#anyway i hope none of you followed me because of that art because i don't do art. i do only shitpost i'm afraid

[mourn-and-watch]

um. may people not tag my friend's art with my tav as minthara. not every drow woman in drow armor is minthara you know

[paintednailsandsoftdetails]

911, a confession

Let me start by saying that I don't really know what I'm doing here, so bear with me. If I actually go through with posting this, and you find yourself tagged and wondering who I am and why, or even if you happen upon it in the tags, I hope you take a minute to read this.

You don't know me, but you've been my community for a while now. I've checked your blogs daily for years, I've read your posts and loved your art and sent you countless anonymous asks to pick your brains- never hate though, because I'm not a Freak.

What I am, however, is a lonely lesbian with depression and (newly diagnosed) OCD, who has always needed some hyperfixation media/fandom to find life bearable. For some ~fun context, I was Raised by the glee fandom, I will die on the hill that watching queer as folk when I was 14 and discovering its fans 10+ years after airing made me who I am, I've got the most bizarrely timed stint in the 1D fandom under my belt, and I find nothing in the world more interesting and also affirming than Queer Reading (verb) media- to the extent that I earned an English degree and wrote a thesis specifically about it.

I haven't posted on here in 1.5 years, since I fell out of my previous fandom (apologies to anyone from said fandom who still happens to follow me and is seeing this, feel free to move along.) But I've been on this app every day since, because of 911.

(starting the read more here to spare you- again especially if you are tagged, I know you're probably feeling miserable rn but I do hope the entirety of this love letter reaches you)

I started "watching" mid season 5- by which I mean I was in a deep depressive state after disconnecting with previous media hyperfixation and, when I happened upon 911 trending while in need of distraction, I quickly fell down a rabbit hole. Tale as old as time, tumblr dot com convinces you that you need to tune into *insert media here* bc its fun and there are gay people! I caught myself up through all the big blogs and by the time May Day was airing I felt like I had a decent grasp on all the lore, all the fandom drama, all the places the writers were "definitely, so brilliantly" going to be taking the show that we had to look forward to, all without ever having actually seen an episode of the show (before you boo me, yes I've watched it by now, even season 1)

But I think it is important, and also a little messed up, that I fell in love with 911 through YOU, through the fans. Obviously watching the show initially through the lens of fan reactions first and not whats actually happening on screen can have some... interesting results. We've heard it all before, with the people who started watching specifically for Buddie around season 4/5 because they saw The Will and by the time they caught themselves up and watched the end of season 6 they wanted their refunds.

Here is where I want to make a clarification- the reason I got so interested, why I started coming back every day to check in on tags and certain favorite blogs I didn't even follow bc I was denying the want to become fully Involved, was because I fell in love with Evan Buckley. I won't lie, it was Buddie that caught my attention first- of course, thats what everyone here was talking about- and as much as I quickly started discover the value of the show outside of them (Henren my absolute Beloveds!!!!! Captain Dad Bobby Nash you are so special to ME. Chimney man of all time i can keep going) none of it was enough initially to bite the bullet and catch up on 5 seasons worth of a show I also knew would have elements I WASNT interested in (Copaganda and Taylor Kelly I am looking at you.)

But then I started really getting into fan's readings of Buck *insert footage of me learning the Buck Begins of it all for the first time* as a character separate from Eddie (as much as people were capable of anyway, and I will say some of yall continue to be absolutely atrocious at it) and I knew I was done for. Buck, this character so full of goodness, and his need to be Found but to also Find his own family and purpose and sense of self, for whom the show's thesis statement concerns the act of working to Make the kind of Love you want to have in this world, even if you were raised without a blueprint for it- I'm sorry but what else were me and my gay ass queer reading inclined hyperfixated brain to do other than take Evan Buckley into the folds and never let him go?

I love Buck. I was convinced by the time the s5 finale was airing before I had actually watched the show that Buck had to be bi. Even if they never did a thing with it you couldn't convince me otherwise and I was also confident that Oliver was portraying him with a similar mindset. I never wavered in that interpretation, even when the utter disappointment of the s6 finale and the failure to do anything truly meaningful character development wise through the lightning strike-Natalia speed run hit, and certainly not as I got fully caught up actually watching the show outside of tumblr live reactions during episode airings. I'll admit I was pretty ready to Check Out after the end of season 6, to the point where I hardly checked in on fandom at all going into 7 until the rumblings of possible canon Bi Buck reached me and I doubled back like "hold on, for real this time?" But when I say Check Out, I mean I was ready to walk away from the hyperfixation with a joint lack of satisfaction with canon & firm conviction that Buck was queer.

Things with Eddie are a lil different- and I want to try and keep this bit brief bc this is ultimately a post about Buck and Bucktommy and I have no interest in unsettling those of you who may have a queer reading connection to Eddie as real as the one I feel for Buck, but unfortunately this conversation cannot exist separately from the Eddie/Buddie of it all- I personally don't think Eddie is queer. I don't really think I ever did, even when I was in the thick of it with falling for Buddie. I know me saying this would cause certain audience to pelt me with accusations of fetishizing Buck or treating Eddie as nothing more than a vehicle for Queer Buck via Buddie- false! I actually think Eddie is an incredibly fascinating character, a deeply compelling representation of grief and fatherhood and masculinity, and also a hilariously weird lil bitch guy. I just don't feel like- especially having removed fanon glasses while actually starting to watch the show, and taking the time to acknowledge that the things about Buddie that appealed to me on a romantic level (this is NOT about their friendship which i stand by being beautiful and important) all boiled down elements I was reading within and onto BUCK specifically, not Eddie. Perhaps an impossible concept for some, the idea that Bi Buck could feel so real and apparent to me primarily divorced from the idea that Eddie had to be queer as well, but I won't bore you with my explanations for it, though I suspect the people tagged and still reading by this point know exactly what I am talking about.

All of this potentially obnoxious prologue to say, I've spent the last however many months falling in love with canon Bi Buck *insert footage of me speed running back into my daily fandom involvement/blog check ins the moment I knew Buck kissed a man*, with Bucktommy, and with Bucktommy fans.

For a long while there I had resigned myself to an odd, though perhaps not as unique as I thought, reality of loving and fully believing in Queer Buck, not necessarily feeling the same about Eddie or Buddie, but also in full agreement with many that already 6 seasons in with literally nothing else having remotely worked, Buddie would be the only satisfying conclusion for Buck's love story. This is again not exactly how I felt about Eddie- but a big part of that for me is that I don't think Eddie's primarily story in 911 is a love story. He's the vessel for telling other important, beautiful stories about fatherhood and forgiveness and that is OKAY bc not every characters story is a love story!!! Evan Buckley's is though (Despite some very weird and confusing things mr stark has just said about his character that actively contradict what hes previously said and what audiences have been looking at and for this entire time, but I digress)

But then! By whatever happy accident we want to call it 911 had Tommy Kinard fall back into its lap as the solution to what felt like the impossible: They found the ONE way they could introduce a non Eddie Diaz love interest for Buck that COULD be satisfying for Bucks story. Someone with connections to the 118 and the shows history and potential for further development within main storylines as his job directly pertains to their plots. Someone with such compelling connections for interweaving these two characters that it got us- including the showrunner- talking about the Red String of Fate. That it got some of the beloved tumblr pals I had been watching for years, who NEVER would have believed they'd ever root for a Buck endgame that wasnt Buddie doing exactly that, and with joy, love, and conviction. Again I'll ask, what else were me and my Buck loving brain to do but take Bucktommy into the folds and never let go? (apparently I hadn't considered that there was apparently horrifying alternative- more on that next!)

As you all damn well know, falling in love with Bucktommy has not come without its trails. I have never seen things in fandom as vile as the things I've seen go down here. And as I mentioned before, I've been IN IT with yall for a while, even if you didnt know it. I was here, lurking, and I know this fandom has had its highlight reels of racism and misogyny and harassment (despite certain factions current batshit consensus that things were "never bad" before *gasp* a couple of people, some over the ancient age *double gasp* of 30 heard about bucktommy through tumblr the same damn way the 90% of you who havent been watching since season 1 heard about buddie and decided to invest)

What happened tonight made me cry, for about 40 minutes straight. And yeah, its been a devastating week for us all for a lot of reasons. On top of the ~national dread (I'm a lesbian in the US btw) today was my 7th out of 9 straight days of open to close shifts in a demanding retail/management position, and I have a head cold so maybe this was just a Breaking Point after a whole lotta shit.

But also, maybe, it was really fucking shitty to watch this play out. I've already seen countless people say it better than I could. Yeah, its a tv show. It's a fictional ship. But its also escapism, a spot of joy many of us were extra dependent on this week. It was something GOOD, queer representation and a love story on national tv days after a horrifying reality set in for queer people, and we are allowed to acknowledge how much losing that sucks just on a general level for a second...

Second over, now lets talk not on the general level. Lets talk about how I've watched real human beings get harassed, sent death threats, be told they are faking cancer and failing to properly grieve dead loved ones, I've watched deeply homphobic language be adopted and incorporated into everyday use despite constant correction and pleas from queer men to knock it the hell off, I've watched homophia as a whole run rampant and unchecked by big blogs, with some biphobia to boot, I've seen some images of horrific anti gay violence and historical trauma invoked as a way to make fun of others, I've seen lesbianism slandered and proffered as an excuse for such vile behavior in a disgusting erasure of the beautiful solidarity that has historically existed between gay men and lesbians in the face of homophobia, and yes, I've seen graphic descriptions of child rape via targeted fanfiction attacks.

Again, others have already said it better than I can: This isn't about Bucktommy. It's about the way that everyone who was Pulling for them as a couple, who DARED to *checks scribble on hand* enjoy a canon queer mlm couple featuring a character (or two) they've grown to care deeply for, has been subjected to all the above mentioned and more, and for...what. For. What.

In the name of a fanon couple that has not been legitimized by the writers in 7 years? of a fanon character interpretation of a canonically straight man (not just assumed straight, verbally assigned straight now on multiple occasions) that people cannot fathom perceiving this show, let alone liking these characters, without? For the version of this story that, if the writers REALLY wanted to happen could have happened so many fucking times by now- especially when the show was coming to what might have been its end in s6- and still hasn't? A version that has been dismissed multiple times by the writers cast crew and every other unfortunate individual who has been harassed repeatedly about it?

And I'm not here to say Buddie is inherently bad!!!! It brought me into this same as the rest of you. I don't even believe it would necessarily be a bad or wrong conclusion for either character or the show were it to eventually, finally happen!! But for the love of god, hear me when i say from the outsider pov of someone who has experience the show in the way I did first through fandom then stepping back to watch for real and now watching it with my mother who is a near Exact representation of the general audience of this show (experienced Procedural watcher, no idea about Buddie or fandom interpretation, had no sense of gay eddie to speak of, and is not shocked but pleasantly surprised by and endeared by Bi Buck) you are SEVERELY deluded if you think what happened tonight by breaking up Bucktommy "makes sense" to any audience outside of buddies who've been writing manifestos for years about how every single thing in this show is "carefully, intentionally, clearly" leading to Buddie canon. I swear to you the people at home do not fucking see it. The people at home saw Buck in a nice, developing relationship that finally seemed to be going somewhere real for him after discovering an important part of his identity late in life, and then they saw that relationship abruptly ended and Buck heartbroken, going to sit with his best, still straight, bud Eddie Diaz. The ONLY people this makes sense for are the people who I am afraid it seems may have legimately bullied this into happening.

And if that is the case? We are sooo far fucking past the point of no return here. There is no true satisfaction in a Buddie canon endgame here for anyone who's lived through the past half a year in this fandom unless you were a perpetrator of any of the horrific shit mentioned above. I mean that with my whole fucking chest. If, and i do think it is a Big Fucking Fat if, Buddie does happen, and you find yourself no qualms happy and satisfied with it as your well earned endgame, I hope you know how rotted you are. And while I'm at it, I hope some way some how you come to see that this was not the carefully crafted beautifully developed loved story of all time you were gods bravest soldier in waiting for. Its just what left after years of meandering storytelling and cyclical character "development" with a bow slapped on top at the last moment because the gift giver was afraid you might kill them if they presented less.

Anyway. I said a million words ago that this was a love letter, and I do mean that. As much as its also been an mental health exercise for me to write this all out. So,

@kinardbuckleys @bucksboobs @kirkaut @tevankinkley @userautumn @sunglassesmish @tommyscurls @ohithankyou @buckxtommy @princessfbi @bigfootsmom @firewasabeast

(And so many other people I'm surely forgetting, and the few artists and writters on other platforms I dared to venture to- maybe never opening twitter again after this xoxo)

Thank you. You don't know me, I never quite got over the anxiety of trying to re-enter a fandom space after a time away, or maybe some of the imposter syndrome or embarrassment I felt accidentally falling in love with this show and Buck by just watching you all talk about him before anything else. But for the last few months, some of you years, you've been my community, my escape. I've loved watching your brains and your hearts work to discuss and create, even amidst the absolute shittiest fandom behavior Ive ever seen. And I am as grateful for getting to experience it from a far as I am devastated at the thought of losing it, of not individually typing in all your blog names (I was too anxious to even FOLLOW you guys truly rip) to see what new content or spec or art or love you had to share about Buck / Bucktommy every day.

In another life- one where idk perhaps people were kinder or showrunners weren't bullied and actors weren't dropped last minute after months of torment and a satisfying canon queer love story for a character who genuinely needs it could just Be in peace- I would have loved to one day put on my big girl pants (aka saved Buck url) joined the fandom for real. To have directly talked to any of you in a way that wasnt... this.

I would have loved to love Bucktommy with you.

[hollow-lime-green]

hi!! just wondering if you have any stsg fic recs you’d be willing to share? i’m currently gobbling up 2sorcs like a gremlin and looking for something else to read between updates but i only really trust your opinions and characterizations which 🤌🏼🤌🏼🤌🏼 anyways love ur work and hope you’re doing well!!

Ah! First of all, thank you <3 I do have some fics I really like! I shall rec them and give a little anxiety disclaimer at the end.

Fic Recs - Shorties

it would make a whole - by @diggingupgrave 8.8k, T, First Year, Pre-Relationship, Emotional H/C oh i love this fic so very much. this may have been one of the fics that really got me thinking about their characterization in the first place, tbh.

As You Wish - by @haha-funny-valentine 2.5k, T, Post-Star Plasma Arc, Emotional H/C wonderful characterization here and I am just such a sucker for H/C.

The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom - by @zombieheroine 16.3k, T, Prison Realm Gojo Character Study I took my skin off to check and I am shocked that this fic is not like, Doing Numbers. this fic is SO fucking creative and unique and I just. love. it. Definitely a big inspiration for FIYM. It's like Harrow the Ninth but for Gojo in the Prison Realm and like, oh my god so well done imo.

Longfic Recs with Caveats

and if you take my hand (series) - by @detta-pica 40k (Ongoing), T, Witch AU, Slow Burn Caveat: this is a WIP, and we're in the early part so very much Unresolved Romantic Tension. But I really like the worldbuilding in this and I'm excited to follow it as it keeps going, so big rec here if you like Plot and are down to follow some more ongoing fics. :)

coanda effect - by @bunniehoneys 250k, M, F1 AU, Slow Burn, Eating Disorders, Drugs, Bad Choices I am probably the last person in the world to read this fic so it feels silly to rec, but I'm doing it anyway because I'm a little obsessed. Caveat 1: also technically a WIP for another week or two

Caveat 2: TAGS check the tags. If you are at all sensitive to discussion of EDs, skip this fic, but I think it's done well and adds a lot to the characterization

Caveat 3: I am not caught up on this fic. it's one that I didn't let myself read for a while (see below) but F1 has a special place in my heart (my dad is into it, I used to live in a Gran Prix city, and I have watched WAY too much F1 Lets Play content).

I've been working really shitty hours for the past 48 hours (almost done) due to research that requires specific spans of real earth time. Because I don't have the focus to write right now, I've had the chance to read a little, and I've read about 75% of this gargantuan fic in windowless rooms on my phone, which has to say something about how much I love it lmao.

Disclaimer: I am a bad source of stsg fics because I actually don't read very many. If I read amazing fic then it tends to trigger the "you will never be as good as the old masters" part of the brain, although instead of real art like in the meme, my fic is putting gojo in a minecraft hoodie and making him do the gangnam style dance. Still.

I also get very unhealthy about metrics/numbers, which I mostly manage by using AO3 skins to block stats, but I still have some moments of weakness. So I try to avoid looking at stuff that I know might make me anxious/insecure about my own works and be unable to finish them (this has unfortunately happened to me before in the FE3H fandom, and that continues to weigh on me).

All that to say, there are some really big, nice, and well-loved fics by wonderful authors currently being updated, and I have read almost none of them. So this is absolutely not me saying I don't like their characterizations, I'm just kind of a hermit.

[felassan]

Some DA facts collected together, from recent tweets -

GhilDirthalen: "the frostbite engine didn’t do ending slides, so the slides you see in DAI are actually paintings that quickly spawn in your bed room. You can zoom out during the end with fly cam" John Epler: "i remember when we were trying to do these and we're like 'hey can we display still images' and the answer was 'uhh it's a lot more complicated than you think' so this was the solution. i set up all the cameras, and I THINK level design handled all the scripting logic" JE: "anyways videogames are basically held together by magic and hope and it's a legitimate miracle anytime one gets finished"

JE: "When you 'sprint' on a horse in DAI it doesn't really do much because frostbite couldn't stream in levels fast enough, so we just added speed lines and changed the camera so it felt faster. JE: "i've carried the guilt of this for years. guilt is an ocean, and i'm tired of drowning." "feels like I just murdered Santa Claus in front of many of you" [source], "feels like i just declassified Area 51" [source]. "i'm just glad the truth is finally out there" [source] Seb Hanlon: "ME1 did it first" JE: "just to be SUPER clear, riding a horse is faster than being on-foot, but the difference between normal horse run and horse 'sprint' is non-existent except for making it look faster". "the base horse speed is faster than unhorsed run speed, but horse sprint doesn’t move you faster than normal horse speed" [source] JE: "there were three days on that project where my entire job was ‘try to make horse sprint feel faster’" User: "I swear to god John I knew it, I fucking knew it, none of the mounts have different speeds, either?" JE: "i actually don't know the answer to that one, i just set up the gameplay cameras and did what what i was told." Seb: "but they have different sounds /screams in Red Hart" JE: "no one believed that's what a Red Hart really sounds like but they are fucked up animals."

Seb: "The save system in DAI loads with all doors in the area closed. This is a problem if there’s a door between you and a party member when the save happens, because they can’t open doors. If they can’t path to you, they get teleported to join you before the fade-up from black." Seb: "This “system” was rigged entirely in Frostbite Schematic logic quite late in development once we realized it was a problem." JE: "i vaguely remember that the first time we really saw this problem was when we were putting together the Redcliffe demo for... whatever event we showed Redcliffe at." Seb: "Yeah I think that was the map I tested the teleport-fallback in. Dorian was there in those saves for sure?" JE: "yeah 100%. it was when you first end up in the future and you're fighting your way to the locked-up followers. i think we were playing it in Hanged Man or Neverwinter and we discovered 'oh shit our followers can't get to you'"

Seb: "Zither’s first-pass ability icons originally echoed a broad swath of iconic album art. The UI art team made me so happy. Why didn’t it ship? Ain’t nobody chasing down those IP clearances for an April Fools DLC."

JE: "in DA2 Mark of the Assassin, if you let Baron Arlange live after the first encounter with him, he shows up very deep in the background of several scenes, creeping on Hawke and the party around stalagmites and around corners." "no one asked for this but i put it in as a little treat because i thought it was very funny. i still do. oh the scene where you get captured in the vault by Prosper and his guards, that's the same 5 (6?) guards just cycled through multiple times." [source, two]

JE: "i've told this story before but the reason Iron Bull's romance scene takes place in a separate tower is because the mocap for everyone walking in on you assumed that there was a doorway, and the player's bedroom ended up having stairs. so we moved the scene to the Sex Tower"

Seb: "DAI: To enable party followers’ AI to use their defensive abilities (dodge/block/parries), enemies spawn a “telegraph volume” as part of their ability wind-ups. This tells the party AI what kind of reaction it can use to counter (if it’s not on cooldown and it can branch in time)." "“Parry” telegraphs are the ‘weakest’ (can activate block, dodge, or parry abilities); “dodge” telegraphs are the ‘strongest’ (dodge or get fucked). There’s an all-abilities AI cooldown on these responses; before this was added, I saw Cass perfect block for minutes at a time." [source]

Seb: "the Qunari Ashaad in Trespasser is the only combat creature I personally implemented; and the only one intentionally plays both ranged and melee. and it was great fun watching play-testers climb a ladder to close and shut down his range attack—and get kicked off by the sweep"

Seb: "I’m still personally pleased that the Red Templar faction in DAI has such a strong overarching principle: “power corrupts”. The more elite the creature, the less human they are."

Seb: "Both the Children in DAO Awakening and the Harvester in DAO hide their extra body parts *inside* their torso mesh before they appear."

Seb: "Varric in DA2 is the most specialest snowflake; he’s not like any other dwarf because his rig includes all the Bianca animation bones."

Seb: "DAI’s Emerald Graves was the map where we hammered out the conceptual balance of using abilities based on the enemy composition and position."

Seb: "There’s an animation-driven movement mode in DAI that’s only used by a handful of large creatures; the dragon and the Red Templar Behemoth are the ones I remember."

Seb: "“making two combat creatures at melee range face, and not slide past, each other when they’re playing attack animations” took a surprising amount of problem solving on DAI; most of the basic-attack animations have both moving and standing variations for this reason."

Seb: "30 seconds of good combat gameplay takes more-or-less the same development effort as 10 minutes of good combat gameplay. Which is more than you’d think. IYKYK."

Seb: "The original concept for the Grand Fear Demon at the end of DAI’s Fade was a “level boss” - instead of a single big combat creature (like a dragon), the idea was it was so big it would attack out of the darkness with “limbs” (creatures) that shared a health pool. Cut for scope."

Seb: "The core combat ability animation/effects/branching system in DAI is called “CSM”, for “combat state machine”. It’s the third generation spiritual successor to the first system called CSM that I worked on, built for a project called Revolver…"

Seb: "The “impassable” purple fire zones in Trespasser were a tremendous pain in the ass, because both: - making them do enough damage fast enough to be a lock-and-key for invincibility powers as intended - keeping party members from following you in and getting bug-zappered" User: "I hate to tell you this but my first time through, I was determined to get through and I did not know that invincibility powers were literally down the stairs so I spent 10 minutes and eventually managed to get through with some mage shenanigans" Seb: "by the time we got to trespasser there were so many abilities you MIGHT have that MIGHT JUST get you through that we gave it our best shot and said “good enough”" User: "I died at that thing SO MANY TIMES until I realized there was an invincibility boost, lol" Seb: "clearly signaling “THIS IS A THING YOU WILL DO LATER” without saying it, especially if it’s a mechanical systems thing, can be surprisingly difficult"

Seb: "during development on DAI someone made a staff that, when used (hit the ground with the butt animation) spawned a bunch of nugs that ran off in all directions. for checking pathmesh bounds, obvs"

[essenceeater]

"You're ridiculous, I love it." Hanzo Hasashi x GN!Reader.

"I don't see the asks button so I would like to politely request for some goofy ahh Scorpion Hcs because I’m amazing 😘😘😘"

WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME MY REQUESTS WERE OFF?? I SWEAR I TURNED THEM ON. Anyways a lovely fic for my friend @krysphycookiez this is specifically MK11 Hanzo. I hope you enjoy this. This is a mix of romantic and goofy headcanons with a small oneshot. The reader and Hanzo are married cause I said so. -Chaos

Characters: Hanzo Hasashi/Scorpion

Triggers: None that I can think of? Lmk if anything should be tagged here. It's Mortal Kombat, you know what to expect ig?

Requested: Yes

🔓Requests are open at the moment🔓

Link to rules

🔥Hanzo Hasashi, is known for his strong and complex personality. He's a very passionate man, but he's a little goofy when it's just you around.

🔥 Hanzo is fiercely loyal, and in a relationship, he would prioritize his partner's safety and well-being. He'd go to great lengths to protect them. He's seen things he doesn't want you to witness, it would break his heart honestly.

🔥Despite his combat prowess, Hanzo is a terrible cook. GOD AWFUL. His attempts at making a simple sandwich often lead to hilarious disasters in the kitchen. YOU'D THINK FOR BEING ABLE TO CONTROL FIRE HE'D BE PERFECT BUT NO. He's not allowed near ANY kitchens.

🔥 Y'know his friendship finisher? He has a hidden collection of cute plush toys, which he claims are "for training purposes only." He cuddles with them when no one is around. One time you walked in and he was in a huge pile of these plushies, to which you got dragged down into.

🔥Outside of his usual outfit I feel like he dresses like a homeless man 🧍‍♂️

🔥I feel would keep an air of mystery around him, making his partner curious about his past and his fire like abilities. He wouldn't want to involve you in the past even if he's still clinging to it.

🔥Despite this his fiery nature would translate into a passionate and intense love. He'd express his feelings with great emotion.

🔥YOU GET FLOWERS EVERY MONTH BUT SOMETIMES THE STEMS ARE A BIT BURNT.

🔥Despite his agility and combat skills, Hanzo is notoriously clumsy in his everyday life. He often trips over his own feet, slips on banana peels, and crashes into things when not in battle. Imagine you watched him fight someone with no problems, he turns to give you a kiss or something like that and he trips over nothing.

🔥Being serious for a moment, I feel like he will definitely train his partner. God forbid he's not around to defend you and something happens, he doesn't want history to repeat itself.

"My love what are you doing?"

The Earthrealm's warriors were used to the relentless training, the brutal battles, and the life-or-death scenarios. But there was one thing they couldn't quite wrap their heads around Hanzo's newfound obsession: cupcakes.

You were lounging in the living room of your shared home, scrolling through your tablet when you heard an unusual sound coming from the kitchen. Following the curious noise, you discovered your husband furiously whisking a bowl of batter, his mask hanging by his side as if it was just another day at the bakery he doesn't work at.

"What's going on here?" you asked, trying to stifle a laugh as you watched him struggle with a mixer.

Hanzo looked up, his fiery gaze locking onto you but he looked like a dear in headlights. "I have discovered the art of cupcakes," he declared, his voice as serious as ever.

You couldn't help but burst into laughter. "Honey, you're not allowed in the kitchen but you're making cupcakes?"

"Yes," he replied, determination in his eyes. "I was bored..." He mumbled as an excuse, but just the other day you and a friend were talking about wanting cupcakes.

Scorpion continued to wrestle with the mixer as you decided to step in. Gently taking the mixer from his hands with a soft chuckle. Together, you managed to create a lumpy cupcake batter that was a mix of all sorts of ingredients he had found in the kitchen. There were sweet and savory items like ketchup, chocolate chips, and even some mysterious spices. Did you know that? Absolutely not, is that for the better? You'll find out.

With a wink, you handed Hanzo a tray of cupcake liners. "Time to get these in the oven."

He nodded, but then his gaze fell upon the oven as he frowned. "How do I make it... bake with love?" he asked, looking genuinely puzzled. Causing you to giggle in amusement, causing him to break his confused mask he put up and laugh with you.

You smiled and set the oven to the right temperature. As you popped the tray into the oven. Hanzo stepped back, his memory flooding with flashbacks to the last time he used the oven.

A few minutes later, you were both treated to the smell of something that was part chocolate chip cookie, part ketchup-flavored cupcake wafting from the oven. You couldn't help but exchange a look and burst into laughter once again.

Your husband, however, couldn't go back to being serious, he was smiling like a child. "We shall call these 'Kombat Kupcakes,' a deadly delicacy," he announced with pride.

As you both sampled the cupcakes, your taste buds were assaulted by a strange combination of flavors. They weren't the best cupcakes, but there was no denying the effort Hanzo had put into making them.

And in that moment, you couldn't help but think, "You're ridiculous, Hanzo, but I love it."

As the two of you sat there, munching on the bizarre creations, you realized that even a fearsome fire bending ninja like Scorpion had a goofy and endearing side, one that you cherished above all else.

"You're still not allowed to use the kitchen."

"Oh come on I'm not a child!"

Essenceeater © 2023 ┃ do not copy, modify, steal, repost ANY of my content.

[seeminglydark]

Idk if this means anything to you but I'm a comic artist who's had a hard time doing art for a few years. The first four was because of life hardship and lack of time/chronic pain, but now lately I've had time but a mental block. I'm creeping up on 30 and felt bad about myself for "missing out" on my opportunity to be a comic artist. It was really validating to see you post about being 41 (correct me if I'm wrong) especially since you have such wonderful comics that I've been following for a while now. It makes me feel less like I'm wasting my time putting my things in order when I "should" be drawing.

Hopefully this doesn't come across as offensive or anything. It was just comforting and validating. Anyway, big fan! Love your characters a whole lot and hope you have a good day!

Dear Anon

I am 41 years old. I have wanted to make comics my entire life. before my dad got sick, and my childhood kinda fell apart, all i did was draw. after that, i used the stories in my head to cope. life moved on. i was convinced not to accept a partial scholarship to an art school in California. life got hard. i worked at a hotel, and after i escaped an abusive relationship at 22 i hitchhiked/bused far far away to start over. i tried to make comics again, but i had to survive, and so i got another job doing the only thing i knew how to do, hotels. and i worked. and worked. and life got harder and times got heavier and i didn't get time to draw and i worked double hours, 15 to 17 hours a day. and i went four years without drawing a single thing.

i kept working myself into the ground. i was 29 now. i picked up a pen again and drew a red haired boy. he had a hard life and no love and no friends. his problems were on the outside, for everyone to see. he ran away but his problems went with him.

i was 32. surely i was too old now. my time to be an artist was gone. i had no school. no hope. i was so far behind the younger gen i saw online. i cried. all the time. i wrote stories in my email drafts while i worked shifts. i stayed up late trying to learn how to draw again. i cried some more. the boy grew. i called him Fiach. worthy. a raven. later i renamed him Avery. he was like a bird, he had wings, he was my hope. i started writing some friends for him. the people i wished i had around me.

i started finding time and space. i got a new job, something where i was lucky enough to set my own hours. for the first time i had a partner who believed in me. things were hard. but i was drawing now. and that helped.

i went on a road trip and i started drawing pages of an unnamed story on 6 by 8 paper in a sketchbook. i drew 20 of them. 'what could i call this?' i thought. Nothing Seems as Dark...no says my partner. Seemingly Dark. he made me a logo. i was 35. i bought an ipad, i cant do this on paper, its too much story i have too much to say. so i learned how to draw digitally by tracing my own trad art pages.

I spoke to my dad for the last time on June 17th, fathers day that year. he said 'you're good. i'm proud. and you're gonna do amazing things. none of this is your fault. and we will speak again soon.' i didn't know id never hear his voice again. he died a week later.

i turned 36. i kept trying. i'm old, i don't understand the internet. how can i share this?

i stumbled across Lore Olympus. i was introduced to webcomics. id read comics online before but the thought never occurred to me. i opened an account on Tapas. and then i stared at it. what if no one likes it. what if its bad. my art isn't good. i should wait til i'm better. but will i ever really be better? or will i always believe that tomorrow is better? do it now. if even one person gets something out of this story, this story about a boy who is you, a boy who looking for hope, a boy who might make it, then that is enough isn't it.

June 17th 2018 i launched Seemingly Dark.

SD's five year anniversary is in a week. 0ver 700 pages. leaps and bounds in progress with my skills. a printed comic under my belt as of monday. i was always a storyteller. but i was always an artist too.

I am 41 years old, dear anon. I did not truly embark on this journey til i was 35. life got in the way. even now, chronic illness gets in the way. but its worth it. its never ever too late. i believe in you the way my dad believed in me. i reset my life again and again. but I was always an artist. and if thats who you are, and who you want to be, even if things dont go the way you wished they could, you're an artist too.

im 41 years old. i speak about my age, even though i often feel too old to belong in spaces, cuz really, in this case age is just a number. take care of yourself. do what you need to do. and little by little, when your able, carve out your space until it becomes more of a habit. sometimes i think about all the years i lost not drawing or creating. but there's a lot of factors that make me believe had i made my story then, it wouldn't be the story it is now, i needed to live a bit. i needed to find myself. i know this was long, but i just wanted you to see i also had to put my life in order, and getting notes like this reminds me it wasnt at all a waste. im glad i could offer you some comfort. thats honestly the best compliment i could ever receive.

TL;dR I was 35 when i sat down and seriously started making comics, because life always got in the way and so did my confidence. i always feared being too old. im 41 now, still going strong.

[crumblinggothicarchitecture]

Hi! You're brilliant. Literature major here and someone who's loved Swift a lot growing up. I absolutely loathe who she is as a person now that the blinders have been off for a year and also the utter embarrassment that is TTPD. I'm seeing Swifties say "actually Taylor IS allowed to use female rage because she's had AI porn of her, been sexually harassed multiple times and won the court case for it, belittled for her art and is never taken seriously despite being stolen from" and despite the very obvious argument that "the TTPD setlist has 0 songs alluding to any of this to supposedly be about her female rage", I would LOVE to hear your take on this argument. My perspective is that despite these being very real experiences *building* to female rage Taylor has been through, she has never once spoken about them seriously outside of how they have impacted her as an individual. In this very album she's the epitome of a pick-me with her "you said other girls were boring" and "i can fix him" lines in her songs about the rat. This is opposed to the deep rooted community backing that comes with representing female rage as a topic (again, Paris Paloma's Labor is so good at representing that). Anyway I just have been subject to too many Swifties claiming Taylor has every right to co-opt Female Rage and it's making *me* rage. I don't have plans to battle anyone about it cuz the critical thinkers are coming to these conclusions themselves but I would love to hear your very well articulated thoughts on this supposed "argument" Swifties have about her being allowed to use the term. The fact that she's been through sexual harassment in the past and continues to despite being the biggest artist in the world.

Hello! First, I am so happy to hear you are a fellow Literature major <3 <3 Wonderful! And thank you for your kind words, I appreciate it. I hope you enjoy your study while finding it all as beautiful and important as I do!!!!! Sorry, it took me so long to write back- I was busy thinking it all through. I understand your frustration though, believe me. I feel it too.

Okay, let’s talk about your question. It’s an intense question- but I do think that just shying away from the conceptual point within the Swifties argument would be to give a shield against criticism- and I truly believe that nothing is above criticism. Criticism keeps us grounded in reality- but more than that it keeps us humble in self-reflexivity.  

The argument is as follows: Taylor Swift is allowed to claim the term “Female Rage” because she has experienced harassment based on sex classification- correct? The swifies then levy four pieces of evidence for her experience of sex-based harassment, 1- she has had AI porn made of her, and 2- that she was in a sexual harassment lawsuit, 3- her art is often belittled, 4- her masters were never owned by her. 

Okay, now that I’ve laid out Swifties argument- I am about to go full Analytic Philosophy major on it. <3.  

The first piece of evidence is about the AI porn scandal. I want to express that the current mess of AI porn being made of women is despicable- there are sick, sick men out there who seem to think themselves entitled to viewing any womans naked body- real or fake. I am firmly against the creation of AI porn- and truly feel empathy for Swift having experienced it. I am sure that it was a negative experience. However, how exactly is this evidence in favor of her using the term “Female Rage” to describe her work when in fact none of her work addresses the AI Porn issue? Her work never even describes or addresses any of the issues implicit to the patriarchally permissive culture that allows for men to feel entitled to create AI porn in the first place. If this is to be a direct defense of her calling her actual body of work “female Rage” then I am going to need to see evidence of her being mad about the AI porn in her work.  

She literally never even condemns the patriarchy in her music. Not even one of her songs is about how the patriarchy, in connection with the digital age, allows for men entitlement to bleed over in the creation of AI porn. It is a systemic issue too- more than just Swift experiences AI porn being made of them without consent- so it could be the subject of song to express “Female Rage” at this being a systemic issue- yet Swift did not do this. Thus, it is not an accurate defense for calling her work “Female Rage” 

It is much the same case for the second piece of evidence. The closest we get is her singing “Clean” in Denver a year after her trial concluded, and during the time leading up to “Lover” in which a “dollar” was an Easter Egg. She famously wanted only a dollar for winning her trial. That easter egg, however, never had anything to do with the trial. In any case, there is still nothing in her work to suggest “female Rage” about being sexually assaulted. As far as I can tell- and I’ve listened to every song she’s ever written multiple times- there are only a few songs that can be loosely interpreted as dealing with anxiety and sadness. If we want to give benefit of doubt here- anxiety could tie into her experiences; I find this loose tie, however, uncompelling, because most of her music about anxiety- directly ties into some proto-capitalistic fear she is expressing.  

Again, I’m sure that she did experience something negative during her trial- and did feel passionate about its verdict; however, there is nothing in her music about this instance- nothing. There’s no Paris Paloma style call-to-arms against the Patriarchy for enabling men to commit sexual assaults.  

Before I move on- about the first two pieces of evidence- Swift is not obligated to write music about it- but if she is going to claim her work is “Female Rage” based on her experiences with either of the two things above- then I would expect to see reflection of these experiences in her work.  

Onto evidence three and four. The claim is that her art is belittled based on sex-discrimination thus qualifying it as female rage. The connecting claim is that she was never given the opportunity to own her masters.  

Her art is often regarded as simple pop-music made for adolescents- because that is what it is. I failed to see how this is belittling. It’s saying that the music does what Swift wants it to do- which is entertain children, teenagers, and those among us who want “family-friendly” pop-music. What’s the problem? I like simple pop music. I listen to a lot of pop music, because it’s fun and easy and simple. It does what it sets out to do- how am I belittling her by saying she writes basic pop music- not poetry.  

People often only draw issue with her music when she tries to claim it is more than simple pop music. I draw an issue here- because it doesn’t live up to the standards of real, robust artistic music. It just doesn’t- again it’s not really belittling anything. This is the difference between belittling- and giving legitimate criticism. None of these complaints against Swift’s musical ability, lack thereof, or lacking creativity as a groundbreaking talent is at all related to discrimination based on sex or on her identity as a woman. It literally has nothing to do with her being a woman- she's just not a serious writer. She’s clearly not even a classically trained musician.  

The fourth piece of evidence is again predicated on industry standard injustice. She did not own her master's- and was not offered the chance to own her master's. I, however, don’t really believe she was never offered to buy her own catalogue- I think she just gave a low-ball offer and got rejected. Personally, I feel like the amount of capitalistic rage that was unleashed after that- and the spiteful nature of her re-record issue- is because she was angry about getting her offer rejected. We all know, by this point, Swift can’t stand being told no. In any case, her not owning the masters of her catalogue is industry standard.  

It could be likely that perhaps the two men buying and selling her music were rather sexist- I do recall the “I own Taylor Swift” Scooter incident. While that is clearly a sexist remark, I do think that Swift’s response to this incident is less directly correlated to feminist effort and more in line with her own personal feelings of dejection- and feeling capitalistic rage. If anyone want further detail on that- it's all in my previous post on Swift’s rage in my discussion on “Mad Woman” (2020).  

The closest we get to a feminist-forward remark is her saying “Master of spin has a couple side flings” in which she is essentially outing Scooter as a cheater. That can only loosely be described as female rage- if you squint and look at it sideways. Otherwise, it’s just her trying to denotate a bomb in his life- it's very “eye for an eye” revenge that really doesn’t correlate to feminism or female rage. Because “revenge” is not the point of “Female Rage” or Feminism- The Point is JUSTICE and Showcasing WOMEN as Equals To MEN! AHHHH! It’s not like the guy was even cheating on her- she literally just wanted to ruin his life. (Not that I have sympathy for him. I’m just saying this situation was a personal vendetta for Swift- not some grand feminist declaration). But again, the interior motivations of her rage at Scooter- and the rage of women for centuries culminating into Female Rage as a movement- are drastically different motivating factors. In this instance she is lashing out with personal rage in which she is only advocating for her own point of view and personal hurts - not the community-driven concept of female rage. 

I do also find it strange that only on point three and four, the two points directly connected to her power and money, are the only two things we can directly trace into her music and her work. She literally only gets angry about threats to her money and power-  

Thus, I support my conclusion from my other post on Swift’s so-called female rage, that she is expressing corporate rage, or capitalistic rage. It is a different thing altogether, because, as I said in my other post:  

Female Rage is grounded in experiences of oppression and injustice- yet marked too by its ability to clearly advocate for women’s rights in systemic, patriarchal issues. Female Rage necessitates extending empathy to other women- who have suffered the patriarchy too. It’s a call to community and a call-to-arms against intersectional forms of patriarchal abuse.  

Never, in any of her four points of evidence, does she legitimately utilize her music to critique the patriarchy- which is an implicit necessity for art relaying themes of female rage.  

If she ever did actually broach the subject in her music in a way that gives legitimate criticism to the patriarchal standards she claims to hate- then I will change my mind.

Where exactly has Taylor Swift ever really advocated for anything? She gives us the world's most lazy, throw away lines about “Girl Power” and “Being a Boss” and even a few “you can want who you want/ girls and girls and boys and boys” (“Welcome to New York” 2014) - yet never does it culminate into any remark upon injustice in society. She never once modulates into a reflection into the mores of society in which some demographics are considered lesser- it's all just bleak pop-music wherein she appeals only to the most populist- surface level aspects of social issues. Notice too- that she only ever mentions social issues when it becomes most likely to have good reception from the public. She only became a feminist- after it became popular on social media.  

Where was she when I was a young lesbian feminist fighting for my life in the early 2000’s? Oh yeah, she was writing homophobic versions of her debut singles- and adding lines like “My Daddy’s gonna show you how sorry you’ll be” (“Picture to Burn” 2006) as an appeal to the patriarchy - I forgot. LOL. Where was she when feminism couldn’t be commodified- made fluffily and easy to “copy and paste” into her shitty pop-songs? Nowhere. 

It’s not about feminism, or female rage, for her- or standing up for anything at all in the face of the larger social system. For her, it’s about commodification and economic power.  

She's literally not a feminist. She’s not a LGBT activist- She's a goddamned opportunist and that has made her incredibly rich.  

Anyway, about TTPD, specifically, I need a whole separate post to talk about the overt anti-feminist, pro-patriarchy messaging of that album. Can’t do it here- I've rambled long enough. And I have a boat load of textual evidence to incorporate into my discussion on Swift so-called “feminist music” that I want to discuss in depth soon. I also have a Feminist-Marxist analysis lined up- that one I did just for fun 😊 

Ps- If you like any aspect of this argument or think that it might be true feel free to use it if anyone brings up the argument with you again. Sharing is caring. 

If you disagree and wish to burn me in effigy- Well, catch me if you can. <3 hahaha 

[monsieuroverlord]

Because I can't get this out of my head:

I mean, look, he picked flowers for her! And it was cathartic for him!!

And the visual of placing them around her head only like a crown is darkly beautiful to me.

Now, I used to be really into flower symbolism once upon a time, so each flower here can have a different meaning down to the color.

In this case, do I think the flowers were intentional here? No, not at all. They're kind of random actually. I think it's more to do with the fact he actually took the time to pick whatever was nearby in general in addition to digging the graves (Lord knows how long that took)

And also, from an art perspective, different shapes are visually interesting. I don't think it goes any deeper than that, but it's fun to speculate anyway.

Taking from the second panel here, the following flowers based on my educated guesses:

Red poppies: remembrance and hope for a peaceful future (for example, used as a symbol of remembrance for soldiers in Canada)

Pink poppies: compassion, kindness, sympathy, and platonic love

Yellow daisies: well wishes and joy -- can often be used in a "get well soon bouquet"

Pink amaryllis (Not 100% about this one, but close enough): determination and strength.

There's some others in near the crown that could maybe be a red rose and a pink daisy, but I can't really tell.

Like I said, kind of random. Aside from the red poppy, they're too happy -- feels out of place with the rest of the book. So I'm going with it's just a pretty visual and I'm overanalyzing, lol.

Now, if I really wanted to pick flowers with deeper meaning, what would I pick? Great question!

First things first, none of these flowers are native to North Carolina (Unless you want to argue that the "daisy" is really a false sunflower or something similar, but I digress.) But invasive species are a thing, so eh ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Here are my picks of flowers that have deeper meaning:

Magnolia: often associated with feminine energy, grace, and beauty; symbol of perseverance and determination. would be easy to find in North Carolina

Purple Hyacinth: deep sorrow and regret. a classic. Easily grown in North Carolina, but not native (Though the thought of Aki raiding someone's garden bed for this is mildly funny to me)

Lilies: now we got a couple choices here, as there's a few species native to swampland in the Carolinas. Lilies in general are a popular funeral flower, symbolizing peace and innocence restored to the soul of the departed. My personal favorite is the Carolina Lily, as it is very similar-looking to a classic tiger lily, which is my favorite flower

And finally, just so we are 4-for-4, the humble milkweed!

Symbolizes remembrance, dignity, and freedom:

[leonenjoyer69]

hey do you know abt the drama magicalmo is causing rn abt u?

I'm sorry for u, stay strong! Internet drama is a total bitch tbh don't let it get to you.

Yes, sadly despite having him blocked I'm quite aware. I've mainly just been ignoring him hoping that he'd get burnt out on his little hate crusade but the accusations he keeps pushing are genuinely fucking sick and disgusting.

Reminder to never pity him guys! Made that mistake myself, let him on my server as a second chance thing because I knew he was so widely hated, and guess who made everyone on there wildly uncomfortable and got himself banned after exploding at two of the members? Not to mention the fact that he had a mole on my server after getting banned to get that "damning evidence", so fun times guys.

That NSFW channel he keeps yapping about has been long gone, and nothing worse than that spoilered smut concept (you know, the one screenshot he keeps sharing, where the worst word is bloody "arousal"), on the optional channel, was ever shared. Truly it was my mistake, I had felt horrible making that category in the first place, but some of the other members requested it, so. I suppose I also made the mistake of seeing a public discord server as something akin to Tumblr, since literally everyone on there followed me on here anyways, and I know damn well have seen and shared worse things on here. But, alas, apparently discord is a different breed, and that I now know.

And the rest of his yapping? Fucking disgusting. The fact that he keeps implying that I have or would do such vile things is literally sickening, and I know every single person on that server would come to my defense because I've done fucking nothing wrong. The genuine defamation is literally crazy. All I wanted was a community and friends, and that's what I have- great friends, who are supportive and kind, and friends is all they are.

Okay, ranting over, thank you for your kind words :3 it does mean a lot to know that so many people are supporting me and defending me. Honestly, i am slightly glad it's me taking the hits over some of the other folks he's had stupid beef with in the past, none of my friends deserve to be dragged into stupid fake drama, and based on their reactions to all of this, apparently I take it far more calmly than them lmao.

I just don't want issues man, just wanna share my silly stories and characters and have people enjoy and talk about them to me. And thankfully I do still have that, I just have one persistent little hater throwing rocks at me from the corner, which is ironic when you compare what he's done to the genuine mistake I did, but hey, an eye for an eye and the whole world goes blind, Ill be the better person.

Apologies for dragging my blog down with this, but rest assured more art and rambles will bring it back up soon, thank you again for the ask and you're kind words :3

[th3-0bjectivist]

Chipper and Romi, A Love Story (and page update w/ Springin’ Chip)

Heya Tumblr folks, its page mascot Springin’ Chip here, and its autumn! And I’m in loooooove. Met a young woman. Her name is Romi. Young love is painful, folks. It’s supposed to teach you lessons that’ll help you adjust as an adult. And let me tell ya, there’s lots of pain in this relationship! So far, Romi and I enjoy playfully fighting in the park, late-night sleepovers, and deep talks about our future and the nature of the universe. It’s good to find something positive in 2024! I hope you had little specs of happiness this year as well. ANYWAYS, onto the brief page update.

So, folks, we’re going to be taking election week entirely off, maybe two weeks. When we get back, we’ll have three more songs to post and a few more paintings/drawings in 24’. Why take election week off you ask?? Well, primarily because partisan politics completely ruined Tumblr this year. It literally sucked all the fun out of everything and turned some usually normal people who we follow(ed) into shrieking, insufferable, irrational, pants-shitting dipshits. There’s nothing more useless than keyboard activism, and when we log in to Tumblr, we’re mostly looking for something that helps us mentally escape the harsh reality we’re living in. I mean, folks, as a dog, I really couldn't care less how you vote. What you do in the voting booth, just like in your bed, is none of my damn business. I followed your blog because I think you create exceptional art, or take excellent pictures, or generate excellent poetry, or make quality sounds, or because you have some hidden X factor, or because I think you’re a goddamned bona fide genius. I do NOT come to Tumblr for politics for several reasons, but mostly because… no one on here is a political expert and I’d rather not know how you vote at all. I’d rather you keep me guessing at how you vote and keep that to yourself. If for no other reason, because your politics matter to you, and I appreciate a bit of mystique.

Th3-0 wants me to tell you he early voted in North Carolina today. He said it was easy; he showed up early, he’d done his research beforehand, so he knew how he wanted to vote, it took like ten minutes. It was like, zip-zip-zip. The people at the voting site were friendly, the ballot process was streamlined. You don’t need to know how th3-0bjectivist votes. All you need to do is stop telling others how to vote and go out and vote. If you’re with friends or family that haven’t voted, tell them, “Okay c’mon! We’re all gonna go vote now!” Stop whining, stop whinging, and just go and vote folks. These last six months have been exhausting and demoralizing for the entire US. And if your side loses, learn how to lose with grace. Don’t let them see you sweat and think to yourself; what did my side do wrong to lose this election!?

Depending on the seismic reaction after the election, it could be up to two weeks until this blog is back up folks. Just please, grip fast to your mental health, hold your nose, and treat each other with respect. This year has been crazy enough. There’s no need to get crazier. th3-0bjectivist’s blog will be back for about two months and then after that we’re gonna take a LONGASS break from this platform to recover from the wretched, traumatizing, ass-ramming partisan shitstorm that was 24’.

Alt-links below in case you miss th3-0.

Stop bitchin' and just vote, Springin’ Chip

*****

The 0bjectivist on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2sONH8IwzL_2sZie0ZNSnw/

I’m also on BitChute: https://www.bitchute.com/channel/uvKfJpNkzkIL/

FULL ART GALLERY on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/th3_0bjectivist_gallery/ <—- This just in, Instagram is for selfie-takers and living-my-best lifers! Delete your account early, just like early voting! We deleted our account this year, and we don't miss it!

FULL ART GALLERY on DeviantArt at: https://www.deviantart.com/th3-0bjectivist/gallery

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

Why do you care so much about AO3? The fanfics in that place, most of them, are just as bad written and cringe as the ones in Tumblr or Wattpad. Most fanfic writers aren good writers, they can't write anything of their own so they climb to IPs that aren't theirs, mischaraterize the characters and plot to the point of acting completely different.

And when they get a job as writers or directors in the intertaiment industry (like Nia DaCosta in Marvel), they do a terrible job.

Because I disagree completely with your assessment of fanfiction and fanfiction writers and I don't think art should be censored. I also lived through the FFnet days of having your favorite stories disappear overnight because of the obtuse, unevenly enforced, and constantly changing content restrictions on that site. A place like AO3, that was founded to be a place where all content is welcome and protected, is rare and important. Increasingly so as time goes on and the "art is literally harming me" crowd gets more and more influence.

Most fanfic writers aren good writers, they can't write anything of their own so they climb to IPs that aren't theirs, mischaraterize the characters and plot to the point of acting completely different.

So, they're so uncreative that they need to latch onto established IPs because they can't think up their own ideas, but then they change those characters and plots to be something completely different than what they read? Interesting. Anyway, all art is derivative in some way. Depending on which analyses you want to believe, there are only 6-9 story types. Every single story falls within one of these types. You can sprinkle in genre tropes, anti-tropes, subversion, modern inventions, etc to make your own story more unique, but nothing is wholly original. So I don't consider that a valid criticism at all.

And when they get a job as writers or directors in the intertaiment industry (like Nia DaCosta in Marvel), they do a terrible job.

Now this I do agree with, but I don't blame fanfiction, I blame producers and studio executives and DEI policies. If the best person who applied was hired for the job, it wouldn't matter how many fanfic writers and Booktokers tried to get mainstream writing jobs, none of them would be chosen because objectively better writers would be hired. But when the studio policy says "you must hire a woman for this" and all the talented women are unavailable, and the applicants you get are a bunch of no name, no resume, women, but one of them has a built in following from their fanfic days, an executive who only cares about filling in a name on a hire sheet so the project can move on is going to probably pick the one with a following and hope that translates to ticket sales in the future. The entertainment industry as a whole is going through a massive depression right now, and exactly none of that can be blamed on fanfiction or fanfiction writers.

Fanfiction is a blessing. It's thousand of novel length stories written by people who like the same things you like, delivered for free on an easily accessible and searchable site. It lets you experience new interpretations of your favorite characters and stories, or lets you continue those stories as they might have been continued by the original writers. The quality varies, wildly sometimes, but you can pretty much always find something you like unless you just hate the entire concept of fanfic as a whole. Which is, of course, perfectly fine. But let's not pretend that we need to find objective reasons to subjectively dislike something. We can all just dislike the things we dislike, and we don't need a reason other than "I don't like this thing".

[a-writers-blurbs]

A bit of a disclaimer ig...

Hi guys,

This is going to be a long post that sounds slightly rant-y & I'm going to apologize in advance for that. I am going to make exactly ONE post (this one) about this topic, and I will not be discussing it further or posting about it again. I will also not be responding to any negative comments but deleting them instead.

These are my personal opinions and [...not *trying* to sound rude, but there's no other way to say it...] a bunch of random people online aren't going to change my opinions.

My husband is an artist. He does canvas painting & draws comic books (think anti-hero dark horse). I paint furniture (kinda mini murals) & make chibi drawings. I've also been writing fanfiction since the late 90s.

That being said, this post is about AI art.

I get the controversy, I do. But I've heard this argument before, when fanfiction became more popularized. The whole "You're just stealing someone else's work & changing it up to call it your own" is (at its core) the same argument against AI. The only difference is that instead of you yourself changing it, you're allowing a machine to do it.

But I digress...

Over the last week, I have received several messages about my use of AI art. First & foremost, my stuff is appropriately tagged as AI.

Second, I don't sell or advertise these pictures in any way. In fact, none of them have been posted anywhere but here (as of 6/1/24).

Third, and probably most important, I DONT MAKE THEM FOR YALL. Fanfiction & fanart are a HOBBY. It is something that I do because I enjoy it and it destresses me. I DO NOT do it, hoping I'll get 1000s of followers, views, likes, etc. Every story I write, I print & bind for my library. I will now be doing the same with my AI pictures.

I have a condition that has a symptom called Maladaptive Daydreaming. Because of this, my head is full of an alarming amount of excruciatingly detailed & unrealistic scenarios and images. (To the point that it affects my everyday life).

I can't necessarily recreate the images in my mind without help & the only way to get rid of the random scenarios is to write them out. So I do write them. And now I use AI to help me get a BASE image. I do still go in myself and edit/redraw parts of each generated image to fit them to the characters I want them to represent. I do thus using digital art.

Granted, there's a whole other group of people that think digital art isn't real art... but that's a discussion for another day. Anyway...

TLDR:

I use AI art & will continue to despite some people's dislike. I will continue to delete any and all comments left publicly that are malicious, rude, or condescending. My stories & are are for me. If others enjoy it, great, that's freaking awesome. If not, there are literally thousands of other fanfic authors you can follow instead of me.

Again, I apologize, I know this sounds rude. But I need to be 100% transparent on this one. I am extremely grateful for every folllower & reader I have. I won't lie & say comments/positive interaction isn't a serotonin boost because it is. Yall also give me more motivation to actually complete a story vs. moving on to the next idea. But I'm not going to change the way I do things to appease someone I don't even know.

This is one of the few things I enjoy doing in my free time & have been doing it for 25 years now, and in the last 5 or so years ALL fandoms have gotten so toxic its hard to enjoy anything anymore. Last time it got like this, I simply stopped posting. I'd rather not do that again, but if people (who aren't even following me) don't leave me alone, I'll probably have to do it again, sadly.

But for now, hopefully this post will give people with different opinions to go ahead and block me from their feed. We're not going to agree so instead of wasting energy arguing, let's keep the peace & agree to stay off if each others feeds.

I won't judge you on your idea that you feel it's your duty to harass people over their choices & you won't judge me for enjoying something. 😉

Thank you for listening. Love yall & and I hope your day is blessed!

[petitelepus]

When I saw that you were taking Kimetsu academy request I clicked the box so fast... Anyway

I was hoping you could do a GN reader x Sanemi where they both like each other but won't admit it first. (probably drives everyone insane cause it's obvious as hell). But (Best buddy) Rengoku steps in and forces them on a date. (If it's fine could some things go wrong but in the end they both had fun)

Teacher!Sanemi X Gender Neutral Reader

Summary: You and Sanemi are old friends and go way back. That, and you guys also have feelings for each other, but you won't say it, so Kyojuro decides to help you guys out!

Warnings: None

A/N: Modern!AU, Kimetsu Academy, Gender Neutral Reader, Sanemi Shinazugawa

You and Sanemi Shinazugawa go way back. You were childhood friends and sometimes rivals even. While he became a teacher, you followed your parents' example and became a baker in this small bakery that belonged to your family. One day you would take over the business, but until then, you worked really hard to meet all the expectations bestowed on you.

It was a nice August day and you were serving customers when the bell by the door chimed you turned to greet the newest customer, only to see it was Sanemi, your childhood friend himself who entered your humble bakery.

"Ooh, Nemi-chan! Welcome to Sweet Dreams!" You laughed in a good manner and the young man scowled, "Don't call me that!"

"Sorry sorry!" You laughed lightly as you looked at him, "The usual?"

"Yes," He nodded as he paid and you smiled as you pulled your sleeves up, "Just a second and I'll prepare your order!"

"Don't you have it prepared already!?" He asked since he was your regular and always ordered the same thing. You chuckled, "It has been a busy day! Just take a seat and I'll bring your order to you."

"Tch, fine…" Sanemi grumbled as he sat on the table by the window and you smiled as you moved to prepare his order.

"Here we go!" You smiled as you stepped around the corner and placed the bag filled with Ohagi in front of him, alongside a small box.

"What the Hell is this?" He asked as he pointed at the box and you chuckled, "It is a piece of this week's specialty blueberry cheesecake!"

"I don't want it!" He snapped and yet you just kept on smiling, "Then give it to someone you like!"

"Idiot!" He snapped as he grabbed his Ohagi and the piece of the cake, "I'm leaving!"

"Have a nice day!" You called cheerfully after him… But as soon as the door was shut behind him, you let your smile go and sighed.

The truth was that you had given him the piece because you really liked him and all you wanted to see was his smile and you wanted to be the reason in one way or another behind that smile…

The bell chimed again and you were smiling again as you welcomed the next customer, "Welcome!"

The day went on and then came lunchtime and Sanemi pulled out his Ohagi and a piece of the blueberry cheesecake he had gotten from you.

He knew you gave it to him purely because you wanted him to give it to someone he liked, but he couldn't do that. The truth why Sanemi wouldn't give it to anyone he fancied was because it was you who he liked most…

"Ooh, what is this treat?" Came annoying art teacher Tengen's voice and Sanemi could feel the vein on his temple tighten, "It's called NONE OF YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS!"

"Whoa, I just asked!" The art teacher chuckled as he walked away and Sanemi frowned as he bit into his Ohagi, choosing to save the cheesecake last.

"This cake looks good!" The history teacher Kyojuro suddenly popped up and smiled at the Sanemi, "Is this from that cute baker down the street?"

"They aren't cute!" Sanemi snapped as he stuffed his face full of Ohagi and Kyojuro, despite being a little dense sometimes, could tell that the math teacher liked you.

Everyone knew this, it was so painful to watch Sanemi deny it and based on what they heard of you, you were a similar case, unable to see that Sanemi liked you or the other way around.

Kyojuro hummed as he came up with a perfect plan to get you two to go out with each other and confess your feelings to each other!

A week went by and Kyojuro rushed to Sanemi's desk, "Shinazugawa!" He said excitedly and the scarred teacher looked at his colleague, "What?"

"Will you go out on a blind date!?"

"HAA!?" Sanemi scowled hard, "Why would I want that!? What a shitty proposition!"

"But I heard that the cute baker down the street is going out today also and it reminded me how lonely you ar-!"

"I'm not lonely!"

"How isolated you are and we wondered if you would like to let us match you up?" Kyojuro smiled excitedly, "We picked you a perfect date!"

"…And you are saying that they are going out today also?" Sanemi asked as he thought about you going out with some random loser and the idea made his blood boil for some reason.

"Yes!" Kyojuro nodded, "So how do you feel-!"

"Set me up!" The math teacher snapped and the history teacher cheered, "Alright, that's the spirit!"

So they set a date for Shinazugawa, who was supposed to see his date by the school's entrance gates… Only his date was someone he didn't expect to see.

"Y- You!?" Sanemi snapped as he stared at you and you blinked, "Oh, hi there Nemi-chan!"

"What the fuck are you doing here!?" The man asked and you tilted your head, "Your colleagues and friends told me that you wanted to see me outside work?"

"Those fuckers…!" The man growled as he realized that the two of you had been set up. He turned to look and he could see the other teachers looking from the windows.

"Well, would you like to head out?" You asked and Sanemi frowned, "Listen, this was just a nasty prank my stupid co-workers set up."

"Oh," You blinked before nodding, "I see… Then, would you like to come to my store and get some fresh Ohagi?"

"You don't need to-!"

"I insist!" You smiled as you grabbed his hand and started to lead him away from the school. As you were walking the two of you kept stealing small glances at each other when you were sure the other person wouldn't notice. The silence between you two started to be too heavy to withstand though.

"This is nice," You hummed thoughtfully, "When was the last time we saw outside work?"

"I-" The teacher stilled as he thought about it, "I… I can't remember."

"It must have been a while!" You chuckled in a good manner, "You're always so busy with kids and I'm busy with the bakery."

"It's not like I- Oi, watch it!" Sanemi quickly pulled you against him as some damn brats drove past you with their bicycles and the man's eyes widened as his nose picked up a smell of pure vanilla. Fuck, you smelled absolutely divine!

"Ah, you saved me! Thank you, that was close-!" You were saying but when you looked at him and saw him staring at you madly you yelped, "Ah- W- what's wrong?"

"Nothing!" Sanemi snapped as he stepped away from you, "Don't cling to me that hard!"

"Ah, sorry Nemi!" You apologized and he growled, "And stop calling me that!"

"Sorry-!" You were saying when you felt something fall on your cheek and you blinked, "Huh?"

"What is it-?" Sanemi was asking when he felt the same what you had felt… Followed by a sudden rainstorm and a roar of thunder wrecking through the air.

"Shit!" The man quickly grabbed your hand and you two started to run, "Where the fuck this storm came from!?"

"Holy shit!" You laughed like a maniac as the two of you ran, "This is hilarious!"

"There is nothing hilarious in this!"

"Over here!" You called and the two of you quickly docked under some convenience store's roof. The two of you were panting as you caught your breath, yet you couldn't help but laugh a little, "That was fun!"

"How, how was that funny!?" Sanemi asked and you chuckled, "You look like a wet dog!"

"Speak for yourself!"

"Ha ha!" You both straightened and looked ahead as the rain kept pouring down furiously.

"Whoa, it's really raining hard!" You thought out loud and the scarred man nodded, "Yeah."

"We might be here for a while!"

"We might."

You hummed as you looked at your friend, "So, what kind of prank it was that your friends pulled on you?"

"Huh?!"

"I mean, I came because they said you wanted to see me. So what did they tell you?"

"They-!" Sanemi stopped himself before he could blurt out that he was pissed by the idea of you going out with someone who you or he didn't know.

"Nothing…They just tricked me."

"I see," You nodded, "It's a shame."

"Why?"

"Well, I got really happy when I heard that you wanted to see me." You looked at him, "I'm sorry that you didn't feel the same way and that you ended up teaming with me."

"I-!" Sanemi stuttered as he realized that he had suddenly become the bad guy, "I wasn't thinking that, not at all!"

"You weren't?" Now you were confused and he frowned, "No!"

"Ah, I see…"

"Yeah…"

"Well, while we are hiding here, do you want to know why I chose to become a baker like my parents?" You asked and Sanemi stared at you for a second before he sighed and nodded, "Sure."

"When I was small and would get something yummy to eat, I would always smile. The same thing happened with my parents' customers. When they bit into their sweets they would smile and that made them so happy to see that their baking made people smile so happily."

Sanemi recalled that memory, how your parents would always give him sweets to bring back home to his younger siblings and mother.

"So!" You smiled as you looked at Sanemi standing next to you, "I became a baker so I could keep making people smile! But…"

"But?"

"The person I most wanted to smile was the person I loved so much." You chuckled a little sadly, "Yet, years have gone by and I haven't seen that smile yet. I must not be that good baker yet…"

"Tch, they sound like a real idiot…!" Sanemi grumbled, "Who wouldn't smile when eating your sweets? They're perfect."

You blinked, stunned by what you heard, but as you registered his words, a smile broke out on your face, "Thank you Nemi-chan! Hearing you say that makes me so very happy!"

"Yeah yeah, I'm just stating the obvious."

"Hm hm," You hummed happily as you looked up at the dark rain clouds, "I really like you Sanemi…"

"What was that?" The young man turned to look at you, and you flinched as you laughed, "Ha ha, nothing, I just thought something out loud!"

"Huh." He nodded and suddenly, just like magic, it stopped raining and even the sun shined through the clouds.

"Oh, hey, look!" You grinned, "It stopped raining!"

"It did," He nodded.

"Let's go get that Ohagi!" You cheered and smiled as you reached for his hand, but realizing that it might have been too intimate, you pulled your hand back… Only for Sanemi to reach out and grab the said hand of yours.

"Huh?" You blinked as you saw his hand wrap around yours and you looked up in confusion, only to see Sanemi looking at you so intensely.

"I really like you too." He stated and you stared at him with your eyes wide as you realized that he must have heard you earlier.

"Ah- I- Uh-!" You couldn't find the right words you wanted to say and it flustered you, "I… Thank you…"

"Hm," He nodded as he squeezed your hand, "Let's go."

So, time passed and after the weekend, the teachers excitedly surrounded their short-tempered scarred colleague.

"How did the date between you two go?" Someone asked as Sanemi sat by his desk. The man scowled, "It's none of your business!"

"So, the two of you are dating now?" Another question and the teacher frowned as he reached for his bag and pulled out the Ohagi he had gotten from you earlier, "Again, it doesn't belong to you!"

"What you got today?" Kyojuro asked as he saw the extra box and Sanemi grumbled as he opened the said box and the teachers excitedly looked inside…To see a small heart-shaped chocolate cake, decorated with a single strawberry cut in the shape of a heart.

"Oh wow!"

"So pretty!"

"Are you going to eat that?"

"GO AWAY YOU BASTARDS, IT'S MINE!"

Just like he was yours and vice versa.

[crabsnpersimmons]

Hey Crabs! I have a small question! 🦀

How do you make the pictures of your traditional art look so good!?

They are always bright and easy to see! But when I take a photo of my drawings, they always have a blue or yellow tint to them. So how do you make it look the way you do?

(Also, I want to gobble up your art it is so yummy and pretty! Sun and Moon are so precious in your style!) ❤️

Thanks! And I hope you’re having a good day! :D

no prob! there's actually a couple things i do, so here's the tl;dr:

Lighting: i use daylight or light from a neutral white lightbulb

Editing: i use my phone's built-in gallery app to lightly edit the colours so they're clear and as colour-accurate as i can get (from my screens at least)

and i'll go into a little more detail with some examples under the cut

1. Lighting

a habit of mine that i got from my IG days (ugh...) is using daylight whenever possible. daylight just lights up the whole area more evenly and relatively neutrally. this is my set up:

glamourous

basically, i put the artwork near a source of natural light and prop up a reflector (in this case, a blank page from another sketchbook) that helps distribute the light more evenly across the page, so that even the side that is furthest from the light gets some light that bounces off from the reflector. i don't always have a reflector tho, like if i'm only taking a picture of a small drawing and not an entire page, there's no need.

now, if it's dark, then i rely on my desk lamp, which uses a neutral white lightbulb. regular lightbulbs come in different temperatures, from warm to neutral to cool—so that might explain why your photos are coming out with a yellow or blue tint. warm lights are common in houses because they're cozy, while blue lights are common in working areas because, like daylight, they keep us more awake. neutral white is in between the two.

here's an example of my Moon doodle that i did recently under different lights: warm (from my bedside lamp), neutral white (from my work desk), and daylight (i don't have any cooler lights in the house, so i couldn't quite get the blue tint 😅)

now technically, NONE of these are colour accurate. so i always follow up with some light photo editing

2. Editing

now, i have 2 personal rules when it comes to editing my photos:

1) try to make it as close to the original as possible; and 2) don't spend too long on it

these are just my personal rules because... one) i'm lazy and i don't want to spend too long fixing every thing in my drawings, and two) i feel it is dishonest for me to make dramatic changes to my traditional art and still call it traditional art. whenever i do make digital enhancements (like colouring it digitally) i will tag it so no one would mistake it as purely traditional art. that's just me tho! there are no rules when you're having fun with your art and mixed media art is a thing! so do whatever you find fun and enjoyable.

also, i will try to make it as colour-accurate as possible, but i also recognize that not everyone's screens are calibrated the same way. my phone is set to a "Natural" colour setting, but on my new laptop (which i haven't figured out how to calibrate yet) is vibrant as all heck (like oh my gosh, maybe i need to start tagging everything with bright colours now, because what if someone else's laptop is this insanely vibrant and saturated??) but either way, i try not to spend too long on it because i know i won't be able to accommodate every screen.

anyways, for what i actually DO... i kinda just play around with different settings. if i took the picture under daylight, then there's not too much i adjust, usually it's the warm colours that are desaturated, so i try to make the reds pop more without effecting the blues too much.

or for my doodles, sometimes the doodle on the other side of the page is slightly visible, i'll tweak the lights and shadows and contrast levels until the background is clear enough (as long as it doesn't disturb the doodle i'm taking a photo of)

now, if your photos are coming out too yellow or blue because of your lighting, you can adjust that by tweaking the Temperature setting. here's an example of that warm Moon doodle:

already looking a little better, right? so don't worry if your photos aren't coming out accurate, there are work arounds!

here's the before and after of the Moon doodle by the way:

despite having daylight, i still needed to adjust the colours. specifically i needed to brighten up the reds and yellows, and bring back the page's natural yellowness. i also tweaked the Definition setting to make less hazy (sometimes i like the haziness tho, so i'll leave it as is sometimes).

and one other reminder: it doesn't need to be perfect, it just needs to be. a big reason why i keep coming back to traditional art is the fact that i can't control everything. i can't undo lines. i can't move things around. and i can't take the perfect picture. but it doesn't need to be perfect. drawing and sharing my art is supposed to be fun! and i don't want to put any barriers around that, or else it becomes unnecessarily stressful.

all that is to say, try out these tips if you want to, but don't treat them as hard rules and don't focus on trying to achieve perfection. just go have fun!

[silverspleen]

@your-royal-highness-of-trash

Pulled out into TWO new posts b/c I cannot be subjecting my friends to one longpost but rather many smaller posts with the majestic read more tool. I hope this is cool.

(Context. My reply to This.)

THE GRIM HALF tw warcrimes torture it's a CoD ramble my beloved followers know it's time for me to be Unhinged on Main

I don't know if I would call Jacob Geller's video essays on Call of Duty fun. Like, they very much aren't designed to be consumed from a fandom lens. They are super intellectually engaging and enlightening but also really grim since he does absolutely talk about the real life political motivations that go into CoD as a work of art, specifically propaganda art. And talks about, you know, real war crimes done by real people in real life. I have made multiple irl friends watch them.

None of them are into FPS games so this is basically my torture I am doing to my friends as I desperately try to rationalizing enjoying Call of Duty as an adult with a functioning brain. Who notices things like, yeah. We made up a middle eastern country for this one huh lads? We made that shit up so we don't have to make any actual comments about the United States' current complicity in this whole war and terrorism thing huh? WE'RE DOING A HISTORICAL REVISIONISM ARE WE??? I wouldn't have noticed the historical revisionism without this video essay and you know what? It's super fucked up. CoD does wacko stuff all the time, both for manufactured drama and for silly propaganda reasons, and when it jumps the shark is when it's the most conventional fun I think. I think Geller is onto something where he says that the writers went into this thinking they were doing the story in the best way possible with character driven stuff - and therefore it doesn't REALLY matter where Farah is from to them, they can just make up a country because it's general backstory vibes that impact her behavior that matter, not cultural details. Also how Alex can get away with being a terrorist but in a nbd way because yeah he is one, that's what happens when you desert to a faction that literally gets classified as a terrorist organization babyyy - but sitting at a perspective completely divorced of all the political and societal nuances in real life that makes the actual manifested story have impact outside of itself. And the US government is like "hell yeah, America! more kids will think guns and soldiers are cool and great. A+ plot or whatever put more suicide bombers in it" and that's that.

Being invited to my clusterfuck of an apartment like SIT ON MY COUCH WE'RE WATCHING THE POLITICS OF COD MW 2019.

Poor Gaz is the other character besides Farah with the strongest sense of like, justice and doing "the right thing" and this man gets ALL the ethically questionable as fuck levels and I know why. It's so they can do a propaganda and show like, ok this must be a justifiable offense because the Good Guy player surrogate character can accept it. I see you! I see you CoD writers!

not CoD but always relevant - "Rationalizing Brutality: The Cultural Legacy of the Headshot"

His video essays "Who's Afraid of Modern Art" and "Judaism and Whiteness in Wolfenstein" are both personal favorites. Though I am so so biased towards his review of Dead Space 2 that's just like 40 minutes of him being like "this game rocks" because yeah, mood.

Anyway I am putting this in a box and throwing it into the ocean next post is the fun part of CoD it's shipping time this is my dichotomy this is how I must live my life.

[gemmahale]

gemma! hi friend. for talk shop tuesday, i have questions! Horizon Mirages

knowing your penchant for research, what's something new and interesting you've learned in researching the wild west?

how did you pick the occupations for the love interests?

Righteous Fury

without spoiling anything, is there a redacted screenshot of the timeline you mentioned here? 👀

Random

spooky season is fast approaching. which of your projects is the spookiest? 👀

care to share the latest line you wrote?

Talk Shop Tuesday!

Hello Sy! I shall endeavor to answer your Questions. (Gosh these are good questions.)

I'm throwing them under a cut because it's long as heck and there are spoilers for the following: (I also hope that gif blocks the spoilery images from showing up in previews or anything.)

Horizon Mirages

Righteous Fury

7 Sins Bookstore (Minor)

Feylands (Minor)

The Contract (minor)

Horizon Mirages

I'll admit, I have always lived and breathed Westerns. Laura Ingalls Wilder was part of my bread and butter growing up, I now live in a cattle-dense part of the country that was directly affected by that part of US history, I loved the hell out of watching Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2, the "wild west" has called to me so viscerally. I think part of it is that my families settled here in the Midwest. Now, specifically related to Horizon Mirages - the information on shepherds and such has been really interesting to get into. They (and by proxy our Shepherdess) live in structured wagons to keep up with the sheep on their rotations across the plains. The similarities and differences between cattle and sheep has been really interesting to get into.

I thought about who would have interesting stories to tell. I don't actually know if they're all love interests yet, or if they become platonic. I also looked for foils to the 141, but that was kind of last-minute when I tacked on their relationships to the 141. I wanted a way to bring together some of my special interests - beekeeping, distilling, sewing, fiber arts) into the story in a way that made sense. Because if I'm going to write things, I might as well write about things I have some knowledge of, lol. The Shepherdess was the first one out of the gate, nearly fully developed at idea creation. The other three have gone through a number of changes and morphs to what you see today (and they very well may change between now and publication. The General Store Owner started as a homesteader, for example. The Seamstress was just a widower, husband lost to a rogue shoot-out, but had no career (or maybe she was the school teacher? I don't remember now).

Righteous Fury

Ha. This post. Let me see what a bit of post-screenshot editing I can do.

Okay, the quality is 💩, but hopefully it's legible and not too spoilery. I learned how to redact PDF's today! Neat! (I was hoping to be able to blur it out, but alas, this was the fastest solution I could find on company time. 😅) Screenshot to PDF back to screenshot kinda tanked the quality lol.

Re: the timeline. I fudged the years a little bit. I think I kept canon years where they were, but I made Soap a little older. I just...I was struggling to write him as a 20-something, so I made him 6 months older than me. Because artistic license. Also worth noting: those are not all siblings of his. Some are cousins.

I really hope there's not too many spoilers here, and that you're more excited than disappointed when the truth's revealed. This is just one aspect of the story anyway.

Random

Which of my projects is the spookiest? Yeesh, I suppose it depends on how you define spooky. Feylands has a few spooky vibes in it, so does The Contract. 7 Sins Bookstore does too, now that I think about it. But none are intentionally spooky in the Halloween sense. Just spooky in the eerie/something's not quite human here way.

Last line I wrote: From Righteous Fury

“MacTavish, a word. Everyone else, dismissed.” The clatter of chairs and the slaps on the (good) shoulder do little to bolster John’s mood.