#bleh of course i posted it to the wrong blog first

[thepowerisyouth]

The World Doesn't Need More of This. Doing It Anyway-- Sorry

I do not believe that the internet needs any more useless additions to itself in the form of political and financial commentators. However– my friends and family probably would appreciate it if I sent less rambling paragraphs & charts when I struggle to sleep at 2am. Instead, I simply plan to try and get into blogging. Whoopie.

My name is Bennet. I have never considered myself much of a writer, but I love to think about things, and I’ve been told that I can take complicated ideas and break them down into simple ones. Sometimes.

Since this post is a first of mine– I will skip any sort of long discussion on dumb topics*. Instead, I will stick to some boring exposition about what to sort-of expect out of my writings. Found below the note about my 'dumb topics'.

*expected dumb topics may or may not include: philosophy as it applies to current events; political science, including bias/perceptions formed by news and other media; nature & nature photography; statistics & other forecasting; ‘value analysis’ of ‘cash-flow producing assets’ (bleh); and lastly, but most definitely– anything and everything I can get my hands on, of which I can apply my own views of morality, ethics, and progressive humanist ideals. 

____________________________

I typically don’t like to go back and review my work, erasing in the process whatever I perceive as mistakes. Of course, this is not always the case– but just talking generally. My preference would be to put my thoughts out there, and allow criticism based on that, then I can accept errors and adjust, based on more than just my own perception of, ‘am I wrong?’

I guess you can say I like to go with my gut. Math & logic has always been my most well-spoken language (English a not-so-close second). For whatever reason, I seem to intuitively come up with answers to whatever I’m looking for; this simple trait which isn’t at all unique to me is what requires a conscious, constant search to figure out if I’m actually correct. 

The worst thing of all? I can never. Ever. Tell if I’m correct. Isn’t that true of all of us?

To finish off this rambling exposition about fact-checking and typo-fixing, I will just say that I am of course reading over what I write once (maybe twice). Because I write like a 2nd grader sometimes, and nobody would respect me if I didn’t spruce up the simple language or fix glaring errors in the language that is considered socially unacceptable in ‘educated’ writing. Whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean.

However, for most of the ideas I’m putting forward, I will probably be sticking to a bunch of intuition, estimation, and absolutely some maths to back it up.

Will I be wrong?

Yes. I think 99% of all things ever thought, written, or spoken are probably ‘wrong’ by one definition. But right by another. Isn’t that a thinker? 

No, not really. I think it was just a dumb intuition.

[rebeldoesstuff]

I’ve had free-time this week, sort of.  Either way, I powered through game work over the last few days, enough to have an extra update.  I’ve accomplished planning out the character select screen, the opening, and then the starter scenes.  Here you will see the new opening to the game.

The character select still needs to be worked on, but CalimonGraal (who made the title card and face portraits) is generously going to make me images for the character select to use.  Once I have those, I will revisit that part.

I’m going to turn back towards the ending cutscenes which will be a doozy to work on.  On the plus side that’s all that’s left to have the game technically functional.  I need to do a lot of work on the combat after that, which will take a looooooong time.  But hey, progress?

[bunny-hoodlum]

I want to ask you a bit of every wips you have, but the one that has my whole attention is Better Off!

I reread it (with Territorial) not so long ago on ffnet, so I'd love to have some news about it.

Maybe how you feel about it? How the rewriting is going? Or maybe a few recent lines you wrote?

I take anything you have to share about it.

To

Though if you don't have anything to say, you can always speak about 21 Days.

No pressure, you decide 😊

Chloe!! 😭🤗💕 Haha, I'm just happy with your continued investment despite my worst writing habits. Thank you for understanding. 🥺 I'm also perfectly happy to touch on both stories!

Ah! One last thing! @dayseternal-blog was my sounding board for both old and new iterations of Better Off, so I owe a lot to her, even though I haven't produced anything from our talks yet. 😓

I can't decide on an excerpt, I was gonna share the last thing I wrote for the Better Off reboot, but it wouldn't fit lol! Man, that file hasn't been touched since 6/20/2020. 😂... 😭

In the original iteration I wanted Hinata to be a cop with Sasuke (stationed at, well, the train station) and Naruto gets arrested by Hinata as a suspected Chikan (train molester) and maaaaaaybe it was misunderstanding? God I forget. I think I wanted him to rly do wrong but like, he's fallen so far that he was bound to do it. But I was really really scared to write that, too. I kept picturing the flak I would've gotten, lmao. But then Hinata was going to strike a deal with him. She would take on all of his lust so he would stop and get better. She has no idea she's been his Muse all along, so it oddly works out? 

Anyways, I got cringed out by the old iteration of Better Off because I just felt bleh by Naruto's internal monologue and self-pity and shit. There's ways to do that that's less heavy-handed. Also I just didn't enjoy informing his characterization off of hentai MCs, even though that was the intention. I thought it would be fun, cuz I like playing around with the meta, but that didn't last lol.

So now, in the new version, instead of a cop, Hinata is a guidance counselor at her old private all girls school. And there is this 'club' of enjo kosai (compensated dating aka high school girl prostitution) and 3 of those students are the kohai fangirls from The Last. Instead of Naruto turning into a compulsive fapper and malignant daydreamer (why do I compound these things?), he gets his research by using a call girl agency. The enjo kosai club decides to poach him as a customer and yeah. Probably still creepy, but still better than being a Chikan loser. The premise of Hinata taking on all of Naruto's lust still remains intact, with new nuances of course.

Moving onto 21 Days!

I probably have 78 files for Chapter 22. Some really sparse and some really long. It's cuz I think I wrote the opening scene 5 or so different ways and each time spawned a new copied file full of fresh edits, because I'm inflexible af.

When I posted Ch 21, I had originally envisioned Naruto sharing stories from Uzushio through his Kaohon/FB page, and I had this beautiful image of Naruto scrolling all the way down to the first post of his first day in Uzushio (filmed by his mother) and how starkly miserable he looks and Hinata visually seeing the extent. And then Naruto forgetting that the video was like that and being embarrassed. (He thought it was just a tour of the Market.) But it ended up being boring to write? And like, repetitive because they already hashed that stuff out and Hinata had her epiphany. I wasn't sure if I should keep beating a dead horse or figure something new out, but I'm mentally still held back by that scene.

I also had 2 other backstory scenes written, but it felt like I was stuck in the despair/pining tone of the last 21 chapters, so I haven't committed those. But the really, really long backstory scene has interesting details I wish I could still incorporate.

Also the meat of the chapter where Naruto is at Sasuke's hotel room party, I've been struggling to plot it out in an interesting way. I have multiple outlines and ideas and junk, but it just hasn't been coming together.

I want the party chapter to evolve relationships and progress the plot and everything, but it keeps feeling awkward to write. Like, Team 7 trying to work in some new 'therapy' schemes for Hinata. For starters, I kinda fucked up Exposure Therapy? It's mostly talk therapy. The physical exposure stuff is after talks. I'm so distracted by my mistakes I can't proceed! I just don't believe in the way I wrote that scene where Sakura was trying to psychology profile Hinata. It's both exactly the way I wanted it to be and completely silly in hindsight. It just sounds like my author voice was coming out of Sakura's mouth, now I can't believe in any of their schemes from here on forth.

So that's what I've been struggling with! I've been hoping with every effort that I'd figure it out, and I'm still hoping lol!

Thank you for the ask, @chloelapomme 💕💕💕

[justanotherpersonsuniverse]

Paladin Rose (An Other Magic AU Substory written by CartoonAddict564 from the comment section)

Part 3 (Beginning of the End arc)

First things first, Juleka thought. She had to get Alya away from anyone who might suggest anything to her. She had to find out exactly what had been done to her. She had to find out how to fix it. And she had to see if it was possible to take the Ladyblog ad down.

So she carefully left Alya, who kept apologizing for 'being useless and stupid,' and went back to Bustier's class. "Um, Miss Bustier?" she said. "The Lavaillants asked Alya to help them write up some flyers to find Rose. Is it okay if she does that instead of coming back to homeroom? She's super worried..."

Bustier quickly nodded. "Of course. That's very kind of her."

Sometimes, Juleka thought, it was nice having a total pushover for a teacher. "Actually, she asked if maybe a few of us could help. Is that okay?"

"Well, if it's to help Rose I don't see why not--"

"Great. Alix, Chloe, Sabrina, let's go. Bye!" And Juleka ushered her friends out the door before leaving a somewhat surprised Bustier behind them.

----

"So she'll really do anything anyone says?" Alix asked. "Anything?"

"Far as I can tell," said Juleka, frowning at her phone. "Come on, Luka, pick up already!"

"Oooh." Chloe grinned. "This could be fun."

Alya beamed at her. "Yes?" she asked. "Do you have something I should be doing? I'd try to think of it myself, but I'm terrible and dumb. If you could tell me what to do, I'd be so grateful!"

"Ugh, she's worse than Sabrina," groaned Alix.

"Hey!" said the redhead. "I don't act like that."

Everyone stared at her.

Sabrina sighed. "Well, not as much anymore," she insisted. "I'm getting better. I--"

"Quiet." Juleka held up the phone. "Luka, finally. We have a problem, and--um, why are you wearing a helmet?"

Through the video feed of the phone, they could all see Luka looking embarrassed as he removed it. "Oh, uh, Rose said she could use a sparring partner, so I thought I'd help out." He paused. "She whooped me. Your girlfriend knows her way around a sword and lance, Juleka."

"It's why I love her," Juleka deadpanned. "Listen, the Lavaillats showed up and cast some kind of spell on Alya to make her ask Ladybug and Chat Noir to find Rose."

All the good humor fled his face. "Rose," he called. "Get over here. You'll want to hear this."

----

"...so that's what happened," Juleka finished.

Rose's normally adorable face (at least in Juleka's view) was red with anger. "But that's awful!" she insisted. "That spell is only for evil monsters and villains! It's supposed to help them recognize the harm they've done. You know, make them more humble so they stop being all 'I am so great I have the right to hurt people' and start being all, 'I'm no better than them; it's wrong to hurt them.'" She crossed her arms. "Using it on a civilian is messed up!"

"Aren't they worried someone might learn they're, you know, crazy magic paladins?" Alix asked.

"Doubt it." Luka shrugged. "Presumably the spell wears off at some point. Then all anyone thinks is that Alya had really low self-esteem today, probably including Alya herself. No one thinks magic was involved."

Rose nodded. "The spell lasts for about twelve hours. If the bad guy has some epiphany about, you know, not being a villain anymore, that can last longer. But the spell itself should be done by bedtime."

"So for today, Alya will do anything anyone asks." Chloe began to smile. "Well, obviously we need someone to stay by her to make sure no one asks her for anything bad. I volunteer."

"No," said everyone else at once, including Luka and Rose.

Chloe pretended to gasp. "What, do you not trust me?"

"I trust you!" said Alya. "You're better than me, anyways."

The others frowned, but then Chloe glared at them. "Listen. One of us can get out of school anytime she wants because of who her daddy is, and it happens to me. I'll tell Damocles that we have some urgent thing to do, and he'll give us passes so we can leave. Then I'll take her up to my room in daddy's hotel and, I don't know, lock her in a closet or something. Otherwise, she'll be stuck here all day, and then Kim will dare her to dive into the pool with her laptop or something dumb like that."

Nobody said anything.

"I'm not going to hurt her," stressed Chloe. "Seriously. Guys--"

"Alright," said Alix at last. "If you promise, I trust you."

Juleka gave Sabrina a very uneasy look, but Chloe was right; she was the only one who could get out of school, and even her power was probably limited to just herself and maybe one other person. "Fine," she said. "But seriously, Chloe. If we come by and find her in a maid costume scrubbing your bathroom, we're throwing you into your pool."

"Bleh." Chloe stuck out her tongue at them. "I'll be good. I promise."

"If that's taken care of," said Alix, "We need to get that blog post off the Ladybug."

Juleka shook her head. "Can't. Alya's the only one that knows the password, and anything to do with the blog is the one type of suggestion she won't take. That post is up there until the spell wears off and she gets rid of it herself."

"Hey," said Luka. "Here's a thought. Maybe that's not such a bad thing."

"What?!" yelled the rest of the team at once. Even Rose seemed shocked.

"No, wait, listen." Luka held up his hands. "We know the Lavaillants are going to do something to try to find Rose, right? Well, this is something we can control. Alya has Ladybug's number. Once this spell wears off she can contact her privately and explain that they shouldn't find Rose--instead they should stall. Lead the Lavailllants on for as long as possible, and then say, oh, we got a report that she was heading to Timbuktu or something." As long as Ladybug doesn't find Rose today--and since Rose is going to be staying under deck all day, that shouldn't be a problem--we're fine."

Juleka considered. "One issue. Suppose Ladybug doesn't just take Alya's word for it that Rose shouldn't be found? I mean we can't explain the real reason."

"Why not?" asked Sabrina. "They're already magical. They're literally the most likely people to believe 'Rose's parents are evil paladins and Rose had to run away to date her vampire girlfriend and stay with her vampire girlfriend's cute older brother' on Earth."

Juleka sighed. "Because--wait, you think my brother is cute?"

Sabrina made a soft 'eep!' sound. "Um, I just meant aesthetically."

"Hmm," mused Rose with a soft smile. She was still wearing her armor, except for her helmet, and it occurred once again to Juleka that Rose looked incredibly beautiful when wearing full chainmail and carrying a sword. "He's alright. But I prefer the vampire girlfriend, myself."

"...right." Juleka shook her head, though she couldn't hide a faint smile. "Anyways, the more people who know that things like vampires and werewolves exist, the higher the chance of Inquisition 2: this time the humans have guns." She shrugged. "Ladybug and Chat Noir wouldn't join the mob, but if we told them about us and it leaked somehow? We could be in trouble."

"Oh." Sabrina frowned. "Right."

"We'll just have to be persuasive, then" said Luka. "Or, you know. 'Persuasive.' Like I showed you."

Juleka frowned. She'd didn't like using her suggestion power, and really didn't like her odds of using it on a superhero. "That might... not work."

"Well, we'll think of something. And if I'm right, the Lavaillants will think things are progressing, so they won't look for her." Luka clapped his hands together. "Okay, that just leaves your classmates. How do we deal with them?"

"If it were just Kim and Max it'd be easy," grumbled Alix. "I could blast them with spells to make them confused. Well, moreso than usual."

"Or I could use Suggestion," added Juleka. "But Markov is a robot. I don't think magic works on him."

Then Sabrina stepped into the center of the group. "I'll handle them."

Chloe frowned. "What? Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous. Sabrina, we can all fight if we have to. We're predators, except for Alix, who's a badass magician." Alix blushed a little. "But you turn into a deer. What'll you do, eat grass at them?"

Sabrina frowned. "I'm serious, Chloe. I want to help."

"Why?" asked Alix. "I mean, we appreciate it, but I don't know if this is your thing. You're... nice. Easygoing. You let people do things. Standing up to Kim and Max... you sure you're up for it?"

"Yes." The redhead looked down. "You all saved me from being trapped in an alien world. And even before that, you were nice to me despite the... the things I did." She managed a glance at Chloe. "I've done nothing to repay you yet. I want to fix that."

"This isn't about paying a debt," insisted Juleka. "We're friends. We--"

"I'm not going to be a burden!" Sabrina took a breath. "You're my friends, and I want to help you! I... I just really want to help." She bowed her head. "Please let me do this."

They all looked at each other. But it was Rose who said, "Well, then I say go for it!"

"You realize if she messes up and Kim catches you, you're the one who's in trouble," said Alix. "We're clear on that, right?"

"If she says she can do it, I trust her," said Rose serenely.

Juleka hesitated. She had a very bad feeling about this. But...

But she understood wanting to be useful. Wanting not to burden one's friends. And she trusted them, both Sabrina and Rose. "Alright." She said. "Let us know if you need anything."

"I will!" enthused Sabrina. "I won't let you down!"

"Alright then." Luka nodded. "Chloe, take Alya to the hotel; Alix and Juleka, maybe start working out our argument to Ladybug; Sabrina, do your thing." He grinned. "Let's do this, guys."

——

"Hi-yah!"

Luka tumbled to the floor of the ship and looked at the beaming Rose. "Okay, okay, I concede. You're the better fighter." He accepted her hand to pull himself up. "How did you get so strong?"

"I am strengthened by my righteousness!" said Rose. "And also push-ups. Lots of push-ups. One more time?" Her tone turned wheedling. "You can use magic if you want."

Luka considered. "Alright," he said at last. "And--go!" He murmured something as Rose leapt at him--

And then Rose sailed up to the ceiling as Luka's floatation spell hit her. The sword fell from her hand, and without it her arms were just a little too short to reach his head. "Hey!" said Rose as Luka chuckled. "That was mean."

"I am strengthened by my magic," intoned Luka. "And also 'not being a midget.'" Rose stuck out her tongue at him, but was smiling and didn't seem annoyed. "Anyways, that should wear off in a few minutes. Want a snack while you're waiting?"

"Hmph." Rose wrinkled her nose. "No. As a paladin who has been defeated, I must reflect on my failure and pray to improve--wait, is that cherry licorice?" She looked at the box of candy Luka had taken out from one of the hold's cabinets. "I love that flavor!"

Luka laughed at that and lifted the box above his head so she could reach it. "Once you're down we'll check on Juleka. See how the gang's doing with Ladybug, Kim, and so on."

Rose frowned. "Do you think they're doing okay?"

"Oh, I'm sure they are."

----

No sooner had school let out than Juleka entered Le Grand Paris Hotel and made a beeline for the elevator so she could get to Chloe and Alya, but just before she entered she got a text. "Juleka," Chloe had written to her. "Sabrina left school early to start getting ready, so when you get here, go to the private kitchens and check on her to make sure she didn't set herself on fire or anything."

"Set herself on fire?" Juleka frowned. "What's she doing?" And so she ducked into the restaurant, slipped into the back area, and then went past the bustling main kitchens to reach the smaller ones which were reserved for private functions and special occasions. One of them had a 'Closed' sign on it even though there was light coming through the crack in the door, so Juleka pushed it open and went in.

Sabrina was working at one of the counters next to a rack of ovens. The burners held bubbling pots of food that looked and smelled great. Juleka's stomach rumbled and she wondered if maybe she could get a snack--but then she forced herself to focus. "Sabrina?" she asked.

"Eep!" Sabrina jumped and pointed a ladle at Juleka before realizing who it was. "Oh, it's you. Sorry." She took a breath. "How was school?"

"Sucky." Juleka frowned. "Um, are you sure you should be in the open like this? Your father's looking for you, and he's in the police, so--"

"I know it's a risk." Sabrina took a slow breath. "I know. But like I said earlier, I want to help. And..." She gestured at the food. "This is the only way I know how to help."

Juleka tilted her head as she understood. "Fey food," she murmured. "You're going to get Max and Kim to eat something which puts them under your control."

"Right."

"Do you know how to do that?" Juleka stepped closer and looked at the food. "I talked to Luka about that stuff one day--I was a little kid and I got it in my head that if I accidentally bought a snack from a store and it was a fey store somehow, the fey would be able to take me away forever--and he said it's tough."

"Well, I've been studying," said Sabrina primly. "You know how good I am at school. I'm sure I--"

At that moment, one of the pots erupted in a blast of stew, spattering Sabrina's face and covering her eyeglasses.

Juleka hid her giggle as Sabrina looked down. "I'm not useless," she said, as if trying to convince herself. "I'm not. I'm not--"

"Of course you're not," said Juleka. "I've needed help with my powers plenty of times too. And Chloe--she needs Alix to do all kinds of magic junk to her every month so she doesn't wolf out and eat somebody." She stepped to Sabrina's side. "I can call Luka. Maybe he can help walk you through this."

"Or," said a new voice from the door, "She could ask an expert."

Both Juleka and Sabrina wheeled around to see another Sabrina. But this one was different. Wilder, somehow. Her hair was tangled, her clothes were a bizarre mishmash of black goth gear and forest-green stuff that looked like it came from Ancient Rome, and her eyes were somehow unsettling. "You're the other me," Sabrina whispered. "The one the fey took."

"What do you want?" asked Juleka at once.

The human Sabrina smiled. "Maybe I just wanted to drop in on my sister," she said as she approached. "Give a little advice."

"Fey don't give things." Juleka growled. "You want to trap her in some kind of deal, and--"

The changeling Sabrina put a hand on Juleka's shoulder. "Wait," she said. "She didn't let my dad send me back to the fey. I don't think she's hostile." She took a breath and met her double's gaze. "I want to talk to her."

"Sabrina..." began Juleka.

"You seem stressed," said the human Sabrina. "Peckish, even. Want a snack?" She whipped what looked like a box of cookies out from... actually, Juleka had no idea where it had come from. "Freshly baked."

"Nice try." Juleka frowned at her, then looked around for something safe to eat in case the human Sabrina could somehow manipulate her appetites and make her hungry enough to eat the cookies. She settled on a box of nuts on a counter and began to snack on them as she said, "We're not dumb enough to take food from someone who lives with the fey."

The human Sabrina shrugged. "Many humans aren't. That's why we have other methods. Like, say leaving a few food items around ahead of time just in case." Her eyes flicked to the box of nuts.

Then the changeling Sabrina looked at the box too. "Uh, Juleka? I didn't put those there."

Juleka's eyes widened and she tried to spit out the nuts, but the human Sabrina snapped her fingers and Juleka's body froze. "In exchange for those nuts," she said in a light voice, "You're to leave this kitchen and not return until after I'm done talking with my sister." She grinned as Juleka's body began to move of its own accord. "Bye!"

As soon as Juleka's traitorous legs took her out of the kitchen and stopped, Juleka cursed, then raced towards the nearest ceiling vent. No sooner had she gotten there and verified the coast was clear than she pried the vent off, shifted into her bat form, and flew through it. When she found a vent leading into the kitchen, she placed a talon on the vent's exit grate and found it completely unmovable. Her body would not let her open up the passage back inside. But she could stay there, technically 'outside' the kitchen and watch the conversation.

"Why do you want to help me?" asked the changeling Sabrina quietly.

The human redhead shrugged. "We're sisters," she said. "And you interest me."

"Why?"

"During that fight on the hill, even though you were drugged, you tried to help your friends," the human said. "You could have tried to run away. Or just hidden. But you tried to save them--even though you were the one in danger." She hesitated. "It's... not a very fey thing to do. I was intrigued."

The changeling smiled slightly. "Thanks. And, um, thanks for not letting my dad send me back."

"No problem." The human Sabrina clapped her counterpart on the shoulder. "So. This fey food."

"Is it good?" the changeling asked.

The human stuck a finger inside one of the pots and sucked it. "Magic's all wrong," she said. "This is basically synthetic hemlock. Sorry."

Sabrina blanched and looked down, but her counterpart was at her side. "Fortunately, I can show you how to do it right," she said.

That made the changeling brighten, but then she paused. "In exchange for what?"

The human Sabrina grinned, as if the changeling had passed a test. "Get me set up with this 'Internet' thing the mortals use," she said. "It sounds cool. I want to see what the fuss is."

The changeling quickly nodded. "You got it. Once I'm done with this food, I'll get you a phone and an account." She extended her hand and the other Sabrina shook it.

"Alright then. I think we'll be fine." The human Sabrina sent a meaningful look up at Juleka's vent. "Totally fine," she stressed.

Juleka flushed; apparently she hadn't been as sneaky as she thought. And it did seem like the changeling Sabrina was in good hands. She quickly fluttered back down the shaft.

----

When Juleka reached Chloe's suite and entered it, she sighed. "Chloe. We talked about this."

"What?" Chloe was reclining in bed while Alya braided her hair and did her nails. "You said no scrubbing the bathroom. She's not!"

Juleka frowned.

"Besides, I did her hair and nails too, so she owes me." Chloe gestured at Alya, whose hair and nails did seem fancier.

"You realize when the spell wears off you're going to have an angry fox on your hands?"

Chloe waved a hand. "That's not for a few hours. I'll send her away, give her time to see that I just gave her practice in making people prettier. She'll be fine."

Juleka frowned. There was an odd glint in Alya's eyes. A mixture of annoyance... and anticipation. "And supposing my brother got the time wrong and the spell actually wore off two minutes ago?"

Chloe blinked. "Huh?"

And then Alya dumped all the hair dye bottles onto Chloe's head at once.

"ALYAAAAA!"

——

"Kim! Max! Thanks for coming!" Sabrina clasped her hands together and welcomed the two boys into the deserted little park. She'd sent them a text asking them to meet her there at dinner for 'something urgent,' and fortunately, both had showed up, along with Markov. "It's good to see you!"

"You too, Sabrina," said Max politely. "We noticed you left school early today. Is anything wrong?"

Sabrina waved this off. "Don't worry about it."

"How long will this take?" Kim asked. "Cause I don't know if you heard, but Rose's folks put a $3000 bounty on her, and we're gonna collect!"

"Not long," Sabrina promised. She had a picnic basket and began to take out what looked like small sandwiches. "Come on, I brought snacks so we can eat while we talk! Here, these are the appetizers--please, enjoy!"

Juleka, who had asked Luka to cast a glamour over her so she would look as different from herself as possible (it wound up making her look like a peppy cheerleader), was sitting nearby and paying close attention. She smiled as Kim's expression changed to one of glee. "Awesome, free food, thanks!"

Sabrina smiled brightly as Max and Kim each ate one of the sandwiches. "Man, this is really good," Kim said at last. "Did you do something special to make this?"

"N--" began Sabrina, before her mouth seemed to freeze. "N--N--"

Juleka stiffened. "What's going on?"

"Ooh, rookie move."

Juleka jumped and turned to see the human Sabrina, who had someone slipped up next to her without her noticing. "Hey Fangsy," she said. "What're we watching?"

Juleka scowled. "Sabrina's trying to talk to those guys but her mouth stopped working or something--"

"Well, duh." The human shrugged. "She's probably tried to lie. But she's a fey, and fey can't lie. So she couldn't say it."

"But she's lied before!" Juleka insisted. "Loads of times! Mostly for Chloe!"

"Yeah, but she was trying to live like a human then. Most of her magic was dormant. Now she's actively using her magic and calling on her fey nature. So that nature's reasserting herself." Human Sabrina shrugged. "No lies for her."

Juleka scowled, then quickly texted Sabrina, "YOU CAN'T LIE." Sabrina glanced at the text, blanched, then seemed to make herself swallow and say, "Yes. Now--"

"What'd you do?" asked Max. "Seriously, this is really good."

"I..." Juleka could see that Sabrina was thinking fast. "...had an expert teach me a few tricks."

"She local?" asked Kim.

"No. From out of town. Way, way out." Sabrina fixed a big smile on her face. "Anyways! I hope you enjoyed that?" Both boys nodded. "Good. And, um, in exchange I was hoping for just a little favor?"

Kim gulped down his second sandwich. "What is it?" he asked.

"Well, I had this proposal for you, and I'd like you to listen to it and--uh--agree with me?" She flashed a disarming smile, one that usually accompanied a statement being made in a tentative or hopeful manner, one that could be accepted or rejected later. But there was nothing ambiguous in the words themselves, and Juleka knew that with fey, the words were all that counted. The boys were bound to listen to and agree with whatever Sabrina proposed.

"Ooh, smart," mused the human Sabrina. "Nice play."

"Why?" Juleka asked.

The redhead looked at her. "If she just ordered them to 'not look for Rose,' they'd do it--their bodies wouldn't let them go walking around hunting for her--but they'd notice how weird that was. So first she ordered them to 'agree' with whatever she says next. Now she'll offer them another round of food and tell them not to find Rose. They won't look for her--that's from the second dish--but more than that, they'll agree that they shouldn't look for her--from the first one."

Juleka considered. "Why don't all fey do it that way, then? Instead of just ordering people to do X, order them to think they should do X?"

"Well, it's easier to screw up and drive people totally insane the way she's doing it. She has to make sure she asks for something reasonable enough that their minds accept it; if she asks for something crazy, they'll do it and think that they should do it but still know it's insane, so then they go bonkers from the contradiction. Giving orders without demanding agreement doesn't hurt human brains as much if things go wrong." She grinned. "This is fun! Popcorn?" She offered Juleka a bag.

Juleka found herself reaching to take a handful before she caught herself and scowled. "Do you do anything besides offer people food to get them to do things?"

"Why? That's the best part of being fey-like!"

Meanwhile, Sabrina had taken out little platters of steaks with a compound butter on top. "Oh wow," said Kim as he gobbled it down. "Seriously, when we graduate and you become Chloe's live-in servant full time, she's gonna eat like a queen."

Juleka thought she saw a vein twitch in Sabrina's forehead. "Anyway," the changeling said. "Here's my proposal." And from her basket she took out a map of Paris. "You said you were also looking for Rose, right? I propose we should split up the city to be more effective. Specifically--in exchange for this sumptuoussteak," She paused so they all could laugh, again letting her tone and demeanor make the 'bargain' sound more informal than it was--"You guys pick this area." She gestured at a large section of the map mostly comprising the outer districts and suburbs of Paris; by area it was more than 70% of the city. "I'll take this one," she said, gesturing at an inner area which just happened to include Rose's actual location.

"Why that one?" asked Markov in a protective voice. "And why should we look in this outer area?"

"Well, honestly, I think Rose is--" Sabrina's mouth froze again and her eyes bulged slightly as she tried to reword whatever she was about to say to be, technically, not a lie. "There are reasons why Rose could choose to go to these suburban areas," she said at last. "Less security cameras, fewer people who know her personally. You looking there could be logical."

"Then why are you giving it to us?" pressed Markov.

Sabrina made a melodramatic sigh. "My father won't take me to wander around the outskirts of town right now," she said, and Juleka knew that was true, though not for the reasons she was implying. "Also, I know this inner part of the city best. If she's there, I'm sure I can find her. Whereas if I looked somewhere else, I surely wouldn't find her no matter what."

All true, Juleka thought. Rose was in the central part of the city, and Sabrina could find her--but she hadn't said she'd tell anyone she'd found her. And if Sabrina looked somewhere else she would never find Rose, since regardless of Rose's exact position, she wouldn't be in the 'somewhere else.'

The human Sabrina grinned. "She's a sharp one. I like her."

Meanwhile, the two boys looked at each other. "I agree," said Kim, and Juleka was relieved to hear he didn't seem to be mentally struggling with it. "Splitting up makes sense, and I'd rather have the bigger section anyways. We'll look there and not on your turf."

"Agreed!" said Max.

Markov hesitated, but said, "I suppose that makes sense. I'll recalculate my probabilities, focusing on that area."

"Excellent!" Sabrina grinned. "I'm so glad we could work this out. And now..." She hefted her picnic basket. "Desert?"

----

"So now, what, they just owe you a favor?" asked Juleka.

"Yep!" Sabrina beamed, then looked at her duplicate. "Thanks again for your help."

"Hey, you already paid me back," said the human Sabrina lightly. "No worries."

Juleka chuckled as she looked at the remaining food. "I can't believe they just ate it."

"Why? It's delicious!" The changeling Sabrina gave a sly glance to the human one, and Juleka had the brief feeling of being set up for a prank. "Want some?"

"Um, no," said Juleka. "I--"

The changeling Sabrina gasped. "Juleka, are you saying you think I'll order you to do something horrible?" She melodramatically flopped against her duplicate's arms. "I thought you trusted me!"

"I just don't--"

"Oh!" Sabrina's eyes quivered like she was about to cry, though her smile belied this. "I knew you wouldn't trust me. Nobody trusts fey."

Juleka stared. "Are you... are you trying to guilt me into eating your fey food?"

"Who, her?" simpered the human Sabrina. "She's just sad you don't trust her."

"My heart is shattered," intoned Sabrina. "My soul is rent! My--"

"Fine!" snapped Juleka, grabbing one of the desert toffees. She glared at it and sighed. Well, how bad could it be? And she popped it in her mouth.

Both Sabrinas grinned.

---

Alya and Chloe were still in the suite when Juleka came in, now wearing a cheerleader outfit for real. "Let's have some pep!" She chirped as she began a complicated series of gymnastics she probably couldn't have done normally. "For the mystery gang! Like, yay!"

Behind her the Sabrinas came in. The changeling one was recording the performance on her phone and sending it to the boat, where Luka, Rose, and Alix were watching. They all stared as the goth vampire bounced around like a hyperactive school mascot.

Finally, Juleka finished her performance with a set of splits. "Hooray for us! We're awesome!" And it was only then that she came back to herself, picked herself up, and glared at the Sabrinas.

"So!" chirped Sabrina as everyone else, including Rose and Luka, burst into laughter. "As you can see, I learned how to make fey food!"

——

"...so Max, Markov and Kim shouldn't be a problem anymore," Juleka was saying. "Sabrina did great."

The redhead blushed as everyone else clapped. They were gathered in Alix's living room, with Rose and Luka having used one of Alix's charms to teleport directly there. "The rest of the class shouldn't be a problem," Juleka went on. "I'lll ask around tomorrow to see if anyone else will try for the reward. If so, Sabrina's got some emergency baked goods."

Sabrina waggled a basket full of fey pastries, a bright smile on her face.

"Great," said Luka, making a note. "That's one problem down. What about Sabrina and her dad? How do we stop Roger from having police look for her?"

"He hasn't done that yet," mused Alix, sitting next to an armchair. "I mean, nobody stopped Sabrina at school. Don't know why, though."

"Because he doesn't want her," drawled Chloe. She was in the armchair Alix was next to. "He's ridiculous, utterly ridiculous, and wants the other Sabrina. He only needed our Sabrina to get the other one back to our world, and now that other Sabrina's in town, he has no use for his own daughter." She sniffed. "What an idiot. If I had someone like Sabrina I'd respect her."

"Uh," said Alya. "About that." But Sabrina waved her off.

Luka looked around. "Where is other Sabrina anyways?"

"She left after I had my cheerleading debut," muttered Juleka. "Said she'd be around."

Luka smiled at the thought of the video, which he of course had saved so he could tease Juleka in the future. "Well, we need to ask her if she'll hang around town for a while, maybe show her face here or there. If Roger thinks she's still here and gettable without some kind of fairy trade, he has no reason to go looking for our Sabrina. I wouldn't say she should go home, but she should be able to go to school and stuff without problems." He made a note. "Next: you, little sis."

Juleka blinked. "Me?"

"Uh, yeah." Chloe rolled her eyes. "The Lavillants got a good look at you, remember?"

"Oh, right." Juleka sighed. "Here's the problem: if I go back to school, yeah, they might see me there. But if I drop out, though, they'll see me on the news reports about 'two girls missing from same class' and recognize me anyways." She sighed. "I think our best hope is for me to stay at school, maybe change my appearance a little, and hope they don't notice."

"Well, I've got more cheerleading stuff for you!" said Alya brightly. "You know, to disguise yourself."

Juleka glowered, but then Rose hugged her. "I think you make a beautiful cheerleader," she whispered. "I mean, you're a beautiful everything. But that includes cheerleader."

A slight blush reddened Juleka's cheeks. "Uh," she said. "You too, Rose."

Meanwhile, Luka was going down his list. "With all those of the way, the next issue is Ladybug and Chat Noir." He turned to Alya. "Did they get back to you?"

Alya hesitated. "Yeah, but it's not great news."

"What is it?" asked Juleka.

Alya sighed. "I told her that there were some, um, problems at the Lavaillant home--don't worry, I didn't talk about paladins or anything--and Ladybug said she could understand that, but she couldn't just take it on faith." She took a breath. "She'll only believe it if you meet with her and convince her, Rose."

Rose frowned. "So I just need to talk to Ladybug and explain why I can't go home? That doesn't sound so bad."

"Explain without sounding crazy," Alix drawled. "If you say that you ran away to live with your vampire girlfriend because your paladin parents tried to deport your fairy friend back to fairyland and then tried to kill everyone who got in their way, they'll send you to the loony bin. You'll need to make up a fake reason and get her to believe it."

"And," Alya went on, "If you try to explain and don't convince her... I mean, she's Ladybug. She could just scoop you up and run you home."

Rose smiled slightly. "Maybe I could beat her."

"No." Luka's voice was flat. "The Miraculouses are some of the most powerful magic there is. She could fight all of us at once and win." He sighed. "There's just two choices. You can keep hiding in the boat, and hope she never finds you. Or you can meet with her and try to persuade her to stop looking, but if you fail, she takes you home right away."

The room fell silent, and Juleka clenched a fist. It wasn't fair! They weren't Hawkmoth, they just didn't want to be killed by psychotic paladins!

"I'll talk to her," said Rose at last.

"But--" Luka began.

"No. I trust Ladybug and Chat Noir. They're heroes. They'll understand me. They'll do the right thing." Rose stood. "Set up the meeting, Alya."

"Then I'm coming too," Juleka announced.

Luka snapped his head around to stare at her. "What? Why? Jules, you can't do anything. If it's a fight she'll destroy--"

"I'm going to be there," said Juleka in a flat voice. "If Ladybug tries to take Rose, there's a chance--however tiny--that I can stop her or stall her until Rose flees. I don't care if her Lucky Charm is a garlic-coated stake. I'm there." Her voice was like iron. "Clear?"

And that was that.

----

Ladybug and Chat Noir appeared in the abandoned building right on cue. Juleka, hiding up in the rafters and tensed to drop down on Chat Noir if needed, desperately tried to make no noise as the heroes approached Rose.

"You must be Rose. Take this," Ladybug said, giving Rose a green potion. "This is a truth serum. Once you drink it, you won't be able to lie for an hour."

"Courtesy of Master Fu--ow!" Chat Noir winced as Ladybug elbowed him. "Right, right, secret IDs, got it."

Rose drank it at once. "Thank you," she said quietly, "For hearing me out."

"Of course." Ladybug's voice was stern, tense, impersonal. Juleka wondered if Ladybug was nervous at this unusual task. "I'll get right to it. Are you safe where you'r staying right now?"

"Yes," said Rose at once. "Totally."

"Why can't you go home?"

Rose hesitated. "I can't say."

"Then--"

"Wait!" Rose insisted. "If your parents were going to move you away from Paris, you'd have to find some way to talk them out of it so you could keep protecting the city--but you couldn't tell them the real reason, right? You can't reveal your secret identity. You'd have to make something up. I'm in a similar situation."

Chat Noir hesitated. "She, uh, has a point."

"No." Ladybug shook her head. "I couldn't say that I'm Ladybug, but I could say that I help the city in ways nobody else can. I could say people count on me for protection. And so on." She hesitated. "I need an answer, Rose. What's wrong?"

Rose hesitated. "My parents believe my friends are evil," she said at last. "I tried to stop them from... hurting... two friends. They think I'm evil too because of that." She took a breath. "If I go home, they will try to 'fix' me."

Ladybug's mouth dropped. Chat Noir asked, "Are we sure the truth potion works? That story--"

"It works, Chat," murmured Ladybug. Then: "Are you saying they're abusive?"

"I don't know if that's the right word." Rose looked down. "But I won't be safe going home, Ladybug. Please believe me."

"My God." Ladybug stepped back as if slapped. "Then we'll get the police--"

Rose quickly shook her head. "There's no proof," she said. "They'd probably send me home themselves. And..."

Juleka frowned. There were two more reasons not to involve the police: Lieutenant Roger was likely on the Lavillants' side because of his changeling daughter, and also having police try to arrest paladins could be disastrous. Worst case, that could reveal magic to the world. But Rose couldn't say either of those reasons. So what other true reason was there?

"...and I don't want them in jail. Or beaten up by superheroes. I just want them to stop thinking my friends are evil, and that I'm evil for supporting those friends." Rose took a shuddery breath. "Maybe if I'm away for a while, they'll miss me more than they hate my friends. And they'll get better."

Juleka winced. That was pure Rose--concerned with the welfare of even those that had betrayed her. She wished she could hop down and hug her.

Ladybug and Chat Noir stepped away and deliberated. Finally, Ladybug came back. "Okay," she said at last. "We won't tell them where you are, and we won't tell the police... yet. But we'll keep an eye out. It's possible they're hurting other people, and if so, we'll have to intervene."

"I understand." Rose bowed her head. "Thank you so much."

Ladybug gave Rose her number. "Call me anytime you need me," she said. "And good luck." And then she was swinging away.

Juleka dropped from the rafters moments later and embraced Rose. The blonde sniffled and then hugged her. And they stood together for what felt like an endless moment.

----

"Think we should have mentioned Ju--uh, that girl in the rafters?" asked Chat Noir as he sprang away.

"No." Ladybug frowned. "I wonder how Rose's friend got up there."

"Well, apparently she didn't count on my night-vision. Can't really blame her; it's not like she could have any experience with magic." Chat Noir hesitated. "What do you want to do?"

Ladybug sighed. "I'm not comfortable going against Rose's wishes and turning her in. Or her parents... assuming she's the only one they hurt. But I'm going to stay in close contact with Rose, and look in on the Lavillants as well. If anything else is wrong, we act."

"Got it," said Chat Noir, and the two headed off into the distance.

[mvdipetsch]

hey luna, i'm a big fan of your blog! when you get a chance, could we trouble you for an opinion please? we're a medieval rp about an ongoing war between kingdoms, and we open at 10 apps. thanks in advance!

hey there! thank you so much for the compliment; of course you can have an opinion! it’ll be under the cut, since it might get a little long and i, in no way, mean to offend or bring negativity to your roleplay. this is merely my opinion and may not represent the whole. 

starting with your icon, it’s a little too dark for my liking. i’d like it to be more prominent. due to the darkness of the crown, and the deep red, they both sort of ‘morph’ together. this can be easily ‘fixed’ simply by playing with the brightness and saturation of your icon! for your url, i don’t immediately think medieval, but i would guess some sort of war element. the war and the crown make me think it’ll be a royalty rp, so i guess combined, you’re sending the right message!

moving on to your theme & aesthetics! i really enjoy how light your colour scheme is, but i do think the red-white-black combo may be a little.. done? i think having a purple (since purple is a royal colour) or even gold could bring an elevation to the theme as well as tying in rather nicely with the royalty idea. i don’t know if this is the theme itself or if you’ve done it, but i don’t like the icon in the middle of the graphic on your sidebar. it holds no purpose and looks somewhat messy. when i use your navigation, there’s a lighter pink and it doesn’t fit the rest of the theme / colour scheme. the navigation page is very light and thus it’s not giving a sense of cohesion. i recognise the sidebar graphic from reign (at least, now i hope it’s reign. i’ve never actually seen the show!) but if i didn’t, then i wouldn’t have guessed that you’re a medieval / royalty rp. that said, if the icon wasn’t there then it’d probably look better and you would be able to see more of their clothing, faces, etc. so it’d be more obvious you were medieval! 

my favourite part (and the only part that truly matters) of any rp, the plot! immediately, i notice your graphic for the plot doesn’t fit the width of the post space. i’d consider having the word “plot” on the graphic and getting rid of that top title. also, something tells me you’ve accidentally put bullet points in the plot? i’m hoping that’s a minor html error, as it doesn’t make sense to have the points in. regarding the writing of the plot itself: first thing is you mention there being four kingdoms, yet only mention food, music and clothing as trades. i’d mention all four, personally, as it seems odd only mentioning three. the whole sentence regarding it doesn’t make sense; “one providing food for every article of clothing another provided, for every beautiful melody rang through the air.” using the noun “provide” twice in one sentence, especially in two different tenses, is a little bleh. use synonyms and try to keep the tense the same. “for every article of clothing produced, food would be traded, music would be shared and (INSERT OTHER KINGDOM PRODUCTION HERE). the four kingdoms had a system, a currency of bartering, each only as strong as its weakest.” something like that may fit a little better. the remainder of your plot, i’m a much bigger fan of. i would advise that you show and don’t tell. the first sentence about the affair feels very heavy and dense. break it up. describe what happened – without being too vulgar, of course! go more into the apology that was rejected, into when it happened, why it happened, etc. of course, you can keep the reader in the dark as the public are, but give a little bit more. dress it up a little, so to speak. 

this next part will be the miscellaneous, so extra pages, your rules, etc. first thing is i would love, love, love some more in the locations. yes, you’ve told me what that kingdom produces, but give a few exact locations so that characters have places to interact. also, double check that the images for these pages are the same dimensions (eden’s image is bigger!) and you don’t need a title for a page if it’s already on the graphic.i will always recommend having an actual banned fcs list. always. there will always be fcs that make people uncomfortable but aren’t always explicitly banned and if an admin already has a list, it can help to make a player / applicant feel more comfortable with coming and saying “hey ____ makes me uncomfortable, could they be a banned fc?” this is going to sound really nit-picky, but alphabetize your jobs list. it sounds small, but it’s a little detail that does go a long way and shows organisation on your behalf! your application needs to have a gender identity portion, giving pronouns isn’t enough. as well, the commoner application says “he/she/they” but the royals one says “pronouns.” just make them both “pronouns” since some don’t like the given options! 

overall, i think there are minor aesthetic issues and a handful of things you could add to your plot to make it more dynamic and intriguing. that said, there aren’t any serious red flags with the rp. it’s not my personal cup of tea, i’m not big on historic rps, so i probably wouldn’t recommend it? then again, i know naff all about history and medieval times (i don’t even watch downton abbey) so i could be totally wrong. one thing i would really like to mention though is that you (the admin with blake lively, i don’t know if there are multiple admins!) seem really sweet and lovely and really excited for the rp, judging by your posts. i truly wish you the best of luck! 

[elfstuck]

Kitten Abduction

Rose checks her laptop; discovers her pesterchum account has been used; doubts it was the bubble-blowing salamander in her room.

She goes to leave her room to find John, and notices, for some reason, that The Door Is Ajar. But John was here recently, so that’s not noteworthy at all, right? Of course. (Chibipaw, wtf? Where is Rose? Wait; it must be her room; there’s the meowmeowmeow writing all over the wall. John was in her room? I thought they hadn’t been physically near each other yet. Obvs I have forgotten more than I thought.)

A bucket of candy promptly falls on her head, which John had carefully balanced on the slightly-open door. She acknowledges John as Prankster Supreme for this gimmick.

Elsewhere, John has completely missed that Rose is awake, and is going to rocket himself to somewhere no-doubt deadly.

And what do you take with you on a dangerous trip through ogre territory with a rocketpack? A mutant kitten, of course. John abducts Rose’s familiar in an attempt to force a connection between them so that Rose can rescue him later when he inevitably crashes to his near-doom.

Well, okay, the text doesn’t say that part, but I can figure out what’s going on.

Wheeeee!

This where I remind people that I have a Land of Light and Rain dragon for Flight Rising:

John zips through the air, and Rose’s pale silhouette watches him fly.

Two things happen:

1) Rose is not amused at John’s antics.

2) The salamander acquires a name: Viceroy Bubbles Von Salamancer.

Next is a POV shift back to Dave, who is going to “be the puppet.” This sounds like a Li’l Cal thing. I don’t want to deal with a Li’l Cal thing right now.

FWIW, I remember why I stopped blogging regularly. At first, I composed posts in Tumblr’s post window. And then I lost one or two of them to some combination of Tumblr’s horrible UI and my inexperience with the platform - hitting the wrong button, hitting the back key at the wrong time, stuff like that. So I went looking for other options, and I found the Lazarus Form Recovery plugin for Firefox, which remembered what you’d put in text boxes. Hooray!

And then it stopped working on an update of Firefox, dammit.

So I started composing posts in a separate program - TED Notepad, which has a few features that basic Notepad doesn’t. Only if I just typed in paragraphs, and pasted them into Tumblr, what I got was all one paragraph with line breaks. So I added basic HTML - <p> </p> at the start/end of paragraphs, <em> </em> for italics and <b> </b> for bold, and PIC(NAME-OF-IMAGE) for images I wanted to insert, because I couldn’t do the HTML for those until I’d uploaded them to Tumblr.

Then I’d start a tumblr post, switch it from standard text to HTML, paste in the post, switch back, and find the picture ID lines and replace those with the actual pictures.

If you think this sounds like a pain, you’d be right! And so it stopped being “read blog, make some notes on the side, grab a few pics as I go, and hit post!” and became this elaborate thing where I had several windows/apps open at once (MSPaintAdventures, TED notepad, Paint to screencap moving images and crop them down to the useful parts, one of the GifExploder websites for those gifs where I wanted one particular piece) and ugh. Was terrible.

I’m composing this in the tumblr window, knowing it might collapse on me. Suggestions welcome.

I’m seriously considering sliding back to Firefox 52. Or hell, all the way back to something that would let Word Count Plus work. Or switching over to Opera because I’m not going with Quantum. Bleh.

[bookcoversalt]

Alright, so, this cover for Burning Glass. I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed.

(source)

well, fuck, i guess we’re back to talking about red queen. 

This isn’t an egregious copy of it like our last offender, and has no hideously ugly spacing or weird blood, thank god, but is another example of people seeing that Red Queen works but failing to understand what about it was engaging and successful. Here specifically, we know they wanted to replicate the ‘single image of an object + big ole title’ combination, but BG’s cover ended up Bleh out of a failure to realize that that formula is not all there is to it. Because here’s the thing; Red Queen used the concept really really well (and it was a big hit in part because it wasn’t often used in the YA market at the time, which is/was saturated with overdramatic prom-dress-clad-model covers,) but it doesn’t at all hold the monopoly on that idea.

here’s what Burning Glass’s cover makes me think of way more than Red Queen:

Because BG uses said formula with such super boring ~Fantasy~ type, I genuinely thought Burning Glass was a dry adult fantasy novel at first glance. A cover may not be ugly, but as i’ve said before and will probably say 8 jillion times on this blog, if it misrepresents its contents, it’s still a bad cover.

But genre confusion aside, here’s why the formula still isn’t resulting in a good cover (and it’s the same thing I touched on yesterday): BG’s photograph is... kind of cool? But the bloody crown on RQ isn’t just “kind of cool”, it’s immediately striking. In an instantaneous glance you know exactly what you’re looking at and what the connotations are and you’re like !!!!!! Same with those GOT covers, although they’re not quite as ~dramatic~

One has to kind of squint at this.

And look, I probably need to chill, because this is still pretty and adequately designed and better in several ways than yesterday’s BLOODY FLEUR DE LIS OF MEANINGLESSNESS, but... it’s hard to tell exactly what this is; “I think it’s jewelry, maybe in ashes of some kind??” is more puzzling than arresting. And I’m not saying you can’t have ambiguous imagery on a book cover, of course you can, but you can’t do the ~~SINGLE STRIKING DRAMATIC IMAGE~~ thing if said image is just kind of... feebly hard to discern, rather than crystal-clear or deliberately mysterious in some way. (and those “embers” are weak, come on.)

That the fade to black on the edges is so aggressively artificial is also Not Great but that’s negligible, I get it, lighting is hard.

Final issue, which I am going to blow way out of proportion: what in the world is this?

This looks like something I doodled in the margins of my anatomy notes. If they wanted to add some ~flair, fine, but the rest of this cover is so THIS IS SERIOUS AND DRAMATIC that the hand-drawn, semi-transparent quality is super weird and feels noncommittal. Particularly with the half-assed asymmetricality it introduces.  it’s like this book cover is a serious lawyer, and this weird little scribble swirl is the embarrassing lower back tattoo from when they were 22 that they’ve tried to remove like three times but there’s still a shadow of tweety bird there.

In a book cover, which is the entire identity of a piece of work that’s had many people pour tons of hours of work into it and also only roughly 6x9 inches, space is at an absolute premium. you cannot have extraneous elements. Even cluttered, crazy, or layered designs are carefully thought out, cluttered to a specific effect, and even fancy or subtle details have to be given an appropriate amount of weight to add up to a cohesive whole.

This? is totally extraneous. I didn’t even notice it until I was halfway through this post, and it’s so light it absolutely does not contribute anything. Like? I’m so confused? It looks like a mistake, like a sketch for elements that would be added later that accidentally got merged into the wrong layer and is now stuck there. wtf

It doesn’t need anything of the sort, but if they wanted to fancy it up a bit, a clear-cut, decisive ornamental thing in the same treatment as the type (and symmetrical, one way or another,) would have been more effective:

these took me two minutes and i just used the first flourishes i found on google. If they really wanted some transparency, they could have done, i don’t know, smoke effects or something (because, well, Burning):

This cover isn’t super bad, just aggressively mediocre, so sorry if it feels like I was harsh on it. But if you’re going to take cues from other successful things, maybe... understand why they work, rather than just ape the structure.

And fuck that extraneous little swirl.

[ddrkirbyisq]

It's always easier to write about things at the time, than to try and recall previous feelings at a later point.  I guess that's why blogging every day after school always felt like a nice thing...

Most of last week was pretty busy (and even a few days the week before, honestly), mostly with work stuff, though that slowed down towards the end of the week.  I was left this weekend with a weird feeling of not knowing whether I should try to just catch up on some stuff that I need to do (to feel better), or to just try to not really do anything productive at all (to feel better).  When "being productive" and "being not productive" are sometimes two different roads to the same outcome it becomes difficult to evaluate where I should go.  As always, though, balance is usually the right answer, and my mind is quick to course-correct whenever it has strayed too far in one direction or the other.

Yesterday, for example, I didn't really get to check anything substantial off of the todo list at all, so today I ended up making up for it by handling an album release, then working on a song for 4 hours, as well as writing and finishing a letter.  Pretty much any day where I get to put significant progress (in this case, finishing the entire rough draft) towards a song outside of OHC time is usually a good day for me...

Did some "fun but also hard work" things this past week as well.  We had a sushi night where I got to play sushi chef and make 4 different types of nigiri.  Although my raw fish were not quite the ideal shapes/sizes, it was quite an experience trying to slice through them in one clean motion with my knife.  I can see why people use single beveled blades for this stuff -- you can really feel it when your knife isn't up to snuff for this particular task.  Forming the sushi rice itself was much easier this time, knowing that the "water" that you dip your hands into to avoid rice sticking should actually be a mixture of water and rice vinegar...  We also did a hair bleaching + dyeing session, so I'm back to a deep blue color with some purple tips.

I've got a mental "checkup" of sorts coming up and thinking about that was a good chance for me to inventory what has potentially been bothering me in my life, even if those things are not really rearing their ugly heads at me at this moment.  Usually it's the same few things, honestly...stress, people, family, and loss (not necessarily in that order).  Out of all of those loss is the one that is perhaps most pervasive, though it also is not really as much of an issue when I'm busy being distracted by all the other ones.  Thoughts about loss and "abandonment" are of a different nature really, than all of the other ones, and I'm sure that is obvious just from the way that I write about it.

As we settle into September it's important (as always) that we continue to track what makes sense for us to do in terms of our goals for Social Studies.  Listening to an online LGBTQ+ roundtable for the city that I live in, one of the takeaways I got from it was how important it can be to make it obvious in our communities and interactions that we are thinking about inclusivity and to call out gender typing / etc.  This is of course something that I've thought about a lot in the past as it relates to typecasting social dance roles, but there are a number of ways in which we can probably do better about that outside of dance as well.  I've tried to make my pronouns (now listed as "he/him/she/her all OK") present in a few more places as that is something that is quite easy to do.  I admittedly still have to get used to bringing that up when introducing myself, though that is difficult since introducing myself is something that so rarely happens in the first place...but I guess I can always start asking when I meet new people too.  Honestly though, a lot of the time I hardly even ask for people's names when I meet them...bleh

In other news, I've been trying to get a little bit more aware of my sleep cycles -- not just my schedule of sleeping itself, but trying to be a little more conscious of regulating exactly how much sleep I get.  After one too many times of waking up groggy due to getting "the wrong" amount of sleep I figured I should probably try to do a better job of figuring out what the "right" amount of sleep is.  I've figured out for example that I tend to come out of a sleep cycle about 4 hours after sleeping, but I've yet to solidly figure out whether 7.5 or 8 or 9 are good number of hours for me to really feel ready to wake up in the morning (though I can guess).

I've been a little less involved with positive activism than I'd like to be.  Granted, I've been busy, so that is sort of an excuse for it, but I don't think that's really the whole story either.  I think I skimped a bit on research that I should have done in the meantime for more critical activism.  Anyways, right now instead of that I've actually been thinking to sort of sidetrack my efforts and instead look for penpal programs.  I tried writing a letter for the Letters to Strangers project and I may do so again but I felt like it did feel a bit impersonal to be sending a letter into the void.  Granted, these blog posts are perhaps much the same thing, and there are certain times at which perhaps I would be ok with sending a letter to the void.  But it seems perhaps more in line with my sensibilities to send a letter that is actually directed towards someone.  I've joined up with a program that claims to pair writers with nursing home patients/workers to write to, so we'll see if that ends up going anywhere.  Who knows, maybe I will end up finding someone who will actually write back, unlike all of those many people who seem to only exist in the memories of my past.