#and is also just like a big obstacle to actually fixing these problems on a wider scale

[jackawful]

@androidingly I am gonna try to take this one in good faith - I think we HAVE seen different definitions of "transandrophobia" because I have seen a lot of different people offer up a lot of different definitions of the term, and specifically, my criticism here is for both the version that's claiming it's about "fear/hatred of masculinity in afab people" and also with the vague idea that it's "transmasc-specific experiences (of oppression)."

I have long maintained that all transphobia is rooted in misogyny, because transphobia is about reinforcing the bioessentialist gender binary. The people trying to reinstate a (usually christian) patriarchy in the US are trying to socially enforce man=masculine=amab=penis and woman=feminine=afab=vagina/uterus.

I think the key thing here is like...what is the mechanism behind the bigotry? Throughout my life, people who have hated or feared me when they read me as a "masculine woman," it's not that they hate masculinity on its own - it's that I am read as Wrong for not conforming to what they believe a woman should be. The mechanism is not "fear/hatred of masculinity," it's a desire to enforce gender roles. Misogyny is the social tool they use to try to force women and transmascs alike to be more feminine, just like misogyny is the tool used to try to force gnc cis dudes to become more masculine. Whether I'm read as a butch woman, a trans guy, a trans woman, or a gnc cis guy, bigots get that I don't fit their gender boxes cleanly and use some form of misogyny to punish me for it.

Idk, I have neither the power nor desire to Stop People From Using Words. I'm not trying to take "transandrophobia" away from anyone by expressing my gripes about it. I just don't find the social analysis that comes with this specific word compelling or useful. A lot of the experiences I've had that I used to think were transmasc-specific (or butch-specific, back before I figured out I was trans) I have actually over time found I've had in common with trans women, cis men, and yeah, sometimes even cis women. It is not useful or validating to me to sequester off my experience in a neat little tboys-only clubhouse. It IS useful for me to talk with the people in my life about how the overall social enforcement of gender essentialism has harmed us, to support my transfem friends and lovers and find commonality in our experiences navigating a transmisogynist and bioessentialist world, to talk with my dude friends both cis & trans about how we can fight toxic masculinity and build healthy masculinities instead, and to fight alongside cis women who, like me, were pressured to be perpetually-pregnant christian housewives and are now taking control over our reproductive capacity and gender expression.

And, y'know, having found those commonalities of experience with other people in my life means that I will frequently see other trans dudes online describe a thing as transandrophobia, go "wait that's not a transmasc-specific experience, I talk about that with my non-transmasc friends all the time" and just. Not have the time or energy to explain that to a group of people who are on the whole really knee-jerk reactive to the idea that those experiences aren't actually Unique. But I do think my fellow tguys might feel better about their lives if they talked with a wider variety of folks about their problems and let go of the idea that their pain has to be Unique to mean something.

[astrow1zar6]

Astro Observations- 38

Aries suns with Scorpio moons can be big adrenaline junkies. They need to do something dangerous that makes them feel alive. They can be extreme sometimes such as fast driving, mixing substances ect. They don’t feel like they’re living if they aren’t experiencing enough intensity. They should learn to focus this energy in healthier ways such as maybe exercising and sports.

Pisces Mercury’s often did art to express their emotions when younger. I’ve seen Pisces Mercurys who struggled to logically explain how they feel so they would draw or make crafts to show what they were feeling. Their emotions a lot of the times are too complex and intense to explain with only words. They work better with visuals. They could’ve also been better visual learners compared to people giving straightforward instructions when in a classroom setting (they are usually very imaginative).

Mars in Scorpios can have a hard time keeping friends and partners because of how intense they can be. When hurt they can say some really scary fucked up things that can make people want to distance themselves away. ESPECIALLY when they get jealous. They can be super cut throat with their words.

Taurus Venus’s usually came from households where they were exposed to really good food. Either they had enough money in their childhoods to afford high quality ingredients or they came from a family who cooked a lot. This can cause them to be natural cooks themselves. Usually indulged a lot as a child.

Aquarius suns either give IT girl/boy too cool for you vibes or they’re complete weirdos with a school shooter vibe no in between.

I believe Taurus suns are way more jealous than Scorpio suns

Leo moons tend to be the most awkward Leo placement. They have this dorkiness about them which most people don’t expect but I’ve seen it a lot. They can also be very childishly dramatic about very minor problems. Any little inconvenience is seen as a tragedy. However they usually are extremely talented in one area (usually art related) I’ve seen a lot of musicians and drama kids have this placement.

I’d love to have a Sagittarius moon yall seem like you generally don’t give a f*ck what people think and I’m here for it. Such a happy moon sign. However your good vibes 24/7 attitude can make others believe you’re insensitive or shallow.

I notice a lack of fire in the chart can cause a person to go into depression easier. It’s harder to be optimistic.

Venus in 2nd house isn’t just about being rich it also has to do with self esteem as well! When these people are really on the right path they can live such a favorable life! These are the girls you see on YouTube who’s morning routine is waking up at 6, eating a balanced breakfast, moisturize and exfoliate and exercise all before 8 lmao. Usually they don’t start making good money until they fix their self worth but once they do it’s like they flow with the universe without much obstacles. But when struggling with your self esteem you can become bad with your money and be very greedy and jealous of others success so be careful!

Venus in 7th house people are so lucky with relationships. It’s like they just slide into romantic relationships so easily & naturally. So many people want to cuff them up it’s insane. They tend to get along with a lot of different personalities. Very diverse people which attracts people to them like magnets. However, they can be very codependent and do poorly when alone.

Pisces suns are either extremely wise or super foolish and immature. They also always look like they don’t know what’s going on whether they actually do or really don’t😭 even if they are listening to everything your saying it looks like they have nothing going on in their minds like they got a lobotomy lmao (sometimes tho they really don’t know what’s going on, especially Pisces mercs)

Mercury in Capricorns are normally super smart. Street wise and book wise. They can come off as intimidating tho sometimes because of how intelligent they come off. They also have a vibe that can lowkey make people feel unwelcome like you’re too dumb to talk to them💀 (similar to cap risings). They tend to surround themselves with people older/more mature than them they can really get put off but younger acting energies.

Sag risings can be SOOO loud. Especially when they get excited or drunk.

Having a Sun in Aries and a Cancer moon seems like the most difficult sun/moon placements to have together. You have this tough exterior and such a vulnerable interior that no one knows about so people usually treat you harshly not knowing it’s really hard for you to take that☹️ also struggles a lot with being vulnerable to anyone.

Every Pisces Mars woman I’ve ever met was so dazzling to look at. They have such an ultra feminine nature that’s almost ethereal.

[writingquestionsanswered]

Tips for writers with ADHD that get major writers block/burnout

Writers with ADHD and Writer's Block/Burnout

Tip #1 - Troubleshoot the Problem - I want to start here, in the most obvious place, because even for writers with ADHD, writer's block is often the result of a specific issue that can be surmounted once identified. My post 5 Reasons You Lost Interest in Your WIP, Plus Fixes! addresses some of the most common ones. It's worth checking to see if something on there resonates with you as a potential obstacle to progress.

Tip #2 - De-Stress Your Writing Time - Human brains are wired to respond in specific ways to perceived threats... fight, flight, or freeze. Quite often, what we call "writer's block" is actually your brain having a freeze response to writing because it's causing you stress and is therefore perceived as a threat.

So, anything you can do to de-stress your writing time can help. Troubleshooting the problem as in #1 is a good start. Set reasonable goals and deadlines... you can estimate your available writing time and calculate that with your estimated WPM to see if it's even possible for you to hit your word count goal. Go easy on yourself when you don't reach goals... celebrate even the smallest of wins, because negative thinking makes writing more stressful. Do what you can to set up an inviting writing space, light a candle (safely), play soft music, use ambient lighting, have your favorite beverage and snack at hand.

Tip #3 - "Gamify" Your Writing - Turning your writing goals into game achievements can make writing fun, which is another great way to de-stress it. You can usually find free game board templates online, or you can create your own. I like to set mine up like this:

You can set as many tasks as you want (within reason) for each goal, and your prizes can be anything from a handful of candy to buying something you really want, or doing something you really want to do. Whatever works for your budget that motivates you to get the tasks done.

Tip #4 - Do an Immersive Writing Sprint Session - YouTube is a wonderland of helpful videos for writers... not just easily digestible writing advice and research information, but also writing music, ambience rooms, and one of my favorites, immersive writing sessions. These are themed ambience rooms with ambient video, music, and sound effects, but they also have a writing sprint timer on the screen, so you are encouraged to write for however long (usually 10 to 20 minutes), then you get a five or ten-minute break before the next sprint starts. These can be a really great way to get into the zone if you're struggling otherwise.

Tip #5 - Eliminate Distractions - When you have ADHD, pretty much anything can be a distraction. If my desk is messy, I'll pause mid-sentence to clean it rather than write. If there's something on my desk I can fidget with or play with, I'll do that. If my phone is handy, I'll pick it up and start scrolling through social media. If I'm listening to music with words, I'll go look up the lyrics and fall down some weird tangentially related rabbit hole. If I'm hungry or thirsty, I'll get up fifty times to get a small snack or drink. So, I clean my desk ahead of time and remove anything I might be tempted to fiddle with. I only play instrumental music (usually an ambience room). I put my phone on silent or leave it in another room.

Literally anything I can do to head my usual distractions off at the pass. For me, it actually makes a big difference. Try keeping a running list of things that distract you while writing during a week of writing sessions. Then, go through the list and write solutions. This helps you build a pre-writing session distraction elimination routine.

I hope something here will work for you! I may do a part two to this soon, so keep an eye out!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[codenamethebird]

More Hades 2 rambles from me! Though this time round it's a continuation of a point I made in this post.

Specifically, that I think the final boss of the Surface will be a living human mortal.

A couple people on that post disagreed that it would be a human, mostly just because of boss fight mechanics. Which I do get, but this is my not so little refute of that idea (all in good fun of course, I very well might be wrong! I just have thought a bunch about it since then and wanted to ramble about it).

I'll be getting into later how the game could have a hard mechanically satisfying human final boss later, because first I want to talk about how it would make sense naratively. Not because anyone remotely argued this point, I just think it's interesting haha.

So let's go back for a moment to Hades 1, and it's final boss, Hades himself. On a mechanical sense, it makes total sense, Hades is the god and master of the underworld Zag is trying to escape. He would be the final obstacle. But what really makes Hades work as the final boss, is the story and emotional reason he's there.

The plot of Hades is ultimately about Zag's messy relationship with his dad. And that final boss fight is an ongoing conversation with him. While irl you and your questionable dad constantly fighting to death is not a great way to fix your problems, these are weird bound to underworld greek gods. Death is their weird love language for like half this cast haha. There is a reason Death is one of, if not the main love interest.

Okay now that I've established that, let's look at the one final boss we do know from Hades 2, Chronos. Now it's Grandpa's time to shine. Unlike Hades 1, he fits a lot cleaner into a more traditional villian role. The monster who literally takes over your house and takes your family hostage.

In that way, it is a personal fight for Mel to save her family, but Mel lacks a specific personal connection to Chronos himself. Obviously there's the whole Grandpa thing, but she wasn't like raised by him or anything. He is a convient big bad she can hate simply and wholeheartedly. While he does try to challenge her beliefs at times, Mel will never listen to him because of the whole family kidnapping thing, and Gramps equally doesn't want to engage with her either. He just wants to be a dick to her.

While I'm a firm believer in the "We (the gods) are actually the bad guys" theory, I don't think Chronos is secretly an angel. He did you know eat his kids and that entire scene with Hades and him just reeked of shitty dad vibes. While Chronos might be better for humanity, I think he really is using them as a prop and doesn't genuinely care about them. (This is a derail, but I do think the human army side of things including Prometheus will turn on Chronos at some point. Specifcally that they are already planning to).

But yes, basically, while I adore Chronos as a villain, you get none of the character growth from either party that you got between Zag and Hades in the first game. Obviously, we are still in early access, so there's more dialouge to be had. But from what we have seen, those two are not changing the other. So this is my roundabout way to say that must mean the Surface boss is the one that is going to be all about Melinoe's character growth.

I don't think I need to explain why fighting a human would be a fascinating place for character growth for humanities #1 hater Melinoe. Mel's the Hades equivalent in this game (not the Zag), who will not listen to anyone who disagrees with her. Getting beat up by a human might actually start to get it through her head.

But also I want to dig into why I don't think the final boss will be another Titan. I've seen Atlas thrown around a bunch as a possible final Surface boss. Also Typhon... I'm certain there are others. But I don't know what they would add to the narrative, especially as a final boss? I think there's more evidence for Atlas, so I'll focus on him.

It would make some sense, he was the leader of the titan rebellion and much like Prometheus, in certain versions of the myth he was also freed from his punishment by Heracles! Which considering Heracles suspicious lack of dialouge so far, and the dialouge he does have being a god hater, I do think he's the one who freed Prometheus in this game.

But other than those connections, what does Atlas add to make him an interesting antagonist to Mel? He's not particularly tied to humanity, and while his punishment sucked he did lead a rebellion against the gods (and traditionally the reasons have nothing to do with humans).

Mostly, in my opinion, if the game was going to have a titan also be the final boss for the Surface, it wouldn't be Atlas. It would be Prometheus. He's the powerful titan who has a legitimate gruge against the gods and who can engage with Mel in interesting ways, challenging her stance against the gods. But they have already used Prometheus, I don't know how they could write Atlas (or whatever titan/god) in a way that would be more interesting than Prometheus, and rival the Hades boss fight for thematic weight. Also, it would be 2 titans in a row, which isn't nessisarily a bad thing, but still.

I've also seen people throw around it might he Ares, which I will admit would I would be way more excited for that another titan. Theres some interesting ideas to be had with an Olympian who has betrayed the gods. But we already have dialouge with Athena where she says how Chronos' armies motivations wouldn't line up with Ares'. And I feel like going from a dude only obsessed with war to someone fighting for some kind of higher cause would be a jump in character. Not impossible, but a little weird.

And ultimately, I just think that a Human would serve the purpose better as an antagonist to Mel who would shake her worldview on living mortals in particular. A fight with Ares would mess with her relationship with the gods, but not as clearly with humans.

Okay now that I've talked about themes, how about what people actually had an issue with lol, how would a final boss with a human make sense from a boss fight perspective. I have three main ideas, that don't really contradict each other and could all exist in the fight.

1st idea: multiple enemies. We've heard that there are human armies, the final boss could possibly be a leader of them. We could have hords of enemies, could have select recognizable commanders that have different skill sets, etc. None of the Surface boss fights have multi bosses in them (they have random mobs but none like the sirens or Theseus and Asterius), so I don't think it would be strange to have it. And while stretching the definition of a human boss a bit, these other bosses could be ghosts and other kinds of beings (I just think the main boss should be a breathing human).

2nd idea and tbh my main one. Have them be a Witch! Or some other kind of magic user. I feel like this should be obvious, but a lot of the theming around Hades 2 is witchy/magic stuff and it's wild we don't have a major witch enemy yet (other than obviously Hecate, but for obvious reasons I don't count her).

I'm thinking some kind of High Priestess of Chronos kind of character, we still don't know exactly how Chronos was revived and this could tie in, but there's a bunch of ways you could spin a magic user! I think it would be a prime place to put a narrative foil to Melinoe. A fellow Witch whose family was stolen away by the gods who is looking for justice. Maybe when finally looking into a mirror, some of the stuff Melinoe's been told will finally breach her thick headed skull haha.

I don't think I really need to get into the technical about how a witch fight could be cool. But one idea, tying into my first point, a magic user could have mind powers and compell powerful beings to fight for them. This could be the Zag boss fight of borderline crack theories or even maybe the aforementioned Ares who maybe got captured during his war path. A magic fight doesn't need possessed enemies, but it could be cool.

And finally, my 3rd idea. You might be going, but how could a human be more powerful than Prometheus? Well first point magic, but more seriously, just have them be boosted by Chronos and/or other allies. I mentioned a theory about a high priestess sort of character (the power of God and ani--), but more specifically, if they do go the route of a foil to Melinoe, she has her boons from the gods. Much like Theseus in Hades 1, the final surface boss could gain the boons of Chronos/Prometheus/and the like. Maybe even a Chaos boon, they have already aided Chronos once, and there's a decent chance the humans might betray Chronos at some point so Chaos might be chill with them. This could also be a way to introduce more titan characters and the like without needing to make models for them haha.

But yes, tldr, magic human gives us both the thematic weight of it being a human, witch stuff to parallel Melinoe, and just cool powerful magic fight as a final boss (and it could parallel the Hecate boss fight, the first boss u fight and the last being magic based).

[johntayjinf]

i caved in and bought renoise

also sorry tumblr i constantly delete this because i have way too many mixing hiccups to fix... was being too hasty haha

for a tracker with daw features like track mixers, vst support, automation, filters etc., it's pretty impressive what you can do with it. finally i get to do hq music without having to wrap my head around more conventional daws; i like the inconvenience of modern tracker interfaces myself, actually.

the first time i had to arrange for something hq like this, the biggest obstacle and wake-up call i had to face was the fact that uh, my mixing skills weren't up to snuff. fixing it was a nightmare. biggest thing i didn't know at the time of arranging was that sidechaining the bass was really important, otherwise the bass drum (kick) wouldn't be heard and be overpowered by the bass. this was pointed out to me by a server member of ours, lolwe. they've been mixing for about 7-8 years and counting so they understand it pretty well... and actually the final mix was made just this morning to actually fix the entire mix lol.

other more minor mixing issues were ironed out with eq-ing, which i have a bit of experience of, though it was pointed out by dinebon_, yet another (new!) server member, who was primarily a bassist. they also pointed out some unwanted dissonance i had put in for the arrangement.

i understand that mixing is pretty much subjective and everyone does it differently, but it should be worth pointing out that there are some rookie mistakes that someone like me _can_ make. i may be a good arranger but this mix wouldn't have sounded better if it weren't for people giving me advice and pointers on how to fix things. i definitely think that getting input from a variety of artists who have different strengths helps to put a mix together and give listeners a more comfortable listening experience, so from now on, i'll be at the very least, sidechaining my basslines with the kick for better mixing. sorry if this doesn't sound great for everyone lol

the vst i used on the other hand, has _a lot_ of technical problems.

i think we all here love the sound canvas series of midi synthesizers, but i unfortunately do not have the money to buy the physical hardware (yet), so i stuck to the roland cloud sc vst. god, it is a terrible technical mess...

obviously the sc is sampled beautifully, and is iconic in the video game music world, but how the hell do you mess up a vst _this_ badly? it has _inverted stereo_, which is, a fad from waaaaaay back when. i'm happy i got to simply fix this through audacity but good grief, man. i had to export each instrument one by one just so i could identify which instruments were cancelling themselves out on mono and which ones weren't. genuinely horrifying stuff. there are also the in-built low-end and high-end boosters, but what about the mids? i'm going to assume that it's just a feature of the time but god i honestly wish they added middle frequency knobs. not that i can't fix that with eq post-production, but i'd rather not do that (especially for the main melody) unless if the problem really is a big deal. again, i love the sound canvas, but i wish that the vst were better; the technical problems i had to work with ended up souring the experience. i wish people could actually fix it some day and turn it into something greater. i'll likely use the vst again but i also want to mix in other instrument and sample libraries as well!

in the meantime, this arrange gave me a crave for kirby again. i love kdl3 sm, it is my favorite game of the gb - snes era of games. idk how but jun ishikawa writes these intoxicating songs for kirby and i am just left to rot listening to them. they are waaaayy too good.

[seafoamreadings]

week of december 31st, 2023

happy new year~!

these are written predominantly for the *rising* signs but they are also intuitively "channeled" enough that they should work for any dominant energy you have! (try your sun if you don't know rising, or more advanced readers can try moon, anywhere you have a stellium, etc and see what works best for you!)

aries: the first week of the year is fairly calm, although mercury ends its little retrograde to kick off the new year. likewise you can start your year off by focusing on reinvigorating an academic or spiritual practice.

taurus: the astrological weather is fairly quiet at the moment which may well bode nicely for your upcoming 2024. proceed through the week with care regarding shared resources or taxes, and be careful not to push any romantic or commitment situations. although mercury stations direct, hold off on signing contracts or verbal agreements for a little while longer.

gemini: celebrate your ruling planet mercury ending its retrograde! seriously, don't let the day (new year's day!) go unmarked. while you may not be entirely out of the woods until he makes it into capricorn, a major milestone is here achieved.

cancerians: mercury direct is good news for fitness, health, and daily routines. it's like a lingering fatigue lifts at last. then mars into capricorn makes any ongoing romantic relationships a little more, let's say, sizzly. maybe a lot more. if you're seeking a commitment, it's almost time to get that ball rolling.

leo: it's a great week to be a leo. mercury direct lightens and brightens up your romantic and creative life. meanwhile mars heads for capricorn, which helps you stay looking the way you want to look, doing the things you want to do, at a level others only ever dream of attaining.

virgo: mercury resumes direct motion, helping to relieve any problems you've been having at home. then mars heads into his exaltation in your fellow earth sign of capricorn. create something new and follow your bliss, be that a person or a project or cuddling up under some covers alone.

libra: if you want to make your own good omens for yourself, wait until about january 2 or 3 and decorate your home with some mountainous imagery. but not impassable obstacles of mountains, rather mountains that have been successfully scaled, the view of the earth from up there on the peak if you can.

scorpio: for the most part you can forget mercury retrograde ending. that direct motion fixes some finances for you but the big deal really is mars into capricorn. mars was your ruler of old, actually even less than a hundred years ago pre-pluto. he is exalted in the sign of the sea goat. the animalistic side of that sign comes out. it suits you well. it is very raw, honest, primal... make the most of it.

sagittarius: been waiting for mercury's retrograde to end? arguably, it's affected you most of all. the new year kicks off with the direct motion at last beginning. it doesn't reach the end of its shadow period for a couple more weeks but things ease up for you big time. for best results, don't get hasty about any new year's resolutions. you can save them as long as you want. maybe until mercury is well back into capricorn and you can see more clearly?

capricorn: mercury goes direct to start 2024 and then mars promptly enters his exaltation in your sign. if you're doing hustle culture, it works, but it does best if you also use this vibe to defend your rest periods, your fun and play, and peace. but you win the battles you enter.

aquarius: if it seems like mercury retrograde took away some friends or social circles, they are likely to pop back in from new year's day on. at the same time mars into capricorn means it's good to get a little gung ho about your spirituality, especially in terms of integrating the shadow.

pisces: this is a good week to spend time with old friends you haven't seen in a while. helpful people abound if you just put yourselves in each other's paths. also be a helpful person to others! if you have networks or support systems to build, this is especially easy from the 5th onward.

[icemankazansky]

icemav + older mav/younger ice 🙏

Thanks for playing! Your reward is the longest "three-sentence story" yet. This one is probably an actual one shot, actually.

Older Mav/Younger Ice AU + Teacher/Student (kind of) AU

Maverick arrived in his office moments before the meeting was meant to begin, and was in the middle of trying to make things look slightly more orderly when Kazansky walked in several minutes early.  Maverick froze, now the sole obstacle between the dozen or so books lined up on his windowsill and gravity.  Kazansky stilled halfway between the doorway and the desk, assessing the scene with a silent pass of his glacial blue eyes.  

“Need a hand?” Kazansky asked.

Maverick huffed and scrambled to right the books before they slid onto the floor.  “No, I’m just—this is normal—”

Kazansky’s plush, distracting mouth quirked up into that infuriating little half-smile, and he crossed the room, sidling behind Maverick and pushing the books back into place with one of his big hands.  Maverick swallowed his curse, reminding himself that he was supposed to be the bigger man, and picked the fallen bookend off the floor, fitting it back into place as Kazansky held the books still.

Maverick turned, intending to have a civilized meeting where he sat behind his desk and Kazansky sat on the other side in the chair that was there for that express purpose.  But Kazansky did not go to sit in the chair.  He turned to face Maverick, leaning back against Maverick’s desk, his weight balanced on his hands braced behind him, his hips cocked out.  He was wearing a faded pair of blue jeans, an old pair soft with wear.  Maverick tried not to imagine the feel of the worn denim, soft as cotton, beneath his palms, and failed spectacularly.

Maverick swallowed dryly.  “Do you know why I asked to see you, Mr. Kazansky?”

“Please call me Ice,” Kazansky said, not for the first time.  “And no, Maverick, not specifically.”

Maverick raised an eyebrow.  “No?  Also, I would appreciated it if you would call me Professor Mitchell.”

Ice’s gaze cut into him.  “You tell everyone to call you Maverick.  You mean everyone but me?”

Instead of fumbling for a response, Maverick decided to double down on his first argument.  “You have no idea why I asked you to come see me?”

“Well, you find me intellectually stimulating, and I’m charming and very attractive—”

“You’re not as charming as you think you are,” Maverick muttered.

“No argument on how attractive I am?”

Maverick flushed.  “Mr. Kazansky, we need to talk about your behavior in my classroom this afternoon.”

Ice’s brow rose.  “Do we?”

Maverick flushed deeper.  “Your pants were open.”

Ice frowned.  “I didn’t realize.”  He tapped his stupid, long, graceful fingers over his fly.  “Seems like the problem’s fixed now.”

“It’s inappropriate,” Maverick snapped.

“It’s an innocent mistake,” Ice said.  “I didn’t accidentally flash you or anything, did you?”

No.  No, he didn’t.  Maverick didn’t see anything but the occasional glimpse of black fabric, too fleeting to even guess what kind of fabric it was.  Not that Maverick hadn’t considered the possibilities.  All of them.  Extensively.

“That’s not the point!” Maverick seethed.

“What is the point?”

“You’re doing it on purpose,” Maverick said.

“Not buttoning my pants …?”

Maverick flushed.  “Flirting with me!  Teasing me.”

Ice wet his lips.  At this point, Maverick couldn’t tell if the action was deliberate or not; it didn’t matter.  The slow pass of Ice’s pink tongue over his plush lips made Maverick feel giddy.

“I’m allowed to flirt,” Ice said softly.  “And it’s not teasing if I’ll give it to you.  And I will.  I believe I’ve made that clear, but in case you need to hear it again: When it comes to me, you can have anything—everything—you want.”

It was Ice’s going soft that did it.  Him lowering his guard, being open, vulnerable.  Genuine, earnest.  Suddenly, Maverick felt every year between them like a weigh pulling him down to the bottom of the ocean.

“I’m old enough to be your father,” he said.

“My father was not in middle school when I was born,” Ice said.

“I’m your teacher.”

“I’m not an undergrad who was in high school last week,” Ice said.  “I’m a doctoral student.”

“So you’re 24?”

“Twenty-five,” Ice said, a bit defensively.  “I’m an adult.  I know what I’m doing.  I know what I’m getting into.”  He met Maverick’s eyes.  “I know you like me.  I like you, too, Mav, so much.  You’re smart, and funny, and really cute—”

Maverick panted.  “You’re going to kill me.”

Ice grinned.  “It’s a pretty good way to go, though, right?  In bed with a hard-bodied 25-year-old who adores you?”

Maverick’s jaw dropped open, and Ice grinned. “Take me out, Professor Mitchell.  One date.  A test drive.  If you can’t handle it, I’ll leave you alone.  Promise.  I’ll change majors.  I’ll change universities.  I’ll change countries.”

Maverick felt a lance of pain cut through him.  “No.  I can’t.  I … Mr. Kazansky, I’d like to ask you to leave, please.  I have to get ready for office hours.”

Ice’s light dimmed all at once, like a snuffed candle flame.  He pulled himself off Maverick’s desk and turned his back to him.

“Please forgive me for taking up your time, Professor,” he said, and left without turning back.

* “Maverick, you’re an idiot,” Goose said.

“I know,” Maverick moaned.  He was faceplanted onto the couch of Goose’s office, and some of his answer was lost in the upholstery.

“He’s an adult,” Goose said.  “It’s not like he’s a failing freshman offering you a blowjob to get his grades up; he’s a doctoral student, and he’s the best one in the program.”

“I know,” Maverick said.

“He likes you.  And you like him.”

“Kill me, Goose,” Maverick said.  “Just put me out of my misery.”

“Oh, no,” Goose said.  “I have a much worse idea.”

*

Singing three power ballads at karaoke at a bar just off campus was definitely a worse idea.  He wasn’t even drunk enough for it to be an excuse.  In fact, he had decided to stick to Shirley Temples so he wouldn’t make worse decisions.

But it did lift his spirits.  He came off stage after the last song bolstered by the applause and camaraderie of the crowd, even knowing that enough of his students were in the audience that this would probably be news on campus come Monday.  Goose handed him a fresh Shirley Temple, and then gave a little nod to Maverick’s six.

“I believe you have a fan.”

Maverick turned and came face to face with Ice, who looked warmer and more relaxed than when Maverick had left him.  Maverick opened his mouth to apologize, but Ice spoke first.

“I got an invite to the show,” Ice said, eyes flicking briefly back to Goose.  “I enjoyed your performance.”

“Uh … thanks,” Maverick said.

“You’re very passionate,” Ice said.  “That’s very attractive.”

Maverick was aware his mouth was hanging open, but found he couldn’t do anything about it.  Ice didn’t mention it.  He looked at the Shirley Temple.

“May I please have a cherry, Teach?”

Maverick flushed.  “Uh, yeah, it’s … sure.”

He pulled a cherry from his drink by the stem.  He was prepared to hand it to Ice when Ice opened his mouth.  Flushing hotter, Maverick placed the cherry in Ice’s mouth, losing several dozen IQ points when his fingertips brushed Ice’s lips.

Ice licked his lips, then closed his mouth, sucking the sweet juices from the cherry.  Maverick started doing differential equations in his head.

“Look,” Maverick said, “about earlier, Ice, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have—”

Ice opened his mouth, and Maverick shut his.  Ice pulled the cherry stem from his tongue and deposited it gently atop the ice cubes of Maverick’s Shirley Temple.  He had tied it into a bow.  Maverick felt like he’d taken a blow to the head.

“Walk me home?” Ice asked.

“Yeah, I—yeah, I’m gonna … do that,” Maverick managed.  He set his glass down … somewhere, and followed Ice out without tearing his eyes off him.  “Uh … bye, Goose.”

“Have a good night,” Goose called after them. 

Maverick married Ice that October.

[roxynugget]

Roxy's Top Minecraft Tips:

Hoard like a goblin, as long as you have a chest to put it in. Yes, you will probably need all that extra stone for something. Yes, you will probably want all that netherrack as a cheap temporary block. No, you will probably not want all that uncobbled deepslate (let's not get crazy here).

If you have emeralds, the wandering trader is actually a decent early-game source of nautilus shells, saplings you don't have, and blue ice (which is good for redstone machines). You can also pop off his leads from his llamas, without killing him, by putting down a boat and letting the llamas sit in it. Please stop murdering the little guy...

I am a major advocate of abiding by The Three Laws Of Big Ugly Holes In The Ground. Which is a law I just made up, but is a common problem in Minecraft worlds where people undertake megaprojects. The Three Laws Of Big Ugly Holes states:

If you spend hours and hours digging a big, ugly hole in the ground for a project, you will now have a big ugly hole in the ground.

If you don't want to look at a big ugly hole in the ground, you may have to spend a lot of time and energy to make it look nice again.

And lastly, if you don't have the time or energy to fix the big ugly hole in the ground, you will have to look at it every single time you're in the area. Make sure you REALLY need that big ugly hole in the ground.

Barrels are excellent for building spruce furniture in Minecraft. But other villager work stations are also really good for building furniture! Cartography tables are excellent for building dark oak furniture and decor, because they look like they're made of dark oak. Likewise, fletching tables look like they're made of birch, so they're good for birch furniture. Bee hives also look like cardboard boxes or oak drawers.

Never underestimate the power of armor stands. They can really liven up a space, and there are some cool mods out there for posing them now. Disabling gravity also makes them less laggy.

Teach yourself just a little bit of redstone. You'll find ways to use it to benefit yourself.

If you're not going to be fighting other players, the Smite enchantment is probably going to be more useful to you than Sharpness. There are more undead enemies in the game than any other type, and suiting your melee weaponry towards them is a good idea. Add Fire Aspect, and you have a sword that can take out most monsters very quickly!

Allays and other flying mobs have difficulties navigating blocks that are not half-blocks, such as trapdoors, fences, amethyst, and slabs. If you want your pets to free-range in your house, you may want to remove these obstacles to prevent them from getting stuck.

A complicated storage system will not fix your organizational habits. It might help! But if the idea of making one exhausts you, aim for something simpler, and you may find that any organization at all will help you more.

Minecraft will still be there after you have a snack and take a drink of water. 🥪🥤

[mdhwrites]

What do you think about the four most popular ships in Amphibia (Sashanne, Sasharcy, Marcanne, and Sashannarcy)? Even if shipping and romance aren’t that important and only used to teach a lesson or for a comedy episode, it’s pretty obvious that the relationship between the girls can be seen either as platonic or romantic.

So I'm going to first give my one sentence thoughts on each by concept and then canon before going in deep on this:

Sashanne: A unique dynamic that is actually very context specific so hard to actually recreate and I'd argue most people don't even try or get close in fan works (myself included)/I do like them but I 100% think they needed a couple years to figure out their lives away from each other or else post Amphibia they would have likely become toxic in a new way.

Sasharcy: Classic nerd and popular pairing/FUCKING NONEXISTENT.

Marcanne: A bit more nuanced since it's much more the slacker and the passionate one as far as a dynamic goes but not in the way you expect./Held back by a lot more tell don't show, especially in the first couple episodes that Marcy is introduced but it's cute and you can EASILY see how this whole trip will have made Anne be able to appreciate her oldest friend more.

Sashannarcy: In concept these are actually a GREAT polyamory trio and I love that it has such mainstream appeal with a fandom/I don't think it works from the show's perspective because of how well defined Sasha and Anne's relationship is while Marcy struggles to have a presence.

In case you didn't notice a running theme, these ships have essentially the same problem as my greatest problem with the show: Marcy. Her weaker writing compared to the rest of the cast and the fact that she serves a narrative role more than she acts as her own character makes it hard for me to be compelled by her canon self in ships. It's akin to why Willow and Hunter don't appeal to me from a shipping perspective. I like characters, not plot devices. Yes, Marcy is better than both of those characters as she actually has a firmer character than either but that doesn't fix that her narrative utility comes before who she is most of the time.

The other big element that maybe has always held me back from shipping them in canon once I watched the show is actually the fact that I agree with the show: As teenagers, they were AWFUL for each other. Marcy needs her own, personal strength that she found some of in Amphibia but needs to actually put to use in the real world. Sasha brutally changed so much of herself and was clearly struggling with that, over correcting or still wanting to run even to the end. She asks if it's okay for her to abandon Marcy after all, even after she's gone so far to make up to Anne as to give up ALL power in her life which isn't healthy either. Anne is the closest to being ready for a relationship after Amphibia but Sprig's Birthday/Give a Frog a Cookie showed that her self sacrificing tendency for her friends and her desperation for approval still. She may do it for better people than for Sasha but she is still struggling.

They all just need time to figure themselves out as people because your relationships SHOULD NOT DEFINE YOU. That's kind of part of the point of the ending. Take the good and grow as a person, whether you lose someone by choice or by circumstance. That includes for the trio as friends or romantically.

Okay, but I did mention something potentially quite controversial which is my Sashanne take. See... Their dynamic in most fandom works is the overzealous, brash one versus the patient, more responsible one with Sasha and Anne respectively. That is accurate post Amphibia but it also carries NONE of their baggage and usually leans a lot more on Sasha's tomboy nature instead of the fact that Sasha is a girl who can both kick your ass and then worry about having chipped a nail. The complexities of Sashanne that make it so compelling in the show just don't show up as much except as an obstacle to get over to get together. That works for shipping but it's not why their friendship is as complicated and interesting as it is in the show. It doesn't have the punch it should and it's damn near impossible to replicate because that level of history is hard to depict. It only functions in the show as being well depicted because of how much time is spent essentially breaking Anne out of Sasha's control, which is part of it. Anne is someone who pretty much left a cult and Sashanne is her having to decide to now be with her cult leader but not slip back into the mentality the cult taught her. That's... not easy to put it mildly.

But then again, a lot of people just take Sasha and Anne working together for a greater cause to mean they have literally no issues anymore despite Sasha's Angels existing. I guess that happens when somehow the entire fandom doesn't give a fuck about Amphibia but only the trio. sigh

Let's end this on a positive note though which is that if I am so rough on essentially all the Sasha relationships for needing time for Sasha to genuinely internalize her lessons, Marcy is the opposite. While I complained about her above, the strength to the fact that she's a pretty well defined, nice character who can be used mostly to support others arcs is that she more neatly fits into a position for shipping. Her awkwardness and nerdiness is PRIME romance fodder (there's a reason a shocking amount of romantic protagonists are clumsy but that's for a different blog) and her passion makes it easy to understand why someone would want to be with her.

And I do want to say some thoughts on Marcanne. Even if they start on a rough place with more tell instead of show, it actually does kind of work in this context. A complaint I've had about other relationships is not actually knowing what the other is interested in their partner for besides "That's the hot one." There is ZERO ambiguity here. Marcy likes Anne because of her compassion, something she probably has worried about wearing out herself. Anne has always appreciated Marcy's intelligence but Amphibia has made her understand Marcy's passion far better than she did before and Anne clearly actually is into that now that she better cares about others properly. This also clearly shows their chemistry as we know the strengths and weaknesses each of them cover for the other, though not perfectly as they're both still human and the same things they admire in the other can cause anxiety and worry in themselves from comparing themselves to their partner. Marcy in Wartwood and Scavenger Hunt are all it takes for all of this to come out and it leads to more romantic chemistry, and a genuinely dynamic look at what they could be, than a lot of romance movies manage in their entire runtime.

In conclusion, I like all of them in general. In practice, I find most of them deeply compelling within the show. It's just... It doesn't drive me to want to write them during the show romantically because I agree with the show. They're complicated, both as a trio and as themselves, and they probably could use a more solid ground for themselves before they really start working on each other.

And that is honestly even better to me because it just makes them all the more interesting.

======+++++======

For anyone curious why I didn't talk about Sashannarcy at all despite literally being a polyamory writer, it's because I kind of wanted to keep it to the ships that I think are properly represented in the show and Marcy and Sasha get essentially zero time together to try and form a relationship beyond "Marcy thinks Sasha is really fucking cool while Sasha barely gives Marcy the time of day if she's not also giving attention to Anne." The theoretical would be fun to talk about but it's pretty much only the theoretical and I decided to keep the blog more focused on the practical.

Also had a moment after this of going "Huh. I wonder how much of me being demiromantic is playing a part in how I see these.?

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

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

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[tokyo-daaaamn-ji-gang]

Whilst I'm at it, if the cast decided to write fanfiction, would they write, what tropes would they be fond of and who would be writing the filthiest and freakiest of smut you can think of.

Ok so assuming everyone had to write one and they couldn't say no this is what I came up with

Takemichi- superhero fic, very cliche, follows pretty much every trope. It's dedicated to Hina too (she loved reading it). It's probably got something to do with a 4 leaf clover in the name.

Mikey- Writes fic about Taiyaki kun being the hero, probably a long adventure type story, taiyaki kun rides a motorbike at one point, it's a wild read.

Draken- He'd likely be very big on the found family trope, you just know his fic would be about some rag tag group coming together and bonding to the point of becoming family (the villian is probably based on Hanma).

Hina- oh definitely romance, the hero saves the girl, the girl saves the hero. She just writes the perfect couple and then overcoming any obstacles together in their way.

Emma- Romance #2, she writes the cutest fluff you can think of.

Naoto- Probably a horror mystery with plenty of occult themes and references. He looks key really enjoys writing it so it's probably a long multiple chapter fic, with a bunch of people following it.

Kisaki- Story about the hero however with a major plot twist towards the end showing the hero was actually the bad guy. It's actually very well done and clever despite how cliche it may sound.

Hanma- ok I see two possible ones here, either he takes it seriously and writes one of the most interesting fics ever (hey he knows whats exciting and what makes a good story) or he absolutely does not take this seriously and writes the smuttiest smut to have ever smutted and attempts to annoy the others with it.

Kazutora- i think he might do something a bit different and write it in letter format, as in character's sending letter's to each other. Letter's probably mean a lot to him and he's likely the most comfortable writing in that format so he uses it in his fics.

Baji- Cat story!!!!! There's definitely some kind of big cat fight scene (baji can't resist) but ultimately it's a happy story. He probably also makes a few spelling errors but it's ok since Chifuyu helps him correct anything. 

Chifuyu- Was tempted by Baji's cat story but settles on a person romance instead. It is full of manga references and the girl eventually kisses the guy after he gave her a polkadot based surprise. Probably a soul mate au.

Mitsuya- very detailed fic, like expect everything to have every last detail described (especially people's clothes).

Hakkai- space story! Probably a self insert about him going to space and being a hero (when he comes back mitsuya is incredibly proud of him).

Pah & Peh- They do everything together including fic writing. Definitely a story about two friends (them two), is a happy story about these two friends vs the world.

Smiley- fights, fights and more fights, everyone just wants to beef each other here.

Angry- I think he would write am interactive type fic, like the type where people comment and choose what they want to happen next, I just think he'd enjoy the interactions with people.

Mucho- coffee shop/ bakery au! Actually probably writes about his friends working there, izana is the manager, kakucho the assistant manager, sanzu is a loyal customer, mucho himself prepares the cakes, the Haitani brother's face the customers, mochi handles the drive thru and shion is the dishwasher who keeps breaking things. 

Sanzu- definitely a royalty au about a king and his loyal soldier. 

Inui- probably heavily use the miscommunication causes the main issue trope, he's seen it irl and knows it really can cause a bunch of problems.

Koko- probably a fix it fic, writes about a fire but this time no one dies, the girl gets saved and ends up happily living with her rescuer. This is probably actually something he uses to work through his regrets.

Yuzuha- a cute fic about a sister protecting her brother, she probably beats all the bad guys easily (and the brother's phone lockscreen is of the sister)

Izana & Kakucho- they work together to make another royalty au but this one focusing on the king and his kingdom, the story of this king creating his new world.

Ran- oh definitely a very obvious self insert story. The main character? Flawless hair, everyone loves him, has a little brother who adores him, dresses famously, treated like a celebrity. The guys name is probably like nar or something. Just basically his perfect life, tries to make it very poetic too.

Rindou- probably actually a song fic, the type with lyrics to match the mood. He just expresses himself a lot through music so brings it into his writing too.

Shion- another one with a self insert fic, this one really does go over the top though. Writes himself to practically conquer the world, winning every fight he gets into. 

Senju- Probably a fun adventure fic, I think she would also be pretty big on it being a family adventure/ a found family adventure. 

Wakasa- ok idk exactly why but he gives me those text fic vibes, where two characters are texting each other. I feel like he'd actually kinda unexpectedly enjoying making it too. 

Benkei- Another fic very high on the action, a lot of fights, the characters are likely based on the 1st gen Black dragons.

Shinichiro- Say's he's going to write smut but then gets too embarrassed and ends up with fluff instead. 

South- ok I think he'd also write a kinda lyric fic but instead of lyrics he'd just straight up put musical notes down. He's just so passionate about it and doesn't really care if others don't understand what those mean (he'd passionately explain it to anyone who asked though)

[trainsinanime]

I feel like talking a bit more about Vanisher 2.0 and Red Volpina (todo: look up what these Miraculous Ladybug season 5 episodes are actually called). My previous review of them has been,

Yes there is stuff where the writing still has potential to get better (not once but twice does everybody in class believe a known liar over Marinette!? Marinette’s classmates suddenly realized Chloé was doing badly in school and somehow that’s Marinette’s problem!? Lol), but it’s still better than it’s ever been.

But maybe there's more to talk about here. Just a couple of days ago I saw a post that complained bitterly about how unfair it is that Marinette must always prove herself, and how Alya was a bad friend in these two episodes.

I don't think that's a great hot take, but I think there is a kernel of truth here. The writing in these episodes was not 100%, but in ways that are interesting to talk about. This isn't meant as salt; I watched the episodes with my sister and I had a lot of fun with them regardless of their flaws. I just think it's interesting.

First of all, I don't think it's actually a problem that Marinette must prove herself. Marinette encountering obstacles and overcoming them through cleverness and strength of will is the point of the show. That's literally fine.

The real issue here is that all the characters are written rather weirdly in order to make the plot happen. Alya is the most visible victim of this, but everyone suffers from it to a certain degree.

In fact, in Vanisher 2.0 (todo look up episode title), this even applies to the villains. Sabrina does not want to steal for Chloé because it goes against her code of ethics as a police officer's daughter. Where did that come from? She has stolen from Marinette before, on Chloé's behalf, back in Darkblade in season 1. The show is just summoning conflict out of thin air.

(There is probably a joke to be made here, about how the cop's daughter steals and plants fake evidence on Marinette to accuse her of a crime, but that's a different thing.)

But it is most notable with Marinette. In Vanisher 2.0 (todo look up title), everybody sees stolen high-value goods such as… paper doilies…? appear out of Marinette's bag, after Chloé told everyone they'd be in there. And the conclusion everyone draws is that Chloé is correct.

Then in Red Volpina, the class learns that Chloé has never made her own homework, something the teacher apparently never noticed before. The class somehow agrees with Lila that this is Marinette's fault for not recognising that Chloé is struggling, despite this not being Marinette's job, and despite Chloé's insistence that she isn't struggling, she just doesn't care.

Neither of these are at all consistent with basically anything that came before. The class knows who Chloé is, how vindictive, petty and entitled she is. They also know who Marinette is, are friends with her, and a surprisingly high percentage are or have been in love with her.

From a story perspective, it makes sense, though. Both episodes want to tell a particular story. In Adoration (todo fix all the spots where I called it Vanisher 2.0), the point is to get to Zoé's big heroic self-sacrifice for Marinette. In Revelation, it's about how always seeing the best in people can sometimes lead you astray. Those are both interesting ideas in their own right. It's just that the episodes used narrative shortcuts to get us there, and ignored character consistency along the way.

I think the point about Alya is the most important one here. Saying "Alya is a bad friend" is canonically not true (look at all the stuff our poor girl puts up with on Marinette's behalf), but also missing the forest for the trees. As smarter people than me have put it, Alya is often only in the story to make Marinette's internal conflict an external one, so we can see the different sides argue in screen instead of imagining them in our head. As a result of that, Alya is sometimes her own character, and sometimes, very often in fact, just whatever she needs to be to get the plot moving.

In Revelation (todo fix yada yada), the plot they had in mind wouldn't work at all if Alya took Marinette and Adrien seriously, and acted on all the information she has. So she just doesn't. That doesn't mean she's a bad friend, it means she's a narrative tool, one that the writers don't always wield super well. Alya is far from the most irrational person in this episode (come on, Gabriel, giving Lila superpowers again? Even though you know she hates you? That's just silly), but since she's one of the good guys and Marinette's best friend and often portrayed as the voice of reason, we notice it the most in her case.

I think the show is genuinely nice and fun, but there's no denying that its writing has flaws. Sometimes more, sometimes less, and these two episodes have some that just stand out a bit. Framing that as "the show is unfair to Marinette" (or even "Alya is a bad friend") is not an interesting way to discuss that, in my opinion. The real issue is that the show had a story it wanted to tell, only twenty minutes to do so, and so it crammed that story in with a crowbar, regardless of the cost. Both episodes have enough good moments to make up for it in my personal opinion, but they have central moments that are just plain clunky.

[the-nexverse]

@thicc-pirate

Agnes: now her being here may surprise you, but during arc 3 she wasn't doing too well. roaming around the country looking for any clues about Ryan's whereabouts means she spent a lot of time without a house or a steady income. she had to sleep outside lots of times, and also steal food another bunch of times. for her, Ryan was priority number one, and anything else was an obstacle between her and him. she kept going on until she completely burnt herself out both physically and mentally, and gave up. then the process of settling into a normal life was another big challenge she had to overcome. it was her personal punishment for failing her mission. for failing him. she firmly believed she deserved every single second of misery she went through

Rask'r: he had some stability during his childhood, then the werewolf pack that adopted him taught him to survive in the wild, so when circumstances separated him from the pack, he was ready to continue on his own. to him, being a vagabond is just how life is. he hunts for himself, he seeks shelter for himself, he travels wherever he pleases for himself. being homeless is freedom to him. having to get in cities to trade, get and fix gear and find mercenary jobs is what he actually dislikes. walled cities make him feel caged in, and they're constantly buzzing with activity. how noisy!

Raz: started off kind of like Rask'r, but things went very wrong for him too soon. his foster father disappeared when he was just a toddler, not having enough time to teach him about lycanthropy or survival. he ended up being unofficially adopted by an elderly couple once he appeared all bloodied inside their chicken coup, shaking in fear. things went fine for a while with them, until a specially bad full moon. he accidentally hurt one of them during it. when he saw what he did the next day, he realised that despite how the grandparents were doing their best to care for him, they were too frail to handle him. he was too dangerous for them. so he ran away. he kept himself fed by hunting while transformed, he didn't have any other means to get food. now i'm doubting if he gets "captured" and put in an orphanage during his late teenage years because being a monster while being confined to a building inside a city is a very bad situation and i really doubt he could manage to survive that without outing himself as a werewolf and not hurting anyone. either way, he escapes and ends up officially homeless by the time he reaches his 20s. there's a portion of his life where he lives with a colony of ratfolk in a city's sewers; it's also when he meets Eva and she offers him to stay at her place for a while while he tries to save money for moving out of the city, since the city monster hunters are tracking him. then the science facility fiasco happens and then he's forced to go full homeless, escaping the law. as for coping, it changed over the years. during his childhood it was very rough since he didn't really have anyone to teach him how to take care of himself. as he grew up, life itself was his teacher. tough love, as they call it, although the ratfolk were very kind to him. the Big Thing that keeps him from being happy is not being able to find balance between him and his beast form. he doesn't know what to do with it. he copes by separating it from himself, he gives it a name, a personality of its own, ANYTHING to refuse to believe it's just another part of himself. it takes him a very long time to realise his wrong approach to his situation, but he eventually does it, thankfully

Donovan: after being revived, he had no problem with having a roof atop his head and food on the plate. quite the opposite: that was his pirating prime era. it was much, much later when things got tough for him. luckily he was at a point where he didn't need to eat anymore and sleeping was optional, but it still opposed a problem to him. the solution to his problems? a van. he got one (don't ask how, he's a pirate, take a guess) and turned it into his portable house. quite the upgrade, since now travelling by sea is unviable given the technological advances. as for coping, his apathy gives him an easy way to deal with it. he's just drifting around, with no real aim or purpose. he stays comatose for most of his time, and when he's awake he's mostly dissociating

Lee: technically being a stray is being homeless, right? regular stray animal struggles for him: finding food and shelter is his daily life. as an anim, he doesn't really need to cope because of it, but it does cause him stress and makes him skittish

Vreytus: he was technically homeless before he became sapient, but the same way a stray dog is. living driven by instinct until a wizard "adopted" him and unlocked his sapience. after that, not much changed. chimeralmas don't need to sleep or eat (doesn't mean that they can't tho), so not having access to food or shelter doesn't really matter to him

Bug: same as Vreytus, it was living its own life as a wild animal until it got captured by shady researchers. having to deal with being experimented on and being exposed to humans and other sapient creatures unlocked its own sapience, eventually leading to its escape. since it doesn't really have a place to go back to, it just roams around, going wherever its curiosity takes it. no food/shelter still ain't a problem to it, but it still makes it look shoddy when it disguises itself as human to enter villages. they legit look like an escaped prisoner/slave with their ragged clothes, buzzcut and being short and underweight. not that it bothers them, of course. they couldn't care less about their appearence

Chad & Lewis: they have to survive all the way from HL1 to HL2 on their own, in a country that's being ransacked, polluted and ultimately destroyed by aliens. being together makes things easier, but they still have a hard time finding shelter and food. Chad is smart enough to successfully hunt and Lewis knows enough about flora to make sure they don't eat anything poisonous. during the first years after the Seven Hour War, their focus and one motive to keep them going is to not be captured by the Combine and simply to survive until they eventually learn about a resistance forming in Europe, but there's an entire ocean between them... still, the thought of humans actually fighting back against the Combine encourages them enough to travel to the east coast and find a way to cross the ocean to the other continent. which they luckily do! bless Aperture Science and their nonsensical inventions. once in Europe, it's true that there's more Combine to hide from, but also there's more rebel outposts to take shelter in. they jump from one another until they arrive at White Forest, and then they make themselves useful there

thanks for the ask!! :3

[scruffyssketchbook]

Okay, I'm sorry, I've been fine with the changes so far, but that last ask broke me. YOU"RE REMOVING THE EEVEEPLEX?????? WHY?!?!?!?!?! That's a giant part of the characters backstories, AND the entire reason they have their powers in the first place! I thought you'd said there would be "no huge changes to the lore"? THAT'S A GIGANTIC CHANGE TO THE LORE!

Did I say there were no huge changes to the lore? Honestly I don't remember. I thought I said there are no huge changes to the main characters personalities/their plot. Most of the lore is changing. (Which is the purpose for this in general)

As of Eevee Plex, I was going to keep it, but there are a lot of problems with it. On the surface, yeah it's a big part of the series, but looking into it, it actually is just needlessly dark?

Eevee Plex labs define the main characters, it is the driving force for all of the plots in the story, but also, it also I believe is the main cause for a lot of the issues in the series. Or rather, A lot of the lore surrounding Eevee Plex is just really confusing or makes little sense. (my faut btw) And certain main characters are not connected to Eevee Plex at all, or have vague connections, which makes them have little to no screentime as a result. Of course, I thought that I could fix this easily. And I was going to, but then I had a conversation in my Patreon Discord server.

It was about Miku. Now, we all know that Miku is trans. Her gender biologically is female, but she was born a biological male. How is this possible? Well Eeveeplex changed her gender to force her to breed with other experiments ofc. Eeveeplex did not know that Miku wanted this, they just did it to her. They did this to a LOT of male eeveelutions, weather they wanted it or not, and most did not. Them forcibly having their gender changed against their will to breed with other male eeveelutions caused a lot of mental health issues and suicide. Miku is an exception.

So I looked at what I said in the server and went "do I really want to keep this???" I looked at other aspects of eeveeplex.

The characters who went to the lab were tortured physically, mentally, and in other ways. They suffered a great deal and these experiences shape how they are right now. Vay's experience in the lab was so twisted and dark that I had to change it completely several timess in the past few years due to how gross it was. Dusk's experience at the lab literally caused all of his issues due to the lack of any semblance of control he had. Blizz's experience was just full of death from the start PLUS Flame and him also went through a bit of what Vay went through. Then I looked at what I am planning.

Box 31's driving theme is friendship. All of the characters went through hard times and are alone, but they find each other and in finding each other, they start getting better and positively grow as characters. I could easily keep the lab, but like- why would I? Everything I mentioned above, the effects the lab had on the characters, I can keep those without keeping the dark/nasty/horror aspects of it. For example, with Vay, instead of him going through what he did, I tied his story more with his job, his want to be a hero, and to protect others, with obstacles that he needs to face now for him to get to where he needs to be. He has the same plot, the same things he has to grow from, but he doesn't have to literally go through all of the awful sleezy, body horror, torturous, things he went through in Eeveeplex to get there.

My goal with SSEC was never to tell a story surrounding Eeveeplex, it was to tell the story of these characters who been through really tough times growing. But eeveeplex, the lab powers, the Spy stuff, all of those things got in the way of the story, and it became too bloated with all of these things that the story doesn't even need. So I'm fixing it.

[itsbenedict]

Last year, rather than pick a new years' resolution, I made over a dozen new years' resolutions and tried to get them all done. I paced myself with the objective of fitting them all into the year, but... ran into an unexpected obstacle where I kind of didn't have an October, November, or December due to my company abruptly getting sold and my life turning into a nonstop living hell. With that in mind... how'd I do?

get star seeker sequel adventure thing up and running and through the first case

Didn't finish this one! I did start it in September, and I was making good progress and probably would've had it done by the end of the year if I'd had three months to work on it.

get datasouls combat toy complete up to the first miniboss combat

Did it! Tutorial section combat toy is playable on the site.

catch up on TFJ recap logs

Didn't do it! There were a lot of them, and I kind of got bottlenecked on one where I wanted to wait for an art commission to come in that got put off for most of the year. I got sixteen of them done, but more sessions than that happened during the year, so overall I'm behind. Womp womp.

become an accredited AWS Certified Solutions Architect and get that raise my boss has been talking about for ages

Ha ha ha ha did it technically. I did get certified, and I did get the raise, but the raise was more a product of aggressive salary negotiation when the company got sold and my boss got fired. Also accomplishing the second part of that one resulted in me losing a quarter of my year to nightmarish IT bullshit. Oops.

get an adjustable standing desk and under-desk elliptical thingy, and otherwise get an ergonomic workstation set up

Kinda did it. I did, technically, get both things, but the elliptical I got turns out isn't rated for standing use, so I couldn't combine them into a standing workflow the way I wanted. Gotta get a new one and actually put this into practice.

fix the light situation in the bathroom

Yeah just had to call an electrician. Did it no problem.

get through The Sekimeiya and really go to town on that mystery until it’s solved

Nope! Again, probably would've managed it if I'd had time, but I put it off till last since I figured it'd be an easy thing I could fit in around the busy holidays, and it turned out there was a lot worse than just the holidays going on at that time.

also finally play Disco Elysium

This one though- did it, that game is fucking phenomenal.

finish TFTBN character portraits

Did it! Proud of how those turned out.

get a beatrice portrait for my poster wall

run some TPIVW games

Didn't do it, mainly because of an awkward social situation with one of the server participants involving my role as a mod on a different server. Still working that one out. It's rough.

badger the condo association landlady until she does something about the junk clogging up that basement storage room i’m supposed to own, and clean unused bulky stuff out of my house

Did it! Mostly. Still need to get rid of this huge elliptical- it's not selling on craigslist for some reason.

clearly this waitlist thing isn’t working out so take some steps to see an actual doctor for the first time in like three years (and maybe get a cancer screening, or do something about that closed sinus)

Did it! Didn't get the cancer screening mainly because my doctor insisted it'd be unnecessary until I was at least 40, which sounds fake but I don't know enough about cancer to dispute it. I tried various nasal sprays for the sinus thing but I'm pretty sure mucus overproduction is not the issue and I'm gonna need to get surgery, which I didn't get yet. But I did see a doctor finally!

get through the remaining 7 WaniKani levels

Did it! Still need to finish off the remainder of the reviews and do a practice pass and get back on the horse with grammar, but I'm pretty happy about that accomplishment.

Overall, despite a weak finish due to factors mainly outside of my control, I think I did pretty well, and I think having the big list meant I had a much more productive 2023 than I would've had otherwise. Probably gonna make this a recurring thing!

[caketartare]

But ok I’ll state why

I feel like said most of what I wanted in the last post but molly and Lex just don’t mix in my head anymore I can understand how there might be ways to “fix this” but idk maybe other people can view this as some kind of story issue that can be fixed if you just tweak things but I don’t write I should I like writing but whatever regardless everything take place in my mind and it all feels very personal like most stories are but how I develop them also feels like a big way of how my brain processes emotions and general thoughts I feel like my brain is 90% just them my characters my worlds and the other 10% is well everything else.

This is probably all normal and isn’t a big deal but it feel it is every problem I have feels like a huge obstacle I just stop thinking entirely and I feel nothing.

At the same time I want my characters to seem engaging and consistent and no one probably cares I just worry sometimes if I’m being honest that there is a lot that people can like about my stuff and if I stop putting out the same thing people get disinterested I know deep down this is just a me problem I’m insecure and paranoid I want engagement but I’m too scared of it as well that sometimes I wonder if this is good for me I mean I know it never was I try and pretend it’s all find but j know deep down I could be actual putting all my attention somewhere else but I knew that soon after I post it it might just be forgotten idk I guess I just wanted to talk about it

[mdhwrites]

Different anon here! About your post about the owl house, just out of curiosity, how much do you think is forgivable due to how Disney screwed them over? I do agree, the arcs feel impatient and couldn’t dedicate the time to the middle of the arcs, but that’s also in part because of how Disney cut the show prematurely short and they were scrambling to tell the story.

No. Zero. Nada. Nothing. Jack Shit. How many more ways do I have to put this: The cancellation is NOT why the show has writing problems. The show has writing problems because the writers are bad storytellers who have no clue how to actually do plot. For just the most obvious, basic example, let's take the end of S1. Belos presents himself as the big bad. Eda, Lilith and King are almost killed because of him and Luz destroys the portal door to make sure his plans cannot come to fruition. By all means, the show is ready to start its story and Luz is ready to start facing off against the Emperor's Coven.

She won't until Hollow Mind. Now you might disagree with me on this because Shifting Tides has her face off against the Golden Guard, Escaping Palisman is Golden Guard and Kiki, Eclipse Lake is Kiki and you even have Terra showing up in Falls and Follies. What are the character's goals in those episodes? Hunter is a surprise villain in Shifting Tides while Luz was just looking for cash, in Hunting Palisman, the two literally had no clue about the other until Luz was accidentally abducted and fighting them is just saving the palisman, not standing up to the coven. In Eclipse Lake, the coven just happens to be here at the same time as Amity, Eda and King and in Falls and Follies, they aren't standing up to the coven... They're getting Eda's love interest back.

The idea of Belos being evil and of facing him AT ALL... Happens in Hollow Mind. And Luz brings it up right after Eda's old wild witch pal says no to fixing Luz's magical cloak. Which, you know... Has problems for WHY Luz is now deciding to yell in public about how evil Belos is.

Instead, that time is spent on Hunter, who really has a very minimal effect on the plot overall. Like... Besides giving screentime to Belos where we still aren't learning anything about him, his relevance is just very low. We also Lumity which NEVER has plot relevance and King gets a few episodes episodes but still not much despite easily being the most important character in hindsight as far as the plot goes. Raeda and angst about that is given at least half as much screentime though and the closest you can come to justifying that is the failed plan of the CATs.

If you REALLY need something not from S2, then just look at Amity. She was already 99% reformed by the time Adventure in the Elements happens, if not Lost in Language and those are her fourth and fifth major appearances. Worse yet, their treatment of Boscha and her friend group is effectively the EXACT same as how they treated Amity's parents. Just an obstacle to be blown aside for Lumity to happen. The flaws in how TOH is constructed from a basic level are there even in S1, it's just easier to ignore them because the show was willing to be fun back then.

None of this even gets into the Collector, who was explicitly chosen to be moved forward in their plans when the show was cancelled. Instead, you know... Not. Just not introducing a character you have NO TIME to do anything with.

Then there's the condemnation of S3's creative decisions. If they REALLY had a plan for all of this stuff, S3 should feel like it's constant payoffs without proper build up as they wrap up loose ends, deal with the threats that are unresolved, etc. like that. Instead, S3 is so desperate for ideas to fill its runtime that the finale starts with a 7 minute dream sequence that actively goes against the character arc, shit as it is, Luz went through during the time from Hollow Mind to Watching and Dreaming.

If the shortening could be used as a real excuse, you shouldn't have been able to cut 80% of S3... And lose nothing. TOH is not bad because of the shortening. It's bad because because the writers are bad storytellers. (Yes, this was technically asking about the arcs but I decided to focus on how they just wasted time in general, especially on characters or elements that didn't matter. I still stand by the idea that TOH either NEVER wanted to end or that it wanted five seasons to cram literally every idea it had into it. Shortening S3 doesn't change the flaws of either approach.