#conventional blogging tag

[squarebracket-trickster]

By the way, lurkers are welcome on my blog<33

Yeah, yeah, Writeblr is a community and all that. But I get it.

Some of us have anxiety disorders. Some of us are (or were once) minors on the internet who had it drilled into us to never make our presence known in online spaces lest we get stalked or groomed.

It's okay if interacting is outside of your comfort zone.

Some of us aren't actually on tumblr enough to make making a Writeblr intro worth it.

Some of us prefer to take a few months, maybe years, observing the community to learn the rules. And let's face it, there is a huge learning curve to Tumblr culture. I came here from Pinterest in like 2018 and hooo boy was it intimidating!

Like, I was that 17 year old pinterest lurker with an anxiety disorder who was taught that internet safety meant "never comment on anything" who took a few years before I felt comfortable enough with tumblr culture to reblog things with tags, let alone make public posts.

So I guess what I am saying is, I can't judge. Because I've been there.

Writeblr is a community. And the community (for me) is the best part. And remember that if you don't contribute to the community you don't get to complain about it either. But this is also a public space. Silent observers are to be expected. And on my blog you are welcome.

[girlwiththegreenhat]

buncha photos of all the cool The Owl House cosplayers this year at ACEN!!! the meetup was so much fun 🥺 there is nothing funnier than somebody dropping one of their fake ears and everyone instinctively checking at the same time to make sure it wasn't ours

(+ me at the end as the last lilith!)

harpy lilith: @shadowluv101-blog

[cmdonovann]

back at it again with the unnecessarily dramatic art of my dnd characters

[asketho]

Knock knock! :D

- @ask-smajor

Who's there?

[butch-dragongirl]

I know I tag everything with eri posts even though she doesn't front that often but this is what she looks like vaguely

[startreklasirena]

What is Star Trek: La Sirena?

Most fans and more-than-casual viewers of Star Trek: Picard would probably agree that the three seasons of the show form something of an anthology. It was never officially called that, and some of the characters appear in (almost) every episode. Even some events and backstories do get referenced across season boundaries. But at the end of the day, each season is very self-contained, and many themes, storylines, and characters are limited in scope to one or two of them at the most.

Even the characterization of recurring characters can differ between seasons, from more superficial details (Agnes Jurati going by "Agnes" in S1 and "Jurati" in S2) to some deeper shifts (Elnor seeming more concerned with honour than candour in his brief season 2 cameos).

As such, some of us fans were thinking it would be helpful to have a shorthand with which to differentiate between seasons. Say you're interested in reading Saffi stories that centre the characters, themes, and characterization from season 1. It might be difficult to filter for that, since the "Star Trek: Picard" fandom tag on AO3 will contain fic that is set throughout all three seasons, and it won't always be clear where in the anthology it fits.

Or you might be writing stories about season 1 Agnes that you know won't sit right with people who expect season 2 Jurati when they filter for "Agnes Jurati", and you want to make it clear which version of the character you're writing about without using convoluted tags.

Enter Star Trek: La Sirena (suggested abbreviation: LAS). In essence, this is a shorthand to describe the first part of the Star Trek: Picard anthology. ST: LAS stories, art, gifs, meta, memes, etc centre around the characters, events, relationships, and themes from PIC season 1. They can be prequels, set during season 1, or take the end of season 1 as a jumping-off point to spin new stories from there (think: the sort of art/meta/fic/... you would have made before season 2 came out or if the show had been cancelled after season 1).

A Few Examples (or: is it Star Trek: La Sirena?)

A fic about the crew of La Sirena going on wild adventures after the end of season 1? That is basically what this tag was invented for! A gifset of Elnor and Soji's outfits throughout season 1? Absolutely! The story of how Seven came to join the Fenris Rangers, exploring her relationship to the work and what it means for her characterization post-Voyager? Yes please! Meta about how Hugh would have survived the crash of the Borg Cube and what the protected status of Coppelius and the defeat of Oh's armada mean for his work with the xBs? We'd be lucky to have it! A fic about how Raffi and Rios met that involves six OC's and a bunch of semi-sentient holograms? Sure! A Victorian AU, where Jean-Luc Picard, Duke of La Barre, has to navigate the uncertainties of (near) fatherhood when he suddenly finds himself with a young ward, Dahj Asha, after the mysterious disappearance of her parents overseas? Hell yes! (Also: Zhaban is his butler and Laris his housekeeper. Just saying.)

On the other hand: A discussion of how season 2's evil!La Sirena compares to her prime-universe counterpart? Doesn't really fit. A fic about Agnes and Shaw meeting at the academy and becoming fast friends? Also not really, since Shaw is very firmly a season 3 addition. Meta about Seven's changing hairstyles from VOY to season 1 to seasons 2 & 3? That is more general PIC territory, rather than LAS specifically. A gifset comparing the Troi-Rikers from TNG with their appearance in Season 3? Probably not. Not even if it also includes season 1.

All of these things are wonderful and we're lucky to have them in the Picard fandom! But they don't necessarily fit the brief of "Star Trek: Picard, if it had been cancelled after season 1."

Of course, none of this is an exact science! Say you wrote a post-canon story back in 2020, before we got any details about season 2. And say, by sheer coincidence, it includes Agnes breaking up with Rios and going off on a diplomatic mission with Soji, while Rios and/or Raffi join Starfleet. Does that fall under the LAS umbrella or not? At that point (and many, many similar ones), I'd say it's up to your own best judgement.

Where do I find/post Star Trek: La Sirena Stuff?

A bunch of people have started tagging their tumblr posts with "star trek la sirena" (or "star trek: la sirena". I'm afraid the variability is a cornerstone of the Trek-tumblr tagging experience 😅). It's not much yet, and a lot of things are reblogs, so they won't show up in the regular tag search. But hopefully, we can get this tag into more wide-spread use to make it easier for season 1 enthusiasts to find stuff they're interested in. (If you tag this blog in the replies to a post you think fits the brief, I will reblog it!)

Some writers have also added "Star Trek: La Sirena" to the fandom tags of their relevant fics on AO3. It's usually in addition to "Star Trek: Picard", since it falls into both categories, so it's more an additional filtering option/sub-fandom.

I'm not entirely certain this tagging is going to be permitted by the AO3 tag wranglers. I have written to AO3 support about this and am currently still waiting to hear back. I think there are precedents for similar sub-fandom distinctions, but I'm not sure what the logistical considerations might be behind canonizing a new fandom tag. If AO3 comes back asking people to re-tag their fic or deciding they won't be able to canonize the "Star Trek: La Sirena" fandom tag, we'll decide on a different tagging convention. I'll post here if and when I get a reply to my email.

Speaking of:

A Quick Note on the Role of this Blog

I'm not the fandom police. At the end of the day, this is an entirely made-up category, and how you interpret its boundaries is up to you. My goal here is not to exclude anyone or tell people they're doing fandom wrong, it's to make it easier for fans of one specific part of a very heterogeneous show to find art and stories and discussions they're interested in.

I want to really emphasise this: I'm not the high priestess of this fandom tag. I'm not the authority on what does and doesn't count. If you have a story or post that you think might be well-suited to be tagged as "Star Trek: La Sirena", but you're unsure, I'm happy to chat about it and give you my take, and/or to reblog it here and hopefully open the floor to others' opinions. If you think something I posted or reblogged doesn't really fit, please let me know, I'd be happy to hear your thoughts!

Mostly, I just want this blog to get the ball rolling for people in this corner of the Picard fandom to find each other and have an easier time sharing their work and their passion with each other.

So, that's what I'm doing here. If you have any ideas for events we might get up to as a community (I still dream of one day having a fanfic book club :D), posts you'd like me to reblog, meta you'd like to share, or anything else that might bring your fellow fans joy, I'm always eager to hear about it!

Thank you for coming along on this ride on our little speed freighter! I hope we'll all find community and a lot of fun with Star Trek: La Sirena!

[shalom-iamcominghome]

Tumblr is so bad about links in blogs, so I'm moving my book catalog to the (superior) LibraryThing. It has both jewish and secular books since it's a personal log of my books, but it's everything I have read/will read/own in general! If you want to see what's on my bookshelf, here is the link. Hope it inspires some reading in others!!

[vellichorom]

if im remembering this correctly, thierrys primary murder weapon is a boxcutter, and that amuses me a lot bc you really dont see many characters in media use it that way very often

so i have to ask, why did you chose a boxcutter among other things, as well as thierrys reasoning?

giggled at the phrasing of " thierry's primary murder weapon " like he's officially upgraded from " humble narrator & loser game developer " to " SERIAL KILLER " which- we're not there YET, technically, but HEY, i give you props for remembering that detail! i'm not sure most do, not like it's actually all that important to his character apart from being a fun go-to accessory & lore nod, but nevertheless!

for being associated with the man, the infamous boxcutter was less of a conscious choice & intentional trademark & moreso a decision made out of convenience. the mindset was as follows; " i want to kill my totally not real AI protagonist for fun but i want to get my hands dirty this time. oh goodie! there's a boxcutter right here in the warehouse / boss' office! this will work perfectly for maximum splatter! i am a perfectly rational & healthy individual & this is just like killing people in video games, inconsequentially recreational & harmless to the mind! " & then it just became his thing™ that occasionally lurks on his person at any given time; great for defense if he Can't just godmod a fight, & fantastic for date night!

that was HIS rationale for it anyway; mine? ...well, similar! the boxcutter was nothing more than a fateful plot device ( literally & figuratively ) that just happened to work given the location OF said plot & the events leading up to it.

as much as i love to hype it up as thierry's SIGNATURE accessory, it's really just there! little rhyme & reason to it! BUT THANK YOU FOR BEING CURIOUS!

[jarchivism]

So far, the party’s got: too much space for comfort, a million doors, eldritch fog, a coffin, unexplained eyes, and raw meat. Interesting…

[starakex]

Otakuthon 2024 Cosplay Recap

I used to do con recaps and I kinda miss it. I'm still writing down post-mortem entries on costumes offline to keep track of the good and the bad of a costume's first wear, though. It's helped me learned from mistakes and apply solutions to future builds to avoid issues.

While I don't really wanna review the con itself, I think making these logs public is very relevant information to pair up with Build Logs, so it's time to revive the tradition.

So, let's set the stage real quick. This is at Otakuthon, and it's a 35k+ people convention that keeps happening in the middle of a heat wave almost Every. Damn. Year. Also, 35k+ people is very much over the limit the convention area can comfortably take. Also it was humid as all hell. And so, so hot.

On a personal level, I've been dealing with general hobby exhaustion from things like wig burns, The Sensory Bullshit That Is Stage Makeup, and spending too much time stressing over keeping a costume intact for photos. So this year, the goal was "Silly, Casual, and No Bullshit." No wigs, no makeup, and everything has to be carry-able in a bag or two on public transit. Having begun this philosophy shift after last year's Otakuthon, I made three costumes during the year, leading to debut them during the 2024 edition.

Friday!

Friday was Robed Man from hit video game Final Fantasy VII Remake/Rebirth. I made Cloud many years ago, but the exhausting perfectionism bullshit I was carrying within me was keeping me from feeling like making another named character from the series. Figured this would be a silly idea that could be re-worn for future Final Fantasy events. Friday was the perfect day for it since there was a Distant Worlds concert in the evening.

The Good:

Super quick to set up in the morning. Just a little bit of eye shadow to accentuate the dead fish look, throw the whole costume in a bag and it's good to go. More sleep, yay!

My purse fit under the whole thing for a seamless, accurate look, which was unintended but neat.

It was super easy to pull off and put back on within seconds whenever it got too hot.

The Bad:

It's supposed to be lightweight and breathable, but even with a tank top and shorts underneath I was sweating up a storm. The cloak is so big that it became too heavy to catch any air flow.

Despite pre-washing the fabric, the fabric's dye rubbed off on a couple things, notably the silicone on my water bottle and the rubber backing of some pins. Not on skin or clothes, thankfully.

Verdict: Worked as intended. a snap button's stitching broke on one of the scarves but the button stayed in place, so I quickly fixed it when I noticed it. As for the fun factor, it was great. It made for hilarious candid photos, and there was only a smidge of eye shadow to watch out for instead of the whole face being covered in makeup. It's absolutely unrecognizable IRL from the front though in a large convention setting full of costumed people, so not even FFVII cosplayers said anything 😭 It was fun to bring out for the concert, but I'm mostly looking forward to pulling it out for other small events now instead of cons.

Saturday!

Sonic was the costume for the big day. He was one of my dream cosplays when I first got into the hobby as a teen, so finally having it as a mascot cosplay was, well, SUPER HYPE. I was apprehensive bringing in a full-body mascot after sweating my ass off with just a cloak, but then decided I wasn't going to skip my chance to be Sonic and just go for it. I needed to do it at least once... The Good:

EVERYTHING (ish). SO HYPE

It was reasonable to carry in public transport with large enough bags. Not the most optimal, but more than acceptable. Two bags just so the shoes aren't rubbing on everything else.

I could put it on and remove it quickly without help, and wear it partially when I needed to cool off (arms tied at the waist and head in hand)

Surprisingly easy to navigate with. I didn't need a handler at all times, and spent most of my time fullsuiting by myself. Performing was comfortable, vision was very good straight ahead, and range of motion was excellent outside of the head spikes.

Against all odds, this was super comfortable despite the heat wave! The underlayer carried this entire experience. I could wear the full thing and perform in short hour bursts, then remove the head and pull the suit halfway down for a break with a neck fan, often while going to a panel or something like that. I was still sweating (drenched, even), but the underlayer just made it feel hot instead of sticky and disgusting and cooled down very quickly during breaks.

Sidenote, but I think I look really fuckin' cool with the head off and my badass disheveled hair. Like I felt REALLY COOL instead of worrying about ruining my makeup or whatever stressors I'd have with other costumes.

The donut-shaped support inside the head was great at redistributing the weight comfortably. Didn't have have neck or head pain the whole time.

Batteries for integrated head fans and neck fan did not run out with a whole day of wear.

The Bad:

The integrated head fans didn't seem help much. They didn't cool things to any noticeable degree, and the lack of mouthhole makes this a very sweaty head (especially compared to Wurmple; more below). They might've kept the head from being absolutely dogshit to wear, but it's hard to tell if it actually moved air around. Not a massive issue with the regular breaks, however.

Minor gripe, but the fan system I bought didn't have a on-off switch, so I had to dig in the battery pocket to unplug the fans every time I took a longer break.

The shoes, while easy to walk in, force longer strides that gave me quite the calf workout by the end of the day.

No major breaks during the day, but the shoes' rubber soles slightly peeled off in a few spots by the end of the day. Nothing a little contact cement can't fix., and technically "good" since it means I can safely remove and replace it if it gets too worn out.

I need someone to hold the head if I want to go to the bathroom, otherwise I'm having a really bad time.

Sonic looks kinda booby unfortunately but that's the perfectionist talking and I've vowed to destroy that mindset

Verdict: Holy shit this was worth braving the heat wave, worth all the hours trying to get the build looking just right, worth EVERYTHING! The reception from the people was awesome; I haven't talked to this many people in years, and everybody loved the mascot so much. I got to nerd out about Sonic, nerd out about the build, fist bump people and make them smile. It's my first fullsuit and it turns out I also love the performance aspect of it. The build lasted throughout the whole day with no damage (outside of the rubber soles, but I was expecting more than the small amount that began peeling) The perfectionism mindset I've been fighting with for years wasn't an issue because all the things I spent time getting just right are actionable design decisions like scale and material choices, not just "welp, I don't look like what I had in mind wearing this because I'm a real human and not a stylized 2d character."

Sonic re-ignited my love for cosplay and gave me a whole new style of costume I want to keep exploring and working on. Obviously planning to take Sonic out to other conventions if I can troubleshoot how to fit him into a suitcase.

Sunday!

Wurmple was my official first foray into fursuit making proper. I wanted to make a suit for years and finally committed, but I wasn't super interested in making an OC/fursona at the time so I picked a Pokémon I liked that looked interesting to make (I really wanted to sew the grub butt). I made him all the way back last August; he's the first costume from the "fuck wigs and makeup" era. I wanted to go for a bug-catcher summer look, complete with a little bug "cage" and a net. (I was genuinely worried someone might get full size nets a bad rap at the con with the gnome meme currently going on, so I just went with a tiny shrimp net instead.)

The Good:

The head is actually really breathable. Partialing plays a major part in the overall comfort, but the breathing hole is positioned in such a way a neck fan blows straight into it. The only sweaty area is the contact spot between my back and the tail.

It's easy to bring to the con, like the other costumes. Just stuff the parts in a small bag and go.

The dang thing is basically indestructible, so there's no worries navigating crowds or squishing the tail to sit down or whatever.

The Bad:

The vision is terrible. I absolutely need to hang onto a handler or remove the head if I'm doing anything more than standing around and talking. It's so narrow it messes up with my depth perception. The curse of trying to engineer vision out of a weird character design...

I can't really sit down on a chair with this tail unless I shove it to the side or remove it entirely, which is cumbersome since I thread the tail belt to my shorts for extra stability.

The tail is kind of dumptrucky enough that it got caught in the crowd more often than Sonic's whole costume did overall. Probably because Sonic is so massive he commands respect of personal space and Wurmple's bugass is very subtle in some angles, but it's enough of a concern to point out.

Verdict:

People got a good laugh out of Wurmple and more attention than I've gotten for costumes on average in the last couple years, so that was fun. No breakage either, but I expected these results since I've worn it outside a few times now. It was also by far the least sweaty costume of the weekend, being "regularly" comfortable despite the heat wave (in part thanks to the smaller Sunday crowd.) But the vision really dampens the experience enough that I'd rather keep it for furmeets or other less active events than a full-on convention. Enough workarounds to still be worth bringing around, but I'd love making another Pokésuit that doesn't have this glaring vision issue to rep the series!

Closing

Overall, if you ignore the massive crowds in a tiny space and the debilitating heat wave, Otakuthon went super well! It didn't stand out much event-wise to the other years (though getting to meet Shota Nakama and seeing the Distant Worlds performance were two standouts experiences), but the personal end of it, cosplay-wise, was a huge success. The people I got to interact with were all wonderful, and I got to figure out a new costume niche I want to explore more (hint: less wigs, more mascots). I'd say it was one of my favorite cons to date for cosplaying. I'm writing this as the costumes are drying, and my last observation is that save for the fursuit heads and Sonic's shoes, these costumes can survive the washing machine (something I always try to account for) and I'm so very thankful for that. Washing the heads by hand was a wholeass workout in in itself though, but thankfully Sonic's eyes are waterproof and the electronics are remove-able so I can deep clean him for the next event! On the menu for future events: repair Sonic's shoes, implement a on/off switch in Sonic's fan systems, and start planning out a new Pokémon fursuit. Hope this might've shed some light on the kind of post-mortem observations I note down after wearing new cosplays to a con! Thank you for reading.

[overdevelopedglasses]

Hi guys it's Sunday Six, there's a storm and it's giving me an awful headache but I brainrotted a thing for the star wars project and uh anyways

@four-white-trees @fire-tempers-steel @mike----wazowski @jichanxo @passthroughtime @woundedheartwithin @skysquid22 I think that's everyone, sorry if I forgot someone, brain is barely functioning.

Anyway-

I feel a wire snap around my ankle and something shifts in the air. JE beeps loudly, and I act with my instinct.

I spin around and throw my hand out, using the Force on whatever was about to harm us.

I blink, and  I see little children, cowering in cover that was collapsing above them. I see white snow and slick ice, crumpled buildings I held up with all of my might.

"Fekami?" Her voice shatters the illusion, and I'm back in the present, in the rubble of a different building. I held a piece of it above one figure, not several, the building's owner. She looked at me with shock and a hint of worry. The weight of my action fully sinks in.

"You're Force Sensitive...?"

[brother-emperors]

Imagine the brigata laurenziana in your style, the dream

so the problem with the brigata laurenziana is that lorenzo de' medici is a medici and the medici family are my beloathed. I celebrate two dates on this blog: the ides of march and the pazzi conspiracy

despite that, I do appreciate lorenzo's influence and patronage with regards to poetry, and the drama regarding lorenzo and poliziano is extremely fun for me, but short of the complete literary works of lorenzo de' medici trans. guido a. guarino (I know it’s on jstor, but I don’t have access to it etc) suddenly appearing in my hands, I am sorry to report that this may have to remain a dream 😔

[brown-little-robin]

I'm rewatching Hunter x Hunter (watched a good portion of it when I was pretty small), and I am pleased to conclude yet again that I only enjoy my favorite anime more as I age. I have more developed taste and more literacy to appreciate my media with. The new delights far outweigh the slight fading of some of the other aspects that used to draw me in.

[vervain-art]

So the convention is done and... Well. I have some things to say about it.

But I'm real worn out as one gets after these things so that'll be for later.

[snowflop]

Happy new year from me and my beastie 🎉

[girlwiththegreenhat]

connor before and after telling him to get the evidence out of his mouth