#and i thought it'd be fun to put them into this format

[azurajay]

She is Ariadne.

crowesn picrew // los reyes - julio cortazar // eliezer yudkowsky // ariadne the brave // sunlight - hozier // soldiers live - glenn cook // osmond and ariadne // which witch - florence + the machine // medicine - daughter // the right hand knows what the left - giovanni gasparro

[punkitt-is-here]

Yknow i love fo4 and fo76 as games but hate them as Fallout games yknow?

Like theyre nice to play and i love some of the characters but man. They just. Are not Fallout. Its literally like if you took Fallout but made it for a general audience, theres no spice!! Theres no grime!! Why is everything so clean!!!

That's the thing; these games are built with inherently different base goals in mind. Bethesda in the modern day thrives off selling the idea of player empowerment, of being an explorer in a foreign land that you conquer through hard work. You shape the world to your liking by questing and exploring and conquering. And genuinely? I got no problem with that. I think games that gas the player up like crazy and set you loose on a world to make it your own are totally fine conceptually! Like, the fantasy of being able to shape the world the way you see fit is something I think a lot of people can get into, whether you're just looking for control in your life or you just want the experience of feeling like you can have some grand effect on the world at large.

But because of that, I think the core of what makes Fallout so interesting has to be put on the backburner. I don't play Fallout to feel powerful necessarily, and I certainly don't play it for the fuckin' gunplay. I play it because it has such a fun dedication to weird stories that feel like they have something to say, a staff of writers dedicating their time and effort to being a proto-DM at a table, trying to provide interesting and thought-provoking or at least real damn fun stories in front of you, because ultimately, the West Coast Fallout games are about people. They're about characters! And when you focus less on the idea of telling stories in a world and more on empowering the player as a fourth-wall observer, those priorities clash and in the East Coast Fallout's cases, it makes for a game with no spice or edge. Having something to say about, say, the US Military or American Expansionism and Exceptionalism or the nature of clinging to the past kind of fundamentally clashes with the player empowerment fantasy that Bethesda Fallout games want to sell you. You can't have these philosophy-based, morally-interesting factional conflicts that want the player to look inward when the very concept of your game is built around collecting loot and shooting guys instead of learning about that loot and learning about those guys you're shooting and why you're shooting at each other. Having radiant quest loot loop gameplay just doesn't mesh well with a world where choices are meant to have far-reaching impact, because if it did, it'd be impossible to program under a normal development timeframe, and it would likely make the player look inward and go "what the fuck am I doing with my time?" at the endless meaningless quests to go on.

I don't think the "Lone Wanderer Comes Across A Microcosm Of Adventure" format is bad, not at all, but you have to put a lot of work to make that feel cohesive with the larger character and faction-based narratives that 1, 2, and NV are built on, so instead those Bethesda-style games opt more for a toybox, playground approach to the post apocalypse. And when your primary goal is showing the player how cool of a sandcastle they can build, it'll never be structurally sound enough to sustain even a wave of nuance.

[synthsamuri]

Fanfics of the Year

As holidays roll around, I thought it'd be fun to throw out some of my favorite 19 day fics from this year! I've never done a fic recommendation post before, can you believe!? Reblog or comment and throw out some of your faves too! I'd love to see them and share their work around! 1. unstoppable force // immovable object by welcome2atlantis How is this both angsty and so funny at all once. Truly a work of art and I love the dynamic between He Tian and Mo in this one. The character growth is immaculate. 2. Open the door (it'll make you feel better) by Anonymous

Wow, the writing in this is seriously top notch work. I felt immediately drawn in to these vivid feelings between characters. I also feel like this author brings out an interesting dynamic between Zhan Zhengxi and Mo in particular that I really found myself enjoying.

3. desecration by Fayre

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention this one. Fayre is such talanted writer and if you haven't read their other works, do yourself a favor and dive in. This fic though! My emotions can barely handle it, and I love it.

4. Bites by Asfodel

Another one I have to mention and another writer I recommend. This one had some surprisingly soft moments that nearly made me cry. It just feels so intimate.

5. Devil's On Your Shoulder (Strangers In Your Head) by ineffablefluff

As a big fantasy lover I have to mention this one. This writer creates a scene and drags you in. It's adventurous, bold, and heart wrenching.

6. The Edger by Elaine (LumCheng), rainy19days

A really fun format going back and forth between writers and characters. This is one of the more recent ones I've been reading and its sexy, funny, romantic, and just incredibly enjoyable.

7. fever dream by figglypudding

I could honestly put several on this list from this writer. I love a good sick fic, and thats exactly what this is.

8. get what you get by powerandpathos

This one is one chapter and every word is perfection. I would honestly take a whole series of this. It was written so well and the emotions are handled so well.

9. My Shelter by Mrs_Tears

Mo goes through some serious trauma and finds comfort in He Tian. What else is there to say? It's perfect!

I could honestly add so many more. Truly grateful to have such great writers in this fandom!

[justin-chapmanswers]

any reason why Silver ended up getting 3rd place and not 2nd? He isn't called Bronze Spoon, after all! (Love the show, y'all keep up the good work!)

As fun as that'd be to see, the guy's lucky enough that he got two votes at the end. In the earlier days of season production we'd be saying things like "yeah, Silver will get to the end receive... maybe a vote... if we're feeling generous." The thought for a while was that he'd come into the finale pompous, expect everyone to adore him, and have his world turned upside down when he gets no votes. And I think that'd maybe work for like a ten minute episode, in a scenario in which Silver was a flat villain (nothing wrong with that type of character, to be clear), but with so much to cover in this episode, we needed to structure it out to be less straightforward. A big thing for us was playing with the conventional jury format to tell a story that would allow the characters to evolve from how they initially speak to the contestant-jury versus the Unvitational-jury. And the best way to set up the stakes was allowing Silver to take the upper-hand during that initial phase. He's naturally a much better speaker than the other two and was not falling victim to anxieties to appease. He thought highly of his game and sometimes being able to boast about yourself is a real superpower that gets you places. I know I could never. He's got #PRESENTATION!

But of course this is a social game. And while Silver can talk talk talk, Cabby and Balloon put in the work over the course of the season to form connections and prove themselves to have grown as individuals. And this jury is full of the types of people who really respect the latter. By the time Cabby and Balloon were able to really get the core of themselves out to the jury, it was kinda all over for Silver. Especially after he, ya'know, took down Candle in a fit of hurt-feels in front of the whole jury. Uh. A bit of a yikes. Plus, on a meta-level, we knew from early-on that it'd be Cabby or Balloon winning, and so we wrote both of them with a potential winner narrative in mind, so it made sense to let them come head-to-head regarding vote-count in the end.

I did not expect this response to be more than that first sentence when I started typing, but this is just how my brain go. But you do have a good point, he is, in fact, not Bronze Spoon! Maybe we should rewrite the finale.

(And thank youuuu!)

[roxtron]

Day 5: Rabbit, Reclaim

AGJGDFJF FINALLY IT'S DAY 5 SO I CAN POST THIS

For some reason everytime i draw him he looks so young because i'm accidentally overcorrecting since i'm used to drawing older characters. So unfortunately he looks way younger than i meant him to lol, whoops.

But wait there's more- AHAHAHA

While I did initially plan this for GGY week I eventually got the idea to use this as an excuse to draw other GGY designs, soo..

(Not sure why tumblr formatted it that way with 1 of them big but it doesn't matter lol)

I've been wanting to do this for a while, I put the tags of each person next to their design but ofc I'm still gonna tag them in the post itself so you can see their art for yourself if you haven't already. But I enjoyed each of these in their own ways so if you don't mind I think I'm gonna type a bit of text next to them..

@chipistrate This was one of the first I drew out of these, the design was pretty fun to draw but sorry if I messed up a few details, it was a bit difficult lol. The mask and goggles are really fun to draw and they make for a cool design, along with all the glowing blue. (and yes, I tried to subtly include the heelies lol)

@lunzi0 This was the first fursuit one I did lol. I adore the little stars in the design, they personalize it so well and make it really unique. I wanna try this design again since I feel like the other ones show my improvement a bit better, but I hope you can appreciate the effort I put in on my first attempt <3

@carouselrabbit This one was really fun to draw, I absolutely love the eye shape/lashes, it stands out and I always love drawing eyes with a bit of eyeliner lol, the daycare theme legwarmers is a cool nod to the balloon boy arcade machine being connected to them, and was just a fun addition in general lol, I like the style of legwarmers what can I say, fnaf changed my fashion sense a bit. also the subtle paraells to freddy's design is a nice way to connect a bit to gregory himself.

@puhpandas I can't remember if I talked about this design last time I drew it but, overall I'm really happy with how this came out, it's such an indicator of improvement since I started drawing this and I'm glad I was able to draw it better than last time lol. All the patchwork and similarities to Vanny's suit work really well, and the rabbit you chose to base it off of was a good fit, the colors make it a bit more difficult to shade for but i like detail lol, hope you like it too :)

@dykevanny I knew I wanted to do this since I started but I wasn't sure if I'd have time, and I'm glad I did! I hope you don't mind I combined aspects from the first design I saw and the second one you replied to my ask with, I liked the big purple sleeves lol. (I just realized after doing all the shading I forgot to include the oil splatter on his jacket, sorry!) It was definitely a bit difficult due to the head shape being so different but.. fluffy. i love drawing fluff. And the glowing swirl on the goggles, the shape of the ears, I love a lot about this design. :D

I have a hard time with writing compliments but I wanted to get some of those thoughts out, some of the things I like about these designs apply to multiple lol. I adore every one of these designs but I find it hard to put into words what I enjoy about them, hope the original creators are happy with these. <3

I also kept the ggys without as much lighting effects on a separate file, I felt like I should add them since they're a bit brighter lol, makes them look different.

Okay now that I've gotten all that- Sorry this post is so long! I didn't think it'd end up taking up so much space lol. Buut.. working on this drawing and thinking about it and potential context behind it gave me an au idea for it, but I'll put it under the cut since I understand most people probably won't care and just wanna see the drawings lol.

Idk if I'm confident enough to write for it but I'll give a bit of a summary.. I'll keep it under the cut for people who aren't interested and just wanna see the art though lol.

After the main events of SB and Ruin, now that the mimic's been set free, Cassie's taken control of by what's left of Vanny, using her as a new host. But with Cassie being the only human left alive down there, after being reawakened, Dr. Rabbit has nowhere left to go but back to his old host.

Vanessa, Freddy, and Gregory hadn't gone back to the Pizzaplex after ruin, but they were trying to figure out a plan to get Cassie back safely. One night after Freddy and Gregory disappear, Vanessa leaves to go find them. As dangerous as the pizzaplex is, it's her best guess for where they might've gone. She doesn't want to think about what could've happened to them, in denial for the worst case scenario. She tries to keep herself calm by telling herself they probably just left to go back for Cassie, maybe they didn't want her stopping them.. but deep down she knows it can't be that simple. She knows something's off, even if she's not ready to admit it.

When returning to the pizzaplex, she brought along her own V.A.N.N.I. mask, though unlike the one Cassie used, it was clear of the mimic's influence. After all, she was going to need some way to travel through potential blocked routes.

By the time she found Gregory, she'd still been wearing the mask, seeing him down the end of a dark hallway. He looked confused, afraid, his mind was a wreck of conflicting emotions. She started rushing towards him, happy to see him okay, until he finally spoke.

"You need to get out of here."

She stepped back, taking off the mask, only to be faced with the worst case scenario.

It was a wreck, covered in stains and tears, but it was still recognizable. He was wearing that old suit again.

As he waved, she could see Freddy's claws peeking out from the doorway, as the two stepped closer towards her.

So, she did what he told her to do, and started running. She could hear a faint voice coming from the mask, and put it back on before finding somewhere she could hide.

It was his voice again, telling her which way to go.

I guess that was the dramatic way to summarize the main idea behind it, lol. Basically Gregory and Dr. Rabbit work the way Sun and Moon work in Ruin, whichever one is in control in the real world, the other is left behind in the AR world. Or at least that's my interpretation of how they worked, considering Sun was always in mask-on scenes and moon was mask-off. I'm not too sure where the plot might go from there, and maybe I'll consider writing for it, I dunno. I've never wrote fanfic before because I get deadly afraid of writing them out of character lol, but maybe?? I have ideas for scenes and premise and stuff but I don't know if I have the confidence to write it.

But anyway! That was just more of a fun side-idea I came up with while working on this, if you read this far thanks, hope you enjoyed :)

here's some silly little lineless doodles as a reward for making it to the end hehe

now that's what I call an art dump

@ggyweek2024

[waterghoulcalamity]

a little lengthy but here are my predictions (or maybe expectations, in some cases) for next season of iwtv:

just like "the vampire lestat" begins with lestat reading interview with the vampire, the season is going to begin with louis reading lestat's book and possibly going to find lestat again

i wasn't sure if they were going to change the format of 2 time periods happening at the same time (the interview in louis apartment and the story and louis was telling) but i feel like it's the best way to do it, idk if they're going to have daniel interview lestat but i think it'd be interesting if they had lestat kind of post something he recorded of himself, am i the only one??

TW for SA // i believe they're going to go as far as they can with lestat's turning. some people say that lestat's SA in the books is purely metaphorical (because no penetration happens) but i would say no, that it is very explicit, biting is supposed to be this infinitively more intimate and pleasurable act than sex for BOTH the vampire and the victim in the books (because vampires can't have boners, apparently) and, since the whole reason magnus chooses lestat is because of his looks, i think we should be prepared for not only lestat's turning scene to be even worse than it was in the books, but the entirety of his stay with magnus as well, i won't go into detail of what happened but, well, you know

i think they will have lestat kill his father, which will give a whole new layer to lestat letting louis and claudia "kill" him, accepting louis knife in his throat. sam has said multiple times that his "death" was kind of a wake up call for lestat because he had been living at the peak of his chaotic behavior for too long, so i think it'd be interesting if they did that, because it would also make more painful why he never looked for louis and claudia, as in saying "i had to kill my own father and it was painful for me despite the fact that i hated him, and now i push you to go through the same pain because of my actions, i can't face you"

i hope, i HOPE, that they drop the incest with his mother. i think there are many ways they can make their relationship uncomfortably close without having resort to incest, please rolin i'm begging you

i'm manifesting that this season is going to be 12-15 episodes long, i'm willing to wait until 2026 for 12-15 episodes

pleaaaaseeee i want louis and lestat to be in that awkward "we are trying to be friends" stage but failing miserably because they're too possessive and could never be normal about each other

i think they're going to have armand find lestat at least briefly after the release of his book, it's going to be fun seeing what they have to say to each other. i don't quite think it's going to be like in the books were armand begs lestat to love him and let him stay with him but i do think they're going to keep some of those elements

speaking of armand, i think they're going to revisit that scene in magnus's tower with the three of them and they're going to reveal that armand was in lestat's head BEGGING him to go with lestat or something of that nature, like saying that all of this could've been avoided if lestat had loved him and it still could if he did, but lestat continued to reject him as he always did. idk if it was just me but i find assad's face in those scenes to be telling a story we don't quite understand yet

back to them meeting again in the modern times, i think armand is going to tell lestat about daniel and lestat is going to genuinely be happy for him (because they do keep a sort of friendship in the books after everything)

well, that is all. this thoughts keep circling my mind i think i needed to put them to rest, hopefully this will be enough but probably the only thing that can is s3 being released in this instant

[thewertsearch]

Either Rose is adding extra formatting to be dramatic, or the Green Sun is just so important that its name spontaneously animates itself. I like both possibilities, but the former is very in-character.

Anyway - what do we know about the Green Sun?

GA: Ive Never Heard Of It

Kanaya, a Player who completed Sgrub, has never heard of it - meaning it's not part of the game's quest. It certainly sounds like the kind of thing Rose was looking for - an out-of-bounds secret.

It's green, which sure seems important. I cross-referenced its text colors against the Sburb logo, the Felt, and First Guardian lightning, and found no matches. I guess it's not going to be quite that easy.

It is notable, however, that the Sun's name uses the same formatting - and almost the same color- as the highest-ranking members of the Felt.

So far, there hasn't been much evidence that the Felt or Lord English are part of Sburb - and I don't see where they'd fit in, either. Lord English doesn't spawn in a Medium - he's summoned, through a cryptic ~ATH ritual involving the destruction of a universe.

I haven't really thought about this before, but Lord English is kind of an anti-Sburb. They both exploit predestination - one using it to create universes, and one using it to destroy them. Perhaps he's part of Paradox Space's greater ecosystem - a being who tears down old universes, in order to create space for new ones. Sburb already does the same thing to planets, after all.

Maybe, then, the game stores information about him because he's 'part of the equation', so to speak - it needs to account for him when choosing where to put its universe. The Green Sun could be his home, his weapon, the source of his power, or a symbolic name for the man himself, and the data describing it is buried, hidden from all but the most inquisitive Players.

Lord English is being set up as a major antagonist of Homestuck - so if he is a natural feature of Paradox Space, it'd be quite interesting for the kids to oppose him. They'd be standing against the cosmic forces that govern the multiverse, and that could resolve in a lot of fun ways.

[manofthepipis]

Random question that’s answer is probably very obvious, but I’ll ask it just in case:

What kind of magic does each Addison specialize in, and what do they visually look like? I remember them being used in the big Spamton NEO fight in the last few chapters, but I was wondering if it could be a bit clarified?

Like, does Click’s magic just look like a Cursor, or is it more complex?

(Also, sorry if the question’s worded weirdly, I didn’t really know how to phrase it)

it's all good! i honestly had to go back to even remember what id written for that chapter just to regain my thoughts on their attacks lol

so i thoughtd id put a fun spin on some different types of advertising as if the addisons were enemies in the deltarune universe! their attacks are meant to be visualized in the deltarune fighting format, with bullets relating to their forms of advertising.

Clicks has a variation of cursors, based on clickable product advertisements that show up on webpages, whether that be pointer fingers or simple arrows, Banner has banner ads (which i imagined like literal fabric banners with some sort of advertising on them), Survey has poll-based advertising, which can be bullets of "most likely-least likely" (or whatever poll options they summon) being used as attacks, Sponsor is those ads that shows you sponsored items that pop up first in your search engine, and he doubles as sponsor ads in internet videos, the attacks being video shields or computerized reinterpretations of random items he's had lightners search in the past. Spam's used to be mail projectiles, but he doesn't use them anymore, with the exception of being Neo.

Like if you were in the game and had to fight an army of these particular addisons, you'd be met with a deltarune-style battle of cursors, banners, polling options, and random items from the light world's town. Maybe some coupons here and there. It'd be the reverse of spamton's battle, in where you actually have to buy things to spare them.

[demonzoro]

someone close that gate again i want to hear about all your nanagos

[huddles with you in the corner] okay okay here are the nanago aus that have been ricocheting around in my head. just you and me here so shhh keep it on the down low

knight and prince au with a reverse knight-in-shining-armor trope where knight nanami is the one always being rescued by the prince gojo, who SHOULD be back at his castle but would of course rather turn up at nanami's quests to cause trouble help

social media au with patissier owner nanami and famous food reviewer gojo, who are secretly a fan of each other's accounts but because they both keep their anonymity, nanami doesn't realise his most annoying and attractive customer is also the food reviewer who's been singing his praises for the last five vlogs (i think it'd be so much fun to play with the formatting and media of this fic if i ever wrote it! fake screenshots and chat convos etc...)

childhood friends au with a younger gojo constantly running away from his bodyguards/retainers, so his clan gets it in their head that he would protest less to someone his age. enter nanami - expendable but with a promisingly useful CT. young enough to avoid exacerbating gojo's authority issues, smart enough to figure out where gojo runs off to, and stubborn enough to chase him down. very soon, gojo realises he like nanami enough that the thought of nanami taking a hit for him as his bodyguard rankles him. >:) you'll never guess what happens >:)

time travel au based on the concept that the tragedy is not the fact that gojo can't save nanami when he travels back in time, but the fact that he CAN, except to save nanami he has to prevent him from ever involving himself in the jujutsu world and therefore writing out the fact they ever met. lots of time loops, lots of attempts, lots of different lives that gojo spends w nanami before he fails to save him

salaryman nanami who takes his friend's advice to go hiking in the weekends to alleviate stress and stumbles across an old shrine. he takes to doing a short prayer there as a sort of meditative thing and accidentally revives gojo, a god that's been sleeping for years due to the waning belief of humans. i like the idea of the both of them teaching each other the small happinesses of life in their own ways- as well as the comedic potential of nanami having a god on his side to deal with very mundane woes

reincarnation au. literally just an au to store a bunch of tiny aus. i won't go into this one bc it's sooo many little aus it's embarrassing how much i've concepted it out in my head

the self-consciousness has caught up to me on how LONG this post is but oh my gd. that's not even all of the aus, let alone canon-compliant/adjacent fic ideas. i am thinking abt them. i am putting them in situations.

now if only i had the time to write them all!!!!

[volivolition]

If able, could we get an update on any of your writings? I loved hearing about them (Not forcing, ofc!)

YOU SURE CAN ANON!! again, as with all of these asks, thank you so much for being interested in my work??? i LOVE talking about my silly fics <333

here's a rough timeline of all my fics btw!! i thought it'd be fun to visualize hkgj i'll be talking a little about all the ones i haven't yet talked about!!

Preface, here's all my fic wips as explained before!! and all my writing can be found in my #inland drabbles tag! ask 1, ask 2!

Message to All Bitches: Please Survive - This funny title has been the name for a while, but I think if I had to choose a serious one, it'd be "Should the Stars Go Out" :3 This is my most ambitious project of all my skill wips, I think, due to the medium i intend on telling it in (it is. technically not a fic?? hkjg) this is also my most secretive project hkgj <33 word count(?) is 2908!!

Meet the Parts that Make You - Kim meeting the Skills fic, though it's mostly been abandoned by now hkgj well, not abandoned, i still really love the concept? but I need to get a bunch of these other fics done first (Let's Make It a Home for worldbuilding, Swept Up for character studies) so I can get everything correct, before introducing it all to Kim hkgjg <33 Nevertheless, word count is 5459!

The Sunrise Momentum - Mostly abandoned, but i still froth at the fuckin mouth thinking about it RAUGHHH. HOLY VOWS. waking up, getting out of bed with depression, that part of you that wants you to live, caring about you so so so fucking much. this hypothetical fic hits very close to home <3 i promise i will keep you alive, as long as you're there to wake up every morning. willpower and devotion. volition is kind of everything to me did you know that? hkgjg current word count: 331 <3

Who Are You, If Not... - Esprit De Corps centered fic! i wrote a lot about it in this ask, but basically: hey, if Harry leaves the RCM, what the fuck happens to Esprit? i have some personal feelings about leaving a community that only used you for what you could give them. to keep going back, trying to check on them time and time again, even when they hurt you. it's cathartic to put it in the perspective of this fic, i think :] also i just think the psyche group is fun for discussions hgkjg esprit, my darling community skill!! current word count: 1497

When Two Skills Love Each Other Very Much - again, funny silly title hgkjg but i think its serious name would be, like, Summer Solace or something? brightest day of the year, sunrise parabellum. hypothetical child of volition and echem, she's hope, y'know? small and trying to grow. something to carefully tend to, to keep alive, and in turn she will keep you alive. this fuckin. symbolism raguguhh i love you baby solace you are MY ANGELLLLLLLLL!!!!!! <333

I THINK THIS FIC IS SO SWEET I LOVE THE SKILLS TRYING TO RAISE A KID HGKJG im so.. it's like how Let's Make It Home redux, the skills are kinda dysfunctional, but they've grown and they're getting better too and they're trying to work together towards a common goal, and together they can do it. i think they've gotten a lot better about working together!! and they all care for this kid a lot <333

Here's a snippet because oh my god i am fond of them (not in AO3 ready format though hkjg)

ELECTROCHEMISTRY presses a tentacle to his cheek to prop up the grin on his face - Hey, man, we've never raised a kid before. Give us *some* credit, at least. VOLITION holds Solace to his chest. She sleeps peacefully, starbright face pressed to his armor at his heart - I am. I think -- despite all the mishaps -- we've been covering all our bases surprisingly well. We wouldn't have been able to do this when we woke up in Martinaise, is all I'm saying here. VOLITION looks up and exchanges a fond glance with Electrochemistry - We've... all grown a lot, haven't we?

^ like hey. if you uh. compare that last volition line to the last volition line in the snippet i shared for unstoppable force? where now volition cannot only meet echem's eye, but LET HIMSELF FEEL AFFECTION FOR HIM?? oh my GOD the parallels, the character growth, i WILL PERISH.

i still do think this fic would be better as a comic hkgjg it feels like a good story to cap it off, and if i ever get the rest of these fics done, i'd want to end on it if i could hkjgg <33 LOOK AT THEIR CHARACTER ARCS. LOOK AT THEM FINDING JOY. GIVING THEM A HAPPY ENDING HKJG

that's about it, i think!! thank you for reading!! (and holy fuckin shit if you've read all of these i will. die for you now. i really appreciate anyone who takes the time to read my rambles, i love you hgkjg <33)

[actualbird]

yknow, i really love the SR cards where the main plot is basically just NXX Boy Goes And Does A Thing, And He SUCKS AT IT!!!

vyn has SR Mercury In Retrograde where he does a fantastic job being absolute ass at household plumbing. marius has SR Overtone where he gets an A++++++ for being the last guy you wanna lend your guitar to, because hes really bad at playing the dang guitar. and at first i didn't know what artem's card was that followed this pattern but sam @samsspambox blessedly informed me that it's SR Thin Veil, the paywalled SR i dont have yet. and in that card story artem fucking SUCKS at PUPPETS

(sidenote: i generally weep at paywalled top-up cards but the concept of basically having to pay for artem's cringe is So Very funny to me)

but now here is where the injustice becomes apparent.....vyn, marius, and artem each have an SR Epic Fail: The Card Story

BUT WHERE IS LUKE'S?????????

to avoid any misunderstandings, here are the traits of what, to me, makes up an "SR Epic Fail":

one Main Thing is the thing our beloved nxx boy will suck at and what and it's also generally Main Focus of the whole card story (which then later leads to a sweeter core message about vulnerability and love and being okay with not being perfect etc)

our boy has to suck In The Moment. not in a flashback, not in a referenced past anecdote, no no. i want to have to tap through the entire excruciating scene/s of him failing at whatever hes doing

the story format has to be in a contained card story and not a recurring-but-brief theme in a personal story

with this criteria in place, it is IMMEDIATELY apparent that luke is the only one without an SR Epic Fail. the closest story instances would be the following:

SSR Through The Heavens (the skateboard card) since he fails at being a normal not-hypervigilant human being and also the NSB makes fun of him with memes, but this doesnt count because it wasn't the Main Focus of the story, there was a whole lot of other stuff going on and the Main Focus was the skateboarding which he did awesome at

some past anecdotes and flashbacks in SR How I Remember You (the luke blindfold card) about how luke sucks at drawing and sucks at charades, but this doesnt count because the drawing was just referenced in a few sentences and the charades fail was a brief flashback. it's also not the Main Focus of the story as well

his general inability/difficulty with cooking that is a recurring theme across his personal stories doesnt count because it's not a card, and thus isnt eligible

this is terrible. this is horrid. i love luke and i want a card thats all about him messing up at a minor activity. i want a full SR Luke Fucks Up At Cooking where the focus is what it says on the tin

i can even see the story so clearly in my mind's eye. it'd be so easy. maybe luke tries to make gingerbread man cookies but accidentally ends up with a gingerbread massacre.

luke mentions hes gonna bake and mc is excited about it because it seems he put a lot of thought and research and prep into it, maybe it actually starts with a scene of them shopping for ingredients together, and theyre both looking forward to luke's baking! but when it actually happens hes like "oh sorry a case came up, dont come over to my place anymore!!" which is sus

mc comes over anyway the next day to pick up some stuff she forgot and luke is there acting awfully nervous and his whole BUILDING smells of burnt gingerbread but there are no gingerbread treats to be found. luke keeps evading until mc finds The Massacre in a plastic container box haphazardly shoved into one of the kitchen cupboards

and it's an absolute baked-goods crime scene in there. none of the gingerbread men look like they were ever even men or homonids of any kind to begin with, it instead looks like all the dough just came together in the oven to create an amorphous Blob with the odd "limb" sticking out here and there. what luke has created is a gingerbread abomination.

mc stares at the gingebread abyss, and it stares back.

upon further investigation, mc even finds slight burn marks around the oven's door too and luke has his face in his hands, his shame is IMMENSE, just about as immense as the aroma of gingerbread treats everywhere. he was hiding it because he was worried that he got her so hyped up for the whole thing that it'd be SUCH a disappointment to her that he fucked it up!

and mc is like "hey no it's okay, as long as it tastes good, it doesnt matter how bad it looks!" and then she breaks off a piece from the gingerbread monstrosity and eats faster than luke can warn her "NO NO DONT DO IT---"

it tastes like shit

anyway they go out to get desserts from cafe instead and mc reassures luke that she obviously still loves him even if he created a baked treats atrocity and broke the genevabread convention. she tells him that if hes having trouble or if he fails, his instinct shouldnt be to hide it all and avoid her but to let her know and so she can help out, because she wants to be there for the wins and for the losses, for the good days and the bad. luke then goes all blushy grateful happy and they kiss and love is real.

the end. the post-story text conversation can go something along the lines of

luke: okay so i figured out why my gingerbread men went nuclear

mc: oh? why?

luke: i....misread "tsp" as "tbsp".........every time

mc: HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAA

luke:

[demigod-of-the-agni]

agni nation, i've got an important question to ask you:

Description: Seven teenagers, realising they are the demigod children of the Hindu deities, must band together to stop an ancient evil from reincarnating and bringing ruin to the land. To prevent the end of days, the group must find the astras, powerful weapons belonging to the gods and capable of ridding darkness from the world. From Sydney's shores to Mount Kosciuszko's highest peak, it's a race against time, death and the powers-that-be to kill god-kings, restore reality, and rewrite destiny itself.

History (TLDR): I'm a clown looking for clout, and I want to post a story I wrote back in seventh grade

History (for the english girlies who need the sociocultural context behind the book to write their essays 💅):

when i was a child in the seventh grade, i wrote a book (300+ pages !!!). I was very proud of it, and I showed it off to everyone (read: no one). then, when i was in the eleventh grade, i found out there was a movie called BRAHMASTRA coming out, and it was ESSENTIALLY THE SAME THING I WROTE ??? and i got so very pissed and swore vengeance and became an avid hater of that movie

but now i am older and wiser and not in eleventh grade anymore, and looking back on it, it was funny. i think i did pretty good for my age, and Brahmastra as a movie is pretty solid on its own, but now i am more mature and working on other personal things (aheem heem like #kalkichronicles and hating on the abomination that is the kalki 2898 movie- like seriously fuck that movie !!) anyway i am older and wiser now, and i thought it'd make past-me happy for ""publishing"" something i put a lot of effort into. let her live a little of her dreams, yk

so anyway. yeah. that's it. i'm going to post a 300+ page novel onto ao3, and you can all read it. also it'll be proof to me that i have indeed improved a lot of the years and i can stop clowning around thinking i'm a clown for writing at all. i know you might be thinking of a few questions like-

what if someone steals your work? like ai?? honestly let it be stolen, the book is quintessentially percy jackson wearing a salwar kameez, nothing is original about it

what if you want to rework the story in the future?? my mind is being plagued by kalki and co. i don't have time to worry about what i want to do with seven of these twinks

why post to ao3 of all places, why not your blog or something? THE FORMATTING, BABE, THE FUCKING FORMATTING !!!!

anyhow it'll be fun talking about something that was, in that era, completely mind-consuming for me. i might as well pull up some lore things if i can find them, but ehhh we'll see we'll see

[floweyheadcanons]

YO, BET! Okay, so I headcannon that Clover, Flowey, and Kanako (something happened where she stopped being an amalgamation, tests amd stuff, and she became back alive) go on little adventures, like they are a version of the Feisty Five but just the three of them (The Gusty Three?). They will do some illegal stuff, but they're like the Feisty Five! Chara is like Ceroba with those three, though they will go with them sometimes (To make sure they don't die, again). Frisk tries to stay out of it, most of the time. Flowey also plays the drums and electric guitar, because why not. They annoy Frisk with it. He's actually very good at plating both as well.Also, I would like to think that Clover would "flirt" with either Flowey or Chara in a joking way (Flowey aro-ace here in my world boyyyssss) to annoy them.

Anyways, what would Flowey rate the monsters Clover faced during their journey? (Starlo, Dalv, Ceroba, Martlet, El Baildor, Decibat, Mo, Axis, Chujin, & Guardener) What did he think about the Wild East? Does Clover know the date Papyrus gave to Flowey as a birthday? If so, does Clover also celebrate it? (What's the date....I need to know) Also, what does Papyrus rank all the monsters (Undertale main + Blooky and Muffet) as well as Undertale Yellow's monsters (Above), and Clover, Chara, Frisk, and Integrity (I headcannon her as Clover's older sister, named Lilian or Lily)? What does Flowey think of Lily and Clover being siblings? (One murderous, the other pacifist) What does he think of Lily overall? Does Flowey regret (If Neutral is done before Pasifist) manipulating and killing Clover? Also, (this is a lot, sorry, I just have a lot of stuff for my boy Flowey) I saw a comic of Flowey and Dalv, Flowey reading one of Dalv's books and being himself (as in being his inner child-like self). Would Dalv allow Flowey to read his books, before publishing them, as well as letting him listen to his music?

(I LOVE FLOWEY AND DALV'S FRIENDSHIP, HONESTLY. GUY WHO IS QUIET WITH INSANE FLOWER ARE AMAZING! MY LITTLE FLOWER GUY!!!!!!! LOVE HIM!!!! I WILL PRAISE HIM TILL THE END OF TIME!!!! LET ME SEE HIM WITH CLOVER!!! THEIR FRIENDSHIP IS EVERYTHING TO ME!!!!!! LOVE MY FLOWER BOY!!! HERE'S THE MOON FOR YOU FLOWEY!!!! HAVE FUN!!! (P.s. sorry for the LONG ask))

i'll try to give satisfying answers, sorry if i forget any questions since i'll be answering in reverse order (you won't be able to tell though since i'll format it in order)

sorry for taking so long to answer but i just really wanted to try to draw them!

thought it'd be funny to make a physical tier list while in character as flowey, so i spent a couple minutes putting this together! i hope you enjoy! (hope you get the silly little gag here)

sadly no papyrus ranking because this is the flowey headcanons!!! we can't let papyrus invade our turf! (partially an excuse because i don't feel like making another version of this where the joke is like reversed or something. you could say... i'm not feeling up to it right now. *the crowd loudly applauds*)

flowey's probably just like: "huh, isn't that funny." because it'd be pretty wacky to see from his perspective. two siblings and they DON'T have the same opinions?? what is society falling to!!!! flowey "what do you mean your sibling didn't convince you monsters are all evil?" dreemurr

overall i think he probably wishes he cared enough about lily's story to try resetting to learn the lore, and possibly help her not die this time. not because he feels bad for her but because he really wonders what a timeline where lily gets to go on a rampage and live would look like. also just because he doesn't like axis.

tbh i don't think flowey would regret it, per se. or at least, he wouldn't let himself. he'd reason in his mind that they would've ruined the plan, gotten in the way, sabotaged it, etc. which is why it's fine they didn't know! he'd probably point at the pacifist route and say "see?? see?? that's what would've happened!!! they would've given up their soul to some random idiots and ruined everything!" probably just a little peeved that clover gave up when they were so close.

honestly the idea of dalv letting flowey read the books and embrace his inner child a bit is so wholesome... he may be 25 (hc uty age) but that doesn't mean he can't read a fun book. it also kinda reminds me of my headcanon that flowey is papyrus' little taste tester (sorry if like every friendship flowey has in my mind comes back to papyrus somehow) and like, he just gets to preread as a treat for being dalv's friend! if clover was still here they'd be like on the floor, criss-cross applesauce... oh my god i forgot dalv makes music!! i think after building up some confidence he'd probably let flowey listen to just a little bit and flowey would be like "turn up the JAMS!!! the music police are getting you for this BEAT!!"

heh, don't worry about the ask being too long! everytime you send me an ask i get to ramble a bit and it's nice!

[innerchorus]

Somehow my brain's in Kazai Mode™ rn (even w the swirling Kaykhusraw thoughts and the fixation on a new AU/OC that you saw a taste of some while ago) so have this... brainstorm/ramble.

Kazai fights, right? He accompanies Shapur and his men into battle in Sindhura. I'm still kinda wondering on where to put him but what I am sure of is that I can't really put him in the cavalry because he has said so directly to me (and whoever was trying to put him there in-story): Nah, mate. Can't do my fucking job when I'm stuck on a horse. He can't dance on a horse! So I've tentatively ended up putting him on his feet either right next to Shapur's horse or with the infantry (he'd fucking have a blast in the infantry ngl tho...)

Also picturing him telling someone to “make full use of him on the field”. Maybe he's talking to Shapur who can't help but worry for him, maybe he's talking to Narsus. Hm.

So, yeah!

I will gladly welcome any and all Kazai thoughts and considering how his skills would be used in combat is always fun, especially the thought of weaving it into canon-ish AU plotlines like this!

Even if he doesn't want to fight on horseback part of me really wants to say he should participate in the cavalry charge anyway (just so he can charge in there by Shapur's side and they both get to see each other in combat and have each other's backs etc) and then just like... stand up and vault from the saddle as the two sides meet so he can jump straight into the fray and do what he does best. (And if they ever need to retreat, feigned or real, he can whistle for that horse!)

Though I do agree that it'd be super fun to place him with the infantry, too! I wonder how his fighting style would integrate with infantry regarding formations and tactics, though. Unless he's given command of a regiment and gets to train them himself?

I'd love to see the expression on Narsus's face when he understands exactly what 'making full use of Kazai's abilities' looks like.

[erazonpo3]

I'm a little late to the #webcomicday party but I still thought it'd be fun to break down my process a little bit using the latest Way Out chapter as an example!

So I have a rough outline for the whole comic but I don't go into too much detail planning each story arc until I'm about to get stuck into it. The rough outline is for jotting down ideas as they come along, acting as a skeleton for what will eventually happen, while the more detailed arc outlines are for plotting and pacing the story beats.

Planning each chapter out like this means that each one feels like its own mini-story, and more importantly, stays on track and achieves something to further the story or character progression. You'll notice that the chapter notes are still pretty barebones, which leaves me room to fine tune the smaller beats within the script.

Then, it's scripting time! I'll only have a script for the chapter I'm working on and a script for the next chapter, so as I'm currently working on Chapter 66 I have a script for chapter 66 & 67 but not 68. This is ideal for me in keeping the story flexible, allowing me to take a chapter in a bit of a different direction without feeling tied to a whole arc's worth of scripts that I'll need to rework otherwise.

Around 20 panels is the sweet spot for a chapter of Way Out; there are some with fewer and some with more, but shooting for that number makes me think about whether a scene ought to be extended or cut down in order to meet that goal. If I only plan out 18 panels then I can probably squeeze something extra in, while if I plan out 23 panels, I have a look and see if there isn't anything that can't be condensed.

The scripts themselves are pretty sparse, mostly just dialogue with basic action notes that I highlight as I finish. I'm usually pretty good with visualising things in my mind so the notes are more of a reminder to self about angles & expressions more than anything- if this were a collaborative project I'd probably put more effort into making it descriptive, but it's not.

I've never been one for thumbnailing, which is bad comic practice, I know. But once I have my script I just want to get stuck straight into drawing and don't like slowing down to jot down what is already pretty vivid in my head when I can just. draw the thing.

(a large part of why I started my first webcomic in the vertical format is because you don't need to consider variety in panelling and page flow, which is something thumbnails are very important for).

And so the sketching begins! My sketches are rarely pretty with little focus on anatomy and shape and more focus on blocking and size. I use Procreate to draw the panels and its resizing tool has a tendency to obliterate the quality, which I can sharpen in small amounts but it saves a lot of pain if I plan it all out in the ugly stage.

In some ways I often prefer the sketches to the clean lineart, but that's mostly the stylistic scratchy-ness of it that I have to do away with in favour of clean lines. I'm not always super proud of the art in the end but not every panel needs to be a masterpiece and it's all practice. I think a quantity over quality approach is kind of necessary if you want to make a comic and not lose your mind.

I sharpen up and clean any spots up as I go, but once they're all done I glue all the panels together on my desktop so that I can adjust the spacing between them, then I cut them back up again into smaller slices for posting! And that's the whole chapter process!

I also have a quick (and by quick I mean 4 minute) rough timelapse of chapter 65's coloured panel I can post, if anyone would be interested in seeing that, but it'll probably need to be its own post bc it'll crash this one.

[scabopolis]

It has been a mighty, mighty, minute since I've tried to host a fic writing challenge, but why not??? What's old is new again, and yadda yadda yadda. Announcing a new challenge: The Logan & Veronica: New Year, New Fic Writing Fest!

We’ll start writing in the first month of the year, and then posting the first week of February. New year! New fic! 

Posting Dates: Wednesday, February 1, 2023 through Tuesday, February 7, 2023

Fic! Fan art! Manips! Playlists! Headcanons! Lists of fic recommendations! We want it all!

To kickoff the first year of this challenge, I thought it'd be fun if we take inspiration from some of the fandom's greatest hits, that is, fics with the most amount of kudos over on AO3.

Please note: I have picked key elements of some of the most kudos'd fics EVER (according to AO3) to inspire these prompts. If you want to do an actual, explicit remix of one of these fics, it's fandom best practice to reach out to the author in advance. Any questions about that distinction? Just send me an ask or a message!

Most importantly: tag everything #2023 LV New Year in the first five tags so all those who love these two idiots can see and track the content. You can also post in the 2023 LV New Year challenge category on AO3.

No time to create? Boy, do I have a suggestion for you! Sometimes fics considered "old" by the fandom can drop off the radar. Why not take the time this week to dole out kudos and/or comments to some older but much loved fics?

Canon divergence, fics inspired by universes you've already created, long one-shots, new multichapters that incorporate each plot - all fic writing formats that are completely on the table!

Day 1: Market Fic - inspired by "A Strange New Story Every Time" by gyzym - Farmer's market? Specialty food store? Mini-market? So many markets...so many possibilities.

Day 2: Non-Linear Storytelling - inspired by "Slipstream" by @cheshirecatstrut. - Any way of telling a story where the events are not told in complete chronological order.

Day 3: Hurt/Comfort and/or Domesticity inspired by "With Me" by @bryrosea and "Same Old Song" by @susanmichelin - You can treat these as two separate prompts, or, as both of these fics do in an expert manner, incorporate them together

Day 4: Epistolary inspired by "Three Emails Sent Across Continents (And Possible Five Text Messages)" by Care and "Wingspan" by @theawkwardterrier - Journals, letters, texts, etc. They can provide the full text or simply feature as one component.

Day 5: Lawyer!Veronica inspired by "A Better Claim" by @best-laid-plaids - She spent all that time and energy on getting that degree - it seems a shame we fic writers don't put it to good use!

Day 6: "I love a man in uniform" inspired by "Metal Under Tension" by @machawicket - Not saying it has to be a military uniform...though that option is, of course, there.

Day 7: s1 canon fix-it or s1 canon divergence inspired by "Sometimes" by @mysilverylining and "Time, Make it Go Faster or Just Rewind" by @kmd0107 - We're all in agreement that s1 is the most complete season of this show, correct? That doesn't mean that the what-if possibilities are in any way limited, though!

So, What are the rules? There aren't really any, but in summation:

Look at the prompts for each day.

Post them on tumblr or AO3.

Tag them (on Tumblr and/or AO3) with #2023 LV New Year and/or add to the AO3 collection.

So, 2! 4! 6! 8! reblog this post and then create!