#also this goes to the main because I spent a ton of time writing this

[fictionadventurer]

Little House in the Big Woods is a masterful depiction of the simple joys and mindset of very early childhood. Which, oddly enough, makes the book work better for me as an adult than as a child. As a kid, I saw this as one of the lesser books--there are some fun moments and interesting stories, but nothing really happens. As an adult, that's one of the main draws--nothing happens! Laura gets to see the frost on the windows and play with her cousins and get Christmas presents and look at the pictures in the animal book and play house and nothing goes wrong. It brings back those innocent, simple joys of very early childhood in a way that's much more welcome now that I'm much further away from it.

With an adult's perspective, it's also easier to catch more details about the wider world surrounding that little cabin in the Big Woods. The family ties binding together the adults. The historical context of the 1860s. You catch the fact that they're choosing to live like this--the rest of the world is pretty advanced, but they're living on the very edges of civilization where you have to do things for yourself in a way few other people do.

As a kid, I just saw the historical moment as "pioneer times where they live like this because they haven't invented technology." As an adult, I know that there's a ton of technology already being invented at a faster rate than ever before, and even here on the fringes of society, it's got a huge effect on how they settle the area. They buy machine-made traps to catch animals for a huge fur industry (at least, I don't see a local blacksmith making these). They use a complicated threshing machine. They buy machine-made cloth and cane sugar and have little store-made knickknacks. Their way of life is pretty heavily dependent on a world where railroads and steamships can rapidly transport goods around the world, which is a huge reason that life changed so quickly during Laura's lifetime--the world was already pretty modern, and just had to get out to where she was. It's a perspective that added a lot of depth to my view of the setting.

The book's also better from an adult viewpoint because it's not just the story of early childhood, but it's a woman in her 60s looking back at her early childhood--nostalgic for it in the way a lot of adults are nostalgic for a time when the world seemed simpler and safer--which makes the perspective oddly relatable.

I can still see why it's less exciting than the other books--even apart from the lack of deadly perils, Laura's extremely young age means she's not an active protagonist. She's just watching life while other people go off and do things. Most of the events are things we hear about--Pa telling stories of his childhood or of what he's done during the day. Laura doesn't, for instance, go out to the bee tree--she sees Pa get the wagon and then come back and tell her about it. Even this simple event is something that Laura's not actively watching, which makes her perspective feel a bit disconnected from the world.

But for all the story's flaws and virtues, the very best part of the book is how much love goes into it. Laura is writing this out of love for the family that gave her such a childhood. She'll pause to note Pa's laugh, or talk about how pretty Ma was while making hominy. She loves the landscape, delighting in the details of every season. She loves the daily tasks of farm life. She's not just detailing things like cheese-making or churning because these skills are dying out, but because she's lived her life on a farm and takes genuine joy in the details that go into completing all these tasks. She loved farming so much that she spent years writing a column about farming life, and that absolutely comes out here.

Then, at the very end, we have a line that's my contender for one of the best last lines in all of literature. Laura's watching her family and the firelight as Pa plays his fiddle in the cozy little house, singing about remembering the days of long ago. And this sixty-some-year-old woman, looking back at her childhood, bringing back a vanished world for the children of today, ends with a paragraph that perfectly sums up the bittersweet truths of the story--that childhood thinks it will last forever, that time will pass in the blink of an eye, and that memory and storytelling can, in their imperfect way, make the past immortal.

She was glad that the cosy house, and Pa and Ma and the firelight and the music were now. They could not be forgotten, she thought, because now is now. It can never be a long time ago.

[blarrghe]

Shop talk! I know you're currently doing the whole writing and posting thing differently than before - like the whole thing is written, you're just editing and posting once a week. So what do you think of that? Do you prefer it over how you worked previously? Does it depend on the fic??

And how much editing are we talking? Both in terms of words changed as well as time spent on it? Do you do editing the next chapter for a whole week? Are you constantly editing all upcoming chapters??

Thanks for the ask! I love talking about this stuff :) Sorry for the obscenely long answer.

So it's the first time I've done that, and now that I'm in the posting part I am liking it a lot. I like the structure, I look forward to Wednesdays, I feel like I gathered a little bit of an audience that is there weekly with me as well, which is nice for everyone. I don't know if it makes any difference to people in terms of engagement if they hear that its completed in advance or see it posting regularly, but idk if it was me as a reader I would appreciate the regularity so I hope people do. At least one person has told me they're waiting to read it until it's finished/waited to start until it was over half posted, idk if I'll suddenly get new readers when its up in full or what but I def understand that. But yeah! The posting weekly thing has been nice. It feels productive even if I actually don't do a ton of writing every week.

Actually writing the thing took like two years though, specifically because there was absolutely no gratification to it haha. I didn't really even post wip snippets or talk about it much, because I wanted to keep my secrets. I was writing either Matchsies or A Complicated Match still when I had the idea and started plotting, so part of it taking so long is also that I was dividing my attention, and devoting more of it to the ongoing stuff I was actually posting. But I started this fic with the intention of letting it be a slow side-burner project so that I could make it "really good" by the time it went up. And that was a good call, because I did a lot of re-writes and re-structuring to elements of it, especially some of the early chapters, when I got further into the plot. To be clear, it's had the same outline all along, but there were connecting details that didn't work, like logistical travel time things that would have been glaringly annoying if I'd posted the first drafts of the first few chapters before writing the later ones. Also I re-vamped Sylvanna's character really early on into a more major role. She wasn't originally a bodyguard! Or really a main element of the story at all. Absolution came out at some point and I got Ideas.

Anyway, a lot of the editing that went into the fic before I started posting was pretty major, but by the time I was ready to actually start posting everything was much more concrete. I tend to edit the next chapter in the days before it goes up, and right before posting, mainly just for little details. But I try to give myself some distance and not overdo the constant editing so that when I do look at it right before posting I have some fresher eyes, right now I haven't looked at the next chapter (lying, I read it last night, but not from an EDITOR standpoint) in a couple weeks and I plan to put on editor glasses tomorrow morning before I post it. A big part of the editing that is ongoing is for how the prose reads, like I might come up with some gorgeous metaphor or re-do how a scene is described but keep the content the same. You get better all the time as a writer, so it's just about getting the Good Copy as Good as I can before it goes up. Every now and then I have a genius thought and go stick it in where it fits. Every now and then I also delete stuff or have a genius thought that doesn't actually fit and stick it in "CUT CONTENT" on the bottom of the doc. There's some Taren-perspective Bher stuff in there that didn't work with how I structured Ch. 20, for example. I was thinking for a sec I'd re-write that whole chapter and do a flashback chapter for him but it did not suit the flow at all and I only got a couple paragraphs in and then just... added like two lines of Taren Thoughts to get the point across instead haha. I also cut a couple chapters in half but didn't change them (19 and 20 are an example, which is also why a ch. 20 rewrite did not work.)

The most major edits I've made have been to the last two chapters, mainly to add in a few new ideas I had or to tie up loose ends I realised I was still leaving. I haven't majorly changed any of what was going to happen, it's more just me trying to really nail those last chapters. I am also constantly re-reading it in full (sometimes making minor tweaks to names in the narration ;) and also boring stuff like punctuation). I'll post a chapter and immediately get excited for the next one and go read from that point to the end...

There's also a "secret" epilogue that I wrote, really liked, and then cannibalized and entirely re-wrote like, yesterday. I wasn't initially sure I'd even post it but now I definitely will. So stay tuned for that ;)

[that-house]

The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood

This game was so good I decided to write a review for it, which is,, not something I tend to do on here. My very subjective and enthusiastic game review begins here.

Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood is a visual novel where you play as Fortuna, a fortune-telling witch exiled from her coven and forced to sit around on an asteroid for a thousand years. This kinda blows, so she summons a Behemoth named Abramar (the big boy up above) to help her get free.

Abramar helps her make a new oracle deck with which to tell fortunes, and visitors come pouring in while Fortuna learns how to use her new deck and schemes to overthrow the leader of the coven that exiled her.

Gameplay: 5/5

It’s a visual novel, with no parts of the game requiring skill in anything other than decision making. This is not a game that is going to challenge any part of you other than your tear ducts. That being said, the specific mechanics brought to the visual novel by the addition of the oracle deck are fucking delightful. For any given choice, a card represents some subset of the possible answers for a choice, which you can then choose between. Sometimes you get unlucky, and pull a card that makes all of your choices shit. Sometimes you get lucky and can perfectly shape how a character’s arc goes. It’s really neat and can add a lot of replayability. Also, you get to custom-make all of your cards and some of mine wound up being really pretty. There’s no fucking feeling like drawing your favorite card that you spent 10 minutes designing while you’re tackling a tough problem. The game took me about 5 hours to beat.

Story: 4.5/5

I have a few minor gripes with the plot. Some of the characters and their arcs could have stood to have a little more time spent on them (the romance subplot in particular is… very fast). Besides that, the characters are all delightful, the overarching plot is FUCKING BEAUTIFUL and the setting is really fucking interesting. The game tackles things like gender, sexuality, fate/free will, and Lovecraftian gods. Their handling of these themes (besides fate/free will, which is definitely the core idea being explored here) isn’t anything revolutionary but it’s solid. I almost cried a few times, both during some conversations in the middle of the game and during the absolute beauty of a climax. There’s a decent number of possible endings the game can have (There seems like there’d be 6 main possible endings). As befitting a game that’s all about fate, your choices VERY early on will inexorably bind you to a given path, but the terms of how it all shakes out are up to you.

Art: 5/5

Gorgeous gorgeous pixel art. Phenomenal aesthetics. A variety of wonderful character designs. There isn’t much to say, it’s just pixel art executed flawlessly. There isn’t a ton of stuff going on, because it’s a visual novel about sitting on an asteroid in space, but god this game is so fucking pretty like jesus christ

Music: 6/5

Every character has their own theme that plays while you’re talking to them (and they’re all bangers). I will be listening to this soundtrack for a WHILE, and I will 100000% be stealing the climactic song for a D&D boss fight. It’s very Hyper Light Drifter: impeccable vibes and with a certain somber determination present throughout much of it.

Final Ranking: a very subjective 5/5

This game isn’t gonna be for everyone. Visual novels aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, and they aren’t necessarily mine. But this game was fucking awesome, and it’s currently $15 on Steam. If you check it out, I’d love to hear what you thought of it!

[regarding-stories]

Until it breaks: Suspension of disbelief has limits

Nothing deals damage to suspension of disbelief like cold hard facts. Because once the analytical part of your brain kicks in, it's all over. All the Fridge Logic will unravel, and frankly, the enjoyment drains out the watching or reading experience.

Now, I picked this topic because of a recent Lupin III Part 6 episode I watched. Being one of the longest-running shows with endless material released over the course of decades, Lupin III has in general good writing. Or let's say it like this: Typically the authors nail the characters.

Yes, part 6 in general is a highly enjoyable show that can bank on the fact that our main characters - Lupin, Jigen, Fujiko, Goemon, and Zenigata - are well fleshed-out, recognizable characters that you are just gladly along for the ride with and the general fun factor of the show ensures that you merely experience the differing quality of episodes as minor ups and downs along the journey.

There are exceptions, though.

When it holds

Lupin III is basically revived as "parts," where each part could be considered a big season. I'm currently watching Part 4, and several episodes definitely have the quality of Fridge Logic - you might question things after the episode finishes, but you're basically okay with how things unfold while they still do.

One episode, hitting that slightly noir vibe, focuses on Inspector Zenigata, Lupin's eternal complement.

The show aired almost ten years ago, so forgive me for spoilers.

The basic plot of the episode "Until the Full Moon Wanes" revolves around every scoundrel in the world believing that the widow of a media mogul sits on a huge hidden fortune because her husband seeded the rumor before he died. The first climax of the episode seems to be convincing the world that this was indeed a lie - a cooperation between Lupin and Zenigata. In the denouement we learn that the fortune actually exists and the widow wanted potential thieves off her back, Lupin shows up to steal it and is finally thwarted by Zenigata.

The episode really revolves about human folly, with a media mogul rescuing a girl from sexual violence, taking her as his beloved wife, then completely scorning her when she cheats on him once - including marking her body. This theme of scorn beyond the grave and its somewhat noir vibe playing on human passion and the unreliability of love and character are enough to keep us entertained until we get our inevitable finale.

I'd say this one stretches suspension of disbelief but doesn't break it. Though it raises questions - even if she had a huge fortune hidden, wouldn't it be easier to own it, hire guards, and just enjoy it? Furthermore, how did Lupin and his gang intend to steal the fortune?It's gold. It weighs tons and tons. (And yes, it's enough gold to be considered the reserves of a country. Did the author not watch "Die Hard with a Vengeance"?) It's also stacked in the most stupid way possible to impress the audience. Once you start to think about it, the story unravels and falls apart. But I'd bet while it goes on with its (somewhat forced) twists and turns, you're willing to follow it.

When it breaks

There are, however, some episodes too stupid to live, and so far the unrivaled king of the trash heap is "The Jet-Black Diamond". I'll spoiler this one so you don't have to watch it.

So, some small wooden dolls are somehow supposed to lead to a treasure. But the story makes no sense, no matter which way you look at it.

The central theme behind the treasure hunt is supposedly a love story. A somehow Japanese woman in Brazil falls in love with a pirate who basically sacks her village but spares her. (Because seeing people die you spent your life with is conducive to romance. Maybe she had Stockholm Syndrome.) They know they have little time so they concoct a plan to hide some treasure and meet again. Which never happens because the pirate gets executed shortly after and she commits suicide.

This might make sense on the surface but just wait for the rest...

The clues they leave lead to a cashew tree with magical red glowing flowers that only blossoms every 75 years. The biological facts themselves are mindboggling - how does it benefit the damn tree to blossom only every 75 years? And how is it so exact over such a long period of time?? And why is everyone showing up at the right time to see it???

Breathe. Slow, deep breaths.

So this basically means they planned to meet again when they were around a hundred. Instead of, you know, like five years later.

Then... piracy in the Caribbean and around South America was a phenomenon largely limited to the 16th and 17th centuries, with stragglers hanging on until the 18th century. Steam vessels and larger national navies ended it for good in the 19th century. (To put it very roughly.) The episode itself can be assumed to be set in 2021 when Part 6 aired. So, are we to assume that old-fashioned piracy occurred in Brazil in the mid of the 20th century? The age of airplanes and nuclear bombs? (Piracy persists but is a rather local phenomenon in the world, relying on quick hit-and-run raids.)

What is the treasure, actually? Pepper. Some special pepper, that supposedly ended up making the village prosperous. This is probably an allusion to the times when pepper was still highly valuable, something which was maybe true up to the 17th century (as a little research shows).

What we really have here is an author shoe-horning a pirate story into Lupin III, and somehow trying to tie it to a love story and a living relative. (Instead of a long-lost pirate treasure.) But frankly, the whole thing fails over and over again. The finale is devoid of any logic. Even the dolls are somehow important because their patterns help identify the tree by its blossom patterns. The only tree blooming in that particular year, looking entirely magical and obvious BY ITSELF!!

(Also some young local thugs show up to gang up on the old lady and her company because everybody thinks about the ages old treasure all the time and so the arrival of a Japanese lady is clearly stirring up the area.)

To make the offense even worse, just when the story focuses on Fujiko being in the lead for quite a while, Lupin shows up as a drone projecting a hologram acting as Captain Exposition, stealing her thunder. They couldn't be arsed to write him in properly, but they couldn't leave him off-screen for five minutes or have somebody else have the spotlight. Wow, that was horrible writing altogether.

And here we have it - it qualifies as a story. It's tied together by a plot. Events happen, characters appear, and the same mixture of twists and turns and a lack of treasure at the end (for Lupin or Fujiko) appears, but it doesn't work. You could be forgiven for not knowing about the history of piracy, but the notion of a tree with such magical properties is not a twist to a story, it's a ridiculous device meant to introduce one twist too many to a poorly written story.

Because for some reason the author was so focused on thwarting the thieves so much he had to set up an entirely unbelievable gotcha even for Lupin standards. A show where people evade bullets near point blank range or where eating a steak can restore Lupin's blood loss within hours. It's actually quite the accomplishment!

[itsclydebitches]

You're saying what I've been feeling this whole time. The story doesn't do enough to justify Ruby's place at the center of it. I get that she's special because of her eyes, but the only time that made her the center of attention in the main conflict was when Salem sent Tyrian after her. After that Salem stopped caring about her because reasons.

Yup.

RWBY got it right at the start. We're told in episode one that Ruby has eyes that are somehow ~special~ and they intrigue the mysterious, powerful headmaster. All they needed to do was establish that this rare power is the only way of beating Salem, thereby forcing Ruby to shoulder the responsibility of this war, or else doom all of Remnant. It's a classic set-up and it works. Harry is named Voldemort's equal by a prophecy. Ellie is the only one immune to Cordyceps. Buffy has been gifted the power of the Slayer. Aragorn is heir to the throne. There are a ton of ways to go about it, but so long as you give your character a unique position/power and say, "If you don't do it literally no one else can" then you've got a perfect recipe for them grappling with that responsibility. They're at the center of the tale because they have to be.

RWBY didn't follow through with the Silver Eyes. At no point have they ever said that it's a crucial (or even helpful) ability against Salem, which means that, nine Volumes in, Ruby remains a relative nobody who is choosing to put herself at the center of this fight. Which is also a very compelling setup! But RWBY has simultaneously a) not written Ruby as having more power/better ideas/wisdom/whatever to justify why others should listen to her over the already established heads of this war and b) lately the writing has sharply pulled back on her willpower. She's no Goku, mastering techniques her allies - at the time - can only dream of and possessing a drive to protect others that will overcome even the Gods themselves. Ruby's subconscious spent the whole vision going on about how hard it is that she has to fight all the time, figure out a solution to an impossible problem, save the entire world, and meanwhile I'm going, "You literally don't? Have to do any of that??" The ONLY reason why we, the audience, read Ruby as "having" to be at the center of the fight is because we recognize that we're watching a show with her name in the title, but the in-world reality is that Ruby is a blip in a multi-dimension world with incredibly little to offer. What would happen if Ruby actually decided to bow out? Nothing. Remnant would not fall because there are other huntsmen, other fighters, and Ozpin who has been at this for actual lifetimes, continually keeping Salem from taking over. If things were to fall that would be a direct result of the series long choices Ruby and her teammates have made that have actively made things worse (taking the Relics out of their vaults, dropping Atlas, etc.) It simply doesn't work for the story to pretend that Ruby is so burdened by this war when nothing and nobody is making her continue on. Not even, as you say, following up on Salem's Volume 4 obsession with her. Ruby could go, "You know what? You're right. I'm done. I'm gonna go defend average people from grimm in some no-name town for the rest of my life" and the fight would continue on without her. Without that success/drive that makes a character go, "I don't have to help, but by god I'm going to!" Ruby is a flat protagonist who is only important because the show says she is.

The longer the series goes on the more I wish it were (in direct contrast to its initial tone/genre) an intentional tragedy. A young girl with dreams of being the hero of a fairy tale wrests power from those with more experience, wisdom, power, and resources than her because she's so sure she can do it better. Her good intentions are praiseworthy, but at the end of the day hubris, naivety, and a rigged game from the Gods inevitably doom the world. You tried, but at the end of the day you were never going to win because no, life isn't a fairy tale.

[187days]

Day Fifty-Two

So I did the Chad1000 workout yesterday for Veterans Day, which meant going up the stairs to my classroom today was UTTERLY TERRIBLE.

But, once I got there, the day was fine. Mr. N came to chat about department head things since we both have Block 1 prep, then I graded the current events write-ups my students had turned in on Friday. The turn-in rate in one of my sections of Global Studies was really low, and their turn-in rate has been trending down for a while because they're getting distracted and not using their time efficiently. So I brought it up at the beginning of class, suggested things they could do to improve, and warned them that that I need to see improvements by Thanksgiving or I'm assigning seats again when they get back from that break. I was specific, too; I told them what their average turn-in rate is currently, and how much I want it to increase in that time frame.

We'll see what happens.

The lesson today was a good one about Buddhism. We watched a video about the day int he life of a Buddhist monk, which generated a ton of conversation. Then I did some old school board notes- it's been a while since I did those- comparing and contrasting Buddhism with Hinduism. The eightfold path came up a lot in those notes, so we finished class by reading an article together about each part of the path. That generated some more discussion, observations about Buddhism's influence on Star Wars, and me proving humans can't actually multi-task with another one of my Buddhist-inspired martial arts tricks.

In APGOV, my students did some argument FRQ practice. Some of them nailed it right away, but a lot of them struggled, at first, because they hadn't committed the necessary information to memory and weren't sure how to do it. So we paused, I had them go back to their notes- rather than flipping through the foundational documents themselves, which is what a lot of them had been doing- so they could see these documents' main ideas in clear, concise form. Then I discussed how to memorize main ideas (Fed 10 = factions, Fed 51 = separation of powers, Article II = powers of the presidency, and so on), brain dump that stuff onto the page with the FRQ prompt, and then begin writing from there. That helped a lot. I also went back over the rubric because one of the boys asked me to, and I think that was helpful, too. We wrapped up class with an assignment reviewing checks and balances, which they all did quite well on, so that's good.

I spent a few minutes after the bell getting set up for tomorrow, then headed down to the cafeteria for a faculty meeting. I was sitting with my usual Cacophonous friends, but then I spotted our newly hired machine tech teacher, Mr. O, who was a student in my class during my very first year of teaching. So, of course, I went over to say hi. We chatted about how he's doing so far- he just started last week when quarter 2 started- and about how young I was when I was his teacher (a good decade younger than he is now), and some other stuff. That was cool. I've had former students become my colleagues in the district before, but none from so early on in my teaching career.

The meeting itself was short. The Principal gave a few shout-outs, reminded us of procedures for an upcoming fire drill, and we discussed the upcoming "phone-free Fridays" that will serve as practice for a full bell-to-bell cell phone ban that will be implemented next semester. The thinking is we can get students used to the expectation, iron out any issues that arise (like... do a ton of students end up in the main office to use the phone), and so on so that the policy change goes smoothly when it happens.

[ihaveatheoryonthat]

A small handful of songs I associate with A Glint, a Spark. (Spoilers for both that fic and Memory, Heavy in My Heart.)

Arms Outstretched - Griffin McElroy

As I alluded to in the MHIMH playlist, Arms Outstretched was the song I had all but set AGAS to, for the animatic in my head. The progression of it from being kind of downtrodden, to this moment of hope, and then a happy epilogue was pretty perfect, both for the idea I actually went with, and the one I may still write.

Chapters 1 & 2

Place to Start - Mike Shinoda

Do I even have a decision? Feeling like I'm living in a story already written. Am I part of a vision made by somebody else? / Am I out of conviction with no wind in the sail, too focused on the end and simply ready to fail?

Cause I'm tired of feeling like I can't control this; tired of feeling like every next step's hopeless. Tired of feeling like what I build might break apart, I don't want to know the end, all I want is a place to start.

I don't have a ton to elaborate on with the lyrics. The first part just meshes really nicely with the theme of being unable to influence events that have already happened, and having to take them as they come. The second part resonates particularly well with the first chapter, in my opinion. I also like having a song from the same artist in both halves of the main story, and the contrasting tones.

Chapters 3-9:

The Heart of a Graveyard - Demon Hunter

Tell me that your final home is not a shot in the dark; tell me that your hopes and dreams don't end in the heart of a graveyard.

Tonally, it doesn't fit perfectly with the rest of this list, but the subject matter is pretty on the mark. There's a sense of preparing for the worst while still hoping for the best that I like, particularly in this context.

Chapter 10:

Final Battle: Malladus (From "The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks") - The Noble Demon

(The portion up to 0:46 is an intro, and not the most relevant to this list; the actual battle theme starts warming up after that.) A friend unintentionally reminded me that I love this track, and since that conversation happened smack at the climax of MHIMH, I naturally connected the dots. This would correspond to the recorded battle with Arceus, because the track for it in canon PLA just does not fit this version. I chose this remix in particular because it really emphasized the woodwind notes in parts-- which made sense re: the Azure Flute-- and because it has that underlying, train-chugging percussion. It's always struck me as a very triumphant battle theme, which fit beautifully.

Chapter 11:

Welcome to the World of Pokemon - Super Pokemon Mystery Dungeon

It's wondrous and mysterious, but gentle and a bit low-key at the same time, which I think makes it work very well for the build up this chapter, and most of the time spent in the Hall of Origin.

Mysterious Rainbow Girl - Wandersong

The same goes for this track; I was pretty torn as to which one I liked better, so I ended up keeping both for a little bit of variation.

Chapter 12:

On the Beach at Dusk - Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time, Darkness & Sky

I had this one set aside specifically for the scene at the top of Dragonspiral Tower, where the reality of the situation is beginning to sink in. If you're familiar with Explorers, there... might be something of a parallel to be read into the situations they 'play' over.

Misc:

The yet untitled song from The Dreadful Demise of the Dinosaurs - Puppet History

A lonely life among the stars, my destination veiled and far away, but I knew one day we'd find each other. Then in the dark, a glint, a spark, the greens and blues, be still my heart-- and once I hit, that's it, I'm here forever.

While I'm here, I should probably include the fic's namesake. It's really only the one verse (~0:25-0:47), because this song has a very specific subject matter and thesis, but that one passage really stuck with me in this context. The first half definitely resonates most strongly with chapter 11, but I was also aiming to match the second to 12-- specifically "the greens and blues, be still my heart" to the scene on Dragonspiral, and to end with the promise of "I'm here forever"

[ctrl-alt-deleting-yr-face]

fuck it

i’m not scared

going through the entire oc ask game list for fun and answering them for hikari

i wanna post more about her but i get nervous!! but i’m still gonna do it anyways!!

be prepared, it’s a long one ^^

Note: As i was writing this i realized it got too long. So uh. I’ll be making a part 2. ^^

Edit: part 2 is up!

���Associated color?” Blue and white. Hikari is mainly associated with those two colors. Purple and yellow are also in there, but blue and white definitely make up the main palette ^^

“Favorite music genre?” Definitely indie rock, especially surf rock. Drawings Of Nothing by Archer Oh would probably be her favorite song, since it’s like. THE Hikari song in my brain

“Choice of weapon?” Hikari doesn’t really like to fight when it’s unnecessary. But she doesn’t use a weapon! She uses her magic to make big ol claws on her hands! She likes it since it feels natural. It’s an extension of her body, and she can get as up close and personal as she wants without really dealing with consequences, so she doesn’t mind!

“Are they crafty?” Vaguely? Not very much, though. She probably would if she spent more time alone, but since she’s always used to having others around, she doesn’t really get the chance to be super crafty.

“Usual wardrobe, practical or aesthetic focused?” Typically Hika would probably just wear her usual outfit or knight uniform, but if not she’d probably lean towards aesthetics. That’s not to say she doesn’t have cozy clothes! Sometimes she has a hard day and she just wants to curl up in the biggest, fluffiest sweater ever. ^^

“Hair?” VERY long and sleek blue hair. Usually she wears it tied in twintails, high twintails in her Xrd design and low twintails in her Strive design. It’s only really worn down when Nekomata takes over

“Favorite animal?” Now, you’d guess cat. After all, they’re not only a big part of her (locked away) past, but she also has cat ears and a tail! However, you must remember. She doesn’t give a fuck about herself. The only person she really does? Romeo. Her favorite animals are sheep.

“Nickname?” Not a real one, no. The most she has is Delilah calling her “big sis” at times and Romeo calling her an “insufferable cat”

“Favorite/least favorite food?” Dragonfruit is absolutely her favorite. She LOVES dragonfruit. As for least favorite.. Probably mutton, rock candy, or anything extremely bitter.

“Jewelry?” Not a ton? Unless you count her brooch and shackles on her strive design, which are made of a silvery metal, not really.

“How much are they like you?” Well, we’re both autistic, queer, love music, and vaguely depressed. So I’d probably get along pretty well with her.

“How long have they been around? Birthday?” Hikari is a very interesting case, to say the least. To start with the easy part, Hikari’s birthday is October 30th. I don’t remember why i decided that, it certainly wasn’t the day i made her, i think it just felt right. But as for how long she’s been alive… It’s complicated. Both physically and mentally, Hikari is in her late teens. 17-19 range. However, technically… She’s probably like in her 30s. This is because she died during the crusades as a teenager and she was brought back to life by the magical foci who fell in love with her and fused with her, turning her into an immortal yokai herself. She was actually alive in Baiken’s colony when it was around! I was thinking the attack that destroyed the colony and took Baiken’s arm and eye was the same one that killed Hikari at the time.

“How many languages can they speak?” 2! Hikari is fluent in both Japanese and English! She thinks it’s funny to annoy Romeo in Japanese since he can’t properly respond to it

“Good with numbers?” Vaguely? Her knowledge goes to like maybe beginning of algebra 1 and that’s it. She learned a lot from Romeo.

“What’s their family like?” Before their deaths, Hikari lived a quaint life in one of the Japanese colonies with her dad, older brother, and very abusive mom. They were all rather loving and didn’t mind Hikari’s differences and behavioral struggles (aside from the mom). After they all died, Hikari was revived, and her memories were erased, there was a long period of time where Hikari only had Bedman. He was all she knew. After his death, she was struck with deep grief. Grief that began to heal after she managed to meet Delilah. She sees Delilah, the bedframe, and Baiken to be the closest she has to having Romeo back at the current moment. She currently lives with them when she’s not working at the castle, and of course, Romeo joins their little household once he’s revived.

“Any pets?” Nope! She loves animals but never really had the chance to care for any pets.

“How did they spend their free time as a child?” Hikari loved nature before her death. Especially the forest and water. Whether it be running through the grass while calling out to singing birds, splashing in creeks with her brother, or accompanying her dad on fishing trips, she always wanted to be outside.

[sunsteps]

ops and hcs on hualian idol au. also i adore ur writing and want it injected into my bone marrow

firstly, thank you. this is one of the best compliments i have ever gotten for my writing and i would like to eat it

secondly, i literally spent like 5 mins trying to figure out what ops and hcs means but i am going to assume it means opinions and headcanons??? consulted my friend and she also said opinions and headcanons so we are going to go with that. if it doesn’t mean that then this is going to be really embarrassing BUT.

i actually have like. 3 hualian idol au wips buried somewhere in my gdocs. maybe one day i will complete them but in the mean time here are some of my. ops and hcs:

- i had an idol au a few years ago where hua cheng is in a group with feng xin, mu qing, and he xuan, and i still think that’s so fucking funny. i just dug through my gdocs and found the 1 page i wrote of it back in september 2021:

- alternatively i think having all 4 calamities in an idol group is also equally hilarious. and then another group is xianle trio. sqx and swd an idol duo. OR three tumors are a group and sqx a solo idol.

- alternatively xianle trio group and huaxuan duo because i am crazy and predictable.

- idk if this counts but i have another wip from february 2021 where xie lian works at a convenience store and is a fan of hua cheng the idol. like SUCH a big fan. he goes broke to buy all the merch, knows of him from the predebut days, attends every concert albeit his nosebleed seats, etc etc. and then one day hua cheng walks into the store in like a mask and stuff and immediately falls in love with the pretty cashier and stuff. u know how hualian goes. anyways i also found the 1 page of this au i had written:

oh my god ok so i actually had more of this au dumped in my dms with bella (astrocosmos on ao3). so fxmq are xl’s besties in this au and they are both secretly big fans of hua cheng even tho they would rather die than admit that out loud. one day they all accidentally meet in the merch line at one of hua cheng’s concerts and all hell breaks loose. 

fxmq: [fighting in the merch line] xie lian walking up to them out of nowhere: do you guys think i should get the ghost city era picket or the paradise manor era picket? fxmq, immediately: OBVIOUSLY GHOST CITY—wait, XIE LIAN?!?!?!!?!?! xie lian: [smiling serenely] hello guys

MOVING ON

- hualian idol au where xianle trio are an idol group and hua cheng literally comes to EVERY SINGLE ONE of their fansigns, buys a SHIT ton of albums to make sure he gets in every time, and at the actual fansign he just completely ignores fx and mq and instead spends the entire time complimenting xl and showering him with presents, etc etc. xie lian’s company literally has to enforce a No Gifts At Fansigns rule bc of hua cheng. fx and mq thinks that he is the creepiest thing on the planet. there are whole subgroups of netizens who HATE hc and think he’s really creepy bc he’s ALWAYS around xl. meanwhile xl thinks hc is the cutest person ever and is in love with him. yeah.

- hualian idol au with solo idols xie lian and hua cheng and their fanbases HATE each other. think armys and blinks. engenes and teumes. i can’t really think of any more but u get the idea. meanwhile xl and hc are dating LMAOOO

- ok that ^ but imagine like a socmed/twt au where like. this random twt account starts getting really popular and they are like hualian shippers and both of xl and hc’s fanbases make fun of them all the time and it’s literally the only thing the two groups ever agree on: that this random acc is stupid af and completely delusional. THEN ONE DAY the admin of the acc posts a selfie and guess what. it’s hua cheng. and then xl replies to the selfie from his very real main twitter account and the internet just goes fucking bonkers

i am sorry this is literally a whole dump of aus and thoughts for no reason but. yeah. those are all the ops and hcs i can think of right now!!!!!!! thank u for asking me this question and giving me an excuse to ramble about hualian. <3 hope you are having a lovely day <3

[neitherabaron]

You mentioned that you've finished writing Gobelins, and I'm wondering if you're gonna raise money to produce it, or do it out of your own pocket? Either way, I'm very excited to hear it, hope your op goes well!

Thanks for a great question! There's definitely gonna be an Indiegogo fundraiser at some point before I start production, but the scale of that is going to need to depend on what my life is looking like at that time. In other words, when I’m physically able to devote time to the album again, I’m going to have to assess my capacity before deciding the scope of the project.

Basically, there's an "ideal" way I'd like to make Carnaval des Gobelins, with a physical edition, cool merch for backers, guest musicians and liner art commissions. I think it's gonna be the most satisfying experience for listeners and the best move from a "growing my business" point of view - producing that kind of stuff gives me a chance to order excess merch and another little revenue stream, which would take me a little step closer to making this my main job. But, it's also a big project to manage and as much as I want to do it that way, I'm not gonna bet on being physically well enough to do that until things are clearer. I'm pretty dang ill.

Then there are other options - like limiting that stuff to a digital version for Bandcamp and streaming, plus physical CDs that are a bit more pared-down in terms of liner content. And on the other side of the spectrum, there's just producing a digital album, like I did for The Wassailant, which while still a big project would be logistically simpler and would require the least amount of funding.

I'm going to run a fundraiser no matter what the scope ends up being and the reason for that is that I'm handling the production for C des Gs alone, in my studio. I have a great set-up and good technical knowledge nowadays and can make stuff with much higher production values without the spiralling costs of studio and engineer hire. However, to get the album done, I'm going to need to treat it as a part-time job for about a year and so I'm going to have to find a way to help me through that time financially. The reason I was able to finish The Wassailant within a year was because of all the time spent at home during the pandemic! I'm not going to start production until I find a new part-time day job anyway, so I certainly won't be trying to raise the sort of money to depend on! But I probably will be earning less from a day job while I work on the album and I will need a small amount to supplement that/keep for emergencies if something goes wrong for me in that time - so that I don't have to halt production part way through.

So the low-scope, digital-only version would still be a crowd-funded affair, just a fairly low scale one. For the big one with all the cool rewards and awesome CDs and everything, I guess my other mini-worry is I don't actually know whether the funding goals I’d have to set to produce all the awesome extras are actually realistic to what people can afford. I don’t know if I could fund a project at the same level as a Mechanisms album for example, because I don’t have the same reach the band did. But we’re probably looking at something comparable, cost-wise, to The Bifrost Incident (but closer to its goal, not the final amount it was pledged) to produce the “full scope” version. Plus, the last time I ran projected costs for the project was before the cost of living crisis, so I don't know right now whether the CD/merch suppliers' costs will have increased.

I genuinely feel a ton of support and goodwill from people like you who really want to listen and I know there are plenty of you! But also I truly don't want to assume anything from you, so we'll have to see how realistic it is to make the full bells-and-whistles version, financially or in terms of my capacity, nearer the time. The way I'm feeling as I type this is that I may run the Indiegogo with a lower inital goal and just a couple of reward tiers (aiming to fund production and release the digital album and a simpler physical edition) and try to do some of the other stuff like an expanded liner or producing merch (and making merch available at discounted rates to backers who want it) as stretch goals.

Anyway, that is almost definitely a much longer answer than you were looking for, so I'll stop now. I really do appreciate the great ask; having the chance to thing about a proper answer has helped me straighten a few conflicts in my head that were causing me a little worry. Hope you have a great day!

If you've read this far, thanks! Please reblog this if this sort of thing is something you'd be interested in supporting and would like to spread the word. I don't know when I'll be ready to start a campaign, but I want more than anything to get dates for my ops, recover to the extent I can, and do it soon.

[narwhalandchill]

yknow as much as the (deserved) inazuma backlash has clearly changed hoyos writing for the better i do think there v much is one completely wrong lesson theyve taken from it and thats incorporating story quests into the AQ sequence (and specifically how theyve never attempted it again)

the concept itself was Never inherently bad. in fact it unironically has a ton of potential bc you could lessen the need for sudden character specific exposition in the AQ AND pull off way more high-stakes and timeline-specific plotlines in the SQs by ensuring players will experience it at the intended place and time.

the issue was that they introduced a bleak depressing inazuma in the middle of a fucking civil war and then went omg AQ on pause!!! lets go to a festival with ayaka and u will be her first friend ever OwO yoimiyas is at least vastly better written and actually involves the VH and sakoku decrees so its always been a favorite of mine but even then im sure theres things worth criticism in there its just been 2 years so i cant analyze it off the top of my head. but the greatest offender has always been the way ayakas comes with such a complete tonal dissonance it just takes you out of the atmosphere they spent the entire act I building up.

and it rly makes me sad bc i Know hoyo took the backlash about interrupted pacing and disjointed tone as "ok story quests bad as AQ requirements" when its like. no the one you wrote just sucked

AQ incorporated story quests need to have a damn good reason to be mandatory at that specific point and while its far from perfect i DO think yoimiyas fulfills that! but ayakas doesnt! at all! and like im realizing the issue is also in how genshins made it a standard that a character must receive a story quest Instantly on release. so i guess ayakas had to be in between acts I and II for plot reasons but like. that being the case then the story quest itself shouldve focused on a completely different theme as opposed to her very predictable tropey personal problems that werent even explored properly imo. like im sure plenty of depth and nuance in her characterization was lost in translation but i almost cry laughed the first time the restaurant vendor went "oh ayaka is lonely because she is so perfect that no one sees her as a friend but instead an aspiration" like what in the 3rd grader writing mary sue self insert fic tarnation 💀 you couldve worded that exact same concept in 12 different ways to make it actually sound poignant and you did That SHAHSKSJSKDLJH

(and a quick addition before i get accused of being a blind hater hater lmao. here goes: "the burdens of miss ayakas position as the public face of the kamisato make it difficult for her to shed the mask of practiced perfection. i think people struggle to see her as a person whod enjoy simple things in life like friendship just like everyone else when theyre so used to viewing her as an unreachable figurehead." there. now its way more clearly nuanced. this took me 3 minutes and is far from any fluid writing yet. the difference is staggering)

but like. as a result this ambiguous timeline limbo most story quests end up falling into is genuinely a shame bc i do think theres potential in attempting the ayaka n yoi thing again but with characters for whom it makes sense and actually enhances the AQ experience by necessitating it. and yeah yeah ik genshin wants to be casual friendly so they dont want to force ppl to do quests they dont like for AQ so its unrealistic to expect them to ever try it out again but man

as long as they pick the right place and time and characters for it they could massively alleviate the issue of some story quests contents ending up feeling like somewhat empty fluff bc they cant assume what point a player will be in the main plot could be so they lack actually impactful lore and or character beats.

obviously im not a writer at hoyo and idk how much backlash the ayaya/yoi situation got them but like. idk. taking the lesson "never do anything like inazuma again" isnt rly what id consider the full picture. inazuma does suck and has clunky moments throughout but like in 2.0 people were still hype! inazuma had good ideas and concepts and attempted sth that couldve been great the issue isnt inazuma bad on all levels its that they never delivered its potential and 2.1 was an incredible letdown.

[wholemleko]

updates ig???

(reposted from my deviantart)

so i guess this is like. my plans for the future or at least where i feel like im at when it comes to comics and such.

tl;dr - bird of death is my main project now and everything else is in uncertain limbo

details under the cut:

first thing is just, the state of my projects. bird of death, which im posting now, has completely taken over my brain and its something i enjoy working on much more because its part of a bigger project that im working on with a group of 6 other people and ultimately i think art is a social thing for me. at this point ive also got a 115+ page buffer which ive never even come close to before, so i feel very much at ease about being able to put it out into the world without the months long hiatuses ive gone on with my other comics. plus, it has elements in it that are largely influenced by ideas from my previous projects which i guess leads me to my next point...

which is that im growing burnt out of my older comics. i had for a long time. i occasionally experience moments where i really love my old stories again and give myself the impression that im ready to get back into them, but then it always ends up being temporary and fizzling out again just a week or so later. like venturing. i spent years working on it and theres so much left of the story for me to tell, things that i am still excited to show. but at the same time, its a story i started when i was 16 and i guess this happens to a lot of creators, but my writing style is so different now and when i look back at it i cringe. theres also the factor that felix is almost like an undercooked version of my protagonist in bird of death (for reasons that have only vaguely been revealed). so when i think about writing his story it just feels like. he's the same guy but more poorly put together by a younger me.

this same thing goes for another comic project that ive never shared publicly but which ive been working on for just as long as ive been working on venturing. its actually the story im using for my final project for my degree lmao. the characters in it that im most invested in feel like early drafts for characters from bird of death... the catharsis of writing them has moved to this new story. my old projects just feel like early drafts of this new one but wearing different clothes. they are all born of the same train of thought.

then theres the matter of my fancomics. children of decay is so early on and undercooked that i barely have anything to say about it except that i still love the idea of having a warriors comic, but man i am just not invested in it the way i am with bird of death. (also the fact their titles are so similar... feels silly lol).

my moomin fancomics are a whole other matter... im not the writer for them, and theres still a ton of content that i wanted to cover. im still only in the first chapter of blackthorn tree, and i wanted to adapt 4 more fics afterwards. they are stories that i love, and which continue to be very dear to me, but the inspiration that gave me is, again, now being channeled into my newest project. i guess that makes sense, given that my protagonist was originally made to be a moomin oc. ive also felt increasingly disconnected from the moomin fandom, not because i like the series itself any less, but the fandom landscape is just very different from what it was. another factor is that i did actually have the rest of chapter 1 almost finished, but i lost all those files when my old ipad got fried and this really bummed me out, just a further discouragement.

putting all these things on the backburner feels bad. i dont like saying that i dont know when or even if i will come back to certain projects. i know lots of people enjoyed what i was making, especially venturing and the moomin comics. but i just cant find it in myself to commit to them again now that this new project has pretty much overtaken me, and i dont know if that commitment will ever come back. this isnt to say that i am putting an end to any of them or that im quitting them. just that they are not the thing i am committed to, and i am putting them into uncertain limbo. it feels smarter to concentrate my energy on a project i am much more devoted to now, which is very developed, and which i am making alongside other people who are also very devoted to the greater project.

if u got this far thanks for reading, and thanks to all those who've supported me over the years in my creative endeavors

[sibillascribbles08]

Decided to do the TMNTVDAY month because I need to spread more propaganda for this ship (I see y’all liking all the posts for it on my blog I SEE you)

1. In which TMNT universe does your pairing exist?

Rise, mainly because it’s the only one I’m still familiar with haha

2. Introduce us to your OTP.

Hi it’s Jasonnie, I’m predictable. Jason and Donnie (”Who the fuck is Jason”) He’s the little purple dragon guy. I literally can’t blame you if you don’t remember he’s in THREE episodes ! (Would he have been in more if the show hadn’t been cut off? I can hope) Anyway my brain has a terrible habit of looking at underdeveloped background characters and saying “it’s free real estate”, so lets be very clear the only reason I love his character so much is cause I made like 89% of it aslkjf.

3. How did they meet?

According to canon, when Donnie was helping April in the computer lab where he tried to show off and then got all his shit stolen lmao.

4. How is the relationship now?

Depends how long it’s been. The few stories I have with this ship always take the route of enemies to friends to lovers, and some move much slower than others haha.

But I suppose to give more details and elaborate on how I picture their dynamic, although the two come to adore each other there’s always an antagonistic streak between them that never goes away, it just becomes more playful rather than mean. Affectionate insults are a regular occurrence, and neither of them have an issue with calling the other out when they do something stupid. You’d think it’d lead to more arguments, but generally their combined blunt nature causes them to communicate more often (not that there aren’t still snags that come up).

Also like, nerds, in more ways than one. Sure the tech stuff is obvious but while Donnie adores Jupiter Jim, Lou Jitsu and Atomic Lass, Jase is over here with tons of gundam and transformer models and will watch any film that features a giant robot. More than one date is spent with one or the other talking about something for an hour and a half straight.

5. What is each other’s love language?

Donnie’s main one is gift giving, which sometimes goes overboard. Jase has to be careful mentioning he ever wants anything because there’s a good chance Donnie will show up a week later having either bought it, stolen it, or built it from scratch. He also likes to give things when he makes apologies, often cookies or snacks.

Jase’s is actually touch, though it took some time for him to be on a comfort level for that to be obvious. You wouldn’t expect it either, for how often he complains if Donnie ever picks him up, but he enjoys almost any form of contact. For the days Donnie’s overwhelmed and isn’t up for it, he’s also content to just sit in the same room (Quality time being his secondary language).

6. Do they get married or have any kids?

I may never write about it but yes asldjf fun fact tho, Donnie names their daughter Holly (after Holly Blue).

7. What is your favorite thing about this pairing? (Gush as much as you want!)

Listen part of it is just “I built one of these characters from the ground up so I can make this whatever I want” but I really enjoy how their dynamic evolved into keeping each other in check. Jase not eating properly due to anxiety? Donnie brings him his favorite snacks and will stare at him until he eats some of it. Donnie working almost non stop for twelve hours ? Jase snapping at him and possibly even wrestling a device out of his grip until he goes to lay down.

Oh also uh, height difference. Yeah I hc that Donnie gets up to freaking 6′11″ when he’s fully grown and Jase is stuck at 5′3″ sooo

yeah

[loser-jpg]

guess who came up with an entire new thought out story idea bc they were listening to music then info dumped to their friend only for the friend to tell them that coming up with that much detail in like an hour is not normal :D.

anyway heres idea:

so its set before normal tech basically renaissance era but not really bc i dont feel like drawing fancy dresses

so the main character (guy 1) is like the heir to this noble family and bc of that a lot of ppl want to kill him, so this one prestigious college (not really bc characters are like 22-28) has a good security system so he decides to go there and he has a girlfriend there but the girlfriend he notices is always paying attention to this one guy who never talks to ppl much (guy 2)

so guy 1 hates him obvi but recently the main guard of the security system retires so the security goes to shit and one night guy 1 is walking when this girl shows up behind him and trys to kill him but then guy 2 shows up and just fucking bashes the girls head in. like she didnt have a second to do anything before shes bleeding out on the ground.

so guy 1 and guy 2 are just staring at eachother in shock as guy 2 is absolutely covered in blood and then runs away like "oh shit i fucked up" but guy 1 is standing there w 3 things going through his head "oh fuck that was kinda hot", "i could so use this/him (for evil schemes >:3)", and just insane obsession cuz this guy just shows up outa nowhere and kills someone for him no hesitation.

so for a while after this guy 2 is freaking out because if someone tells he doesnt think hes going to get out of it even for self defense because the girls family had donated a ton of money to the school and he thinks guy 1 hates him so hes like "well im fucked" but through this time guy 1 is silently being nice to him. everyone else still thinks they hate eachother. also the school finds the body so ppl are on edge bc they dont know what happened

eventually they end up alone and guy 2 confronts him and is like "i thought you hated me?" "i did" "so why didnt you tell anyone" "you saved me, why would i tell anyone? though im suprised you didnt say anything yourself" "i knew her, she sat next to me in class, her family was well respected at school. if i said anything no one would believe me. her name was anne." "Forenich. Her family spent the past few months donating money to the school. her grades were disastrous and her familys reputation was even worse. the only reason her family did a thing was probably to get her in the school long enough to try to kill me." "and why that? what if it was just a spur of the moment thing?" "unlikely, i happened to look at her file, she handed the paperwork to drop out just a week ago, and to do this right as the head guard resigned?" "how did you even see her file?" "a family name goes a long way here" "huh?" "...you have no clue who you go to school with do you. I am the HEIR to the *insert family name here*. I am the MOST important person at this school. I deal with assasination attempts on a typical tuesday. And seeing as this school has become unfit to protect me, and you have no hesitation to kill for me im going to offer you a position, for my permanent time at this school or until it becomes safe for me to live here again, you will be my personal guard. of course your studies will come first as i cant be protected by someone incompetent."

and so guy 2 is just like "WHAT JUST HAPPENED MAN" but isnt complaining cuz if some hot guys gonna be ordering him to be around him he aint gonna complain.

the majority of the story is just going to be guy 2 liking guy 1 thinking guy 1 doesnt know but guy 1 knowing and also liking guy 2 but slightly more insanely obsessed. guy 1 is way more cunning and manipulative than guy 2 and guy 2 is kinda just along for the ride ready to kill if guy 1 says to.

i only have like one actual plot point/arc but its gonna take more time to write out and my fingers are tired of typing so ill write it later.

[len-the-neverending]

I feel like rambling about my WIPs today, possibly because I'm overflowing with creativity but cannot fucking write, so here goes.

So there's 2. The first one is called I Didn't Sign Up for This, and it's currently in the editing phases-- hopefully soon I can start a second draft of it. It's a realistic YA-type thing about Sasha, my main protagonist, accidentally replacing a boy at her new school who died three weeks before she got there and leading the sustainability club that he started. It's definitely still got a lot of kinks to work out, but I'm getting there. There's a lesbian love triangle at the center of it, featuring Sasha, Julia the eccentric and angsty sister of the dead boy, and Zoe, who is an outwardly confident and carefree outcast with a ton of secrets who is to this date my favorite character I have ever written. I'm not totally in love with it right now because it's a first draft that I've been working on for three years and there's a lot wrong with it, but I definitely could be someday.

The second is called The First, which I'd define as magical realism, centered around five high school seniors, once best friends, who are stuck in a time-loop-limbo sort of thing until they can find out how the sixth member of their group died. I'm only six chapters in and I'm still figuring out what the plot's going to look like, but the characters are everything to me already. There's my main narrator Arlo, who's a burned-out gifted kid with unresolved trauma surrounding the other members of the group and unresolved bisexuality that she definitely has not figured out yet, her ex-best friend Kimber, who's kind of the leader of the group and also the one who Arlo has a totally-not-sapphic-at-all-really-why-would-you-ever-call-it-that dynamic with, and who may or may not have committed some class B felonies, Kimber's new best friend Lev, my anxious gay disaster boy who I absolutely do not project on at all, Phoenix the nice-enough hippie kid with dark secrets and a mysterious feud with Arlo, and his girlfriend Thea, who I've spent countless nights trying to psychoanalyze because there is *a lot* wrong with her. I want to finish it so badly so I can write about these five some more, but alas, I can't.

There's also a few other ideas that I desperately want to write but probably shouldn't because I have too many projects, but that's a post for another day.

[fryesfables]

This is Not a Town, it's a Sandwich

June 2nd, 2023

So, I went on a trip with Kory and Brandon, and I figured id write out the whole trip on here, and see if it increases my memory of the trip as the time goes on.

We decided that we were going to go to Southern Maine and just chill, go to this flea market that Kory had found out about, and then see where it went from there. Popeye's was the only other definite, because I had just had Popeye's with Tasha when we went to comic con a couple of months before. Kory and Schultz had never had Popeye's before, so I wanted them to experience the awesomeness that was Popeye's.

We were suppose to be leaving around 7, but of course Kory had to be Kory and we left a little after 7:30. I was dealing with some pretty severe allergies, but overall I was hoping the day would be good. The drive down wasn't bad, it actually went quite fast. We were in the parking lot of the flea market when Schultz brought up the idea of going even further south, to New Hampshire, and going to the FunSpot, which is the world's largest arcade. We decided to think about it while inside the flea market.

The flea market was gigantic, and I really wish we lived closer to it. The items inside were awesome, Pop figures, Blu-Rays, books, trading cards, plushies, and other assorted items. I could have spent all day in there. I spent a lot of the beginning of my time in there scanning the pop figures with my funko app, trying my best to find rare ones, or at least ones worth more then they were being priced for. Not a ton of luck there, as i didn't end up leaving with any pop figures, but I also made the conscious decision to stop making it about there worth, and make it about the sentimental value of the character inside the box.

I found a stuffed Lilo and Sitch character for Tasha, a Ghostface figure, and a couple of movies to leave with, and we went back out to the car where we decided to go to Popeye's next.

They loved Popeye's just like I figured they would, and Schultz even said it out KFC to shame, which I agree with completely. While we were there we decided to go to New Hampshire, which was fine, but wasn't really what I had in mind for the trip, as I thought it was going to be more pawn shops and flea markets.

We made the trip down to New Hampshire, when I decided to do a snap with the town name displaying that we were in New Hampshire, and accidently discovered that we were in a town called Sandwich! I thought that was hilarious, because Shultz was in control of the radio and a played a song called "This is Not a Song, it's a Sandwich" just an hour or so before.

When we finally got to Funspot, it was actually really cool, and I spent a good hour or so just exploring the different places, and looking at the different arcade machines. I played Centipede, Donkey Kong. Asteroids, Jurassic Park, The Walking Dead. I got a few of the highscores in Asteroids, so my initials are in the largest arcade in the world. Then we were coming to the end of our time there, and we went in on getting as many tickets as we possibly could so that we could get souvenir's for home.

I found the classic arcade game of getting the light to land on the jackpot when you hit the button, and won the jackpot 5-6 times officially, but at least 7 times where the light was on the jackpot, but went back one when I hit the button.

Kory and Brandon got cups, and a I got a dinosaur hand puppet and a pen. Then at 8:30 we went to find dinner somewhere. I was kind of out of it at this point, and I don't remember the restaurant's name, but it was a Mexican restaurant, and it was fucking awful. Service was slow, the food smelled gross, and Kory and Schultz's food tasted gross. My main course wasn't bad, but the sides were fucking terrible.

The ride home I was in and out of consciousness, I remember walking up at one point and remembering that Kory was going very fast, but I was too tired to care. We got home at 2AM.