#and i avoid it elsewhere

[blue-jos10]

jean literally fucking breaking down in the hospital after hearing about riko's death and neil telling him he died with a pop is the most Neil & Jean thing ever

[sillyfairygarden]

in a rose garden

(closeups under the cut :])

piece is a redraw of ‘in a rose garden’ by lawrence alma-tadema! i love the whimsy of the original piece, and wanted to draw something floral and beautiful after all the moody art ive been doing :p

[plutosheaven]

i wonder if Charles ever chanced upon a book at boarding school with initials scribbled in the corner of a page and wondered, just for a moment, about the story behind them.

[ssruis]

I’ve seen more posts about mizurui and ohh how will rui comfort mizuki in this situation what’s Rui’s reaction gonna be how will rui take this rui rui rui than mizuena since mizu5. do we have to make everything about one of the four guys in the game. Including an event heavily focusing on the relationship mizuki has with another girl. Serious contender for funniest (in a bad way) responses to a post I’ve seen in a while was the qrts to someone saying “it’s nice to see an implied sapphic transwoman in media bc it’s so rare. This is why I don’t like mizurui.” (benign and valid opinion). Someone said “Ena is just mizuki’s friend her relationship with rui is really romance coded you’re just an idiot.” Someone else said “can we stop posting our opinions on the internet” being 100% genuine. Another person said mizurui would have killed themselves in middle school if they hadn’t met.

[drones-of-innocence]

Hi,

The TL;DR of this post is this will no longer be a Mario blog, and I won't be participating in any kind of fandom here anymore.

This is for anyone who keeps tabs on me for any reason, but specifically my fanfiction I guess. I'm a writer so this will be a little long winded lol, but feel free to read what you want.

First I want to thank everyone who kept up with and read my story I'll Never Let You Go. At the time of writing, it was my best work and existed quietly in my drafts for seven or eight years as I built and built it up. It's the longest story I have ever completed, the eclipse of my skills and experiences at a time when all I wanted was to carry across a story about star-crossed lovers while I myself longed for such a fairytale love. While publishing, I invited artists to participate in a small challenge, which resulted in these lovely posts (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8), and set the stage beautifully for me to reveal the major twist of the story. I thank everyone who participated in making that moment so special for me. I'm very proud of the story and how it turned out after all this time. But I'm ready to move onto greater things.

And to anyone who has read any of my other works, thank you. My muse is an impulsive creature and I followed it toward many stories which sometimes had strange methods behind them but ultimately turned into projects I could be proud of. It means the world that my random explorations met any kind of audience with such positive reception.

Fandom has become a problem for me. What used to feel relaxed and creatively exciting now feels like a source of pressure. I caved into it once or twice and posted stories or art or whatever in the past specifically designed to heighten attention or exposure to my work. It never worked quite like I thought and always made me feel a little gross afterward. I may erase these works once I track them down. But now the pressure isn't even creative, it's become more or less of a social performance for me which I am not willing to participate in anymore.

So from now on, I'm going to blog what I want to and write whatever comes to me. Mario or not, fanwork or not. There are still some Mario stories mostly done that I want to share and I may do that in my own time, but it will not be with any intention except to please myself.

I think I'm moving towards more original ideas. There are fan concepts I want to finish out, and if I do it will take time.

Anyway. If any of this doesn't resonate with you, that's fine. Most of my stories will remain up and I'm happy to interact regarding those, but otherwise I would appreciate to not be included in the fandom community on Tumblr anymore. I'll hopefully occasionally find the will to browse for fanfic myself, though lately I haven't been much in the mood to read it. Feel free to unfollow or block or whatever you need to do. I wish you luck. I'm looking forward to being more active on my terms.

Thank you 💙

[randomnumbers751650]

Some time ago, I posted the idea for an AU where Sara and Itto swap places, and @biarith was very kind to draw their AU versions.

This is their reference sheet:

After Read More, I placed some notes and overall development:

- Itto grew up in the Chinju Forest, he never knew his parents or other oni, while being more of “that weird forest creature” for the locals; Yae seems to known who his parents are, but changes the subject whenever this comes up and might have suggested the Kujous to take him for some reason related to this; thus, he earned the name Itto Kujou

- Takayuki intended to use him as his personal oni servant; he made sure to limit his interactions with other kids, including Masahito and Kamaji, so that Itto could grow to be an obedient, perfect soldier for him; he always reminded him of how different he was from the others, that they would fear him, call him a man-eating monster and that he would only be safe at the Kujou household; this is why he needed to become stronger so that he could leave safely and Takayuki taught that being feared was better than be loved, because what matters is respect (yeah, kind of like Frollo and Quasimodo); he also tried to inculcate in him a deep faith in the Shogun

- That, however, had unexpected consequences for Takayuki in two ways: the others houses were actually terrified that Takayuki was raising an oni and threated to take action, so, as a compromise, Takayuki had to hire tutors from other houses, to teach Itto morals and ethics and philosophies so that he could have some balance; and that Itto never really cared that much for the Shogun’s divine status, because he considered her too distant and his vision was Geo – where was she when he was living alone in the forest and isolated in the Kujou household? He could respect her as royalty and was fully on board with the Sakoku and Vision Hunt Decrees, believing that this eternity would be beneficial for everyone; given how Takayuki indoctrinated him, Itto could really believe that the Shogun’s vision of Eternity would be the best for the nation

- Soon, he became a general and he was someone to be feared: he was always the tallest man in the fort, his men feared him and few dared to not follow his orders; in spite of that, he actually was fair with them, never punishing failures excessively and knowing when to give them a break; his oni aura was enough to discipline soldiers; and in the battlefield, you could know where the general was if you look at where enemy soldiers were flying; with the help of his right-hand elite ninja deputy Kuki Shinobu, he led the Kujous into many victories for the Shogun; but, even then, he cannot connected to his soldiers, not mattering how well they respect him; although he and Kuki absolutely trust each other, they never could connect into a proper friendship; thus General Itto grew lonelier and lonelier as his dedication to the Shogun grew

- Sara, on the other hand, was also an orphan; a widowed old lady, that lost both her husband and sons to the war, found her hatched from an abandoned tengu egg; the baby tengu already had a Vision with her, and was surrounded by corpses of rats around and scratches in her own skin; feeling a moving compassion, the lady raised her; Sara grew up different from other kids, but her mom, whom everyone called Grandma Tengu, raised her with care and love; she taught her to be a good person and always be kind to others and, even if others thought she was a monster, she shouldn’t choose to be a monster; grandma’s teachings did seem to work because, as she helped everywhere in the village (she can fly in this AU), more and more people started to warm up to the idea of being friends with a tengu kid (I can imagine a flashback where a woman is cursing her for being a tengu, and then later, Sara helps her by delivering medicine to her, with a smile, and that convinces her Sara’s not bad); that’s how she got Genta, Akira and Mamoru to join the Holy Quartet - later Holy Quintet, after disgraced detective Heizou joined her team (his issue with Sango took a turn to the worse in this AU, probably Kuki was involved), and then Holy Septet (she would consider Traveler and Paimon part of the team), and so on

- So, in present day, she’s the village’s hero of justice, Magical Girl Tengu Sara, helping everyone, punishing evil and hugging people (“If I don’t hug a person each day, I’ll die! Just kidding, but that’s how I feel”); some people might think she’s more affectionate than a proper lady should be and a bit birdbrained, but Sara is a really happy and well-meaning young woman; she also has a deep faith in the Shogun, crediting to her for being alive (and she still has the statues) and does see the Shogun as her friend

- Itto and Sara first meet during the Vision Hunt Decree, after Sara eluded many messengers sent by the general; so, he had to take matters into his own hands and soon realized that tengu was more slippery than a slime – no matter what, Sara always escaped with her speed, leaving Itto raising his fists to the sky, yelling “TENGUUUU!” (I can imagine she sneaked into his tent and took a selfie with him with a kamera without him even notice); one day, General Itto has a devious idea: commission a glass so transparent from Szezhnaya so that he could trick Sara into flying into it and, being a bit birdbrained, it works; Sara really feared he would kill him, but he just looks at him and grabs her Vision; when they exchanged looks, all the fear in Sara gave place to pity; meanwhile Itto saw a woman that he couldn’t understand – sure he could see her fearing, but the fear she had was a different one from the one he saw in soldiers, both friendly and enemy; before Itto leaves, he hears Sara yelling “General Itto Kujou, mark my words: I will be your friend! Even if I have to die for it!”; Itto mumbles “Stupid tengu, you don’t need a friend in me…nobody does”

- So, they begin their post-it notes war, which takes a turn for the dark when the war starts; at first Sara is carefree and flirty and Itto has none of it, being the most direct possible of how she needs to stop that, but when the war starts, Sara’s notes take a more serious tone (“Don’t you dare dying before becoming my friend”) while Itto’s got curter (“I won’t die”); due to her tengu nature and personality the effects of losing her Vision aren’t the same, but her grandma begs her to not leave the village and she complies…for most of the time

- The arrival of the Traveler happens more or less the same way; they do feel intimidated by General Itto, who will try and find any loophole to arrest them; maybe they’ll even fight and the Traveler would experience in first place his raw strength, maybe even forced to retreat, maybe Sara appears helps the Traveler and Paimon to escape, with Itto yelling “TENGUUU!”; later, Sara introduces herself to the Traveler and tells Itto is her “future friend”, taking her Vision is just a mere obstacle in their “friendship” and she helps the Traveler in overall

- Sara was always conflicted by the Vision Hunt Decree because she really has faith in the Shogun, but she also sees the pain it’s inflicting on people and including herself as the war gets worser and worser, so she decided to do the unthinkable and take this matter to the Shogun herself (“I escape Itto for months, I’m pretty sure the capital will be easy”); at the same time, Itto’s doubts about the Shogun also reach an all-time high; meanwhile Kuki contacts the Traveler to help both Sara and Itto, because her network told something bad will happen soon and she realized the Traveler isn’t an evil person and, given their feats in Mondstadt and Liyue, she prefers to bet Inazuma’s safety on them

- in the climax in Tenshukaku, Sara arrives first and sees the Shogun talking to La Signora; that is a massive shock because she would never imagine that; still, Sara decides to defend the Shogun’s honor and they fight, but La Signora overpowers; Itto arrives and sees Sara passed out and understand everything; he actually lashes out at the Shogun (“Why did you stand still while your most faithful servant was hurt?”) and fights La Signora; he also lost, but managed to hurt her enough to allow the Traveler to finish her off (mind you that La Signora initially refused to fight the Traveler and would kill both Itto and Sara due to the rules, so the Traveler bets something she really could use: if they lost, the Traveler would join the Fatui as their servant and that made La Signora accept the duel; I honestly think the writers wasted La Signora by making her die to the Shogun instead of having a chance to confront Venti, so maybe she could somehow escape in this AU)

- After the battle ends, I can imagine this dialogue:

Sara: Itto, you’re here.

Itto: You made something so irresponsible…but, at the same time, this is really something you would really do it.

Sara: Are we friends, now, my dear general?

Itto, after a deep sigh: You’re really insistent about it. Okay, maybe I could…consider.

Sara: Aww, Itto, you’re too kind.

Itto: Don’t say that.

Sara: C’mon, ever since that day you defeated me, I knew you needed friends. You can count on me from now on.

Itto: The strategic benefits of having a street tengu as an ally are low.

Sara, after laughing: There you are, saying those funny big words. But, at least, you’re my friend…I can…die…ful…filled… (she closes her eyes peacefully)

Itto: Sara, you’re not dying.

Sara: :3

Itto: Don’t :3 at me!

And so, the Inazuma plot reaches a resolution. Kokomi always treated Itto with respect, even when they were enemies, and tells him to listen to his tengu friend on looking for friendships. His character quest would be probably something like him dealing with the fallout of the Inazuma civil war and him rethinking everything about his life, with the Traveler around. I didn’t think that far in the AU, due to focusing on the archon quest, but I think it could end with Itto finally letting Sara hug him and her declaring “what’s better than a hug? A group hug!” and everyone in the quest also hugs him.

As for her hangout, Sara would have different paths, some of them would be her and Traveler doing some shopping or helping people, mostly comedic or light-hearted, but I want to explore a path where Sara still has some unresolved issues with the fact she has some sort of killer instinct (given Grandma Tengu found her), which makes an unspoken rule to NEVER MAKE SARA MAD! She’s kind and cheerful, but do not try to see her darker side, it’s not worth it. Otherwise, another path can be that, even in spite of her cheerfulness, she still feels lonely sometimes.

Basically, I wanted to make an AU that preserves the overall archon plot, but allowing Itto and Sara to grow in different directions. They both have similar issues with their loneliness and otherness related to other people and are coping in their terms. But Sara, indeed, has more people to rely on.

[lavenoon]

No shit, sherlock

@naffeclipse You know this one but now that the chapter is posted I can also post this one <3 *Disclaimer: This was based on a pre-editing snippet and also I needed a shitpost to cope with the pain that would be coming. More totally normal behavior to follow later, probably

[shysheeperz]

Sakadays 56-74:

I really like the jcc exam arc! New fav!

Might be my shin bias showing but Shin was totally the mvp of the arc??? But gaku picked out the germaphobe and sakamoto fan girl???? Gaku has bad taste. Shin totally had a better showing. 😡 (Not that i want him to get recruited by slur lol)

Akira is a cutie patootie! So she's a relative of another one of sakamoto's classmates 🤔 wonder if or when we'll get the entire backstory on them

sometimes i forget shin is 21. He looks no older than the characters that are supposedly on 14, etc. if germaphobe kid didn't state his age i would have assumed he and shin were around the same age. And then there's old looking sakamoto and he's not even 30 😭

Movie order guy is neat

Congrats on those awesome test scores shin!

The other order members we already know have been lollygagging for awhile now. Wonder when we're going to see them do more.

[rabbiteclair]

a while back my mom discovered that the owner of the company was stealing basically all of the money that he was supposed to submit for things like 'taxes' and 'health insurance' and 'court-mandated payments' for the employees, listing them on the pay stubs but then pocketing the money to help keep the company afloat

she then made sure that everybody in the company knew, submitted her resignation effective immediately, and spent about the next week calling government offices to report every crime, regulatory violation, and breach of employment contract that she could think of. and now it looks like the series of investigations that she kicked off might be the thing that finally destroys this man's company.

sometimes I'm proud of her

[falderaletcetera]

*saves something to my drafts to look at properly later* *saves something to my drafts to look at properly later* *saves something to my drafts to look at properly later* *saves something to my draf

[diabeticgirl4]

I'm so glad we got the "I'm so bad at charisma but somehow you're even worse" moment between yasha and ashton, that was amazing

[pastafossa]

how long did it take for your fanfiction to start getting some recognition? did you "advertise" it or "promote" it in any way?

i know that people say this doesn't matter, but i feel like even if you love writing the feeling that you're just talking to yourself gets pretty exhausting at some point. so i'm not talking about having thousands of readers but rather like. what's your advice to have readers at least?

- someone who hasn't even started writing their ideas yet...

LONG POST INCOMING.

First I want you (and everyone else reading who may be struggling with this) to know I'm absolutely with you and generally think 'it doesn't matter' is a horseshit answer. It's this weird thing we do in fanfic that we generally don't apply to other artforms that I've seen. If you're a painter, a playwriter, a novel writer, and you say, 'I want at least a few people to love my paintings, I want some people to come see my play, I want my novel to be published and do at least ok' we all support them, we nod, we agree, we talk about how they can do that successfully. It's considered normal to want some amount of success. But hold up fanfic instead and it becomes, 'how dare you want that praise, you're being egotistical, you should be writing only for yourself'. I'm not saying you can't do that - there are some who do - but it's definitely this bizarre switchup to say there's this single artform in which we can't want attention on our work and that there's something wrong with us if we do. That can be an absolute creativity killer depending on what kind of writer you are (hi, extrovert writer here who only gets writy writy juice from social interaction - aka comments and discussion. So I totally get it being exhausting just doing this on your own).

So let me say this categorically: you're allowed to want things. You're allowed to want kudos, comments, and hits. You're allowed to want messages and asks. You're allowed to want some readers you can talk with about your story.

You. Are. Allowed.

Ok, now that that's out of the way.

Edit: more below the cut cause I didn't realize the length of this on mobile

TRT definitely didn't get popular overnight. The first four chapters were sporadic, and then I took a hiatus due to life things for a couple years. During that time, it kept slowly ticking up bit by bit on AO3, with occasional comments. Iirc it was hovering somewhere around 700 kudos by the time I came back in Jan 2021 - and that's a awesome! It's big! But it's also a number that was gained over a few years, to put it in perspective. It absolutely took off after I came back though, and over the past 2 years both TRT's popularity and the stats of my one-shots in the fandom have grown. Part of that's just the time frame (TRT's been up about 6 years), but it's also due to a couple things that I think built up TRT's popularity.

Building a tumblr presence was huge. Ironically I didn't really intend to do it for advertising; I just wanted a place readers could ask questions or we could all freak out about Matt or I could post some drabbles or updates on the fic. But considering the fact that AO3 and tumblr are the top fic sites online, I wound up promoting my fics unintentionally just by being a friendly, happy tumblr user and fandom goer. All I did was follow the courtesy rules I knew - post stuff regularly, reblog, comment, make friends with other writers, just be friendly in your neighborhood because you love the lady with the gif flower shop on the corner or the wise old pizza maker who serves hot fandom takes all day long. I built familiarity with my writing and name by posting short fics, and by taking part in challenges and prompt lists and short requests for drabbles if I saw them, though that's something that's hard to do if you don't have time (I've got less time now, but I started this blog in the early pandemic so I had aaaaall the time in the world to write and was using it to stay sane). I tagged religiously because I LOVE tags, but that helped, too. Tumblr's search system is half broken but the half that works means people CAN find your writing even if they aren't following. Doing all this over here got me a huge boost over on AO3.

I will say that if you can have a fandom tiktok presence, there's a lot of fic reviewers, edits, and good stuff that can get your fic some readers (I've had some people do this on tiktok for TRT and it sent a surge over). I personally haven't done anything there yet, in part because while I'm on tiktok I try to keep my actual, real person accounts separate from my fic/fandom accounts and i haven't bothered to make a second account solely dedicated to the Pasta name yet.

Longfics on AO3 have the advantage in fic stats in the sense that every time you add a chapter, it gets bumped to the top of the front page and you get seen again. Eventually a lot of people will click out of curiosity. They may not, however, give you a lot of user subs or add to your other fic stats at first, whereas if you do a bunch of oneshots you're more likely to get user subs but less hits on each fic. This is a decision you'll have to make, and I know folks in both camps who built their followings using different methods on each. Either way, it helps if you're posting regularly, either in a long fic or one-shots. I call this the Stephen King method, who said he just writes a ton and throws it all at the wall, and eventually you get enough good despite the bad that you start building a following.

Learn learn learn. This is standard fic advice I always give, but it's still relevant. I think one of the reasons imo TRT has done so well is that I've spent a lot of time over the years learning how to write and edit - I read a ton of books (sometimes just to figure out HOW good authors structure their stories), I took a lot of English classes, I've taken some creative writing courses in my spare time. That two year hiatus was heavily spent doing a lot of research and practice around an original novel I want published one day. And I used ALL of that in TRT, just to see what it was like to put it all together. Be hungry for knowledge, be hungry to learn. The more you learn, the better your fic will be, and the more people that will click.

That learning also includes a looooong string of fanfics that started at a very novice level (hello 12 year old me), to fics that were ok and did moderately well but weren't anything huge. Hell, I had a tumblr account for my previous fandoms before I wandered over to Pastafossa, and while those fics did decently, I never had the huge reaction I've gotten here. But I used each and every one of those fics to learn and grow and adapt. Treat your own fics the same way. If it doesn't get hits, try to learn from it before moving on to the next idea a little wiser and a slightly better writer than before. There will always be people who start to follow you along the way.

A small one, but important: I swear to god, do not shit-talk yourself. Not in the summary, not in the tags, not in the A/Ns. I'm not talking, 'this is my first fic!' That's fine. I mean trashing your own work. Shit like, 'ha ha this sucks, it's terrible but oh well' will absolutely lower your stats, because people will believe you and will ditch your fic. On top of that, it's just mean to yourself, and as I said above, you want to be a good person in the fandom neighborhood. That means not breaking the windows of your own house.

People generally think of summaries as a side note, but a shitty summary can absolutely tank your stats. Treat it like the rest of your fic - this is the trailer before the movie, and it's a huge element of what gets people interested in the first place.

Lastly, like I said at the top, the biggest factor is time. There are people who post one fic and explode in popularity, absolutely. But far, far more little followings are built on the bones of time, of abandoned fics, of muttering and highlighting phrases in books in the middle of the night, of trying and trying and trying until we have at last have a breakthrough and then drag that breakthrough forward with us to the next fic. TRT is absolutely one part lightning in a bottle - the biggest success I've ever had anywhere with my writing, a confluence of fandom factors and world events that gave people (and me!) time to write and read. But it's also standing on the back of whole lot of fics I wrote that look like everyone else's: ones with no comments, low interaction, insults; ones where I had precisely zero idea of what I was doing, but wanted to try anyway. And the way I got through that, as a writer who needs interaction in order to create, was by building friendships in fandom so that even when a fic didn't do all that well, I still had friends I could talk to about the characters, the world, the fandom itself. I asked friends to look them over and give advice. I had friends being my cheerleaders. And if you're an extrovert like me, or just a writer who needs that to create, then those connections are vital as you build up a following.

That's a lot of what I've done. I know there are other ways to build a following, but this is generally what I've done, what I've learned to do, and it seems to have worked. Just remember that there are no bad fics - just learning opportunities. Learn something, and that fic's a success, and work as hard as you can to make those fandom connections to carry you through the process.

I absolutely hope to see your work around one day, so that I can be on of those followers!

[abysswatchers420]

ive gotta plan my ultimatum to my boss in that i need a raise to keep surviving. and i know she's gonna push back, so i need moral support to finish my other job applications. shes gonna deny me until i say "see ya!" then she'll call back and be like 'please........ill pay it' 🙄 bc theyre so desperate for tech help. but for nearly 7 fucking months ive been the only one keeping this store running so youre goddamn right i deserve $20/hr at LEAST

[theamazingannie]

I’ve been avoiding the PJO tag cuz I haven’t finished TOA yet and I’m afraid of being spoiled but is there a chosen tag for talking about tv show spoilers so we can talk about the books and non-book readers can be unspoiled?

[cherubytes]

does the guy complaining about the amount of gay ultrakill fanart they see know they're on the gay fanart website???? "i cant scroll through the tag without seeing 30 fanarts of gabriel in a skirt" my brother in christ that man isnt wearing pants

[saintshigaraki]

damn you do not care about anything except your mother x son ships huh. we were supposed to boycott dune since idk maybe cus it has zionists cast but yall are just too spineless for that to happen. are you pretending to not know or just ignoring it? cus I remember I sent you an ask about it too

anon i do indeed follow the boycotts set by the BDS movement which has not mentioned dune or i believe any other movie boycott at all. the only like streaming/entertainment they’ve asked us to boycott (i believe) is eurovision which of course i will be doing