#decided to do this because the app doesn't show all of the pages

[reignpage]

hello

what's your process of writing smau's? like the idea and how do you decide to implement it and everything?

thanks in advance and pookie don't forget to rest

Saw this a while back and finally have time to answer

I've already touched on this in my recent Announcement

Here is my start to finish process:

I have a list in my notes app of story ideas divided by smau and fic

and within smaus, they're further divided by angst/smut/fluff

Many are popular plots like

Clingy? (they call you clingy)

Birthday Girl (forget your birthday)

And the others are things I've just thought of for example:

A New Friend (or more popularly known as 'Keiko')

Tell Your Friends About Me

When it comes to making a smau, I first have to ask myself what kind I wanna make

To make a oneshot, my process is:

Start with Gojo (I always go in order of their appearance, it's just easier to transfer the screenshots from my phone to my laptop and organise them when they're already in order)

Change the contacts (his picture and name)

And text myself my initial thoughts

Most of the time I never plan what I'm going to say, like the plot for each character or the exact wording, it just comes to me naturally. But there are times when I have to trial and error what feels best. Regardless, there's a lot of deleting happening. Which is why I prefer the single page layout because then if I have to start over because of a mistake or typo, I don't have to recreate as many lines. It's less tedious.

To make a series, I like to generally follow a 4 part stage:

Problem

Confrontation

Explanation/Grovelling

Resolution

Which is why I was actually surprised a couple people thought I was excessively making parts, because looking through my masterlist, that just doesn't seem to be the case

Anyways

Each part and each character are like episodes of a telenovela in my head

That's why some people might think the conversations end suddenly and then people have to read back to understand the new part. I never thought that was a bad thing. In fact, it was actually quite intentional. These messages are dramatic like Vampire Diaries or Greys Anatomy and not realistic because realism is boring.

The children yearn for escapism!

Sometimes there's even minor time jumps between parts where reader has avoided the men for a couple days for example. Each character's plot plays out in my head like a show is the best explanation I can provide.

It's the same for the Modern au!smaus

Some people didn't get the Modern au!Nanami ones because they couldn't tell when a text is a pre-relationship text or when a text is during their relationship

First 3 texts are pre and the last half are established relationship texts Some texts are a continuation of a story, others are a snapshot of a moment in their lives

So it might not make sense immediately and that's because it's not supposed to be linear

It's like an episode!

Think of the Modern au!Nanami one titled 'Newton's first law'

First text is a snapshot of their first every conversation From reader's perspective, it's their first time meeting So in the beginning of an episode, it'd be like a flashback Then the episode picks up where we left off from the pre-relationship timeline, when Nanami got fed up because of the drunk party stunt reader pulled, and reader apologises and begs for another chance. The third pre-relationship pic is still following that event in the episode, but is a couple weeks into the future, where reader has kept her promise and been distant, which Nanami picks up on. THEN the three next pictures are in the present time, during their relationship, and we see they're having an issue, they even go on a break. But the episode ends with them reconciling and it all connects back to the first pic (the snapshot of their first conversation) with a reference to a text reader sent nanami

See my vision?

It might not be executed perfectly, but I hope you guys can at least see where I'm coming from.

If you've made it this far, you're a champ

Once I've reached the final character

Either Sukuna (or Shiu) in my 18+ works or Toge

I crop the pictures and I create a post on Tumblr using my laptop

I colour the title using a website

Paste it on the post

Get my template:

Smau: in which they/you..... Warnings: ..... Featuring: Gojo, Geto, Choso, Toji, Nanami, Sukuna/ Yuji, Megumi, Inumaki

I copy and paste the tags from my notes app (I do not type them out one by one anymore it's tedious work) and just edit out the inappropriate tags like if it's not smut, I'll take out every 'jjk character smut' tag etc.

And then transfer the pictures from my phone to my laptop, and then place the pics into Tumblr

I do final checks

Sometimes I forget to crop a picture or I didn't screenshot a character's conversation (I have to take a lap when this happens because that means I have to change out the contact pic and name and scroll up and go through the process ugh)

But if all looks good on my front, then I don't hesitate to click post!

Thanks for reading and hope that was informative!!!

[astridthevalkyrie]

tw: dubcon, noncon, bully!gojo, afab reader w/ she/her pronouns

Gojo's a sick fuck.

He corners you on campus in the strangest places, taking advantage of the fact that he's been here a year longer than you. Sometimes Getou or Ieiri are with him, but most of the time he's alone, and when he's alone he's even worse than when he's just putting on a show for his dickhead friends. They only get to bear witness to him teasing you from afar, just his general idiocy and inborn cruelty. When he's by himself, though, nothing stops him from trying to corner you literally, one hand on the wall next to your head and the other finding some excuse to touch you, either running a finger down your cheek or brushing some invisible dust from your shoulder.

And you've had enough. You just want to find a place to sit down and study or read or eat or literally anything else as long as you don't have to worry about the only guy who tormented you all throughout school continuing the cycle in university where you were supposed to be free from this, this cocky, stupid, bitch.

You're in the library today, but his approach is the same as it is in any other location. Your physics lab, outside a professor's office, the community pool, for Christ's sake. First, he makes his presence known, making you aware that he's being his usual creepy self. This time, he's leaning against the wall when you turn the corner behind one of the shelves. There's a book in his hands that has so many dog ears you think he reads one page then saves the literal next one for the following day.

He doesn't look up, not right away. Not until he feels you glare burning his skin for a good few seconds. It's when you assume the burn actually becomes painful that he looks up, feigning a surprised smirk as his icy blues practically gleam. "Fancy seeing you here," he purrs, book staying open in his hands.

"Go to hell, Satoru." There's no point engaging further with him. The only option you have is to get the hell out before he gets to touch you. If he touches you, it's all over. You turn on your heel and throw a quick thank you prayer out that you don't immediately bump into Getou, who would act as the other mousecatcher whenever Gojo decided he wanted to play.

Behind you, you hear him put the book down and your legs move faster without you even thinking about it. You don't even know how he always tracks you down. Maybe he installed some app on your phone without you realizing. You'll get a new one. Anything to just get rid of him.

Even though you've been on campus for at least a month now, virtually every building is still wholly unexplored, mostly because you're constantly trying to avoid these exact types of situations. The amount of times you could have stayed on campus but instead scurried home is already close to the triple digits. And for what? You've only avoided Gojo a handful of times and left yourself unprepared for a hasty escape too.

There's footsteps somewhere, and now that your heart is racing you can't calm down enough to pinpoint where they're coming from. It's a Friday night and not even close to midterm week, so there's a few regulars here, but not nearly enough people that someone will see you. Not that Gojo minds, you've seen him look someone dead in the eye and then squeeze your hip impatiently, as though to tell them do you mind? You don't know where he gets his confidence, but whatever it is, it's well earned. Everyone gives in to him, eventually. Even you.

You turn out of yet another aisle, and then your legs falter.

"Hey, sweetness," he grins at you. Your back hits the wood behind you and your bag thumps to the floor. On days where he wants to really torture you, Gojo acts like a charmer, kissing the back of your hand or carrying your bag over his shoulder, preening in the direction of anyone who calls him a good boyfriend, singing a sinister thanks knowing damn well he isn't your anything.

This isn't one of those days. You can tell.

Gojo doesn't want to be your boyfriend anymore than you want to be his girlfriend. He likes his lifestyle, and an average stick in the mud like you would definitely ruin the perfect image. But that doesn't mean he wants you out of his life completely. When he'd learned you'd be going to the same university as him, he'd sent you the only text message he'd ever sent you, a filthy picture captioned with a sweet and simple can't wait to have you.

And have you he will, whenever he wants. He's pretty open about that. "Are you in a rush?" His blues blink innocently. You're not sure why he keeps up the act even when no one is around, it only serves to set your nerves further askew.

"Leave..." Before you can even formulate the thought of a process, his hands are on your hips, pinky finger slipping under your sweater inconspicuously. "Leave me alone, Satoru."

"Nah," he breathes, "you look real pretty today, sweetheart."

While he doesn't make a move to take your sweater off, he does bury his face in your shoulder and inhale the scent. Then he slowly switches from the sweater to your actual skin, tucking down the fabric of the turtleneck to expose your neck, which you'd taken pains and suffered the heat to hide. Gojo moans a little at just the last remaining bruise he sees on you.

"Love when you don't try to cover it up," he murmurs, "don't need you treating me like a dirty secret."

As if you could keep him a secret. No one aside from your professors even tries speaking to you, and you have no doubts as to why. "I do try—I did cover it up."

"This doesn't count." Instead of just kissing you, because he's a bitch, Gojo kisses the inside of your turtleneck, his hair tickling your nose. "I meant makeup and crap. This? S'like unwrapping a present, baby."

"Satoru," you choke. It isn't just how he touches you, it's everything. The proximity, the casual way he says the most scummy things you've heard in your life and says them like they're just simple facts.

"Normally, I'd tell someone to stop playing so hard to get after so many times. But you're special, y'know." Two fingers push your lower lip down and slide in slowly, running over your gums before violating your mouth further. "This bitchy attitude only makes me wanna have you more." He waits, waits for you to gag, to choke on his fingers and look up at him with watery, pleading eyes before he removes his fingers and slots his lips over yours.

When Gojo kisses you, it's not demanding so much as needy. For someone who already has an ego that's sky high, he still seems to want you to stroke it, and nothing strokes his ego more than the noises you make unwillingly. Every little gasp, whimper, sharp breath, he swallows possessively, as he drags his nails gently along your lower back, making you squirm closer to his mouth to get away.

He plays you like you're his favorite instrument. And he knows exactly which strings to pluck.

His tongue nips at your teeth playfully, and that's when you pull away, summoning up whatever remaining courage you have. "Someone's going to come down this way," you beg, because the only thing you haven't experienced yet is being fucked with an audience, and you're not eager to change that. "Please, Sato—"

"It's okay." The fingers that were just in your mouth a few seconds ago now slide down your waist and under your jeans, nudging them down. "Don't need any foreplay. Been hard since you walked into the library, sweetness. And I bet you've just been dripping playing tag with me. I promise one of these days you'll get to be it," he mocks, as his other hand undoes his belt.

Tears spring to your eyes, but Gojo kisses them off your eyebags before they can fall too far. "You're so tired," his voice coos, "m'gonna make it all better. I'll make you feel so good."

His hand twists into your hair, yanking it back in a single motion that must be gentle for him, but it's rough for you. It's the sting in your scalp that you focus on as he takes your hand and wraps it around his cock, making you jerk him off in preparation. It's the one thing he always demands, claiming he can't get off unless he gets to feel your touch first. Bullshit.

Once he's satisfied, Gojo moves your hand away, intertwining your fingers and placing them on the shelf next to your head as he guides his dick to your leaking pussy, sliding the first inch in with a hiss.

Praise drips from him easily like this, when he has you between him and any hard surface. The individual shelves hurt your back, but less so when he slides an arm around you, pulling you closer as he pushes in with one lazy thrust.

"Ah!" your cry catches in your throat, but he bites you, groaning with your lip caught between his teeth. He pulls out and thrusts again, and your tear slips down to your mouth this time, where he licks it off.

"God," he compliments, developing a pace that's fast but not fast enough, not fast enough to ensure you won't get caught or to make you cum, "so fuckin' glad I don't let anyone else fuck you. This cunt's only for me, yeah? Belongs to me?" When you don't answer, too focused on the feeling of him filling you, leaving you empty, and then filling you again, he speeds up. To Gojo, the more you struggle to give him what he wants, the more fair it is to make it harder.

The shelf shakes as he loves you against it, it won't fall but you fantasize about him being crushed under it anyways. Then you think about being buried under with him, completely in his clutches with no telling when you'd be able to get out, and you clench around him, eyes rolling back.

"You think there's cameras in here?" he pants, digging his nails into your skin again. The pads of his fingers press roughly under your shirt, sure to leave even more bruises for him to lavish with his tongue later, whenever he pleases. "Think someone'll see you getting railed and jack off to it? I know I would, baby. If I only got you on camera I'd be fuckin' my hand and coming on your face every night. Lucky me," he gasps, and you feel him swell inside you, "that I got the real thing all to myself."

You hate how much his voice and his words affect you, how much each filthy thought of his makes your pussy practically gush for him as one of your own fingers rubs over your clit frantically. Each squelching sound makes him more feral, till he's rattling you against the shelf, every thrust of his hips growing more frantic and more desperate.

"I'm almost there, sweetness." Gojo reaches up and squishes your cheeks together, blues blown out as he kisses your puckered lips one more time. "Answer my question, baby. Tell me whose cunt this is so I can blow my load in it. C'mon, fuck, tell me."

You let out a sob that hiccups into a moan, force out, "Yours," and cum.

Gojo whines, thrusting one, two, three more times before he's coming too, filling you up with each jerk of his hips. His head falls onto your shoulder, panting on your neck. Your turtleneck is entirely too warm now, and useless to boot. Cum drips from your pussy; Gojo slides two fingers against your hole as he pulls out, sticking them in your mouth, just at your tongue this time. You taste him and yourself, and even though he's not forcing them in further this time, you still feel like gagging.

He takes them out, then places them in his own mouth, sucking them off and groaning at the taste.

As he tucks himself back in his pants, he runs a hand through his hair, setting it back into place before dropping a kiss to your cheek. Your tears have dried now, and you're trying to ignore his cum leaking onto your panties as you pull your jeans up. You don't even want to think about how you look, or about how you'll bring yourself to another orgasm tonight thinking of this, albeit not one as good.

Patting your hip, Gojo flashes you his best grin. "See you next time, sweetness. Maybe tomorrow?" Without waiting for your reaction, he strolls off, a single hand raised in goodbye.

Wiping at your cheeks and taking out your phone, you release an angry sniff, penciling it in.

[ellecdc]

hey guys!

so, I feel so incredibly awkward even bringing this up but I've decided that I'd like to explain a little bit of what's been going on for me on my blog for the past few months that came to a head about a week or so ago, something that I believe has contributed to my current 'blueness' that has made it difficult to show up the way that I would like to for all of you, and why I'm going to create the boundary I'm about to in this post

before I continue I would like you to know that no one following my blog is being scolded right now- at all - the only person who this would refer to has already been removed from my blog (though, I do suspect they're still around). so I don't want anyone to take what I'm about to say personally because it's not personal at all - it's me

about two weeks ago I had to take measures to remove someone from my blog who had been - for months now - messaging me anonymously to accuse me of being rude to them/not enthusiastic enough in my interactions with them, and when that didn't elicit the sort of reaction I think they'd expected from me, they began to send multiple anonymous asks promoting their blog to me and my followers. It had always made me feel very uncomfortable and sort of dirty tbh... like my blog - and myself - were being used simply as a means to promote other people

while this doesn't mean I think those people are not deserving of praise and promotion, I do not want to be responsible for the praise nor the promotion

while I am so, so grateful for all of the talented writers who grace us with their creativity and works on here (for free!!!!!), it feels inauthentic of me to respond to asks about other writers that I may or may not know. It also has the unintended consequence of making me feel like I have a responsibility or obligation, not just to the blogs that are being name dropped in my ask box, but to the blogs whose names aren't being dropped in my ask box too. like I'm now somehow responsible for everyone else's success because I may have inadvertently (and non consensually) contributed to another's.

I frequently reblog fics I come across on my for you page that I enjoy, and I do my best to spread my love to those I've been lucky enough to meet on this app, but I'm going to ask going forward that unless you have the permission of myself and the other blog, please do not name drop people in my ask box. if I've asked for one and you have a recommendation for me, please feel free to message me privately.

again, I don't think the times that this has been done have been selfish or malicious, but after what has happened over the past few months with that one individual, I'm feeling particularly paranoid and very sensitive over it, so I appreciate your understanding and patience with me right now <3

[beespaceprogram]

Sticker Cutter Research

I was looking into getting a sticker cutting machine, and I decided to start by looking into cricut which is a well known brand. I had a look at what models they had than their feature etc, but what I was most concerned about was their software. Printer companies like to lock you into a defacto subscription to support hardware you don't really own, and as I was to discover, cricut are operating in a similar way.

The cricut software is online-only*. To cut your own designs you need to use their software to upload your art to their server. There's no way to cut a new design without a logged-in cricut account and an internet connection. At one point in 2021 they flirted with limiting free accounts to 20 uploads/month but backed down after huge community backlash, as far as I can tell.

The incident spawned several community efforts to write open-source firmware for cricut hardware. Some efforts were successful for specific models/serial numbers, but require cracking open the case and hooking in to the debug contacts to flash the chip; not exactly widely accessible. Another project sought to create a python cricut server you can run locally, and then divert the app's calls to the server to your local one.

I restarted my search, this time beginning with looking for extant open-source software for driving cutters, and found this project, which looks a little awkward to use, but functional. They list a bunch of cutter hardwares and whether they're compatible or not. Of those, I recognised the sihouette brand name from other artists talking about them.

I downloaded the silhouette software to try like I did w the cricut software, and immediately it was notable that it didn't try to connect to the internet at all. It's a bit clunky, in that way printer and scanner software tends to be, but I honestly greatly preferred using it to cricut's sluggish electron app⁺. Their software has a few paid tiers above the free one, adding stuff like sgv import/export/and reading cut settings from a barcode on the input material. They're one-off payments, and seem reasonable to me.

This is not so much a review, as sharing some of the research I've done. I haven't yet used either a cricut or a silhouette, and I haven't researched other brands either. But I wanted to talk about this research because to me, cricut's aggressively online nature is a red flag. Software that must connect to a server to run is software that runs only at the whim of the server owner (and only as long as it's profitable to keep the server up). And if that software is the only thing that will make your several hundred dollars worth of plastic and (cheap, according to a teardown I read) servos run, then you have no guarantee you'll be able to run it in the future.

Do you use a desktop cnc cutter? What has your experience been like with the hardware and software? Do you have any experience from home printers with good print quality and user-refillable ink cartridges?

* Cricut's app tried to connect to more than 14 different addresses, including facebook, youtube, google analytics, datadoghq.com, and launchdarkly.com. Launch Darkly are a service provider that help software companies do a whole bunch of things I'm coming to despise, for example, they offer infrastructure for serving different features to different demographics and comparing results to control groups. You know how at various times you've gotten wildly different numbers of ads than your friends on instagram? They were using techniques like this to work out how many ads they could show without affecting their pickup/engagement rates. Scummy stuff.

⁺ Electron apps are web-pages pretending to be applications. They use heaps of ram, tend to have very poor performance, and encourage frustrating UI design that doesn't follow OS conventions. Discord's app is a notable example of an Electron app

[givepie]

Hm! I feel a rant coming on! Everyone duck!

MY THOUGHTS ON THE HYPERIA STORY AND ITS THEMING. ALSO A GENERAL RANT ON COASTER THEMING.

Let start with a general question: what counts as theming?

To me, theming is the set pieces, pre-show, and anything laid out in a rides area to help develop a story. Most of the time this helps world-building more than anything. To me, even music can be a piece of theming because it helps to set a tone. For example, when riding Smiler, the laughter sounds almost manic and it makes you realise straight away that something is off, before you even step foot into X-sector.

Anything that DOESN'T fall into this classification such as website and app pages, falls into "storytelling". In a theme park, it is almost impossible to tell the entire story from one repeated instance inside of said story. To tell a complicated story like that of the Smiler, it would take so much exposition, which is very much not the point and would take away from the experience as a whole.

So storytelling isn't a bad thing, it's how they handle it.

To me, there are three behemoths of theme park theming and storytelling worldwide. That I know of.

Baron 1898, X-Sector post-Smiler, And Forbidden Valley post-Reborn.

Baron 1898 is pretty easy to grasp while you're there, even as a non-speaker of the language. You're going on a mine tour and 3 ghost ladies are PISSED that you're going down there. The actual theming is downright impressive ans I would love to see it in real life. You can then look up the story to find out who the ghosts are, who the Baron is, and how the mine came to be. Really good treat for people who decide to look.

Forbidden Valley has a story that has remained relatively consistent throughout the years. It has wondering actors that establish the world in a realistic yet entertaining way rather quickly. There are an official operation; there are people opposing the operation so there is something sneaky going on; there is a tour group taking advantage of the centrepiece so the Alien is a tourist attraction in this universe, too. Just little things that help put together a bigger picture.

Of course this starts coming apart a little bit when the audio starts explicitly telling you what is happening, but it still holds. You see someone's office, a crashed helicopter, weapons for warding off the alien. All things to help build up this universe you are now ankle-deep in. And then there's the 3 pages on the Internet that break down the story for you, which can also be seen in the shop.

Finally, of course, there's X-sector. It doesn't usually have roaming actors, and the theme suits better that way. Without the roaming actors, you see that the Ministry are secretive. Trying to stay out of the limelight, except for the skeleton crew they send out to keep the coaster safe and operational. It shows a tone.

However, people casually wondering what this is about can never get an easy answer. Cause the answer is spread out across what remains of a decade-old marketing campaign. Fun for people who want a deep dive, not so fun for people who are just lightly curious. The website barely tells you anything either.

But, on a positive light, the story is so complex it keeps a fandom. Not many coasters have that. It's an insane accomplishment.

And I have a theory as to why. Now, stay with me here I think I'm about to upset some people:

It has aspects of social and political commentary. "Not everything is political" ALL GOOD ART IS A COMMENTARY ON THE TIMES AND CIRCUMSTANCES YOU WERE RAISED IN SIT YOUR ARSE BACK DOWN.

RIGHT, so, Smiler is a story about the government dedicating an organisation to keeping people artificially content to keep people compliant. What are Brits notorious for doing, in comparison to the French?

Doing fuck all. This wasn't always the case. We would riot, we would strike. Now we strike but while the other half of the country complains and just tells the strikers to sit back down and take the mistreatment. We are miserable, we complain, and we go about our day. And that's the joke. Its funny. So why bother changing it?

And if we can't be bothered changing something cause it's funny, what happens if they make everything purposefully funny? They'd never have to deal with the strikes in the first place.

The government functions off of our social compliance, which can come from making jokes at our own expense. We even see it now with our drowned-rat-faced PM as he continues to make a fool out of himself so he's funny. If he's funny, we want to see him more. That's a valid strategy nowadays.

Smiler. Is about how Keep Calm And Carry On is a stand against progress.

Smiler. Is a political and social commentary on the people of Britain. You're welcome.

Anyway!

HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO THE NEW WORLD-STAGE COASTER IN STAINES?

The problem is: it doesn't. Instead of taking inspiration from its sister park, Alton, Thorpe decided to take inspiration from Icon and its shoebox station.

Where is Fearless Valley taking place? When is Fearless Valley taking place? What point in the story are we looking at here? The issue [only issue, really] with Hyperia, is it entirely relies on storytelling and a few bits and bobs in the queue.

Remember the shortcoming in Nemesis? Where you can get a good grasp of the story without it being blasted in your ear? Yeah here they straight up tell you the story, too. The theming has BECOME the storytelling.

Next question: what is Hyperia, the coaster, supposed to be? Yes, we know the story is that a goddess called hyperia overcame her fear of the sea by building wings and escaping the island she was trapped on [for some unspecified reason. Is hyperia evil?], but what IS the coaster supposed to be?

Smiler is the Marmaliser, the machine that transforms you into a smiling advocate. Nemesis is the tentacles of the monster overtaking the metal that pins it down. Baron is the track the drill takes to get into the mine.

What is Hyperia? Are we following Her as she soars, were we stuck with Her; the Icarus to her Daedalus? Are we following in her footsteps as part of a ceremony Her followers reenact for her blessing? Are we supposed to be Her? It's never really specified.

The station is chocked full of a last-ditch attempt of theming, which in comparison with the whole lotta nothing you get from the queueline? It feels cramped. It feels cheap. It barely feels like it belongs on a stage alongside Taron, Velocicoaster and Voltron Nevera. If they didn't have the budget to do the storytelling and the theme, they should've gone for theme.

Any story with no theme feels cheap and artificial. Any theme with no story still stands out and has breathtaking scenes. If they focused more on the white-gold colour palate and maybe had a few statues around and about they could pass it as some sort of pantheon, like climbing Olympus.

I'm not gonna lie, I'm disappointed in all aspects of the Hyperia theming. It feels lazy, tacky and underwhelming when you consider Swarm is a 5 minute walk away. I'm hoping it improves at some point.

I geniunely think the stone head of Collosus is much better than anything in Fearless Valley and its inconsistencies. The Black and gold buildings feel very sleek and out of place for a story ultimately about a goddess who forged. She forged her own wings. She forged her own bravery. Shouldnt the building look a little home made? Where are the bolts? The soldering? I want to see her anvil and hammer pride-of-place, not shoved in the corner of the station.

Cmon thorpe. Get your arse in gear.

[nova-alien-sysblog]

lol simply plural is a pro-endo app

we've mentioned VERY CLEARLY on our pinned post, our pluralkit description, and our pronouns.cc that we don't give a single flying fuck about discourse regarding ANY topic, and that includes syscourse. the fact that you decided to say this and hide as an anon is very disrespectful and shows how pathetic and cowardice you are. this will be our only post addressing the topic.

we are anti-endo. for us, this means we are not comfortable associating with endos or any other systems which are not traumagenic, nor do we agree with what they are doing or how they make the OSDDID community look (i'm talking like radqueer/transID type shit, them Simply Existing isn't an issue). this does NOT mean we believe endo systems don't exist or don't have rights. we don't know what their experiences are so we don't believe we have the right to dictate those things for them, and to dehumanize people when we ourselves were dehumanized is hypocritical and morally disgusting. touch some fucking grass if you legitimately think it's okay to dehumanize anyone else for any reason.

we honestly don't even use simply plural. we sync it up with info from pluralkit here and there just so some of the people close to us get the latest info about our system and that's where it ends. and we don't care about pluralkit being pro-endo either, honestly. we've tried octocon, we've tried simply plural, and we've found pluralkit is the best way to keep track of our system. we are disabled and it's very difficult to find something that works, so when we do find something, we stick to it.

we are very aware of simply plural's (and pluralkit's) stance on endogenic systems. this is a choice we have made for ourselves. plenty of people still get food from chic-fil-a despite their very obvious support of anti-LGBTQ+ stance. plenty of people still order from amazon and shein and temu even though they treat their workers like shit. we're not all privileged enough to be able to choose where we go to in order to accomplish basic activities of human life. and in this case, we aren't even giving any money to SP/PK. the unfortunate reality is most things in the world are morally grey; there's no real black and white. we don't give a fuck about your weird ideas on how we should think or behave.

in the same vein, we also use certain terminology which may be considered pro-endo, such as fictive and factive. we again honestly don't give a fuck. that's what works for us best, and we aren't harming anyone else by doing so. if you think we're harming you by using pro-endo terms, you need to ask yourself if we have genuinely done anything to you personally, or if you yourself simply disagree with us and don't want others doing what YOU individually don't agree with. you have ZERO obligation to be here on our page. block us if you don't like it.

the world doesn't revolve around you, and you don't get to dictate what people do to themselves, for themselves. it has ZERO impact on you. we don't go around telling people how they should keep track of their system because it's an INDIVIDUAL choice. we've had a hard enough life considering we formed a polyfragmented DID system in the first place, and we don't need to justify how or why we make our life more livable for us. we don't need to answer your childish puritanical shit. stay the fuck out of our inbox. any more bad faith asks like this will not be answered.

[m3loria]

 ᝢ ⊹ ˚. PERSONAL SNS !

aesthetics matter, unless you're a meliora member of course, just kidding.. mostly. i guess it all depends on what you deem an 'aesthetically pleasing' instagram, but nonetheless, they're all a perfect demonstration of each members' personality

﹫ KACHIAT : it's clear what this man prioritizes, his dog, his members, and his abundant collection of silver jewelry. for a guy who documents everything on video, he isn't even in the top three of members who post the most. every few months he crawls out of his void to surprise everybody with a shot of his face close up, he's really trying to sell the barista bit, who knows? maybe he's getting fired soon.

﹫ HANKKIZ : a raging hypocrite that's what he is, he's chained to that phone, chained to that instagram app because he knows people go crazy and begin cheering whenever they get those notifications. compared to the other members (i guess you could probably eliminate hajoon), his page appears to be themed enough. it's a consistent feed of himself, friends, the members, and his cat. hot people turn notifications on yohan's posts.

﹫ _EUNJUNS : genuinely where the fuck is he!?!??? #junmincomebacktoinstagram. in contrast to the prior member, junmin pretty much avoids instagram like the plague, and when he does decide to show up, it's barely a photo of him alone. the members are the main characters of his own feed, you could probably find any cute meliora photo on junmin's instagram. he hasn't posted in a good ten months though, it might all be over..

﹫ JUNHAYZ_ : do half the people who follow him know who he is? no, but they can all agree on one thing, he's hot as shit, this man has a face for the ages. also an insanely consistent poster, putting that photography hobby to good use. his captions are these long poems about certain flowers, and whenever he posts the members he always has to detail his appreciation for them in these essays. he's a hot guy with a big heart!

﹫ KAHNLI : kyuhyun is a man who loves his girlfriend, like a lot, he's crazy in love it may be insane, kiarra rules over his posts and it's as disgusting as it is adorable. he posts too much, and when he doesn't, that's cause for concern. if his feed isn't full of photos of his girlfriend (kiarra), then it's full of photos of his boyfriend (haneul). new post everyday, follow him and you're fed.

﹫ _KKULJINZ : hwan is a very simple man who posts what he likes, cookies, dahlia's, his iced coffee addiction, his charm bracelet creations. his instagram account is basically a peer into his mind, you could figure out stuff about him from just reading a post. he puts the aesthetic in more of videos, he has that nice smooth voice that probably puts him in the league of an asmr-er (is that what they're called?)

﹫ HANOTWO : he is also a very simple man, except he enjoys adding on photos he took of the members when they were glaring at him. he really does admire them a lot, and he exercises that admiration by snapping an unknowing photo as a taunting device. no matter what, this man is always outside, the opposite of a homebody for real.

﹫ YOIKITM : listen, he's a sanrio guy through and through, got an army of pochacco plushies and everything. it's nothing short of confusing, if it's not him then it's one of the other members and if it's not them then it's a my melody mugshot photo that he has saved to his phone forever. of course there's a taro pic thrown in there for good measure, that's his son.

﹫ YAEZKANG : he has full management over his account clearly, because he can't resist posting about gay garfield shirts to elevate his mood. the pingu pfp was an artistic choice, he carries love for childhood shows wherever he goes. don't question the mothman post, he won't give a correct answer, it'll be a different answer each time. if he isn't posting himself or the newest cryptid meme, then he's posting hajoon, his first ever man crush.

﹫ THESTARAE : a star lover through and through, his icon just happens to be the picture of his favorite constellation, auriga. it can really all amount to anything, photos of waffles, z, an exo album, that rilakkuma plushie yohan got him for his birthday, all of it is cute. he's actually pretty consistent, if you count stars in the sky as consistent instagram posting.

﹫ KUMOSIM : this man loves clouds, he could cloud watch to death, but not before his clogging his feed with photos of kristian to spike his growth. ignoring the cute strapped hello kitty his page so beautifully displays, it's all pretty normal, the regular photos of himself paired with features of his bffs and his big brothers (i.e hajoon & z).

﹫ .KHRASN : he's obsessed with two things, himself, and his babies (the cats), oh and taro too. jaehwan always glares when he takes out that phone, which does not end up working in his favor unfortunately. there really isn't much of a sense of class, but at least his humor remains, if he isn't arguing with jaehwan in replies for hours, then he's criticizing the people in his comments for crying over boys, it's such a waste of time!

﹫ YOIRO.COM : that miku ramen photo was completely necessary, he has a very healthy obsession. no it might not be very pleasing for the eyes, but it's a beautiful encapsulation of.. his head, it doesn't consistently stay on one topic, it's always going back and forth. he misses nanami, but he also thinks he's spiderman, but he also stole jian's sunglasses and thinks he looks better in them. despite the constant flip of topic, he's happy it all makes sense in his terms.

[oswaldsleftbicep]

Hi!

I just saw that you have 0 requests, so imma give you one:)

How do you think would the boys insta profiles look like? Like their posts oder their stories..

You can show it with pictures like you did at that other request.. if it is easier for you;) Greetings

the boys and their insta profiles!

the way i ran to pinterest as soon as i read this ask-

i decided to go with instagram since that's the social platform i use most, also i have officially decided that the brothers' last name is morningstar lol

all images found on pinterest!

genre: other

cw: mature themes in ricardo's, language

❧ he's basically a social media influencer

❧ he posts about the places he travels to and the shenanigans he gets up to with his friends

❧ on his stories he'll post his friends' content, little updates, and any memes he finds funny

❧ he'll also boost any social movements/local efforts, uses his platform for good

❧ wanted to make a dark academia aesthetic page but that was too much effort

❧ also thought about doing a book review page, but that was also too much work

❧ ended up getting a lot of attention from lucia's fans who comment on his posts thinking it'll get lucia's attention?? so levy has the word "lucia" banned from his comments lmao

❧ his stories are full of historical content, and he absolutely follows a "this day in history" type page

❧ most people think his page is some sort of arg, cryptic mystery

❧ his followers have tried to reverse image search his post, thinking it's ai or from a video game, but it's completely original and taken by mefy

❧ where is this place? why did he take it? why does the caption only say "time is running out"? why is he verified??

❧ added to the mystery is the fact that the year on the post is years before instagram was launched mefy hacked the app to do that, he just likes fucking with people

❧ had kurt help him set up his account lol

❧ all of his captions are complete sentences, it's very old man of him

❧ posts mainly about nature and his garden, and he'll show off anything that kurt makes him

❧ on his story he'll post inspirational quotes

❧ only has this account to keep an eye on lucia and kurt

❧ he also follows levy, mefy, and oswald

❧ mefy doesn't follow him back

❧ doesn't intend to post anything ever, he just doesn't see the point

❧ goes live a lot to do readings and horoscopes once a week

❧ keeps his regular posts to a minimum, but posts a lot on his story about space, nature, and astrology

❧ lowkey the only reason why he's got so many followers is because lucia beefs about him a lot on his page

❧ now there's a whole team lucia vs team mikael feud going on in their mini fandom

❧ lemme hear you say thirst traps!!

❧ the only reason he's so famous is because he's hot and an asshole

❧ every now and then he'll post his gun and if it gets taken down within a week, he'll let a random follower choose his next tattoo

❧ he's technically also a social media influencer, but for all the wrong reasons

❧ the link in his bio leads to his other socials, paypal/venmo, and an only fans

❧ ricardo lowkey talked him into getting an account so he can cyberbully him

❧ doesn't know what he's doing; looked up "profile pictures" and picked the first one he found amusing

❧ same thing with his singular post, and the caption is simply "this is funny"

❧ his followers are mikael, ricardo, oswald, and lucas, whom he follows all back as well as a cat meme page

❧ another influencer who got famous for his pretty boy aesthetic and howl pendragon vibes

❧ none of his followers know his location, and they cannot for the life of them figure it out; it's similar to mefy's page where all his posts are completely original, but nobody knows where they were taken

❧ also uses his platform for good, and the link in his bio leads to a bunch of activism resources and articles

❧ this is his main page, just a bunch of middle school shenanigans

❧ has a spam account that's really popular at his school; it's basically a school meme page with regular memes sprinkled in

❧ he also secretly runs his school's shoot your shot page

❧ complaints about his job on his story but always forgets that kaim follows him lmao

[queers-gambit]

I wanted to start writing fics and I have an idea of one I’d want to write but I’m unsure of even where to start. Could you please tell me how your process helps you? Any advice would be greatly appreciate!

Thank you!

hey, cutie pie! what a special message you've sent me. i'm feeling incredibly honored - whether you sent this message or not as a compliment, i don't wanna know, this could-be delusion is very flattering. you think i'm a well enough writer to ask advice from? 10 points to Slytherin.

it was Ernest Hemingway who said, “there is nothing to writing. all you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”

unfortunately, i'm one of those people that says, "just start writing". i know this is like throwing you in the ocean without a life vest, but i hope i can teach you how to swim (or at the least, tread water) by breaking this down enough for yah.

please note i am NOT a professional - so everything below is to be taken with a grain of salt

first - welcome to the author community! where we all think we have to publish Pulitzer prize winning stories - every. single. time! and where we think our work is TRASH - every. single. time!

storytelling is a skill that you don't have to be "born with", but you do have to practice and experiment with. even seasoned writers need palette refreshers and to "return to the story drawing board." to me, writing is universally one of the greatest artistic mediums this world will ever know. stories transcend time; think folklore and mythology that date way way way back Before Christ (BC). stories can (mostly) only be built upon and altered - just look at the Bible! written text, yes, but it's diluted by X number of "translations" through the years, scholars, people, factions, economies.

anyways. i think it's REALLY cool you want to write and i honestly love that for you. i hope it's as beneficial to you as it is me.

best piece of advice i can give? be proud of yourself. confidence really shows through writing; it's not being arrogant or cocky, it's knowing you have a story to tell and being determined to tell it. trust me, that energy translates. when you're happy to write, audiences are happy to read; nobody is ever expecting you (or any fanfic writer) to be Chaucer or Shakespeare or Brontë or Poe or Fitzgerald or Tolstoy or Tolkien or Dickens or Eliot or Morrison, they want YOU to be YOU and to read YOUR story.

so have faith in yourself. have pride. find motivation and inspiration.

�� general rules of thumb

🍒 write everything down!

it doesn't matter where - just write! every! thing! down! write in a: -> Word document -> Tumblr draft -> good ol' fashioned pen and paper -> Sharpie and cafe napkin and for my Apple people: -> the notes app or Pages document

🍒 always write out the plot - doesn't matter if it's complete, just write it down! it's a tool, and trust me, when writing, think of it as your ankle being shattered and this written plot document is the crutch. it's extremely important to have a general idea of what your story's plot looks like so you can decide what details should be used to beef up the story's authenticity. this will help visualize the web you need to weave. it's a visual end goal. it's the reminder where your story is going. give yourself enough space to add to this idea, to expand it.

i prefer bullet points. experiment to find what works for you!

so, in a structure similar to educational notes, establish the general premise / main idea / main details. this is where you're going to answer (no, not literally), "why write this story? what's the point? what even IS the story? like, what's the plot?" -> if you ponder why you're writing a story and at any point, the answer is along the lines of being self indulgent, please understand, that is valid! write that shit!

🍒 notes are a safe space to write out ideas you might be interested in revisiting. so label everything because you'll revisit often - whether for the next story idea or not.

🍒 Google ― -> what you know to strengthen literary frame. allow this to include refreshment of writing devices. -> any and all words; keep a list of running adjectives, nouns, dramatic diction to give your story personality. -> definitions - even the words you already know! -> what you don't know! -> synonyms!

🍒 don't pay attention to word counts! 5k word fics are just as valid as 1.3k, even 896 word fics! fuck word counts, just tell the story.

🍒 write and rewrite. this is where writing becomes daunting, it's so fucking scary. but all you're doing is trying to find your voice, so write your drafts, then rewrite - rewrite - rewrite - and for good measure, rewrite, rewrite, aaaaand probably rewrite twice more. just allow yourself room to stretch and grow as an author when new and altered ideas come to mind - and when these new and altered ideas come to mind, write! them! down!

🍒 writing is supposed to be fun! 🍒 writing supports your emotional vulnerability! 🍒 be open to inspiration everywhere! 🍒 give yourself time and be kind! 🍒 encourage changes of thought and new directions! 🍒 don't minimize yourself to conform with what is "thought" to fit certain criteria - take authentic risks!

🍒 nonlinear and chaotic writing process

🍒 so... kinda first thing is done internally:

what's the plot? what was the idea formed in my head, inspiring me to write this story? what's the climax? is this idea able to turn into a story? -> i write it down.

which fandom? does my story idea fit into "canon timelines" or the fandom's setting? more or less, i determine if this is an AU or not. -> i write it down.

declare a muse i think BEST suits my story idea. -> i write it down (call that commitment).

now, i like to beef up the plot / climax details, either after the initial idea or establishment of muses. these are the nonnegotiable "dramatic factors" i think the story needs. -> i write it down.

🍒 then i just start writing the actual draft / structured story. i know, i know, i know! this is the worst advice and lots of authors say it. but it just means to start! it means you can start anywhere. it's your story, you're telling it - so you can literally just start because a story can grow in all directions.

🍒 personally, i use the fuck out of skeleton drafts (see below) because i like to revisit and build, restructure, and let seemingly random ideas take natural form almost every single time i sit down to write (which, for the sake of my mental health, is almost everyday).

🍒 i endeavor for mysterious, captivating, intriguing opening sentences or paragraphs and titles. so i'm constantly editing and Googling words, definitions, synonyms, phrases.

🍒 i draw inspiration from everywhere; sometimes from personal conversation and experiences, other books, quotes from movies and songs.

🍒 i strive for authenticity - i personally think it's what hooks an audience, when they can see even the SMALLEST fraction of themself in the story. so i challenge myself to get criminally vulnerable and open - so a lot of my trauma is processed through writing, too.

🍒 i like to employ common literary devices, such as metaphors, proverbs, iteration, personification. but that's a personal choice.

🍒 i often draft the story and then leave it for a bit to "marinate" because at the most random and often, inopportune, times, i'll have new ideas i want to add. so i leave myself time to revisit which can get frustrating, but it's necessary for my security to publish.

🍒 dialogue is "just conversation with a purpose". when writing dialogue, i often say the words in my head OR (as embarrassing as it might sound) out loud with the chracter's accents and TRY to convey that in my writing. so i use a lot of slang or incomplete sentences or predicates or accents - in the form of dropping the "g" from a lot of "-ing" ending words.

🍒 I DO NOT CONDONE THIS NOR ENCOURAGE THIS! but i'm a fiend and smoke a LOT. and i drink an unhealthy amount of coffee - so that def influences my writing whether i like it or not. this is 1000000% a personal choice and in no way, shape, or form am i encouraging anyone to smoke and / or give themselves kidney stones for the sake of writing.

🍒 i'm decently selective about my stories, in the sense of if i truly cannot connect or find influence to write, i won't. i can't. so i've been doing better about if a plot doesn't flow the way i want, i try not to force it and embrace the new direction. 🍒 HOWEVER - i still like to challenge myself, so, if i find writing has become like pulling teeth, i'll walk away and revisit at another time. i'll try to tackle from a different angle BEFORE giving up completely. yikes.

🍒 being said, walk away when writing feels frustrating and exasperated.

🍒 real life experience is your friend - "write what you know".

🍒 i'm criminally insecure and don't use beta readers nor editors so i rawdog every story and audience reaction. but i hear they're wildly helpful!!! do what feels right!!! it's your art!!!

🍒 skeleton drafts

when in school, teachers, professors, educators might have students structure essays as a "draft". maybe they asked for paragraphs to be organized in a certain way - intro., x3 body paragraphs, conclusion, bibliography - and more specifically, the paragraph structure: opening sentence stating summarized opinion / reason for thesis support, supporting specifics that explain the thesis, and then conclude on a summary of why the listed support supports the thesis.

whatever it is, i don't adhere to some parameters. i've always pissed off my educators because my "working drafts" never made sense, but whatever "final draft" turned in for a grade, did! make it make sense!

so i use "skeleton drafts".

it's where i try to outline the main ideas of my plot to ensure i tell the story i originally thought of. think of these as "plot points", almost like the ribcage of a skeleton. then i add certain supporting details between these ribs; the meat of the story.

i like getting the majority of the story outlined. i use bullet points, i try to use "dividers" or "headers" if i need a time jump, but i want the general idea down so that it's easier to add onto later if i so choose.

so, yeah, i don't "draft" as some American educators might approve of. the actual process is too tedious and i hate it. but that's just me. other authors MIGHT recommend traditional drafting, but i won't. i say do what feels natural to you, but still find a way to rewrite the story you want until it BECOMES the story you want.

"skeleton drafts" establish the plot and pose as major pillars to help propel the story's flow. "skeleton drafts" are like a check list: being the plot points framing the story's structure, as well as details (no matter how small) the story needs.

being said - using skeleton drafts results in a few different draft / note pages in different places so tread carefully. it can get very confusing and annoying, so, it's not for everyone. i'm just chaotic and all my writings are like a tornado.

i hope this helps in even the slightest of ways. thank you for sending your message - again, i'm deeply flattered. i apologize it took so long to respond but i was doubting myself and what to write.

listen, poppet. keep writing. try, try again. challenge yourself. and the VERY best of luck! i hope you fall in love with writing, and in turn, it falls in love with you!

come back anytime! if you so desire, please, send me whatever you write - i'd love to read it!

endless forehead kisses and all my love 🖤

[diy-fire-water-pups]

@paw-patrol-mighty-asks

Alright let's go! This will be a totally OOC post (for those who don't know, it means "Out Of Character", it's a post made entirely by the mod of the blog instead of the characters in it).

I decided to do better than just asking people to go interact with your blog: As an ancient Tumblr dweller, experienced in running roleplays and askblogs, why don't I give some tips for everyone who's starting a new askblog or wants to start one?

1- Prepare your blog for your future followers!

You want people to look at your askblog and be interested. You want them to look at it and be like "Oh that's so cool, I'm gonna follow them and send some asks!" So, for that to happen, you gotta first make your blog look attractive! Pick colors that match your muse(s), maybe a nice looking theme too - while the Tumblr app doesn't show themes, Browser/desktop mode will show a blog theme if you install one. First you'll want to go to your blog settings to activate this:

Now for example, this is what this blog looks like on the Tumblr app (on my phone and on my laptop in dashboard view), on a mobile browser (my Samsung tablet) and on a desktop browser. I'll change this browser/desktop theme in the near future because I don't like the three columns thing making the posts too squeezed in, but let's just go with it for now:

There is a wide variety of free themes (by Tumblr and by other bloggers who create themes and offer them for other users) to install in your blog and customize to make it look unique, attractive and matching with your muse! It's very easy to install a theme, but you can only do so through a browser/desktop. The mobile app doesn't work with this, but it's important to set up your app view as well in the customize blog options on your app, since your blog will look different in each different viewing option XD No sense customizing one look and leaving the other unattended!

2- Choose your fighter(s)!

Select your muse or muses. Get some information about them. Some people will look at your blog and have no idea who are these characters, so why not make a nice short introduction? You can make an intro about them in a pinned post on top of your blog, or a more elaborated "About" page like this:

This will make things easier to catch the attention of people from outside your fandom too! Some roleplayers who are semi or very selective will only interact with other blogs whose muses have an about page, so they can know each others' muses.

3- Set up your rules!

Make a post to pin on top of your blog welcoming people and inviting them to interact. You'll also use this post to set up some rules for interaction (trust me, without rules things can/WILL go downhill really quickly). You can list down what people can and cannot do when sending asks, according to your muses and to yourself. For example, running an askblog with underage muses will demand for no NSFW content or asks. If your muse feels extremely uncomfortable with something in particular, you can add that to the rules for people to avoid touching the subject - same goes if YOU feel uncomfortable with something too. The idea is to keep your muse as true to the canon character as possible, so your followers will feel the magic of actually interacting with that character (think of this as if you're cosplaying at a con, but it's all online!), unless you're going to use your headcanons or if you're working with an AU, but you need to take your own well being into consideration as well!

And now, last but not least, the most controversial tip ever...

4- Send yourself (as anon) the first asks for your characters to answer!

"Wait, WHAT THE HELL, LARY?" you may ask me, "But isn't that CHEATING????"

No, it isn't! Let's see why.

So this is the situation: You just finished creating and preparing your blog, it's BRAND NEW. There's NOTHING in it when you start. It may have a nice theme already, it may look good, you got all pages for your muses prepared, you got the rules for interaction, everything is ready. BUT...

Without posts in it, more importantly, without PROPERLY TAGGED posts, your blog is as good as INVISIBLE.

You need posts with relevant tags, so your blog will show up on Tumblr search. No, it doesn't work for reblogged posts. When you post something, the tags you add to this post are the way for people to find your post (and your blog) when they're using Tumblr search engine. When you reblog a post from someone else, the tags you'll add will serve only for organizing your blog's archive and for the search WITHIN your blog, they will not make that post appear on the general Tumblr search.

This is why I always add certain tags to every ask the pups answer, let's take a look at one of them, shall we?

Here you find:

1- The username of the blogger who sent the ask. 2- A tag for the fandom. 3- A tag identifying this post has something that's not necessarily canon to the original media. 4- Tags with the names of the characters that show up or are mentioned in this post. 5- Tags of the fandom and the characters, because that's how people look for posts about them in the Tumblr search.

If you go on Tumblr search right now, input "Paw Patrol Headcanons", do the search and filter for "latest" instead of "top", you'll see A HELLA LONG RESULTS LIST of posts made by this blog and by my personal Paw Patrol blog (self-indulgent-paw-patrol). Heh, I wasn't joking when I said I'm currently feeding this fandom because trying to get other people to create content here is like beating a dead horse. This happens because I'm always tagging my headcanons and they'll show up in search results so my blog will appear for the people in the fandom.

This is how you get your blog to show up for people. Using the relevant tags for people to see your blog's posts in the results when they're looking up for something related to it.

SO YOU'LL WANT POSTS IN YOUR BLOG, PROPERLY TAGGED, FOR IT TO SHOW UP FOR MORE PEOPLE

That's where enters the "send yourself the first anon asks for your characters to answer" part. By sending some asks yourself, you'll get the chance to start fleshing out your muses, testing how you'll make things work, and have some content in your blog to show up in the search results for the fandom. People will come take a look at your blog, see what you got there, and decide if they'll give a follow, a like, maybe a reblog and ask stuff. If they find an empty blog, it's more likely they won't be interested in interacting.

You can also reblog an ask meme/game like this one, or this one. You can find these kind of ask game posts on Tumblr search too, or follow blogs like @rpsourcedmemes which focus on gathering these kinds of posts for people to find more easily and reblog to get some interaction with your muses! Sometimes people want to interact with your characters but they just don't know what to ask them, so these posts help with suggestions for that!

I think that's it for now. I hope you and other people will find this post useful to help starting your askblogs. It goes for canon characters AND for original characters too - just askblogs in general! Make them look attractive and interesting, get your muses ready, set up your rules, get some well tagged posts in it and you're off to a good start!

[misc-obeyme]

i feel so validated and supported rn, omggg thank youuu <3 😭 ALSO YAY SOLOMAMS TRAIN!! I'M FILLED WITH IDEAS AND KEPT DAYDREAMING SCENARIOS AT WORK TODAY- I HAVE A NOTES APP SPECIFICALLY FOR THIS AU. I'd love to write it, I'm just afraid I wouldn't do my faves justice or know how to format it. Maybe interconnected drabbles?

i need to research the workings of cafes, and how food is served, because Mammon runs this place on his own. I like the idea of Mammon prepping sandwiches in the morning for the day, and waking up early to bake the pastries. There's also a "pipsqueak special" (named by Mammon, of course) every 1st and 3rd Monday of the month where there's limited cake that Luke baked over the weekend. All profits from his cakes go towards his college fund (Mammon adds extra money to his earnings without telling him).

AHAH, SPEAKING OF ME AND SOLOMON COMING IN AT THE SAME TIME... I have IDEAS. (literally inspired by my crazy day the other day)

Solomon who comes in ten minutes after opening (7:30 am?), on a Wednesday, to cram for an exam. Mammon is immediately pinching himself, his routine is off, he's not prepared and stumbles over his words. Solomon orders two coffees, no danish, and settles in. Mammon feels like the world is ending.

Two hours later, Mammon gets a text that I woke up early again (am on a three day streak) and am coming in for my usual. He knew that the record shop was going to be closed Wednesday-Friday for inventory and cleaning (he knew the shop would be closed, not because he stalks the social media page or anything in an attempt to work up the courage to visit. That would be crazyy).

He starts prepping the order, because I always show up around 24 minutes after I send it. It's routine. But now it's been 40 minutes, my drink is melting, my sandwich is cold, and Mammon feels like the world is ending once more. Solomon has not moved an inch in all this time (except to flip the page of his notes/textbook), and Mammon's eye twitches as he starts fixing up a sandwich, trying to convince himself he is NOT worried about the man. "Mammon? I didn't order a sandwich." "Yeah but ya haven't moved an inch except to flip the page of that damn notebook since you ordered your first two cups and I'm wor- I-I mean, it looks bad for business! It's been two hours, idiot." "And it's not bad business to call your customers idiots? *signature teasing Solomon smile*" "Tch. My customers enjoy the food too much to complain. They know what they signed up for, and that's what they come here for." "The food isn't the only thing they come here for." "Eh?" "Nothing. Ahaha, nothing at all."

Another twenty minutes pass, five after Solomon got his free sandwich. I finally show up out of breath, rambling about how the bus was late, then it broke down, the next one was cancelled, and I decided to walk the rest of the way. I practically collapse into a bar seat, while asking if I can still have my usual, but for here instead. Mammon short circuits, since I always take my food to go since I immediately head over to my shop once I grab my order. And I'm staring at him with my head tilted, up close for once and blinking curiously at him. And wow, my lashes are so long, and are my eyes really that dark? He notices there's gold eyeshadow on my waterline, and why am I waving my hand in front of his face- HOW LONG HAS HE BEEN STARING?! "Earth to Mams?" "*voice crack* Y-Yeah? *Coughs* I'll uh...have your usual out in a sec." 'Wait... Did she just call me Mams?' 'Oh god, I just called him Mams, what if he doesn't like that. Wait, he didn't say anything so maybe he didn't notice?? I gotta act natural. *ears are currently the brightest shade of red ever*'

Mammon feels like the world is ending again for the- He's lost count of how many times he's felt like this today (third times the charm).

And now Solomon has noticed me, coming up to make small talk. Mammon has his back turned for one second to start prepping the drink, and suddenly Solomon has moved his work and food to the bar, right next to me, planning to join me and eat together. A little break from studying should be good, right?

Mammon feels like the world is against him. The two regulars he serves who both make him feel lightheaded for different reasons, who he knows their orders like the back of his hand, but only snippets of their lives, are sitting right in front of him and giggling together like old friends. His heart is in overdrive. He's stuck behind the counter. They're both smiling at him. God help him. (tbc! ..maybe LMAO)

okayokay, hope everyone enjoyed my ramblings. this came out longer than I meant it to, as always </3

- ✨ anon

Okay, now, listen here. I am here to tell you that you will absolutely do it justice. You already have. I can tell by the amount of thought you've put into all the scenes you've described for me so far. You've practically half written it all already!

As for format, interconnected drabbles are the same thing as a full story. Well, for me, drabbles are very short almost summaries, more poetry than anything. But some of them are a little longer and more like scenes. All my fics that are either drabbles or ficlets are a single scene. When you interconnect them, they become a story. Whether you call that a fic or a short story or perhaps it even ends up closer to novella length, that just depends on you.

Stories are structured around scenes. For instance, you might write a scene where Mammon sees Solomon coming in to the cafe, only ordering two coffees and no danish, freaking out. Then your next scene is what happens two hours later, when he gets the text from you that starts the whole next part of the action. You can also change scenes every time you change viewpoint. For instance, if you were going to write a version of the first scene from Solomon's perspective.

WELL anyway, not to get all technical about writing stuff with you here lol. It's just something I like to talk about. I guess my point is that if you do want to write it, don't worry about not doing it justice or the format of it. The first thing never really goes away, so you gotta learn to write despite it. And the second thing will usually just resolve itself as you go!

Anyway, I'm loving this story about the three of you and I absolutely want to know what happens next. I love the image of both you and Solomon sitting at the bar smiling at Mammon who's busy having a meltdown about it. Absolutely amazing, it's like you're unknowingly ganging up on him and he can't take it lol. Do you somehow end up as Solomon's apprentice in this au? Or like learning something from him? Or is it just the crossing of paths continually at the coffee shop? Does Mammon ever confess to either of you??? I have to know how this resolves itself! As long as they all end up together, I'll be happy lol!

[ga-yuu]

So the 'Cheat code' that I promised! Part 1

I don't know if 'cheat code' is the best word for this...it's more like a loophole within the game system that I frequently use when playing event routes and collection events. Some of you might think I'm a genius but I feel like most of you are gonna be like 'that's it?' lol

Anyway...let me first list out the drawbacks of using these loopholes. Don't worry, you won't get banned...except you will be spending little resources compared to what you're spending now. Just pray that Cybird doesn't patch this. Also, this 'cheat' is specifically for Ikemen genjiden. IDK if this works for Ikemen prince. Try it out for yourself and tell me.

STORY EVENT LOOPHOLE:

DRAWBACKS:

I want you guys to go through the drawbacks before following my steps because, in the end, it's entirely your decision if you want to do this.

If you're specifically playing event stories to get avatar items at the end of each route, then don't do this, because you won't be getting them.

If you want to achieve the highest ranking and obtain ranking bonuses in story events, then also don't do this because you'll have to spend a lot to secure a place in the top 200s.

If you're playing especially for the epilogue...I'm sorry you'll only be able to buy one epilogue for the whole story event. (You will know that once I've explained everything)

Okay, so now that all drawbacks are clear, let me explain the loophole.

Let's take an example, imagine a story event is going on right now and it has three routes----Yoritomo, Yoshitsune, and Akihito.

To finish 1st story event route normally you need at least 7900 love points. This is more than enough to complete one route+premium ending only. These love points don't reset and will be carried over when you're playing the next route and you will have to get more of these love points, nearly 10k - 12k, to finish the 2nd route and even more for the third route. You at least need 32k love points to complete all three routes + only their premium endings. If you want to complete all three routes + both the premium and sweet endings of each route, then you'll need much more than that and by the time you achieve that many points, the event will be over.

What if I tell you that you can play all three routes + all 3 premium endings, and all 3 sweet endings with only 7900 love points? Sounds like I'm making it up...but it's not. Hear me out!

This is something I found out when I was playing an event one time and I had to turn off the whole app in the midst of playing to do something else. The only requirement here is to get 7900 points. If you're able to achieve at least 7900 points, then nothing is going to stop you.

See, when you play story events you get to choose which male lead's route you wanna play first. After selecting say, for example, you chose Yoritomo as your first route. But then you started having second thoughts and decided that you don't want to play Yoritomo first and changed to Yoshitsune route. This ability of 'freely changing the routes as you wish' in the midst of playing another route is basically what we're going to do.

Follow my steps:

First, select the route you wanna play first. Don't immediately start playing.

Collect at least 7900 love points by doing the 'Salon game' or whatever you wanna call it.

Once you have achieved 7900 love points, start playing the route. The reason why I'm telling you to start playing after getting 7900 points is that you won't get interrupted with these annoying intimacy missions when reading the story.

Select whichever ending you want, sweet or premium, it won't matter.

NOW LISTEN CAREFULLY!! Here's where you can mess up. So be careful. Once you have finished reading one of the endings, the game will show an 'ending screen' something like this:

DON'T CLICK PAST THIS ENDING SCREEN! Instead immediately close the app completely. You don't have to shut down your phone or anything. Just close the app. After that re-open it and go to the event page. You will see that the route you just completed is still left incomplete.

Now, go and change to the next male lead's route.

You'll see that you can start playing the next male lead's route from the beginning till the end without having to grind more love points.

Follow the same steps above for the second male lead's route and change to the third male lead's route and do the same for him as well. That way you have actually completed all the three event routes even though the game thinks that you still are in the first route.

The reason why this is possible is that, for example, you chose Yoritomo first, you followed my steps and closed the app and when you re-open it, the game will think that you've still not completed Yoritomo's route even though you already read and fully know Yoritomo's story. When you change the route immediately to another male lead's route, say, you changed to Yoshitsune's route, the game will inadvertently think that now Yoshitsune is your 'first event route' and like I said, to complete the 'first event route' you only need 7900 points. Do you get it now?

Now if you're wondering 'Oh! But I wanna play the sweet endings as well!" No problem, because see:

1st route + only premuim ending = 7900 love points, but,

1st route + only sweet ending requires somewhere around 5k - 6k points.

So when you change to the routes for which you have already played the premium end, you get to start from the very beginning and this time you can choose the sweet ending. Again, do not go past the 'ending screen' if you also want to read the other sweet endings.

This trick is actually very efficient for people:

Like me who wants to translate the story events as quickly as possible.

For F2P players.

And for those who don't care about the avatar or ranking bonuses and only care about the story.

That's the drawback. You won't be getting any avatar or ranking bonuses because those are based on the number of love points you achieve.

You guys: "So gayuu, what happens if we get past the ending screen? Is it a problem?"

There's no problem. If you get past the ending screen after finishing your first route, the game will automatically think that you have completed your first route and if you change the route now, you won't be able to complete the 2nd route using 7900 love points. Instead, you have to grind up more.

This cheat also leads to you not being able to claim the epilogue. For your information, the epilogues can only be accessed once the game thinks that you have officially completed a route. Here, we are tricking the game into thinking that we have not completed the route when in reality we already have. So if you want to buy the epilogue, you would have to go past the 'ending screen'.

Now for the collection event...I'll upload it later because..that requires some explaining to do

[dfaxtory]

A worthwhile journey(Fan Comic - Reverse1999)

Happy The First Anniversary of Reverse: 1999! My journey with R1999 is also incredibly worthwhile. Let's step into the second year with joy and happiness together everyone!

This month marks the first anniversary of the global release of R1999, so I created this fan comic as a token of my gratitude.

Last year was a tough one. After comico terminated the contract and I had to wait for 3 more years for Del Vento's license revert back to me, I found myself adrift. The constant pressure to meet weekly deadlines had vanished, leaving me with little motivation to draw anything beyond occasional holiday-themed sketches. Initially, I saw it as a well-deserved break from the grueling pace of weekly serialization, but I soon realized I was experiencing burnout. I wasn't ready to commit to anything serious, to put myself through the same stress again. The burnout led me down some dark paths, and there were moments when I engaged in self-harming behaviors.

Then, in October last year, I downloaded R1999 from the app store. I hadn't played many games in years and my PS4 sat idle on my desk. R1999 captivated me, and I found myself wanting to create something in response. I started drawing fan art, spending more time at my desk (sometimes I even thought about taking commissions just to have an excuse to keep drawing fan art lol). I dusted off In the Closet series and some old short stories then began working on new chapters after a long hiatus. The anxiety I used to feel whenever I sat down at my desk began to subside.

R1999 played a significant role in helping me recover from burnout. It showed me that modern media doesn't have to rely on sexualization to be successful. It opened my eyes to countless possibilities. It was an invaluable experience.

My journey with Vertin and R1999 over the past year has been incredibly worthwhile.

P.S. English font used in this piece is one I created myself called DevilrayPrototype01. This fan art is its first appearance (originally, I planned to handwrite all the text to avoid copyright issues with fonts, but my handwriting is terrible and inconsistent so I didn't want to torture the readers.). The rose pattern on Vertin's overcoat is also a new pattern I created specifically for this piece (after I drew it randomly or used random textures several times in my past fan art)."

P.S.2 I hesitated to translate this into English because many of the nuances are specific to Thai readers. However, I realized that if I were to visit a foreign author's page, I'd want to understand what they were saying, even if it wasn't something I fully grasped. So, I decided to translate the entire piece. I'll continue to do so in the future.

เดือนนี้เป็นเดือนที่ครบรอบ 1 ปีของเกม R1999 เซิฟ Global ฉันจึงเขียนแฟนคอมิคเรื่องนี้ขึ้นมาเพื่อขอบคุณเกมเกมนี้

ย้อนกลับไปเมื่อปีที่แล้ว นับเป็นปีที่ไม่ค่อยดีเท่าไร หลังจบไม่ค่อยสวยเท่าไรกับ comico และต้องรออีก 3 ปีให้ลิขสิทธิ์ของ Del Vento กลับมาเป็นของฉันก่อนจะดำเนินการอย่างอื่นต่อได้ทำให้ฉันค่อนข้างเคว้ง จากที่ต้องปั่นต้นฉบับเอาเป็นเอาตายเพื่อให้ทันส่งทุกอาทิตย์ก็กลายเป็นแทบจะไม่วาดอะไรเลยนอกจากรูปตามเทศกาลนิดหน่อยแล้วเอาเวลาส่วนใหญ่ไปทำอย่างอื่นหมดยกเว้นนั่งโต๊ะทำงาน ตอนแรกก็ถือว่าเป็นการชดเชยที่ตอนทำงานส่งรายสัปดาห์ไม่ได้ทำแต่ไปๆ มาๆ ก็ต้องยอมรับความจริงว่าตัวเอง "เบิร์นเอาท์" และยังไม่พร้อมจะเขียนอะไรจริงจัง พูดง่ายๆ คือยังไม่พร้อมจะพาตัวเองไปอยู่ในภาวะเดียวกับตอนนั้นอีก การเบิร์นเอาท์พาฉันไปที่แปลกๆ มากมายและมีหลายที่ที่เข้าข่าย self-harm

จนกระทั่งช่วงเดือนตุลาฯ ของปีที่แล้วฉันได้ลองโหลดเกม R1999 จากแอพสโตร์มาเล่น (ฉันแทบไม่ได้เล่นเกมมานานมากแล้วทั้ง pc ทั้งคอนโซล เครื่อง PS4 ที่ได้มาจากน้องชายก็ตั้งอยู่ข้างโต๊ะทำงานแต่แทบไม่ได้เปิด) หลังได้เล่น R1999 ก็ต้องรู้สึกตะลึงและพบว่าตัวเองหลงสเน่ห์เกมนี้เข้าอย่างจังขนาดอยากทำอะไรสักอย่างจนในที่สุดก็เริ่มเขียนแฟนอาร์ต เริ่มกลับมานั่งโต๊ะทำงานวาดรูปได้นานขึ้น (จนบางครั้งอยากให้มีคนมาจ้างวาดแฟนอาร์ตให้รู้แล้วรู้รอดไปเลยจะได้มีข้ออ้างวาดแฟนอาร์ตได้ทั้งวัน ฮา…) ได้เริ่มปัดฝุ่น In the Closet กับบรรดาเรื่องสั้นที่เขียนค้างไว้กลับมาเขียนต่อ (หลังจากปล่อยให้เป็นการ์ตูนปีละตอนมาหลายปี ฮา…) ตอนนี้ความเครียดที่เกิดขึ้นทุกครั้งตอนเริ่มนั่งโต๊ะทำงานเริ่มลดลงจนถึงระดับใกล้จะเป็นปกติแล้ว

เรียกได้ว่าเกม R1999 ช่วยพาฉันออกจากอาการเบิร์นเอาท์ได้เร็วขึ้นอย่างยิ่งยวด ต้องขอบคุณเกมนี้ที่ทำให้ฉันมองเห็นความหวังในสื่อบันเทิงยุคใหม่ว่าไม่จำป็นต้อง sexualize ก็ยืนหยัดอยู่ได้ ช่วยให้ฉันมองเห็นความเป็นไปได้ที่มีอีกนับไม่ถ้วน นับเป็นประสบการณ์ที่ช่วยฉันในปีที่แล้วได้มากมายเหลือเกิน

การเดินทางของฉันร่วมกับ Vertin และเกม R1999 ตลอด 1 ปีที่ผ่านมาช่างคุ้มค่าจริงๆ

ปล. ฟอนต์อังกฤษที่ใช้ในเรื่องนี้เป็นฟอนต์ที่ฉันทำขึ้นเองชื่อ DevilrayPrototype01 ซึ่งเอามาใช้ในแฟนอาร์ตชิ้นนี้เป็นที่แรก (ตอนแรกคิดจะเขียนคำบรรยายด้วยลายมือเพื่อตัดปัญหาฟอนต์ติดลิขสิทธิ์ แต่ลายมือฉันหวัดไปและไม่สม่ำเสมอเลยไม่อยากทรมานคนอ่าน) ลายกุหลาบบทปกเสื้อ Vertin ฉันก็ทำแพทเทิร์นขึ้นมาใหม่เพื่อใช้ในงานชิ้นนี้โดยเฉพาะเหมือนกันหลังจากวาดมั่วมานาน

ปล.2 ช่างใจอยู่นานว่าจะแปลบทความนี้เป็นอังกฤษดีหรือไม่เพราะหลายเรื่องมีแต่นักอ่านไทยที่เข้าใจ แต่คิดไปคิดมาถ้าฉันไปเยือนเพจของนักเขียนต่างชาติฉันคงอยากรู้เหมือนกันว่าเขาเขียนอะไรแม้ว่ามันอาจไม่ใช่เรื่องที่คนต่างชาติอย่างฉันจะเข้าใจก็ตาม ฉันเลยตัดสินใจแปลให้หมดและต่อไปก็จะพยายามแปลให้หมดเช่นกัน

-devilray- FB and X - dfaxtory

[iantimony]

didn't poast last week so this is a two-week extravaganza post! con: got roped into DMing dnd pro: none of these fools have read mdzs so i can steal plots from there. hope the party is ready to be lead on a quest by a disembodied arm!

listening: oh shit SO many things. i will not be linking to all of them.

depeche mode: basically just their top songs on spotify, not any specific album. strong shoutout to 'shake the disease' and 'wrong' (which featured in my secret samol post!)

disturbed: ditto

franz ferdinand: albums 'hits to the head' and 'tonight'. throwbacks

phoenix: 'wolfgang amadeus phoenix' ditto throwback

inxs: 'x' DITTO throwback. doesn't hit the same as when i first listened to em years ago unfortunately

streetlight manifesto: album 'somewhere in the between'

boy and bear: 'harlequin dream'

sammy rae: 'let's throw a party', 'the good life', and their 'everybody wants to rule the world' cover

hozier: 'wasteland baby' and 'unreal unearth'

paramore: album 'this is why'

grizzly bear: 'veckatimiest' and 'painted ruins'

haken: their newest album 'fauna' because i'm thinking about whether or not to go to one of their shows in feb (leaning towards yes right now)

my SO's pinecore playlist

shosty symphony no 5 (<3)

and, finally, a lot of borodin symphony no. 1 in e flat and the last two movements of rimsky-korsakov golden cockerel because that's what the youth orchestra i'm volunteering with is playing right now haha

for podcasts, i've listened to the new counter/weight prequel eps! i'm so charmed to see these characters again. i still haven't finished millenium break holiday special because i lost my spot when a bunch of an episode played without sound by accident so i finally went and scrubbed back to the beginning of the episode (it's the second to last part) so by next week i will FINALLY be out of holiday special zone.

reading: finished rereading tgcf lol,,, in loving memory of square checkbox: apparently apple is switching to circle ones? hateful wikipedia page for kessler syndrome my friend @celestialtourguide sent me a dm to ask about a few of the characters in this manuscript and i was immediately charmed by it. it's so pretty, i loved the informational blurbs, just really cool stuff. it was already on waybackmachine but i've gone ahead and updated it.

watching: kurtis conner looksmaxxing. weird little subculture peek. rewatched sideways' why the music in cats 2019 is worse than you thought because my roommate was interested. this led us to the same channel's why avatar has the most ironic soundtrack of all time because roommate misread ironic as iconic and she really likes that movie. no accounting for taste, but aight. much more interesting than i thought it would be. that video then lead us to tony hinnigan's woodwind demos because hell fuckin yes. big-ass panpipes.

i've been keeping up on dunmeshi anime in little watch sessions with my SO, and also am working through kill la kill with him! i've seen it before but he has not so i'm really enjoying that.

playing: fallow.

making: i managed to finish my secret samol gift in time for reveal day!!! comics are fuckin hard dude!!!! i don't know if i'll be doing it again but it was a fun challenge. i decided to use a New App for some reason instead of procreate because procreate has not been hitting right and i wanted comic half tone brushes for this project. app is called sketchbook, it's an orange icon with a pencil on it. shrug! it's fine! i'll probably keep using it for a bit. started working on an english paper piecing project! soliciting tips for that because right now my method is: cut out hexagon using pattern piece i made to be 1/4 in larger all around than the template, gluestick template onto hexagon, baste edges down neatly, whip-stitch right sides together. remove template once all six sides have something attached. i'm sure there's a better way to streamline this process, i'll have to experiment. this will end up as a dice bag i think.

finally, pottery starts again this week! so next week will have some of that in here

eating: ah beans i did not do a good job keeping track of this. uh. made the ground pork & cabbage thing again because my roommate got SO much napa cabbage for making kimchi and we had a shitload left over. napa cabbage isn't as good as a more standard cabbage for this imo, standard cabbage tends to be a little sweeter i think once it's cooked in? idk. had some stage 5 mental illness moments last week trying to cook dinner on a very short time scale with lots of other shit to do, following a recipe because fucking of course my roommate wanted me to cook with a recipe that night. anyways.

misc: like said at the top, somehow i managed to sign up for Another Activity god damn it. so now every saturday evening i run dnd. tl;dr i'm in a group irl that meets biweekly, someone who i give a lift to for that was complaining in the car that their other online group's dm ragequit after his encounter wasn't well-balanced (skill issue) and before thinking about it i just was like oh well i could probably step in if you need! god damn ittttt lol i have missed dming so it should be fun. i vibe checked them for a session 0 last week and they seem chill and honestly shouldn't be too much work on my end, especially if i yoink plots from mdzs ha ha ha. other than that, all is basically well. i've settled back into a schedule, applied for some summer positions (!), and absolutely hate the amount of busy work in one of my two classes. yippee

[sol-draws-sometimes]

Disc World bookclub thoughts- Monstrous Regiment

Pages 12-20

Okay @anna-neko … and all the other people that found me(tho I’ll be writing to Anna here)

Buckle up cause I actually read more, so there’s A LOT more text!

Before I start, I'm fully aware that the book's premise is that the whole regiment turns out to be women in disguised(except one being trans??? That happens at the end so I won't bring that up till I get there). But for ease of talking, I will he/him everyone until they've been she/her-ed. Plus, there are other characters, so I could accidentally she/her a man thinking they would be one of the undercover women. So yah, following the pronouns corresponding to where I am in the book.

I wrote everything on a notes app while listening/reading, and then organized it. So my "knowledge" will flip flop since different parts were written at different points of reading. Also I’m playing around with the best way to show quotes. Okay here are my thoughts loosely organized:

—Critiques—

Some critiques. I want to start of with them so that we can end on a high note. At first it was hard for me to get that there were scene changes happening. Most books usually leave large space b/w the paragraphs, but at least in this digital book, it just looks like a normal paragraph spacing. And the audio book doesn't indicate that there's a scene shift, so there were a couple of times that I got lost because I didn't realize there was a new scene. Though I think I finally got it down how he switches from scenes, so I should be fine.

Also while I do like that he just says stuff, for example, him introducing Polly’s guy name by writing, "At least, Polly climbed out of the window, but it was Oliver’s feet that landed lightly on the ground," instead of saying, "she decided to call herself Oliver Perks.” At times I do need a bit more guidance. I can pick up stuff with context, but, sometimes it threw me off. For example, with the igor, while I would've gotten it eventually, I just decided to google it, because I was too distracted being confused to actually pay attention to the dialogue if that makes sense???? So I mostly like how he seamlessly intergrates new info, but sometimes I do feel like I'm going in blind, or suffering for not knowing about the previous books. Tho I will say the vampire lore was intergrated well. It's nothing so bad that it ruins the book for me since it's mostly executed well.

Side tangent, but I actually started the book by listening to it, so I actually didn’t catch the Olly name until I got to this line, “…but Polly was known to all the ferrymen by sight and the guard would want to see her permit to travel, which Oliver Perks certainly didn’t have.” I like this line! I mostly like when he does it, but yah, I get confused sometimes.

Okay on to stuff my other thoughts!

Short quippy stuff

Hee hee foreshadowing!

There was no question of anyone getting undressed.

I love that her nickname is Ozzer

Don't cry challenge(impossible)

AAAAH SHE GOT CAUGHT.

Nothing quippy, just a funny line:

Ugh. I hate strappi I hate Strappi I hate Strappi. Me and the boys hate Strappi.

You said these books are very pop-cultury. I'll say these aged well because I don't think I've caught any pop culture reference(or maybe I have without realizing) and I still find the book funny and it makes sense to me. So uh yah, go Terry Pratchett I guess.

—Longer thoughts—

Am I viewing everything as an American, or is this a reference to don't ask, don't tell??? I don't think so cause nothing else about it is queer coded and also Terry Pratchett is British, so there would be no reason for him to talk about that. My brain just short-circuited because it's a military book and I'm American 🙃

Thoughts on Maladict—

Maladict carries around silver-gilt coffee engine (which icon behavior) so idk how allergic he is to silver. Is he lying about the silver allergy or does he just suck it up for some coffee (cause if he does, again King behavior). I think my fav soldier rn is Maladict (can you tell???). Polly think's she's cool, but he's the actually cool one. Love his whole "even though I'm sobre from humans, it doesn't mean I can't/won't seriously fuck you up." I love when writers explore ethical vampires/vampires blending in with humans (I really should read vampire books).

I think the whole black ribbon thing is cool! I think there's a book that follows a vampire??? If you're down(and it makes sense), I'd love to read one of the vampire books since I'm already so intrigued by vampire society! Obviously after I'm done with this book

Thoughts I wrote about Jackrum—

Damn Jackrum has to keep telling Strappi to ease on the racism.

I like how Sargent Jackrum asked Polly if she was fine with fighting Strappi. I knew that his whole "stop being racist" is more of a "WE NEED MEN" than him actually caring about fantasy racism™️, or that's how I saw it at first at least. But now, I think there's a genuine side of kindness to him. So I'm excited to see more of that (be it, seeing more of his softer side or being proven wrong).

ALSO WHILE WRITING IN POLLY’S SECTION, I REALIZED THAT JACKRUM PROBABLY KNOW SHE'S A WOMEN!!!! Oh shit, maybe corpol too???? Definitely Jackrum I think!

"What's that?" said the corporal. "My signature," said Polly… "You can read and write, too?" said the sergeant, glancing up at them and then back to her.

THEY GOT SURPRISED THAT SHE KNEW HOW TO READ AND WRITE (an abomination for women). Also... I might have gotten slightly spoiled trying to draw Jackrum. I didn't read anything but I saw girl fanart of him???? I mean, I guess he's also part of the troop, I thought it was just the soldiers. HE MIGHT BE MYSTERY PERSON!!!! Anyways, this is for future me to figure out… So that's probably why he's nice to her. NOW I'M EXCITED TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT HIM. Before I got to the scene where Polly fights, I drew this cause I thought it was funny, while being slightly out of character. But now, I think this not that out of character (I'll have to see). Anyways have this shitty little doodle.

Thoughts on Polly—

I was very slow to realize that Polly's from Borogravia. As for why Polly joined, Polly definitely doesn't believe the propaganda, so my best guess is that she's going to try and find Paul. Reading about her missing Paul absolutely broke my heart. Though it's very interesting how also she was raised.

Also I got so scared when she got caught even tho I knew it would happen eventually, just didn't think it would happen THIS early in the book! I knew the moment mysterious person gave Polly the sock. I find it funny how Polly was like, “damn I thought I was cool mysterious kid". Her inner monologue is pretty funny.

I didn't ask you for one, Polly thought, quite annoyed at being taken for being a frightened young lad when she was sure she'd come over as quite a cool, non-ruffled young lad.

Also I'm pretty sure mystery person is a girl, cause I know the permis of the book so it makes this line funny

"Why, is this the escutcheon of Her Grace the Duchess I see in front of me?" said the whisperer. "Well, it won't be in front of me for long. Beat it ... boy."

Wrote this section on mystery person before the realization 🧍🧍🧍. Now I don't know. AAAAAAAAH.

Also, I'm glad that Polly gave Strappi a taste of his own medicine. Tho Private Parts is kinda funny 🏃🏃🏃. Insert: "that's a good joke, a great joke even, but I'm gonna have to ask you to stop,” audio. Seriously tho, it's pretty cool how Polly's experiences from her childhood with her dad and the other soldiers has helped her to blend in at this point. She was funny when she was like:

"I'll try not to hurt him either, Sarge," said Polly, and then cursed herself for the idiot bravado. It must have been the socks talking.

I read it twice and listened to it a 3rd time, since I had to write this and I laughed each time. I can't believe I find this dick joke so funny, I'm truly an immature child. Also fuck man. The way Polly saw people die, or just the discussions of how wars fucks people up. I have nothing insightful to say. Just, man, war's rough (<- biggest understatement of the century).

Other Book thoughts—

One thing I wasn't expecting, was for the crew to be made up of so many fantasy™️ creatures. But that one is fully on me since the book is called monstrous regiment. I guess I was so focused on what I've heard about the book, that I just completely glazed pass that. I see that there is some fantasy racism™️, so hopefully that's done well. I'm not saying it's always bad, but a lot of time people try to do metaphors, but it falls apart (ex: monster=racism allegory, when one of the characters is literally Mexican (and is brown). I'm not naming the name of the show on purpose). I do think it can be done well when you take the more, "prejudice is a thing, this is how it would play out with these creatures," and you don't make it a one-to-one with any particular minority. I feel like that's a more productive criticism of bigotry that can be applied to minority groups. I mean, I think there can be some one-to-one allegories that make sense, but it needs to be done carefully. I hope I'm making sense. But so far, I don’t see anything that bothers me. Just have my guard up a bit.

—✨Deeper✨ Thoughts on the book—

I kinda alluded to this in the previous review but yah, it's very interesting how Terry Prachet writes about war. I mean, I'm only 18, so I won't pretend to know much about the world, but I think this book has very strong themes about the dangers of nationalism and what not. And obviously he exaggerates it in the book, but it can be applied to a lot of modern situations. Side tangent, but I'm not really a patriotic person. I'm glad that my country has provided me better opportunities than my parent’s country, but I've always seen being so patriotic to a fault very weird. Also, this is clearly a criticism of the monarchy. "God save the duchess" like, come on. Down to this religious fervor they treat the duchess with, that they pray to it. I feel weird commenting too much, since I'm not as connected/involved/know too much about the politics of the monarchy (I mean technically the US is an ex-British colony, but rn relationship b/w the US and the UK is way better than other countries with the UK). All I'll say is that I don't care how nice she was, she was a colonizer and the monarchy has and continues to harm people to this day. Also back to nationalism, I've always hated the whole "people from this country suck". Like maybe the government sucks but you can never ascribe what the country does to the people of said place.

Honestly I feel weird commenting on this book in general, because I have barely any religious experience, haven't been too exposed to war, nor am I British (I mean this more in respect of the whole monarchy thing). Also, even though I'm a woman, I haven't felt much sexism. Like no cat-calling, most of the people respect me. Besides, "normal sexism," aka unconscious bias stuff like, "strong men help me pick the heavy stuff,” I don't think I have had any notable experiences of sexism or have seriously felt it in my life. So I feel like I can't give any deep observation about sexism or religion besides, yup that sounds right! Same with any the politics about war than, yup nationalism bad! I'm really aware that I'm just an 18 yr old who doesn't know much cause young people think they know everything (I mean that gets thrown a lot to invalidate young activists but there is a kernel of truth of: less experience=less knowledge of the world). Basically, I am noticing deeper themes in the book, but don’t expect me to talk about these parts if the book too much, because I don’t think I have anything productive to add. I just feel super unqualified to comment on much of this, and like I could be wrong about 100 different things I just said.

Umm… with that being said,

—Some quotes that I thought were interesting but I can't articulate why rn—

"At Paul's insistence, she'd read the whole of 'From the Mothers of Borogravia!!' to him, including the bits about heroes and there being no greater good than to die for your country. She wished, now, she hadn't done that. Paul did what he was told. Unfortunately, he believed what he was told, too."

"Several copies of the pamphlet seemed to have reached every home, even so. It was very patriotic. That is, it talked about killing"

"She'd learned to read and write after a fashion because the inn was big and it was a business and things had to be tallied and recorded. Her mother had taught her to read, which was acceptable to Nuggan, and her father made sure that she learned how to write, which was not. A woman who could write was an Abomination Unto Nuggan, according to Father Jupe; anything she wrote would by definition be a lie."

"She'd be funny just as long as she was useless, and safe as long as she was funny." Ugh yah, some men get really threaten by women being better than them

Misc—

Thank goodness for the audio book. I love when authors write in the accents, I think it creates character and it's very creative... but I'm terrible at trying to understand what they're saying. I've been doing a mixture of audio book only, audio book plus text, and just reading text. Anyways, I was reading a line Strappi said where he was mocking Maladict and I literally couldn't understand it until I listened to that part later when I could use my headphones again.

"Private Bloodfnucker hnas a fnord, Fnargeant," he said accusingly.

This was the line btw. All hail audiobooks everyone 🧎🧎🧎

Also damn digital books and audio books help me actually pick up the book and it makes it a lot less intimidating. I like reading but, sometimes my brain views it as a chore. Like I used to start books, LIKE THEM, and then proceed to NOT finish them. I have been using audiobooks in the past but it was while reading the book, and almost never just the audiobook (unless I had didn't finish a chapter in time for class). But man, actually leaning into how my brain works makes it easier. Who would've thought! (Like I always forget how useful hearing the text it, even though I have been using this tip for years). So yah, even though I think I prefer the experience of physical books, I need to just let myself read the easiest ways to me. Audiobook only, has been nice since it takes the least amount energy, but it is the hardest for me to understand, especially if it gets too flowery/lore-y. So warning, I’ll miss small details because of this. I usually go back and skim the parts I did audio only, but I’ll still miss stuff.

Also, I'm using hoopla(and when the 21 days are up, my libby ver of the text should be available), but tip! If you like to annotate, download books on PDFs and annotate using the comments. Honestly, great with research papers too! I love to highlight with different colors and then you filter the annotations, amazing really. Obviously you can do this in irl books but I like that I can write more in the comment section thingy than in the margin of books.

But yah! I'm liking the book so far. I like how Terry Pratchett writes and I like Polly as a mc.

I will add alt text some other date cause I don't have the mental energy rn. If someone besides Anna find it and wants them, just @ me in the comment and I'll @ you when I finish this Also gonna add links to the previous and next review for better organization.

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[ciaossu-imagines]

For the mini event

Fandom: Ronin Warriors (fave characters Kento, Cy, Cale, Sehkmet, Rowen, but I am fine with any really so whatever works)

Au: Vampire (back up if vampires is taken Supernatural Detectives).

Vampires were not taken and I squealed when this initially came in, because I so love this fandom and adore working with anything to do with vampires! Thank you so much for sending this in and I hope you'll enjoy!

Okay, so setting up this AU…in this universe, I see Talpa as not only being a centuries old vampire, but the oldest existing vampire. Like, he got turned into a vampire when dinosaurs were roaming around the Earth, fed on cavemen sort of old. And he's the progenitor of all of the modern vampires. They were all sired by Talpa, including all the characters used in this AU. Talpa is father, sire, master.

Talpa really does raise his vampire children to believe they are superior to humanity, that human beings really are just food and does believe that vampires shouldn't have to hide, should have conquered the world instead of humanity. He encourages his vampire children to feast on whomever, and however many, people as they wish, to take whatever they want and for decades all of his sired vampires obeyed.

But that changed. A little nest of vampires broke off from their master and the rest of vampire-kind. These are, of course, what are canonically the Ronins. They all had sort of fallen in love with humanity and society somewhere along the way, and they found similar views in each other. They all decide to band together, to pull away from Talpa's influence and, instead of living with the other vampires, they make their own nest and decide to integrate themselves into society while hiding their vampiric nature. Instead of feeding from and killing humans, they search to find non-violent ways of feeding.

Of course, Talpa being Talpa, doesn't take this laying down. He sees it as a huge betrayal, as an insult, especially as I really see the Ronins having been among his favourite 'children', so he takes their pulling away from him as something too insulting to ignore. He sends another little nest of vampires, those that are the most brutal and the most loyal to Talpa, his other most favoured 'children' to really find these betrayers, to bring these 'wayward children' back into the fold and back under Talpa's command.

Just for anyone wondering, I also definitely set this AU in current-day settings, just because it amuses me greatly. There's these really old vampires, just emerging back into society, and having to deal with all these very new, complex things. Like, forget even just how technological this world has become and none of them even know how to use a computer, much less know what a cell phone actually really is or what apps are, but there's such an emphasis on social media and everyone has a camera. And even when they make friends and even if they get social media pages, there's always those friends who are like 'come on, take a selfie with me' or 'why do you never post pictures of yourself or any of your friends/roommates' and how do you really explain that, hey, I'm a vampire and thus don't show up in photographs? And of course, they get none of the slang, none of the fashion trends, etc.

And, to me, the way I would sit down and write this out as a story would really be a nice balance between just the fun little moments and the very character driven plotlines of all the members of this breakaway little nest just really learning both how to all live together in this new world, and how each individually learns to live in modern society, how they each learn how to explore the world of humans, how they find their own humanity and identities along the way, how they find relationships of all sorts and learn how to really love and feel and be as human as they can be, and the more plot driven storyline of them trying to live in the world with humans while Talpa and their vampire brethren are very driven to get them back into the fold, stopping at nothing (even murder) to succeed in that.

I'm just going to share some fun thoughts about the characters or some real strong plot lines I would be using in the story for some of the various characters, so I hope you'll enjoy!

Okay, so obviously this new break-away nest who decides to live with humanity, as mentioned consists of Ryo, Kento, Cye, Sage, and Rowen and I will get into some ideas I have for each of them in this AU a bit down below but I want to hit on some of the other very important characters before I do.

So, when the boys are struggling to find ways to still get the blood they need to survive, they try a wide variety of things. They do try getting blood from people seemingly willing to give it to them, live sources, but they find it too difficult to really control their hunger and in some really heart-breaking moments, they still end up draining and killing people. It makes them reconsider if they can do this, and it's really hard for them. They try animal blood and it does work in that it does keep them alive, but it makes them all really sick - the equivalent of a really, really nasty flu bug to humans, really. Diarrhea, vomiting, fever, chills. So animal blood does in a pinch, but they still need to see if there's a better way. Blood banks turn out to be a lot trickier to sneak into than they thought, even with their vampire attributes. It's actually Rowen who comes up with the thought but…does the blood need to come from a living person?

Enter Mia, who in this AU works as an embalmer in a huge funeral home for plot purposes. She stumbles across the nest trying out this new theory and yeah, she's absolutely astounded by what she sees. Like, why the fuck are these five teenage boys trying to hijack a corpse? Holy shit, is one of them biting the dead corpse? What the hell is going on?! She's terrified, initially really disgusted, horrified, all the adjectives. But she does come to understand and accept not only the boy's vampire natures, but what they're really struggling to find - a non-violent way of just surviving. When the boys find out that yes, the blood from corpses works better than animal blood, in that it allows them to stay alive and healthy, just with weaker vampire abilities than live victims, Mia really does help them out, at the risk of her job and very possibly a long jail sentence, by keeping them supplied with blood. She also becomes their first, and strongest friendship and really does help them with the initial integrating into society.

Another important character is actually going to be Yuli. Not that he'll be an incredibly major character, won't be a huge focus in the story, but he is definitely in there. He actually gets introduced in what I figure is actually going to be one of the most heart-breaking and angsty scenes in the entire story, happening fairly early on when the boys realize just the extent to which Talpa's missionaries will go to bring them back into the fold. Yuli's just a kid out at night to run to the corner store to buy milk for his mom. It's the first time he's been entrusted with such a big task and he's really excited about it. Too bad he gets stuck in between a fight between Sekhmet and one or two of the boys. A fight that really does end in Sekhmet completely draining Yuli and leaving the boy(s) with two impossibly difficult solutions - let the boy die right in front of them or turn him into a vampire, keeping him alive but ending his life in a different way. I do see the final decision being to turn Yuli, just because they really can't handle just letting him die in front of them, knowing it is all their fault he died, and part of the story is really the whole nest raising Yuli as this new, fledging vampire and teaching him how to control his hunger, control his powers, how to feed properly and without causing harm to others, etc.

Now, out of the nest that Talpa sends, the ones seemingly completely loyal to Talpa, I think, throughout the course of the story, we really see both Anubis and Lady Kayura go from blind obedience and loyalty to Talpa, see them go from brutal methods of getting the boys back into the fold and a complete disregard for humanity, viewing them as nothing more than cattle. I think it becomes just a little softening towards the boys, a little bit more holding back in their methods of convincing the boys. I think both vampires see the lives the boys build themselves, existing alongside humans and their disgust just kind of changes slowly to jealousy without them even fully being aware of when or why it started. All they know is that at some point, both Anubis and Kayura start seeing how happy the boys are living alongside humans and both start to want that happiness and to be pissed the boys have it and they don't. And, of course, they both eventually come around to breaking away from Talpa themselves. They don't join the boys nest, not right away, because the boys have a lot of misgivings and can't truly trust them right away, not after everything that has happened, but both of them start their own solitary journeys in integrating into humanity and along those journeys, the boys soften and do help both Anubis and Kayura out.

Do I see Anubis and Kayura being the only vampires of the nest Talpa sends to ultimately betray Talpa? Most definitely not. Sekhmet, Dais, and Kale all do eventually decide to embrace humanity, but unlike Anubis and Kayura, who I see embracing the boy's decision to not feed on live humans, I think when these three do decide to join the modern world and live fully beside humans, they still keep to feeding off living people, sometimes (oftentimes) killing them in the process but they find ways they can live with that decision. Kale, for example, feeds exclusively off very willing humans who almost beg him to do so and he feels no guilt about it. Dais feeds almost exclusively off criminals and feels no guilt about his decisions either, while Sekhmet tends to feed off the very ill and sickly or the very elderly, people he figures were going to die soon anyway.

And just because I really like the idea and trope of 'morality pets', I really do see Kale, Dais, and Sekhmet all gaining those throughout the story and those 'pets' being one of the largest reasons they do ultimately end up betraying Talpa.

Now, just maybe because it's a fun idea for me, but I see Kale discovering the 'vampire counterculture' type movement, a club or something dedicated to those who liked to play vampires or worshipped, in a way, the idea of vampires. He found it amusing, visited a few times, and even after Kale brutally showed them that he really and truly was the vampire they all dreamed about, these people still really threw themselves at him, adored him, worshipped him and wanted to be around him. He had found his place, with so many willing food sources, and at some point, I do think he stops seeing them solely as food and starts to actually grow some attachment to some of the members, even siring his own vampires, something that infuriated Talpa and Talpa's punishment of Kale for doing so is probably what drove Kale out of his loyalty to Talpa, though he was the last to leave his master.

Sehkmet? The idea probably makes no sense but I think, after the confrontation where Yuli was left for dead, Sehkmet sees Yuli's mother, frantic, searching everywhere for her child. And for some reason, it really does hit something in him. It's not exactly guilt he feels…not really. He's really not sane enough to have that traditional sense of guilt, definitely not at first. But there's something about the woman that just hits at him and he keeps an eye on her over the following days and weeks, learns she's a single mother (sorry, killed Yuli's dad off for plot purposes) and that Yuli is her only son. He watches her search, watches her cry, watches, some days, just every move she makes. And he starts going out of his way to spy on the peaceful nest and the boy he'd left for dead, now a vampire himself. And I think he works it out, and for once not because of the potential for mental torture, for Yuli's mother and Yuli to have to reunite. And it's really after seeing Yuli's mother really accept her son and what he's become that I feel Sehkmet starts to really discover the little fragments of humanity that are inside of him and really starts to reconsider if Talpa is right about everything.

I don't have a real strong idea as to Dais' morality pet, only the vague idea that I do see it being either a singular street kid or street person or a group of them, and that, whether it's one or many, they are mentally ill, maybe even that they have some substance abuse issues. And it's weird, because he should revile them, find them disgusting, but there's something in the unique way they all view the world, the way they continue to live and thrive without ever really giving up and just laying down and dying, how, even when he threatened them with certain death, they still fought that gained some amount of begrudging respect, really, from Dais. He starts to keep an eye on them, even if he doesn't always directly interact with them and it's through them that he starts to discover his own humanity.

Now, for some fun ideas with the boys. I see Ryo as the one really most socially awkward. He really does want to live among humans and really integrate into society, but he's not great with crowds or people in general. However, I see him discovering all the new high-tech cameras and such and really getting into that as a hobby, specializing in night-time photography and he starts to meet people through that. As he grows more comfortable making friends, he continues to take more small steps. With Rowen and Sage's help with forging the documents, he's the first of the guys to get a job, tipped off by one of his new friends that the local zoo was looking for someone to do overnight security.

Kento is the biggest social butterfly of the bunch. He really loves getting out and exploring, getting to know this new world they find themselves in. However, I think he has the worst time, out of all the boys, with learning how to handle technology. It's a good thing a lot of the interest he ends up bonding with humans over aren't really high-tech. He spends a lot of time at a 24-7 gym and makes a lot of friends there. He's also the biggest eater and I don't know why but I love the idea of him just using a bag of the blood Mia packages up for them as a juice-box. Does anyone else remember those little plastic bags of juice they used to hand out at school runs and such, where you just stuck the straw into the plastic bag? Exactly like that.

Cye ends up teaching late-night water aerobics classes and nothing can convince me otherwise. He actually gains a huge love for watching basketball, decides on a pro team, and watches every game. But the thing I really think gets him with the new world is that I do think he really does gain an appreciation and love for social media, particularly things that run more along the lines of art, aesthetics, and social justice. He really finds a lot of causes to support and makes friends pretty easily that way. He's also one of the main ones, among the boys, to really keep the nest stable and happy and together, even as they all get used to living with each other.

Rowen is just astounded by the fact that there's all these e-books and audiobooks, just available with an app or a steady internet connection. He gets the most into the fandom scene, just saying. He's also the one who manages to keep the boy's secret from all their new human friends, the one who manages to learn to forge all documents needed, how best to stay safe from the sun, how to keep Mia from getting caught helping them, to figure out how to really exist when it comes down to the nitty gritty. Sage really does help him out wherever possible too. I also strongly believe he joins an evening baseball league and the other boys go and watch his games whenever they can.

Okay but Sage becomes a huge fan, and later even a driver in, the local stockcar racing scene. Whenever the races fall in the evening, when the sun isn't up, Sage races for a company he'd seen advertising for a driver. He loves it and gains a pretty solid friend circle through it. Much like Rowen, the boys go and watch him race whenever they can.