and twisted history of torturing Hakuri, but for that reason, he has the same appeal to JP fans as Naoya from JJK has, and I find that really weird.

The character I love that everyone else hates: 

Hmm, I don't think there's any character that applies. Most characters in KB seemed to be well-liked in some way.

The character I used to love but don’t any longer:

I also don't think there's any character that applies. My love for a character only continues to grow over time, unless we get something that shows them in a negative way.

The character I would totally smooch: 

SHIBA!!

Also the unnamed Hishaku leader known by the fandom as John Hishaku. And Kunishige. Also Hiyuki. And Tafuku. And Azami. Good lord there's a lot of hot people in KB.

don't look at me but Kyora too sorry I like dilfs

The character I’d want to be like: 

I think maybe a mix of Hiyuki and Hakuri. Hiyuki, for the fact that she knows that loyalties are flimsy and she can also see different perspectives. And Hakuri, because he had such low confidence in himself, thinking he's useless and hating himself for it, when he found people who believed in him and showed him kindness, he grew more confident and had the courage to fight against his abusers (who happen to be his own fucking family).

The character I’d slap: 

SOYA I HATE HIS ASS! But also Sojo, not because I hate him, but I just wanna see what his reaction would be lol.

A pairing that I love:

I'm a firm Hakuri/Chihiro fan. I think I've said this before, but they have such an immense level of trust in each other and that whole "we'll take down the Rakuzaichi together" thing is just peak yaoi.

But I also like any combination of Kunishige/Shiba/Azami, and Hiyuki/Tafuku.

A pairing that I despise: 

Soya/Hakuri because they're brothers and Soya is an abusive piece of shit. Also, Shiba/Chihiro because even though they aren't related and they're both adults, just the thought that Shiba most likely knew Chihiro from when he was a baby and watched him grow up is enough to deter me from this ship. But these are ships I've mostly seen from the JP fandom.

Also, I don't hate Chihiro/Hinao but I just find it funny that this ship still has shooters because it really has no legs to stand on. Even Chihiro/Hiyuki makes more sense as a het ship, if that's what you're looking for.

Well, there you go! Apparently, I have a lot say, sorry! And since there's only 44 chapters at the point of me writing this, my opinions could change, but for now, this is where I stand with Kagurabachi.

[erelavent]

My bestie and I have been parsing out what Lewis' move to Ferrari means for the future of both Mercedes and Ferrari and we have come up with some thoughts.

Lewis moving to Ferrari has made it open season at Mercedes. Not only does his move signal a lack of confidence in the team, but it also splits allegiances. Employees may be on the fence about what direction Merc is moving in and may be inclined to jump ship. Other employees may just straight up be Lewis loyalists and move to Ferrari. This is a perfect opportunity for other teams to poach Merc staff.

This leads to point #2. Toto has got to take stock of who is staying and who is leaving Mercedes. Not only to prevent them taking info about the development of the car with them, but also to ensure that the team can still effectively function and produce a decent car in the following years. The last thing he wants, is to have gaping holes in his team that will shoot them back down to a back marker team.

Speaking of holes, Toto needs to lock down an experienced driver to fill that 2nd Mercedes seat ASAP. Like yesterday. So many teams are concerned that they're going to lose their drivers and are announcing early contract renewals without divulging their end dates. Even Redbull is reportedly trying to sign Alex Albon. If Toto waits too long, he's going to be caught with his pants down without an experienced driver to fill the 2nd seat and boost team morale.

If possible, Toto needs to get Lewis on actual video saying that there's no bad blood between them. As it stands, Mercedes' image has taken a major hit. The longer Lewis stays silent, the longer the rumors fester, and the more fans turn against Mercedes. Idk if what Toto claims is true, but if it is, he needs Lewis to verbally and physically confirm it.

As for Ferrari, I think signing Lewis is part of a really big rebrand for them. I think Fred Vasseur and John Elkann have decided to stop riding the wings of legacy and revamp Ferrari's image. The first part of that is looking (who knows if they actually will be) more progressive. The image that has historically accompanied Ferrari has been rich, old, white, cis, heterosexual, male. But that isn't cutting it anymore. The sport is expanding and the buying power of young women and POC is gaining larger market share. Ferrari has to adapt or die. What better way to do this than to sign on Lewis, a biracial man from humble beginnings who champions DEI and environmental initiatives and happens to have a young core audience? I mean, Ferrari stock literally skyrocketed with the announcement yesterday (and no, you will not convince me that stock gap came from Ferrari publishing their annual report). The proof is in the pudding.

The rebrand also includes their internal operations. Both Fred and John need someone who can inspire devotion and reinvigorate the team. They've been flopping since 2008 and desperately need to recenter. They need to convince new blood to join the team and signing Lewis does that. I'm guessing they're also hoping Lewis can steer development into the right direction and launch them into the stratosphere like he did with Merc.

These moves are all very calculated, and honestly, I'm impressed that Lewis and the Ferrari team kept it all under wraps. We'll see if it pans out like they hope.

[wildfangz]

Lil (long) simblr gratitude day post

I wanted to make a post shouting out some of my favorite creators, storytellers, and just general simmers from over the last year, mainly focused on ts4 since that's where my attention has been the most. Long post ahead so it's going under a cut. If you're not tagged please know I did wake up late today so it's not as complete of a list as I wanted it to be!!

@adelarsims - You are an essential in my mods folder!! I love how much realism and/or character your cc adds to sims, from things like the piercing holes to the wonky glasses to the mechanic overlay... Just so many little things that I can't imagine not having in my game or on certain characters now. Speaking of characters, your sims both original and premade are always so gorgeous, and I really enjoy your interpretations of wg and jeb. & Thank you for being WCIF friendly, I know it takes time to get that info but it's so appreciated, u've help me find some very beloved pieces of CC. Also the level of dedication u have to organizing your mods folder is incredible and you've inspired me a lot to get my folder's act together finally!! Which is SUCH a QoL improvement

@bearphase - I adore the bright legacy and I admire all the little details and effort you put into your posts, like fixing clipping issues, making icons and templates for custom careers or story events, ur creativity really shines through. You've also reminded me how fun NSB can be and inspired me to get back to it and my human enough gameplay and I can't thank u for that enough, it's got me sooo excited for future simming endeavors

@daisydezem - You've been a welcome addition on my dash back since POSE, which was a fantastic first community experience for me and so much fun, & I love your gameplay & love how much work u put into rainbowsin! (I adore Venus so much btw!!) I hope you're healing well and that u have a lovely new year!!

@divinedionym - CLAIRE!!! I was SO happy to see you dipping your toes back in the community I missed you on my dash! and while I adored ur vatores and their story and ur an incredible storyteller, I'm glad you've been able to pivot into something more enjoyable for u. I hope you have lots of fun in the coming year and I can't wait to see what Aspen gets up to… or into… especially with his vampire BF. Aside from that idk if you'll ever wanna run another sims server, but I did want to give you a late shoutout and props for that bc I know from experience it can be difficult and I really loved how you ran yours! I could just be an anxious bitch but I feel like its so hard to find comfortable servers.... and esp the storytellers one was so cozy and helpful, and ur management of it was *chefs kiss* I've also really enjoyed it every time we've talked, tho I'm sorry I'm so shy 😭😭

@earthmoonz - LONG TIME MUTUAL ALERT ….. ur sims are always so gorgeous. Love the Devereauxs and... Max and Lena… WOO. I support womens and nonbinary rights. and wrongs. Wifey has been SO good and I'm pumped to see where the rest of the story goes. U have a natural talent for storytelling and I really appreciate how much care u put into your characters. Everyone read wifey today rn

@hauntedtrait - Another mutual I enjoy every time I see you on my dash!! Your Lilith is drop dead gorgeous but honestly so many of your sims are. I love ur premade makeovers and Dakota is sooo pretty I'm obsessed. I can't wait 2 see who he ends up with! :]

@horusmenhosetix - I love seeing u on my dash and every time we've talked has been so lovely!! There's been so many times you've made me want to jump back into my projects for ts2 or even go back to ts3 once I have the space to download it. I love your s2cc and god ur sims …. its been a year but I still smile whenever I think about the vatore siblings you shared jhskfdh they're so perfect its got me inspired to throw together an s4 save whenever I get my mods folder sorted. & I'm so excited to go thru ur downloads tag and fill that baby UP with ur stuff next time I work on that !!!!!!!!

@myshunosun - One of my favorite CC creators, pretty sure my folder has all of your stuff in it bc I couldn't help myself. Always impressed with the quality and I love the variety. Thank u for sharing such incredible work with us!

@nucrests - I downloaded a lot of ur cc more recently but MY BOYS!!! U'VE CLOTHED MY BOYS!!! You make such good quality content and I'm always a huge fan of those that help me give my male sims some flair and style, thank u! :')

@oshinsimblr - Long 1 incoming... While I've never been a sims 4 hater, like a lot of people I've still struggled with the gameplay aspect of this iteration, so it's been really inspiring to watch how you go about your game and immerse yourself in it, see all the care you put into your sims. I have to thank you for the videos you've made on it, like the one on how to make sims you connect to, season 1 of Lovesick where you went basically vanilla with the specific intent to show people how much you can do with imagination and what that looks like in gameplay! It's been literally game-changing for me lol and helped me to have more fun with my saves, even if they're not one of the rare few that starts out off the rails, I get more enjoyment playing it out until things do start happening outside of my control. & YOUR CC RECS!! I've downloaded so many of the mods you've recommended and I love how much they fill out the game. On the topic of Lovesick, I have not been able 2 get enough!! I'm so hooked lmao. Watching this series has really taken me back to the days when I was a teen reading like those particularly juicy drama-filled sims 3 stories you can't help but to keep clicking "next page" on, except Lovesick is so solid writing-wise. SO excited to see where Lizbeth is going in her life!!

@simandy - Your hairs have been an essential in my CAS folder for so long, and I've been so impressed with the evolution of your creations over the years. I've always liked your work but GODDAMN the quality always blows me away these days!! & I really, really adore and appreciate the variety! @squea - ANOTHER SORT OF LONG ONE BUT ... Your sims just POP!!! SO much character, and your edits and art r phenomenal. Corn is one of my favorite little digital guys I've had the pleasure of experiencing on line in all my years in the sims community reading stories and gameplay. If Cornelius has a million fans I am one of them. If Cornelius has ten fans I am one of them. If Cornelius has no fans I am no longer on the earth. If world against Cornelius, I am against the world. So on and so forth TBH you've also helped me have a lot more fun with the sims 4 talking about how you enjoy your game, and have a healthier mindset about my place in the community and connect back with the reason I made this blog in the first place, which was just to have fun and archive something I love, regardless of whether it got any attention or not! I started going MIA a bit post 2019 after really getting involved in the community, for Life Happens reasons, and naturally the lack of consistent posting for a while meant less eyes on whatever I came back to share. For a while I let that discourage me esp when a lot of effort was put into something, but after you posted about just genuinely enjoying ur game and loving what you made regardless of notes it made me realize what I was doing and helped me get back to that state of mind. Now whatever I make gets to matter simply because it matters to me, even if I post it at like 3am bc I'm so excited and no one ever sees it bc of that DHKDHKHSD. & I feel like I have u to thank for that!! U turned da lightbulb on

@thefoxburyinstitute - I could not make a gratitude post without forgetting to include the foxbury institute!! I've been messing around more with making CC the last couple of months and your blog has been so incredibly helpful, and I highly recommend everyone interested in creating or just wanting to maintenance and mend their mods folder a bit check them out!

@tricoufamily - YOUR RENDERS ARE SO GORGEOUSSS and I love your take on the Villareals. I never ran into the original story so I'm really excited tbh to see whats up ur sleeve... also I love everything you've shared about two headed lamb so far, so eerie and offputting in the best way. Also everyone read this is the fall here

@void-imp I know we just followed each other a few days ago but ur trio is SO CUTE!!!!!!!!!! I love Jab's design so much and I rlly enjoy what I've read about aleksey so far. :-)

@warwickroyals - Ok so first off your clothing is a STAPLE in my folder for my more wealthy and/or fashion-oriented sims! And as for the Warwick Legacy? One of my absolute favorite simblr stories I've read. I still remember when I started it, it was pretty late at night so I was just planning on reading a handful of posts and then picking it back up the next day. That did not happen I could not stop. Straight up stayed up the entire night bingeing all the way to the latest post (which was the Big Phillip Thing. I had to get up from my computer to pace I was having a Moment LOL) I've got some catching up to do but so far I think that's been my favorite arc. Aside from that your editing is beautiful, and I've always been a character enjoyer so I'm in love with how much thought you've put into all of yours, and the fact we get to learn so much about them. I think you do a really good job of balancing the cast and I really dig your storytelling style in general.

@whimsyalien I know u post moreso on twitter but since u ARE technically also on simblr... I just wanna say I love the polaris legacy and thank you so much for all the poses and templates you share!!!

@windbrook THANK YOU for making so many fantastic builds and for sharing your saves, it's one of my absolute favorites. Also all the original sims u post are so striking, and ur cartoon-ish makeovers were so much fun!! Loving the recent builds/world pics u shared as well, and looking forward to whatever you create whether its in sims 4 or a previous game in the series!

@yooniesim Your cc is a more recent addition to my folder but there's so many things you've made and I'm sure will make that are essentials there now, like the teeth and body hair and god that necklace set for men is a necessity, but outside of that I love a lot of the other CAS CC you make you have some of the cutest hairs and I really adore the accessories! Thank you also for speaking out on certain issues within the community.

Finally,

To My Followers: thank u all for sticking with me even as I've been a biiit flaky over the years. My healths doing a lot better tho and I have so much passion for the game and I'm so excited for what I have to share with u all next, and I hope it can brighten ur dash up a bit, pull the heartstrings when appropriate, etc!! I also have a lil milestone coming up so im planning on doing some sim requests soon as a thank you when that hits. c:

[hannahbarberra162]

Don't worry about delays or anything like that, this is all for fun and sometimes people are just busy! And honestly the idea I had is much more related to one of my Oc's than anything. I'll share it anyway, so I don't forget it and bc I like it! Maybe I'll use it in the future or can even inspire you in some way - oooor maybe not, but is still fun to share.

First of all, I'm not a writer - yet at least - but I have fun with ideas about the characters I create! This would be more of a filler than a canon event in the parallel universe that my crazy mind created.

In short, Judge decides to use his children as lab rats once again, and this time, he wants to find out if they are capable of producing soldiers just as strong - or maybe even stronger - than themselves. To make this a possibility, he concludes that they need to marry women who meet certain requirements: they must be strong, preferably intelligent, and no ordinary woman would be worthy of carrying on the family legacy, so they have to be special. He organizes an experiment in which several women are "selected" to participate, with the promise that the most suitable ones could unite with the Germa sons. Some women volunteer willingly sure, while others were coerced, brought in through political interests or straight forced. These women are taken to the Germa kingdom, where they will have to prove their "strength and worth".

That's where my OC comes in: a strong pirate part of the Worst Generation, a swordswoman, also part of a long line of Kuja warriors, and first mate of her crew. She befriended one of the women taken to the kingdom, and to protect this friend - and with intentions to sabotage the experiment and free the woman there against their will - she decides to infiltrate the selection process.

At first, none of the Germa brothers are happy with their father’s "experiment." They look down on all the women, considering themselves far too superior to care about them. However, over time, they start to notice the Kuja pirate. Her strength, skills as a swordswoman, and her confident demeanor - her beauty helps to - begin to catch the brothers' eyes individually. And they’re kind of like, "I didn't even want this, but if I have to choose... I won’t complain that much if it’s her 😔".

@luarsunny don't denigrate yourself!! This is an amazing idea!! I know you're going to be a great writer one day, and I thank you for sharing your OC with me.

I love this idea!!! I'm really into the Kuja pirates, I think they are super interesting. Are you thinking of one brother (Ichiji, of course, if Sanji isn't available) or all three? Or...like a series where your OC (does she have a name?) ends up with one and it starts a series of events where they find their own partners?

[kylobith]

Last updated: 22 September 2024

Greetings, traveller!

Since I am planning to write more from now on, having retrieved a bit of creativity over the past few months, I thought it would be handy to create a masterlist to make it easier to find them here.

At the moment, my writing is focused on Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings in general, so brace yourselves for quite a few of those, even if they're just drabbles! I am currently working on a five-part story on Éomer, but I expect to write a bit more on my favourite character, Faramir.

I do expect to write some drabbles centred on the characters of Baldur's Gate 3, probably centred around Astarion, Karlach, Gale and Halsin.

Eventually, I might dabble in The Boys as well for obvious *cough* Karl Urban *cough* reasons.

I will add some of my old ones on Stranger Things as well, some of which I must admit I don't think I will finish (just lost the inspiration for those I'm afraid!)

If I have enough time to write in the future (it's tricky for now), I might even accept some commissions for short stories, but we'll see about that in time, no promises haha

Expect to find fluff and angst, but also some smut from time to time. Everything will be properly tagged.

Note: Some older fanfictions with multiple chapters will only contain the Ao3 link. I don't know yet if I'll really post every single chapter on here.

Anyway, if you take the time to read my stuff, I'm extremely grateful and I hope you will enjoy whatever I put out there! If you wish to be tagged on new releases, don't hesitate to ask and I'll make sure to do so :)

Everything is available on my Ao3 account

Enjoy!

Tolkien/Lord of the Rings

Engraved On My Heart

(Éomer x FemOC) Éomer unexpectedly bonds with Éorhild, a maid in his service. Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 (Note: Part 1 was published on my sideblog, but the other parts will all be posted on this blog instead) In progress

Long Live The King!

(Faramir x Éowyn) Faramir supports Éowyn as she mourns Théoden. Completed

By the Blade

(Boromir x FemOC) War prompts Boromir and Nauriel, the daughter of the master-at-arms, to rally under the same banner despite a lifelong rivalry... but swords are not the only things bound to cross. Part 1 In progress

Lord of the Rings Week 2023

Event organised by @lotr20 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of The Return of the King. One to three prompts per day. Day 1: Home (Poem - Merry, Pippin, Faramir, Éowyn, Sam, Rosie, Éomer, Lothíriel) Day 2: Language | Culture | Beauty (Faramir x Éowyn, Éomer) Day 3: Fear | Courage (Éomer, Merry, Pippin) Day 4: Friendship | Loyalty (Legolas, Gimli, rest of the Fellowship except Boromir) Day 5: Loss | Despair (Boromir, Faramir, Denethor) Day 6: Triumph | Healing | Hope (Sam, Frodo) Day 7: The Return of the King 20th anniversary (The Fellowship, Arwen, Faramir, Éowyn, Elrond, Théoden, Éomer, Théodred) Completed

Lord of the Rings Week 2024

Event organised by @lotrweek. One prompt per day. Day 1: The Road Goes Ever On Day 2: Histories and Legacies Day 3: The Green Earth in the Daylight (art instead of writing) Day 4: Gifts, Burdens and Choices Day 5: Here With Me Day 6: Songs and Tales Day 7: Free Day - Hobbit Day! In progress

Baldur's Gate 3

The Little Tiefling

(Gale of Waterdeep x Tav) While Tav is resting, Gale seizes the opportunity to bond with his daughter by reading her a story. Completed

The Trick

(Gale of Waterdeep x Tav) In all his life, Gale never imagined undertaking such a difficult task. But he must. Short prequel to The Little Tiefling Completed

Under the Oak Leaves

(Halsin & Gender-neutral drow Tav) After the Tiefling party, Tav feels melancholic and isolates themself from the camp. Halsin finds them and is set on alleviating their pain. Completed

Little Town Tails

(Halsin x Fem!Tav) After saving up for years, Halsin settles and opens his veterinary practice in a quaint little town. Beyond patients, he finds friends and love, but also trouble. When a business mogul agrees with the mayor to buy local shops for the implementation of his coffee chain to make Heawick more touristic, Halsin's practice is threatened. It will take more than a good word to save his lifetime project. Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 In progress

Memory Lane

(Astarion & Gender-neutral Half-Drow Tav) Astarion is submerged by a desire to recover memories from his past. Before Cazador, before his transformation. And Tav is determined to help him. Could it be that there is somebody out there still waiting for him? Completed

The Unwanted Saviour

(Rolan x Fem!Tav) A restless night turns into a tacit confession. Upcoming

Star Wars

The Inner Battle (Ao3 only)

(Kylo Ren/Ben Solo & OC Bounty hunter) One year after the destruction of Starkiller, the First Order still dominates the Galaxy. Kylo Ren ventures in the Mid-Rim territories, tracking a target on Ord Mantell, whom he knows will help him achieve a secret mission he has been planning since the beginning... In progress - Editing Note: Chapters might be eventually posted on Tumblr, but for now it's a bit tricky due to the fic's size (I have about 50 chapters written!)

Stranger Things

Swords and Hoops

(Steve Harrington x Reader) Steve meets you at the Palace arcade after you come back from your holidays in California. Completed

Steady (Ao3 only)

(Eddie Munson x Steve Harrington) As they recover from the final confrontation with Vecna, Eddie and Steve bond and realise that they bring out the best version of each other. But not only... Completed

Time After Time (Ao3 only)

(Eddie Munson x Steve Harrington) Sequel to Steady. Steve and Eddie start over in Seattle, yet a new obstacle comes to stand in their way: coming to terms with their queerness. In progress

The Holiday Fling (Ao3 only)

(Eddie Munson x Fem!OC) Summer of 1987. Arwen Lewis spends her holidays in Arkansas after moving to the USA from Wales. One night, she meets Eddie Munson, who turns what was supposed to be a camping trip into the best summer of their lives. In progress

Rock You Like A Hurricane

(Billy Hargrove x FemReader) [NSFW] [Smut] Billy pays you an unexpected visit when you're home alone. The night ends quite differently than you thought... Completed

[somorrow]

Hi! I'm sorry to do this over Anon instead of engaging with your poll properly, but unfortunately I am crippling shy. Regardless, I love your fics, so I wanted to interact. I sincerely hope its not overstepping, and I apologise if it is because I know how presumptuous it sounds and I recognise I have no right to expect it and would never assume so, but personally I want to suggest an option that isn't even presented in the poll. I would love it if you would leave the current version of In Hell up, and post any rewritten or revamped version as a separate work, even if you changed or swapped the names to clarify that the current version was an old WIP version.

I completely understand how things have changed since you began writing it, and it will always be your choice and your perogative what you do and where you go with the series, but I love the current In Hell and all of its branching storylines. And while I'm excited to see any new directions it could go in, I feel like I would mourn it if the version I've come to love disappeared. I would miss it. AO3 is an Archive, and I would love it if you would consider leaving it up as an archived, older version of your work, even if it would no longer be considered going forward as the 'true' timeline of your story.

I understand that you probably view your own writing differently now, and I'm so glad you have found fresh inspiration. I'm glad your ideas have evolved and I'm greatful for everything you've shared and everything you will share in the future. It's a privilege to be able to enjoy your stories, and it would be a privilege to continue reliving them. They've brought me so much enjoyment and nostalgia, and as cliché as it sounds, I think experiencing your writing really did help me grow and understand myself better as a person through a medium I cherished throughout all of my formative years. Your stories are some of my all time favourites.

I'm also sorry if this sounds clinical, I have a hard time finding the right words, and I struggle to convey my meanings in a way that doesn't sound outright brazen. I'm so so aware that every chapter you've ever uploaded has been a gift. It doesn't feel right making requests, but I didn't see the harm in suggesting it in case it's an option you may find appropriate to consider. I really am grateful to you, no matter the outcome. Thank you for sharing your writing, I appreciate all of the time, attention, thought and effort you put into your very clear labours of love. <3

First, thank you. It sounds like you’ve dedicated a lot of time to reading my works, and I’m beyond appreciative that you’ve been impacted so thoroughly. Anonymous or not, your opinion matters. Please, don’t ever hesitate to send me a message. I do my best to respond to everything, but my busy schedule sometimes causes delays. Rest assured, I will always get back to you eventually. Secondly, I have a rather long response incoming, and I want to assure you that none of what I say is personal. This is just me explaining my thought process. 

I’ve thought about your suggestion for a while, and while I’m not entirely opposed to leaving the work up, I feel very strongly compelled not to. My goal is to finish the universes/fics I’ve started and then to move on to original work. What I leave behind here is something of a “legacy” to me. I can think of at least two fanfics that I’ve read over the years that really impacted me, and I wanted to be that for someone else. Naruto has always meant a lot to me, and so much of Naruto’s plot and the characters were handled poorly in canon. I’ve always done my best to do things accurately, but going through these fics years later, I realize I haven’t always done that. 

Unfortunately, the beginning of In Hell (formerly The Second Path: Hell) is something I really can’t bear to look at. I know I’ve deleted probably far too many works as is for the same reason, but for it to even be there mentally impedes my progress, if that makes sense. As a perfectionist, it’s hard—if not impossible—for me to let it sit there. I have a certain story to tell, and I want it told in the way I envision. The old version/TSP works against what I want from In Hell. The point of deleting it/replacing it is so that there would be no room for comparison or talk of "alternative timelines". The new version would be my canon/standalone version of Itachi's/the reader's story.

In general, these stories have been ongoing through too many different phases of my writing, making it difficult to find my new voice. Most were started from 2018-2021. The knowledge that people can sit there and crack open something I think is subpar is anxiety-inducing. Sometimes, I look at it all and see no improvement—sometimes, I even feel the quality is decreasing.

I’m not over-exaggerating when I say I put my everything into my writing. I do all of this as a completely solo parent while I’m in school working multiple jobs. I research for hours on the smallest of things. I cry, I re-watch, re-read, rethink, rewrite. I study the characters and the universe I’m in/creating. I study literature, grammar… I read through dictionaries and thesauruses to find the perfect word to encapsulate what I feel, see, or think. I have to sit in those thoughts and emotions for a while to properly communicate what’s happening. Exsolutus has two separate suicide scenes, for example. Another example is the rewrite of Shisui’s death. I had several passings of people who were close to me in a short time-period right before and as I was writing it. I have to live in those moments to conceptualize them. I'm glad my labors of love reach you. That's one of the biggest reasons I still try.

As most of you know by now, I write triggering content, and sometimes darker content that people might find offensive. I find myself asking: was that too far? Did I trigger too many people? I try to put things in the tags and authors’ notes, but do people even read authors’ notes? Was my grammar that bad? Is Itachi/Obito/Shisui/Sasuke too OOC? Is the reader too OOC? Was it too short, too long? If I don’t hear from anyone, I feel like what I’ve posted was hot garbage. I know I’m not alone in this, but lately it feels like I’ve been talking to (and posting to) the void, lol. I put weeks of work into the Sasuke fic, and I burned for some type of feedback. I didn’t get any until almost three weeks later… today. I’m very grateful for it, but with everything I put into that chapter, I was aching for anything. A good word, a bad word. I have to admit that this has me a bit discouraged, which may influence my current feelings of wanting TSP gone. I understand our fandom is dying but I put so much into everything I write that I take the lack of feedback to heart now. I never used to care; I honestly used to write because I had a story to tell and didn’t worry much about show vs. tell, foreshadowing, or any of that. But now that I put more nuance into what I write, I guess I take it more personally.

Maybe I never had to worry about receiving feedback because the fandom was more active then. Maybe all of my more recent studying has made me look at my writing with an excessively critical eye. I'm not sure, but I've been experiencing this for a number of years. It was part of why I quit before, and I suppose those feelings are still lingering around. Feeling out of practice worsens this. It’s painful to look back and dislike what I’ve written, especially when writing again still feels strange. In my eyes, why keep it up when it’s impeding me from moving forward?

I’ll genuinely consider your suggestion further, as I haven’t made a decision yet. Thank you again for speaking up; I wouldn’t have even thought of it myself. I would never have known people felt that way without you saying anything. Over the next week, I’ll take the time to consider this third option and will let you all know when I decide how to proceed. In the meantime, there is always the option to download the fic for your own safekeeping. Thank you all for staying with me and being so understanding. We’ll get through these fics, I swear it. I love you all.

[catbountry]

Hi, I'm the one who made the Respawn of the Dead page on Fanlore. I'm sorry about the misinformation about you being an admin and it's fixed to be accurate now to say you were just a mod.

And I'm sorry about not disclosing that you've since distanced yourself from that site. Thats now in there too. I respect you as a fic writer both for your fic (loved the TF2 Harlan Ellison and Steven King-inspired ones) and because it's impressive that you've kept your username for so long. I think that literally everyone who's been online long enough can theoretically be "canceled" on the Internet if everything they've ever done was connected to only one pseud, including myself. Fandom's honestly a minefield that doesn't take to cultural changes at all. The culture of, say, 4chan, Tf2chan, those things, it's so different compared to today. Same with Kiwifarms when it was just known for being the CWCwiki. One day, the culture of social media will be just like those, and I think being able to own up to who you were then to compare with how you are now, as a better person, is a respectable skill to have.

I don't know everything you've done, (I know some of the Vade thing and some of what's on the receipt blog,) but it seems some Fannish people just see "Kiwifarms" and think you're supporting the site as it is currently, which wasn't what it was back in the 2010s. I tried to be very neutral since I figured TF2 Tumblr/Twitter would find my article first, but now it's more positive on you and your body of work on there. I'm sorry that the article brought up old wounds, hopefully all misinfo on it is fixed now.

Wow, I actually wasn't sure if I'd get a response. Thank you for being so considerate, for enjoying my fic, and being so understanding. I used the same pseud for years because, well, I'm proud of Respawn of the Dead, warts and all. I don't want to distance myself from it and I'm okay with it being my legacy. Also I'm just absolutely lousy at hiding myself. If I changed my name, people would figure out it's me, so I don't really bother.

If you don't mind, just for the sake of fandom oral history, I'd like to expand upon the period of Medic being a Nazi in fandom. This might be interesting to you as somebody interested in TF2 fandom lore.

Medic being a Nazi was assumed by a lot of fans, due to him fitting a bunch of "Nazi mad scientist" tropes. This remained the case until fans went to Valve's headquarters and straight up asked an employee if he was, to which they were told "no." And then people stopped writing Nazi Medic (for the most part) because it wasn't canon. People still made art but again, we did not know the horrors that the future had in store for us.

It really is wild to think how drastically things have shifted politically online since the late 2000's, when nobody could have predicted that being a Nazi would be anything but the most fringe of fringe, and these people would be regarded as internet sideshows to be gawked at and trolled. Also, Respawn of the Dead was written around the time Inglorious Basterds came out, so there were a lot of sexy Nazis or repentant Nazis in certain fandoms at the time.

There was a TF2 fic, I believe it was called Do No Harm, that legit had Medic working in a concentration camp in a position where he felt like he had to work there or he'd be shot, and he ate human flesh given to him by an evil, Aryan Nazi OC. I don't know if the author distanced herself from the work, because she did re-work it to make it into an original novel that she sold on Amazon. I absolutely could not see anything written like this now that wasn't some kind of dogwhistle, but the author was pretty progressive, actually. So much so we had a fight while I was in my anti-SJW phase and she did not appreciate me bringing up the things she wrote about that emphasized the humanity of a Nazi character, who in all fairness, did deflect in her story. I'm sure she's probably put a lot more distance between herself and that story in the years since, given the way things have gone since Trump's presidency. I wouldn't know, though, since we don't talk, and haven't in nearly a decade.

The person who wrote that is probably forgotten by anybody who wasn't in the fandom at the time, even though she was known for this fic and it was praised almost universally when it was being updated. But she was not the only one doing this. I cannot emphasize enough just how far in the past Nazis felt to us. At the time, being a Nazi was a stupid way of thinking that would never come back outside of attention-hungry edgelords co-opting its imagery, especially in America, an allied nation that loves using Nazis as villains in its media. If you told any of us in 2009 that fascism and white nationalism would make a comeback in America, we would not have believed you unless you were counting neoconservatives and evangelical white Christians as Nazis, and while I think a lot of those people are now pretty much that nowadays, back then it would have been a little bit of a stretch. But the thing is, the white supremacy on an institutional level was always there. We didn't really notice it until it started being pointing out, and at the same time, a bunch of fuckin' white nationalists and neo-Nazis just started popping up all over the place because someone with blue hair and pronouns told them a video game character having her titties out was bad or something. I'm still not entirely sure how that escalated that quickly, but Jesus Christ. It's a shame "clown world" got used mostly by right-wing people online because the label feels pretty apt and also applies to them a lot more. There is something deeply pathetic but also kind of hilarious about filming yourself letting a gas stove burn, or shooting cases of beer to own the libs.

I think most people that used TF2chan are pretty progressive now, a lot of them have come out as some flavor of queer, and the use of "-fag" as a suffix is frowned upon in the official TF2chan Discord server as being incredibly childish and cringey. We were all young adults but clearly we had a lot of growing up to do. I think it is important to point out that a lot of this edgelord shit done at the time, while hurtful and not cool, was done by a lot of people who hadn't figured out who they were yet, and weren't really bad people. Dr. Tanner, who was actually the first person to write a TF2 longfic and beat Respawn of the Dead by at least a few months with the first version of The Lessons (which is gone now), got cited by name in an interview with an old TF2chan user for being really racist, sexist, homophobic and transphobic, only to completely turn around once he came out as trans. I think a lot of this behavior kind of functioned as a shield, because there was still a separation between the internet and real life. Now, there's more people on the internet with less websites people visit, and fandom spaces where everyone is an adult are harder to find. Everything is very politically charged now. The right-wing is further to the right than it was even when I was a teenager and a young adult during Bush's presidency, which given that we got into two forever wars under his administration, is insane to think about. It doesn't feel real, but it is.

So yeah, that's why nobody writes or draws Medic as a Nazi anymore, and that's a good thing. Sorry for the tl;dr.

If you have any questions about old TF2chan and TF2 fandom, I'd be happy to answer them.

[thlayli-ra]

Which 5 fics you've written are your favorites or most proud of?

Ooh! Thank you Anon for slipping into my askbox with a lovely little question. Must admit, this was hard! I'm proud of most of my fics so whittling it down to just five was tricky but here goes;

1. Flint and Steel - I feel like this is the best writing I've ever done. I wrote it back when I had bags of time to edit and re-read what I'd written previously so it's a better coherent story. I love the world-building, the imagery, the harsh but beautiful love story. This is probably still my best work to date and I really hope to finish the series one day and do it justice!

2. Would You Offer Your Throat To The Wolf - This one just feels... special to me. It's the most brutal, graphic and depressing fic that I've written and my first foray into pure horror but was very liberating to write. It also felt like something of an event at the time - I'd been building up towards it here on Tumblr so when I finally posted it, it kinda had its own little following. It's also a fic that has prompted so many incredible comments and feedback from readers, many of which said it inspired their own writing and that is just so cool to me!

3. When We're Alone - Of all my fics, this is probably my own little personal favourite (and one of my least popular 😂). It's a silly, little Underpunk fluff piece set in the Valetverse AU. I just loved writing a hopelessly un-domesticated Punk trying (and failing miserably) to nurse Taker back to health while he was injured. I usually write Punk as very intense and moody so having him in more of a comedy role was a lot of fun (although he's still very moody!)

4. The Moon Rises Red Tonight - My other unloved little baby! It's a close second for my personal favourite fic. It's utter self-indulgence - I wanted all four of my faves to fuck! That's it! That's the premise! But, because it's me, and I'm god-awful at writing smut, it somehow turned into a porn with plot fic, focusing in on politics, corruption, and trauma, whilst also being rather light-hearted and wholesome. And filthy too! It's a weird bag! I adore the au, I adore all the flawed characters and their self-discovery throughout and I want to draw and write more for it in the future.

5. The Chain - Sometimes, a moment sticks in your head and magic happens. That Smackdown where Drew carried a bloody Punk to the ramp and dumped his carcass for all of his hometown to see was....... [local dogs start barking]. I had to write something for it! Originally it was going to be another headcanon essay talking about a motif I'd used in several fics of Punk and AJ being connected by a chain with hooks embedded in their chests when it dawned on my to actually write a fic about it, resulting in this twisted soulmate au. To me, it's a perfect little fic, a beautiful gemstone in my collection and I'm very proud of it.

[Honourary Mention - Yes, I'm cheating here but I couldn't not mention my most popular fic The Valets of WWE. Despite it easily being my worst in terms of writing prowess, it's a huge personal achievement for me. It had a massive cast and was heavily influenced by reader requests and input so I had to think on my feet for every chapter and change things up on the fly sometimes. I also had to write for characters I didn't know very well during an era that I admittedly didn't really watch (no, I'd never seen any Legacy or Social Outcasts footage until writing this fic!!!) so that was a bit nerve-wracking. But despite the challenges, I managed to create this huge, intricate soap opera, that had so many interlinking storylines and plot threads, that had characters bouncing off each other constantly and even if it reads more like a script than narrative, I'm still very proud of it and I always look forward to returning to the valetverse for more!]

[homoeroticgrappling]

With Orange Cassidy's title run ended, it's hard not to think about what comes next when we've gotten used to seeing him defend the championship week after week.

I feel like it's worth reminding people he took up a producer role in AEW in the last few months (presumably knowing the end of his reign was coming), he produced the Big Bill & Brian Cage VS Trent & Matt Sydal match (which I really enjoyed) and stuff for ROH. Collision was doing so well at giving us something different to what we see on Dynamite/Rampage and showing off talents who deserve opportunities and weren't being given them. With everything that happened and Punk gone, I'd love to see OC be allowed to shape the creative direction of Collision. It allows him to stay involved while he gets the physical rest he deserves, and god knows you won't find someone more passionate in that company about giving a shot to the people that get overlooked or dismissed as not worthy of TV time.

It reminds me of a quote from MJF at the All In media scrum: "We’re not just an alternative. We are a gang of fucking misfit toys...the fact of the matter is, yeah, we are misfits, but guess what: We come together, we put on the best fucking professional wrestling shows this world has ever fucking seen.”

Make Collision the show for everyone who embodies why AEW exists in the first place, all the people who are doing incredible things but were told it didn't fit what was gonna make it on TV. The legacy of AEW is gonna be showing the world people like Orange Cassidy and giving them a home, people who had ideas for something new and different, what could make for incredible professional wrestling but just needed a chance to show it. There's gonna be a whole bunch of wrestlers in the future who are gonna be asked who inspired them, who made them fall in love with and want to be a professional wrestler, who made them sit up and say "that's what I want to do" and they're gonna say Orange Cassidy.

He also has the respect of the locker room and literally never have I seen anyone have shoot issues with him, he's been our workhorse champion and proven that both the company and the fans can depend on him, and I think if we gave him the chance he could do for Collision what he did for the International Championship.

[die-rosastrasse]

Sometimes, when we create we have to let go of the reception of what we have created.

I write fanfiction. 10-20 years ago, people would always review/comment. It was instant gratification. Lately, if I can ger one comment for a chapter of 10'00-2 000 words, I am grateful. People's behaviour with "free" or eas of access art has deteriorated. It's too much effort to show appreciation even if we feel it.

I focus on my joy of writing. Hoping that someone will be moved by my words but focusing on my own pleasure of wroting exactly what I want to read. If someone likes it : great. If not, well I'm enjoying my own writing.

I hope you find equal joy and satisfaction in the act of creation.

You create a lot of beauty and dreams... may you never stop.

Hi! First of all, thank you for reaching out. People never do, which is part of why I feel so resented by the world. Thank you for your kind words and a very well articulated message, which I absolutely agree with. I'm glad I'm not the only one who is noticing how beauty, photographs and creations have become quick, mass produced, single-use and lost in a sea of thousand new posts coming every second. I see that this is where the world is heading more and more, with AI "art", reposting stolen pictures or rewriting yourself to fit some aesthetic, and that makes me so scared for the future. And also, makes me even more motivated to spend more time on creating than on consuming, and being very peculiar about what I consume and how much. I understand your words about focusing on the joy and satisfaction of creating itself, it's the most important thing for me too, even it sounded like it's not. It's my favorite feeling right now: the need to create, paint, write, collage, take every single piece of myself and make something out of it with my hands. It's so beautiful and gratifying in itself and I'm at a point in my life when it's really all I want to do with my time. And I'm proud of my works anyway, I know I'm getting better for myself, I love the feeling of inspiration and I try to keep myself in this state as long as I can. The joy of making something is why I do what I do, nothing else is necessary and my private world is complete without approval of anyone else. But every once in a while, I remember that maybe if we put ourselves out there, someone will listen and sharing the beauty that we found or that we tried to make is the most normal, valid human emotion. And this, showing my precious pieces I made with adoration, and meeting not with hate, not love, but indifference, makes me want to throw up, go inside a hole and never go out. Why is that so hard? Why was I perfectly content with my work when it was just mine, but sharing it with others suddenly makes me hate it, no matter if it was well received or not? I will forever be creative because that's who I am in the depths of my soul and honestly I don't want to share my life with anybody now. But this feeling will always come again, the need to leave something after me, have some kind of legacy. Or simply inspire somebody and receive the same energy that I put in the world, or meet a single person who would give it some time, consciousness, curiosity. I don't know how to balance between hiding my world just for myself and the need to scream about it to everyone who would listen. I don't think there is a balance, just the terrible feeling of missing something on both sides. The inability to have it all is the reason for my crisis.