#but yes this was a bit of an improvement on the last 5-7 years

[qqueenofhades]

Idk man, 2022 didn't fuck around?

The Queen dies;

Jair Bolsonaro loses in Brazil, and decides to go away WITHOUT trying a coup (this was not a given)

Putin gets his ass kicked in Ukraine, the world comes together to oppose him;

The GOP's much hyped "Red Wave" in the American midterms is a Big Lol; now they have to contend with the Talented Mr. Santos and the constant clown show that will be a Republican House and Kevin McCarthy trying DESPERATELY to get elected speaker;

The Democrats kept the Senate and even added a seat, while capping off a year of big and meaningful legislative accomplishments; hence if certain unnamed SCOTUS justices snuff it in the next two years, they can fill that seat;

The Tories, after an absolutely laugh-so-you-don't cry year of absolutely surreal comedic incompetence inflicted on the people of Britain, are an average of 26 points behind in general opinion polls;

Sex trafficker and all around miserable misogynist Andrew Tate tries to pick a fight with Greta Thunberg, self owns to an amazing degree, is now being held in a Romanian prison for another month after stupidly giving his location away via pizza box;

Former Pope Benedict XVI, aka a decades-long enforcer of sexual abuse coverups in the Catholic Church as well as various other reprehensible moral positions, kicks the bucket (on the last day of the year)

A new climate deal was made;

And so on.

I mean, various other bad things very much still did happen, and it was a tough year for a lot of us on a personal level, but this is the first year since probably 2016 where it feels like there's actually a bit of hope for the future on a big structural level, and I appreciate that.

[hesalleyes]

If you're a bit confused about Rusty Quill or what's been happening, hopefully this will be a handy guide.

Hello everyone, especially all newbies to the Rusty Quill family! I thought I'd talk a little bit about the company. There's a lot of information out there, some of which may be contradictory or difficult to find, and so I compiled it into what I think is a decent timeline. I've also included some of my thoughts on what Rusty Quill has been through, and where it's going.

(check the end for associated footnotes!)

A Brief And Mostly Objective Timeline For Rusty Quill Ltd.

Alexander J. Newall wanted to start a company for creatives. His father (presumably) laid down the starting capital and Rusty Quill was founded 29th June 2015. Alex owned 99% of the company, John Newall, 1%. (1)

Alex reached out to a bunch of his improv friends and asked if they would participate in an actual-play podcast. Alex hadn't seen a fully produced actual-play with sound effects and background music and he wanted to fill that niche in the market. James Ross, Bryn Monroe, and Lydia Nicholas all agreed. Tim Meredith was otherwise engaged, but said his brother Ben would be up for it. Rusty Quill Gaming (RQG) was born and started airing episodes in June 2015.

Meanwhile, besides running, editing, producing, directing, and mastering RQG, Alex also worked nights at an extremely boring data entry job James Ross set up for him. James also helped Jonny Sims get that same job (2). At the time, Jonny was playing gigs with his band The Mechanisms, but his passion was for writing. The Mechanisms were a folk band that reimagined classic stories/myths to music with hefty narrative pieces, which has obvious applicability to a podcast company. Because of this fortuitousness, sometime in 2013-14, Alex and Jonny met and found that they were both highly creative people who desperately wanted out of this job. Jonny invited Alex to a Mechanisms show at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Alex loved The Mechs show. He was convinced he must work with Jonny on something. Jonny had a few ideas and pitched what would become The Magnus Archives, though it was first more of a Twilight Zone anthology, which is why the "narrator" had Jonny's name. Alex wanted to add more of a narrative framework and they shaped it together, all five seasons, so that it was cohesive the whole way through. Some things did, organically, pop up later. For instance, Martin started mainly as a foil to Jon, and only became the love interest after a bit of writing.

Around 2018, Patreon funding eventually allowed RQ to build a studio in Rusty Towers that enabled them to record their high-quality audio (3). Before that, they were - at various times - recording in a ‘yurt’ made of blankets and duvets for most of season one (usually at James Ross’ house or Martyn’s hallway, since Alex was - at that point - intermittently homeless due to asbestos problems).(4)

In 2016, RQ set up the Rusty Quill Forums, an official RQ fan-space where fans could interact with each other and RQ members. (5) This early arena for interaction would precipitate the more immediate (and much larger) Discord, Rusty Quill Official. Anil Godigamuwe, Community Manager, was the main force behind running and moderating the forums.

2016 was also the year that Mike Lebeau decided to gather a few people to play games and raise money for charity in what would become the predecessor to Rusty Quill Giving and Gaming. This event involved only Mike, Bryn, Ben, Anil, and Martyn Pratt (Chief Technology Officer). It only lasted twelve hours and they raised £700. (6)

Late 2017, Rusty Quill, in association with Historic Royal Palaces, released Outliers, a historical fiction podcast. Probably the least known of RQ’s podcasts, but very good and well-done. (Yes, this is a plug for Outliers. Go listen! It's great!)

In 2018, the Rusty Quill Official Discord server (RQO) went live and most of the fans from the forums moved there. (7)

February 15, 2019, Stellar Firma, the improv comedy sci-fi show starring Tim and Ben Meredith, began airing.

Mike wanted to explore more of the video side of creating. On January 25, 2020, RQ Streams launched, and soon there was a decent amount of content generated on RQ’s Twitch channel. Video content would gain traction in the form of New Player Challenge (NPC). Many RQ members would stream, including Anil, Autumn, several editors, and Helen Gould (member of Rusty Quill Gaming and later promoted to Head of Inclusion). The streams would get big enough that RQ would eventually hire a few mods specifically for the streams (30). RQ Streams wasn't fiscally sound as a primary source of income, but streaming helped encourage community engagement.

In February 2020, Alex gave an interview to Haggis and Dragons at PodUK. The host asked why, despite their success, Rusty Quill hadn't been present at many events such as PodUK before. Alex responded that the company was dedicated to making sure they took care of their people first, but now that all the finicky backend admin stuff was finished, they could do fun things like conventions. (8)

A month later, COVID-19 shut down the world.

At this point, TMA had been running for four years, and - while relatively successful and critically admired- was still a smallish podcast, especially when measured against engagement levels of other fiction podcasts at the time. Whether COVID, the whim of Tumblr, or a spark that refused dim, the fuse on TMA had been lit. It would jump sharply with the season four finale in Halloween 2019, but when season five premiered on April 2, 2020, TMA was at its second highest peak in popularity , its highest only a month away. It would maintain a high level of engagement until the series finale in March 2021. (9) Whatever the reason, TMA had exploded, and no one could've predicted it.

In July 2020, Hannah Brankin, Chief Operations Officer and spouse of Alex Newall, became a director in the Rusty Quill company. (10)

In August 2020, Autumn Jarvis (longtime fan of RQ) with a history of convention organization came on as Community Assistant. (11) This role promoted her to Head Moderator of the Discord (RQO), coordinating communication between the Discord mods and RQ admin. RQ hired her to help Anil, as at this point, RQO had nearly 8000 members.

The official Rusty Quill Discord server (RQO) went from a reasonable 1000 participants to nearly 14,000 before its shutdown in September 2021. In August 2020 (a few days after Autumn took over), a group raided RQO, proclaiming issues of racism, ableism, and other accusations directed at Rusty Quill, but also at the volunteer mods. It was the only major attack, but from time to time small incursions would occur thereafter. RQO’s many mods (at least 11, at one point) were unpaid. Whether or not that was a good business decision is debatable, but mods were responsible for monitoring content that was Patreon-exclusive, so one might think a Patreon subscription should’ve been included.

April 2, 2021, Patreon-exclusive Inexplicables began airing. The show was initially met with a lot of positive feedback and excitement. The RQO channels were full of theorizing and chat, which Alex could be seen reading. While Inexplicables seemed ripe for a sequel, there have been no indications of future content.

In May of 2021, Rusty Quill launched the Rusty Quill Network. Many felt the network wasn’t explained sufficiently, but subsequent clarification from Autumn verified that RQ was not doing any of the following for the new shows that would be included under the network’s umbrella: producing, funding, editing, or creating. Apparently, the RQN was designed to act as a distribution and collective bargaining service. Unfortunately, this aspect was never made explicit to the fans by official RQ channels.

In September of 2021, Autumn was terminated. While Autumn has stated the reason she was terminated, it was on a private server and because RQ has made no official statement regarding the termination, I won’t share that information. RQ did ask if she would like to appeal the decision, but Autumn declined. Later, the mods organized a walkout in protest and quit. Only the mod known as Crunchy remained, and was the last one to close out the server. Later, he would admit that the mods actively decided not to include him in this decision. (12) While there were RQ Streams mods, they, unfortunately, didn’t have as much power as the Discord mods and were unable to assist much (30). RQ released a statement on September 15, 2021 regarding the closing of the Discord and the mod walk-out, and RQO has been dark ever since. (13)

RQ Streams, it’s worth mentioning at this point, had some mods specifically for streams, but also relied on the Discord mods to moderate the chat during streams (30). Ultimately, when the mods walked out, RQ Streams was also forced to stop.

Since the mod walkout, any events run and sponsored by RQ have been modded by volunteers, and usually small enough that it hasn’t become an issue (RQGG21 being modded by some Discord mods, with other Gather events modded mostly by RQ employees) (30).

April 26, 2022, Chapter and Multiverse, the analogous successor to Rusty Quill Gaming run by Maddy Searle, the former lead editor of Stellar Firma, began airing. It would conclude its first season in August. While RQ has indicated that C&M will continue, it has been postponed until 2023. However, Maddy Searle posted a tweet (since deleted) indicating she is no longer employed at Rusty Quill. After claims that Maddy was reprimanded and forced to take down the tweet, RQ would later clarify that they have a 48 hour confidentiality policy regarding things like that, and that's why they requested the removal of the tweet for that time. Maddy hasn't reposted the tweet, or commented publicly on her reasons for doing so. 

On June 10, 2022, Mike announced he was leaving Rusty Quill. (14) Although others had also streamed on RQ’s Twitch in the past, he was the primary force driving its relevance and the channel has remained  mostly unused since the aforementioned Discord mod walkout, most likely citing lack of moderation as a main concern.

August 2, 2022, the original RQ production Trice Forgotten premiered. Trice Forgotten continues to update.

As per the September 21, 2022 Patreon email, Cry Havoc! and Neon Inkwell, the other RQ original productions, have been postponed to 2023. (29)

With their three original podcasts completed and many future projects postponed, Rusty Quill had reached a quiescent stage. Patreon emails were sparse and while RQ maintained a loyal base, activity around the company had slowed.

Then -

October 10th, 2022 a string of strange letters appeared in a Patreon email. (15) Fandom quickly deduced that it wasn't a mistake, but rather a cipher. A Discord server dedicated to cracking the code sprang up almost immediately and fandom deciphered the cryptic letters in a few hours. This began a mini-ARG leading to the announcement of a Magnus Archives "side-quel": The Magnus Protocol. On a subsequent livestream, Alex confirmed the sequel and announced that the project would be fully funded by a Kickstarter. No money would be taken from Patreon, current or proposed shows, income generated through ads, agreements, merch, RQN residuals, etc. (16)

The Magnus Protocol Kickstarter launched November 22. It was fully funded in less than one minute, and as-of publishing this post is currently at £ 624,268, 4162% of their original goal. Release for the project is expected in October 2023 and is said to follow two British civil servants, Alice and Sam, as they deal with the legacy of the burned-down Magnus Institute of Manchester. Curious, as the Magnus Institute from the original series was very much based in London. (17)

On December 12, 2022, Newt Schottelkotte - marketing director for the Fable and Folly podcast network - released an opinion article on Medium detailing several allegations against Rusty Quill. (18) Schottelkotte submitted the article to several publications that declined to publish it. They decided to self-publish on Medium, which allows for independent publication. In good faith, I won’t presume this was a targeted attack by another network, but rather the opinion of a contingent of industry professionals who tried to represent those allegedly wronged by Rusty Quill as a production company (perhaps taking advantage of the timing of the new Kickstarter to gain traction for their post - but that one can only leave to speculation). The testimonies were anonymous.

December 13, 2022, after a resulting influx of polarizing social media posts, RQ released an official response to the Medium article, refuting most points raised. (19)

Now, before I get into less fact-based territory, and knowing RQ intends to announce a more recent Operations Update in the new year, I feel it's relevant going forward to mention that for all the talk surrounding both sides of the story, the composition of Rusty Quill is not as large as some might think, considering the assumptions of some of the claims.  In 2021 the company conducted a voluntary internal census on company makeup and satisfaction. (20) At the time they had 28 employees. 23 responded, and here are a few interesting tidbits they had to say:

91% identify as Neurodivergent

30% identify as non-cisgender; 48% identify as female, 26% as male, and 26% as not exclusively one of those categories

30% are people of color

30% identify as bisexual, 9% pansexual, & 9% queer. 26% identify as heterosexual. These numbers may or may not include the 17% who identify as asexual.

This census doesn’t include individual contractors (which comprises most of their editors and voice actors). In the census, RQ recognized their huge deficit in hiring people of color. RQ maintains a flat pay structure across all departments (including leadership), which - thanks to Patreon funding - stands above the London cost of living rate. (21)

The Less Than Objective Part

Rusty Quill is a small company. The average number of employees for 2022 was 21. (22) This number doesn't reflect possible layoffs/terminations since then. Most of its voice actors and editors are contracted. This is intended partially to allow flexibility on both RQ and the contractors’ part as well as enable RQ to diversify their talent without the contractual obligation of employment (the UK doesn’t recognize ‘at-will’ employment; termination must be for a cause). Meaning that even if the company finds itself in the position of having to terminate employees, it maintains the possibility of working with those same people as contractors to help out RQ financially, but also to allow those employees to find more stable or long term jobs in the interim.

However, holding onto only an essential team of staff (as you find in any small company, but especially in an industry without historical regulation - often relying on a presumed integrity of nebulous industry standards, as opposed to codified protections) employees are often forced to wear many hats. Most often voluntarily, but often to their detriment. This manifested in such things as Autumn transcribing Stellar Firma, without any transcription experience, or the continual mishap of Alex or Hannah responding to delicate situations with off-the-cuff inexpertise (generally sweet and earnest, but not as diplomatic or clear as needed - something that larger companies potentially avoid with dedicated teams regarding media training), but is perhaps most apparent in the early stages of RQG and TMA where Alex, in addition to being a primary player/voice actor, did the majority of the editing and mastering until Lowri Ann Davies joined halfway through RQG. Based exclusively on the runtimes of RQG episodes/specials (not including how long it actually took to edit down recorded footage to what we hear), Alex edited a total of 217 hours of RQG, over 9 whole days, or nearly 83% of the content. (23) Early specials, behind the scenes specials, and Q&As often contain jokes about Alex needing to sleep. This sort of work-life balance should not be necessary for success, but many creatives know that it’s the unfortunate reality for many startups without the resources of a major media network backing them. 

And, as evidenced here, despite its exposure and popularity Rusty Quill’s resources were limited from the start. Alex and Hannah, as directors and main shareholders in the company, are solely responsible for the company’s fiscal viability. As such, I think this has led to some decisions where one or both of them have taken over projects or refused to delegate when it would have better served that project or even themselves. But there’s also something to be said for a duty of care, and the difficulty of giving that up. 

In such an environment, it’s not surprising that a large part of smaller podcasting companies’ revenue is generated through fan-funding. The grassroots organization of a devoted fanbase can help grow a company without access to other funds or a robust marketing budget. Steady patreon subscriptions can make up for periods of instability in advertising returns, but issues begin to arise when companies encounter something like RQ did: an explosion in popularity that lacked sustainability, and the contingencies and strategies to deal with that. However, it’s a double-edged sword. The importance of Patreon and fan goodwill can help create the mentality that RQ owes the fans something. Nothing in Patreon's TOS requires artists to offer rewards; the idea behind Patreon - at least to me - is that in exchange of supporting someone making art you enjoy, you occasionally get glimpses into the creative process behind that art. This idea has evolved over the years, but I think Patreon has become, to some people, more transactional: I pay you five dollars, you give me one piece of art. This more give-take mentality can lead to feelings of ownership; fans pay for RQ to exist, therefore they should have a say in how RQ conducts its business. Whether RQ views it that way or not.

RQ has begun to diversify their income, however, with the creation of the RQN, where they get fees from providing marketing and distribution services for other podcasts. Although RQ has experienced a drop in Patrons, it has returned to subscription levels similar to those before the meteoric rise of TMA and is hopefully navigating towards finding a balance between delivering what fans want without enabling an unhealthy relationship of catering to what’s profitable instead of what they want and are excited about making. (24)

Fandom and The Illusion of Closeness

There’s no denying that many creatives have an intimate relationship with their audience, especially smaller and/or newer ventures. RQ had, for a long time, quite a close relationship with its fans. It’s still visible in the old forums, where Alex, Mike, and Anil could be seen posting with regularity. There are many images from past RQGGs (even up to RQGG19) where RQ staff and fans casually mingled. 

However, there is an issue with something like Discord where the immediacy of contact creates the illusion of intimacy. The ability to ping a creator facilitates the idea that the creator is therefore available and willing to be pinged. It’s not so much an issue when there are 1000 people on a server with only a hundred or so active, and only a fraction of them irregularly contacting creatives. When that number goes up, even proportionally, it results in a huge uptick in forced contact. It’s been theorized that both Jonny Sims and Ben Meredith stepped back from the Discord server because of crossed boundaries. Another staff member had a fan harass them to the point of needing to block said fan and the fan was eventually banned from RQO by the mods. 

On the other hand, Community Manager Anil continued to always be available and Alex & Hannah would occasionally hop on and respond when they were active. This apparent ease of access can trick people into believing that they are close to the creators, and the illusion of this perceived relationship can be problematic for both parties.

In these circumstances it’s natural for creators to develop a persona to protect themselves. There’s nothing wrong with this and it is, in fact, a healthy and smart thing to do; the person fans interact with is not, exactly, who that person is. Not to say they’re fake or lying, but that creators deserve a degree of privacy that comes from concealing certain things about themselves that fans aren’t - and shouldn’t be - privy to. Fans’ insistence on access to creators and their secrets can be extremely difficult and exhausting, especially for creators who don’t have a publicity or security team. For instance, Jonny was forced to reveal his past with drug abuse when people incessantly questioned and berated him about his portrayal of drug abuse in "Strung Out," a season five episode of TMA (notably also when the fandom had exploded beyond the comfortable community of its earlier seasons). Fan entitlement to knowledge about creators and access to them can be particularly egregious in this sort of setting where the creators are trying to maintain the intimate community they used to enjoy, one that (at least in the initial stages) they relied on financially, while dealing with a huge influx of new fans. Even Critical Role, arguably the largest podcast in the actual-play genre, has suffered from a similar issue, though the actors in CR have much more experience than RQ.

Rusty Quill is a business and their dealings are of proprietary interest. Like any other entertainment company, they produce a product for consumption but the way they run internally isn’t something consumers are (or should be) privy to - barring gross mistreatment  which, despite claims, hasn’t been proven. When Autumn was terminated, RQ didn’t release an official statement on what led to the termination. While many fans wanted to know, RQ has no obligation to reveal internal processes like hiring/firing, especially if details of such could affect an employee’s future employment. Identifying particular employees as responsible for certain policies or potentially upsetting updates could open that employee to threats or harassment (which RQ experienced before).

The Disproportionate Critique of Small Creators

It would be ridiculous to assert that Rusty Quill has never made a mistake - sometimes repeatedly - or a misstep. They’ve issued an apology multiple times for the lack of sensitivity in their content or a miscommunication on their end. Miscommunication was, in fact, a key factor in why the Discord mods left. RQ tried to preemptively combat these issues by hiring Helen Gould as a sensitivity director to ensure their content had been looked over for things that could be harmful. Given their company makeup and the composition of their talent - both writing and on-air - RQ has tried to diversify itself so that their content doesn’t come solely from the perspective of cishet white male. Stellar Firma would be the only show to suffer from this, however, it’s worth mentioning that on the production side Maddy Searle and Katie Seaton seem to have been brought on intentionally to avoid, or at least ameliorate this issue.

There is a pervasive issue with fandom as a whole to apply a more rigorous rubric against smaller and/or indie companies producing entertainment because they’re accessible. It’s easy to see why this phenomenon exists; when a person sees that they can speak to a creator directly, that the creator might respond specifically to those critiques. It can feel as if the consumer has more power in the relationship. Complaining about Disney cutting out a lesbian kiss in Star Wars, for example, will never reach Bob Iger, but if you want to talk to James D’Amato about a choice he made in the most recent Skyjacks episodes, he’s almost certainly going to respond. By feeling more intimately connected to creators, fans can feel empowered to be more aggressive in their criticisms.

A sustainable medium must exist between the two extremes of critique. A small indie company like Rusty Quill cannot be above criticism because of its size or its intention to do better - at some point, it must actually be doing better (which, I believe, it has and is consistently endeavoring to). Conversely, it can’t be upheld to a stricter standard than a larger company purely because its creators are accessible and will directly encounter the critique aimed at them. Rusty Quill has expanded their base of collaborators - which includes having an open pitch form to allow anyone to submit ideas - and made headway on wider and more accurate representation in their shows. There are certainly other shows and companies tackling and portraying difficult issues and diversity with a better outcome than Rusty Quill. That doesn't detract from the efforts RQ is making and shouldn't invite a disproportionate level of critique.

So What Now?

While it is fair to offer critique aimed at Rusty Quill and what it does, I think the benefits of this coming from a large audience diminish due to a few factors: quantity with no control for quality, purity culture, and entitlement. These things could comprise a much much longer essay, but I’ll be brief.

One of the huge benefits RQ got out of early Patreon release on the Discord was a limited quantity of feedback. Alex would show up to ask about the sound quality: if anything seemed off or if we had comments or noticed something. Anil would collect extra content warnings if needed, and some titles even changed when fans pointed out redundancies. Both Alex and (to a much stronger degree) Helen interacted with patrons about Inexplicables, including thoughts and theories. At one point, RQ created a gaming system called Ensemble and elicited feedback from people, encouraging them to play. These comments and critique are very helpful for RQ because of their pointedness. Contrast this to the response to the s5 TMA episode “Strung Out" - or the controversy surrounding a later episode’s perceived insensitivity to current events, necessitating a warning and apology before the usual opening theme (a perception generated before the public launch of the episode, stoked by assumptions and Twitter discourse).

Fandom as a whole has veered bizarrely into an obsession with purity - if something isn’t perfect, then it shouldn’t exist. RQ will not and cannot get everything right. It’s not a format made for easy editing and revision after the fact. It can be lauded for its achievements and persuaded to do better in a way that isn’t overly aggressive or hyperbolic. People tend to forgive mistakes if they like something and focus on them if they don’t, but it’s better to avoid assigning a moral value to something like representation - the effort and commitment is important. (For clarity - I believe it is moral and ethical to do everything you can to achieve accurate and diverse representation. The morality I reference here is more in regards to labeling something, irredeemably, as bad just because it doesn’t live up to your expectations). 

Not to be repetitive, but fans in smaller fandoms often feel a sense of entitlement because of their ease of access to creators. If Alex is right there talking about the Trice Forgotten schedule, why shouldn’t he answer a prod about the continuation of Chapter & Multiverse??? The answer is that he’s updating you on Trice - not Chapter. Fans are not, and shouldn’t be, part of the internal machinations of a company, however close they feel, and why certain things happen or when isn’t always going to be obvious. RQ has varying degrees of success when it comes to updating their fans about timelines or happenings in the company, and while there is definitely room for improvement, overall, it shouldn’t be a requirement or expectation. That is to say - the relentless inundation of tangential comments or questions offers no benefit and can impose an increasing feeling of frustration: for the company, for the fan asking, and for the fans witnessing. Not even mentioning the personel issue. RQ has shown a willingness to acknowledge, apologize, and modify their content when there are complaints made against it. Because RQ has acted this way, it might invite the idea that they should have the same transparency and openness to comment about the way their business runs; of which they have no obligation to do so, and in many instances, definitely should not.

For instance, several people may have been let go from Rusty Quill recently, probably because of financial issues due to the downturn in the UK economy (see RQ’s statement for more specific reasoning). Although it is tempting to be angry or upset about it, businesses make decisions involving structure and the reorganization of employees in their company all the time. For a variety of reasons. Lay-offs or terminations may be needed in order to keep a company afloat. Often these legal reasons and internal processes cannot be disclosed, and barring that the individuals involved may not have consented to their information becoming public - despite audiences wanting to see corporate due diligence. The point is that while it might be comforting to know why things happened, ultimately it isn’t reasonable to expect a company to share those details or any others that have to do with its internal running or function.

Moving Forward

Rusty Quill is in a precarious position. The unexpected juggernaut of The Magnus Archives turned them from a small, emergent company to a well-known name in the podcast community. They were unprepared for it, very few people could be, and nearly three years later they’re still struggling to find a sustainable balance. RQ has had to adjust to the influx of fans, fan opinions, money, and the resulting issues of accountability. And now that TMA is over, they’ve had some time to try to adjust to not having that same monetary inflow. Whatever outward critique can be placed on them for how they’ve handled the transition, the formation of Rusty Quill Network seems to have leveled out their income in a way that will enable them to stay solvent, even if it means occasionally stopping to restructure and reorient. There is no provable model for success.

While some detractors may claim that the Magnus sequel Kickstarter is a huge windfall, it isn't necessarily so. Money made from a Kickstarter must go toward what is promised - hence the use of clearly stated stretch goals. It is against Kickstarter policy to give funds to charity, so the KS money will be used solely for projects relating to TMP. That money is spent and should be treated as thus and not a surge of new money into RQ’s coffers. It’s not a bail out. (25)

RQ has a brand that people trust and they should lean into that reputation, heavily promoting their new shows and focusing on getting those running. RQN seems instrumental in keeping the company afloat and therefore it’s understandable that so much time is spent introducing and promoting the shows taken under that umbrella (that’s part of the incentivizing service they offer RQN shows anyway), But RQ cannot expect the ad revenue from their new shows like they did with TMA and have to adjust accordingly. I hope RQ recognizes that they’re still mostly a small indie company with a surprise hit and allow themselves the restrictions - and responsibilities - of that.

As for fans, I think RQ should capitalize on the good favor they have and reengage the fandom in an appropriate manner. Livestreams are wonderful, but should automatically have slowmode to at least 30 seconds on any stream, 60 on a huge one (like the KS promotion livestream). It not only allows the on-air talent to catch some messages, but it allows the mods to filter easier. How they reestablish a team of mods is theirs to outline, but with better communication and potential benefits (i.e. a patreon subscription) it’s likely folks would be willing. 

Secondly, I believe RQ should reinstate the forums. The benefit to something more static like forums (or reddit threads or whatever is similar) is the ease of moderation and the forced expansion of time. Without the instant chat function of Discord, it isn’t as overwhelming to participate in forums or threads. These should be official RQ forums and moderated (which won’t be as difficult as a Discord). As mentioned, compensation is a tricky subject because when you start paying ‘volunteers’ they can claim employment and it opens up RQ to a whole swath of responsibilities. A “Mod Team” shirt or pin, a patreon subscription, maybe some mod-creator meetups could be provided for services rendered.

RQ could possibly look into reopening the Discord, perhaps limiting it to patrons. While that would make it more manageable, it potentially leads to issues involving classism or elitism. It could also exacerbate the earlier issue of fan entitlement. If RQ decides to reopen the Discord, they should do so with a lot of consideration.

I'm a huge fan of Rusty Quill. There are plenty of times I’ve been frustrated or disappointed with them, but at its heart, it tries to accomplish what I think to be a noble and admirable goal. Rusty Quill seeks to create good art with an emphasis on highlighting diverse voices that might not otherwise get a chance to perform. And, from what I’ve seen despite some ups and downs, tries to do their best to create sustainable income for those they bring along as collaborators. The love the team has for storycrafting is obvious and that - along with their community - is where they should focus.

EDIT:

I started this post about three weeks ago, so the Medium article was a big surprise. I won’t dissect the article because that’s not my goal, but I do have a few thoughts.

So, let's address the article on Medium.

Here is the article so you can read it for yourself. https://medium.com/@newtschott/whos-afraid-of-alex-j-newall-ae3a67f3a5e1

Here is Rusty Quill's response: https://rustyquill.com/2022/12/13/public-response-to-an-opinion-piece/

This tumblr post speaks about an inaccurate quote that the article mentions, and I think is relevant: https://www.tumblr.com/dadhuddle/703488191401984000/journalistic-integrity-re-newt-schottelkottes-rq?source=share.

Here is a link to a tumblr post from Harlan Guthrie, creator of the Malevolent podcast, which is part of the RQN. I felt it important to get a point of view of someone involved in the network. https://www.tumblr.com/malevolentcast/703493906802868224/you-probably-already-know-about-this-but-an?source=share

The issues the article raises are very important. If these allegations are true, they need to be addressed. Newt being the marketing director of a rival podcast company and failing to disclose this for several hours casts the entire article in doubt because the conflict of interest is something ethical journalists would've avoided. (26) Newt also favorably compared RQ's practices to Fable and Folly. (27) Newt and the other two editors of the piece also provided their contact information to provide help with "research, job searches, and more" to former/current employees of RQ. (28) Neither of these things are inherently wrong, but Newt's connection to F&F casts them in a different light. This could possibly be construed as encouragement for current RQ employees or network shows to leave RQ for F&F. It's unfortunate, because this conversation needed to happen, especially if the purported issues are factual. Now there is a haze over the veracity of this article because of this lack of disclosure and the conflicts of interest from the author.

There has been some talk stating that podcast networks are not rivals. They can be friendly, they can share actors, they can share spaces. They almost certainly don't share profits. Every show added to a network brings in income for that network. If one of these networks dissolves, then the shows under its umbrella can move to one of the other networks, raising its profits. It's difficult to deny that one podcast network would benefit from the dissolution of another. I would identify that as rivals, even if they're friendly.

I don't believe that Fable and Folly had anything to do with this article. I don't even think Newt intended for them to be involved at all or for people to make that connection. It's the appearance of bias that muddies the waters. Most journalistic codes of ethics tell journalists to avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived. If it seems a journalist has a stake in the outcome of a story, it compromises the neutrality and the authenticity of the piece.

And unfortunately, despite Newt's claims of a background in journalism (unverifiable at the time of posting this blog outside of editorial publications), the necessary practices to lend credence towards these allegations weren't followed.

This post represents my own opinions, based in my involvement in the community. I've tried to provide sources whenever I could, though much of it was lost when the RQ Discord shut down, or mired in the sheer breadth of content. If there's a blatant untruth, please let me know with supporting evidence so I can correct it.

Footnotes:

1. Establishment of the company and ownership as per the foundation documents.

2. Alex & Jonny working the same job James Ross gave them (160 Q&A)

3. Patreon funding builds new studio via Studio tour video: (the video is patron-only, so here is a screencap of Alex stating that Patreon funded the studio)

4. Alex was homeless for a while, retrospective 189.5 (amongst others)

5. Rusty Quill Forums https://rustyquill.proboards.com/board/1/general-board

6. RQ Forums post celebrating the first RQGG

7. Rusty Quill Official Discord goes live, via RQ Forums.

8. Haggis and Dragons interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkYsA50Ts9M&list=FLaf41raWk5sb2VhQcEcPpsg&index=27

(Alex talking about the company stepping back from the public 12:30)

9. Popularity of the term “the magnus archives” from Google Analytics

10. Hannah becomes director, via RQ filing documentation

11. Autumn becomes Community Assistant, via Patreon email

12. Rusty Quill’s official statement about mods walkout.

Announcement - plain text 15-09-21.pdf

13. Crunchy's tweet

14. Mike LeBeau leaves RQ, via his twitter

15. The first Magnus sequel ARG prompt, via Patreon email

16. Oct 24 Pre-Kickstarter Announcement Livestream https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLOj5JKq-QU&t

17. The Magnus Protocol Kickstarter launch livestream https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Xk1hgVY2cc&t

18 Newt Schottelkotte's Medium piece: https://medium.com/@newtschott/whos-afraid-of-alex-j-newall-ae3a67f3a5e1

19 Rusty Quill's response to the Schottelkotte piece: https://rustyquill.com/2022/12/13/public-response-to-an-opinion-piece/

20. Rusty Quill internal census

21 The end of the RQ census summary:

22. Average number of employees at RQ in 2022, via RQ filing documentation

23. RQG editing stats, courtesy of the LOLOMG: A performance review by Oscar Wilde team (the team theorizes that Alex was still mastering during that early gap, but forgot to credit himself) [additional note: LOLOMG was a fan project to celebrate the end of Rusty Quill Gaming] note added 10am - incorrectly attributed, my deepest apologies to Straw and their team

24. Patreon retention stats, via Graphetron

25. Kickstarter use policy

26 The lack of disclosure on the initial posting of the Schottelkotte article.

27 Comparison of Fable and Folly's practices to Rusty Quill's.

28 Contact information for the writer and two editors given to current and ex Rusty Quill employees and network shows.

29 Patreon announcement of Cry Havoc! and Neon Inkwell postponement (I knew I had this lying around somewhere!)

30 Some additional information from Crunchy (thanks Crunchy!). sorry for the awful paint edit job (added 16/12/22 7pm)

[wishful-thinking64]

HH Rewrite Related Post #03

I've finally finished Lavanya's (renamed Charlie) key information for her character sheet! And with it comes a bit of lore for what I have in store. __________ [FULL NAME & NICKNAME] 🞂 LAVANYA MORNINGSTAR. 🞂 PREFERS TO BE CALLED ANYA. 🞂 With her first name meaning beauty and grace, Lucifer & Lilith thought it was the perfect name to give to their little princess. [D.O.B] 🞂 BORN DECEMBER 31ST, 2002. 🞂 Anya can't help but see her birthday as a bad omen due to having been born on the last day of the year when Hell's annual Extermination takes place. She'll put on a smile for her parents when in their presence but otherwise she'll be sulking in her room, silently wishing for the day to be over.

[AGE] 🞂 BIOLOGICALLY 22. [SPECIES] 🞂 HALF BAPHOMET DEMON (OTHER HALF UNKNOWN.)

[GENDER & SEX] 🞂 FEMALE.

[SEXUALITY] 🞂 BISEXUAL.

[SOCIAL STATUS] 🞂 PRINCESS OF HELL.

[ROYAL EMBLEM] 🞂 THE FORBIDDEN APPLE OF KNOWLEDGE. [IMMEDIATE FAMILY] 🞂 LILITH MORNINGSTAR = MOM. 🞂 LUCIFER MORNINGSTAR = DAD.

[EXTENDED FAMILY] 🞂 1 GRANDFATHER. 🞂 1 HALF UNCLE. 🞂 5 UNCLES & 3 AUNTS. 🞂 2 COUSINS. 🞂 Anya's never met most of her extended family thanks to two main reasons. The first being that most of them are in Heaven and the second but more important reason is that most of them have been and STILL are missing with the exception of her aunt, Adina Delacroix, and her daughters, Raquel & Amariel. In the absence of Elohim, Jesus (yes, he's the half uncle), and the 7 Heavenly Virtues, Adina was selected as Heaven's de jure leader as she is the only angel who both birthed and mothered an Archangel's children.

[FRIENDS] 🞂 ONLY 6. 🞂 As Princess of Hell and heir to the throne, her parents made sure that their daughter understood that she had to be careful choosing her friends as there’ll always be people who just want to use her money and her status. Her parents' words would lead to Anya's very seldom way of thinking when it comes to making friends as she would make her very first friend in the 3rd Grade. Over the years she’s amassed a tightly knit friend group consisting of six other demons excluding herself. Sometimes she jokes about them being the new Seven Deadly Sins.

[RELATIONSHIP STATUS] 🞂 FORMERLY DATED LAZARUS VON ELDRITCH. 🞂 CURRENTLY DATING VALORIS CARMINE. 🞂 Going from dating a fellow aristocrat in Hell’s hierarchy to dating the daughter of an Overlord isn’t too much of a leap in logic but it is still a noticeable difference. Thanks to her parents not many people publicly commented on their daughter’s romantic life (lest they wish to be publicly executed or suffer true torture for the rest of their damned afterlife) though people have always wondered what caused the end of her and Lazarus’ relationship along with the beginning of Anya’s relationship with Valoris. At the very least she seems to be happy with Valoris. [CORE PERSONALITY TRAITS] 🞂 AMIABLE. 🞂 AUTHENTIC. 🞂 AUTOCRATIC (you’ve gotta be a bit bossy if you’re going to be the future face of Hell.) 🞂 CLUMSY. 🞂 COMPASSIONATE. 🞂 CREATIVE. 🞂 DETERMINED. 🞂 INDECISIVE. 🞂 NAIVE. 🞂 OPTIMISTIC. 🞂 OVEREMOTIONAL. 🞂 SCATTERBRAINED.

[CORE ASPIRATIONS] 🞂 HAVING SINNERS ACHIEVE REDEMPTION AT THE HAPPY HOTEL. 🞂 PROVE TO EVERYONE THAT SINNER’S CAN BE REDEEMED. 🞂 DISCOVER MORE WAYS TO IMPROVE HELL. 🞂 HELPING OTHERS TO THE BEST OF HER ABILITY. 🞂 BEING A GOOD PARTNER. 🞂 NOT BEING A FAILURE.

[FEARS] 🞂 AUTOPHOBIA & KAKORRHAPHIOPHOBIA. 🞂 Autophobia is the polarizing fear of being abandoned and alone. If one day, the majority of Hell’s denizens suddenly decided to turn their backs on Anya, she wouldn’t care as long as her friends and family remained at her side. However, if her friends and family had ALL abandoned her, not only would she genuinely have a full blown mental breakdown and sob for months, she’d never be the same again. This does not bode well at all with her other biggest fear being Kakorrhaphiophobia which is the fear of failure. Anya does her best to follow the expectations set on her from her citizens, her parents, and even herself. So when she fails to meet this internal quota of hers, she’ll feel like shit but she’ll convince herself to do better in the future and focus on the Happy Hotel staff and its residents. [THOUGHTS ON HOTEL STAFF] 🞂 FAIRLY POSITIVE. 🞂 For the most part, Anya can see that everybody is trying their best to keep the hotel in business even if they don’t believe in the thought of redemption. She has faith in at least five out of her seven employees coming together to help her make the Hazbin Hotel work.

__________ I hope you guys liked reading Anya's character sheet and I'd like to know what character you'd like to see me write about next. I'll probably do this through a poll so keep your eyes peeled for that and I'll see you guys later!

[lifewtr]

∘⋆․⊹․∘⟡˖*⊹ * fan fic tag game * ∘⋆․⊹․∘⟡˖*⊹

HELLO @krankittoeleven! THANKS FOR THE TAG, WE ARE DEFINITELY HOMIES NOW :D i enjoyed your answers a lot; it's nice to meet you! ♥

1. How many fics do you have on AO3?

as of today, i have 50 fics on the archive!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

426,518. jeez.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

predominantly avatar: the last airbender, though i have certainly dabbled in others over the years. right now i'm slowly working my way into the jujutsu kaisen fandom ♥♥

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Lemon, Two Sugars (zutara, rated M): 905 kudos.

Give It Up (zutara, rated E): 824 kudos.

Half Joy (vinceno, rated E): 457 kudos.

Lyk Dis (zutara, rated E): 425 kudos.

Put It Down (zutara, rated E): 414 kudos.

5. Do you respond to comments?

I DO I'M JUST ABYSMAL WITH TIMELY REPLIES. I'M SORRY I LOVE ALL OF YOU AND I READ EVERY SINGLE ONE I SWEAR <3

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

like the homie krankittoeleven, i pretty much only use angst as a plot device - there are only happy/hopeful endings in this household lmao - but if i consider context, the fic with the angstiest ending is probably Honorfall (zutara, rated E). maybe Of All the Things My Hands Have Held (zutaraang, rated M)..?

7. What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

lots of my fics have happy endings ;))))) as for the happiest... ahh, probably If It Means a Lot to You (zukaang, rated M) and Flowers Never Pick Themselves (zutaraang, rated M).

8. Do you get hate on fics?

er, yes and no? i feel like hate is a strong word. it's more so that there are some readers who have simply ~disliked~ certain premises of mine, which, y'know, is what it is! click away or write your own shit! ♥

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

the good kind, baby, and absolutely nothing less. if it doesn't make me wet, i don't post it!

10. Do you write crossovers?

i used to! especially with and amongst irl friends. if there was a fandom i/we were into, there was a harry potter crossover in our shared docs to go with it LOL.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

an entire fic? no, not to my knowledge anyway. but i've definitely had some scenes and dialogue grabbed and scattered across the web over the years.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

no ;-; i've never even had art made for/inspired by my fics ;-;;;; one day though. one day i am going to write something [clenches fist] so fucking good...

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

several times! said fics will not be seeing the light of today, but yes! i love a good co-write!

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

once again, like the new homie i will not be picking just one and you will simply have to deal with it LOL. i am extremely down bad for tony stark/bucky barnes, tony stark/t'challa, tony stark/stephen strange.. okay i'm tony-centric, fuckin sue me. anyways. i still really love sesshomaru/kagome, zuko/katara, harry potter/hermione granger, trevor/alucard/sypha, and now gojo/nanami. when i tell you i am fERAL ABOUT NANAGO—

15. What’s a fic you’d like to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Take Care (zutara, rated M), and several other zutara fics that i have put into a graveyard so that even though they're unlikely to be completed, they can still be appreciated!

16. What are your writing strengths?

mmm. this is a bit hard for me to answer because i feel like i could use improvement everywhere, always. i could probably use some more work in my dialogue though (just having more of it, i think). with conflict resolution as well - circling back to angst, i usually gloss over it because i want [my] characters to have nothing but good times and good endings. i need to be less wary of putting them through some shit, which i am working on!

anywayyy. my biggest strength is my prose!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

up for debate, but personally my weakness is outlines. i try to use them but my brain does not like having "rules" when it comes to creating a story, even if i am the one to write them ;;

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

i'm a native (american) english speaker, so this question feels.. odd? bc ~american~? but as a native english speaker, i absolutely don't mind at all. i love languages and i love letting them into my brain! i myself use words from different languages, especially in what i'm writing is based in another country/place of origin.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

inuyasha! no you cannot see it, it's lost in the ether!

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Real War is Far Easier (zutaraang, rated M) and Performance Issues (zutara, rated E), which was a gift to the wonderful @zutarawasrobbed! there's a whole universe there that nobody but the two of us know about and i can't wait for the day that everyone can laugh about it as much as we do LOL

∘⋆․⊹․∘⟡˖*⊹ *∘⋆∘⋆․⊹․∘⟡˖*⊹․⊹․∘⟡˖*⊹⊹․⊹․∘⟡

tagging: @nire-the-mithridatist @gemgirl28 @andthedicestopped and @fidget-scribbles ♥

[illicien]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Tagged by @hiddenxplaces-blog

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

52

2. What's your total ao3 word count?

1,098,853

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Marvel. Specifically TFATWS at the moment.

4. Top five fics by kudos:

Time-Lost (IronStrange) Fathomless (IronStrange) Scribbles On Our Souls (DrPepperony) Heart of Gold (IronStrangeFrost) Persistence (IronStrange)

5. Do you respond to comments?

Almost every time. Sometimes I get a bit caught up or delayed, but typically I respond to comments pretty regularly. I love chatting with readers!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't think I've actively posted the fic with the truly angsty ending, yet, so I think the closest is probably a bittersweet ending with Still Here. (IronStrange / Stephen & Peter)

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Well this one took a sec. Keeper (IronStrange), probably?

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Oh not typically to my face, no.

9. Do you write smut?

Yep.

10. Craziest crossover:

I don't really do crossovers, so really the only crossover I can think of plainly is the DRoP/IronStrange fic we did, Heart of Gold.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I've seen so far.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! A fair few of them. 💓

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yep. A few!

14. All time favorite ship?

"All-time"? Time hasn't ended, I could hardly say. 😏

15. What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

At this point? Embraced. And I'm so sorry to everyone who was waiting for more.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Wait you want me to say nice things about myself? Goddamnit. I used to think dialogue was a weakness of mine, but I think I've improved a lot over the last couple of years since writing scripts necessitated writing solid dialogue, so I'm pretty confident in that, now. I'm also fairly strong where creating lore and histories are concerned; you want me to explain the magic in a universe? I've got you. You want to know the history of a region? I've got that down, too. World-building in general is my bread and butter.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Does "actually finishing a story" count? The reality is, I lose motivation really easily. I function best when I have someone to consistently bat ideas and things back and forth with, otherwise I get severely in my head about things to the detriment of whatever I'm writing. I also rely more heavily on degree modifiers than I should, and while I'm aware of it I still suck at minimizing it.

18. Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

I find it highly dependent on whose PoV the story is in. If the PoV character doesn't speak the language, I love being just as confused as them by not knowing the language. If the PoV character does speak the language I can be a little more picky about it, unless it's simply a singular word of endearment or something, because those can be difficult to translate even if you know both of the languages. But I have a love of and fascination with languages.

19. First fandom you wrote in?

Uh.... Yu-Gi-Oh!, I think?

20. Favorite fic you've written?

What an excellent question. I'm actually really proud of (Loss Of) Control (WinterBaron). I set out with some really specific goals for what I wanted to accomplish with it, and I mostly succeeded. There's definitely a section that's weaker than the others, but I pushed myself outside of my comfort zone and made an effort to tackle a trope I'd never written in fic, and to tackle an element of that trope that I felt like I wanted to see handled more in depth. And I'm proud of the result.

Tagging -> @descaladumidera @atypical-snowman @amethyst-noir @jeromesankaraao3

@the-elle-kat @kiki-shortsnout @turtleoftheabyss

[23yearold-virginslut]

Compiled a list of questioned & am answering them to the best of my ability 😇

Answers in pink 💗

Doesn't Apply in red ❣️

1. When was the last time you masturbated

30 minutes ago

2. Do you enjoy being fingered/fingering

Yes!

3. How do you feel about food during sex

Depends on what food & how its being used

4. What do you do directly after sex

Unsure, but depending on the time, i'd probably sleep

5. Cuddle with the tip in

10000%

6. What’s the nastiest sexual thing you’ve done

As of right now, I'd say masturbating (legs spread open on the dash)in my college parking lot

7. Name a follower you would fuck

I'm not going to name names, but you know who you are. Send me the message

8. Name a follower you have fucked.

None... yet

9. What’s the sexiest part of your body

I'd say my ass (especially with handprints on it)

10. FuckMarryKill: DJ Khalid, Rick Ross, Fat Joe

F- Rick Ross M- DJ Khalid K- Fat Joe

11. Would you ever be with a trans person

I think it depends, I wouldn't say yes or no solely because they're trans

12. Riding dick or doggy style

I'd say doggy, especially because I can have my hair pulled, hands pulled behind my back & I can have my ass slapped harder than when I'm riding a dick.

13. Ever fucked in a school

Nope, well... I've fucked myself in my car. That's it

14. Most random place youve had sex

Nowhere right now

15. Would you join the mile high club

Absolutely I would!

16. What are 3 of your "hawt" spots

Tits, throat/back of neck & pussy

17. Fuck on the first date

Maybe not the 1st time meeting, but the 1st date would be okay

18. Would you suck dick

ABSOLUTELY!!! 😝

19. Would you eat ass

I would try it, but am unsure

20. Would you eat pussy

Yes & I've done it before 😍😍

21. Kissing, Y or N?

Fuck yes, even better if it's needy & rough

22. Is farting during sex a turn off

I have no idea. Maybe if it was in my face. Otherwise, I don't think that it's a prooblem

23. Sex in the shower, Y or N

Definitely 💦

24. When virginity lost

Not yet 🫣

25. Do you prefer sex in the morning, afternoon, or night?

I would love getting fucked 1st thing in the morning or... maybe during the middle of lunch.. but there's also after our day stress fuck. Maybe all of the above

26. Drunk sex

Sure, maybe with consent 1st. Bit I am a huge fan of intox & would love it.

27. High sex

I've never been high, but would try it

28. FuckMarryKill: Nicki Minaj; Cardi B; Kash Doll

F- Kash Doll M- Nicki Minaj K-Cardi B

29. First kiss

Sophomore year of high school with my bf at the time

30. How did you meet the person you lost your virginity to?

Haven't yet

31. Faked an orgasm

Nope

32. Painted/ been painted on

Yes & written on

33. Sex toys, Y or N

Absolutely, they are tools to be used, not an enemy.

34. Favorite position

Tied up/ tied down or hands behind my back getting pounded into the mattress or ground.

35. Bed, couch or floor

Edge of the bed or over couch arm

36. Car sex, Y or N

If we'd fit sure. Or we could fuck with the door open and you railing me into the seats off the side of the road.

37. Whyd you get horny

For just about any reason. Typically because I opened tumblr or was reading smut

38. FuckMarryKill: Trey Songz, Chris Brown, August Alsina.

F- Chris Brown M- August Alsina K- Trey Songz

39. Describe crush

I don't have one rn

40. Would you ever be with someone with an incurable STD?

I would say no..

41. Rate head game

7/10 - there's room for improvement for sure

42. Rate your sex

Rn, 0/10

43. Would you date outside of your race

Yeah

44. Type of freak you are

Bratty, CNC, Hypno, Dirty, Cum guzzling slut

45. Ever tasted your own cum

Well, I've tasted my juices & self, I've not cum before.

46. Golden showers

Yes

47. Body count

0, zero, nada, none

48. Nipple play

Yes!!

49. Where do you like to be nutted on

Preferably in, but if anywhere my face or tits

50. Topping or bottoming

Bottoming, for sure

51. Whats too small

My sex life

52. Is fighting foreplay

Fuck yes

53. Angry sex

Hell yes!

54. Quickie length

Before someone notices

55. Too long during sex

Never, I love overstim

56. Too long to go without

I can't answer that in good health

57. Is no relevant in a relationship

Yes & no, it depends on the question it's in response to..

58. NSA sex real or no

Real AF

59. Sex in a public bathroom

Yeah, sounds like it could be an experience

60. Sex in a changing room

Yeah, just cum in me. Don't leave anything for employees to clean up.

61. Last person ive fucked

🫣 I havent

62. My type

I honestly don't know.

63. 3 turn ons

Tattoos, Filthy Dirty Nasty Naughty talk, & Teasing

64. 3 turn offs

Gore, Feet & Permanent Harm

65. What makes you stop in the middle of sex

I'm not sure

66. Answer a phone during sex

I would, and I'd try to act normal

67. Would you pay for sex

Maybe, probably not though

69. How i felt after sex

... 👀

70. Like your body

I do, I've been trying to lose weight, but otherwise absolutely.

71. Send nudes

Only when deserved... not often

72. Cheated on someone

Absolutely not

73. Cheated on

I have been

74. 3some

PRETTY PLEASE 🙏

75. 4some

PRETTY PLEASE 🙏

76. Orgy

PRETTY PLEASE 🙏

77. Run train on me

PRETTY PLEASE 🙏

78. How often do i masterbate

At least once a day, mostly before bed while scrolling

79. Lights on or off

Lights on

80. Music or TV

Music

81. Cousin you'd fuck

Nope.. hate that

82. Last relationship

During covid, she didn't want to come out & wanted to keep our "friendship" hidden.

83. Sleep naked

Hell yeah, how else is some stalker/stranger supposed to know I want it when im asleep

84. Commando

I have to wear pants a lot, so no.

85. Nipples pierced

I wouldn't want to, but I love sucking on a pierced titty

86. Dive in or converse first

Depends on the person, but I'm more of an action person

87. First move once naked

Drop to my knees..

88. Would you make the first move

I would, but only when I'm super horny.. which is very very often.

89. Have you ever had sex with more than one person in a day

I would like to, maybe at the same time

90. Do you like dryhumping

Yes, I love it

91. Can you twerk or do a split on a dick

I haven't tried the splits on a dick and I haven't tried twerking in about 2 years. Idk if it's any good

92. Would you ever record yourself during sex

I would love to, I think it would be great & even more fun to do masturbate to while he/she degrades me for it.

93. Would you watch porn during sex

Not yet, but would love to

94. After fucking, do you try becoming friends with a one night stand

Probably not, just stay fuck buddies.

95. What’s your kink

There are so many... they're all over my page

96. Would you hook up with the same hook-up again?

Yeah, unless it absolutely sucked...

97. Ever made a relationship from a one night stand?

Nope

98. How romantic are you during sex?

It depends on who with, I honestly don't know

99. Describe your sex in 5 words or less.

Sad, non-existent, cry worthy, boring

[dojae-huh]

Dearest Youth Day 1

(011124)

Today Doyoung reminded me once again why I keep stanning him. Under all that nessessary fanservice (fancalls, fanmeets with dressing up, aegyo, cuteness) and paper chase (brands, ads) is a true passionate singer with a selfmade man mindset.

Doyoung wasn't kidding when he said he wanted to be a stage director in the future a few years back. The way he changed some stages, continued with DY Track, used his drama/musical roles to bring in variety (to the chant guide) and new surprises.

Doyoung was in his prime vocally. The best I've heard him so far. And he got those "yes, I nailed it" tiny satisfied smirks here and there.

Doyoung arriving. The green clover leaf standie to take pics with. Do with the mascot.

Soundcheck: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Bye for now

The goods that VIP fans got: 1, 2

Messages: 1, 2, 3

Heh, DY Track was all over my feed. An uninterrupted stream of fancams. Doyoung knows how to make people talk about him on media. 1 (full), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 (on the screen), 9 (undressing)

1 - I really like the coat. It brings the needed drama. Thanks to the stylist for offering this option to Do.

2 - Doyoung can rap with a deep voice, which is not common (and, with further improvement, can be even used for 127, as no other rappers among neos can match the tone). He reminded me of T.O.P

3 - Taeyong will be on Do's neck the moment Do returns from the military, haha. Tae will get his duet eventually, I'm convinced.

4 - Does anyone know if Tae's akgaes did any ripples in kfandom about TYTrack/DYTrack? Or the commotion was only in i-fandom? I'd like to know if Do was aware or not. As he added fuel to the fire with Mad City, heh.

5 - It is still obvious Doyoung doesn't feel himself very comfortable rapping and putting on an image. Maybe he needs more acting experience to get used to being "a liar". Or just perform this number more often. His body gave off him being self-concious during it. You know, the way shy people are awkward when dressed sexily, the "it's not really me" feeling.

6 - I was impressed with the fans quickly adapting chanting. Fact Check is really popular. And I like that Doyoung reminds his fans about his love for NCT. He is not just using the songs to fill in the setlist. He makes 127's songs into his own versions. "It is part of me". Like, imagine you are a solo fan and hate the group, and Do and the audience make it into a 5 minute 127 concert, heh.

The chant-teaching VCR. Fersen coming last was very intentional. Fans were made to anticipate. A longer version.

Snow flower. He really performs this song as a musical number.

First love. Again, the set up of the stage is well thought through.

17. Rest. Life is beautiful. Lost in California.

Doyoung's motto is "a good joke worth repeating 10 times", lol. His number with a long note and his piano-boy. The banana was also turned into a staple. Bunny.

So Do re-arranged "Litlle light" for the encore a bit. Wow, this is really the way to make a transition between segments in a concert. Keep the audience entranced with the light show, set up the mood, and make a dramatic entrance.

Doyoung's "you are not singing well" is not only for entertainment and creation of "Doyoung concert culture", he wants the fans to be involved, overcome their shyness/reluctance to sing (and laughing helps to relax, stop caring). He probably approaches it simply as a class president, used to gathering people and motivating them to participate in events, however, it really plays in his favour. The fans will leave the venue in a great mood. As I said before, singing together lifts up spirits, gives the feeling of being united with others, brings the feeling of joy. Koreans are very much into religious cults you know... heh. He is making one for himself. The followers of Doyoung.

And of course Doyoung knows how to sell merch.

A chatterbox who gets more confident with bickering with the fans. His disarming cute tone helps him. Promising lyrics and not showing them on screen ("but you are Doyoung's fan, aren't you?").

Frosty (?) - the new single. Side view.

Love me for a long time and love yourself ment.

The fans singing to LL. Baby butt bread pose with the audience. Doyoung leaving the venue.

There are many more fancams, but I will settle for now.

So, back to the "ready to be soloist". Doyoung is a complete product to sell and expand on. He already has a brand, a fan-catering experience (mascots, unique merch, letters, singing along), his show is variable (ballads, rap, jazz-medleys, rock - something for laughs, something for tearing up), he is very good at managing venues of all sizes (MC + duets on SMTowns experience), VCRs+stage effects are on point, a live band, live vocals without a break. He is ready to appeal to non-core fans, someone who has just discovered him (many did with LL) or came to the concert out of curiousity/because they had time (like those granpas in Japan).

Heh, Do even has a concert director in his pocket (Donghwan).

Most importantly, Doyoung is himself an idea-bank. He won't depend on an outside producer, he will gather the experts he needs to help him develop his own vision. Which means he will develop and offer listeners new books and new experience (like with DYTrack upgrade).

Yes, Doyoung still has areas to improve on (like I said before about body language), but these things are minor, most fans won't notice. And Do will overcome these imperfections naturally with experience. Notably, he improved his singing even in the span of this half a year (since the first concert).

When "Frosty" was announced, Do trended right away and many minor media channels copy-pasted the news. Doyoung is already on the list of clickbait artists in SK, heh.

[thelocalmuffin]

Hello everyone! I wanted to share my accomplishments in 2023 before the year ends with a little bit of self reflection notes. You can enjoy everything in the read below.

Some fandoms highlighted include DGS, nintendo, and pokemon.

First off, this year has been hard for me. It's been a lot of self reflection and figuring my goals out after some became unattainable.

With that being said, I did accomplish a lot this year. I published my first recipe in a zine, finishing my first zine, improved my writing a lot, and picked up drawing once again. I also was able to get some actual help with some issues I have struggled with for years.

I want thank you all for your support. It means a lot that you enjoyed my artworks, writing, and ambition. Now here are my highlights for each month.

January: Foxtrot - An Asoryuu kitsune AU. One of the stories I took in when I was at my lowest last year and sparked a lot of my interest to keep writing. Plus Kitsune Kazuma.

February: Encore - A hassius story about motivation and being patient about the creation process. Though this was more or less my thoughts on this topic in general, this story literally inspired me to take my own advice and pick up drawing again.

March: The Memories that Lie - This was one I actually finished, but am glad I did. It's an asoryuu vampire story I was actually planning on scrapping, but ended up finishing anyway out of sheer stubbornness. To finish it, it took me completely restarting five chapters, but it came out a lot better than the original draft had mapped out.

April: This is when I took my hiatus and started to draw again in my free time. I was worn out, stressed, and collapsing under the pressure. This was my first piece that I posted.

May: Was a huge month for me. I launched the @blossominglovezine that you can enjoy here and published my first recipe in The Grand Adventure to Make the Perfect Cake for the @tgaacspringzine

June: I made my first icon! I was really busy this month planning for the trip of my dreams and doing some irl side work that ended up being permanent employment.

July: So I went to Las Vegas for a foodie tour. When I had a moment, I decided to draw the lovely Unicorn Goddess outfit.

August: This is when I did the Timmverse art study. This month was more of finishing up some logistics of zine work and getting a story out in the wild.

September: Goes to the Princess Peach Showtime piece I did! This piece really cemented my current style. And yes, I keep calling it Princess Peach Spotlight. Also wanted to mention I helped successfully launch the @dgscrimezine

October: Goes to my OC piece. CW for blood, but this piece was made for Halloween and the shading was really on point. I love this design for this OC.

November: I'm going with the fact I completed a ship week, asoryuu week. I got everything done at a reasonable time and was able to create so many fun pieces. 1 2 3 4 5 7. I had to skip day 6 because I ended up having an emergency. I also started pre-orders for my first for purchase zine, @desire-asoryuu-zine. This is still in pre-orders, so I wasn't sure if I was going to add it, but this is a big accomplishment for me.

December: I actually haven't been able to do much this month due to the holidays and getting distracted by Pokemon DLC, but I did draw this super cute Yuma!

Other highlights do include being accepted to multiple zine projects as a mod and contributor, which has been very exciting for me. You can check out that list here.

This upcoming year, I'll be helping with more projects and the @aawlwminibang events! I really want to do a personal project that I've been building up my skills for before pursuing, but now I think I'll be able to handle it. I won't announce it yet since it's still very much in development, but I hope I can in 2024.

Thank you all for your support this year. It has meant a ton.

[bloody-wonder]

mid-year book freak out tag

years go by... i still read books...

1. Best Book You’ve Read So Far in 2023? moby dick! i totally did not expect to like this dusty tome so much but it was just too perfect a mix of tropy revenge tale, sea adventure mockumentary, and making stuff up and putting it into categories that caused pleasant vibrations in my neurodivergent brain. i have watched so many whale documentaries after reading this, you guys have no idea🐳

2. Best Sequel You’ve Read So Far in 2023? flamefall is the second book in the aurelian cycle and it’s the best sequel i’ve read so far this year. the addition of a slow burn mm master/servant story line improved things considerably, not to mention that it was my favorite character’s time to shine. this series is sooo good, please read it guys you won’t regret it i swear🙏

(ngl i’m a bit annoyed that fourth wing, this fireborne sjm-ified, is doing numbers out there and meanwhile there’s no fandom for the aurelian cycle to speak of😒)

also i simply have to mention defekt, book two of litenverse. i found the first book quite boring despite it’s shortness but the sequel has a sad lil guy🥺. highly recommend for fans of black mirror, severance or the murderbot diaries. you don’t reeeally need to read book one btw, i think you can just read the description and then jump straight to the good stuff

3. New Release You Haven’t Read Yet, But Want To? i want to read witch king but i keep putting it off cause everything i hear about it sounds suspiciously like *american author does mdzs* and idk how i feel about that😬

4. Most Anticipated Release For Second Half of 2023? i’m looking forward to system collapse the most bc it’s gonna be set chronologically after network effect and it’s longer than the other murderbot novellas too. very excited to see murderbot and art bicker again hehe

5. Biggest Disappointment? ig it’s the warrior’s apprentice😬 many people recced the vorkosigan saga to me as “the lymond chronicles in space” but based just on this first(-ish) book i have to say miles is uhhh,, not lymond😐 lymond’s key traits are that he’s queer and a cunt and baby miles is simply not that (yet). of all the other books that people mentioned on my overcompetent scheming bastard post this was the last one i hadn’t read so i was a bit disappointed that it didn’t pull me in like the lymond chronicles. however, of all the books mentioned there it’s also the only series i can see myself continuing any time soon so. it wasn’t all too bad ig🤷‍♀️

i was also somewhat disappointed by assassin’s apprentice but i will make myself push through the realm of the elderlings just bc i’m so intrigued by the fool👀

6. Biggest Surprise? apart from the life changing experience that was moby dick i gotta admit i didn’t expect to like the goblin emperor, what with it being one of those cozy hopepunk fantasies where people are nice and decent to each other🙄 but it really did grow on me by the end, it indeed made me feel cozy and soothed. now i wanna try katherine addison’s older darker stuff that was apparently so controversial she had to change her pen name or smth👀🤭  

7. Favorite New Author? so i read another book by christopher rice and can confirm that he’s now one of my favorite authors. the man’s early 2000s gay thrillers are very melodramatic and refreshingly juicy - you can really tell they were published in ye olden pre-twitter times

8. Newest Favorite Character? cyrano savinien hercule de bergerac. after just reading that first act where he monologues about his nose for three pages straight and then spends all the money he has to hijack a theater and cause a scene by duelling a guy on stage while insulting him in ballad form i thought wow but this is one of my sexy fucked up guys who like to swish their swords and run their mouths! please enter the mind rotation chamber, monsieur🙌

9. Newest Fictional Crush? power sur eater🐉 you guys are sleeping on the aurelian cycle and on the Glory and Tragedy of My Boy who has done nothing wrong ever in his life and i love him😭 seriously, if you’d like to watch a character like draco malfoy go through jaime lannister’s arc you gotta read this series

also csevet aisava? the guy who put sexy in bureaucracy?? it’s a crime that he and maia didn’t kiss tbh

💕Best Ship💕 the relationship of griff and delo in the aurelian cycle was SO dramatic and full of rawest scenes! kinda reminded me of captive prince at times, bc of the whole master/servant element. and the ending? “i will grow old in love, let them sing of others”?? i am Emotion🥺

10. Book That Made You Cry? furysong made me cry my eyes out like every ending to a ya series should. have i mentioned you should read the aurelian cycle btw? but also both moby dick and cyrano de bergerac made me laugh AND cry as only really good books do. there’s a part in moby dick about seeing whales in mountains and stars that made me remember i am a human being and was a small and happy human being once - like that scene in ratatouille when anton ego tastes ratatouille and the nostalgic memories hit him and he becomes not evil anymore. that was nice but i cried like a little bitch😭

11. Book That Made You Happy? re-reading twittering birds never fly without skipping all the yakuza plot scenes made me realize how hilarious this manga actually is! yashiro can obviously crack a joke but this time i discovered the comic relief goldmine that is nanahara

skjdvnksjdvk like?!

12. Favorite Book Adaptation You Saw This Year? i have a LOT of criticisms about martin crimp’s “free adaptation” of cyrano de bergerac but ngl it was fun to watch the play come to life on stage (even tho there were no swords, a crime😒) and even more fun to watch christian kiss cyrano on the mouth like god intended

13. Favorite Review You’ve Written This Year? so this year i actually started reviewing stuff on goodreads for the first time and it’s quite fun and really useful for refreshing your memory on what you thought of a book. i try to go for short and witty over in depth and analytical so i suppose the best examples of the reviews i have written so far would be the ones of moby dick and the goblin emperor

14. Most Beautiful Cover? the og red cover of fireborne slaps! the revolutionary red? the minimalist black dragon? the main characters’ profiles formed by its wings?? talented brilliant show stopping. idk who made the decision to redesign the covers after the first book but that decision was utterly stupid🤨

15. What Books Do You Need To Read By The End of The Year? i need to finish some series (the diviners, the dreamhealers, the broken earth), then like i said i want to read witch king and also i’m doing the classics challenge again so i have to at least finish reading roxelana and re-read the picture of dorian gray (the uncensored edition👀). i have looked up my old mid year tags and was pleased to discover that i since have managed to read all the books mentioned there EXCEPT for you love me which has been a staple in my reading plans since 2021 so i’m gonna put it on this list again to honor the tradition lmao

overall i have to say my reading year is going well but i still miss the exhilaration of discovering new books worth obsessing over like it kept happening in 2019-2021 with the secret history, captive prince, all for the game, mdzs and lymond. last year i used to think i wasn’t doing a good job of finding books like this but now i’m starting to suspect that i have actually read ALL the good books and there aren’t any left :( but that’s absurd right?? or isn’t it?! anyways tell me what you’ve been reading so that i can maybe get intrigued by something and prove myself wrong on this🙏📚

@figuringthengsout @counterwiddershins @fugitoidkry @magpiefngrl @sugarbabywenkexing @fandomreferencepending @pemberlaey @oliviermiraarmstrongs @hello-jumping-in-puddles @thehalcyonharbinger @pinkasrenzo @beeblackburn @weirdsociology @veliseraptor @theodoradove @sixappleseeds @doh-rae-me @venndaai 

talk to me about books guys! if you want to!!

goodreads │ old mid year tags 2020 2021 2022 

[xanthippe74]

20 questions for fic writers

Thanks for tagging me, @maesterchill! I'm not sure who has done this already, but I'll tag @phdmama, @phoebe-delia, and @nv-md, if they haven't already and want to play.

I'll put a cut here, since some of my answers got a bit long.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

29 works!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

358,795 words

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Harry Potter and 9-1-1

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

(1) Vortex (soulmate AU, down & out Draco, Knockturn Alley social commentary and politics) (2) Riptide (sequel to Vortex with 2x as many words 😅) (3) A Hiss To Build a Dream On (Harry faking Parseltongue and being a pining idiot) (4) The Last of What the World Left You (sad, lonely boys on the Yorkshire moors, Animagus Draco/Master of Death Harry) (5) This Heart Shut Wide (8th year, secret relationship)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes! I love to say thank you, at the very least, and sometimes I want to reply to something specific that the commenter mentioned. I'm a little ashamed to say I got behind on my comments for a couple of years, and it got to the point where I was too overwhelmed to wade through the backlog. But I truly appreciate every single one, and now I'm back to replying to new comments promptly!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

The very first fic I posted, "Last Goodbye" has an unhappy ending, with Harry's feelings for Draco being unrequited.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I think all of my Drarry fics besides that first one have happy endings. As for the "happiest," I'd say it's either The Last of What the World Left You (because of how far Harry and Draco both came from their isolation and misery at the beginning of the story) or Follow the Water (because that ending is unequivocally happy for everyone, with nothing bittersweet or lost).

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I've had a couple weird comments, but no hate until very recently. And that was just a troll getting off on being a jerk, so I deleted their comments and didn't let it bother me in the least.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Nope. M-rated, blink-and-you'll-miss-it lovin' is all I can manage. I tip my hat to the smut writers out there, because I find kissing hard enough to write. (and I definitely appreciate the smutty stuff, as a reader! 😉)

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I've never written one. I'm working on a Drarry version of Howl's Moving Castle right now, but I think of it as more of a retelling than a crossover. Aside from the borrowed plot, it's pretty much the canon HP universe, except with fire demons and the moving house.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

"A Hiss To Build a Dream On" was translated into Chinese, including all the terrible reptile puns!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not yet! I did a round robin thing on Tumblr a few years ago, though, if memory serves.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Drarry, forever and always.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

My very first attempt at a Drarry fic, back in 2019, was supposed to be just a few scenes about Harry and Draco running into each other in the summer of 1998, the day before Draco moves to America. In 2020, I started reworking it into a non-linear, everyone's-fucked-up, hurt/comfort fic that ended with them going to America together. Still love the concept, but I'd probably have to start all over again, since it's been such long time and my writing has (hopefully) improved since then.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I've been praised for my descriptions of scenery and the pacing of my stories. I think I'm pretty good at dialogue, too.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Probably spending too much time in my pov character's head, with all their emotions sloshing around. And I'm still trying to strike the right balance between efficiency and beautiful, evocative writing (something that doesn't feel either too spare or too purple prose-y, in other words).

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Personally, I've never put more than one sentence in another language. As a reader, I think I'd expect a translation for anything longer. Otherwise, I'd feel like I was missing out.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Oof, I have no idea. Don't make me choose amongst my babies! Maybe Follow the Water, because I love that world and that gang of characters. And it's probably the fic of mine that I revisit the most, as a comfort read. It's so soft and nature-focused.

[nerdynanny]

GET TO KNOW THE MUN [2.0!]

I did this previously on one of my old blogs, but that was four years ago and we need an update.

TAGGED BY: myself from four years ago @journalsauthored TAGGING:THE DASH

1. FIRST NAME: Max

2. STRANGE FACT ABOUT YOURSELF: I was born with one functioning eye. [same] I also share a birthday with the late great Robin Williams.

3. TOP THREE PHYSICAL THINGS YOU FIND ATTRACTIVE ON A PERSON: Still hella ace, so physical attraction ain't it. I'm drawn to kindness, compassion, and just a bit of pettiness. So basically my partner.

4. A FOOD YOU COULD EAT FOREVER AND NOT GET BORED OF: PASTA.

5. A FOOD YOU HATE: Peas are a crime against humanity. So is cilantro.

6. GUILTY PLEASURE: Japanese, Korean, and Thai Dramas.

7. WHAT DO YOU SLEEP IN: Depends on the weather. Boxers, usually. [same]

8. SERIOUS RELATIONSHIPS OR FLINGS: Happily in a relationship. When I last answered this I had just gotten out of one with a TERF. I'm in a way better place now.

9. IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN THE PAST AND CHANGE ONE THING ABOUT YOUR LIFE, WOULD YOU AND WHAT WOULD IT BE: I would absolutely go back in time to prevent myself from working with a narcissist who has recently accused me of stalking him??? When he traumatized me?? Gaslighting fr fr.

10. ARE YOU AN AFFECTIONATE PERSON: So like-- to a handful of people. This answer is still the same, I'm energetic and entertaining but if someone touches me I will shriek.

11. A MOVIE YOU COULD WATCH OVER AND OVER AGAIN: Back to the Future Part III. It’s my favorite [SAME STILL].

12. FAVORITE BOOK: Artemis Fowl. Not sure which in the series I love most but the original is dear to my heart. [addition] Cirque du Freak. The Darren Shan saga TIES.

13. YOU HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO KEEP ANY ANIMAL AS A PET, WHAT DO YOU CHOOSE: DOG ARMY. [same]

14. TOP FIVE FICTIONAL SHIPS [IF YOU ARE AN RP BLOG, YOU CAN USE YOUR OWN SHIPS AS WELL]:Oh shit. JackFord [feat @sonxflight​, same], Hilson [with @downs1de, ConYuu [otp 5 ever], SakuSayo [solid ship], and DocClara [with @doctorbrown]

15. PIE OR CAKE: Pie. [same]

16. FAVORITE SCENT: Sandalwood and the Ocean. [same]

17. CELEBRITY CRUSH: Manny Jacinto. He’s all that and a bag of chips. [same, forever jason mendoza fanboy]

18. IF YOU COULD TRAVEL ANYWHERE, WHERE WOULD YOU GO: The UK. Anywhere but the US. The Netherlands maybe?

19. INTROVERT OR EXTROVERT: Ambivert. I tend to respond to the types of folk around me. [same]

20. DO YOU SCARE EASILY: HAHAHAHA. No. But I DO have an intense response to jump scares. I’ve been banned from a few haunted houses because of it. [same, panic disorders go brr]

21. IPHONE OR ANDROID: iPhone. [same]

22. DO YOU PLAY ANY VIDEO GAMES: Yes. OBSESSED with Palworld and Minecraft. I just love games where I can play with my frens and build cute shit. I once started a cult in a Minecraft RP server.

23. DREAM JOB: Stand Up Comedian [or just being recognized for my MAD improv skills]

24. WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH A MILLION DOLLARS: Give everyone I know ten thousand bucks and use the rest on myself. [same]

25. FICTIONAL CHARACTER YOU HATE: Delores Umbridge. But you’re supposed to hate her. [same, also jkr coded]

26. FANDOM THAT YOU WERE ONCE A PART OF BUT AREN’T ANY LONGER: Undertale. I kinda moved away from it and it's populated by kids lately. I still chat about it with my friends, but I doubt I'll ever RP it again.

[dogsuffrage]

Here is my updated review of every game I have completed in the Yakuza/Like a Dragon franchise. Have not yet completed Ishin, because it just wasn't the sort of combat I was into at the moment, but will definitely revisit. I always complete every substory. Reviews of 0-6 are pulled directly from my old review a few years ago, adding in the games I have played since.

1) Yakuza 0: obviously the most unique setting. Finally you can play as ol’ Mad Dog Majima. A consistently good story with good side content and I love the cabaret club. The pinnacle of the old engine combat. 80s!!!

2) Like a Dragon: They are actually so bold for switching to turn-based combat but it very much works. Great story, great mini games, and very fun combat that could use some tweaks but it's their first turn-based game so obviously. Dragged down only by the fact that I could like Yokohama more. But that's really only a slight dock against it, still extremely good.

3) Gaiden: Yes I'm putting the fucking spin off as 3rd place. Amazing blend of Yakuza and Judgment style combat. Really fun without feeling ridiculous. Coliseum was very fun. Story was my favorite so far. That one scene at the end broke me.

4) Yakuza 5: FIVE CITIES???? I feel like I went on a vacation. And FIVE CHARACTERS??? I love them all. Saejima’s is a lil boring. But there is so much variety. I love the bold choice to become a dancing game midway through for a bit. Made me cry a lot. Very close to being as good as 0. Love the diverse side stories.

5) Lost Judgment: Improves on Judgment in every way. Still honestly just not into Yagami, but I really enjoyed the school stories and Kaito Files.

6) Kiwami 2: Dragon Engine is controversial but I enjoy the shift to a style that makes you feel way more powerful. First person exploration literally changes the game. Super immersive, gorgeous. A technical marvel. Brought back the cabaret club!! Massive improvement from 6.

7) Judgment: This game showed off the new philosophy of combat that would be seen in this, Lost Judgment, and Gaiden, and I really enjoy how it balances strategy while still feeling insanely OP. That said, I found myself pretty bored with the story and Yagami's character. Not enough quality side cases or mini games to keep me engaged. The opposite of 3 in that I didn't care that much for the story but the combat rules.

8) Kiwami: it’s fine. rides on 0’s coattails. only good bc 0 was so good and the gameplay is basically identical. the OG story also helps. nishiki :(

9) Yakuza 6: First Dragon Engine game! Love the immersion and first person exploration and I enjoy the story follows 0 in diverging from the narrative mold the games tend to fall in but... it’s not a very good story. It definitely has its high moments tho. The characters are fun... but it’s blatantly unfinished. The baseball side story is very fun to me as is the bar conversation one, but it’s missing so many minigames and the combat is easily the most bland and uninspired in the series. It’s really poorly made combat wise. Kamurocho isn’t even finished. But I do love Onomichi. First fully fleshed out small town. Overall great potential but they literally did not finish it. You can feed stray kittens and rescue them though.

10) Yakuza 4: same as 5 in that I love having multiple characters. Great minigames. Honestly not much to write home about. This would be last if 3’s combat wasn’t so bad.

11) Yakuza 3: Listen. I love Ryukyu. I love Morning Glory and spending time with the kids. Also Rikiya my baby boy. It is the softest game in that sense. It beats 4 in both narrative and substory content. But the combat and leveling system sucks so hard man. That’s all.

12) Dead Souls: Not really sure why they made this one. Still enjoyed it but it's the worst one.

[escvision]

My Melodifestivalen 2024 final top 12, much love from Finland ✌🏻

12. Jay Smith — Back to My Roots (it’s not… bad, country music just isn’t my taste and i was kind of shocked it made it to the final at all. here’s what my sibling said after this song qualified: ”what? why? even gunilla was better than this country song!”

11. Lisa Ajax — Awful Liar (her voice is good. i don’t really have anything to say about this one, that’s how boring i think it is.)

10. Cazzi Opeia — Give My Heart a Break (i don’t know what it is about this one that straight up annoys me lol is it the song? the singer? the outfits and the colours? her mouth?? everything??? the chorus does get stuck in your head easily)

9. Annika Wickihalder — Light (i like her voice and i quite like the song too, but i don't think it's winner material. but! i do enjoy it)

8. Jacqline — Effortless (jacqline is what sells this song and performance, she does make it look effortless. there’s nothing wrong with the song per se, but if jacqline wasn't the one singing it, i don't think it would deserve to be in the final.)

7. Dotter — It’s Not Easy to Write a Love Song (i really enjoy her voice and she’s gorgeous. the melody isn't super memorable and i don’t think the performance and the staging help. she keeps spinning bare foot on the piano and it looks kinda awkward. but all in all it’s really good. if sweden were to send this one i think they’d do well!)

6. Danny Saucedo — Happy That You Found Me (i actually first thought that this was quite forgettable but i take that back now. this is the type of music sweden does well and it shows, this would be a great winner! he’s got a great voice and the melody is very pleasant. the staging could be improved, though, and the outfit is quite ugly lol)

5. Marcus & Martinus — Unforgettable (i’m 90% sure the twins are going to win this year and they honestly wouldn’t be a bad choice even though there are acts that i prefer more. it’s clear that the boys are professionals. the song is somewhere between good and ok for me. i am in the minority here but i actually do not like the staging, it’s messy, there’s too much going on, too many lights and the dancers make the stage look crowded in a bad way. their outfits look a bit cheep too. otherwise, they did a great job. it’s clear the budjet is big)

4. Maria Sur — When I’m Gone (i didn’t care for her song at all last year, not to mention her vocals were totally off, so i was really pleasantly surprised when i heard her new song! it got stuck in my head instantly and the staging looks impressive. wow!)

3. Smash Into Pieces — Heroes are Calling (it’s too bad they competed with six feet under last year because it would most likely be my winner this year. anyway, this one is very similar to six feet under, just not as good or catchy. that being said, it’s still really good and i would love for sweden to send this one!!)

2. Liamoo — Dragon (i love it when there’s a lot of fire. i think this is the whole package, the song is memorable and the staging is great. i know he won’t win or anything but personally i love it! it's been on repeat.)

1. Medina — Que Sera (this song makes me sooo happy when i listen to it!! really hypes the crowd up like yes, i am here for a good time! anyway, sweden would never actually send anything like this which is a shame, but i really hope they place in the top 3, good luck medina!)

oh and one last thing: Fröken Snusk (and Gunilla) should have qualified

[lancerious]

You alive?

YES I AM ALIVE

I'm gonna make this as short as humanly possible because I have a tendency to make posts needlessly long.

Ok so for the maybe 5 people who somehow still remember who I am, uh, hi lol. I don't even remember when I last came on Tumblr for more than 5 seconds and had any sort of activity. And if you don't remember who I am, I don't blame you since it's been forever anyway .-.

But yeah anyway, I want to just say why I've been on a silent hiatus for so long and what's been happening. To start, I first stopped activity cold turkey because being online 24/7 was really draining me physically and mentally. I was staying up all night and not doing anything during the day, and wasn't communicating with any of the real-life people I know. I have a tendency to either put my all into something or not put in any effort at all, which doesn't necessarily need to be a bad thing, but it turned out negative in this case. My mental health was also in the toilet too, I was always grumpy, sleep-deprived, had no motivation, and my procrastination was worse than it had ever been. I decided to take a month or two off the internet to better myself and improved a lot over that time. But of course, I wasn't only gone for two months (I think :P), which leads me into the next thing.

The next thing is I MOVED :D!! I just moved in with a close family friend a few weeks ago. The reason for this is college, and this way I don't need to live in a too-expensive apartment worth 15 human beings :P. It was a bit of a hassle though, since I moved a timezone away--EST for anyone curious--from my family's home in CT time. I honestly meant to start college last year, but things came up and that got postponed to this year. But yeah, moving took another few months, and I am happy to announce I am now well-adjusted and ready to come back to the online space!

BUT, there is a bit of a catch to this. I still very much remember what happened when I DID stay on my devices for too long too often, and don't want to go through that again and go on yet ANOTHER hiatus. So, I am NOT going to be nearly as active as I used to be. I'll still try to keep my activity relatively consistent, but I will not stay up as late as I used to and won't always reply to interactions in 2 seconds. I want to have a healthy balance between reality and the internet. It'll take me some time to figure out, since I'm not really good at doing things in moderation, but doggone it I am going to try my darnedest.

Anyway that's basically it, I'm really sorry for seemingly vanishing without a trace...again. It's a very bad habit of mine as I'm sure you're aware. I swear on my Lancer plush--yes I still have that :P--that I'll try and improve on this. Hope you're all well, and have a good rest of your day!

[larrysballetslippers]

Annual Writing Self-Evaluation 2022

I wanted to this again as I had so much fun last year. And I have grown so much since last year hheehe. Let's see how this year turned out.

1. Number of stories posted to AO3 this year: 20 (+1 coming)

2. Word count posted for the year: 100,386

3. Fandoms I wrote for: One Direction

4. Pairings: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson/OMC

5. Story with the most:

Kudos: If You Forget Me

Bookmarks: If You Forget Me

Comments: Caught In Between Love

More under the cut.

6. Work I’m most proud of (and why): 

When I Say Give Me (I mean the world). It was the first Girl Direction fic I have written and the first longer fic in a long time (19k is a lot for me). In the middle of this fic my crush broke my heart, but I sat that aside to write it and I still don't know how I did it. I even improved my writing speed. Couldn't have done it without @thebreadvansstuff, so thank you sweetie!!

7. Work I’m least proud of (and why):

Printed Against The Sky. It's a good fic, I don't mind it, but I think I could have done better. I wanted to write Age Play for a while so I think I overhyped it myself. It's still a great fic, but just not what I hoped it would be.

8. Share or describe a favorite review you received:

On To Voice My Love. Let me just share it because I was smiling so much when I read it again:

Oh my god, this was so so good! I am not an active part of this fandom, but I saw this on my dash and read it. Also, I never read about smut in polyamorous relationships in general because I'm a little uncomfortable with that idea. But DAMN, this was so BEAUTIFULLY written! I loved how you portrayed the communication problem and need for emotional support for Harry, and how Louis is such a sweet supportive dom. Overall, it's such a healthy and precious demonstration of BDSM and also super hot. Loved it! Would really love to read more about these three! A small request, can we get a bit more dominant side of Andrew too, that would be hot af, but that's completely upto you. Overall, loved this sm.

The fact someone who wouldn't read this kind of story READ MY STORY AND LOVE IT!!!! I can't, I love it!!! it was a first for me, and honestly it was a bit weird to write at first, but now I am so used to have my three boys, I don't know to let them go (why the series is still going).

9. A time when writing was really, really hard:

Well it was around October, beginning of November. I was feeling really really stressed with uni and writing and all my responsibilities. I didn't really know why? But it was really hard to smile.

10. A scene or character you wrote that surprised you:

ANDREW MY BABY BOY!!! Andrew is my OMC for my For My Lovers series. I didn't know I would love him so much. He is my precious little bean. Well... he's very bratty and a smart ass pain in the butt, but he's MY pain in the butt. He came together nicely, like I didn't plan much, it was so natural. Love him so much.

11. A favorite excerpt of your writing:

When Love Is Enough... it's just something I wish someone will say to me one day...

Andrew let go of his body for the first time in a long while to hold Harry’s face. “Harry, listen to me. You’re our world, our everything. You’re not your sister, you are perfect just the way you are. We wouldn’t want anyone else. You are enough for us.” “Yes, you are the most caring and thoughtful person in the world, always putting us before yourself. Even before your own sorrows.” Louis kissed Harry’s forehead and sighed. Harry bit his lip again, it was uncomfortable and he wasn’t sure if it was bleeding or not. “Of course, you’re both so amazing, I umm… I should feel thankful to just be around-” Louis interrupted Harry. “You’re worth a thousand stars, a million suns and all the moons in the universe. Don’t let me catch you thinking you’re lucky to be around us, because we are the ones who should be thanking the heavens that we have you.”

12. How did you grow as a writer this year:

Omg, I thought I grew so much last year, this year is on a total different level. I started writing faster, make better plot progressions, dialogue got better. BODY LANGUAGE got so much better. I am much better with pacing, don't need to worry about it so much anymore. Short fics stay shorter, because I have been practicing with my fic commissions. I don't know, I write Girl Direction now, I feel I even have grown as a baby bi because of that! I am not so scared to say... boobs lol. I have gotten so much more confident.

13. How do you hope to grow next year:

Well, tone it done a bit... I have written a bit too much this year. I wanted to write 9? fics, because I wrote 8 last year.... 21 haha oopsie. I have definitely overworked myself and that's not good.

Besides that, I want to get better at writing. I want to better at grammar and imagery, less repetition. I want to grow. Be better at longer fics. My modelling au for the @notjustsmutficfest will be a longer one and I already feel overwhelmed haha. And a kid fic that I won't say too much about.

14. Who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer or beta or cheerleader or muse etc etc):

Well I think I couldn't have done anything, if it wasn't for @onlythebravest. Julia has helped me get through this year, I don't even know what would have happened if it wasn't for them! One thing, For My Lovers wouldn't have been here haahaha. At least not the way it is now!! Thank you for always hearing my whining and overexcited 2pm fic ideas.

15. Anything from your real life show up in your writing this year:

Hahahaha, ummm. Almost all the emotional scenes in my fics have some form of self insertion hehe.

16. Any new wisdom you can share with other writers:

Well, have fun. Write what you want to write, don't be scared. If you want to write a fic where the one dee boys are butterflies, do it bestie.

17. Any projects you’re looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year: 

Well I have a few.

My Modelling au for @notjustsmutficfest. My girl direction religion fic for @1dreligionfest. Next season for For My Lovers. A pantyhose fetish fic. My kid fic. And a fic for next round of the @1dastroficfest, that's coming in January!!

18. Tag some writers whose answers you’d like to read.

@onlythebravest @thebreadvansstuff @huggieshalo @kingsofeverything @harrysmaison @thedevilinmybrain @lunarheslwt @momrryrights @larry-hiatus @polaroidlouis @cyantific @parmahamlarrie @haztobegood @faithinwalls369 @panye @zanniscaramouche

[independentzaun]

15 Questions for the writer

Tagged by @misstantabismuses @saviourofzaun and (on my other blog) @bioniczaunites

Tagging: Going to be honest I'mmmm pretty sure everyone I would tag has already been tagged buuut. @gauntlets-shot @misfits-of-zaun @perfect-fourth @sxlemnity @nithhaiahh @fleetingreflection @xxsacrificiumxx @elisethetraveller and you person reading this

1: Are you named after anyone?

Not really no. Not named after any relative or anything else like that.

2: When was the last time you cried?

Hmmm, really actually cried...I don’t cry often, but probably at some point during this last winter. There were a few times I was in a bad spot.

3: Do you have kids?

Nope, and to be honest that is not going to chance. No kids, no desire for kids, and I don’t think I’d be a good parent if I’m completely honest.

4: Do you use sarcasm a lot?

When talking to someone I know (talking talking not just texting or chatting or discord or whatever) I have been known to be a bit sarcastic, but over the years I’ve toned it down and gotten less sarcastic for one reason or another. So short answer is no, not really. Not any more.

5: What's the first thing you notice about people?

I have never thought about that honestly. I am generally really good at noticing if they have tattoo’s visible (I like tattoo’s and have a few my own so it’s more curiosity than anything else), but I suppose first thing is… how they are dressed. If they have a hat on that has a slogan on it that makes me think they wouldn’t like someone like me, if it’s the middle of the day but they have on a nice dress or are other wise dressed well, a coat with patches on it or on the back, or whatever all else. People can tell you a lot by how they dress.

6: What's your eye colour?

Just brown I guess. Nothing special.

7: Scary movies or happy endings?

So first of all, IMO even most movies with “a happy ending” don’t really have a happy ending if you start thinking about it and what would probably happen afterwards and I have a real bad habit of thinking to myself “so what next?” and with a lot of movies “what next” is either a hasty bad marriage or trauma or something else. Leaving that aside… scary movies. Which as a random note IMO those are honest in a weird way about their endings. Yes the survivor/s are absolutely going to be traumatized, and scared, and have SO much to deal with afterwards but they did survive and that’s something (obviously excluding the ones in which no one survives). I wouldn’t say they have “happy” endings, but they (generally, there’s exceptions) have honest (within genre conventions yes of course the killer in a franchise didn’t actually die and if they did they will come back for the next movie or be replaced by someone in the same mask or whatever) endings and I like that.

8: Any special talents?

Does anxiety and thinking too much count?… Jokes aside I personally would say no, and before anyone says anything about my writing or whatever. It’s not a “special talent” it’s entirely too many years of writing into too many different places and reading too many books and I still have so many ways to improve.

9: Where were you born?

In the USA. I am well aware that doesn’t narrow it down a lot, but I think it gives you enough. I will say I’ve lived both West coast, and East coast, and have driven through a good chunk of the USA although not all of it.

10: What are your hobbies?

Currently, modeling (gundam models mostly), leather crafting, writing (role playing, I don’t really like writing just by myself except for drabbles to expand on stuff for RP purposes generally), and video games.

11: Have you any pets?

Two cats, and one dog. One of the cats was kind of forced on me, but it is what it is. They all have a home here.

12: What sport do you play/have you played?

I don’t play sports. Just not my thing personally.

13: How tall are you?

Five foot ten inches. Which looking at other peoples heights makes me kinda tall I guess.

14: Favourite subject in school?

I don’t know that I had one. I ended up getting a GED, and than when I did college I went for a computer science related degree and realized by the end I did not want to do that for a career so… that’s a bit of a problem. If I had to pick something I’d say probably history. It’s always interesting learning about the past.

15: Dream job?

I am going to be real honest here. I’m over thirty (which isn’t old but in conjunction with the next bit...) and disabled. I don’t have a dream job. My dream is to be able to consistently take care of everything around my house, and in my personal life to the standards I’d prefer. Not to mention I’m literally not allowed to make over a certain amount if I want to keep something that’s currently giving me health care and the like so there’s that.

Now for something less woeful, I will say that I would eventually like to start making money off of my leather crafting. Not to support myself with or whatever, but just so I can get back some of the money and expense that I put into it. I would just have to be careful with how much I make, and look into paying taxes and all on the sales.