#creators i really love have started doing it too the last few months and its excruciating

[whoviandoodler]

you ever go into a tag for a show or whatever and find several painstakingly created gif sets from interviews with the actors where they're just like. fully mocking fans? talking about them like they're the most despicable thing on this earth kind of bitter mocking. and on the one hand you're like, okay, i get it, fans can really be shit and get overly parasocial and think you owe them something beyond the work you created but on the other it's like. bro this makes me not want to engage with anything you do at all. ever. you don't have to sing your fans praises but you can do them the basic courtesy of professionalism and not ridiculing the entirety of everyone who both engages with your creative work and whose interest ultimately results in your paycheck.

[eyeheartboobiez]

-> 𝗃𝖺𝗌𝗈𝗇 𝗍𝗈𝖽𝖽 𝗑 𝗌𝗂𝗇𝗀𝖾𝗋!𝗋𝖾𝖺𝖽𝖾𝗋

-> 𝗌𝗈𝖼𝗂𝖺𝗅 𝗆𝖾𝖽𝗂𝖺 𝖺𝗎!

-> 𝖺/𝗇: 𝗈𝗄𝖺𝗒 𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗌 𝗂𝗌 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝖫𝖠𝖲𝖳 𝗍𝗂𝗆𝖾 𝗂𝗆𝗆𝖺 𝗎𝗌𝖾 𝗏𝗂𝗇𝗇𝗂𝖾 𝗁𝖺𝖼𝗄𝖾𝗋 𝖺𝗌 𝖺 𝗃𝖺𝗌𝗈𝗇 𝖿𝖺𝖼𝖾 𝖼𝗅𝖺𝗂𝗆 𝗂 𝗌𝗐𝖾𝖺𝗋😭

Jason Todd and ex girlfriend, Artemis Grace, spotted outside a club together just hours ago! May this old flame be finding its spark again? (8/20/2022 3:14 AM PT)

For months now, people have been buzzing after Gotham elite Jason Todd and singer Y/N Y/LN hinted at being in a relationship. Ever since this past March when they were initially spotted together, fans have done nothing short of obsessing over the two.

Artemis Grace, former girlfriend of Jason, had gotten into some hot water recently when insiders claimed that the singer had something to do with leaking Y/N’s unreleased track, Fantasize.

As mentioned in former articles, TMZ investigators came to the conclusion that Artemis was involved in publishing the song as a way of “getting her lick back”. Time logs show that the dubbed “rival” singer entered the same studio as Y/N not too long after she left for the night.

Many people online have been more than vocal about their love for the song, despite the fact that it was released without the artist’s consent.

While Artemis has yet issue a statement regarding the accusations, she seems to have plenty of time to be out partying with her ex.

Fast forward to last night, when just hours ago, Jason and Artemis were seen leaving a nightclub together and looking very close for comfort. Onlookers were not only shocked, but absolutely gagged when they saw the two hugging each other goodbye.

With their late night rendezvous breaking headlines, some fans are starting to question if Jason may have also played a part in helping Artemis, or if they ever really broke up at all!

The exes, who were romantically involved for almost two years, have a long history of being toxic towards each other. Their on-again-off-again relationship was notorious for its dysfunctionality, making it hard to keep up most of the time.

It wasn't until late last year when both Jason and Artemis officially called it quits by posting an announcement on their respective Instagram accounts (although many were skeptical to believe it).

Despite the initial shock of the situation, it begs the question: Where does Y/N stand in all of this?

Fans of the singer songwriter were quick to come to her support, majority of whom expressing their clear disappointment in Jason.

“I was really betting on these two,” says Twitter user @y/n’scoochiehairs. “I feel like a child of divorce…”. The fan account, while only just a few months old, grew exponentially due to their constant posts about the alleged couple.

Many sentiments like this have been circulating the internet once the pictures from last night began to surface. Y/N is notorious for putting her emotions into her songs, so at least we know she’ll be releasing new music soon, right?

— replies —

user1: oh she really aint playing...

user2: COOK HIM GOOD SIS!!

user3: girl this is a whole bar put this energy into a song or sumn😭

user4: sooo what im hearing is that ur single🤔

⤷ user5: ntm on my wife now..

user6: this next album bouta be BIBLICAL

user7: genuinely hope youre doing okay🥺🫶

user8: ily queen🩷

people you may know!

liked by b_zarro and 613,189 others

@artemisofmighdall: last night was a dream✨

View all 25,846 comments

user1: first you mess with her music then you mess with her man.. if bold was a person…

user2: the hell is she smiling so damn big for?? ain’t shit funny😐

user3: girl you betta PRAY i don’t catch you in these streets…

user4: “last night was a dream” yeah and you in for a rude awakening cuz wth💀

user5: these comments killing me😭

user6: you already going to hell for being a ginger now you just making it worse for yourself🤦‍♀️

— creator has turned off comments—

end notes: is jason involved or is he just being framed👀 lmk what you think!!

[ladymirdan]

Warning, fandom rant.

I was gonna piggyback ride off Tagedezorns post about falling out of love with the fandom.

Dont get me wrong, I still fucking LOVE 40k.

Im having a great time painting my minis, reading the lore, reading and talking with the BL authors on twitter or talking the ears off the staff in my local GW (don't worry, they love it, and they have some fantastic HC’s too!)

But the rest of it is sadly losing its appeal for me as well, and it saddens me to see other fan artists or writers feeling the same, I thought it was just me.

When I first started to become active in the shipping fandom about a couple of years ago it was fantastic. I felt so welcome and wanted, I had never gotten a reception like that in any fandom before. I even faced my fear and started writing fanfiction, and people seemed to love it.

But the last months/year it feels like it's all gone. As if Tumblr has died, it feels like I'm shouting into the void. (I have a few people who still interact on my posts and I see you and I love you). But I have eightdoubled my followers last year, but that hasn't resulted in any more interaction, other than a few more likes. But to be fair, likes does nothing.

Im not an influencer or a content creator, and I have zero aspirations to become one. That is why I stopped doing tiktoks. I do not want to chase trends or algorithms, I want to be unhinged about my blorbos and see people being unhinged about their blorbos in turn.

I love the intense passion fandom can have, even when it's not a character I'm personally into.

I really don't want Tumblr to die. I have tried Discord and it was the most alienating and disheartening experience I've had since like high school.

When I first tried it out it was soo much fun, but as time went on, more and more people who seemed to like me stopped posting on there, and more and more whenever I posted I just got straight up ignored.

I could post in a channel that had been dead for weeks, and suddenly people started posting about other things, everyone ignoring what I wrote. If it happened once or twice I wouldn't have bothered, but a dozen or more times? It just fucking sucks. I noticed how it started affecting my mental health, trying to reach out and talk to people, but just being talked around and over. So I just stopped posting.

If someone doesn't like me on Tumblr I won't notice or get sad, but seeing it happen in real-time just fucking sucks.

And also, on Tumblr there is always the off chance that your post gets necromanced. That just doesn't happen on Discord.

And another thing that has happened a lot is I write a fic or a Tumblr post. It gets zero interaction, and I'm like “oh I guess no one is interested about that,” and then I see that someone has just reposted my fic/post in a discord and people are geeking out over it over there.

I'm not a paid artist/writer. I do what I do because I want to geek out over something, preferably with someone else. But I effectively become removed from my art. People are discussing it, just not with me.

Dealing with being unliked as a person fucking sucks. Especially when it's supposed to be your hobby-fun-time. And it is making me not want to post stuff anymore.

[hahnspoetrywrites]

My Dragon (Lanfear x fem!dragon!reader)

A/N: OHHHHH i'm sorry if this is messy this was purely self gratification at its finest!

also! i don't know why but whenever i write Lanfear x fem!reader i always listen to cigarettes after sex or lana del rey... this time it was cigarettes after sex. not sure why.

Tags: @lanfear-is-my-darkmistress @baubeautyandthegeek

Warnings: implied murder!, lanfear being sketchy? (depends on how you read it), reader getting yelled at (only mentioned)

You’ve never moved to silence your alarm so quickly when it started ringing. You were already awake but you didn’t want to wake your gorgeous partner as she cuddled up against your back. Although you’d start in completely different positions, you’d always wake up in exactly the same position every morning. Lanfear was always cuddled up against your back, acting as the big spoon. Her arms were wrapped around your waist, stroking your bare skin underneath your top. Your hands moved to hold her arms, basking in the warmth she radiated. You smiled as you shuffled back further into her embrace.

“Good morning, my love.” Lanfear’s voice was still heavy with sleep but she wished you a good morning before holding you tighter.

“Please don’t get up,” she whispered against your back, pressing kisses against the exposed skin of your shoulders. Her lips were soft, featherlight as they touched your skin. Her touch was always so tender, like she was holding delicate china. 

“I’m sorry, honey,” You whispered gently, linking one of your hands with yours where it rested against your stomach, “I wish I didn’t have to.” 

You smiled sadly as you felt her hand squeeze yours, more kisses being trailed up the nape of your neck. 

“You know you don’t have to, right? Your talents are wasted helping those little Aes Sedai.” Lanfear whispered, pressing a kiss to your jawline as she rested her head in the crook of your neck. 

“My little Dragon, my darling love.” Her voice was soft as velvet, especially when she wanted you to do something. And she knew you couldn’t say no when she spoke to you in such a way. One of her hands drifted to stroke your hip, fingers gently tracing along your skin. 

“Why don’t you come with me? Leave this dreary tower and accompany me… you can have all the mornings in bed with me, cuddle as long as you wish. Just like this,” Her lips found your jaw once more, her words and soft touches working hard to convince you.

She knew you were naive… more so than Rand was, but she took care of him. All she had to do was wait for the next reincarnation, wait for the Dragon to be reborn again. She would thank the Great Lord before she slaughtered him that the Dragon Reborn was you. You were so desperate to be loved, held, cared for by someone like her, and she was happy to oblige. An innocent soul, all for her. With the Dragon Reborn in her hands, she was unstoppable. 

“How do I know you really want me there? That you’re not just lying to me because of who I am.” You spoke, anxiety rising as you thought about leaving with her. 

It’s what you truly wanted, you didn’t want to keep working with these Aes Sedai and your warder. All they seemed to want to do was yell at you for not being strong enough to control your power, how you would never be the true Dragon Reborn. When you were with Lanfear, she encouraged you, guided you better than any of them could. She was always gentle with your teachings too, which surprised you. You felt like you had learnt more with her in the few months she’d been secretly meeting with you, than you had in the Tower over the last 3 years.

Her hand continued to stroke your hip, her lips nipping at your skin. 

“My darling Dragon, I want you by my side no matter what. I’ll protect you, keep you safe while I teach you how to channel saidar fully. We’ll be unstoppable, we can take down the Dark Lord, The Creator… We can rule everything. Without you by my side, it wouldn’t be worth it at all. I want to do this for you, so I can keep you with me… forever.” Her mouth moved from your neck to your ear, pressing a kiss to the shell of your ear between her whispered words. Her voice made you shiver with excitement and fear. 

You knew she was a Forsaken, or Chosen as Lanfear preferred, but as you laid with her, you couldn’t understand everyone's obsession with keeping you away from her. Lanfear seemed like the best person for you to be around. 

“How about it, my little one? Let me take you away from this place and keep you by my side, safe and protected.” Her sweet words interrupted your train of thought. You turned in her hold, wrapping your arms around her as you hid your face in her chest, nodding profusely. Lanfear’s arms wrapped around you tightly, pressing numerous kisses to your hairline as you tangled your legs with hers once more. You felt tears spring to your eyes, you’d never felt this safe or comfortable with someone in your whole life.

“My sweet Dragon, it’s all going to be okay. Nothing will harm you, I swear.” She felt your body tremble against her and pulled you away from her chest. 

Looking at you, she knew you were different from the other two. You weren’t as hot headed or angry, you were smaller, innocent, kind, beautiful. The other two she would happily use for their power and their status, but you, you she would burn the world for. Destroy the Dark Lord and the Creator together if it meant keeping you happy and safe. Her soft lips found yours with a reassuring kiss, one Lanfear poured all her love into. As she pulled away, she moved to kiss away your tears, letting the salty liquid disappear on her lips. You were her Dragon, she wouldn’t stand to see you cry, not even if she were the cause of your tears. 

“Come, my sweet Dragon. No more tears,” Lanfear’s touch was protective as she held you close to her body. You could sense her begin to channel, feeling her grasp on saidar. You felt safe when she channelled, her weaves settling gently against the pair of you as she prepared herself. A sound of someone pounding against the door behind you tried to distract you, to wake you from this idea but you didn’t want it. You finally felt safe and protected, you weren’t going to give that up now!

“Close your eyes, baby girl. I’ve got you now,” You closed your eyes as a loud noise began to surround you, the air growing cold making you cuddle up closer to your Forsaken. She held you tighter as the door flung open. The last thing you heard was someone screaming out your name as you disappeared from the Tower with Lanfear, feeling her smile against your cheek as she kissed your skin.

You were finally hers.

[theinstagrahame]

Another month and a bit, got some more great games coming through! It's time for the indie/small press RPG mail call round-up!

Die - Bizarre Love Triangles: I generally love Rowan, Rook and Deckard's work, and really enjoyed the roughly half that I read of The Wicked and the Divine by Kieron Gillen. So, the original book was a match made in heaven for me. The promise of a Collectible Card Game adventure for it? Done. Sold. I'm there, and sign me up.

Inevitable: I think a lot of people had similar reactions when they pulled Inevitable out of its box: Whoa, this is big. The last few books have been closer in size to the middle row of books, but there's apparently too much ruined Western Arthuriana for one book to contain. Played this on a stream, it's good.

Yazeba's Bed and Breakfast: I honestly can't wait to dig into Yazeba's, because it seems like the kind of game we need more of. It's that Found Family experience, the whole character-based gameplay that people love, but also designed to really keep things fresh even on repeat playthroughs. I'm really curious to finally dig in.

Wickedness: This was offered as an Add-on to the Yazeba's Backerkit, and I was intrigued by the pitch: You and two other players form a coven, and you do queer witch stuff. It's a beautifully made book, and I've got a lot of friends who I think would dig it.

Songbirds 3e: I picked up an earlier edition of Songbirds in an Itch Charity Bundle, and was really intrigued by the game. Snow does amazing things with layout and vibes, and is a really excellent game designer. I really wanted that edition in hard copy, but never found it, so a third edition was an instant get.

Kids on Bikes 2e: I know KoB mostly through the Brits on Bikes podcast, and I really enjoyed the system. I love systems that make use of all the dice in interesting and fun ways, and I really couldn't wait to see what a new edition would look like.

Apocalypse Keys - Doomsday Delights: I've recently been reading the Hellboy comics, and thoroughly enjoying them. I also already have Apocalypse Keys, which does an incredible job of making the comic even more queer, so completing the set with the fun stretch goal books was kind of an obvious call.

The Wolf King's Son: Vincent and Meguey Baker make amazing games, including the engine that runs so many of the games I like. I've been following their recent series of zines, and this popped up in that feed. I haven't checked out Under Hollow Hills, but even based on what I've seen from this, it's a must-have.

Pitcrawler: Wizards are the 1%, and we Pitcrawlers, disposable adventurers, are here to rob from the rich. It ticks all my boxes, and it looks good doing it. The campaign also hit while I was about halfway through my Magnus Archives listen, so it was an instant back for me.

Outliers: Everything Sam Leigh makes slaps, so yeah. Weird corporate science horror? Solo adventures? Hell, even the Far Horizons Co-op association really got me.

Here we Used to Fly: Picked this up also because of @partyofonepod, who played a really beautiful and bittersweet episode with the creator. I have always been a little too anxious as an adult to consider breaking into an old theme park, but I definitely have my share of fun memories of them as a kid. I'm also starting to envision other games this would pair really well as an epilogue to, should I ever get back into the AP scene.

Another game has arrived in the mail since I started this, but that's gonna be next month's first game, I guess!

[velvetrambles]

Velvet’s Guide to Understanding the AUs I Work on (Resident Evil: Rainstorm Edition)

(Once again none of this would be possible without my lovely boyfriend @reallolattack who is also co-creator of the AU!! I’d also like to thank @tearsoftime0086 for supporting the AU these last few months as well as inspiring me to keep writing, you’ve been a major help in fleshing everything out :] )

------------------- Oh hey it’s been a while since I did one of these. I just kinda forgot to,,,, But hey Resi brainworms returned and I started writing again so here goes nothing!!

Resident Evil: Rainstorm

"Imagine if Resident Evil was written by Oingo Boingo songs and bisexual people" - @reallolattack Okay first off; change!! What have we done? What will we do? (a lot of a pain for our characters that’s for sure)

The RC outbreak is delayed by a month.

Leon and Claire team up to investigate what’s going on because Chris isn’t telling her shit

I went and revived Steve Burnside because FYUCKKK YOU

Steve works under Wesker between CV and RE5. The prototype for P30 is also developed to keep him under control

Carla is drastically changed from her canon counterpart (main thing is that she isn’t well. Ada 2. But she also plays a much bigger part)

Aeon, Burnfield, and Valenfield are all very much canon here

Sherry and Steve meet and they are FRIENDS

Basically everything about RE6 has been mutilated beyond all recognition for the sake of self indulgence

Carlos is a member of the BSAA

Highlights

These will mostly be from rps between @reallolattack and I. They do have the possibility of becoming a fic in the future, so if you happen to see these paragraphs pop up again that's why! :] ------------------- Rebecca stares at the words, weakly strung up on some makeshift poles and hanging over their desks. The typo sticks out to her like a sore thumb, but she knows she can’t mention it now, not while they’re on a time limit. Yet, she keeps staring, like her eyes will magic away the extra ‘O’.

A few of the others are busy handling other equally cheap decorations to even notice it, leaving the burden of such knowledge to fall to her.

Did this happen at her welcoming party? Did she get a typo? Is this a running gag she’s unaware of? Or is whoever got sign-duty dyslexic?

You think Captain Wesker would point it out, but no. He’s too busy arguing with Chris over wacky glasses. Jill’s got cake duty. And Barry’s probably acknowledged its existence for all of five seconds before choosing to ignore it. Richard hasn’t even bothered to glance at it.

She takes a deep breath. He won’t notice, surely. She has to stop overthinking typos or simple mistakes before she ends up worrying more about being embarrassed than investigating a grisly murder. - Written by me. ------------------- They were mostly for minor injuries anyway, she hasn’t been bitten or scratched by these things, yet, only sliced by glass and broken metal, she’s more likely to get tetanus than infected.

Or so she hopes, really.

It’s one of those things constantly gnawing at her mind, always aware of her symptoms, always aware of any sign that she might be turning. She hates it, the around-the-clock paranoia, the small moments of panic when she thinks she’s developing symptoms.

Ever since Marvin, she.. she can’t begin to imagine what it’d be like once she actually gets infected. - Written by me. ------------------- Steve tests the shoulder as he shakes his head, which is also aching. Just his damn luck. The plane crash really did a number on them, and if the cold doesn’t kill them - internal bleeding just might.

Okay, best to avoid thinking about that. They’re not going to die here. They’ve got this far, right? Or well, Claire certainly won't perish here. With a wound like this, he’s already a liability. Honestly, it’d be better if she left him here, might increase her odds.

…

Damn, did he hit his head that hard? - Written by me. ------------------- He doesn't let himself entertain the thought of becoming one of… them. As far as he knows, he's the only cop left in the city. It wouldn't be a good look for the R.P.D. if all of their workforce died in the one situation they couldn't protect people from, right?

Well, except S.T.A.R.S., maybe. They would've owned the apocalypse.

Especially Wesker. God, he's cool. - Written by @reallolattack ------------------- He sits down with a sarcastic grin.

"Nope. Intentionally avoided it. I walked."

And he walked with tank controls!

"Needed to get the cardio in, anyway. I've been hunched over a desk for so long, I forgot what good posture was. Which- thank you for getting me out of the White House."

Which is a sentence that no-one on Earth has ever said before. Claire Redfield is just that strong.

He uses this opportunity to straighten out his back against the chair, keeping his posture in line. You just straightened out yours.

I know what you are. - Written by @reallolattack ------------------- Yeah, he was expecting something vague. Nothing affirmative, no dates, just- "once in a while". How long exactly is a while? Is he really okay with the bait of something stable, if it even is, hanging in front of him for god knows how--

… she told him not to think too hard.

It's something. It's… something. Hope. Tangible, material hope. The most he's had in- fuck. Ada's faint pulse against his chest made his own heart feel like it's finally beating again. She is his oasis.

"My window's always open."

Except when it's locked. But hey, she has a knack for these things. Maybe she has one of those Hollywood laser glass-cutters? She's used to destroying government property by now. Hell, his couch is probably next.

"So…" His teeth latch onto the inside of his bottom lip for a moment. "… how long are you staying?" - Written by @reallolattack -------------------

Stories set in Rainstorm

Every fic I post to AO3 set in this AU will be linked here!!

~~~~

Early Morning Cuddles

As per usual; questions are welcome!

This AU has so much content sitting behind the scenes that things may get confusing quick, but I’m always willing to clear things up if needed!

[nofourfol4]

analysis of another level i weird think about a lot, except this time i fully enjoy it, despite its rather abrasive nature for those with "good taste", despite it being relatively conventional seeming, except this time almost no one's heard of it. i think instead of a preview image this time you should probably watch it first. this is Sailor of the Sun by YungBelll

ok did you finish watching it? cool

so depending on your tastes and/or experience in gd history and its various styles you may or may not understand why this of all levels i'm showcasing as especially unique. it's a combination of factors for me, the most immediately obvious being the whiplash between parts and the song choice

the song choice because it's cheesy possibly to an unpleasant degree (depending on your tastes) in a way very few songs used in gd are, and the most immediate warning i give any time i send someone this on discord. but the real reason i love it is its genuinely incredibly unique almost dreamlike outsider-y mashing of styles. if we're going superlatives, this is one of the most psychedelic levels in gd in my opinion, weird in a similar way as maze of justice, but with a completely different bag of tricks. i mean when's the last time you've seen a level with obvious influence from both culuc and crohn44? that's what i wanna focus on here

i think the best place to start is that apparently since i first saw this, the channel of the creator has metamorphized into a shitty minecraft shorts channel. i think that sets the tone pretty well. in art in general, a wellspring of creativity is found in the idea of a corruption of something commonplace, what you might call psychedelic, surreal, dreamlike, or hypnagogic. in gd, there's two main ways you get that. you either have a creator who understands what signs to mash together to achieve a mutant new result, or you have a creator who's an incompetent teenager with little idea of what they're doing. i think this level safely falls into the second category, between the title of the official showcase being very ambiguous clickbait, the current state of the channel, and the influences present on it. a good example of the former is devin, though he certainly tows the line, and the almost careless but still internally coherent mishmash of styles here feels a million times more like someone else's (likely accidental) take on devin than the unfortunate number of people who think they can make a 'devin styled level'. maybe a kinder way to say incompetence here, closer to what i really mean, is a unique perspective due to some fundamental gap of knowledge or experience between the artist and the relatively learned, uh, consumer? what's the fancy art philosophy word for the person who contentiously takes in the art that isn't too pretentious like 'aesthete'. that word. it's what people find so fascinating in outsider artists such as terry davis, a fundamentally different set of biases and experiences from the norm, but them still having an unwavering commitment to them, often resulting in something raw, speaking to deep, mysterious realms of the psyche. back on gd, it's what makes tidal wave so fascinating to me, one of the best analogs to this level, a level made explicitly for clout, but not sanitized and cleaned up attempting to create a masterpiece of some kind. it's what doesn't work about a tidal wave redecoration or further, more polished onilink levels, abandoning the incompetent roughness that makes it genuinely interesting in the first place. but whereas tidal wave wishes to garner attention pushing difficulty boundaries, ignoring a typical path of refinement until breakthrough that most well known creators follow, sailor of the sun *is* attempting to be that masterpiece, an aspiration of most levels of the 'art' style, your hyperdetailed megacollabs where everyone spends months on like 6 seconds each, refinement without consideration of if it's worth it, leaning on trust that it having taken so long surely means it's a masterpiece, more worthy of reverence and analysis than levels that took less time. but from a solo effort by a totally unknown creator, the result of this style is usually something fascinatingly uncanny, and when combined with the jarring stylistic changes, this level like firmly lands in exactly my kinda thing, resulting in it def being my top 100 levels at time of writing. i think the best way to analyze this is going roughly part by part then, given it's the progression and subversion of expectations that makes it work for me

the first part is not the most interesting one but sets up a lot of the themes and techniques used in general. the internal tensions start here with some details being incredibly object heavy and others just a couple of objects thrown together creatively, both common in art levels since their inception but not usually to this level of having both, clearly working from a mindset of filling up space on the screen with something, regardless of how long it took or inspired it is (see how much more detailed the red of the two mushroom platforms is than the green.) also worth mentioning is the incredibly awkward looking gameplay that stays for the entire level, simple obstacles buffed to needless levels or not even buffed at all as some kind of filler, and weird subtle gimmicks that often don't really represent the song

and then the second part, the contrast of which kind of acts as a microcosm of the whole thing for me, and what got me interested in this level in the first place. it uses a few similar techniques but a lot of completely different ones, from a space that does generally look like it could exist in some sense into a completely abstract surreal storybook thing, the influence in specific i can't really pin down. surreal is definitely what they're going for (gd creators aren't exactly subtle and the distorted clock in this part is almost definitely the overdone reference to the dali one), and in general the story of this level (as many 'art masterpiece' levels are wont to have) is the alternation between the high fantasy 'reality' and the psychedelic stylized parts, but what exactly this means, beyond having to do something with the sun, is spared in an act of merciful ambiguity. also incredibly geometry dash is the text 'walt dont lie to me walt you sussy baka' scrolling in the background, if it wasn't clear enough already this was made by some 15 year old. i didnt notice that until i decided to start writing this

a little transition which again looks nothing like anything before it, back into reality with the gameplay having a double click of all things, before the purple castle area, where the distinction between the parts they decided to be detailed and the parts they decided not divides even further, the set of armor with 5 frames animated for the helmet going down vs some of the block design not even having any extra detail to it beyond colored standard blocks

and then another part which looks nothing like anything else prior, where the culuc realistic style had texture, and the storybook was flat but had line art, most of the art here is totally flat, the structuring breaking down even further to simple pillars sparsely placed. this level's recent enough to have a distinct neodesign influence and that comes through here the strongest, as again geometry dash creators are not subtle and if they wanna evoke neodesign, they put big star shapes because overdefo levels have star shapes so that means that's how you do it. what this means story wise is another layer of abstraction, finally on the sea (it's called sailor of the sun after all) but clearly in an unreal state, i always took it as the ambiguous protagonist taking an order from the royalty of the castle to go out and do something but no kind of goal or bounty is ever hinted at, the rest of the level is just things happening

after a very rough but very cool transition telling us the sun is doing something to our mind (i love how shitty the expanding eyes look), or something, the chorus part is another stylistic shift being the closest to design but also by far the most overtly psychedelic part, always giving me vrymer for some reason so that's another random influence. the gameplay style is totally different too, still dispensing one weird obstacle at a time but looks much more like typical gameplay than the weird timing gameplay in the rest. the hand that lifts you out i always thought was maybe stolen from the ones at the start of the terminator by skywalker14, but they're not exactly the same. level definitely has strong stolen object energy so i wouldn't be surprised if there's some, but it might just be a bunch of "references" to a bunch of other levels scattered about

next part is the least interesting, just helps pacing as a return to the style from the start, but that devin ass dual, the traced vomit emoji(???) and whatever's happening with the invisible size portals at the end are all pretty weird

i have no clue what the part after is meant to represent, real or surreal, a bunch of neurons(?) in the background, a rocky block design, and giant text screaming DARKNESS at you it's just. yeah. nothing really more to say than it looks cool and feels right somehow

and the second chorus which is why i say crohn cuz this part always felt like a sunset sandstorm drop thing to me, an influence which pervades the whole thing (probably why the gameplay's like that) despite yknow, sunset sandstorm being pretty weird and unconventional and the art influences this takes from are like culuc shit. it's a blindness to the reasons why the things it takes influence from are famous, beyond that they're famous, that gives this (and a lot of other gd levels) the outsider energy it has

last little part which like that one transition looks like some echonox, darwin glow effect stuff. theres a bird, a dude with a weird head thing, and that one really easy to make helix effect plastered all over the background. and then the end cutscene/endscreen which is an entire 15% of the level, always interpreted it as the sailor succumbing to the effects of whatevers happening and dying, probably due to bodily neglect from the psychedelic adventures or being out at sea or both. but the hand rly looks like one of the white space hands (which now watching that back, also has a bunch of custom text plastered all over the place like this does so i guess that's probably why that's there). and the endscreen which is an endscreen. thats it i already stated my theses early on bye

[coff-in]

I feel like whenever I’m having a bad day (or in this case, few months), I see other people have bad days too. It’s crazy how the world works and we all unite together to have either crappy or happy moments; it’s kind of wholesome that we all are brought together through our experiences and can share those vulnerabilities. It makes me feel a little better knowing I’m not isolated or alone, and that I’m not the only person with problems or struggling to get by.

I saw your last post, you said to ask about pressure, so I’m asking: How do you deal with pressure?

This is what I do when I feel stressed (maybe you’ll find some relief in this too): It’s a rule for me to always cry when something goes wrong, because crying released happy chemicals!

If I’m still bothered, I sleep for a few hours, take a Power Nap or just sleep and see if it still bothers me. If it still bothers me, I eat strawberry mochi. I also like coloring in those coloring books with flowers and a inspiring quote, it makes me feel better. When I’m sad, I always put on some Lo-fi or old love songs.

I always try reading Andrew Graves x reader content—or, at least what I haven’t seen. It’s a small fan base for separate Andrew Graves content. It’s how I discovered you a few months ago too! I enjoy looking for your work on my dashboard and I’m excited to see what you do next.

I hope thing’s get better for you, Coff-in! Never be ashamed or feel guilty about your own feelings or mental health. Don’t worry about time or rushing things, rushed work is never good work. Always remember to take breaks and worry about yourself; it’s your life after all. From one human being to another, take care of yourself. 💜⭐️

hi stellar :D when i asked ppl to send me questions about pressure, i meant the roblox game pressure ^^; this is ok tho!! no harm no fowl! (or is it foul? fowl is a bird, huh)

when i get stressed i usually get take a nap, maybe eat something, or watch youtube to distract myself. crying sounds really nice but i can't cry easily, sadly :( i also just try to draw! i like drawing and i find it easy to just pick up a pencil and doodle something :3 i also do it when i'm bored

its a tad bit hard for me to realize that "oh this blog is my blog, i can do with it what i want". or maybe i do realize that but still feel like i can't do certain things. hm. hm hm hm. so neat, such whimsy :3 i also relate to you seeking out andrew graves x reader content, but recently for me i've been searching out sebastian solace x reader fics. idk if people know this but im mostly a selfshipper, so seeing the whole zerum drama happen in that fandom is like... idk kinda silly to me. tldr: people were mad that the co-creator of the game (zerum) shipped her oc (zerum) with the shopkeeper sebastian. there's obviously more to it than that, but it reminded me when i was younger and i made a boyfriend oc for my persona (who i also sometimes wrote/referred to him as her brother... huh)

i'm going to be busy with work again, so hopefully i'll be able to write more since i usually start writing when i'm trying to avoid work or just to get away from it ^^; i hope that you're still doing well despite these hard months! i think it's a bit too easy for some to cur inward and isolate themselves from others. it was kinda nice being away from my coff-in blog. i do not say this as in 'i want to leave', but it was nice to just... idk feel like i didn't have to write? or take my time. i felt kinda bad tho, like there was a lingering thought in my head that i was deceiving you all. i was still able to write, so why wasn't i writing? stuff like that i guess

thank you for sending your ask, please take care of yourself!! <3

[furymint]

2023 Creator Reflection

ffxiv.

1. dance me to the end of love

this one was fun! i always like merging a character's outfit with the bg so i liked doing that again. picking the colors for elliots outfit was also enjoyable. ive wanted to make smth w that cover for a while

2. shame was still the tyrant of his life

i only wrote two nol and eli things this year and neither of them are finished. the first was a continuation of a scene where nol kisses elliot against the blue stained glass in his room--i once posted it but then i deleted it bc it made me feel woozy for its allusions to sex. i wanted to rebuild it and take a shot at it now that im comfortable writing n reading sex, but i never got very far. theres actually lots of nice parts! i just like nols dumb angsting the best!

3. valentine

i really wanted to focus on nol's eye here, but also not make it too obvious lol. i used a ps filter like a schmuck but i wanted it to be darker without making it even more difficult to see, so i took away their bodies and limited the colors to make it what it is.

4. amateur cracksmen

the second nol n eli wip, which doesnt have many interesting lines rn, was a raffles-inspired story where eli drags nol as his valet to a rival artist's house and tries to steal back the brooch that he bought from an underground dealer feat. much babbling abt the state of societal responsibility that war is supposed to bring

ffxvi.

1. herz an herz dir

i wrote some reflections about this one already here. i honestly was very (distressed voice) cant believe im writing pure fanfic for the first time in over ten years and lacked a lot of direction when i started bc uhhhhh terence has 8 and a half mins of screen time. i tried to convince myself that it's not much different than me stealing brucemont for my own evil devices, but the unique perspective of seeing quite so much fan content def influenced my interpretation. i wanted their relationship to be much more imbalanced from the get-go initially--dion using his power unintentionally and terence barely passing a thought abt it until later bc he's just so accustomed to obeying--but i ended up giving terence a lot more sway & ammunition in their argument. the breakfast bed thing is also smth im rly fond of.

2. mund an mund

there's also additional meta for this one here. i made a silly doodle abt it also. dion kept picking fights here! it honestly turned out how i expected. when i first started this fic, i was gonna have dion start out right in oriflamme and meet ter and kihel there, but i booted them to northreach so i could have this stretch of conflict. i think it's like. Bad Pacing. technically. if i still believe the conflict introduced in the next chapter is the core one, that is. which i sorrrrta do. but i dont care bc i rly like the visual of kihel laying in dion's lap and getting to put a gun on the wall w ahmed.

3. eines atems

its been two months since the last chapter and this chapter is humiliatingly not written. i have all my scrambled notes and scenes that i jotted down in between the first two chapters, so i have a full direction, but it's been really difficult to write lately. ive been devoting all my time to trying to recoup my mental health and work on my teredio secret santa. ill start next year with this wip as a priority, so for now i only have the photoshop edit for it. kihel is holding terence's hand--it's his pov turn.

overall i didnt like this year very much. i didn't read, create, research or do a lot even though i tried to. i became really disconnected from all of my friends bc im too tired to stay for rp or hold online conversations. at this point, i dont play ffxiv at all except the few times i managed to rp a little. i moved into nanny's house and have my own space, but don't have the presence of mind to do anything about my pc, books, and so on, although i did make a lot of progress rewrapping my books w fresh wraps and some other things. my plans for next year are to reach out to a couple of my friends, build my pc, relearn + rebuild + relaunch my queer lit blog on open source code, survive school, and rediscover the productivity ive lost the past few years.

teredio has helped me a LOT to find community, inspiration, and art in my loneliest year yet. im very proud of my fic and grateful every day to the ppl who have reached out to me about liking it. even if im sorry about my productivity rate in comparison to how many extraordinary writers there are in the ship's fandom, i know i have to be easy on myself to relearn how to write, create a writing schedule that works for me, and stop punishing myself when i cant get the words out.

past reflections:  2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022

[nerdybeotch]

MCL: New Gen favs

Hello! This is my post to participate in the E-Girl Pack giveaway by @tetrakys.

Honestly, I don´t use social media a lot, I´m not very techie, so trying to win the code with other creators has been very difficult. But the fact that I'm not a gamer nor very used to playing anything but The Sims (thanks to my brother) is one of the main reasons I LOVE MCL SINCE I STARTED PLAYING IN JUNE 2012, just 5 days before my 14th birthday: I just needed to register, not download anything, not install software that may put my computer in danger, not need to even understand a lot about computers. So, I STARTED PLAYING BECAUSE IT WAS EASY, but I stayed because, you know, Armin ;) jejeje

I was always very shy, but the game made me very happy for years. I knew a lot of people in the forum, and I really liked discovering the story and how the characters grow while I was also growing and learning to understand my own feelings. The day I met my first boyfriend, I arrived home and played MCL feeling for the first time those butterflies in my stomach. The day we kissed for the first time, I wrote in my diary that I felt special, like a girl who could be loved as my sucrette that, in my mind, was a character very opposite to myself, she was strong, outgoing, and it was easy for her to talk to people, so she was everything I wasn't. When he asked me to be his girlfriend, I told myself: "Well, he´s not Armin, but he is mine" (I actually wrote that In my diary, which makes me laugh now that I'm older). MCL was always there, on my mind and my screen, even the day he left me and I was crying, thinking nobody would ever love me again. Yes, I was a dramatic girl, but only my family (and my diary) knew it, because I used to think other people wouldn't like me, and I had a pretty low self esteem. (On a side note, we only lasted like one month, so I was being VERY dramatic).

When I changed schools, I met an outgoing and very cool girl who loved soccer and was always talking about it. I started playing soccer too, and I met a whole team of cool and friendly girls that made me realize I can be very talkative when I´m given the chance. I introduced some of them to the game (do you remember when they gave us AP for bringing our friends to the game?) I think it's fair to say that I forced them to play, and then we all started having long conversations about it ("Castiel is the best one." "No, how dare you? Nath is the best.") It was amazing, we started bonding for more than soccer, and we shared crushes. Time passed and, eventually, my new friend (Ali) started to be distant, and I hated it because I missed her so much, after all, she was my best friend, and I didn't understand why she didn´t want to talk to me. To make a long story short, she confessed to me she was in love with me. I won´t give many details of what happened next, there are some things that still hurt since being a girl who likes girls wasn't easy in 2013 (not that it is much better now, but we didn´t even know many people who were like us, felt like us, or loved like us). What I want to say though is that things got better, and we have been together for 8 years. The best 8 years in my life.

But why am I telling all this story when I'm supposed to talk about my favorite MCL: New Gen things? Well,

MCL has been with me all this time, it MADE ME FEEL LESS ALONE, I discovered my love for writing while I was reading fanfiction with its characters.

When Priya became a crush IT MADE ME FEEL SEEN. It is one of the few games that now, as a grown woman, I am still playing, cause IT'S WHOLESOME and IT MAKES ME FORGET ABOUT THE REAL LIFE DIFFICULTIES.

I always liked following a STORY, I'm a reader and a writer, so I love stories more than anything.

One of my favorite things since I started playing is the PERSONALIZATION, and I like this even more in New Gen, with the new skin colors and the DECORATION OF MY ROOM and, of course, SWEET TAKI.

I love the MINIGAMES, dressing my Sucrette is one of my favorite things, and I just love how different she can look.

The EVENTS are also something I always enjoyed, having new things to dress my Sucrette and a new dynamic each time made me stay awake all night long, just waiting to see everything the team at MCL had prepared for us.

I also have to say that CONTROLLING MY CHARACTER'S ACTIONS is amazing, maybe because I didn´t play much, but that was new for me when I started playing.

I'll let this list end at 8, because that's my favorite number. And this one is all about the BEAUTIFUL COMMUNITY that this game has. My wife and I have been playing since high school, and there are a few of my old friends from the soccer team that I know are also playing to this day, Maybe that's because we miss the old days when we had no responsibilities but to have good grades at school, or maybe it's the pure nostalgia of our teenage years, when we felt a lot, but we also were passionate about a lot of things and felt alive. Maybe we just want to save the good memories, even when they have gone, and we are "free, independent adults" (I used to want to be that, and now that I am, I don't really feel like I'm free, nor independent, nor adult).

Yep, I went deep with that one, Now I'm crying just remembering the good old days, but I also love that this game is giving us another chance to fall in love again with all the things that made us fall the first time. And maybe I'm starting to be too old to play MCL, but I don't care. THIS GAME WAS A BIG PART OF MY TEENAGE YEARS, AND I WANT IT TO BE PART OF MY YOUNG ADULT ONES.

PS: Also, I wouldn't complain if Brune was a crush on New Gen, and maybe she could be reason 9, but I don't want to be that girl who says that the sapphics would be happy if we could win her heart.

Well, that's it. I have my fingers crossed right now. I really like this pack.

ANOTHER PS: English is not my first language. I'm hoping it's not noticeable, but if it is, I'm sorry, I did my best.

[ophernelia]

THIS IS A LONG ASK BUT ITS NICE SO PLEASE DONT BLOCK ME!! Im too scared to come off anon but i wanted to say that i followed you since you were peachmilktea with 200 followers and i am like weirdly proud of how far you’ve grown. I know i don’t know you and thats the weird part but I remember when you started posting about lykaia and would only get a few likes (me being one of them 💀) and its really nice to see how far you’ve come now in just a few months. I struggle with depression and watching lykaia has helped me feel better and gave me some comfort. and i wont say copy because its not copying but Ive the influence i guess you’re had with some other creators and not in like a mean way but I just think that its cool. i saw ashleyplays post about you on twitter and it was nice to see my two favorite creators talk about inspiring each other. its made me want to try different stuff out in my own game and especially with reshade I hadn’t tried it before you mentioned how easy it is to make presets. Every interaction ive had with you has always been really nice so I just wanted to tell you I appreciate you and your content. And I hope you post a new build soon too!! xx

Oh my goodness! This has me bawling so if there’s some typos that autocorrect can’t fix, know that’s why. First off, the way I wanna know who you are soooooo bad! But I’ll respect your anonymity lol. If you’ve been here since peachmlktea then you were a day one for sure! That was like August of last year lol. And as someone who also deals with depression, I am so so so glad and happy Lykaia provides you with even an ounce of comfort. The whole reason I even make the show is because it helps me cope, so I’m so glad that it helps you out too.

And the influence thing.. eh I won’t touch on that at all. I’m a quick learner lol. I won’t miss the mark again. So, I won’t take credit for that. I couldn’t anyway. This community is filled to the brim with talented and creative people. Always has been prior to me jumping into content creation and will always continue to do so. EA gave us the bones of this game and everyone just said “Bet. Watch what I do with it”. But yeah that interaction with her was amazing! Its always nice when people whose work you admire tell you they admire yours. She’s lovely! I have nothing but respect for her and her craft. My personal stuff aside, a lot of creators in the community have been really cool like that. The creators hype each other up pretty often. We bicker like siblings every 3 business days, but we’re good for acknowledging each other too lol. And yesss! I’m a reshade girly fr now. It makes the game feel new every time you use/make a new preset. It’s a fun program to play around with.

But I am so grateful and thankful to you! This was one of the sweetest messages I’ve ever received. You absolutely made my day with this. And if you ever feel comfy coming off anon, message me privately!

[luyo-mi]

I’m so glad you’re enjoying Twisted Wonderland! It’s so much fun and I kinda just started a month or so ago, so to answer a few things/to tell you a few things I wish I knew when I was just starting out (lol):

SSR cards are the highest rarity cards you can get.

Besides the prologue, so far in English there are 6 books that have been released (up to Idia). Malleus’s story has been partially released in Japanese and not at all in English yet. But there are plenty of events and the creator has said there will be more content even after this storyline.

The vignettes do not raise the power of a card, however they do add fun little stories you can read to learn more about a character and their interactions with others. And when you finish reading each part, you get gems. So, while vignettes are not required, they are a very fun addition. They also give you a sneak peek at what the card will look like once you groovify it (Groovifying it makes it stronger).

Don’t forget beyond leveling up your cards to also LEVEL UP YOUR SPELLS! That is so helpful and can be done when you view the cards individually (the button next to the mirror) and go to the “spell levels” tab. This makes even weak attacks stronger and some attacks get bonuses at higher levels!

The exams, the guest room/crafters gauntlet, and friendship boosts are important. Especially the friendship levels - so be sure to take the alchemy lessons with Crewel. Friendship popcorn is your friend as well.

And last but not least……… LEONA DESERVED SO MUCH BETTER IN HIS BOOK OMFG. The reason why we all say his story is the worst is not only because the end is so rushed and he just kinda comes off as a jerk, but like… he as the main focus of the overblot barely gets ANY screen time or focus. We’re focused more on Ruggie tbh. And it SUCKS. But the novelization is apparently SO much better in this regard. There was a tumblr post going into this and Leona’s post overblot speech and it just hits home SO HARD. And I really wish the game had done more for Leona because our lion man deserved better. 😭😭😭

Here’s the post. Idk if it’ll properly work through an ask but here’s hoping so you can read the amazing analysis! The OP did an amazing job. If this link doesn’t work and you’re interested I reblogged it so it’s on my profile. I am not the OP btw - it’s just saying it’s from me since I took the link from when I reblogged lol:

https://www.tumblr.com/the-ace-reader/729201926273679360/i-love-this-so-much-i-immediately-loved-leona-he

ANYWAY I have rambled enough sorry! I love your art and I’m so glad I found it. I can’t wait to see more! Your latest of Ruggie was so good. Little sticky fingered bb hyena boi 💜

THERES FRIENDSHIP LEVELS WHAT??????

IM so confused omg maybe skipping all the tutorials and instructions was a bad idea AND OMG I can't even take on an easy level battle for the crafting its embarrassing🫠

Im surprised I even managed to get past leonas overblot lmao

thank you for explain things bc im a idiot frfr

I'll be sure to read the post soon too, he deserved better 😭🥲

[minsarasarahair]

And there goes my first vtuber oshi, Vesper Noir...

I'm not really upset. Just a little empty and my heart sunk but I don't feel the need to cry. Maybe because I'm still a novice in vtuber community and I probably didn't fall deeper to the rabbithole yet? On the contrary, I wish both of them good luck to their new journey. I always know liking a celebrity will not last forever compare to liking a fictional character. I don't have any regrets because I always tune in to his stream whenever I have time and bought his digital contents (menshi/vp). I'll definitely treasure the memories he gave me. I sure hope he will still be around streaming with different persona because I'll definitely try watching him. I like him that much.

Being disappointed is valid, of course. I'm probably unfazed because of my own past experiences. I'm a Kalafina fan and they disbanded suddenly after their 10th anniversary without any graduation but all girls have solo career (Keiko, Hikaru, Wakana) now. I'm happy for them. I start to like Zhang Zhehan too because of his Word of Honor's Zhou Zishu portrayal and something happened so yeah. And now Vesper Noir lol Am I cursed or what? I'm also a fan of seiyuus like Maeno Tomoaki, Toriumi Kousuke, Akira Ishida, Suzumura Kenichi, Sho Hayami, Toshiyuki Morikawa etc. I ship Maeno and Toriumi's characters in Tsukiuta (Hajime and Haru) but I also love their relationship as coworkers. Maeno also have a genuine friendship with his coworker, Kenn. Similar to Magni and Vesper's case.

Anyway, I kind of expected that two of them will go together if they ever graduate because they love each other too much as friends and they have very similar vision as creatives. They are not the best singer but more like streamer or content creator. It make sense. Magni always mentioned how Vesper is always there to keep him sane in Holotempus and Vesper is the same, he always appreciate that Magni is such a considerate friend. Because of that, its really hard for me to imagine if one of them will stay. They are truly friends behind the scene and love playing APEX offstream to distress. If you know Magni's other persona, he still mentioned Vesper's other persona frequently so yeah those two are THAT close. They are still playing games together as we speak. They are no longer Magni and Vesper but they are happy. At least they are together. Platonic soulmates.

As for why they need to go that way, I think there are many factors such as taking care of health, clashing creative views or sudden change of plans but its definitely not because they hate their fans or want to hurt their fans. If there is something they don't like, its probably the limitations of corporate hence why so many creatives or artists chose a freelance path. Its nothing new. You can't also control life or what's going to happen to you so its expected that things do "change". I even see myself abandoning this tumblr blog one day without goodbye. Best example is Donten Ni Warau's Tenka story. Tenka has so many ambitions with Sousei for their Yamainu orgnanization but he left suddenly because he want to focus on raising his little brothers after the sudden death of his parents. Sousei hated him for that but they got closure in the movie 1 where Tenka apologized to him and Sousei smiled back saying something like "That's your decision. The path you choose to walk. You don't regret any of that, right? So why are you apologizing?" That's the reality and we have no choice but to accept it. I'm sure it was a difficult decision but it they think its for the best who am I to dictate their life. There are friends that will not stay with us forever but the memories they left behind will help us to move forward. Also, Axel's fortune-telling stream kinda implied a big change will happen within few months and he need to be ready for it. Its actually true. My guts is correct. I always thought its talking about Magni and Vesper.

To end this post, I think Tabidachi no Yell (Departing Yell) by SOARA fit what I'm feeling right now. Its also a graduation song so it really fits. I picked the part that says my feeling. Its from different part of the song but I combined it. I'm not good with words but I really am thankful Vesper Noir became my kamioshi. He widen my horizon as a person. Now I'm imagining him living his life isolated from the world like this Japanese guy who left his salaryman life to live in an abandoned school.

"Thank you for being you. I realized how important it is. Even if I know in my head this has to happen, Look, I'm crying again. How can my heart hurt this much. The days I miss are faraway now. Tomorrow is a bit scary. We have to say goodbye, But you will always be you How can you captivated my heart this much Thank you for all the memories They overflow in my heart"

On a good note! Vesper Noir as shapeshifting vampire is a Canon Lore now to me! He or Cover will probably not make a continuation of their story so I can do whatever I want with his character! Shipping him with Magni is also feel more comfortable now for some reason. Maybe because they are only characters now and the people behind them left the characters for different persona?

Lastly, I have decided I will graduate too from following Holostars or Holotempus. I still cheer for them to reach their dreams but its hard for me to continuously follow them because my favorite left. Its like when your favorite character is killed in the story. I have to move on. This is the best choice for me. I'll be watching Vesper's other persona because his chatting stream is what I need. I listened to his old vods and its very chill.

[ghostoftheyear]

So I have been trying not to check the birdsite anymore, but of course I can't help it, I'm still addicted and that won't stop until it dies. I was checking my DMs frequently in case I got any commissions, but then I stopped doing that too since that wasn't happening. But last night/this morning I woke up at 3 am (with the Matchbox 20 song ringing in my ears), and after a while when it was obvious I couldn't get back to sleep, I got up, poured myself a glass of milk, came back and scrolled a bit on twt on my phone. And there was a DM. I don't know why my phone shows when I have them, whereas the website doesn't, but I looked at it, fully expecting it to be some sort of botspam bc that's all I get (do you want to work part time at amazon? let's be better friends on telegram! [very long phrase in Japanese ending in "login credentials" that sure seem legit])

But it was actually none of these. It was from someone saying they felt like a stalker for doing this, but they've been following me on AO3 for a few months and they love my DMMd fics and have been re-reading them constantly. And they'd sent it last Monday so I didn't notice it for four days because of that site's bullshit.

It felt really good but also a little weird. I feel bad for this person saying they feel like a stalker, because that's what I put my twitter handle on my fics FOR. Because I want to know if people like my work! That's what the comment field is for! So you can talk about what you liked about someone's fic! That's what fandom is at its core. Communication. Sharing your love of these creations with other people and connecting through them. That's how I've made a long-term friendship, because of comments on fics that got longer and longer and then went to email and then we started talking RP and then she came to visit me once and we've got an FC in FFXIV now and anyway.

Don't be afraid to tell creators, artists, writers, animators, AMV editors, that you enjoy their work. It encourages us to keep going and make more of it.

[hauntedfalcon]

Can we stop acting like the fact that AO3 didn't have to fund legal fees is a bad thing?

Its literally what we, as content creators, want. It means no jumped up Anne Rice wanna-be came after content creators. It means that the content creators using AO3 did so within full service and operation of both the law and site policy. It means that we were able to do what we enjoy doing, without threat, for two consecutive years.

Probably because people were too busy with a literal global pandemic to be serving C&D or DMCA forms over fucking fanfic, but hey, who knows, right?

It is not a bad thing.

Also, just so you know, AO3's fundraising goal is the literal bare minimum figure they'd have to have as their in-flow cash in order to function based off a cashflow forecast and internal financial analysis. Have you ever looked at your job and worked out the bare minimum you'd have to work to have all your bills paid? Yeah, that's AO3's set target for their fundraisers.

For full transparency, here's the flow chart of AO3's full 2022 budget and cashflow.

THIS IS WHAT WE WANT.

Personally if I saw that AO3 had a $00.00 flatline for in-kind legal advocacy every single year? Fuck yeah. I'd love that. Because it means nobody needed it.

But I'll bet you're pissed that big bad AO3 got so much money, mm? Its okay widdle babey, here's the cashflow analysis of the biggest corporate charities to make you feel better. AO3's annual income for the last six years alone doesn't even touch the figures you see below.

AO3 is literally not taking away from anyone. The only thing you're mad about is you feel entitled to that money because you have this skewed notion you would've received it had AO3 not. That's not how life works. AO3's donations aren't even 50% of the top 10 global charity networks and corporations. AO3 isn't 'taking away donations people in need would've received' or whatever other half-assed argument you've got brewing.

Just leave it the fuck alone. Nobody's making you use it. Nobody's forcing you to donate. Literally nobody is 'missing out' because a few hundred thousand people donated their spare change to fund the one fucking site we have, at all, that is worth said spare change. I'd rather throw a dollar at AO3 every single day for the rest of my entire life than be forced to used Wattpad or LiveJournal.

Oxfam 2019 - 2022: £30,790,000. A 24% increase. Bernardo's 2021: £280,500,000. RSPCA 2021: £151,800,000.

wow, it’s amazing how many defenders of a fanfic site manage to be so fucking illiterate.

yes you petulant little stooge, I am pissed that AO3 got so much money when people on this webbed site are literally starving and trying to pay for surgery and, you know, actual important shit like that

I’m pissed that every six months the Greek chorus of “ooooooooooooh donate to AO3 and the OTW because the legal work they do is impoooooortaaaaaaaant” starts up again, that legal advocacy is the number one thing people cite to get other people to part with their money, that mutuals who really should know better have told me that the OTW is ~~~pretty much always~~~ involved in some legal development when all of that is a full fucking lie, it’s a goddamn joke to imagine one nonprofit’s legal department is actively protecting all of us from being sued while somehow also spending no money, especially when they didn’t even protect their own users from having their work stolen off AO3 and put behind a paywall a couple years back, give me an entire break

and in exactly the same way, “because of your generosity, we have a sizeable surplus and we’re now looking into a diversified investment portfolio” was a lie for years and it never happened and they finally just… quietly omitted it from their financial reports

I’m pissed that a fourteen year old nonprofit has never bothered to diversify their funding at all with grants for specific projects, and instead relies on unallocated funds from donors, and they justify this piss poor practice simply because “we are supported entirely by our users” looks better

I’m pissed that every time I mention how their “transparent” budget is actually pretty pants about certain things, like the fact that they changed the amounts in their estimated columns to match what actually came in, and how nonprofit budgets are publicly available for this exact reason, so that we the public can decide if they’re actually doing what they ought to be doing before we give them our money, some tiresome little pissant climbs out of a puddle to send me a link to the exact fucking spreadsheet I got my information from

so no I will not be leaving it alone, thanks, I will fucking increase the fucking thing. you sound like a sucker, so you’d better go donate to AO3

[booklovertwilight]

☕️ thoughts on different fanfiction sites perhaps? (AO3 vs Wattpad vs ffnet vs whatever else there is lol)

Hi friend! Sorry for the late reply, one of my posts blew up and the notification avalanche scared me off the site for a few days.

So I've been writing fanfic for *checks watch* 13 years now. I've posted it on AO3, Wattpad, FanFiction.net, Reddit, DeviantArt, YouTube comments sections, and blogs I set up myself. I'mma cover the first three individually, and do the others as a sort of collective.

I started off writing on FFnet back in 2009, and even back then I was aggravated by how much work it takes to do something as simple as post a new chapter. The UI to search for and read fic is fine, I guess, but as a prolific writer (I posted over a dozen stories on that site), the fact that it takes like ten steps to post a chapter is just Bad™. Like you have to 1) open your author profile 2) go to the side column and expand the 'works' tab 3) go to 'manage works' 4) scroll through your entire list of fics to find the one you want to add a chapter to 5) click the chapters list 6) click the add chapter button .... etc etc AAAAAAA. I have not written anything on the site in years and I still remember this stupid process. Btw the menus still look & act like this. In fucking 2022.

Wattpad is much nicer in terms of user interface. In fact it's got an option to add cover art which will be displayed front and centre along with the title and summary in search results, which, as a writer/artist who draws his own covers for his fics anyway, I thought was great. Generally, the process of posting new works / new chapters to existing works is a lot more seamless here than, actually, any other site on this list. It's also got this neat feature where you can comment on a fic line-by-line, by highlighting the text, which is a lot more user-friendly than having to copy the text and paste it in quote marks into a comment. But the nice UI/UX can't make up for the fact that -- at least in 2014, which was when I briefly tried writing there -- Wattpad was a cesspool of the most annoying human beings to ever exist. I wanted to post my writing to a community that would give me interesting comments and useful feedback, not write incoherently-spelled rants about how I was taking the source material too seriously. I lasted on Wattpad about 5 months.

After I quit FFnet and Wattpad I went around posting fic to a bunch of random forums, none of which really worked well because they hadn't been designed for that purpose. Posting long-form stories (which is pretty much all I write) to either Reddit or DeviantArt is an absolute nightmare of comment-section-linking. And posting fic to my own blog requires I have some way to bring people to see it, which is remarkably difficult to pull off and requires a lot of work. And on top of all that, there's no community, really, so you get whatever bottom-of-the-barrel internet trolls think it would be funny to harass you.

AO3 is where I post my fic now (@booklovertwilight on there too, in case there's still anyone following me who doesn't know that), and for good reason. I've tried a lot of stuff (perhaps too much stuff) and it's all-around better than anything else available. Its UI isn't the best, but it's manageable. Its site design is pretty good. But crucially, the community on there is just wonderful. Part of this is the fact that the Death Note fandom in specific is just a lovely place to be (nowadays), but even when I've posted fic for larger or more militant fanbases (*cough cough* Sword Art Online), even the criticisms have been coherent and well-thought-out. I felt less like I was being ridiculed in a school cafeteria and more like I was being given a constructive critique by a fellow english major.

There's also the factor of legal recourse. I used to write long disclaimers at the top of my FFnet stories saying things like "I make no money off all this, all rights belong to [creator of canon], please don't sue me I'm broke". Everyone did. I absolutely love the dignity in being able to post fic without having to grovel to the copyright overlords, knowing some lawyer I pay for with my yearly donations is doing it for me. The community is what brought me to AO3, but the legal safety is what's gonna keep me here.

Hope that answered your question, friend! Thank you very much for the ask, this was a lot of fun to think and talk about <3