#as you can see i got progressively more lazy lol

[lui-the-cute-snek]

I'm back at my breakbee yuri bullshit 🥰

Been experimenting a bit with fake anime screenshot shit ✌

[yoonia]

— Dia’s tumblr wrapped 2024 

I know it’s super late for me to share this, but just as many would say, it’s better late than never. Thank you so much for the lovely people who tagged me to do this: @beomcoups, @shadowkoo, @kingofbodyrolls ♡

2024 started off smoothly…until it didn’t. The final quarter of the year has always been a hard time for me and it wasn’t that much different this year. As you can probably notice that I’ve been mostly absent ever since the end of October and I deeply apologise for that. I also regret not planning things properly and for not keeping up with my goals this year but that only means that I'll be dragging my WIP list towards the next year.

Thank you so much for everyone who has been there for me this year, and those of you who have stuck by me despite my inconsistencies. I really appreciate your presence on my blog, whether it’s through your likes and kudos, your reblogs, your comments and replies on my contents, and the kind words you sent me through my ask box. You guys have made it worthwhile for me to be here even after all these years, and I don’t think I can thank you enough for that. Here’s to mark the end of our wild journey through 2024 and enter the new year of 2025. 

OVERALL FIC STATS 2024

Number of fics posted: 4 (four) one-shots, 2 (two) ongoing series, 3 (three) ficlets

Number of fics revamped: 2 (two) completed fics, 2 (two) ongoing series

Number of words written: 448,057 words (dang, no wonder I felt so burned out lol)

Number of fics in progress: 32 (oh, boy…) 

FIRST FIC OF 2024

❥ A Christmas Fix 01 & 02 —  posted Jan 31st & Feb 1st | 1,926 & 1,226 notes

My thoughts: This was…quite a journey. It’s been a while since I wrote a rom-com story and I was pleased to have been given the chance to write this idea through a collab. The final outcome wasn’t too disappointing either, since I enjoyed writing it and reading it afterwards. I’m glad everyone loved this story as well.

MOST POPULAR FIC OF 2024

❥ The Stand-In (Revamped version) — posted Aug 13th | 4,267 notes

My thoughts: Okay, yeah…I cheated a little. But to be fair, this fic did get a lot of notes this year before and after the revamping process. I loved this story so much that I felt like it deserved a major makeover and I’m glad I managed to do it this year.

LONGEST FIC OF 2024

❥ The Bedroom Hymns — series, ongoing, last updated Sept 9th | 50k++ words | I’m too lazy to open each chapter to count the notes I’m so sorry lol

My thoughts: I know…I know, I need to update this one again. I had to take a break from this series because this fic literally became my main focus this year that a lot of my WIPs kept getting pushed back just so I could finish more of this. I had to stop at some point to finally set free my WIPs. I have to admit that I also lost my motivation to write this due to the lack of notes and responses that I got with each update no matter how much time I spent working on it (tacky, I know…but it is what it is). I still love and enjoy writing this, so more chapters are coming. I can see this fic becoming my main focus again in 2025 until I’m done with it.

LAST FIC OF 2024

❥ The Forsaken II: Tears of the Sea — posted Oct 24th | 712 notes

My thoughts: Holy hell…this fic. Who would’ve thought that I’d be revisiting siren!Taehyung this year after…3 years?? Thank you, whoever it was that sent this during my birthday event. I never expected to write a full fic for this to continue the original story and to answer a lot of your questions, but I’m glad I did! 

Honorable mention: 

❥ Our Imperfections — posted Oct 30th | 92 notes

My thoughts: This was the last thing I actually released before I dipped into the void but I couldn’t count this as a fic as this was considered a ficlet or, in a more common term, a drabble.

PERSONAL FAVOURITE FIC OF 2024

❥ Blooming Wallflowers — posted Sept 25th | 927 notes

My thoughts: I had one of those rare moments where I found myself enjoying the writing process of a story so much that things simply kept flowing until it became a full story. This one went twice the size planned (and commissioned) but I have no regrets. At all.

Honorable mention: 

❥ Maps (revamped version) — series, completed, posted Sept 6th, 7th, & 11th | 1,4k++ notes (again, I’m too lazy to open each chapter lol)

My thoughts: I initially planned to release something else for DPR Ian’s birthday this year. But then I started revamping the graphics for his old fics instead and decided to revamp the whole series while I had the chance. This one has always been my fave work that I wrote for Christian, so diving back into this to do a makeover and give it a major upgrade felt absolutely fulfilling. 

2024 SPECIAL EVENT

❥ 𝖙𝖜𝖎𝖑𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙 𝖋𝖆𝖑𝖑 𝖘𝖊𝖗𝖊𝖓𝖆𝖉𝖊: yoonia’s 2024 birthday bash

My thoughts: Once again, I can’t thank you guys enough for joining this small event of mine. I promise that I’ll have another event in 2025 so please stay tuned! (see you in March!) 

Fave reads of 2024

I have to admit that I haven’t been doing a lot of fic reading this year. But I’m happy that I got to dive back into reading some fanfics during my birthday event and found some lovely gems that I truly enjoyed

The Taste of Sin by @shadowkoo

Vignette: Duty by @cybrsan

The Athlete by @beomcoups

A Lover's Redemption by @writtenwhalien

Dandelion by @shina913

The Wood by @sailoryooons

Minted by @kithtaehyung

Mr. & Mrs. Yoon by @monamipencil

On The Ropes by @raplinesmoon

Top Ten Tracks of 2024

Loved — B.I

People — Agust D

Make You Mine — Black Violet

Gemini — Cheyenne 

Close To Me — Mamie, Eloy, Trippy Bass

HUH?! — Agust D feat. J-hope

Love — Lana Del Rey 

Reasons — COTIS 

Watch Me Burn — Michelle Morrone 

Die First — Nessa Barrett  

GOALS FOR 2025

Write more. Tackle more WIPs each month. 

Finally finish my old abandoned WIPs (About Time, Blood Moon Rising and the Shifters Series, Chance Encounter) 

Finish writing and officially release my original stories/novel as a web-series

Try to do better with planning and scheduling and keeping up with them

Finish revamping Carousel and release the novel version on Ream

Read more. Both published books and released fics

Focus more on my personal health, mental and physical 

Start job hunting again

I know I’m late for this, so I’m passing this over to the writers who are tagged on the list above (if you haven’t done this yet) and also tagging a few who come across my mind right now (only if you want to!): @ressjeon @lo1k-diamonds @pars-ley @minisugakoobies @inkedtae

And also tagging randomly anyone who feels inspired to create their own tumblr wrapped! 

[yardsards]

reading the things you post/rb while not knowing what the adventure zone is is kinda funny. I'll be scrolling my dash and see "NAH 'CAUSE BEANIEMAN GOT SO SCHLORPED WHEN THE PIANO FLAVORED STICK OF DEODERANT GOT SCAMMED" and I'm so tempted to get context, but it feels like life would be funnier without it

okay so like. the adventure zone is an actual-play ttrpg podcast (aka they record themselves playing dungeons and dragons and similar games and then edit down the recording so it's fun to listen to)

and it's kind of like 5+ different podcasts in a trenchcoat. cuz there's 5 completely separate games (well, 5 plus a couple way shorter games, but 5 main ones). and since each game is already pretty wild on its own, the fact that there are FIVE OF THEM definitely makes it sound extra bizarre to outsiders lol

there's:

1: balance: a standard fantasy world with some minor sci-fi elements. it's about heroes tracking down and neutralizing dangerous magical items and uncovering secrets about their own pasts. by far the most popular season and imo the best, but it gets off to a slow start

2: amnesty: a story about cryptids and magic in a modern day appalachian setting. been a while since i listened to this one tbh and i don't talk about it as much

3: graduation: young adults going to magic college and getting wrapped up in a demon war. this is the least popular one but not actually bad imo

4: ethersea: freelance adventurers from an undersea city exploring the world in a magical post-apocalyptic setting. my fav behind balance

5: steeplechase: like a defunctland video meets a heist movie, secret crime rings operating within a theme park. very fun, still in progress

they're released kind of like different seasons of a show, one after the other, but each "season" doesn't actually need to be listened to in order (ie you can listen to steeplechase before balance, but you'd have to start at ep 1 of steeplechase and not just skip to steeplechase ep 32 or else you'd be really confused)

honestly i've been halfway considering getting different tags for each game but i'm too lazy to change now

ANYWAY

the thing about the adventure zone is that it's a *comedy* podcast first and foremost. so most of the weird bizarre funny bits are just as funny and batshit insane even WITH context. hell, i'd say a lot of it is even MORE funny if you know what's going on.

though there is also some buckwild shit that you just get desensitized to. like one of the 3 protagonists of balance is named *taco* (but spelled taako) because it was originally just gonna be a silly one-off episode, so the player was like "haha i'm gonna be XD random and annoy my dm with this zany noun name", not knowing that there were gonna be 68 more episodes and it would eventually grow into a deeply emotionally moving story. so by the end you're fucking sobbing over this character's love and loss and you forget that "taco" is not a normal thing for an elf/wizard to be called

it's absolutely delightful

[marshallpupfan]

Work in Progress

Slowly but surely, my Marshall collection is starting to take shape. Admittedly, I couldn't work on it much last night, as I'm often away from home every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, thus I don't always have a lot of time to work on this. That, and I tend to procrastinate (aka, get lazy and waste time) a lot. But hey, I'm getting there!

Today, I started working on how I wanted to sort out all of these types of plush dolls. There are a bunch of them, with a new one typically releasing every new subseries or film. Well... only the ones that can stand on their legs; the "floppy leg" ones I'm pretty sure they stopped producing years ago.

I have fourteen of the standing dolls and thirteen of the floppy ones. I want to keep them together without dividing them up, so I tend to line them up in rows. In the past, I used to place DVD cases or small cardboard boxes behind one row for the second row to stand up on, but that didn't always look so great. Thus, I started saving scrap wood (usually stuff we were going to throw away anyway) to build proper shelves.

I have a bunch of these long, thin boards from a bed frame we had to throw away. They're pretty handy for projects like this, so I suppose I got lucky there! For the floppy dolls, I made the shelf 4 inches tall, and for the standing dolls, I made two 2 and a half inch tall shelves. The wood here is kind of thin, so attaching them to each other can be a little tricky. I wasn't sure exactly what to do, so I just used hot glue.

...Well, that was after I realized I goofed and only cut two sets of legs when I actually needed three. Nothing unusual with me. 😅

It's not the greatest solution, but it's still quite sturdy. As long as I'm careful, they shouldn't come apart or anything. Besides, they'll only have lightweight dolls on them, so this will work just fine.

Hey, not bad! I wish I could get scrap wood that matches the color of the bookshelf, but they'll mostly be covered anyway, so it's no biggie. Now I just have to sort and find spots for each doll. Naturally, I like to put my bigger favorites up front, such as Ultimate Fire Rescue, Rescue Knights, 2018 Mighty Pups, etc.

Works pretty good! Now I just have to... wait, there's a blank spot there at the top left. What am I going to put there? OH, I know!

BOOMER! BOOMER! BOOMER! Ha ha... I couldn't resist. 😁

The shelf for the floppy dolls went about the same. I only had to make a smaller one for them, as having their legs hang over the front and back works better here.

And there we go! I might rearrange some of the dolls later, since some stand taller than others, but for now, I'm calling it done. Well, just this part anyway.

For now, I'm calling the plush doll proportion of this task complete! Crazy to think one character has this many dolls, huh? And to think, there are so many more out there... many of which I still hope to own someday. If only I could get some of the ones from Japan... but then again, where would I put them if I did get them? Uh... let me get back with you on that one. lol

Well, I guess it's time I start working on the big display case soon. That'll probably take a long time, since I plan to dust everything that'll go on there... including all those tiny figurines, too. Again, I've got my work cut out for me here. 😅

(I'm not sure why I made this post, other than I just thought it would be fun to chat about what I'm doing as I go along. I might make more as I progress, but we'll see.)

[laneysmusings]

Hello hello! I've recently acquired the Mike Logan brainrot and I LOVE the fics you've written and I ADORE your tags about him!!

SO. I was wondering if you maybe, possibly, hopefully were willing to share any headcanons you have of him? 👉👈 If not then just delete this ask!

Thank you muchly!

it’s my birthday today, and it’s been a terrible one at that, but this ask literally made my face light up. I feel gifted by you — I would be HAPPY to provide headcanons of this gargantuan idiot, this hunk of massive Catholic guilt, my emotional support beleaguered detective

₊˚.༄ Mike Logan Headcanons

₊˚✦ he’s like, an adequate cook? Most likely good at breakfast in the morning and maybe some basic dishes, self sufficient so he doesn’t solely live off of takeout (but it’s like a quarter of his diet). I can’t say he can’t cook because it’s just not realistic. Boy’s gotta’ eat, y’know?

₊˚✦ Mike has trash coffee taste, takes it straight with maybe some cream or a sugar packet but refuses to try other things like blended drinks, will drink a cappuccino or an americano but hates being in a Starbucks

₊˚✦ UNLESS he gets spoilt and used to better coffee but then he’s doomed and cursed to the shit coffee at work and complains even more than usual. Which is a lot.

₊˚✦ I’ve got a feeling that, with being super progressive in his views, he definitely was one of those police officers in the beginning that everyone was shocked by. This little stinker, a raucous trouble maker, an OFFICER? PUHLEASE

₊˚✦ he’s so quick to fight for one (scrappy more like) he’s just got no fit outlet, so work became his outlet (terrible decision really) — but he’s got such hyperactivity and restlessness, probably born from some childhood PTSD and ADHD/ADD, that it just gnaws at him and lets him get too caught up in his emotions

₊˚✦ the boy needs therapy + AND NOT WITH LIZ

₊˚✦ cuddle bug but doesn’t look like it immediately — like sure he’s probably got some weird stuff with intimacy beyond sex (I can do a WHOLE other set of headcanons about this man’s issues with intimacy, both sexual and non sexual)

₊˚✦ but literally a cuddle bug, he will YANK his partner back into bed. he’s a lazy weekend guy and stands by it — it’s when he catches up on sleep and gets to take his time. He doesn’t shave on weekends either so he gets the perfect “I know I’m hot but I make it look effortless” stubble which is damning. Like fuck.

₊˚✦ I think when he works out he does cardio and maybe weight training but not all too much? Like above the minimum since he’s required to like, apprehend people, run chase and whatnot — but he’s not living at the gym if you catch my drift

₊˚✦ snores. he fucking snores look at that man and tell me he doesn’t snore.

₊˚✦ gets nightmares but doesn’t cope well with them — or have much if any good coping mechanisms honestly. Maybe later in life he’ll adapt some better ones, but everything he’d recommend to others, he wouldn’t do for himself.

₊˚✦ definitely not a “decorate his place for the holidays” person unless his partner is, then he’ll play along and get some fun out of it, but I doubt he’s got a box of decorations tucked away in some closet.

₊˚✦ speaking of closets — this man, oh I swear to god, has owned the same damn ties for like, 12+ years. What magic is in that fabric because I know he’s too cheap to buy good quality shirts and ties, maybe decent suits but still like department store, Macy’s suits. Joseph A. Bank maybe? I’m doubtful on Brooks Brothers, like there’s blood and probably brain matter on them all but fuck it, NYC dry cleaning. There’s also mustard stains, canonically, on them. He’s a slob, someone get this man a tide pen.

₊˚✦ lol all I can see now is him trying to iron his clothes in his apartment with the whole board and iron in like, a tank and boxers and mid-calf socks as he gets ready before work. Oh Dick Wolf you had so much promise with this man.

₊˚✦ he definitely has played and probably would play in the police recreational baseball league, it’s mentioned in an episode and he’s passionate about the Yankees. I’m torn between him actually sporting baseball gear or if it’s really casual with jeans and jerseys and baseball caps. (Pls pls pls PLEASE)

₊˚✦ ooh I’m not sure when he changed it but he used to wear a gold crucifix, fuck my life, but stopped wearing it later on and I’m wondering if it’s due to him taking a bigger step away from Catholicism? Like he’s absolutely a lapsed Catholic with terrible experiences in both home and church, it makes sense for him to be conflicted if not repelled from religion. I’d like to think out of habit he may still go to holiday midnight masses, and sometimes on his own for the quiet and the near-anonymity.

₊˚✦ I’m thinking that leather coat of his he wears around all the time, even in the snow like a fucking moron, may have been a gift or one of his bigger purchases for himself. Like something he saved up for or found and just, let himself have the little luxury. Coats like that are expensive and high quality, he wears the same damn one nearly every episode in both the original series and when he was on criminal intent.

₊˚✦ it may just be me projecting, but I feel like he’s got a record collection. Probably some old record player and some nice speakers, milk crates full of records that he has to bend over to sort through, groaning about his back all the while. Definitely a lot of jazz standards and the greats like Sinatra, as he mentions in the series at some point, Martin, Baker, Fitzgerald, Armstrong, Cooke, Davis, etc plus some classic rock, stuff like the typical dad rock™️ — doesn’t peg me as a frequent flyer for concerts but goes for really good shows, he’s a medium venue person not the intimate ones but not the giant stadiums either. He likes Billy Joel but isn’t vocal about it.

₊˚✦ he’s got clutter in his place, a little too cramped but it makes it homey, not decorative but at least lived in. Things are more out in the open than put away, he’s more visual and muscle memory based than having things stored away.

₊˚✦ lastly, a massive sweet tooth. A snacker, keeps things in the drawer of his desk to munch on between meals. He’s got more snacks than ingredients to cook with in his home kitchen and I stand by that. He looks like he would enjoy pretzels a lot, like a lot. And other salty snacks, but definitely an ice cream, eat out the tub kinda’ guy. I’m betting Raspberry, Chocolate, or Strawberry. Maybe a chocolate fudge if he’s feeling a little wild.

Note: I’d literally be more than happy to expand on any of these if not write even more headcanons

[werewolfarthurmorganenjoyer]

I've been getting this idea about writing a Javier x f!OC fanfic where the reader is Chinese...well mostly because I'm Chinese and I'm emotionally attached to the Chinese folks speaking Cantonese in Saint Denis. But Ming Yuet isn't gonna be a self-insert, at least not for me. She was born in my mind 6 hours ago but she's already my precious daughter.

Also I'd like to write about how people in southern China were basically sold to be labourers across the Pacific and some family quite literally sell their daughters along with a ship full of male workers, knowing full well that their daughter will almost certainly become a sex worker after arriving in the states. I feel like while it's not a rare topic in Chinese media, there's almost never any media that focuses on these people.

Anyway about Ming Yuet:

- Her old name was Luk Mui which literally means "the sixth sister" because rural Chinese parents in those times were just lazy like that especially with girl names

- Her earliest memory was her oldest sister (about 10-11 years old then) being given away/sold to a family who just had a baby boy. The sister would be expected to raise the infant to adulthood and then marry the boy. (Yes it is messed up but it was sadly a common practice in Old China.)

- When she was 12 her father died and her mom's family sold her to a ship for the US and she became a child prostitute in San Francisco

- It is then that she's given the name Ming Yuet which means "Bright Moon", because it's a prettier and fancier name.

- she's 22 in 1899. In about 1895 the owner of her brothel suddenly converted to Christianity and Ming Yuet was granted freedom. (Based on a real thing that happened in a real Chinese brothel.) But she had no skills so she ended up becoming a mistress for a Chinese businessesman and it's then that she's brought to Saint Denis.

- And then she got dumped and she returned to sex work for a living again.

- She's completely illiterate and speaks limited English so there's a notable language barrier between her and Javier.

- I can imagine Javier kind of struggling to say her name right and she's like "just call me moon it's okay" and he goes "can I call you mi luna"

Anyway, this fic isn't even in progress, not in the slightest. I do not trust in my knowledge of the history of Chinese workers in the US and I would need to do more research. And I believe my understanding of Mexican culture and Javier as a character is not sufficient for me to write him well. But I am quite determined to write this fic.

If all goes well maybe I can write a novel in Chinese based on this idea and try to get a deal with a local publisher— I doubt there is any other story about romance between a Mexican revolutionary and outlaw and a Chinese sex worker, though I can't see there being a target audience for this lol

[tokyokookmin]

Have you seen the super long video someone just uploaded of jikook from 2013-2021? If not here it is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y6RhdFIE-g

I've noticed so many things and have so many thoughts but if you've seen it what are your take aways seeing everything in one place like this in chronological order?

Hi, anon!

I have seen this whole video a while ago, this video is dedicated towards the growth of jimin's and jungkook's relationship. It was beautifully edited and all of jikook's moments were compiled together in chronological order from 2013 (when they first debuted) till 2021.

Well, anon, feel free to send in another ask or you can also hit me up in the DM's! I will gladly give my take on the moments you have thoughts about! Since this video is extremely long and full of moments, I can't possibly give my observation for every single moment. If you were more specific on which moments, I will not hesitate to elaborate more about it.

Nevertheless, here's a quick run-through of jikook's dynamics throughout the years.

2013/2014

looking at 2013 chemistry, we have seen jimin being very brave to acknowledge that he's affectionate towards jk. He likes to call jk cute and does like to compliment him but bear in mind that this was just only the beginning of BTS's debut. Jimin didn't have much time to connect with the members as he was one of the last members to join :)

Based on my observation, Jimin felt more connected towards Jungkook as he was the group's maknae and is from Busan which I where Jimin's from (Im not ignoring the fact that Tae also played a big part as a close friend towards him) Jimin just wanted to build and establish a great bond with jk. (just too attached)

For JK, it's not like he never liked jm, it's just that he was more reserved and was getting into the zone. He had always endeared jm and valued jimin's presence. He has always had those shiny eyes for his hyung ever since the beginning!

Then in 2014, we saw the equations developing gradually.

Things were going on as usual, the normal teasing was going on, the same old wooing and casual chats, jimin wanting to go on a trip with Jungkook.

2014 was just a slow process for the dynamics to progress.

2015

I believe jikook's relationship hit a milestone in 2015. Things started to show very much. It was a turning point.

We saw jungkook turning vocal. His body language and expressions were clear enough for us to know that something was up between them. The sudden praising and flirtiness coming out of that guy were crazy.

We saw them being closer and more flirty throughout 2015. The back hug-slow dance that not many noticed.

The year when jungkook started praising jimin numerous times!

( CONTEXT- here, jk is saying that jm eyes are beautiful)

Jungkook's description of Jimin in Malaysia's press conference (MY armies, where are yall, lol)

Their moments in public started developing even more and we had lots of intimate hugs and moments that year. Not to forget, we also got many selcas and jikook lives!

There's no possible way to exclude the 2015 OSAKA JIKOOK moment, am I RIGHT? 😂

2015 was a year great for them, things began to be great between them, and the intimacy between them grew. They also were exploring their feelings that year, which I think is a great thing!

2016

Even more giggles and flirtiness. Just jikook being very obvious that year. But first, check this out.

If you're lazy to run through that post, here's a quick recap for you.

this incident was a year before serendipity.

Apart from that, Jikook received a term from karmy and the media. Karmy started calling Jikook the Sun and Moon duo in 2016 after the coming-of-age ceremony. Jimin is known as the moon and jk as the sun.

We got amazing selcas that year and plenty of interactions as well!

They went on a break together around early 2016.

Them talking about their shopping experience together while shopping for Jk's birthday.

fast forward

2017

Oh boy, this one has got to be one of my favourite years of jikook chemistry. This was officially it, you know? From serendipity, gcf-t to award shows. Good lord, save my heart.

We got the iconic gcf-t in Tokyo which was a phenomenal video jk made (no one expected that coming) "running, running just to get my hands on you". Jimin through Jungkooks eyes <3

I genuinely feel so happy for both of them!

Then we got the Serendipity MV. Serendipity has A LOT OF DETAILS! It's connected to jikooks relationship. I find that song very therapeutic and full of warmth and love.

If you remembered what I said (linked my Zico post) in the 2016 timeline, you would notice that the "you are me and I am you" has a connection with serendipity. That trail of 너는 나고 나는 너야 ( Neoneun Na Naneun Neo) began from there. Jikook's never-ending usage of that quote will forever be our favourite 🥰

serendipity post (1)

Of course, we will not forget jikook in Bon Voyage, lol. We got so much of jikook crumbs that year. Damn, it's crazy, lol.

Oh man, this one screamed LOUD! We got jikook as a pair for the SUMMER PACKAGE 2017! Was it intentional to use the rainbow unicorn floaties?

This one is quite scandy, lol. We got jikook wilding in the People interview.

Just Jk saying things, don't mind him 😂.

jk, what you tryna tell oml.

OOPS. Well, I ran out of the pic and link usage. I will continue the 2017 - 2021 timeline as soon as possible. Thank you again for bearing with me. I had this post in the drafts for an extended period. Anyways, this is only my observation, it might be right or wrong, but all we know is that we are all jikook supporters.

This post took me quite a long time to collect information and links. I hope that you guys will enjoy it 💕🥰

[madness-of-void]

The Cosplay Progress (?)

Okay...I'm doing it. I'm showing off the hot mess of progress of the possibly decent, or absolutely hot garbage, cosplay of my version of human!Ink. I do have a nice chunk of the items for the cosplay - just gotta put it together. Most of the putting together can be done in a day, and I have until July to finish it all, soooo...we'll see how this goes! ^^;

Now I'll just post updates maybe every other day, or once a week, since I do have most of it in hand. And it will all be under the cut, since it'll long as fuck. So, without further ado, let's begin, shall we?

First off, this is probably the most ambitious cosplay I've ever done. Normally I do something easy. Examples: Stiles from TW, casual Keith from VLD, and recently (for Halloween) genocide route Frisk. debating on positing what garbo pics i have of those

Flowerfell!Frisk? Probably the most complex I've done, and only because I had to have help make a flower crown, actually use fabric glue for the flowers and little heart on the shorts and flower on the mask , painted up a random prop stick I had lying around no idea why i had that , and did a little bit of faint make-up. And ended up with this:

bad pic i know but it's all i got of the full thing where i don't look like a drowned rat coz goddamn it was hot af

So after that, for some damned reason, I decided it would be a GREAT idea to do a difficulty jump and do Ink! Yaaaaay...I'm so smart. I have been looking at this as a reference for what I need mostly coz i had it saved on my phone already , which has been both motivation to get this done...but also a little intimidating. But I'm already too far into this. Can't back out now!

Anyways, enough rambling! Let's start with the first update on this silly thing!

HOODIE

So, firstly, I already had my eye on the Ink hoodie from @simakai's shop! I already have the Underfell one that I used for my Flowerfell!Frisk cosplay. I also have the Outertale hoodie, bi pride hoodie, and ace pride hoodie all from Simakai! They are all amazing hoodies, and I actually just bought Epic's hoodie from their new shop! Definitely check them out! They're comfy, well made, and I'll admit I wear my Outertale and Underfell hoodies out sometimes.

The pic doesn't do it justice (hence all the millions of links above), but tada! The hoodie! My biggest worry is maybe tripping on the scarf, but I think I can manage. place your bets coz my ass clumsy

Also, there is a little surprise in it!

Twas quite the laughing jumpscare when I was messing with the pockets.

And that's it for update 1! Stay tuned for more. >:3

~+~

Update 2 time!

Apologies for how garbage the pics are for this part. Space was a mess at the time, and I'm too lazy to redo it. With that out of the way...let's ramble!

PANTS

So, next to the sash for the vials, this was surprisingly the hardest thing for me to find. I couldn't find anything that looked "just right". The first pair that I bought did look just right...but the color was way off. Way too bright from what was advertised. Took me a while to find another pair, and I actually bought two more. one of which i may use for a ftfo!ink Now, the next pair is the right color...but it's just a nice pair of sweats/joggers. Which is a bit of a bummer, but seeings how I cannot sew/make a full blown pair of pants (can barely sew at all), and my stepmom (who can sew) isn't that insanely skilled, they will have to do.

Here is a pic of the pants side-by-side coz for the longest time I was going to go with the first pair I bought. But after putting it together with the top...no. Just...no. Did not look good. You'll have to take my word for it.

And before you ask, yes. I will have assistance sewing on the little suspenders. That will be two separate posts on their own in the future! It won't be just plain brown pants.

So that's it for update 2! Stay tuned for more! if you want i ain't forcing ya lols

~+~

Update number 3! Wooooo!

And it is actually really boring.

Like...royally boring. sorry?

GLOVES

So these were a bit easy to get. Granted, I did buy two pairs, because I couldn't decided initially. It was only after trying them on that I could make a decision.

They are a bit long, but I can live with that. especially coz I am not planning on doing the tatts, that would end terribly And, yes, they are missing that little piece on the pinky. Just like the pants are missing the suspenders. And just like with those, I will be having assistance sewing that piece on!

I could show you want I have of that, but I'm planning on making that one big update.

Okay! That's it! Stay tuned for update 4!

~+~

Update 4! Not another exciting one again. The more exciting ones will slowly trickle in. depending on what you define as exciting

Anywho! Update 4!

SHOES

Yes. Shoes. I know our favorite souless bean doesn't wear shoes anymore...but I have to. No need to get my toes all messed up! Especially at this convention center. Walking around there can be a nightmare! Closed toed or not. 😭

Anyway!

Shoes!

They were sadly kind of expensive, but these were the closest I could find that kind of fit for what I was going for and i looked at custom ones first. Plus, I will be wearing these outside of the cosplay. So I get shoes for cosplay, and shoes for whenever I wanna wear them - a win-win.

But, one more thing! I will also I guess ruin them, in a way. How will I ruin them? Well...I was thinking of adding more splatter to them. Plus, see that pesky logo? Welp...I also had an idea for that.

And I'll just leave this update at that. >:3

~+~

Update 5! Long time coming, I know. But a lot of what I have left are bigger pieces that have a few extra things I gotta do, and I just haven't been focused on doing them. But since I'm actually going to finish this one this weekend, I decided to show the unfinished product. With that being said, here we go!

VIALS

These were actually so hard to find! I couldn't find anything that worked! And I originally started looking during the Halloween season, too! When these type of things would be more around. But everything was either way too big or just straight up decorative glass. Which...yeah. Would not do!

Eventually, after searching for ages, I found these on Etsy.

They're originally for necklaces, which, even though they are glass, they're hopefully a tad more sturdy. And, if things work out, I'll have a perfect way to keep them in the sash! We shall see.

I also found these!

Figured it would be fun to have little earrings on human!Ink.

Now, for the paints in the vials, I was having a hard idea what to do. Part of me wanted to put real paint in there. Yeaaaaah...probably not the best idea. But I finally figured it out, and I'll be working on it this weekend!

Stay tuned for the final look!

~+~

Hello hello hello! Tis time for the final rush post of the process! It's all the final stuff, so yay. Pics of the full cosplay will be up either later on after the con, or the day after.

So, without further ado...here we go!

PANTS PART II

Tada! Simple little thing. Probably one of the easiest to do with the whole shebang. And the straps?

Ribbon. Ain't that neat? XD

GLOVES PART II

So this was a bit tricky. I had cloth from an old t-shirt to do for the pinky, but it kept making the sewing machine freak the fuck out since it's such a small piece. I did have backups of gloves that i could wear under the brown ones and cut off all the other fingers. Unfortunately, the two pairs I got turned out to be bright, obnoxious blue instead of the sort of teal-ish/mint color as advertised. So I had to get a third pair, which was a darker green and sheer. Not exactly what I wanted, but eh. Oh well. Creative liberties!

Here is the final result! I had to cut the pinky on the brown gloves too so it looked a little better. And the nail polish is close to what they'll be at the con, just more cleaned up.

SHOES PART II

Okay! Shoes! These came out a little better than I thought they would! And they were fortunately very easy to do. (Which I needed after a few things causing issues)

Tada! Fun little nod to his old shoes (before he had nada)! And of course the black "ink". The paint refused to splatter like I wanted, but oh well. Still pretty happy about it.

VIALS PART II

These actually proved to be more difficult than I anticipated. Many coats were needed, and even then they sort of still smeared oddly. Despite that, they turned out pretty great! I especially love the ink vial earrings. Those definitely were difficult due to their size.

SASH

Whoo-hoo! The sash! Fortunately, my stepmom is a sewing whiz and she helped a great deal with making sure this part of the cosplay came to be. So, here is the sash before:

Definitely was a bit rough, since the Joanne's we went to lost all momentum to care since the bankruptcy filing. And it did fray a little bit upon the cutting of the pattern. Not enough to absolutely ruin it, thank hell.

Here is the final result:

(Sorry about the poor lighting, I really had nowhere else to get a decent pic)

Tada! Vials in sash! Thankfully, they all are snug as a bug in a rug in those pockets! .... With super glue. Really didn't have a choice on that front. Still, for something as ambitious as this, something I definitely went clueless in to, happy it turned out as good as it did.

(Stepmom saved ass with this one ❤️)

WIG

Okay! This...this bitch...was a nightmare. I had never styled a wig before, and for some reason thought it would be a good idea if I did! Had a nice tutorial vid all qued up and thought I was all set! Except...the wig was an absolute tangled mess and took ages to untangle. It was also the second wig I had bought, coz the first one, for some unknown reason, was more purple than advertised. So wig number two, I had to buy in a hurry and it was a tad cheap since I'm on a bit of a budget (moving at the start of August ftw).

But, finally, after hours of fighting with this beast, this is the end result:

The braid will be pulled back into the makeshift ponytail, since I actually do have to pull it back up once it is secured onto my head, but otherwise this is the final result. The blue and pink (squint and you'll see it) are extensions I added, which also proved to be a challenge. Still proud of it all for someone who has never done more than brush a wig before! Though, never again. At least for a long ass while. ;_; thank you Dust for being an easy cosplay for next year

MAKEUP

I can't really show the full makeup I have to do until, well, it's all done, but I have tried it all out and hooray! It all works! So, instead, here is the nice pile I will have to use:

We got two different shade of eyeshadow, since I can't do colored contacts. My eyeballs are...very weird. Only one eye will allow a colored contact, and I did not wanna waste money to only use one contact. So one eye will have green eyeshadows, and the other will have yellow eyeshadows.

There's also gonna be blue eyeliner with the green eye having it on the underlid, and they yellow eye having it on the upper lid. To make it all "whimsical" and "silly".

There's a pencil liner to create the inkblot shape, black face paint to fill it in, and black eyeshadow to help make it even darker. i am a master of doing some cool shit with eyeshadow

I have two different sprays to help keep the makeup on longer. And, of course, the foundation and concealer coz I will look like a zombie otherwise lols.

Yeah...I am...gonna be having a blast with this lot. Especially making sure I can remake the really nice inkblot I did when testing it out. Fingers crossed and best wishes for my dumb ass for being so ambitious.

BROOMIE

No. I will not show this one. Just picture a wig on a stick and there you go. Needless to say, as much as I wanted to like it...I don't. It looks so bad. 99% sure I will not bother bringing bootleg Broomie with me. Makes me sad, but hey...can't win them all.

Okay, so that's it! I'll do a part two of this post since, whoops! I have hit my limit! So, with the next post, I'll have the bag I specifically got for this cosplay (and will totally be using it later), and the full cosplay itself!

And, if anyone is going to AX, I'll see you there mayhaps!

[astrologanize]

have been in a massive funk (depressive episode?) that i haven’t experienced to this severity since 2016 and if anyone can relate then i figured i’d share what i have been doing to help with that

- invested in vitamins (magnesium glycinate, calcium, d3) since i’ve been having skin issues i have been avoiding the sun since i don’t want to go through the process of trialing sunscreens and seeing what does & doesn’t work, potentially worsening said issues smh. but i recently said fuck it and got some neutrogena  baby sunscreen that’s fragrance free and all that jazz because it’s supposed to be gentle and it is affordable and neutrogena has worked for me in the past so why not. i purchased another sunscreen months ago but i don’t think my skin was a fan of it because it was a lil burn-y and tingly after application, thankfully i tested it on my arms first and not my face. idk we’ll see. such is life

- also trying to take more notice in the foods that make me feel good and provide me with energy/mood boost! and mostly avoiding foods that aren’t worth the accompanying lethargy or upset stomach, but listen...your taste buds matter...so if a food is enjoyable for me and makes me happy then any *mild* discomfort in the aftermath is worth it in moderation from time to time 

- i’m doing a 30 day mindfulness challenge! and that’s lovely! you can look them up and pick whichever provides you with what you feel you’re most in need of. writing down what you are grateful for and focusing on the positives of what is happening in your life also never hurts

- i’ve been clearing out any spaces that need it. even on my annoying ass phone...i’ve been transferring anything i want to save onto a usb and it is a time consuming process that i’m trying to do in increments but i know it’s going to feel great once i have my phone as cleared out as possible so i can start saving new memories & momentos (: 

- choosing to shorten my work week by 1 day so that i am able to have a free day on the weekend to fill my personal cup of happiness!! because that is always worth it!!!!!! i shall budget accordingly but i am grateful to be doing so

- “look good feel good” except looking good to me is more about feeling comfortable in my own skin and clothing. i hate putting on a constricting outfit that may look good but makes me feel like i can’t move around freely and enjoy life. outfits that do make me feel good about the way i am presenting myself that also allow me to move freely are the goal! and hygiene is important. some days i feel lazy as hell and don’t want to do the stuff that i know makes me (feel) better but i do it because i know it makes me (feel) better...once in a while tho it’s like lol nah imma let myself be stagnant and not do that for a moment and the world will not end, i won’t feel as great but that’s okay...eventually i will resume maintaining what i need to and perk up. it’s okay to stop for a moment sometimes but ya gotta get back on it 

- really trying to keep in mind that every day is a new unlived day that is not meant to look exactly like the last and you cannot always expect your best to look the same. there’s always going to be emotions that come up, mishaps, life interference, and challenges that meet you along the way and that’s how it’s meant to be. we shall control what we can and adapt how we must. you just keep trying! some days we need to ask more of ourselves even when we don’t want to and other days we need to allow ourselves a true rest that offers nothing but peace; some days we make progress, some days are stagnant, some days we regress, and that’s all just...life

sometimes it’s nice to recognize that wow i’m sad today or today is hard for me and allowing yourself to simply have a sad, gentler day to yourself without feeling like things are shit forever - hell, sometimes it’s multiple days or weeks that are off but you gotta know your sun is going to shine again and maybe the off-ness is redirecting you for the best. follow your heart, breathe, take your time when you can and make time when you can, try to persevere without driving yourself up the wall, all the hard work you put in and progress needs to be enjoyed, your life is meant to be enjoyed, it’s okkkaaaayyyyyyyy. tend to your heart and express your heart and embolden yourself with an accepting & firm love - accept all that you are and are not but don’t let yourself believe that you are defined by what you think you lack and that there is no room for you to grow. stand strong in your heart and in your character 

[pigeontheoneandonly]

All of your WIPs sound so interesting, but I think I'm most intrigued by Shallow Graves. Anything you'd like to share about it?

Oooo thank you! This is probably my favorite project lol

Shallow Graves is my "Pathfinder Fan Novel" featuring original characters in the Pathfinder TTRPG Golarion setting. (Though I've been flirting more and more with the idea of turning it into an original novel in the second draft...)

Shallow Graves is about a group of very old friends who completely fell apart when a member of the group was murdered ten years prior to the events of the story, on a zany adventure to settle old business, find closure, and try to move on.

It actually started out as a thought experiment on my part, wondering if I could write a revenge story and a fridge story that turned both those archetypes on their heads. So far I'm pretty pleased with the result.

Anyway, as the story progresses, they unearth a lot of rotting baggage. The below excerpt is a piece of that.

* * *

Gem scampered ahead of him and turned around, forcing him to address her.  “You’ve always treated that bow like a grudge but it’s clear someone taught you to use it well.  Since you seem determined to be relentlessly honest—let’s have it at last, shall we?”

“Oh, fuck off.”

“Not a chance.”  She poked him. 

He rolled his eyes.  “I was a terrible druid.  Druid initiate.  Whatever.  That’s really all there is to it.”

“That explains nothing.”

He made an exasperated noise.  “Look, it was the only thing I was any good at, ok?  My uncle made a bow for me.  My mother thought it was a distraction, tempting me away from her incessant curriculum of forcing me—”  Kel raked his fingers backwards through his hair.  “It doesn’t matter.”

“If it didn’t matter, you’d be able to tell me what happened.”  Her amusement had faded entirely, which was a bad sign.  When she got concerned her curiosity hardened into steel point.

Probably best just to spit it out and move on.  “One day, she got so frustrated she stole it and turned it back into a living branch.  Leaves, flowers, green wood, bark, all of it.  Impossible to use as a bow.  Then she told she wasn’t fixing it, and if I ever wanted to use it again, I’d have to figure out how to do it myself.”

“What a bitch.  What did she make you do to relent?”

“It’s never been clearer you’ve never met her.  She’d never go back on a threat.” 

“So you never did get it back.” “No, I figured it out.”

Gem blinked.  “What?  Kel, on a good day, if you sit very, very still, you can conjure half a spark.”

“It took me six months of spending nearly every waking hour trying.  I’m certain I couldn’t do it again if my life depended on it.”  It had been the strangest feeling.  All of sudden, he could see the branch as an imprint on the universe, something outside of time, existing in all stages of its life, and it had seemed so damn simple to shift it into the one he wanted.  Just for a single, hallucinatory second.  And then it was only a piece of wood again, lifeless and still.  “My mother was…”

“Happy, I imagine.”

“Happy.”  He laughed.  It wasn’t funny.  “She was overjoyed.  She’d never praised me like that… I spent half my life trying to please that woman, and for the first time…”

There wasn’t a but at the end of her sentence, no forced acknowledgements or despair-tinged false encouragements.  No biting criticism.  No complaints of his laziness or contrariness.  Just shear, unadulterated, lavish pride.  And he hated himself for how he’d basked in it.  Exhausted, yes, but that only led an extra edge of exhilaration for finally having the unconditional approval of his mother. 

She’d even hugged him to her, arm around his shoulders, squealing quietly over the quality of the work, the completeness of the transformation, how she always knew he could do it. 

His mother went as far as telling him it was the happiest day of her life, and for just a second, it had been his, too.

Gem interrupted his thoughts, hesitantly.  “Nobody avoids a happy memory.  What happened?”

He cleared his throat.  “She told me it was the happiest moment of her life.  Then she broke it over the back of a chair.”

“What?!”  That explosion of shock, from Gem of all people, underlined in red why he never told people stories about his mother.  “I don’t—it was what she asked?  I don’t understand.  She wanted to punish you further?  For—for liking something?”

“No, you don’t understand,” he replied, wearily.  “It wasn’t a punishment.”

It hadn’t felt real. He stared at the jagged ends of the once-proud recurve, as if expecting them to come back together, like it was some sick fever dream brought on by too much kindness. 

“How—”

“It wasn’t a punishment,” Kel repeated, louder, overruling her questions.  “Like you said, she was happy.  I didn’t need it anymore, she told me.  It was a great day.  Now I could truly be her apprentice, I’d have druid magic, and wouldn’t require a silly toy to protect myself.  I’d graduated.  And she was so proud of me, she wanted us to celebrate and she was in the middle of planning some kind of dinner when I walked out.”

He hadn’t said a word.  In truth, his mind had gone entirely empty with some feeling that to this day he couldn’t name.  A cousin to resignation, but the kind that only came after a long and bloody struggle.  The kind born of knowing, once and for all, that you’d never been more than a thing to anyone.  Just an empty vessel.  And if they had to tip it over onto the floor to get it that way, so they could fill it up with what they preferred, well, that was a small price apparently.

It hadn’t worn off until he was five days gone.  And then he’d had a breakdown unrivaled even by more recent events.  Sixty years old.  Just a gangly kid.

Gem sat back with a sigh of sudden understanding.  “That’s why you left.”

“That’s why I left,” he affirmed, dully.  Then he stepped around her and resumed walking.  “We should keep moving.”

[ironwoodprotectionsquad]

*crashes in, late to the talk of Culture/world building in RWBY* Sorry I'm late but OMG Can we talk about the biggest flaw in rwby WB that is just all of it when we get the Salem Backstory?! Like lets say we ignore Light being a hypocrite that makes even the Greek gods look better just by 'lets not allow one life to come back but i'm ok with WIPING OUT EVERYONE ELSE'. Lets talk about the ruins that were left behind! Wouldn't they and any items of magic (given that magic was only taken from flesh but if Enchanted Items existed they'd last a really long while) be apart of the culture? The Last humans didn't get to go 'oh btw we got nuked lol' so wouldn't there be questions about it? Like Ex: Mass effect had a race of beings that were highly advance then suddenly POOF! gone! noone knows where they went or what happened to them, only their structures and lil bits of tech remain. Remant would've had that! Then you got Salem who was being a Tryant (Tyrant who didn't get there fully) during their fight with Oz, so what happened to that?! Like ik humans now a days barely want to remember anything that doesn't aid their cause but we seem to remember a good chunk of the horrible people in history who did things for various reasons. So surely Salem was in the history books as the Cruel Queen, right?! Tapestries, old tales, cruel yet intresting sculptures, anything! She had the biggest way to flip the god of light off and didn't take it?! And if Oz gave up during certain amounts of time why didn't she 'unite' the world her way to help prevent Oz's actions moving forward? Groups that could be Salem's Lot that prevent the finding/obtaining of Relics so Oz's inner circle couldn't get to them easily. If RWBY was given the same TLC, Passion, and Soul as any other hit series We'd have our answers, and the four coteninets that seem to matter would have some beautiful mixture of all cultures despite the flaws of each one. Hell I'd love to see a Roman structure built with the same Material as the the Lost City in Mistral, Vale having a way to balance out the various cultures that came through from times of war while still having parts of it self that says 'I am Vale, through and Through' and what saddens me is my head can only go 'Sand! its everywhere! Get used to it!' for Vacuo because they made it seem so. with I believe 1 oasis...I might be wrong its been abit. Atlas-or rather Solitas- could've been Viking theme with bits of other warrior cultures with the main though it 'Tough times brings out the Strong' or something of that nature due to the cold being so harsh even Grimm can't withstand it, and as it progressed to Mantle and Atlas it still head that believe/culture but its more of a 'teach but not done' as the new tech made lives abit easier. I still see Menagerie as Australia just due to its position on the world so i can't think of much for it right now.

Sorry for the long rant. It was one of those things I had to get off because its nuts we went through not 1, not 2, but 3 kingdoms but held very little that could only be described as Lazy cause they knew we weren't going to explore the world and everything was just quick décor in a mario lvl of old.

First off never ever apologize for long asks I love the and I should apologize to well everyone for being slow as shit to reply to them.

Unfortunately, RW//BY suffers from a severe case of the writing is written by the writers flying by the seat of their pants and it shows. We have no hints of humanity existing before the gods killed them all. No signs of the worship of Salem which really should be a thing given she and Ozma acted as gods to humanity 2.0 and Salem killed Ozma before he could do anything about it so she realistically should have continued that cult following telling people his husband betrayed her or whatever sewing the seeds of distrust towards him and all of his reincarnations. Their is just so much that realistically should have happened with Salem that....didn't because the writers didn't bother to put in the work, they didn't build up the world realistically or have this big plan like they claim and the lack of consistent or realistic world building shows that.

Each of the kingdoms should have their own cultures and foods and religions and languages even. They should feel distinct and unique from one another while also still feeling like they all belong to the same world. Haven not having the same tech as Beacon feels jarring. As RW//BY traveled the world they should have repeatedly felt out of place in whatever kingdom they where in because they don't know the culture or customs within the world. We should have them struggling to communicate with people who speak different languages, or at least establish that after the great war everyone learned a single language to allow for communication between the kingdoms.

Sorry back to your point. When Salem killed Ozma the first time, she should have amassed a massive following of worshipers who hated their goddess's treacherous husband. She should have made a mad run for the relics to gain control of them before Ozma could. Their should have been a battle happening for a long ass time over them. Their should be some sort of reason why Salem wasn't causing mass chaos for decades before the events of RW//BY. This war should be much more known about then it is and it doesn't make sense within current cannon why it isn't more known. To hide Salem's existence he should have had to do something to strip her of her strength and influence but we have no evidence of any of that. We have no reason to believe that Salem hasn't bothered to try for the relics until now and that is most definitely a major problem. For example in ATLA, we know the Fire Nation couldn't enact it's ultimate plan because they had to wait for Sozin's comet to return. We have an in universe reason for what has been holding the Fire Nation back until now. RW//BY just doesn't have something like that built in to explain Salem choosing to hide and not acting until now.

I just cannot fathom why CRWBY/fans try and insist that this show has been planned since the beginning with so much evidence that it wasn't and couldn't have been. We have incomplete and contradictory world building, story lines that where never set up. Story lines that where dropped and conflicting canon information and it is just beyond infuriating.

[snellyfish]

(duck) w. what are your thoughts on drdt ch 2 so far

hmhmhhhmmmmm

I haven't seen the ttttttwo most recent videos I think, so keep in mind there's still some stuff I haven't seen yet, bc me and my bestie have been too lazy to watch them lately HAHA

ANYWAY........

2 unpopular opinions, which make me laugh because I love being passionately wrong;;

Absolutely cannot stand Teruko right now, she's pissing me off so bad it's embarrassing for everypony, but I'll get over it; I do look forward to what they end up doing with her character, but for now I await satisfying character development like a madman....... rip...... Babygirl stop being so edgy we get it. go to your corner if you must.

Unfortunately, I miraculously still love Arturo, I looove freak characters so much (no one is surprised!!) and I do genuinely think there's potential to come out of his...... err.......... What definitely reads like blatant in-character transphobia. LOL. Seeing this man doubled over in terrifying euphoria is truly all I could've ever asked for, so I can't complain.

In general, Arturo weirdly doesn't read like a character that will progressively get worse and worse until he's put down like ol yeller, I feel that he's got some sort of redemption ahead of him,, whether or not he dies afterwards or in the middle of said redemption. Maybe with an attempt to get genuinely close to J but it's rejected and heartbreaking for him, more spiraling but you feel a little bad for him somehow. Idk. Not to be delusional but I also have this idea, that I REALLY hope is somehow true despite every piece of contradicting canon information, that Arturo is transmasc too ..... because like ..... whatever.. crosses my arms.. you wouldnt get it .........

Not to Verturo on main but-- I smiled when Veronika was like "ok whatever ill just go play with Arturo then 🙄!!" I like to think it was super awkward when she did find him because he probably just infodumped about J the whole time. Veronika being like "can we talk about my day for once" GHHGFKJGHDF. LOVE WHAT VERONIKA HAS DONE THIS CHAPTER SO FAR IN GENERAL SHE'S SO SILLY SO YASS SO KIN

Ace is going fucking BATSHIT and I'm so here for it. GO GIRL BESTIE I LOVE YOUUUUUU SO MUUUCH. For the most part I generally don't care for Levi (just not my typea character ig, nothing personnel kid), so while it is a little YEESH that all of Ace's character rn seems to be driving towards Levi and their heads butting together, I am still a little intrigued by said interactions. They're like a chihuahua and a pitbull, ykno, ykno. Would not be surprised if Levi merked him but that might be too obvious of a kill so hmhmmhmhm.

Speaking of which;; they're also like waaaaaaayyyy playing up the possibility of either Whit and/or Eden dying soon. So I have a feeling they are safe...for now... maybe. Shrugs. I hope Eden gets another layer to her soon, either way, she is very sweet.... too sweet. Take that as you will.

.........Charuko<3

CHARLES IN GENERAL<3

With the tension in the air as it is now, I'm far less worried they're gonna pull another accidental blackened, since idk if anyone remembers but I was very concerned about that in the past. It's fine and fun for a first chapter, though! Gets things rolling I suppose :D Now everyone is incredibly scared and unbearably pissed off at everyone at all times, so yippee!

Fun motive, too, I think the whole secrets thing was a super fun concept in THH and I hope we get to learn everyone's secret at some point. PLEASE I BEG.

GOD. WEIRDLY SOOOOO EXCITED FOR DAVID THIS CHAPTER. REALLY REALLY HOPING HE DOESNT DIE. I WANT TO KNOW MORE HE'S SO SLAAAAAAYY. TWO FACED FREEEEAAAK DOING HIS BEST. PLEASE SNAP. YOU DESERVE IT. THAT IS ALL.

[ablatheringblatherskite]

Old vs New

To procrastinate writing I've decided to compare one of the very first fanfics I ever posted to my most recently posted fanfic. I am already cringing.

Alright this is some dialogue from the first fanfic I ever posted, titled Sayonara, Suckers! which is a crossover fic between Newsies and In The Heights, where Jack Kelly and Usnavi work together to escape New York LOL:

"You ready?" Jack asked him.

"I guess."

Jack just laughed, then took off at a run. Usnavi followed him, unsure. He followed as Jack swerved around and behind buildings. Then he bumped into the newsie, who had stopped abruptly. A duo of voices filled the air:

"Well well well, if it ain't the famous Jack Kelly."

"Hey Oscar, look, he's got the De La Vega wimp with him."

"You aren't running away now, are you?"

"I think they are! They even packed their suitcases!"

"Maybe we should help them unpack?"

"Definitely."

Usnavi's breath caught in his throat as he found himself face to face with the Delancey Brothers, Morris and Oscar. He had only heard of them, but he knew that they weren't nice. Jack walked a step closer to them, smirking, "Now now, Fellas," he began, "I'm sure you don't wanna get beat up again like last time, unless you do?"

Oscar snorted, "Yeh right, you only drove us off because you had like eight more guys, but let's face it, you're just to scared to face us by yourself, so let's see what you can do when the odds are evened."

Oh GOSH IT'S AWFUL.

HERE, to wash your eyes, is an excerpt from my most recently posted fic, The Valentine's Day Curse:

There was a flash of dark blonde curls at the edge of her vision, and Wednesday turned to find Tyler awkwardly scanning the crowd. Without intending to, she found herself making her way over to him, and his eyes lit up eagerly when he saw her.

“Hey,” Tyler said slowly, raising an eyebrow at her a little mischievously.

“No,” Wednesday responded instantly. Tyler blinked.

“No, what?”

“No, I'm not going to kiss you.”

The overeager Normie boy was clearly disappointed. He shoved his hands into his pockets and furrowed his eyebrows at her. “Oh? Who's the lucky guy, then?”

Wednesday narrowed her eyes at him. “No one. I'm not kissing anyone.”

He quirked an eyebrow at her. Wednesday hated that he could somehow suspect that she was lying, but she kept her exterior stoic.

I'm not sure if either of these are very good representations of my writing progress but I got too lazy to look harder HAHA WELP. Now, I must get back to writing! Here's hoping I finish in time for AT LEAST day 1 and 2 of Weyler Week! (I doubt it but a girl can hope)

[malbenita]

Was tagged in a self-love game by amazing @juuyeah and @rlbbackup !

List your top 3 favorite works you’ve done (art fics whatever u want) AND WHY :D gotta make sure to do the why👹no self deprivation here🕺Feel free to rope anybody else into this chain we gotta self lovo 🤸‍♀️

I don’t have much in stock since I was only actively drawing digitally for about a year, but I have some milestones here

First is… banana???

OKAY LET ME EXPLAIN before banana July 28 I had little to no experience with render and colour. I was silly. My colours were BAD. I just got something other then default brushes and I rendered these bananas to the limit. And it was indeed fun! Still proud of the way these turned out

Second one in my first finished ambitious work and is dedicated to sxf. As always - big ideas small experiences. And it took me over a whole month to finish! I was struggling endlessly with each character here and amount of render is crazy, I would change a lot here nowadays and actually maybe will redraw it someday. Like saturation levels on Anya hello??? Arms?? These poor flowers?… But I still love this one for trying and for it being associated with my first fandom memories 💖

Now I’ll talk about brand new drawing. It isn’t much of a redraw but it’s vaguely resembles concept from an old work of mine and does Tell A Lot.

First one was meant to be Halloween special that… took Oct 30 - Nov 23 lol girl slow. (Poorly censored blood because im lazy) and a fresh 4h remake next to it. Tumblr ate colours sadly since red is the most hated part of spectrum by media it seems, but I am really proud of made progress. I wasn’t able to finish first one because I was putting too much effort. And recent one is like… at least 28 times faster and DONE.

Sometimes less is more. I learnt where to spend more time and put more details and where I can save time. I wasn’t trying even twice as hard as first time and it worked! This drawing is basically “I’ve grown, I’ve learnt” with all techniques and shortcuts and an idea of what am I even doing.

As to who to tag I am not sure (few weeks late with response), so anyone actually! I would love to see what others made, so I’m tagging You - freely use me in “was tagged by”! No matter the skill personal achievements are valuable and admirable ❤️

[rigelmejo]

2/1/2023 Update on progress using Glossika Japanese. Lessons listened to: 37

This update is mostly for my personal tracking later. 

Downsides: I am struggling to get myself to listen to lessons. Based on time I have per day to listen to audio in the background, I should have gone through at least 100 lessons by now, and easily could’ve gone through 300. So 37 is... disappointing. I do relisten to the audios sometimes, so even though I’ve only gotten through 37 lessons I have probably listened to lessons 100 times. I suppose the upside is relistening to lessons before moving on is the actual way glossika recommends to study - listen to the prior day’s lesson before listening to the current day’s lesson. However, I was not trying to study how glossika recommended. I was trying to cram through as many audio lessons as possible so I could review if simply doing that and only that, was enough to learn a decent amount and see improvement. 

I desperately would like to get through all 312 lessons in a month. Just so I could finish and prove to myself if it helps or not! 

Since for me, a decent portion of these lessons are a form of audio review for me, so I do not need to be spending as much time on them as I am. I wanted to use these to review my knowledge and reinforce it, and strengthen my listening skills (and pronunciation knowledge) since I currently recognize more words by kanji meaning than by actually knowing their pronunciation (meaning I can’t recognize in listening words that I’d know if I was reading). So I feel I am... wasting a lot of my own time here, drilling beginner things I already know and working through the glossika lessons too slowly. Which is a bad perfectionist habit of mine that I often fall into when doing japanese study. oops.

I unfortunately have no solution to this tendency I have to avoid going through the lessons. I clearly am not super interested in the glossika lessons lol, they must bore me. For anyone else considering using glossika let this be useful to you: if you find it so plain its hard to listen to, it might be hard for you to push yourself to go through the lessons. The lessons are GOOD, don’t get me wrong. I just find it much ‘easier’ to make myself listen to a condensed audio of a video game (even though I know less words), or to play a japanese video game and look up words, than I find it to get myself to listen to simple boring daily life sentences in japanese/english. Just my personal focus issue. My brain loves to be challenged I think, even though I think in some cases like this it can make things less efficient.

Side studying I’ve been doing in japanese: I’ve played about 10 hours FFX and Persona 3 in japanese now. I went through about 300 memrise words in Nukemarine’s LLJ memrise courses before I got burned out with memrise again. I also have been playing like 50+ hours in the Yakuza games with english subs lately. While this doesn’t actually count as studying since I’m using english subs, I do hear the japanese audio frequently and I do think it helps me remember new words I’ve learned recently since I’m hearing them regularly and when I listen sometimes I try to compare the japanese I hear to the english subs and see if the translation changed anything. So all in all lets call the 50+ Yakuza games with english subs ‘mild review’ and count it as 10 study ‘review’ hours. 

So total study time these past 3 months has been: 10 hours video games in japanese, 10 hours japanese audio with english subs (so review but not real study), 50 hours of glossika audio (each audio is about a half hour and I relistened to most lessons 2-3 times so I’m guessing around 50 hours total), maybe 5 hours memrise and trying out the Listlang app, maybe 4 hours on Satori Reader (which later on in my journey I think will be an excellent study tool to prepare for reading but I don’t have the money for a subscription right now). 10+10+50+5+4= 79 study hours. ToT

79 study hours over 3 months. Yikes. I sure am lazy. so in ~90 days I did on average ~50 minutes of study a day. Okay... not entirely awful I guess. I usually make good progress with chinese at 1-2 hours study a day on average, so 50 minutes isn’t way below that amount... it could be way worse. I’m frankly amazed I made noticeable progress in the last few months then, damn, considering it wasn’t like a few hundred hours...

Upsides: Despite my apparently not very high study hours... I actually have noticed significant improvement. 

With Persona 3 - I played it 1 year ago and it took 1 hour to get to the save point. This month, it took about 20 minutes to get to the save point and I was able to get to the save point 3 times. So I was able to play the game 3 times faster, therefore I was able to read 3x faster. That’s a pretty huge improvement. I also was able to look up less words. When I played it a year ago I had to look up words frequently (about once every 2-3 minutes or more) and gave up even trying to read once I got to the school I just skipped text and tried to get to the save point as quick as possible and it still took an hour. This month when I played it I was able to only look up a word around once every 5 minutes, I could read the text fast enough that I did not need to skip text sessions to ‘speed up’ my playtime. I was able to spend some time actually exploring the character’s bedroom and school since reading was faster and therefore much more bearable. A 3 times faster reading speed is a REALLY noticeable improvement, I can’t express just how much easier everything feels when I can read faster. It makes the experience much easier and more bearable. Hiragana words and slang still made me feel very drained trying to understand wtf they meant by guessing, but it still felt 3 times easier than last year lol. 

With Final Fantasy X - I’m noticing improvement AS I play. When I started, the menu was challenging, now I find navigating the menu quite easy and honestly a game menu is a great way to repeatedly practice recognizing words until you learn them. So is the combat menu. It’s like how in english we never knew the word ‘ultima’ or ‘aeon’ as far as the actual attack or creature they mean in a game, but we learn because a game teaches us. This is comforting, we have to learn these kinds of words even when playing games in english... so learning them in japanese is not really much different. So yeah, the pause menu and combat menu are already notably easier 10 hours in then when I started. Common words specific to this game were also picked up fast - I know know summoner, summon, defeat, cheer, pray, temple, monster, magic, boat, port, waruiwa - (used as ‘im sorry this is a bad time’ sort of like sumimasen but casual to end a conversation), a lot of more casual word endings or word forms (Tidus and Wakka...). This is comforting, as now I expect if I played something like say Nier Automata I would pick up the technology words eventually simply because they’re used a lot. Or in Kingdom Hearts I sure would pick up hearts, darkness, light, friends, friendship, worlds, keyblade, fast lol. I am also noticing it’s much easier to follow what’s being said in scenes then when I started. When I started I’d usually understand 1 part of a sentence but not all of it, or 1 sentence but then not 2 more then understand on again. Whereas now 10 hours in I watched the scene on Mihen High Road where Yuna and Tidus talk in front of the sunset. I understood every word of every single line, except 1 single line I didn’t know one clause within it. So I understood the scene Really Well, well enough to compare the japanese translation to the english translation I remember. There’s still lines where I only understand part of them (like when Seymour says ‘Then pretend I didn’t say it’ I understood that line but not the one right before it, or when Gatta says Chappu says spending time with your girl is nice but... I did not catch the part where I know in english he says ‘protecting your girl from’ sin is better. I only caught the ‘your girl’ part beforehand and ‘sin’ part toward the end). But I AM understanding a great deal of full lines, which is fun as I’ve been comparing it to the english translation I remember to see what was changed in english or kept the same. Lulu is... really direct in japanese just like she is in english, which I was surprised by. There’s also a part where Seymour asks Auron “It’s been 10 years, how have you been” or whatever, and Auron literally says “I’m Yuna’s guardian, I’m busy” then walks away. It was just really funny to me how directly he shuts Seymour down. Or when Gatta says when he told Lulu about Chappu, she hit him too. 

When I started playing FFX this month I did not expect that I was going to eventually be able to understand the lines to this degree of detail. I thought at best I was going only be able to follow the main idea. Now to be fair: I’ve played this game before in english so I have that remembered english script in my memory to help me guess unknown words or lines. I expect a game I’ve NEVER played before would be considerably harder. However, this speed of progress bodes well for if I wanted to play Nier Replicant or Nier Automata. Apparently the navigation menus will not take more then a few hours to get comfortable with in japanese, and after enough hours I will be able to enjoy understanding the detail of a lot of the japanese lines. Which is definitely a good motivation to want to play more games in japanese - I am very interested in comparing the japanese script and choices with the english translation, and knowing it will be possible to do that is exciting. 

With manga - an unexpected improvement. I’ve been opening up manga from time to time. I am finding some easier to read now. I think the improvement is mainly due to reviewing information I knew already because I’m using japanese more. I still find heavy adverb use and hiragana word usage hard and that’s where a majority of the unknown words I don’t understand but that are important are. 

Basically - I’m seeing a significant reading improvement in both skill and especially speed at 3x faster than last year, ability to follow the speed up japanese in of cutscenes/follow the speed of japanese in audio much better than before, significant improvement in recognizing stuff I’ve studied before faster/easier, and some small but solid improvement in vocabulary. I did not expect any noticeable improvement until I’d studied a few hundred more hours, so honestly this is really great and a lot more than I expected.

In regard to the Glossika lessons: I DO think they’ve been helping, I Do think they’ve been reinforcing my knowledge I already knew and giving me good review, and while I struggle to listen to them often I do think they work similarly well for me as anki/memrise do except without requiring 100% of my focus when I do them. So the glossika lessons (audio flashcards) are easier for me to actually study. While I wish I was doing them more, I’m happy to say I do think they’re helping me improve like I hoped they would.

[smalife1234]

I first want to say that I do love putting a new year in the weekly smiles!

And secondly please enjoy the read! I love you all and I am super grateful for all y'all's support 💞

Now on to weekly smiles

↓

What made me smile this week?

Monday, 12/30/24 - today we kept editing our vlogs and videos until the new year tomorrow we're supposed to upload! So I'm getting prepared for that and I'm pretty excited for the video because so far it looks pretty good and is going pretty well. Today was a very chill day. Today we just chilled and then we watched several videos and honestly chilled on gun idle which we rediscovered! And so far it's been keeping us content LOL I've been on the game Blacksmith way more often and have made lots of progress which I'm very proud of! Today was a chill and lazy day lol so we don't have much input!

Tuesday, 12/31/24 - today is 1 day before the new year! I am so excited for this year to end but also it's close to my son's 1 year since passing away we miss him dearly and I find myself thinking of it more but it's good to be open about it so I have worked on the final touches of the newest YouTube video coming out today but we had decided to upload it on new years day! At 1:00Am as to chart the very first video in 2025! Around 8:00 Pm we got called to play games with the family before the new year! We had a great time until Dad and Mom got drunk and then Mom started getting all annoying and went to bed early again. We have no problem with her going to bed. It was just out of nowhere and typically that means something is wrong! So we were confused but we let her sleep we called out sister mack to tell her everything that was going on because we were worried about Mom shortly Mom woke up and she had written a note saying don't bother happy new year and we were worried at this point shortly after that literally minutes later mom had woke up again and went outside with a blanket we had followed her out there to see what was wrong she didn't reply to us and was mad because we cared?? The parents ended up having a large fight there was crying and then we poured all the alcohol down the drain and then went to macks house for the night, the cute part of it all was Gizmo had balled up on my pillow and it was so adorable then Around 5Am smudge had joined me behind my back I got some sleep but not lot's of it and then we went home around 7Am and then when we got home and the parents were casually watching TV and if nothing happened. But we were ok for the rest of the day and just tried to avoid the parents most of the day. The rest of the day we just tried to enjoy and today made me smile.

Wednesday, 1/1/25 - it's now officially the new year. I want to say we had the most epic time but we didn't… and currently, we're trying to enjoy it the best we can. We have been playing games most of today and we've just been laughing at some funny moments! We had fun playing games and we didn't really do much. We apologize for this short entry but yes it has been a tough time these past day and a half and has been almost absolutely miserable… But we're making the best out of everything we could do. Happy New Year to you all. I hope your new year is going way better than ours.

Thursday, 1/2/25 - today we had a way better day our mom was still in a mood and was still slightly bitchy (sorry for the language) but we did enjoy this day way better I got a new leg mate in my chair which has been beneficial they had thought that blood polling to my limp legs all day wasn't the greatest so we decided to change and it gives less risk to my feet being less swollen! It is a good thing we had a good day of listening to Instagram audios and having a funny time talking about weird things lol thankfully today was easier than the past two days! Which is always a good thing today made me smile.

Friday, 1/3/25 - today was pretty chill. We found out about a new Earth game today and we've been playing it for a while now and have been making great progress. We've been watching so many videos of a Quadriplegics channel and we've been enjoying her videos! We've been talking about catheters and talking about very funny things LOL 🤣! Especially Emmie lol we've been having a fun time today and thankfully today was super chill again super sorry for the short entry. I've just been burnt out! I've honestly been trying to enjoy the “break” but as of currently I've uploaded 6 videos and 5 podcasts and working on the 7th videos all since December 20th which is insane! I've missed the last weekly smiles so I'm working on that! It's just so exhausting to constantly keep up with these ridiculously long ALS post-the-festive Holiday episodes, the constant four-day chemo rounds, and my wife's anniversary! It's been very hectic and I'm just waiting for it to slow down which Will hopefully come soon! But it's almost over the entire break which for me is honestly crazy! On how much of this break that I've been working… I'm super grateful for everyone's support! And today made me smile!

Saturday, 1/4/25 - today is almost the last day of our break. Today we had a pretty chill morning, we laughed, and then shortly I started my 73rd round of chemotherapy! If I'm being honest, the 70's are not doing me well… I started filming the horrific video that you all will see at 10:50 tonight which is crazy. It was honestly such a crazy video! But I've been writing the last weekly smiles and thankfully got it out and I've been writing descriptions for videos that are lacking a description but thankfully I got some of those done! And I've been working for almost 5 hours straight today which to me is honestly baffling but I'm almost done!!! Yes, freedom lol but I've been chilling and typing my entire heart out! Today has been good. It's just been very busy but today made me smile!

Sunday, 1/5/25 - today it's our brother's birthday! His big 21st we wish him a good happy birthday sadly we didn't get any footage but we did have a fun time watching him open his presents, he got a cool Transformers video game and he got vodka and blue and red liquid to make optimus prime shots I doubt he'll drink any lol but it was cool to see! He hung out most of the day with his girlfriend Nancy we mainly out the majority of the day doing the typical laundry and just chilling out for a few we helped organize moms shoes for a bit (not really an entire hour had gone by) but we got it done and then we actually had a chill day lol I filmed some content for autism and disabilities and worked on some more YouTube things like an upcoming thumbnail and things! Shortly after we heard that we had a 2-hour delay tomorrow! Which is pretty exciting! It's good to know that we get some time off of our school day! And this week which is a good thing! I am super sorry for the absence recently of the weekly smiles especially last week's but I do hope that being on time with this one will make up for the last one! 🫣But I am super grateful for you all! And lastly the most important Question of the week!?

What made you smile this week?

Img desc #1: doc is seen in a professionally shot photo she is on a bridge and smiling beside someone else while wearing a dark blue long-sleeved shirt colored jeans and brown shoes not seen in the photo.

Img desc #2: doc is seen looking annoyed near plants she is sitting in her old electric wheelchair while wearing a grey short-sleeved shirt and dark grey shorts.

Img desc #3: doc and Emmie are seen smiling together near a bunch of food Doc seen on the left is seen smiling while wearing a dark blue short-sleeved shirt saying the words in white text "Tumblr" and brown shorts Emmie is seen smiling on the right side of the image is seen in a grey hoodie with her arms crossed both of them are smiling.

Img desc #4: smudge their cat seen at Mack's house on the couch behind Matthews's back balled up. He is a Siamese cat